nsntechie

6 Google Chrome Extensions that will make your life easy.

2017-06-12T08:42:00.001+05:30

One of the reasons behind Google Chrome being the most popular web browser is Extensions it offers. Extensions are just like the add-ons or plugins provided by other web browsers which provide some extra utility. But unlike another web browsers, Chrome comes with a Webstore, where one can easily search and find the extensions for Chrome. While it offers both Free and Paid contents as Extensions, Apps, Themes and Games, most of these contents are Free. You just need to browse to chrome://extensions/ from the address tab or go to Settings-> Extensions to see the existing extensions installed in Chrome. There you can also find the link to Get More Extensions, which redirects the Chrome Web Store. There you can browse and search the extension you need and install the extension by clicking on the Add to Chrome Option. It would be installed on the Chrome and an icon would appear just next to the chrome URL address bar.

Here are 6 Google Chrome extensions that can make your life easy:

AdBlock and AdBlockPlus(ABP)
If u are sick of the ads which are displayed while browsing the internet then these two extensions are of great help. These two extensions remove the unwanted advertisements from most of the websites. You can even enjoy the youtube videos without any ad. However some of the websites even have scripts to detect if you are using these add-ons. In that case, those refuse to display the content until you disable these add-ons on their domain and pages. In that case, you can simply disable these add-ons from their icon displayed next to address bars.
Google Dictionary

Google dictionary is a very useful utility extension which enables you to look the meaning of a word on any website or web page by just selecting the world. You do not have to copy the word and search it on the other page to look for its meaning. It even provides the pronunciation of the word highlighted and being looked into.

The Google Dictionary options can be configured as follows to display the definition pop up automatically whenever a word on a web page is selected or double clicked.
Google Translate
If you want to look for the meaning of a word in some other options also you can install this another useful extension from Google. It provides the same feature as Google Dictionary but it can display the translation of the word or text selected on a web page in a popup. SO to translate any text or word in any other language you do not have to copy a word or text in google translation in a new tab.

This extension can be configured to display the translation in a pop up with the following options in extension options.
Imagus
If you are the lazy person who hates clicking up the images and opening up in new tab to have an enlarged view of those this extension is for you. This extension works on most of the popular websites like Facebook, Google Images, Pinterest etc. If you have this extension enabled and installed you do not have to click the images displayed on such sites to see the enlarged view. You can just hover the mouse pointer on the image and this extension will display the actual size image in a popup without opening up them in a new tab.
Grammarly for ChromeIf you spend most of your time on the internet writing blogs or emails then this extension could be very useful for you. This extension provides an enhanced spelling and Grammer check feature while writing the contents and helps in writing the spelling and grammatical error free contents.
LightShot
This extension helps to keep the screenshot from the web pages in a smart way. It provides the ability to select the area on the web pages which needs to be captured and then even provide the ability to edit that area by writing any text or marking any content. So no need to PrintScr a web page and edit it by pasting to MSPaint.

How Eclipse IDE is naming its versions Alphabetically way before Android even was created?

2017-05-29T08:09:00.001+05:30

Eclipse IDE is the most widely used IDE to work on Open Source technologies stack. An integrated development environment (IDE) is a software application that provides comprehensive facilities to computer programmers for software development. An IDE normally consists of a source code editor, build automation tools and a debugger. Most modern IDEs have intelligent code completion and in some cases a compiler too. Eclipse is an integrated development environment (IDE) used in code development, and is the most widely used Java and other Open Source Technology stacks IDE. It contains a base workspace and an extensible plug-in system for customizing the environment. Its primary use is for developing Java applications, but it may also be used to develop applications in other programming languages via plug-ins, including Ada, ABAP, C, C++, COBOL, D, Fortran, Haskell, JavaScript, Julia, Lasso, Lua, NATURAL, Perl, PHP, Prolog, Python, R, Ruby (including Ruby on Rails framework), Rust, Scala, Clojure, Groovy, Scheme, and Erlang.

If you are quite an admirer of Android you must be aware of the fact how Android names its versions Alphabetically on the name of various desserts and sweets. From v1.5 Cupcake it has been following the alphabetical order with further releases with v1.6 Donut, v2.1 Eclair, v2.2 Froyo, v2.3 Gingerbread, v3.0 Honeycomb, v4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich , v4.1 Jelly Bean, v4.4 KitKat, v5.0 Lollopop, v6.0 Marshmallow, v7.0 Nougat. But do you know the Eclipse IDE has been following this trend even the way before Android's first release was released. The only difference being it has been naming its versions on the names of celestial objects & phenomena and other scientific entities.

The Eclipse Project was originally created by IBM in November 2001 and supported by a consortium of software vendors. The Eclipse Foundation was created in January 2004 as an independent not-for-profit corporation to act as the steward of the Eclipse community. The independent not-for-profit corporation was created to allow a vendor neutral and open, transparent community to be established around Eclipse. Today, the Eclipse community consists of individuals and organizations from a cross section of the software industry. Since 2004, this community has been releasing a new version of eclipse in June every year.

According to Lee Nackman, Chief Technology Officer of IBM's Rational division (originating in 2003) at that time, the name "Eclipse" (dating from at least 2001) was not a wordplay on Sun Microsystems, as the product's primary competition at the time of naming was Microsoft Visual Studio, which Eclipse was to eclipse.

Different versions of Eclipse follow an alphabetical order and have been given different celestial objects & phenomena and other scientific entities names. The versions named after Callisto, Europa, and Ganymede, which are moons of Jupiter, were followed by a version named after Galileo the discoverer of those moons. These were followed by two sun-themed names, Helios of Greek mythology, and Indigo, one of the seven colors of a rainbow (which is produced by the sun). The version after that, Juno, has a triple meaning: a Roman mythological figure, an asteroid, and a spacecraft to Jupiter. Kepler, Luna, and Mars continued the astronomy theme, and then a new theme of chemical elements began, consisting of Neon and Oxygen. Photon represents a return to sun-themed names. Following are the complete details of its Versions and Version Names:

Version	Date	Version name
3.0	21-Jun-04	N/A
3.1	28-Jun-05	N/A
3.2	30-Jun-06	Callisto
3.3	29-Jun-07	Europa
3.4	25-Jun-08	Ganymede
3.5	24-Jun-09	Galileo
3.6	23-Jun-10	Helios
3.7	22-Jun-11	Indigo
3.8 and 4.2	27-Jun-12	Juno
4.3	26-Jun-13	Kepler
4.4	25-Jun-14	Luna
4.5	24-Jun-15	Mars
4.6	22-Jun-16	Neon
4.7	28 June 2017[21] (planned)	Oxygen
4.8	June 2018 (planned)	Photon

How a laptop generating a lot of heat may lead to graphics chip issue?

2017-05-28T02:40:00.001+05:30

One of the most scary moments for someone could be when the Laptop one have been using for last 3 or 4 years dies suddenly. When I say die means it would not switch on anyhow and most of the time this is the issue with your motherboard. Having a defect in DVD drive(that people even no longer use these days), keyboard, touch-pad is not because you know these are easily replaceable and you can even get away without those with external keyboard, mouse or DVD drive. But once the laptop motherboard dies all other components becomes useless without it or say orphan without their 'mother'board. And in that case the only options we are left with are either to get it repaired or buy a new laptop. Changing a laptop is not as much easy option as just changing to a new mobile and tablet. So most of the people go ahead with the option to get the laptop repaired.

In such scenarios when you take your laptop to get repaired the most common issue detected in diagnosis is issue with Graphics chip or unit. The laptop which have an dedicated Graphics display unit/card are most prone to this issue and most of the cases the heat is held responsible for this issue. So how does the heat makes the Graphics Unit stop working and how can it be avoided?

