JitNik's Tech World

BlackBerry smartphones under attack by Zeus (Trojan)

2011-03-13T22:08:00.000+05:30

Trend Micro, a security solutions provider, claimed that they have found a Trojan that is very much capable of exploiting your BlackBerry smartphone. The Trojan called Zeus seems to target specifically the SMS feature of the Blackberry. Basically a Trojan, sometimes referred to as a Trojan horse, is a non-self-replicating malware that appears to perform a desirable function for the user but instead facilitates unauthorized access to the user's computer system. In this case it’s a cell phone. The Trojan maybe in the form of an application, once installed sends a confirmation message to the hackers that transmitted the Trojan, to signal that it is ready to receive commands. Once the Trojan sender or the hacker sends a confirmation message, the Trojan can view, delete and forward SMS’s, block calls, change the administrator on the device and block phone numbers. It sends all data on the phone to the hacker in the event that it gets shut down.

Earlier attacks by a similar Trojan were seen on Symbian and Windows Mobile operating systems. Mr Amit Nath, Manager of Trend Micro India and SAARC said, "As more users access the Internet from the expanding pool of devices, web-based threats will continue to grow in size. The growth of smartphones and faster data speeds will also increase the possibilities of infection. As criminals devise ways to make money out of exploiting mobile technologies, mobile users will grow extremely vulnerable."

Now is a good time to get those antivirus softwares for you cell phones people, and be sure to not install uncertified applications.

IPv4 Internet addresses: 251 blocks down, 5 to go

2011-02-02T22:20:00.001+05:30

Yesterday marked an important step toward the end of Internet plumbing as we know it.

Specifically, the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) allocated two of the last seven blocks of Net addresses that use today's Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4). That will trigger the automatic distribution soon of the last five, one each to the five regional Internet registries (RIR) that oversee the distribution of the numbers farther downstream, to the Internet service providers and other companies that actually need the IPv4 addresses.

It's hard to predict how long it will be before these eventual customers of IPv4 addresses will be unable to get them easily.
"The rate of further regional assignment will depend on regional demand, which is accelerating faster in some parts of the world (Asia/Pacific) than others (Africa)," said Alain Durand, director of software engineering at network equipment maker Juniper Networks. "Some service providers may exhaust their IPv4 addresses within 3 to 6 months, while others will exhaust them perhaps over a longer period, depending on the rate at which they are allocated."

It looks like the remaining five blocks will be allocated this week, if press invitations involving just about all the central overseers of the Internet are anything to judge by. "On Thursday, 3 February 2011, at 9:30 a.m. Eastern Standard Time (EST), the Number Resource Organization (NRO), along with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the Internet Society (ISOC) and the Internet Architecture Board (IAB) will be holding a ceremony and press conference to make a significant announcement and to discuss the global transition to the next generation of Internet addresses," said an alert today from American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN), one of the five regional registries.
IP addresses are required for one computer to send data to another over the Internet. IPv4 allows for 4.3 billion addresses--2 to the 32nd power--but its successor, IPv6, allows 340 undecillion--2 to the 128th power, a vastly higher number. To be precise, 340,282,366,920,938,463,463,374,607,431,768,211,456 addresses.

That new capacity excites network engineers, mobile phone carriers, and others running into IPv4 limits--but unfortunately the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 is a difficult one, because the two communication protocols are incompatible.
"The transition to IPv6 is not an easy one, not for ISPs, device makers, software developers, major websites, or customers themselves," said Jason Livingood, executive director of product platform engineering at Comcast, basing his opinion on the IPv6 trials Comcast ran with thousands of customers in 2010.
Experts expect a years-long transition to move fully to IPv6. During that time, Web site operators, Internet service providers, and others will have to gradually shift infrastructure from handling one protocol to handling both.

IPv4 address exhaustion drives this expensive transition. ISPs have long handled IPv4 constraints by sharing addresses dynamically among customers, and private networks can use a technology called network address translation (NAT) to share a single IP address among multiple computers. But the limits are worse for those who need fixed IPv4 addresses--a company launching a new Web site, for example.
IANA hands out IPv4 addresses in blocks of 16.8 million slash-eights, or /8s. That may sound like a lot of addresses, but in 2010, the RIRs went through 19 such blocks of them. That means that any efforts to conserve or redistribute remaining IPv4 addresses postpones the inevitable rather than fundamentally fixes the shortage. And some stopgap measures, such as "carrier-grade NAT" offered at the larger scale of an Internet service provider, can limit some Net services and impose bottlenecks.

"Having native IPv6 access is superior to tunneling [in which IPv6 data is sent over IPv4 networks] or doing one or more NATs in the network; direct, native access is faster and does not break certain applications, therefore resulting in a better end-user experience," Livingood said.

Some companies that got involved in the Internet early own entire /8s themselves and therefore have lots of unused IPv4 addresses--Hewlett-Packard got a second through its acquisition of Compaq, for example. Others with a /8 to themselves include the U.S. Postal Service, airline operations support company SITA, Prudential Securities, pharmaceutical giants Merck and Eli Lilly, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, IBM, Apple, Xerox, AT&T, Level 3 Communications, General Electric, Ford Motor, and Halliburton.
The two slash-eights were distributed to Asia Pacific Network Information Centre (APNIC), the RIR for the Asia-Pacific region.

