THIS IS MY eye-Blog

The record breaking Lego Christmas tree

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 14:52:12 PST

I am on my way to Derby and just saw this amazing Lego structure in the London st.Pancras train station.

Install and configure trac on Linux/Ubuntu 11.10

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 13:13:53 PST

In this blog post I am going to explain about how to install 'trac' on linux. 'trac' is a nice project management tool which is written in python, that can be used to track your projects. And it is open-source :D (Win)

I am using 'trac' with 'git' revision control system, for my project. In my next blog post I will be explain how to use 'trac' along with 'git', using the 'GitPlugin'

Ok, now if you follow the following instructions hopefully you will have a working 'trac' site.

Install 'trac'

Make sure you have the latest version of python installed, otherwise apt will install an older version of 'trac'

      sudo apt-get install python python-babel trac

Yes, apt may ask you to install few dependencies including apache2. So please install all of them.

'trac' uses SQLite as its default data store. So if you have not already got it installed. Then do the following

     sudo apt-get install sqlite3

It is possible to get 'trac' working with other database systems. If you are interested, click on the following URL.
http://trac.edgewall.org/

Upgrade python packages

There are two ways you can do this

With easy_install

 easy_install Babel

 easy_install Trac

or

With 'pip'

 pip install --upgrade Babel

 pip install --upgrade Trac

If you have not got pip installed, install pip as follows. Please skip this step if you were successfully able to do the previous step.

 sudo apt-get install python-pip

Now you have successfully installed all the software that you need to run 'trac'.

Configuration

Change the directory locations as desired.

Create a directory for 'trac'
Then change it's access permissions.

sudo mkdir -p /var/local/trac && chown www-data: /var/local/trac

Initialise the 'trac' environment

 sudo trac-admin /var/local/trac initenv

Now create the configuration file using your favourite text editor. I use emacs.

 sudo emacs /etc/apache2/sites-available/trac

Paste the following code in to it.

ServerName trac.local

SetHandler mod_python

PythonInterpreter main_interpreter

PythonHandler trac.web.modpython_frontend

PythonOption TracEnv /var/local/trac

PythonOption TracEnvParentDir /var/local/trac

PythonOption TracUriRoot /

PythonOption TracEnv /var/local/trac

# PythonOption TracEnvIndexTemplate /var/local/trac/templates/index-template.html

PythonOption TracLocale en_US.UTF8

PythonOption PYTHON_EGG_CACHE /tmp

Order allow,deny

Allow from all

</Location>

AuthType Basic

AuthName "myproject"

AuthUserFile /var/local/trac/.htpasswd

Require valid-user

</Location>

</VirtualHost>

Now you should have a working 'trac' instance. So check if it works.

      sudo tracd -p 8080 /var/local/trac

[-p] flag specifies the port that this particular 'trac' instance belongs to.

Note: the flag [-p] is same as [-port]

And then go to:

http://localhost:8080/

Now you should see the 'trac' instance running.

Adding Authentication

Basic Authorisation

In this case we are going to authorise the 'trac' site with a .htpasswd file.

You have to have 'fcrypt' package installed to decode '.htpasswd'

Creating the '.htpasswd'

 sudo htpasswd -c /var/local/trac/.htpasswd admin

To add more users:

 sudo htpasswd -c /var/local/trac/.htpasswd admin

'htpasswd' creates the flat-file with the username and password that you are given.
[-c] = create the password file in the given path.

Start tracd:

 sudo -p 8080 --basic-auth="projectdirectory,path/to/the/.htpasswd,mname" /path/to/the/environment/directory

In my case, it is

 sudo -p 8080 --basic-auth="trac,/var/local/trac/.htpasswd, admin" path/to/the/environment/directory

Digest Authentication

'htdigest' will be used to create the digest file.

 sudo htdigest -c /var/local/trac/.htdigest admin admin

Now start 'trac' with 'tracd':

 sudo -p 8080 --auth="projectdirectory,path/to/the/.htpasswd, admin" /path/to/the/environment/directory

So it will be,

 sudo -p 8080 --auth="trac,/var/local/trac/.htpasswd, admin" /var/local/trac

If you have just one project in 'trac', then use the [-s] flag with the 'tracd', so it will skip the environment list when it starts.
eg: sudo tracd -s ...........

