At least we all know what caps lock key is used for. What about the scroll lock key?

The scroll lock key is a remnant from the original IBM PC keyboard. In the original design, scroll lock was intended to modify the behavior of the arrow keys. When the scroll lock mode was on, the arrow keys would scroll the contents of a text window instead of moving the cursor. In this usage, scroll lock is a modifier key like Alt and Shift (which modify the function of other keys) and, more specifically, a toggling lock key like Num Lock or Caps Lock, which have a state that persists after the key is released. Today, this particular use of scroll lock is rare. Only a few modern programs still honor this behavior, such as Microsoft Excel (in the behavior of arrows — when scroll lock is on, the selection does not move), Lotus Notes and Forté Agent. In modern GUI environments, scrolling is usually accomplished using means such as scrollbars or scroll wheels. Therefore scroll lock can be regarded as a defunct feature in almost all modern programs and operating systems; some keyboards lack scroll lock altogether.

Here is the result of an online poll:

Many people are not using scroll lock key any way. Why not save some keyboard real estate by removing this key?

Even though some people with specific applications use caps lock key, usually people use the shift key for the occasional capitalization of letters. Many people are pressing for removing the CAPS Lock Key from the keyboard. There is even a google group for this.
What is the optimum solution? In my opinion, remove the scroll lock key, and move the caps lock key there.

When your perspective differs from my perspective, we can discuss and exchange ideas.

When your goal is different from my goal, it is better we part ways.

If your work is more fun, chances are that you are more productive. If your business is more fun, chances are that you are doomed.

How to do your work best is a subject researched by people for years, and they have thought of many ways to make your work fun and easy. But business can be done only in a single way - the right way - the hard way. It is how it has been done for thousands of years of human history.

Make your work fun and take your business seriously.

In your home

1. Turn off equipment like televisions and stereos when you are not using them.
2. Choose energy-efficient appliances and light bulbs.
3. Save water; some simple steps can go a long way in saving water. E.g.: you should always turn off the tap when you are brushing your teeth. And try to collect the water used to wash vegetables and salad to water your house plants.
4. Let clothes dry naturally. Avoid dryer.
5. Keep lids on pans when cooking to prevent your cooker having to work extra hand. Prefer to use gas ovens, Geysers etc in place of the electric ones.
6. Recycle your paper, glass, plastics and other waste.
7. Plants emit Oxygen. So take home these earth saving friends to live with you.

While on the road

1. Less traffic is less pollution and less petrol consumption.
2. Follow traffic rules and leave left lane, tomorrow we might be the one in ambulance caught in traffic jam
3. Prefer to share your ride to reduce traffic jams and pollution.
4. Prefer to use public transport.
5. Set an example by not littering and cleaning litter.
6. Keep a litter bag in your car and bring one with on day trips in case no waste bins are available.
7. Prefer to turn off engine at traffic signals.

Save wood and paper

1. Always use both sides of a sheet of paper.
2. Use email to stay in touch, including cards, rather than faxing or writing
3. Reuse envelopes. Always reuse paper for making scribbling pads.
4. Share magazines with friends and pass them on to the doctor, dentist or local hospital for their waiting rooms.
5. Use recyclable paper to make invitation cards, envelops, letter pads etc.

Reuse and recycle

1. Use washable nappies instead of disposables if you can
2. Give unwanted clothes, toys and books to charity shops or jumble sales.
3. Use mains electricity rather than batteries if possible. If not, use rechargeable batteries.
4. Use a solar powered calculator instead of one with a battery.
5. Instead of a plastic ballpoint, use a fountain pen with bottled ink, not plastic cartridges.
6. Store food and other products in ceramic containers rather than in plastic wrap.

At your workplace

1. Use printers that can print on both sides of the paper; try to loom into this option when replacing old printers.
2. Use the back of a draft or unwanted printout instead of notebooks. Even with a double sided printer there is likely to be plenty of spare paper to use!
3. Always buy recycled paper – for your business stationary and to use in your printers.
4. Switch off computer monitors, printers and other equipment at the end of each day. Though in standby mode they are still using power – and that adds to global warming.
5. Always turn off your office lights and computer when you go out for lunch or to a meeting.
6. Prefer green roofs, gardens and natural plants in your office.

While shopping

1. Prefer carrying your own bags and avoid plastic usage. Prefer paper or jute bags.
2. Prefer on-line shopping, bill payments and reservations as this will reduce fuel consumption and pollution by not driving to shops/offices.
3. Purchase solar powered products.
4. Send e-cards if you can, rather than buy paper cards.

Bloggers

You can copy this text to your blog to spread this message. No attribution/link-love is needed.

That is what the great Roger Federer did when he lost to the impeccable Rafael Nadal in the (grandest ever) Wimbledon championship final last night.