To give the world a chance to wrestle the IPv6 bull directly by the horns, the Internet Society is helping to organize the World IPv6 Day. On June 8, content providers such as Google and Yahoo and content distributors such as Akamai and Limelight Networks will offer their services over IPv6 for 24 hours for a collective evaluation and troubleshooting session.

Bad news for Heavy Texters.

2011-01-31T18:05:00.002+05:30

Brace yourself heavy texters. you will now have to leave the habit of sending more than 100 SMSes per day or if you can't then you will have to buy new connection/s :) as from 1st February 2011 you will not be able to send more than 100 SMSes a day. As per Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, all Telecos are required to withdraw any SMS Pack or Plan in which they offer more than 100 SMSes a day. And after reading this if you are thinking of paying for SMSes beyond 100 SMSes then, sorry, you can't do that, no matter what your plan is or you want to pay for addtional SMSes, you will not be allowed to send more than 100 SMSes.

Extract from TRAI's Notifcation published on 1 Decebmer 2010

The Authority is also aware that unsolicited commercial communications can be/are being sent by unregistered telemarketers. Such messages can be sent by any person and they are essentially in the category of P2P communications. However, in order to curb such messages, the Authority has decided that no Access Providers shall provide any SMS packages in any form (through voucher, student pack, seasonal pack etc) permitting sending of more than 100 SMS per day per SIM except on blackout days or days specially notified by TRAI. Any such package already in use shall be withdrawn w.e.f 31.12.2010. Provisions have also been made to disconnect the telecom resources after giving a notice if it is found that telemarketing activities are being doneform the unregistered telemarketer."

Apple Sued for Violating Double Click Patent

2010-12-31T09:37:00.001+05:30

Apple has been named in a new lawsuit that accuses several companies of violating a patent that covers the idea of double clicking a user interface element and then interacting with a new user interface element caused by the double clicking. Apple’s iPad and iPhone are named in the suit as offending devices, and also targeted are Adobe, HTC, LG, Mobilcomm, Motorola, Nokia, Opera, Palm, Quickoffice, and Samsung.

Titled, “Double-Clicking a Point-and-Click User Interface Apparatus to Enable a New Interaction with Content represented by an Active Visual Display Element,” the patent was filed in 2002 by Actify, granted in 2007, and is now owned by Hopewell Culture and Design. That’s not a typo: In 2007, a patent was granted for the idea of double clicking, which was filed in 2002, 18 years after the Macintosh that popularized the idea of clicking and double clicking to market was first introduced.

Idea Chooses Nokia Siemens Networks For 3G

2010-12-23T20:06:00.002+05:30

Idea Cellular will soon provide its subscribers with 3G services including high-speed mobile broadband, improved voice services and innovative value-added services. Idea Cellular has commissioned Nokia Siemens Networks to supply equipment, and build and manage its HSPA networks in four circles– Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), Kerala and Haryana. Nokia Siemens Networks is currently a major GSM vendor for the operator and the deal will strengthen this relationship with a smooth overlay of 3G on the existing GSM network.
"We believe that 3G has the potential to transform the way people communicate and the way businesses run. Our goal is to empower our subscribers by offering a reliable 3G mobile network that provides high-quality experience of voice and data services," said Anil Tandan, Chief Technology Officer, Idea Cellular. "Nokia Siemens Networks, as a world leader in 3G and as a long-standing partner for our GSM services, is well positioned to build our 3G network. It will allow us to reach our customers with new and innovative services in the shortest time possible and in a cost-efficient manner."

"We are committed to delivering a world-class 3G network for Idea Cellular to enable them to delight mobile broadband users with high-speed data and improved voice services," said Urs Pennanen, Head, India Region, Nokia Siemens Networks. "We are glad that Idea Cellular has entrusted us to deploy over 40% of their base stations. With our compact site solution that occupies minimal floor space, energy-efficient network equipments and local 3G expertise, we will enable Idea Cellular to roll out the 3G network rapidly with minimal total cost of ownership."

Under the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks will supply its Flexi Multiradio Base Stations, mobile packet core and mobile backhauling including FlexiPacket microwave radio, which will be deployed in five circles. Nokia Siemens Networks will also supply unified network management, monitoring and optimisation based on its NetAct system. This next generation Operation Support Systems (OSS) will provide Idea Cellular with the required flexibility to meet new customer demands.

As part of the deal, Nokia Siemens Networks will also provide network implementation, project management, care and maintenance services. Additionally, Nokia Siemens Networks will apply its domain expertise in 3G network operations to provide support to the operator in managing its 3G network.

Mark Zuckerberg - Person Of the Year

2010-12-18T18:14:00.003+05:30

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Time magazine's 2010 Person of the Year, is not the first honoree from the world of technology and science. He's in good company, with a list that includes tech titans, a machine, and even a planet.

Time cited Zuckerberg "for connecting more than half a billion people and mapping the social relations among them, for creating a new system of exchanging information and for changing how we live our lives."

Since 1927, Time magazine has chosen someone or something that, "for better or worse," made the greatest impact during the year. The story goes that Time editors first came up with the idea during a slow news week. (That sounds familiar.)