There we go, we are done :D

Trouble Shooting Errors

If you get following error. It is most likely because of permission issues. So make sure you have given root access when you start your 'trac' instance.

Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/api.py", line 440, in send_error
    data, 'text/html')
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/chrome.py", line 827, in render_template
    message = req.session.pop('chrome.%s.%d' % (type_, i))
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/api.py", line 216, in __getattr__
    value = self.callbacks[name](self)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/main.py", line 300, in _get_session
    return Session(self.env, req)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/session.py", line 198, in __init__
    self.get_session(sid)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/session.py", line 219, in get_session
    super(Session, self).get_session(sid, authenticated)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/web/session.py", line 61, in get_session
    db = self.env.get_db_cnx()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/env.py", line 328, in get_db_cnx
    return get_read_db(self)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/db/api.py", line 90, in get_read_db
    return _transaction_local.db or DatabaseManager(env).get_connection()
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/db/api.py", line 152, in get_connection
    return self._cnx_pool.get_cnx(self.timeout or None)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/db/pool.py", line 226, in get_cnx
    return _backend.get_cnx(self._connector, self._kwargs, timeout)
  File "/usr/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/trac/db/pool.py", line 146, in get_cnx
    raise TimeoutError(errmsg)
TimeoutError: Unable to get database connection within 0 seconds. (TracError(<babel.support.LazyProxy object at 0x22e47d0>,))

If you need more information, please go to http://trac.edgewall.org.

Bicycle new fan back (white) Limited edition playing cards deck

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 16:02:41 PDT

This is the new member of my card pack collection. It is Bicycle fan back limited edition white deck, gold sealed, by Zenneth Kok. These are really rare, as there are less than 1000 copies that have been produced, and I have got one of them. The new fan back black and white decks will be officially released in September. There are only 5000 copies of black decks that have been produced.

I bought my deck from Zenneth and there were very limited quantity of both type of decks available. You have to buy at least one of his Metal Jackets along with the decks as it is not available to buy on its own. Personally I do not think they are still available to buy from Zenneth as he only had a limited amount of stock.You get two gaff cards with the deck, they are a double backer and a 0 heart card.

I am not going to open this deck and I am just going add this to my collection. Collecting card decks is what I do apart from being a computer scientist. I enjoy the art in the cards and I enjoy doing flourishes.

I hope you enjoyed the pictures.

Chathura

Set up Alpine to work with Gmail

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Sun, 03 Jul 2011 08:24:58 PDT

To set up Alpine with Gmail, You have you to have Alpine installed on your computer. To set up Gmail, click here to go to my previous blog post which explains how to install it.

If you have got Alpine installed then, next

To receive emails from your gmail account:

Go to the Main Menu >> Setup >> collectionLists >> Add.

Nickname : [Your Nickname]
Server : imap.gmail.com/ssl/user=username@gmail.com
Path :
View :

Save your settings

You can add as many accounts you want if you press E and exit, then do the same.

Then you need to change few settings on it.

On Main menu > Set up > Config, find the "Advanced user preferences", Then mark "Save will not delete"

Then scroll down and find Pruning Rule and select "don't rename, don't delete"

To send emails using your gmail account :

Go to Main menu >> Rules and then Add a new rule.

Add a Nickname
In the Current Folder Type section, Select "Specific"
Then select "Folder List" and press "T" and select the specific account folder(Inbox)
Scroll down and find the section where it says "Action Begin here"
Insert (Add) your email address to "Set Form" field
Then to the "use SMTP" server section Add "smtp.gmail.com/tls/user=" (Without the quotes)
Next Scroll down and find the "Compose Use" value and then select "With Confirmation"
Then Exit
You need to Add a new rule per each account

Now you are ready to go!

Read/Receive and Send emails on the linux command line - Alpine/pine

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 28 Jun 2011 09:23:59 PDT

I like to use my command line to do most of the work rather than using GUIs. So I wanted to be able read and send emails using the linux command line. After done much research I have found this free application called "Alpine" developed at the University Of Washington, which the earlier versions of it was called "Pine".