The heat produced by the electronic devices is result of Thermal radiation, that is just the by-product of electromagnetic movement within millions of circuits, and the internal resistance it encounters – or to put it another way, electricity powering your computer is the simple reason why your computer or laptop becomes hot. A computer’s core, its Central Processing Unit (CPU), naturally generates heat as it carries out algorithms, as does the Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), which typically handles 3D imaging for display. Gaming can result in higher temperatures, especially as they often require GPUs to carry out complicated calculations (in many instances, the GPU can generate more heat than the CPU).

The most notable way your computer draws heat away from sensitive components is with a heat sink — normally located by the CPU or sometimes GPU — which pulls heat from its surroundings through conduction and using fins to dissipate higher temperatures across a wide area, i.e. the rest of your computer’s case and out through vents at the back or sides.

But the fan in the heat sink unit when draws the air into the laptop's body it also draws the dust particles and lint. If you use your laptop by placing it on a blanket or quilt which sheds a lot of lint the laptop's fan may keep drawing it may keep accumulating inside the laptop body.

Lint accumulated on the sides of heat sink unit of a laptop.

These accumulated lint and dust partial may form a layer on the sides of heat sink unit, CPU and GPU and appears like cotton buds. This accumulated layer obstruct the flow of air. In addition to that if the laptop is being used when placed on a cushion like surface it may block the vents through which the cool air from outside is drawn inside and hot air from inside is exhausted. In this way the hot air may get trapped inside and in this situations the temperature of CPU and GPU may rise to the level where they may no longer operate and most of the time the computer stops abruptly and restarts automatically. But when the CPU and GPU does not perform such survival instinct this situation may lead to some issues. The dedicated GPU chip which have relatively less coolant and heat sink support becomes vulnerable at such high temperatures and this can make the tracks (or ‘bumps’) in a flip-chip design BGA chip physically deform and you end up with a dead chip. This issue usually end up shocking the user when the laptop which was switched off working fine fails to start up or display nothing on the screen.

When diagnosed at a repair shop the issue is said to be with the Graphics Chip and the technician advise to get the chip re-balled that is melting up its soldering and re-solder it as it is assumed that heat would have make some soldering balls melt/deform some soldering balls and re-balling it would fix it up.

But in reality, These solder balls melt at around 220°C and the laptop's internal units can't reach up to that temperature. If such a thing what would have happened, laptop would have gone into thermal protection mode way before then. So most of the time chances are there was nothing wrong with the solder balls in the first place. But in a attempt to fix it or "re-ball" it, when dead chip is heated up in order to melt the solder balls it is effectively causing the internal tracks to realign, or rather be nudged back into place so they just so happen to work again. If 120°C was were to be applied to the chip i.e. 100 less than is required to melt the solder balls, for around 5 minutes the similar results may be achieved. The chip may well now function but it is not repaired. It’s a in a state of fragile mess. Once the chip is put under heavy load for a period of time and its internal temperature increases it will fail again. For a moderate user, such as someone who browses the Internet and other non-graphics intensive workloads, it may well be the ‘repair’ lasts for a few months. However, if you are performing video editing (i.e. something which uses the GPU heavily for processing) or gaming etc this chip will fail again very quickly. The chip is dying.

The only way laptop can be fixed in right way is by replacing the GPU chip with either a new chip (if available) or a known good working one from a donor board. This is where reballing is valid – when replacing the chip.

Prevention is better than Cure

Instead of being in such a state where one has to change its laptop just because of graphics chip failure it is always better to avoid this. Here are some early measures that one can take to avoid being in such a state:

Do not use the laptop by placing on a cushioned surface where its vents gets blocked and flow of air is blocked.
If one has to use the laptop on a cushioned surface there are some laptop surfaces and external fans available where the laptops can be placed.
The laptop starts giving some early signs with issues with its heat sink or ventilation units. Always check for these signs If there are some issues with the CPU fan it is better to get it fixed or replaced on early stages. However ther are some external fans available but those can not fill up the space of an internal heat sink fan.
After 3 or 4 years it is better to clean up your laptop. If one knows to assemble or dissemble the laptop it can be done at home or it can be taken to some technician who can disassemble it and clean it up for the accumulated dust particles and lint accumulated around vents, heat sink unit and chips \.

If you have been using the laptop or mobile screen before sleeping it might be effecting your sleeping pattern

2017-05-26T08:40:00.000+05:30

If you are one of the people who regularly use laptops/pc or mobile phones just before going to bed and then find it difficult to fall asleep after that then your laptop or mobile screen could be a reason for that. There have been studies conduct across the world to analysis the effect of light emitted from electronic device screen on sleeping pattern and these have provided surprising outcomes.

In 2012, the Lighting Research Center (LRC),Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy, NY published a study showing that 2-hour exposure to light from self-luminous devices can suppress melatonin by about 23%. Stimulating the human circadian system to this level may delay sleep in those using the devices prior to bedtime.

LRC conducted a follow-up study published in 2015, showing that adolescents are more sensitive than adults to light from self-luminous devices. Results from the 2015 study show that 1-hour exposure to light from self-luminous devices suppressed melatonin by approximately 23% and 2-hour exposure suppressed melatonin by approximately 38% in adolescents.

Melatonin is a natural hormone made by your body's pineal (pih-knee-uhl) gland. This is a pea-sized gland located just above the middle of the brain. During the day the pineal is inactive. When the sun goes down and darkness occurs, the pineal is "turned on" by the SCN and begins to actively produce melatonin, which is released into the blood. Usually, this occurs around 9 pm. As a result, melatonin levels in the blood rise sharply and you begin to feel less alert. Sleep becomes more inviting. Melatonin levels in the blood stay elevated for about 12 hours - all through the night - before the light of a new day when they fall back to low daytime levels by about 9 am. Daytime levels of melatonin are barely detectable.

Another study conducted by researchers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) provided the similar results.

“We found the body’s natural circadian rhythms were interrupted by the short-wavelength enriched light, otherwise known as blue light, from these electronic devices,” said Anne-Marie Chang, PhD, corresponding author, and associate neuroscientist in BWH’s Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders. “Participants reading an LE-eBook took longer to fall asleep and had reduced evening sleepiness, reduced melatonin secretion, later timing of their circadian clock and reduced next-morning alertness than when reading a printed book.”

So it is better to avoid using the laptop and mobile screens 1 or 2 hours before going to bed. But there are some scenarios or circumstances when we have to use these devices and their use before sleep cannot be avoided. In that case there are some utilities available for both desktop/laptop and mobiles which can reduce the blue light emitting from the screens and reduce their effect on Melatonin in body.

For desktop/laptops their is a free desktop utility f.lux. It makes the color and brightness of computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day. When the sun sets, it makes your computer look like your indoor lights. In the morning, it makes things look like sunlight again.

This utility is available for almost all the widely used desktop and mobile platforms e.g. Windows, Linux, Mac, iOS and Android. However for android it works only on rooted devices. But there are many other alternative apps available for it on Play Store. In addition to that many devices such as Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge comes with in built Blue Light Filter feature which servers the same purpose on the phone.

Digital Certificates and Public Key Infrastrucure

2017-05-22T20:20:00.001+05:30

The World Wide Web which originally was developed to share only research and academic applications data over the network have today evolved a lot and is overwhelmed with e-commerce,banking and financial and government operation application. Where the research and academic data over HTTP was not vulnerable to any security threat, the data that present time's application transfer to and fro is highly sensitive, confidential and vulnerable to security attacks. So HTTP was extended further to a secured version HTTPS to ensure the authentication and secure transmission between two ends. The HTTPS uses the Digital certificate and Public Key Infrastructure to transfer the dtaa securely. So what are these Digital Certificates and Public Key Infrastructure.

Digital Certificates

Digital certificates, similar to identification cards, are electronic credentials that are used to certify the online identities of individuals, organizations, and computers. Just like a identification cards, a digital certificate provides identifying information, is forgery resistant and can be verified because it was issued by an official, trusted agency. The certificate contains the name of the certificate holder, a serial number, expiration dates, a copy of the certificate holder's public key (used for encrypting messages and digital signatures) and the digital signature of the certificate-issuing authority (CA) so that a recipient can verify that the certificate is real.