WikiLeaks.info rebuts malware warnings

2010-12-15T20:03:00.002+05:30

WikiLeaks.info, a site assisting WikiLeaks' effort to share U.S. war information and diplomatic cables, is rebutting online security organizations' warnings that its Web could be dangerous to visit.
WikiLeaks.info provides a list of sites that mirror the original WikiLeaks content, and in recent days the main WikiLeaks.org Web site has redirected visitors to the WikiLeaks.info mirror page. WikiLeaks.info has grown in importance because of others' moves two weeks ago that made it difficult to reach WikiLeaks.org and led its operators to resurface at WikiLeaks.ch, a Swiss domain.
Spamhaus, a nonprofit volunteer organization that seeks to curtail spam, phishing, botnets for network attacks, and malware, issued a "malware warning" yesterday for WikiLeaks.info.

WikiLeaks.info "is hosted in a very dangerous 'neighborhood,' Webalta's 92.241.160.0/19 IP address space, a 'blackhat' network which Spamhaus believes caters primarily to, or is under the control of, Russian cybercriminals," Spamhaus said. "Our concern is that any Wikileaks archive posted on a site that is hosted in Webalta space might be infected with malware. Since the main wikileaks.org website now transparently redirects visitors to mirror.wikileaks.info and thus directly into Webalta's controlled IP address space, there is substantial risk that any malware infection would spread widely."
WikiLeaks.info strenuously objected to the warning today.

"We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it," the WikiLeaks.info site said.
Spamhaus' services for tracking dangerous domains are widely used globally, so the warning carries significant weight. And although Spamhaus said it "takes no political stand on the WikiLeaks affair," its actions pose a further difficulty for those allied with WikiLeaks' cause.
WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange was arrested last week in the U.K. for possible extradition to Sweden, where he faces allegations of sex crimes. Assange denies the alleged crimes. A British judge ruled he could go free on bail yesterday, but prosecutors are appealing that decision. The prosecutors' challenge is expected to be heard tomorrow, according to Reuters.
More directly related to WikiLeaks' mission is the possibility of prosecution in the the United States for violation of the Espionage Act.
Spamhaus also warned that WikiLeaks.info is relying on Heihachi.net, "a provider run 'by criminals for criminals,'" for Domain Name Service (DNS) needs. DNS is a technology that converts the Web addresses people type into the numeric Internet addresses computers actually use to communicate.
Here again, WikiLeaks.info objected.
"We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it," WikiLeaks.info said.
WikiLeaks.info selected its services to avoid further problems with interrupted Net service, the site said. "WikiLeaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a 'bulletproof' hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company," the site said.
Spamhaus is not alone in its concern. On Sunday, security company Trend Micro also warned of the Heihachi.net connection.
"Heihachi Ltd. is known as a bulletproof, blackhat-hosting provider in Russia that is a safe haven for criminals and fraudsters. It hosts a long list of criminally related domains. Among these domains are banking fraud domains, carders' (criminals who trade stolen credit card information) websites, malware sites, and phishing sites. No matter what your political view is, this is rather disturbing," Trend Micro senior threat researcher Feike Hacquebord said. "We assess the wikileaks.info domain as highly risky and we do not recommend visiting this site as long as it is hosted by Heihachi."

15 sites and services that shuttered in 2010

2010-12-15T19:34:00.001+05:30

Over the years, we've worked hard to cover products and services as they've launched, and well into their successes and failures. And like any business venture, there's risk involved.
The Web is no different, leaving many sites to close up shop--sometimes just a few months after what their creators had hoped would be a successful launch. In other cases, it's a slow death march, stretched out with the occasional change in strategy, or a last-ditch re-branding effort.
2010 brought the closure of quite a few sites. Some names on this list you'll recognize right away. Others may leave you scratching your head, which may be just one of the many reasons they're no longer with us.
We've gathered 15 such sites and services that were open at the start of the year and for one reason or another closed up shop. Click through to find out what they were, what they did, and what happened.

An Undocumented Google Search Operator

2010-12-14T23:32:00.000+05:30

Search operators in Google help you refine and improve search results.

For instance, a query like “Taj Mahal AND Hotel” will search for pages related to the Hotel Taj and not the Mughal monument. Similarly, “kindle -site:amazon.com” will find all Kindle related resources outside the Amazon website.

Here are some examples.

Daniel Russell, who first wrote about the AROUND operator, says that AROUND is especially useful when the documents are rather long (think book-length articles) while a comment points out that it could be also be useful “when searching for quotes, speeches or a song that’s stuck in your head, but you can only think of a few words from it.”

Coming back to our original example, a query like “CNN Obama” will mostly show CNN pages that are related to Obama. However, if we modify the query to look like “CNN AROUND(2) Obama,” you get results where these two terms are written in close proximity.

The higher the number, the less the proximity.

Google’s wildcard search operator, represented by Asterisk (Obama * CNN), may achieve similar results but with AROUND, you even get to specify the distance between the two search terms. Do remember to write AROUND in all CAPS else it won’t work.

‘Speak’ Foreign Languages

2010-12-13T00:04:00.001+05:30

You use the free Google Translate service to instantly translate text from one language to another and in some language pairs, you may even listen to the translated text by clicking the blue speaker icon as show in the the above screenshot.

In theory, such a feature may come handy in situations when the person on the other side of the phone doesn’t understand your language. You can type the text in your native language, hit translate and play the translated text as audio (example) over the phone.

But will this thing really work?