To download you can go to the official website by clicking the the URL below
http://www.washington.edu/alpine/

or if you are a Debian/Ubuntu user you can simply type in the command below

sudo apt-get install alpine

Currently I am using Alpine with my gmail account. I may be do a post about how to configure gmail on Alpine

Enjoy

Secure your Gmail/Google Account

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Mon, 27 Jun 2011 10:02:20 PDT

Are you confidant that your email account is secure anymore? You can never make anything 100% secure but, there are things you can do to make it more secure than it is.

Gmail has introduced 2-step verification which protects your gmail account little bit more. I recommend that everyone who read this blog, should enable the feature.

To enable: Go to your Google account page and then click on the
"Using 2-step verification" And then follow the instructions

Make sure you read the instructions carefully and print out or keep the verification codes safely, which you will need to log in to your account when you haven't got your phone to get a verification code. Never loose them.

The other thing you could do to protect your Gmail account is that to always use HTTPS. To enable this feature.

Log in to your gmail account
Click on the Options symbol
Click on the General tab
Then click on the radio button which says "always use https", under "Browser Connection"
Save Changes

Surf Save!

Start Dradis in BackTrack 5

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 14:02:01 PDT

Back Track 5 comes with Dradis pre loaded already
But you might not be familiar with the way you start Dradis in BackTrack 5

To start Dradis:

Go to the dradis/server directory

root@bt:~# cd /pentest/misc/dradis/server

Then run start.sh script in the dradis directory

root@bt:/pentest/misc/dradis/server# /pentest/misc/dradis/start.sh

No Active Driver when you type in db_driver or db_connect?

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 06:00:53 PST

Do you get the following error message when you type in db_driver on Metasploit console on BlackTrack5?

[*] No Active Driver
[*]        Available:

[*]     DB Support: Enable the mysql driver with the following command:
[*]                 $ gem install mysql
[*]     This gem requires mysqlclient headers, which can be installed on Ubuntu with:
[*]                 $ sudo apt-get install libmysqlclient-dev

[*]     DB Support: Enable the postgresql driver with the following command:
[*]                   * This requires libpq-dev and a build environment
[*]                 $ gem install postgres
[*]                 $ gem install pg # is an alternative that may work

msf >

And you have tried installing mysql driver but didn't solve the problem ?

This happens because when you start msfconsole by /pentest/exploits/framework3/msfconsole, it does not set the environment variables properly

So all you have to do is, start msfconsole using BT5 menu or by using /usr/local/bin/msfconsole

Lunux/Ubuntu not booting up after the kernel update?

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Thu, 23 Jun 2011 08:26:26 PDT

After I have upgraded to 2.6.38-9-generic kernel I got the following message and I have tried many thing but this is how I have solved the problem.

Gave up waiting for root device. Common problems:
-Boot args (cat /proc/cmdline)
-Check rootdelay= (did the system wait long enough?)
-Check root= (did the system wait for the right device?)
-Missing modules (cat /proc/modules; ls /dev)
ALERT! /dev/disk/by-uuid/310147a9-f21c-4e7c-aeb0-18f31073da58 does not exist. Dropping to a shell!

BusyBox v1.10.2 (Ubuntu 1:1.10.2-2ubuntu7) built-in shell (ash)
Enter 'help' for a list of built-in commands.

(initramfs)

Boot your computer and when the grub loader appears, select the linux version you use (to the rescue mode) and press 'e' to edit it.

Then remove the the UUID= part of the line from root=UUID=

Replace it with your current partition, so in my case it looks like

root=/dev/sda5

press +x to boot up with the changed settings

Then after you have logged in install fglrx module.

sudo apt-get install fglrx

Then restart.

Now this time select your linux version but this time not the rescue mode.

Then replace the UUID how you did earlier.

Done.