To provide evidence that a certificate is genuine and valid, it is digitally signed by a root certificate belonging to a trusted certificate authority. Operating systems and browsers maintain lists of trusted CA root certificates so they can easily verify certificates that the CAs have issued and signed. When PKI is deployed internally, digital certificates can be self-signed. Most of digital certificates conform to the X.509 standard.

A Sample Digital Certificate

The digital certificates may be issued to both client and server to communicate over HTTPS but there is some difference in both of these.

Server Certificates

Server Certificates are basically used to identify a server. Characteristically this certificate is issued to the hostnames, which could be a host reader – for example Microsoft or any machine name. The server certificates serve the rationale of encrypting and decrypting the content. A web browser reaching the server, and validates that an SSL server certificate is authentic. That tells the user that their interaction with the web site has no eavesdroppers and that the web site is exactly who it claims to be.

Client Certificates

Client certificates as the name implies are clearly used to identify a client to a respective user, which means authenticating the client to the server. Some web applications ask the client to prove their identity and authentication to communicate with the server. In that case client need to provide their Client Certificate to the Server. The client certificate is not at all used for data encryption or decryption because it is for user’s identity.

Both SSL certificate (server) and client certificate encompass the “Issued to” section. Here, for SSL certificate the “Issued to” section’s value will be the hostname for which it has to be issued and for the client certificate, it will be the user identity or the user name.

Public Key Infrastructure

A public key infrastructure (PKI) supports the distribution and identification of public encryption keys, enabling users and computers to both securely exchange data over networks such as the Internet and verify the identity of the other party.

Without PKI, sensitive information can still be encrypted (ensuring confidentiality) and exchanged, but there would be no assurance of the identity (authentication) of the other party. Any form of sensitive data exchanged over the Internet is reliant on PKI for security.

A typical PKI consists of hardware, software, policies and standards to manage the creation, administration, distribution and revocation of keys and digital certificates. Digital certificates are at the heart of PKI as they affirm the identity of the certificate subject and bind that identity to the public key contained in the certificate.

A typical PKI includes the following key elements:

A trusted party, called a certificate authority (CA), acts as the root of trust and provides services that authenticate the identity of individuals, computers and other entities
A registration authority, often called a subordinate CA, certified by a root CA to issue certificates for specific uses permitted by the root
A certificate database, which stores certificate requests and issues and revokes certificates
A certificate store, which resides on a local computer as a place to store issued certificates and private keys

A CA issues digital certificates to entities and individuals after verifying their identity. It signs these certificates using its private key; its public key is made available to all interested parties in a self-signed CA certificate. CAs use this trusted root certificate to create a "chain of trust" -- many root certificates are embedded in Web browsers so they have built-in trust of those CAs. Web servers, email clients, smartphones and many other types of hardware and software also support PKI and contain trusted root certificates from the major CAs.

Along with an entity’s or individual’s public key, digital certificates contain information about the algorithm used to create the signature, the person or entity identified, the digital signature of the CA that verified the subject data and issued the certificate, the purpose of the public key encryption, signature and certificate signing, as well as a date range during which the certificate can be considered valid.

So this is how the certificates the PKI helps in verification of certificates exchanged between client and server. Now when we know what are the Digital Certificates and how those are verified with PKI lets take a look at the SSL Handshake that takes place before the client and server startsto transfer the actual data to each other over a HTTPS/SSL session.

SSL Handshake

An SSL connection is always initiated by the client. At the beginning of an SSL session, an SSL handshake is performed. This handshake produces the cryptographic parameters of the session.

The client sends a client "hello" message that lists the cryptographic capabilities of the client (sorted in client preference order), such as the version of SSL, the cipher suites supported by the client, and the data compression methods supported by the client. The message also contains a 28-byte random number.

The server responds with a server "hello" message that contains the cryptographic method (cipher suite) and the data compression method selected by the server, the session ID, and another random number.

Note: The client and the server must support at least one common cipher suite, or else the handshake fails. The server generally chooses the strongest common cipher suite.

The server sends its digital certificate. (The server uses X.509 V3 digital certificates with SSL.)

If the server uses SSL V3, and if the server application (for example, the Web server) requires a digital certificate for client authentication, the server sends a "digital certificate request" message. In the "digital certificate request" message, the server sends a list of the types of digital certificates supported and the distinguished names of acceptable certificate authorities.

The server sends a server "hello done" message and waits for a client response.

Upon receipt of the server "hello done" message, the client (the Web browser) verifies the validity of the server's digital certificate and checks that the server's "hello" parameters are acceptable.

If the server digital certificate is self signed and cannot be verified by any CA the Browser display the message to the User and asks for how to proceed. Usually it provides an option to add this address in exceptions list to verify certificates if user trusts the server.

If the server requested a client digital certificate, the client sends a digital certificate, or if no suitable digital certificate is available, the client sends a "no digital certificate" alert. This alert is only a warning, but the server application can fail the session if client authentication is mandatory.

The client sends a "client key exchange" message. This message contains the pre-master secret, a 46-byte random number used in the generation of the symmetric encryption keys and the message authentication code (MAC) keys, encrypted with the public key of the server. If the client sent a digital certificate to the server, the client sends a "digital certificate verify" message signed with the client's private key. By verifying the signature of this message, the server can explicitly verify the ownership of the client digital certificate.

Note:An additional process to verify the server digital certificate is not necessary. If the server does not have the private key that belongs to the digital certificate, it cannot decrypt the pre-master secret and create the correct keys for the symmetric encryption algorithm, and the handshake fails.

The client uses a series of cryptographic operations to convert the pre-master secret into a master secret, from which all key material required for encryption and message authentication is derived. Then the client sends a "change cipher spec" message to make the server switch to the newly negotiated cipher suite. The next message sent by the client (the "finished" message) is the first message encrypted with this cipher method and keys.

The server responds with a "change cipher spec" and a "finished" message of its own.

The SSL handshake ends, and encrypted application data can be sent.

Secure Sockets Layer V3 can use server digital certificates as well as client digital certificates. As previously explained, server digital certificates are mandatory for an SSL session, while client digital certificates are optional, depending on client authentication requirements.

The public key infrastructure (PKI) used by SSL allows for any number of root certificate authorities. An organization or end user must decide which CAs it will accept as being trusted. To be able to verify the server digital certificates, the client must have possession of the root CA digital certificates used by servers.

Difference between HTTP and HTTPS.

2017-05-21T22:37:00.000+05:30

The internet we widely use in these days, works on two major protocols HTTP and HTTPS. But what are those and what is the basic difference between those two.

A protocol is a set of rule to carry out operations between two different parties. In information technology, a protocol is the special set of rules that end points in a telecommunication connection use when they communicate. Protocols specify interactions between the communicating entities. Protocols exist at several levels in a telecommunication connection. For example, there are protocols for the data interchange at the hardware device level and protocols for data interchange at the application program level. HTTP and HTTPS are protocols for data interchange at the application level that specify how the data would be received and sent from the application end.

HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol)

The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is an application protocol for distributed, collaborative, and hypermedia information systems.HTTP is the foundation of data communication for the World Wide Web. The Web Pages and Web Sites we browse through Web Browsers are created using HTML(Hyper text media language) and provide the structure to those web pages. HTTP is the protocol to exchange or transfer hypertext between two ends i.e. the client and the server applications. The client application is usually the Web browser and the server applications are Web Servers or Application Servers hosting the web pages or web applications. This protocol defines how messages are formatted and transmitted, and what actions Web servers and browsers should take in response to various commands.

For example, when you enter a URL in your browser, this actually sends an HTTP command to the Web server directing it to fetch and transmit the requested Web page. Web Server tries to find the requested page and if it finds the requested page and sends it back as a response along with a standard success code decided and defined by the HTTP protocol. If the server cannot find the page or there is some error on the server it sends the standard error codes like 404 (resource not found) or 500 (Server Error) defined in protocol as a response. The browser gets response and checks the status and gets to know how to proceed with displaying the response according the status code. If it is success then browser can render the response sent by server. If it is an error code then it sees if the server has sent any custom error page and renders it otherwise dispays the default error message on browser.