As part of Demo Slam, these two girls decided to call an Indian restaurant and placed the entire order in Hindi using the “text to speech” feature of Google Translate.

They typed their responses in English in the Google Translate box and played the translated Hindi version to the order taker. After some waiting, the ordered food was at their doorstep.

Flowchart – How to Make Money on the Internet

2010-12-11T23:17:00.007+05:30

Google Launches Fashion Search Site

2010-11-20T22:16:00.004+05:30

Google on Wednesday unveiled Boutiques.com, a Web site that combines computing power with fashion savvy in an effort to keep users informed about trends and provide shopping recommendations.

"Boutiques uses computer vision and machine learning technology to visually analyze your taste and match it to items you would like," Munjal Shah, Google product management director, wrote in a blog post.

The team behind Boutiques.com came from Like.com, an online retailer that Google acquired in August. Prior to the Google purchase, employees were pondering how to create a better experience for people to shop online, Shah said.

"Our team consists of PhDs in computer science with an emphasis on machine learning and computer vision, along with fashion designers and stylists—we jokingly called ourselves the computer nerds and fashion nerds (and a few of us were both)," he wrote. "So, we set out to create a new way to browse, discover and shop for soft goods online."

That new way is Boutiques.com, which lets you create your own customized boutiques, or follow the boutiques created by celebrities, stylists, designers, and fashion bloggers. The site currently has boutiques from more than 30 people, including actress Carey Mulligan (above), singer Eve, and stylist Nicole Chavez. Keep tabs on their fashion exploits or tell Boutiques.com about your own style to receive personalized updates.

"We asked [the celebrities] not just to curate 10-50 great items they loved, but also to teach our site their style and taste," Shah wrote. "They did this by telling us what colors, patterns, brands and silhouettes they loved and they hated."

"Our machine learning algorithms use this information to enable you to shop all of the inventory in the style of that taste-maker, on top of the 50 items they've hand curated," he added.

http://www.boutiques.com/

Facebook Places in India Launched

2010-11-18T17:30:00.002+05:30

Facebook Places, a Foursquare like service that lets you broadcast your current location to your other Facebook friends, may have just gone live in India.

The service has been available since day one to all employees of Facebook who are based in India but looks like they are now slowly rolling it out to external users as well.

The service will automatically determine your current location and show you a list of nearby places – if your “place” is not listed in the Facebook Places database, you may create it using the mobile app itself.

The Places feature is available on the Facebook apps for Android, BlackBerry and iPhone. If you are using a different phone, you may still share your location through the Facebook mobile site at touch.facebook.com but this option is currently not available in India.

The Pros and Cons of Moving Back to India From US

2010-11-13T09:55:00.002+05:30

After having stayed in the US for nearly 15 years, Peeyush Ranjan and Mallika recently decided to shift base to Bangalore, the Silicon Valley of India, along with their two kids.

Peeyush is now the head of engineering (R&D) at Google India while Mallika continues to work with Microsoft. Read their experiences after moving back home:

Why did we return to India?

After talking to a lot of people it seems apparent that moving to India is harder than moving back to US (when people do return). We all know the pros and ease of living in the US, things are way more streamlined, so I guess the question is why voluntarily leave it in the first place. The reason that has struck most to me is – to try something new and gain a few more experiences in life. Hopefully these experiences are enriching to your career, your kid’s outlook of this world and to your parent’s/relatives’ relationship with you.

We had a very easy move in many ways and have settled in with few issues here. I am the one with most problems adjusting amongst the four of us but after seeing how my kids perceive the world now, how amazing Diwali was with my parents and how much my spouse is growing and learning at work I have little doubt this was a good decision.

I have jotted down some pros and cons and also some things that surprised me a little.

Pros of moving to India:

Can be great career move and an opportunity to try new things at a lower cost – India is just a different ball game and even I am hyper excited about startups and the market here.

Closer to family – can’t stress the benefit of this enough.

Children see a different world – can make them have a more global outlook and be more charitable.

Help at home – allows you to do more and have better vacations.

Certain luxuries are very affordable – personal trainer daily, photography workshops, getting a home theater setup.

Celebrate festivals like we did when we were kids.

Travel more in and around India – amazing places are 2-3hr flight away – Sri Lanka to Dubai to Macau and rest of Asia.

Food – I loved the food in US but am enjoying the diversity and availability of my favorite foods here.

Cons of moving to India from US:

India is expensive if you want to live like an American. On the other hand money can get most things done for you easily.

Lack of parks, good hiking trails and things for kids to do on weekends.

Attention to detail and reliability is missing in work and people here.

Pollution (not so bad in Bangalore), noise, traffic and general dirtiness.

Bureaucracy – knowing people who know people. US is more straightforward in how we deal with people and things.

Being nice is not the way to go – you need to toughen up.

Kids can get spoilt with help and get impervious to poverty. They can also imbibe the above mentioned cons rather easily – throw rubbish out of window, etc.

Easy availability of everything is missing – HDMI cable to cookie dough to latest iPhone. You can get a lot in India these days but still it is nothing like walking into Frys or Costco or Trader Joes in the US. Same goes for internet reliability and bandwidth – so if you are someone who thrives on being on the cutting edge of tech. it can be issue at times.

Things I thought would be cons but are not:

Relatives visiting all the time – I love it now. I am not the one cleaning up the rooms or figuring out dinner. They come, play with kids and it all makes me feel closer to them.