To permanently apply the settings to grub, you will have to edit the grub.cfg file

sudo vi /boot/grub/grub.cfg

The "Anonymous" threats continues against Sony (Update)

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 22:41:22 PDT

The old story Is that Sony has filed a restraining order early this year, against George Hotz A.K.A GeoHot as he has violated copyrights by jail breaking the Sony's play station 3 which allowed him to install custom software on it. Now an independent organisation called 'Anonymous' has threatened Sony by putting up a video on youtube stating their demands (See below). Then this group began to take down Sony website including the Sony main website with DOS (Denial Of Service) attacks. They call this Anti-Sony operation the "Operation Payback".

Sony has demanded popular social media networks such as Youtube and Facebook, to hand over the IP addresses of people who has viewd GeoHot's videos.

Their argument was that you should be able to do what ever you want with the product you bought with your own money. More future, they ask, if its legal to jail break your phones and install unsigned software applications, why not jail break PS3?

In the last video they ask the public to return Sony products if you have bought any and support by join their force, by organising protests against Sony. Anonymous claims

"GeoHot has taken a settlement with sony. The case has been dropped. In the eyes of the law, the case is closed, for anonymous it is just beginning."

Is this just a start of a massive catastrophic cyber war? would it cause many other war's to start?

Problem With psexec (Solution)

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Wed, 13 Apr 2011 06:06:12 PDT

I do my pentests on a Windows XP sp3 box and I had this problem, that I could not get psexec to work as I kept getting this error message.

[*] Started reverse handler on :4444
[*] Connecting to the server...
[*] Authenticating to :445|WORKGRO[*] Started reverse handler on 192.168.56.3:4444
[*] Connecting to the server...
[*] Authenticating to :445|WORKGROUP as user ''...

[-] FAILED! The remote host has only provided us with Guest privileges. Please make sure that the correct username and password have been provided. Windows XP systems that are not part of a domain will only provide Guest privileges to network logins by default.

[*] Exploit completed, but no session was created.UP as user ''...

[-] FAILED! The remote host has only provided us with Guest privileges. Please make sure that the correct username and password have been provided. Windows XP systems that are not part of a domain will only provide Guest privileges to network logins by default.

[*] Exploit completed, but no session was created.

That was because if your Windows XP Professional based computer is not in a domain, by default all users trying to log in to it over the network, are forced to use the Gust Account. To find out more information go to http://www.windowsnetworking.com/articles_tutorials/wxpsimsh.html

So the solution is to

Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Lsa
And change the ForceGuest value to 0

Done!

My Unfortunate, the General Electric (GE) Internship

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 07:25:07 PST

Hello, This time I am writing about something happened to me couple of weeks ago. Ok I will start with the good news. I have been applying for internships few months now, but few weeks ago I have been invited for couple of internship interviews. One of them are from GE in UK. So I Went to the GE assessment centre in The Ark, Hammersmith. I loved the place and people. Then finally after four days I have been to the Assesment day at GE, I found out that I have been offered the internship at the GE Capital.

(Just after I came home from the GE Assessment Centre and was excited as it went quite well)

arrmmm..I know....... I amWeird!! :S

Then the next step was to sign the agreements and talk to the Manger. BUT wait.. then I found out that I can not do the internship with my student visa for a year unless its a part of the course. And no my course is not a sandwich course. Even few days earlier I found out about this, the UK immigration regulations have changed as well. Anyway now I am working hard then after I have finished the final year of the degree next year I am going to apply for a Visa (Post-study working visa) which will allow me to work in England full time, and then apply for the GE Graduate program.

Text Encryption Application

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:43:52 PDT

Under the Computer Security module we did one last assignment at the end of the term, the assignment was to implement the substitute cypher and demonstrate how it can be broken by using Frequency Analysis. So I have written a code to encrypt some text using a key, which the user inputs to the application (Which the application assumes that the key is unique), and to Break the encryption using frequency analysis, using Java. It was required to leave the spaces and non alphabetic characters, and maintain the cases in the cipher text (which makes the cypher text weaker).

I have added another extra feature for the cipher breaking code called The "Advanced Frequency Analysis". Which means that, In frequency analysis it just analyses the frequencies of single characters. But if you turn on this feature if will analyse two and three character combinations as well as single characters, which makes the code breaker more strong.

You will probably wonder that why would I want to add extra code to make the encryption weak. As an example this program passes spaces, non alphabetical characters through to the cipher text. It is because that they are requirements of the assignments so students can write about it on the report and give explanations about how to make it more stronger.