In such a way. the HTTP defines the codes to communicate, data whcih can be carried in request and response etc. and helps establishing a communication between Browser and Server applications.

Development of HTTP was initiated by Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of World Wide Web, at CERN in 1989. At the time of inception of WWW, it was intended for sharing the research and academic information over the computer networks as a interconnected Web of Hypertext pages. As the time passed by, the WWW evolved to other applications like e-commerce and industrial application. Hence the information being shared was not limited to research and academic information. The banking, financial and government organization's information also came to circulation on the network as they made it available for easy access over the WWW. This raised the concerns over the security of sensitive and confidential information being transferred over the network. Because the information that transfers between two systems on WWW over HTTP does not travel through a dedicated link between two systems. It travels through and passes through many intermediates nodes, routers,hubs and gateways and anyone could eavesdrop and impersonate itself as a receiver when the information was being passed between these system and could get access to this sensitive and confidential information. Thus an another version of protocol was required that could be used to transfer this sensitive and confidential information on WWW in a secured way. This lead to development of HTTPS.

HTTPS(HTTP over Transport Layer Security)

HTTPS is the secure version of HTTP. HTTPS consists of communication over Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) within a connection encrypted by Transport Layer Security, or its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer. The main motivation for HTTPS is authentication of the visited website and protection of the privacy and integrity of the exchanged data. HTTPS provides authentication of the website and associated web server with which one is communicating, which protects against man-in-the-middle attacks. Additionally, it provides bidirectional encryption of communications between a client and server, which protects against eavesdropping and tampering with or forging the contents of the communication.

In practice, this provides a reasonable guarantee that one is communicating with precisely the website that one intended to communicate with (as opposed to an impostor), as well as ensuring that the contents of communications between the user and site cannot be read or forged by any third party. This protocol uses the DIgital Certificates and Public key Infrastructure to verify the identity of sender and receiver and encrypting the data betwenn two ends.

HTTPS connections are primarily used for payment transactions on the World Wide Web, e-mail and for sensitive transactions in corporate information systems. In present times almost every website which collects some data from users have developed their websites to communicate over HTTPS. Whenever a user communicates with a website over HTTPS the browser displays a Lock icon and HTTPS or Secure Text in address bar. The URL for such websites also starts with HTTPS.

Is it always safe to communicate over the HTTPS?

Even if HTTPS provides the authentication of the website and encryption of communications between a client and server, but it does not means it is always safe to communicate over HTTPS. The HTTPS only guarantees the secure transmission between two ends and authenticates that the data is only transferred to the authorized end it does not guarantee the validity od sender or receiver. It is always upto the user's discretion to verify that if he has been communication or transacting with a valid or legit party. As it is also possible that any Phishing site may also communicate over HTTPS. So it is always advisable to check and verify the address in the website and adhere to the phishing attack warnings given by browsers and Anti- Viruses.

Encryption: Symmetric and Asymmetric algorithms

2017-05-21T20:35:00.002+05:30

In present days, individuals and incorporation are creating massive amount of digital data in every fraction of time. As the quantity of this data is increased threats to unauthorized access to its has also been rose up. To cope up with the unauthorized access to data one of the best technique used in present time is encryption.

What is encryption ?

Encryption is a technique used to convert the contents of plain data/information to be saved or transferred to a cipher text with the help of an algorithm in association to an encryption key. This encryption key is shared with the people who require access to the data. The person who have that key can convert that cipher text back to original text using that key with the help of the reverse algorithm. Converting the cipher text back to original text is called decryption.

How encryption is different from password security?

Using a key to access the data secured by encryption technique seems similar to securing the data with the password but under the skin both vary a lot in their purpose and technique. The password security is usually the first line of defense to protect the data from unauthorized access. But the password security can never be considered full proof. In that case encryption is fallback technique and can also be the only line of defense in absence of any password security.if somebody get access to the stored data by somehow bypassing the password security or eavesdrop the unsecured data being communicated through a channel. In that case even if someone gets the access to the data and if it is encrypted it would make no sense to that person unless he gets the key to decrypt it.

Manipulation Techniques used in Encryption

All conventional encryption algorithms are based on two kinds of manipulation of the data: Substitution and Permutation.

Substitution: Each element of the plaintext is mapped into another element using in association with a key. For example, the letters in word apple are mapped to its 3rd next letter ending up with the cipher word crrng. So the key here can be considered as 2. The encrypt function of algorithm should add 2 to each letter of plain text to produce a cipher key. While the decryption function should reduce 2 from each letter in cipher text in order to reverse it obtain to plain text.

Permutation: The elements in the plaintext are rearranged. Permutation is also called transposition. For example, every pair of letters in word apple are swapped withto its 3rd next letter ending up with the cipher word palpe. So the key here is swapping each pair of letters in the world. So the key here can be considered as 2. The encrypt function of algorithm should swapping each pair of letters in plain text to produce a cipher key. While the decryption function should do the reverse in cipher text in order to reverse it to obtain plain text from it.

The examples given here are just the basic one. In actual encryption algorithms keys can involve a number, a word, or just a string of random letters which are 64 bit,128 bit, 256 bit long or now even 512 bit and 1024 bit which makes it almost impossible to guess.

Symmetric and Asymmetric Algorithms

Apart from the manipulation technique the encryption techniques are best classified on the basis of key(s) used for encryption and decryption of data.

Symmetric and Asymmetric

Symmetric Encryption

Symmetric Key Encryption algorithms use the same key to encrypt and decrypt the information. The person who wants to send the information or store the information in a secret way encrypts it using a secret key which he shares with only to receiver or to whom he want to provide access to that information in case of stored information.

Image Source

The advantage of this technique is that generating the keys for encrypting the information is fairly simple and the algorithms are very inexpensive and easily available.

The drawback of this technique is that the if some unauthorized person gets access to shares symmetric key he can decrypt the information and get access to that. Because of this drawback these algorithms are not much suitable for transferring data on a network unless the symmetric key is also secured with some other technique. However it is sufficient to use these algorithm to store the information securely in encrypted form for personal use only when there is no need to share the key with other people.

The common algorithms which use the symmetric encryption key technique are AES, DES and Blowfish etc.

Asymmetric Encryption

Asymmetric Encryption technique algorithms also called Public Key Encryption algorithms use separate keys for encryption and decryption. The receiver who wants to receive information generate two keys using asymmetric algorithms: Public Key and Private Key. The Public key is shared with the senders from whom the receive wants to receieve the information. The senders encrypts the information with the public key and sends it to receiver. The receiver uses its private key to decrypt the information.

Image Source

The advantage of this encryption technique is that only the receiver know the private key to decrypt the information. The Public key can only be used to encrypt the information but can not be used to decrypt it. So the people who have the Public key to encrypt and send the information cannot decrypt the information sent by other. Only receiver can decrypt it with its private key.

The Asymmetric Encryption algorithms are widely used to send the data over HHTPS and FTPS secure protocol using the Digital Certificates and Public Key Infrastructure.

The most commonly used Assyetric encryption techniques are RSA, DSS and ECDSA.

If you are curious about how two different number can be encrypt and decrypt the same information.You can read an article on how to generate the keys here.

Difference between a Web Server,Web Container and Application Server in context of Java Web application.

2017-05-21T03:18:00.003+05:30

The people who work in the development of Java Web Application may have usually come across the terms Web Server, Web Container and Application Server. On the surface all three terms sounds and seems similar. But there is a difference between all three terms.

Lets start with the term Server. Whenever we view an architecture diagram for an application consisting of client-server in a book or in any document, there the server is illustrated as a box, which accepts the requests from the client, processes it and sends the response back to the client. So what goes into that box regarded as server. Is it a just piece of separate hardware or a hardware and software or just a software? Well to be precise in software development environments the server is actually a software.