Weather and bugs – Bangalore is actually rather pleasant weather wise and bug free.

Noisy neighbors, etc – People are busy and not interested in gossiping about you.

School and education – I was unsure if it would be good or the style would suit my kids but there are plenty of schools here and we found one that works great for us. Kids are learning a lot and loving it.

Things I did not worry about but are cons:

Long work hours and travelling – this maybe the nature of the work you do but you do end up syncing up more with US and thus your nights are pretty busy regardless of the day schedule.

Managing domestic help – I have great help but still keeping health, emotions and working dynamics of some seven people on a daily basis is management overhead.

Lack of independence – not driving, knowing the place. It is hard to be dependent and feel lost in a city but this is something that will go away with time.

Making new friends – after living in Seattle for 13 years it is hard to let go and after a certain age it is harder to make friends.

Being nice is underrated – people will take advantage of you, you will not get things done.

The other big problem I hear about is getting sick. If kids get sick in first few months it spoils the move for everyone. Then the whole family wants to return and that feeling engrains itself in the family for a long time. Also, if you do plan to move make a rule that, regardless of how miserable you may be feeling at that moment, you will never say that you want to return in front of the kids.

There is good and there is bad but once you decide it is the attitude that matters. Keep it positive and enjoy the good that each place has. US or India they both have pros– make the best of it.

BLOG BY : AMIT AGARWAL

Facebook Initiates Project Titan Against Gmail???

2010-11-13T09:40:00.004+05:30

Emails were sent out to users with @facebook.com id’s and within those emails were invites to a special event on Monday.There are strong hints that Facebook is building a full-fledged webmail client.
Project Titan has huge potential since Facebook is a very popular in the online space, rest assured this wont be the Facebook messaging UI with a email tacked on, but will be a proper well crafted webmail service.

You can view the invitation below

Print Files on Linux Remotely using Dropbox

2010-11-05T11:46:00.004+05:30

If you have a printer attached to a Linux machine, you can easily send print jobs to that printer from another remote computer using Dropbox (see similar solutions for Windows and Mac).
The idea is that you create a shell script to monitor a local Dropbox folder. As soon as a new file is added to that folder from a remote computer (or mobile phone), the script will send the file to the attached printer. Once the the printing job is completed, the file is removed from the incoming queue.
The implementation is easy. Kurt Granroth sent me this improved* shell script that you can use in any Linux environment. You only have to setup a cron job against this script such that it runs after every ‘n’ seconds (or minutes).

  1: --- dropprint.sh ---     
2:     
3: #!/bin/bash     
4:     
5: export PrintQueue="/root/Dropbox/PrintQueue";     
6:     
7: IFS=$'\n'     
8:     
9: for PrintFile in $(/bin/ls -1 ${PrintQueue}) do     
10:     
11:    lpr -r ${PrintQueue}/${PrintFile};     
12:     
13: done     
14:     
15: --- dropprint.sh ---

To initiate a print job, simply add some files to the PrintQueue Folder in Dropbox from either a remote computer or upload them via your mobile phone. Within seconds, the script will start printing the files to your local printer.
If you have multiple printers attached to Linux computer, use the –p parameter to specify the printer name.
Also, if you are on Ubuntu, you may use "sudo apt-get install gnome-schedule" (Gnome Schedule) to setup a scheduled task for the script with recurrence set to "every minute."
What the script does?
Here’s an annotated version of the script, courtesy Kurt again, that will help you easily understand how the script works:
1. #!/bin/bash
Specific bash directly since its feature set and behaviors are consistent everywhere
2. export PrintQueue
It’s necessary to ‘export’ in order for the environment variable to show up in the later $() subshell
3. IFS=$’\n’
By default, spaces will wreak havoc with the ‘for / in’ loop. Resetting the field separator handily works around that
4. /bin/ls -1
Directly use /bin/ls to bypass the common color-enabling aliases. Use -1 to force all files into one column. There’s no need to search for the beginning of the file name using this
5. lpr -r
The -r option deletes the file after it successfully prints. This is better than doing an ‘rm’ later since it only does the delete on a successful print.

Google launches Google Instant in India

2010-10-09T21:23:00.003+05:30

Google on Thrusday announced the India launch of Google Instant. The new product offers a new way of searching that makes search more interactive and helps you find information more quickly and easily.

Google Instant combines three core features -- Dynamic results, Autocomplete predictions, and ‘Scroll-to-Search’ functionality -- to deliver smart, predictive results as you type. You can watch the video that explains Google Instant in greater depth.

Benefits

Faster Searches: By predicting your search and showing results before you finish typing, Google Instant can save 2-5 seconds per search.

Smarter Predictions: Even when you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for, predictions help guide your search. The top prediction is shown in grey text directly in the search box, so you can stop typing as soon as you see what you need.

Instant Results: Start typing and results appear right before your eyes. Until now, you had to type a full search term, hit return, and hope for the right results. Now results appear instantly as you type, helping you see where you’re headed, every step of the way.

According to a Google release, in the month since the initial release, we extended Instant to Google Books, Videos, Blogs and Updates, and launched keyboard shortcuts to help you navigate through search results. We have also learned more about how people are using Instant, and although it is still early days, we wanted to share some of those findings, a compay official said.