I felt like Federer was saying: “All these years I never had a chance to grab a runners up trophy in Wimbledon”. Of course, he was the champion there for the last five years.

Being the best in your profession is very, very difficult. Still, it is not impossible. It is worth trying.

while(1)

{

      if(condition)

      {

            break;

      }

      ... ... ... ... ...

}

I was prompt in asking about a simpler while loop:

while(condition)

{

      ... ... ... ... ...
}

“Oh. That is also fine. You can use it either way” was the response.

I still don’t know how he got to teach in the institution. These guys are really dangerous. They make bad software engineers. Generations of them. Atleast now I know where the Daily WTF codes come from.

Many web developers ignore validating the data in drop down lists, option buttons, check boxes etc because these form controls can have only a predefined set of values. Usually these set of values are provided by the server. So the developer assumes that the value returned to the server from the user will also contain any of these pre-defined values, and hence they need not be validated. This is a serious mistake.

Intentionally or by mistake, a user can send any data to your server. User can manipulate the data in your web page and return values that were not anticipated and thereby exploit your system.

See an example:
Below is a drop down list:

The allowed values are 100,200,300 and 400.

If you want to add a new value 500 to the list, it is pretty simple. There is a great plug-in for Firefox named Firebug. Using Firebug you can edit virtually any value in the DOM of the webpage.

The result – a malicious user can do cross-site scripting attacks or SQL injections attacks against your website if you are not doing proper validation of input data.

No amount of client side validation can substitute for server side validation. Client side validation is used for giving back error messages to the user to notify him of any error before submitting to the server. Once the data is submitted to the server, it must be validated and any potentially dangerous data must be stripped off.

The rule of thumb must be:

Every piece of data coming from the user must be strictly validated.

Simple. Isn’t it?

What was that?
Why do people encode email addresses in their websites? Is it the best strategy to deal with spammers? What if somebody else publish your email id somewhere else?
It is not about security. It is all about security theatre.

People to use email addresses to contact us. It is our Public address. So why should we be afraid of making something public that is suppose to be public?
It is my website/blog. It is my email Id. I am not afraid of putting it in the web so that people who are genuinely interested in contacting me can contact me easily.

Think about the current situation in the internet. Everybody is trying to hide their email addresses behind some random characters so that address scraping bots will not be able to read them. But believe me, even the least sophisticated commercial web-robot can read your obfuscated email addresses. They are very good at it.

Hiding addresses was a good idea at first when only a handful of people employed this trick. Now that everybody is adopting it, spammers have devised ways to read the addresses. We are just adding to the noise of the web by camouflaging real information. It is a shame that we are following this ritual. It is a shame that millions of people are afraid of spammers.

We cannot stop spammers by hiding email IDs. They will get it anyway. Spammers can employ humans who can read addresses. Since reading an email address is a one time job, it is cost effective. I think our email anti-spam mechanisms are sophisticated enough now. We have to make them stronger and smarter. That is the way to go.

So here is my real email ID:  niyazpk@gmail.com

You can contact me or spam me in the same address. I am not afraid. Spammers, come. Let us fight.

Jijo: Guys,
Four months into project and still I can’t seem to digest the whole scenario out here. I can never be a good software engineer. Even if I become one, it’s still not worth the effort. Call me stupid for thinking out loud, but this is the truth man. I hate this life. No matter how hard I try I don’t seem to get the funda why people still rate IT as the best career option. May be it’s about the money that flows in or the glam it ensures. But both these things don’t appeal to me much. It’s understandable that only people with ample money can say that money is not everything, but still I have this feeling that I can make both ends meet no matter where I am or what I do.

I’m seriously looking for a detour, not the road less traveled, but the road which makes the travel interesting. All my life I’ve been lamenting for the things I never got and for the things that I’ll never get. Its time that I come out of this dormancy and make things go my way. Praying to God, to comprehend my destiny and then put my heart where my mouth is. But the fear of failure keeps me aback…. Its true man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains!!!

Dijo: Four months into project and still I cant seem to digest the whole scenario out here - Can you tell me what exactly you mean by this? Is it that you do not understand what you are doing? Request you to throw more light into it
I can never be a good software engineer - Says who? For all i know, what you know, you know well. Continue doing that and you will be good!
Even if I become one, its still not worth the effort - Why? May i ask?
Call me stupid for thinking out loud, but this is the truth man. I hate this life - Work is never good! Your job is not a joyride!
No matter how hard I try I don’t seem to get the funda why people still rate IT as the best career option - See the life you lead now, for an answer
May be its about the money that flows in or the glam it ensures. But both these things don’t appeal to me much - Why not?
Its understandable that only people with ample money can say that money is not everything, but still I have this feeling that I can make both ends meet no matter where I am or what I do - This confidence will take you places. Never lose it!
I’m seriously looking for a detour, not the road less travelled, but the road which makes the travel interesting - Just wait, your time will come!
All my life I’ve been lamenting for the things I never got and for the things that I’ll never get. Its time that I come out of this dormancy and make things go my way. Praying to God, to comprehend my destiny and then put my heart where my mouth is. But the fear of failure keeps me aback…. Its  true man is born free, but everywhere he is in chains!!! - Don’t worry… We’ll talk!