This software can run on the OS and hardware where the client itself is located (which usually happen while developing the application on local system with server installed on the same machine) or it can even reside on a separate high end processing capability hardware consisting of multiple CPUs with even 100 gigs of RAM and installed on a OS designed for hosting requirements (as in case of actual websites deployed on these servers for hosting the client over network). Without this piece of software the entire hardware is just like a Box and this is what the the hardware in Server Unit left after excluding the server application is called.

So in describing the difference between the terms Web Server, Web Container and Application Server our focus will be on software only.

Web Server is a software/application responsible for receiving HTTP/HTTPS requests from the clients over a network. Web Servers were originally developed to handle requests for the resources such as HTML pages,Javascript,CSS and images. The entire responsibility of a web server is to listen to the HTTP requests and then fetch the resource in the URL requested by the client and return that resource to client. In other words, a web server can serve requests for the static resources on its own and is capable to server the website with static resources and pages only. The deployment of these static application is as easy as just placing the directory with static resource in the root folder of the server's context directory. Apache and Sun One (iPlanet) are the example of such web servers.

But as the time and internet had evolved and there was a need of web applications dynamic pages and business logic also got involved in web applications, there was also need of development of software or components that can handle requests for dynamic pages by processing the code written in server side scripting languages like ASP, PHP or JSP and servlets. To process the pages written in ASP or PHP (server side scripts embedded in web pages) some plugins were developed which could be integrated with existing web servers and make them capable to handle the requests for the dynamic pages and pass it further to these plugins for generation of dynamic pages, and then return the generated pages.

For the JSP and Servlet (which are Java way of creating dynamic web pages) some new components were developed which are called Web Containers or Servlet Containers These containers provide the api for implementation of HTTPServlet classes and handle the requests for JSP and servlet. These container manages the life-cycle of JSP and Servlets and generate the dynamic pages. The Tomcat, Jetty and Wildfly are example of such containers. Usually these container are delivered as a integrated package of Web Server and Web Container such as Apache Tomcat.

Even if the Web Container were efficient enough to host and handle the request for application with dynamic web pages generated by processing some business logic but those were not much scale-able as per the requirement of Enterprise applications. The Java further came up with the concept of Enterprise JavaBeans which provided a much scale-able and distributed MVC(Model View Controller) approach to develop the business component having the main business logic of application modules. The servers and containers were further evolved to hosts these business components in a separate component called EJB Container or simply Bean Container and this evolved form is called the Application Servers. Weblogic and JBoss are example of such Application server. In these days the Application servers have even evolved further to handle other Java EE Features like Web Services, JMS and persistence.

So Application Server can be considered a super-set which consists of a Web Container and a Web Container further can be considered as super-set which contains the Web Server. This can be depicted as the following diagram:

Image Source: Head First Jsp and Servlets

Nowadays, most of the application servers comes as a single unit with virtually integrated web container and EJB container as depicted in the diagram. It is very rare that a standalone EJB container can be find. But Web Containers like Apache Tomcat and Web server like Apache and iPlanet are still available and still in use.

The Web Container like Apache Tomcat are quite efficient to host small to medium non EJB Web application applications developed in JSP and Servlet or purely other Java Web Frameworks only.

The Web Servers like Apache and iPlanet are still in use to act as a proxy web server to web applications to enforce DNS and HTTPS configurations and some other HTTP request rules like disabling the cache, filtering the HTML request and response data for avoiding cross scripting and cross frame attacks etc so that all these settings can be decoupled from actual application code and application server with multiple clusters or managed servers.

How did Internet Explorer become a victim of joke for being slow?

2017-05-13T22:58:00.002+05:30

We all use to have a good laugh at the memes like this trolling the Internet Explorer being slower than other contemporary browsers.

Image Source

But how does internet explorer became victim of this joke?

Well, this goes back to the days with the first release of Windows 7, the most popular edition of Windows used till the date. Earlier releases of Windows 7 used to come with a Internet Explorer version 8.

Like all the web browsers, Internet Explorer too has a rendering Engine and a JavaScript Engine. The web pages that the web browsers loads does nor resides on the server as those are displayed. But actually are in different pieces consisting of HTML, CSS and JavaScript. These web pages static or dynamic (Dynamic web pages are dynamic until those are processed on server, once those are processed, the generated HTML is sent from the server) are received by browsers and all the different pieces of HTML, CSS and JavaScript are put together by browser to create and display a page. The layout and rendering engine processes the HTML & CSS (for layout and styles) and the JavaScript engine processes the JavaScript (for client side behavior of elements) which needs to be transferred to machine language for processing and client side.

Each browser uses the rendering and JavaScript engine they have developed in-house or a fork of any open source engines. In the Internet Explorer v8 and its earlier versions Microsoft was using their JScript JavaScript Engine. Unlike other JavaScript Engines used by other browser of its time (V8 by chrome, SpiderMonkey by Firefox) which were a JavaScript compiler and had the ability to convert entire JavaScript code in few passes the JScript was an interpreter which used to convert the Javascriipt code line by line. So Internecine Explore would take comparatively larger amount of time to load the JavaScript.

But that was the time when there was a sudden rise in development and popularity websites like Facebook which have a huge amount of code written in JavaScript or JavaScript frameworks like jquery etc to increase the performance. The poor Internet Explorer with a JavaScript interpreter was damn slow on these sites whereas other browsers like Chrome and Firefox. So people started to turn to these alternative browsers.

It took 2 years for Microsoft to release a better version of IE, Internet Explorer 9 in March 2011 which had a new JavaScript Engine Chakra which was a Javascript compiler and could compete with other browsers in processing speed of JavaScript. Microsoft even shared this improvement in its Developer IEBlog as:

"IE8, like other versions of IE before it, included a script interpreter for running JavaScript. Pure interpreters are usually adequate for traditional web pages with limited amounts of script, and we did a lot of work to improve performance of these sites in Internet Explorer 8, both in script as well as across the browser.

With IE9, we decided that we needed a better approach to building a script engine for the present and future demands of the Web. Clearly, the new engine had to be able to run traditional pages well. But the engine also needed to perform well on Web applications of today and the HTML5 application of tomorrow, as well as keep up with changes in the Web and in the devices used to browse it."

But two years were long enough for people to move to other browsers. There is also a meme for the only job left for the IE exlorer during this time:

Image Source

So it was like people moved on to other browsers and never came back to IE or came back when it was the only option to download the other browser.

The reason behind IE not being popular again among users even after that upgrade was not automatically upgrading the existing ones and not keeping up to support required for latest trends in market or web like HTML5, CSS3 etc.

Chrome on the other hand used to provide invisible updates to all the users. It was since Google started providing chrome as a service rather than product and it became like install and forget to maintain it. Support for all the latest layout and rendering pieces like HTML5,CSS3 was being automatically provided to users.

In addition to that a wide array of easy to install extensions and application in chrome, plugins in Firefox were always an additional delight for the users which they did not wanted to leave for IE. And in all that IE became a victim for the memes and trolls.

How to use multiple Whatsapp accounts on a single android phone.

2017-05-11T09:24:00.001+05:30

Nowadays most of the cellphones comes with a dual sim slot allowing users two use two numbers at the same time on a single phone. Using the two numbers sometimes becomes necessity for some people like who lives away from there hometown in a different state where they have to get a new number for local use but also keep using their native number when they visit their hometown once in a month. In the same way some people uses one number as their business number and other as their personal number.

As Whatsapp has almost replace the native text Messaging services and people prefer to use Whatsapp when they want to communicate over text, So if you are using both of your numbers actively, at some point It also becomes necessary to be visible and present on Whatsapp on both of the numbers. But it is only possible to use a single number account on Whatsapp app on a mobile. So to use whatsapp on both numbers one has to turn to either using two mobiles or some workaround of installing another app like OGWhatsapp, a non official whatsapp variant, which uses which will allow using another whatsapp account. But installing and configuring Whatsapp and OGwhatsapp is quite a task and a minor mistake can lead to lose all of backup of existing Whatsapp.