The Google release said in just two weeks, we saw an increase in the fraction of searches performed without hitting enter or clicking search. People are used to searching on Google by hitting enter or clicking “search,” but we’ve been happy to see that people are quickly adjusting to the new experience.

Google said we are seen about a 7 per cent increase in on-the-fly editing of search queries. Instant isn’t just about time savings, it’s also a new, more fluid way to search. The company says it has been seeing people reformulating their queries more. As you type, you see search results, and often those results can inspire you to type better search terms.

In just one week, we saw an increase in the relative number of search sessions starting on the Google homepage, likely because they want to use Instant. Google Instant currently only works on the Google homepage and results page, not in other places such as browser search boxes, the Google Toolbar, and the Chrome Omnibox. As people have learned about Google Instant, many seem to be searching more on the homepage in order to use the feature.

http://www.google.com/instant/

Install Win7 From USB Drive

2010-10-09T21:08:00.002+05:30

First, you need a 1 GB or more USB drive, and second, you need OS installation files (CD/DVD or .iso image). Start by plugging in the USB drive and then open command prompt (run command prompt as an administrator). Write 'diskpart' and hit Enter. This will open a new command prompt window. In this window, type 'list disk' and then note down disk number of your USB drive (disk 1). Next, run the following commands in sequence:

select disk 1
clean
create partition primary
select partition 1
active
format fs=ntfs
assign
exit

Once you have assigned a drive letter for your USB drive (i: in this case), open a new window for command prompt. Insert Windows DVD in an optical drive or mount an image of the same in a virtual drive (f:), and run the following commands:

f:
cd boot
bootsect.exe /nt60 i:
exit

Copy all files from Windows installation media (DVD) or image on the USB drive (i:). Now you can use this drive to install Windows on any machine. Simply change the boot sequence of the machine you plan to install Windows 7 on to USB and off you go.

How to Avoid Phising Websites

2010-09-10T18:40:00.002+05:30

This pie chart shows the business categories targeted by phishers and their respective proportion of fake sites, according to PandaLab's latest report.

(Credit: PandaLabs)

You could call it the Web site phishing deluge.
Cybercriminals are cranking out fake Web sites branded as eBay, banks, and other financial companies to the tune of tens of thousands every week, according to new research.
During a three-month study of its global malware database, Panda Security found on average 57,000 new Web sites created each week with the aim of exploiting a brand name in order to steal information that can be used to drain peoples' bank accounts.
About 80 percent of those were phishing sites designed to trick people into entering their login credentials or other information on what they believed to be a legitimate bank or other Web site. The remainder were URLs associated with command-and-control servers used in Western Union-related e-mail phishing attacks that trick people into opening an attachment that downloads a Windows-based data-stealing Trojan, said Sean-Paul Correll, threat researcher at PandaLabs.
The study found that 375 high-profile brand names were being used for the fraud, with eBay (23 percent) and Western Union (21 percent) together comprising 44 percent of all the malicious Web sites discovered.
Rounding out the top 10 list of exploited brands were: Visa, United Services Automobile Association, HSBC, Amazon, Bank of America, PayPal, Internal Revenue Service, and Bendigo Bank (Australia).
For the phishers, banks were obviously the most popular choice to mimic, at 65 percent of the total, followed by online stores and auction sites, investment funds and stockbrokers, government organizations and payment platforms.
How the attacks work
Typically, phishing attacks arrive in an e-mail message that looks like it comes from a popular bank or other institution. It uses some ruse, such as the recipient's account is about to be suspended, to entice the recipient to click a link that is included. The link directs to a fake site where the user is prompted to provide information like login credentials that is then used later on the underground criminal market to steal money from the account.
It might sound like a lot of work creating all the new fake Web sites, but actually it can be done fairly quickly by copying the source code of the Web site they want to fake and making minor changes, Correll said.
And there are toolkits to help do this. Symantec's spam and phishing report for September (PDF) says phishing messages were up in July primarily due to a 92 percent increase in phishing sites created by automated toolkits.
In the Western Union example, which is not a phishing attack but rather a standard malware infection that exploits the brand, recipients get an e-mail that looks like it comes from Western Union. It informs them that there is an incoming wire transfer and prompts them to download the attachment. Opening the attachment installs the Trojan on the computer.
"The Western Union scam has been going on for years," Correll said. "It's one of the most common things we see on the threat landscape today."
And there is a phishing attack targeting Bank of America customers that downloads malware on the victim's computer that adds additional fields to the bank login page asking for debit or credit card number and PIN and sends that information back to the criminals, he said.
Unlike the Trojan attack, which targets Windows users, most phishing attacks designed to trick a user into revealing information affect all computer users regardless of what operating system they are using.
PandaLabs demonstrates exactly how the attacks work in a video here.

This fake eBay email includes several red flags indicating it is a phishing attempt: poor punctuation throughout; misspelling of "suspension"; indication at the top revealing it was composed in Cyrillic; and the lack of a customer name, although you have to give them credit for coming up with an excuse for that--ironically, "to protect spam."