Find the screen shots and examples of the program below.

Encryption

Plain Text:

Data centres use vast amounts of electricity to run their computer equipment and also to keep it cool.

Environmental group Greenpeace has estimated that their total global energy use will have reached 2 trillion kw/h by 2020.

Key:

qazxswedcvfrtgbnhyujmkiolp

Cipher Text:

Hjtj koetfor gro bjrt jwdgetr dl osoktfakaty td fge tqoaf kdwcgtof ovgacwoet jei jsrd td xooc at kdds.

Yebafdewoetjs pfdgc Jfooecojko qjr ortawjtoi tqjt tqoaf tdtjs psdmjs oeofpy gro nass qjbo fojkqoi 2 tfassade xn/q my 2020.

Decryption

Advanced Frequency Analysis = off

Decrypted plain text:

Kata lestier dre wart amodstr oq eheltinlntg to ids tueni lomc1dtei ezdnc1mest asf ahro to veec1 nt looh. Jswniosmestah yiodc1 Xieesc1eale uar ertnmatef tuat tueni totah yhopah eseiyg dre bnhh uawe iealuef 2 tinhhnos vb/u pg 2020.

Advanced Frequency Analysis = on

Decrypted plain text:

Kata lestier the wart amodstr in eheltinlntg of for tueni lomc1dtei ezdnc1mest and ahro of veec1 to looh. Jswniosmestah yiodc1 Xieesc1eale his ertnmatef tuat tueni totah yhopah eseiyg the bnhh uawe iealuef 2 tinhhnos vb/u it 2020.

My Example is just a simple demonstration. As you can see its hard to analyse and decrypt just by using an application/ Algorithm, without having any human help. But This algorithm works better as the plain text gets larger, as it gets more data to analyse so the accuracy of the analysis gets better.

My Tetris

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:45:19 PDT

'Tetris' is one of the most popular games of all time. For the last project of Application Programming module at the university, I got to develop this small Tetris game applet. As you can see its very basic and simple as I added more than requirements of the assignment, to the application itself. It would have had more functionalities but I moved on from it to the next assignment so I can finish my assignments and get it everything done way before the deadline. I will add more features to it if I get much time in the future, even though I tried ones and then I got busy with something else and then moved on.

To control the blocks You can use either keyboard or mouse or both.

Controls:

Mouse Controls:

Right-Mouse Button- Move right
Left-Mouse Button - Move Left

Key Board Controls:

Right Arrow key- Move Right
Left Arrow key - Move Left
'R' key - Rotate

If I develop it more further I will definitely post it on here. Like I have said it earlier its a very simple version of Tetris. But it plays according do all Tetris rules.

After a while

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Sun, 10 Apr 2011 08:59:58 PDT

After a while I found some time to continue writing my blog. It has been a very busy few months for me as I have been working very hard for my assignments and tests at the University. Presumably I will have time to write more blog posts in the future.

I will update you with what I have been dong for the last few months at the University.

Under the Computer Science Project and Industrial Practice subject I have been assigned to a project group to carry out making a "Language Converter" as the project. We have had a few months to complete the whole project including the required documentation. This includes Software Requirement Specification, Software Design Document. I have been in charge of the whole documenting part of the whole project to start with and I have had a few other group members under my supervision, which I had broken down the tasks in to. But after then with some of the group members requests and my interest, I have started doing the actual software programming the application with just two other group members, as any other group members did not have the required knowledge or interest in developing software even though I have spent tremendous time to get other members working on developing the software as well as documenting. It did not matter how interesting the documenting was I had to carry on doing just the implementation as otherwise we would have ran out of time because of the lack of resources to carry on and finish off the project in time even though I enjoy programming very much too. According to the rules and regulations each member should contribute five hours everyday to the project in any way they can.

Finally just before we broke up for the Easter study leave, I submitted the whole project. But as I have predicted in the beginning of the project, without enough human power/ resources we would not be able to finish the implementation unless someone would of stopped their other work and do just the group project. We manage to finish three use cases out of four.