Well the Mi and Redmi phones have a inbuilt feature called dual apps in from their MIUI 8 release which allows to create a clone of some of the apps like Whatsapp, Facebook, Messanger with just a one click and use an entirely different account. So you can use two different number on a single android phone without need to install on configure any non official app on your mobile. And the best thing is the app Parallel Space the Redmi and Mi phones uses behind the scenes is also available on other android phones. So anyone can install and use two different accounts on Whatsapp, Facebook and Messenger etc by creating a clone of these apps by following these steps:

1) Install the Parallel Space app from Play Store.

2. Open the application and click on Start.

3. Select the application you want to clone and use multiple accounts for. For example, Whatsapp.

It will take some seconds to clone the app.

4. Once the app is cloned, create a shortcut of it from the app by dragging the icon to create shortcut option. Now you can see two Whatsapp icons on your screen.

Voila, Now you have two different whasapp apps with just 3 clicks. One with your existing whatsapp account, another one is clone of the existing Whatsapp, named as Whatsapp+, created by Parallel Space in a virtual space on internal storage of your device. You can configure another account on Whatsapp+ and enjoy two whatsapp accounts on a single device together.

Why does website send a link in the mail to reset the password on forgot password option?

2017-05-02T07:54:00.001+05:30

Have you ever wondered why does most of the websites/web applications ask you to reset your password by sending you a link in the mail instead of sending your existing password in the mail?

Well, the very simple and straight answer to this question is because they do not have one. Most of the web applications which adhere to best security practices never store login passwords of their users anywhere to avoid any unauthorized access to the passwords.

But, This fact brings up another question that if the web applications do not store the passwords anywhere then how does they authenticate the users by asking them to enter the username and a "password"?

Actually, these web applications use a technique called Hashing to create a "digest" from the password and instead of storing bare passwords in their database they store the "digest" created from the password. When a user makes an login attempt the application takes the password, runs it through the same Hashing algorithm to obtain and digest and compares the computed digest with one stored in database for the entered user.

How hashing is Different From Encryption ?

On the surface hashing might seem very much similar to encryption, another widely used security technique for used for information security, in which using certain encryption algorithms actual information in plain text is converted to secret text called cipher text for keeping it secure. But both Hashing and Encryption are entirely different.

Encryption is a two way technique where the plain information is encrypted to a cipher text to keep it secure from unauthorized access. But if some unauthorized hacker/eavesdropper gets the decryption key and decryption function of the algorithm used to encrypt the information, the information can be converted back to plain text.

Hashing on the other hand is one way technique where information is converted to a cipher/secret text called digest using hashing algorithms so that it can never be converted back to its original form. Even if some intruder/eavesdropper gets access to digest created from original text/information and even to the Hashing algorithm used to created that digest he will never be able to convert it back to original text.

So there is no way to recreate the original password from the digest even if some authorized person gets access to the digest created from the password.

Some popular hashing algorithm used to create digest from plain Text are MD5, SHA-0, SHA-1, SHA-2 etc.

The similar methodology is used to store other sensitive user information such as Credit Card Information, Bank accounts etc.

Some applications that uses the security questions as an option to reset the password in case you "Forgot password". The answers to these security questions are also saved in database only after creating a digest from those after hashing.

How Digests are made more Stronger?

Although converting the passwords to digests and saving those in database instead of original password make them secure to unauthorized access. But there are some further improvements done by these web applications to make them more stronger.

While most of the websites use standard hashing algorithms. If any intruder/hacker somehow get access to the digest created from password and has access to those standard algorithms he can try generating and matching the digest for the password and hence can obtain that password by hit and trial method called Brute Force attack. To address this issue websites asked the user to make password larger in length and use a combination of Capital letters, small letters, special characters and digits. Using a mix of all these characters and larger in length increase the permutations and combinations for arrangement of these characters and makes the Brute Force attack slow. For Example a password with 12 characters having a Capital,small,special character and digits or say all the possible standard ASCII value will have 94^12 different possibilities, or 4759203148142533764751364 combination which a regular computer may take thousands years to crack.

But using standard hashing algorithms brings one more issues. The digest created from a particular word using standard hashing algorithm is unique. So instead of trying to reverse a digest to a password attackers maintain Rainbow Tables which contains pregenerated digests of possible dictionary words. For example MD5 digest/hash generated from string "password" would always be 48cccca3bab2ad18832233ee8dff1b0b. So if any user uses the string/word "password" as his/her password and attacker gets access to its digest he can easily obtain password from it using by looking up into the Rainbow Tables. To avoid this web application uses salt. Salt is just a very large random number generated in application while obtaining the digest from a password for the first time for a user and is concatenated with the password entered by user. The salt is then saved into the database along with the digest. Every time authentication is done and digest need to be created from the entered password this salt is fetched from the database, concatenated again with entered password and digest is calculated. If the digest matches with the one saved in the database, login successes otherwise it result sin failure. So if any attacker tries to lookup the digest in the Rainbow tables he will never get a match because now the digest is actually created from the password and a very large random number salt. So use of salt while creating a digest makes them secure from these rainbow tables.

How to save a web page as a pdf from chrome on Redmi Note 3 and other Mi phones

2017-04-23T16:47:00.002+05:30

Google chrome is browser currently regarded as best web browser among all the curremt browser due to its simpicilty, speed, extensions available and portability. It is currently available across all the desktop and mobile operating systems with almost similer set of features and functionalities. One such feature that it provides over other browsers to allow a web page or save any content as a pdf with its print feature. While finding the option to print a webpage or any other content is a bit tricky, Redmi and Mi phones take it a bit further requiring an addition application to be set to enable to save those as pdf.

The following are the steps to find the print feature in chrome to save a web page or any other content in pdf on Redmi Note 3 and Mi phones:

1) Go to options menu in chrome and click on Share:

2) Click on Print from the print icon from the options of applications to share with:

3) A Print Preview page will be displayed from where you can choose the page numbwe or no. of pages to print. Then you can click on PDF icon. This should give you an option to browse for the location to save the file but in Redmi Note 3 and some other Mi phones the Document Applications which this feature use to save file as pdf is disabled by default and you get an toast message Turn on Documents in Settings> Installed apps first. You have to enable this application explicitly.

4) So If you get this toast message in minimize this app and go to Settings> Installed apps

5) Here you get list of all the apps installed onto your phone. you need to search the Documents app, in the list displayed. Sometime it takes a moment to load all the applications if there are many apps installed on phone. so wait until the complete list is loaded.

6) Now click on the Documents app and click on the option to enable the app on the bottom.

7) Now switch back to minimized Print Preview or Repeat steps 1 to 3 on chrome and click on Save PDF.

8) Click on PDF icon after selecting the copies or paper size. Now this should give an option to Browse the Location to save the File.

9) After browsing to the location where you want to save the file. Click on Save in the bottom.

10) The page will be saved on the location you selected in Step 9. You can open in in Adobe Reader or any other PDF Viewer.

Note: This Documents App gets disabled automatically after some specific time or every time you reboot the phone. So you have to Enable it every time you get the mentioned Toast in Step 3.

Resolving Window Store Error :Your PC isn't connected to the internet.To use the store, connect to the internet and then try again.

2013-07-18T17:22:00.001+05:30

Many people encounter with this Window Store error in Windows 8 on PC or Notebook even though they are connected to the internet and can access the internet from their browser and other apps.

Not only Windows Store but other Metro apps also displays internet connectivity error.

However i could not find any permanent solution to this solution. Many Forums advise to reinstall or restore the windows to resolve this error. But without having any backup it was not possible to restore or reinstall my windows. So Googling around the internet i found a Temporary solution that really worked for me. That was an network Monitoring and web debugging application Fiddler2.

You Can Download Fiddler4 from here. Remember you download the build version for .net 4 .