(Credit: PandaLabs)

Identifying an attack
While many people are duped by the fake e-mail messages and attachments, there are typically some obvious clues that the message is not legitimate. Usually there are egregious misspellings, poor grammar, and bad punctuation. The Web addresses typically look fishy even on first glance--they don't have "https" that banks and other firms use to indicate that the connection to the Web server is secure and the address is convoluted. And there is no customer name in the body of the message in many phishing attacks, although depending on the sophistication of the operation they can be very customized.
To avoid being victimized by a social-engineering attack that uses a legitimate brand to trick you, avoid clicking links or opening attachments in e-mail. Go to the company's Web site by typing in the real URL in a browser to sign in or contact the company directly via the Web site e-mail address or phone to verify information. And don't give out personal and sensitive information requested via e-mail. And keep antivirus and other security software up to date.

An eBay representative had some more specific tips about avoiding fake Web sites:
• If you think you've been led to a fraudulent site to make a purchase, go directly to www.eBay.com and navigate to the listing via the home page search function. If you cannot find the listing by using the seller ID or the item number, the listing is a fake.
• To determine if the Web address in your browser is a real eBay address, look for ".ebay.com" immediately before the first "/". There must be a "." before eBay.com for the address to be legitimate. (More tips from eBay are here.)
But the most important thing is to not click Web links in unsolicited or suspicious e-mails.
"It's hard to get people to not click on the links because people want convenience," Correll said. "We constantly run into that problem, of (balancing) security versus convenience."

Backup your Gmail Inbox Online

2010-09-08T21:50:00.003+05:30

If you want to backup your emails from Gmail to the local computer, enable POP3 access in your Gmail settings and then use a desktop mail client to download a copy of all your messages from the Google cloud to the local disk. That’s easy!
Windows Live Mail, Outlook and Thunderbird are some nice email clients that can automatically and easily bring your entire archive of Gmail messages offline.
Why you should backup Gmail to the cloud?
If you are not a huge fan of desktop applications or if you think that setting up a Gmail backup plan involves way too much effort, you can consider creating a backup of your Gmail account in the cloud itself. Before we get into the details, here are three situations where an online backup of Gmail messages will come handy:
Reason #1 – If your main Gmail account gets hacked , you will still have access to all your previous emails.
Reason #2 – If you delete an important email from your Gmail Inbox by mistake, you can easily retrieve it from the online backup. Google Apps Premier has Postini to restore deleted emails, here you’re getting that facility for free.

Reason #3 – If the Gmail service goes down, you will still be able to read your older emails. Gmail outage won’t affect work.

Backup your Gmail Messages Online

There are three services that can help you automatically backup your Gmail (and Google Apps) email accounts online and luckily, they won’t cost you anything.

The first and most obvious choice is Gmail. Create a new Gmail account and under Settings –> Accounts and Import –> Check mail using POP3 –> Add POP3 email account, enter the email address of your main Gmail account that you want to backup.
Within an hour or so, the online mail fetcher program will pull messages from your main Gmail account and will copy them to your new “backup” account. In my limited testing, I found that Gmail’s mail fetcher left all the messages that were either “read” or have been previously downloaded by another POP3 client so it’s not “true backup.”
That brings us to another alternative – copy your Gmail mailbox to Windows Live Hotmail. While you can add a Gmail account to Hotmail using POP3 (just like Gmail’s mail fetcher), there’s a much better and reliable option out there for copying emails from Gmail into Hotmail and it’s called TrueSwitch.

Setup a new Hotmail account and TrueSwitch, an awesome web-based email account migration service, will copy all your emails and attachments from Gmail to your new Hotmail address. If you have a relatively large Gmail Inbox, the backup process might take up to 24 hours but you’ll get an email as soon as the transfer is complete.
Like Gmail, Hotmail too offers “expanding” storage so it can possibly fit your large Google inbox as well. You can then add your Gmail address to Hotmail (click “Add an email account” in the sidebar) and this will ensure that new messages that land in your Gmail inbox in the future are also saved in Hotmail.
That said, both the services discussed above have one common drawback – they’ll always backup your entire Gmail mailbox and you cannot limit the backup process to a specific set of folders (or labels in Gmail). So if you have a fairly large mailbox and don’t want to backup each and every Gmail folder (or label), try Backupify.

Backupify, as you know, can backup your online accounts (including Gmail) to Amazon S3 and a unique point about Backupify is that it lets you specify labels that should be included in the backup process. The messages are stored in the cloud as EML files that you can view inside Outlook or, you can change the .eml extension to .mht, and read the file inside IE.
Backupify supports XOauth so you can add your Gmail account to the service without having to share your Google Account credentials. They are not using a very practical format for saving messages but the advantage is that Backupify will scan your selected mailbox folders every single day for new emails and will archive them automatically.

Improved Facebook Search Through Bing Social

2010-09-07T21:46:00.004+05:30

Google’s Realtime Search offers you a convenient way to search through status updates, news articles and other links that are shared on the social web, mainly Twitter and Facebook.
Microsoft too has a similar search product called Bing Social and though both these tools are powered by the same data coming from Twitter and Facebook, I find Bing’s Social Search a slightly better product than Google’s Realtime Search.

Both Bing and Google display search results from Facebook and Twitter in a self-updating river of news format but with Bing Social, you have an option to filter out status updates by source.
That means you can limit your search results to either Twitter or Facebook, something that is currently not possible in Google’s Realtime search.