Asmin: But what disappoints me is here in this field people are selfish. I’m afraid I will also become selfish.

Akhila: Asmin, in every field people are selfish. Don’t worry; you will also become like that.

Jijo: What disappoints me is that why I’m not doing anything to change the things which I don’t like. I don’t understand why I’m sitting idle.

Philip: It’s all about your mind set.
From some article I read: “For each and every sheperd boy who went on to become a king, and for every flax seed which ultimately grew into an enormous tree, there are millions of counterparts which never achieved thus”.
There is nothing wrong in being unremarkable. Enjoy u’r life.

Niyaz: That is what ‘Friends’ are for.
Sometimes we may not be able to do things alone.
But you will find that you have a lot of friends who can help you do that.
Even better, you will find somebody who will be with you to do that.
You have the advantage of having good friends, Jijo. We’ll do something. We all are fed up with this thing.

Tenny: But “HOW”???  It’s stupid to ask this question again and again..  But how???  I am tempted to ask this.

Philip: Ride a bike. Try to get to 100kmph. It’s a great feeling. You will be very relaxed when you slow down…

Asha: For the first time it is superb. But after that??
We can do something which we can treasure for the life time. Together, something great…

Niyaz: Read Team-Spirit

Philip: Would you please think of guy you want to emulate to become great. Or is there no one. Are you trying to be the first great guy in the world? Then good luck. Otherwise think twice what is the greatness with them.
Exclude people like mother Theresa, Gandhi, Vivekananda etc. They are truly great. If you want to become like one of them then best of luck.
Or you want to become an Alexander or a Hitler? If you feel them as great, God save you.
And I am dead sure that you can never be a Beethoven or a Bruce Lee.
Then finally I’m coming to the people I despise emulating most, you-know-who, those corporate world big names who feed us and several other software professionals or more clearly the people who make 1000’s of bright souls like Jijo write mails telling “This was not what I wanted” and you want yourself to become one of them. What have they done which you feel like so great? Tell me.

Niyaz: It is not about being Alexander, Hitler, MK Gandhi or some one like that.
It is also not about being another Asim Premji.
Just try to think of this situation:

… … … … … … …

… … … … … … …

We will be a group of 6-7 people and each of us will do a specific role.
These are the reasons why I would call it GREAT:
• We are the masters – We don’t have to get orders from some jerk.
• We are the workers – Nobody will be cursing us for being a jerk.
• We can take leave whenever we like – eg: We will arrange tours all Tuesdays. Want to go home? Go..
• The work itself is fun – Some day we will arrange football tournament for companies.
• We earn as much as we work – You want more money his year? Do more work.
And above all…
I will be with my loving friends. I will live with you.  That is what I call GREAT.

Philip: Exactly the point I was trying to prove. Little Things… Making a life out of little things which makes you so happy.

Niyaz: What if everybody gave a constructive feedback to this? I am not telling about a positive feedback. What if we actually did something?

Jijo: What is to be really appreciated is that everybody has the urge to change things.That too pure… deep down from ones heart.

What I would suggest is that we all prepare for this war… and  be damned we prepare well.

Right now its time for an introspection… of what we are and what we can. Let everybody have a plan. For all we care we put everything to play.

Niyaz: The biggest challenge is not to learn hardworking. It is not to have a great plan. And certainly not having a team of great people.

The biggest challenge is to START.

Somebody please tell me a plan to start.

Not a plan to start with. But a plan to start.

Asmin: “And certainly not having a team of great people” ?

Niyaz: Great people does not necessarily mean great team.

A group of ordinary people can make a great team.

… … … … … … …

I will post more from our discussions later.

1) Fake TV

What is it?

FakeTV accurately simulates the light output of a real television. The effect of scene changes, fades, swells, flicks, on-screen motion, and color changes look just they came from a real TV.  From outside the house, it looks just like someone is watching a real television.  The potential burglar thinks the home must be occupied, so he moves on to an easier target.

Here is a tip for burglars: Get a list of people who bought Fake TV. Most probably they will be away from home frequently. You know what to do next.

2) Liquid Ban

Reuters reports that all public swimming pools in Olympic co-host city Shanghai will check shampoos, body wash and other liquids before allowing entry to guard against explosions or other “terrorist attacks”.

Pool guests who bring these items must allow them to be opened and inspected. Security personnel will smell them to see whether they are safe or not.

Schneier thinks this is a stupid idea.

Here is a tip for cheaters: Bring something like chloroform with you. Guards will smell it and faint. You are then free to do anything you want.