After downloading and installing fiddler start Fiddler2. You will get this Screen.

Now click on Win8 Config.You Will get This Screen.

This Window Displays the list of all metro apps.Click on Exempt All And then Save Change.

Now you Can connect to internet from your metro apps.

Each Time you want to connect to internet from your metro apps you would have to start fiddler first.

And also whenever you install a new metro app you'll have to exempt it from blocking using procedure described above.

Viewing Contents Written in Regional languages like Punjabi,Hindi,Bangla,Kannada in Opera Mini

2013-01-06T20:45:00.000+05:30

Most of the Older Cell Phones like Nokia S60 3rd edition and 5th Edition or even some older version of android too do not support Indian regional languages like Hindi,Punjabi,Kannada etc.In that case while surfing over the internet from phone you cannot see or read the text written in these regional languages. Instead of the text written in regional language you just see the small boxes. So here is a solution by which you can read the text written in regional languages over web pages on your phone even your phone does not support that regional language. The most popular and most commonly used mobile internet browser opera and opera mini provides the solution.All you just have to do are the following steps to perform on your phone:

Install opera or opera mini web browser on your phone according to your phone. By default even opera mini or opera too do not show the regional language text. It also shows boxes instead of regional language text written in regional language. You would have to perform some power user settings in order to view regional language text on your phone. Follow the next steps to perform these settings.
In the opera or opera mini web browser address bar write config:
This would open an power user setting page.
On the power user setting page scroll down to bottom of page. There you would found setting for "Use Bitmap fonts for complex script" which by default would be set to "No".
Change this setting to Yes.
Click on Save.

Now you can see and read the text written in regional languages.

How It Works:

Whenever opera mini loads the page after this settings it converts the font written in complex scripts to bitmap font which is displayed as an bitmap image on page.

Advantages and Disadvantages

However this settings enables you to read the text written in regional language it has certain disadvantages and limitations too.

As the written regional language text is shown as bitmap it takes longer time to load the page which contains regional language text.

And it is not possible to copy that text and reuse it by pasting somewhere else.

But remember Something Is Better Than Nothing.

How to Triple boot your PC or Notebook with Windows 7, Mac OS X Lion and Ubuntu 12.04

2012-07-30T20:43:00.000+05:30

The following post is shares the experience of Triple booting a PC or Notebook with Windows 7, Apple Mac OS X Lion 's hacked version iAtkos L2 and Ubuntu 12.04.

Prerequisites

a) The multiboot systems can only be installed over the Basic disks not over Dynamic disks. If you have dynamic disk you will have to convert it to basic which can only be done by reformatting all the disks and which would risk of losing your data.

b) You will need to create 3 different partitions of size 15-20 GB for each of these OSs. For windows and MAC OS Lion you need to create primary partition. Ubuntu can be installed on both either primary or logical partition.

1. Install Windows Prior to other Operating Systems ....

Whenever you want to make your system multi boot with Windows Operating Systems First of all you need to install Windows as the very first operating system because whenever you install windows it takes over control of MBR (Master Boot Record) and removes the boot settings of other operating systems.It only supports the multibooting with other Windows Operating Systems even those only in case if you install them in chronological order such as Windows 7 after the Windows XP. If you install windows XP after Windows 7 you are not able to boot into windows 7. This is because the Boot technique used in Windows 7 is different from that of used in Windows XP and Windows XP cannot recognize it if installed after windows 7.So whenever you want to install multiple OSs in your system with Windows install Windows first of all.

However Now a days all the PCs or Notebooks comes with Pre installed Windows. So you do not need to re-install it if you already have it on your system. It is the Most usually used OS and assuming that you already would have on your system and you know how to install it we move further to other Operating Systems.

2. Installing iAtkos L2 A Hacked version of Mac OS X Lion...

IAtkos L2 is a hacked version of the Mac OS X Lion which is developed to be installed on non Apple PC's and Notebooks as the Retail version of Mac OS X lion can not be directly installed on Non Apple PCs and Notebooks. You can read about it and the instructions how to install it in following post :

Installing-Mac-Os-x-Lion-on-Pc

Once you have installed IAtkos successfully the chemeleon bootloader will take control of the booting process. It will show the partitions on the startup and you can choose the partition you want to boot from.

3. Installing Ubuntu 12.04 ...

After you have installed MAC OS l\Lion the ubuntu can be installed normally. You can install iton either primary or logical partition .You can create a partition before starting the installation or at the time of installation. It is recommended to create a partition before starting an installation . You will need a partition either primary or logical of size 15-20 GB for ubuntu files installation and a partition of size of your wish (I choose only 1 GB) that the ubuntu will use as swap area.You can use some partition manager to partition your hard disk. I used EaseUS partition manger home addition which you can download from here. Now use this tool to re-size your partitions to make some extra room to create a 15-20 GB partition and a 1-2 GB partition. After creating some room select the unallocated space and create a primary or logical partition of 15-20 GB and format and another of 1-2 GB. You can let it remain unformatted.You can give it a label so that it is easy to identify it later.

Now to install Ubuntu you need to follow the following steps:

1. If you have not done so already, burn the installation image (of Ubuntu 12.04) you downloaded to a CD or transfer it to a USB stick, and boot the computer from it. When booted from the CD, you will be given the option to boot into a Live Desktop or start the installation without visiting the Live Desktop. It does not matter which option you choose,install Ubuntu is recommended.

2.When the installation gets started installer gets you to the step shown in the image below. The most important information here is the minimum disk space (4.4 GB) recommended for a successful installation of Ubuntu 12.04. That piece of information will help you determine how much disk space to allocate to the root partition.You can select the "Download update while installing " if you have an internet connection and want to install the updates while installation otherwise you can stay it remain unmarked.You can tick on "Install third party software" if you want to install the third party software.It is recommended to put tick on it.

3.Clicking Continue from the previous step will land you here. If, as in this example, you have Windows 7 installed on the target hard drive, you should see the same three options shown here. Because you will be creating partitions manually, the option you want to select is Something else.

4.That should bring you to the Advanced disk partitioning tool that helps you to partition your disk for Ubuntu and select the partitions for Ubuntu system and swap area.It is recommended that you partition your hard disk explicitly with some partition tool in Windows before starting the installation with some partition manager so that in this step you don't need to partition your disk and just select partitions for certain areas.

Now if you have already have created two free partitions one for system files (15-20GB) installation and one for the swap area.( 1-2 GB). Now select the partition you have created for sytem files place a tick on format and click on change and change its mount point to root or '/'.
After that select the other partition and click on change and change the mount point to swap.

5. Now the most important part is to select the device for boot loader installation. Do not select /dev/sda for boot installation if you want chameleon to be default boot loader.Otherwise the grub would take over the boot process.

You have to select the partition which you choose for root installation as a device for boot installation. This would install the grub (grand universal bootloader) on the root partition not at MBR. So the bootloader will remain chameleon and grub will start when u select the linux partition in the chameleon boot menu.

6.Next click on install now and the installation will start. You can set user name password,time zone etc as the installation is on the way.When the installation is complete you will have a triple boot PC or Notebook.

Installing Mac OS X Lion on PC

2012-06-15T18:50:00.000+05:30

Installing Mac OS X Lion on PC

Apple has always been known for its outstanding devices and especially for there OS they use in their devices. But as superior they have been they are as restricted too.The Mac OSs have been very fascinating but it is basically limited to MAC computers and notebooks (MACs and Macbooks). It was impossible to port it on other devices that are basically the normal(non Apple) PCs and notebooks.

But it was the case before 2006,when the apple started to use intel processors in their computers. Before it they were using their self manufactured processors. The use of intel processors opened the doors for the potability of Mac OSs. Many communities started their research to port Mac OS on normal PCs and today these communities have developed many distros (distributions) of Mac OS which can be installed on normal or non-Apple PC or notebooks. A computer built to run this type of Mac OS X is also known as a Hackintosh .