Bing Social is also an excellent tool for searching news stories and blog posts that are being shared on Facebook without you having to log into your Facebook account.
Search for a topic on Bing Social, limit the source to "Facebook" and click "Shared Links." It shows the number of times a particular story has been shared by Facebook users and thus, it gets so easy for you to discover popular stories around your topics of interest in near real-time.

Dual Core Tegra - LG Handset

2010-09-07T18:26:00.002+05:30

LG has announced its intentions to launch its first Tegra based phones by the end of 2010.

These new devices would be based on the second generation NVIDIA Tegra mobile processor - also known as the Tegra 2 System on a Chip (SoC). This processor is a powerful dual core number cruncher that would provide hitherto unheard of processing power for hand-held devices.

LG's new line up of Optimus phones would be powered by these chips. LG also claims that the Tegra 2 SoC is the first mobile dual-core CPU and the first mobile processor to be able to process full HD content. Thanks to the twin processors (each running at a Ghz), consumers can now experience uber fast, responsive web browsing that would be at least two times faster than before. Gaming performance too is expected to increase five fold when compared to existing products of today.

B-schools Going Green

2010-09-06T19:28:00.003+05:30

As the market for green managers is growing in the country, B-schools are offering management lessons in environment-related disciplines to their students. Leading B-schools in the country like Birla Institute of Management Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology and IIMs are offering courses covering areas like sustainability and green manufacturing, reports Rajiv Tikoo of the Financial Express.

The Birla Institute of Management Technology (Bimtech) and the Institute of Chemical Technology have just introduced full-fledged MBA programmes in sustainability-related disciplines. On the other hand, IIM-Calcutta along with IIT-Kanpur and IIT-Madras has begun offering courses in green manufacturing from this academic year. Over the last years, IIM-Ahmedabad and IIM-Lucknow have also been offering carbon courses in various programmes.

According to Shekhar Chaudhuri, Director, IIM-Calcutta, the green manufacturing course offered under the post-graduate programme focuses on both technological and management aspects of greening. It is an initiative of the National Manufacturing Competitiveness Council and is supported by Japanese International Cooperation Agency (Jica) under a bilateral agreement between the two governments, he added.

The two-year, full-time post-graduate diploma in management (Sustainable Development Practices) offered by the Birla Institute of Management Technology (Bimtech) aims to train managers to tap into new opportunities arising out of the interplay between changing international polices and national priorities on development issues and the business responses to them,said Bimtech Director H Chaturvedi.

Mumbai-headquartered Institute of Chemical Technology has just started a two-year MTech programme in green technology, focusing on green chemistry, environmental engineering and pollution prevention among other issues. Industry practitioners would have the option of pursuing it as a three-year part-time programme.

Remote logouts - New Facebook Feature

2010-09-06T19:22:00.001+05:30

Facebook is rolling out a new security feature that lets users log out of their accounts remotely from another computer.

To do this, go to "account settings" on your Facebook page and click on "change" next to "account security." There, you'll see where else your Facebook account is logged in, including the type of device and the city it's in or near. To log out of any of them, click "end activity."

Facebook is making this available over the next couple of weeks. It will be accessible on computers, but not mobile devices.

The feature is similar to what Google Inc.'s Gmail offers to its users, and Facebook says it's designed to help users keep their logins secure.

5 common misunderstandings about Web Hosting Services

2010-09-05T17:34:00.003+05:30

When you want to establish an Online business the first thing you need is a Website for your venture. For a website, the first thing you need is some Online Web Hosting Space and skilled professionals who can create a proper website for you. But what are the things you should keep in mind while selecting the best web host? What are the most common misconceptions while deciding the best web host?

Unlimited Web Hosting and bandwidth means no worry
Most users are tension-free that their unlimited hosting account will help them enjoy a tension free life. But, most Unlimited hosting accounts do no guarantee unlimited disk usage. The more processing that takes places on the server may cause problems for your website as your Disk Usage takes place (can be understood as Processing usage)

Shared hosting and dedicated hosting are similar
Most users have a misconception that shared and dedicated hosting servers don’t really make a difference. Just imagine that another website which is hosted on your shared server used up all the processing power or gets infected by any malicious software, then what? You may loose all the precious data on your site and may also cause a lot of problems. A dedicated server would be your personal server and may allow you to do anything at the expense of your own site. So, if you mis-manage something, then you are responsible for your own actions as others are no way related to you.

All cheap web-hosting services are unreliable
Everyone wants to use the Best Web hosting services, but most people are not on a big budget, so they keep looking for cheap options. But it is a misunderstanding that all cheap web hosting services are unreliable, there are many web hosting services which give you the service at affordable rates and they are very reliable too.

Any website can work on any type of server (without any issues)
Web hosting server is not your requirement! A PROPER hosting server is your requirement. So you must first ensure that the package which the hosting provider is giving you fits your needs. For example: Its a tiresome job to make the .NET framework to work on Linux based servers. It may take up your valuable time and may even land you into trouble. Most people do not think before purchasing a hosting package and then repent over it.

Good hosting providers don’t have any problems/issues
This is the biggest misunderstanding. You can face web hosting issues with any hosting provider, its just the service each provider delivers which makes them expensive and good. If your site is not properly protected from outbound access, then it can be hacked. You cant blame your provider for that.

Also, most web hosting companies allow affiliate sales, which can help you to earn some cash fast by referring their service to others. Many companies also allow the Web Hosting Coupon system, which can help you give discounts to people whom you refer.