There are various Hackintosh distros available on the internet, each of them have their own qualities. Some of the popular distros are iAtkos, iDeneb, iPC etc.You can download one after googling around and checking for its compatibility with the pc or notebook you want to install on. Download the latest distro after reading its compatibility with hardware and feedback on various forums.

However, http://tonymacx86.com/ provides method and tools to install retail(those provided by Apple) versions of Mac. But these are vary huge in size and cannot be burned on a single layer dvd, so you need a dual layer dvd to burn it on and install and for that you will need a dual layer dvd writer and reader which does not come with normal PCs and Notebooks. Methods are also available there to install it from Pen Drive but that need a working Mac to make the Pen drive to install it (Why would you do it if You already have a Mac?). So it is useful when you are upgrading or you have a generous millionaire friend owning a Mac or Macbook and can lend you to install it on your Pc or Notebook to make your PC or Notebook a cloned brother of its Mac or Macbook.

The latest retail version of Mac OS X is Lion and its distros are also available. However you may not have a successful install in your very first attempt and you may have to switch to some other distros after failure. So please use the very latest distro after googling around and reading others feedback about it because the latest distros may have fixed compatibility issues.

The other issue you would have to face is drivers oh sorry "the kexts"(the thing like driver in windows is called kext in mac). Even you get success in installing your distros you would need kexts to make it fully functional like windows need drivers. However,distros like iAtkos comes with basic drivers which you can select from while installing and http://tonymacx86.com/ provides a software named Multibeast , a package containing kexts you can select according to your hardware after installation. But there may be the hardwares for which the kext may not be available then you would have to additionally search for them on the internet. And here its not enough the certain kexts have conflict with those kexts that come with the installation and you will have to find and delete them before you can install the compatible ones unless the Mac will cause Kernel Panic(just like blue screen crashes in windows) after booting up or at the time of booting.

So if you are a Apple geek and want to try and use a Mac on a PC or Netbook you can mess up with these stuffs or otherwise Windows 7 is not too bad.

I myself have installed Mac os X Lion IAtkos L2 on my Dell N4010 with intel core i3 first gen,1 GB ATI Redeon 5610 GPU and 3GBs of Ram. It works fine but i am still searching for the kexts for graphics card , Atheros Ethernet card, Intel wilink WiFi card and Bluetooth. So you if you want to try it here is my experience of successfully installing it which i gained after 10-15 unsuccessful attempts and changing 3 distros.

Here are the steps which you need to follow to install it on a PC or Notebook along Windows 7 :

Firstly check the compatibility of your hardware with the latest Hackintosh distro.If you have a core series cpu then it will be compatible.Then you should have at least 1 Gb of Ram and 15 GB of free space on your hard disk.
Then download the distro from the internet. You can download it from internet using some torrent client by searching the torrent over the internet.I had downloaded it from Pirate bay
The downloaded distro would be an DMG image.You can't burn it to DVD directly. You would need an application Transmac which you can download from Here. The software come with a 15 days trial,But you don't need to worry as you only have to use it once.Open the dmg image in transmac which will appear in right pane then right click on it and select burn to DVD. Sometimes the file may be extracted first to an ISO fi;e in that case after extraction is completed open the ISO image in transmac and then right click on it and select burn to DVD.
Now you need an extra free partition for installing Mac on it. If you have an empty hard disk and you want to dedicate entire hard disk to it then you don't have to worry about partitioning your hard disk. But if you have a single hard disk then you have to partition it. You can use some partiotion manager to partition your hard disk.I used EaseUS partition manger home addition which you can download from here. Now use this tool to resize your partitions to make some extra room to create a 15-20 GB partition.After creating some room select the unallocated space and create a primary partition and let it remain unformatted.You can give it a label so that it is easy to identify it later.
Now when you have a bootable DVD and a partition to install a Mac you can start with the installation on your PC or Notebook. First of all change the bios setting of sata to AHCI mode. Then insert the DVD and boot from it.If everything goes fine you will have a boot screen displaying your partitions or disks and DVD drive with iAtkos disk on it. It is advisable to not to directly boot from that screen . Instead of that press Tab Key and it will switch you to the command screen. Place the highlight bar on DVD drive and type -v (which is verbose mode). The verbose mode lets you see the progress of installation step by step and if any error occurs you can see it and search to fix it by just googling away.After typing -v press enter.The installation would start and you will see lines of text being displayed . Sometime it halts on a single line. Don't panic just wait for 10-15 minutes (if it clears not written error on the screen) . If it don't move further just see the last lines and search over the internet to fix it.
If every thing goes right you will be welcomed by welcome screen. Select your language and do not select continue yet.(Sometime the trackpad or keyboard won't work during the installation,in that case use a USB keybord or mouse and restart the installation) . A menu will apear on top of the screen. Select utilities from the menu and select disk utilities. Now select the partition you created to install mac os from right pane after expanding the disk icon.Now click on Edit and format the partition to Mac OS X Journeled file system. If you want to entire disk to install mac you can reformat the disk as a GPT disk for better results. But if you do have important data and other OSs installed on it, as in my case i had Windows 7 installed on MBR so i just formatted the partition.
Sometimes the formatting of partition fails if you have MBR disk type because the Mac OS may not get the write access to partitions. In that case you will have to use some other tool to format your partition in MAC OS X Journeled or hfs+ file system. I used Parted Magic live CD to format the partition. Just boot the PC or Notebook with Live CD and format the partition in hfs+ file system using Gparted disk utility . Then you can restart the installation of IAtkos and skip formatting the partition but you have to Enable Journaling for that drive in Disk Utility by selecting the drive and clicking on Enable Journaling Icon.
Now Click on Continue and select the partition or disk formated for installation but do not select insall Mac OS yet but click on Customize. You will be displayed with a menu with check boxes to choose drivers and components to select from with the installation as:

You can select the options for bootloader,bootloader options and pathches as shown in the image.But if you have an ATI graphics card do not select graphics enabler but select ATY_Init from VGA - ATI options. Do not select any of the driver because it can make an conflict with the apple drivers. However you can select the drivers for Hardware Sensors according to your hardware and drivers for PS/2 and laptop battery.For installation on Netbooks with Atom processor choose Atom kernel from custom kernel options.

Now after customizing the installation now select the ok and click on install. The installation will start and would take 20-30 minuter. When the installation is complete the system will be restarted.
If everything goes right your pc will be restarted with chameleon bootloader. Select the drive in which you installed the Mac. The mac will booted up. (If it does not boot up normally because a kernel panic and text in two or three language comes up written on screen reinstall Mac with some other options in customize menu according to your hardware ). Now create a new user in on Mac and set a user name password according to your need.
When the installation is completed successfully and your Mac boots up normally now you need to install kexts. You can download Multibeast from http://tonymacx86.com/ a package to install kexts for your Mac. Now can select the kext from this package according to your hardware.
To install the audio kext you need to install VoodooHDA v2.5.6 Package from the Multibeast and install.Sometime certain kexts cause kernel panic because the have a conflict with existing kexts in that case you have to remove it. As in my case the Voodoo v2.5.6 makes a conflict with AppleHDA.kext. So my Mac did not booted up normally and made a kernel panic making a high beep at boot up. So in such situations need the Macdrive application for windows to remove that conflicting kext. You can Download Macdrive from Here. This application lets you see the contents off the Mac partition in windows.Now after instaaling this app the Mac partition will look just as other drive in your windows.You can find about the conflicting kext on the internet and can delete it in windows using Macdrive. The kexts are located in the drive in which the Mac is installed in system\library\extra folder. In my case I deleted the AppleHDA.kext and MAC booted up normally with working sound. Hence you caninstall other kexts to.
You can find other kexts according to your hardware by searching over internet.You can use KextHelper to install individual kexts.

Unfortunately I could not find kexts for WIfi, Ethernet, Bluetooth and Graphics. But you can try your for yours hardware.For more help here are some of the websites providing help for hackintosh installation:

GOOD LUCK!