Most of you must have heard the game "Tetris". I got to make this game using Java for one of the assignments in the first term. It was my favourite assignment of the term as it was very enjoyable.

Under the subject Database and Information Retrieval I got to learn IBM DB2 Database management system and It was quite fun too. For the last assignment I worked with AJAX, MySql and the Google Maps API.

C++ was one of the most interesting subjects in the whole year. Funny enough I have finished all of the assignments three months before the dead line, as the module content was just too tempting for me just to look at it and go away. The last assignment was to make a Bot which reads from a book, analyses certain parts and words in a book. For this particular assignment I have used the book "Hamlet" by Shakespeare.

For "Data Structures and Algorithms", I have learnt a lot about collections, their efficiency levels and how they work. We wrote our own collection classes.

The other project was to develop a “text encryptor” using substitute cypher and a code breaker which breaks the encryption using Frequency Analysis. To make the analysis more efficient and accurate I have added more code to the project so it analyses two and three character combinations from the cypher text. But it was not required for the assignment.

Currently I am learning Oracle DBMS and more about Computer Security and Penetration testing. Also I am planning to learn Ruby (Programming Language).

I apologise for not posting much on the blog. It’s just because I am busy with my studies. I am hoping to write more blog posts while I am doing my revising for the next exams and my other studies and experiments.

Youtube releases new HTML5 embed code

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 23:08:27 PDT

Google is testing new HTML5 embed code that plays the videos using either flash or HTML 5 player and it uses <iframe> tag. It is still under construction but developers want feed back form current users so the beta version of it is now available.

It won’t play the video on HTML 5, if the video has got Google ads or if you haven’t set it up yet. If you are on a mobile device, it won’t play if it won’t take you to a separate player or if it won’t play the video in-line. But if your not eligible to view the video in HTML 5 it will play the video using the flash player. But again it depend on the preferences and where you are viewing the video.

To use this service you have to join the YouTube HTML 5 beta version and you must be using a browser which supports HTML5.

Supported browsers:

Google Chrome

Opera

Firefox that support the WebM format

Apple Safari 4.0 or late

-Chathura Mazz-

Muttia Muralidharan achieves 800 wickets

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Thu, 22 Jul 2010 22:43:08 PDT

First of all I am not a big Cricket fan. Since I was young I hung around with cricket fans but for some reason they couldn’t get me in to cricket. But anyway I just thought I would write this blog about this amazing cricket player as he has done something quite impressive. Check this out

The Sri Lankan Cricket player Murali is the first test cricket player to get 800 wickets in the test cricket history. He managed to get 8 wickets before he retired as it was his last test match. And check this video too. My friend made this video as a tuibute to Murali.

Tribute to Murali

-Chathura Mazz-

Chromium, Google Chrome Beta,Dev and the Stable version.

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 14:05:20 PDT

Google Chrome becoming the killer of web browsers available at the moment. Would you like to try out different versions of Chrome and newer cool features potentially would be available for the future stable versions? In my opinion Google Chrome/Chromium is that fastest browser available. You will tell me I’m wrong but that’s just my opinion.

Chrome seems to release new updates quite often so you want to keep up to date with all that newer features. If you subscribe to a one of Beta, Dev, stable channels it will update by itself without even prompting so you would not have to worry about keeping it up to date, unlike Chromium. But you can update Chromium by using a updater or you will have to download it and install the newest build manually.

Ok, don’t get confused with all these different kind of versions. Chromium is the open source project Google chrome is based on. Chromium releases few new versions with new cutting edge features everyday. Then every now and then Google makes a new Goole Chrome dev version using latest Chromium build and they adds some more new features on top of it. Then every week or so they takes the latest Google Chrome dev build and releases the Google Chrome beta by sorting out faults. Finally in every few months they release the stable version of Google Chrome when they the developers are satisfied with the new features and feel safe to release it.

Click here to download Google Chrome Dev,beta or the stable version

Click here to download Chromium latest snapshot

Click here to download the Chromium updater

Cool Google Chrome Extensions

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Sun, 18 Jul 2010 17:59:52 PDT

I have been using Google Chrome for years now. Chrome did not have much extensions/add-ons to start with. But Recently I have found really cool Google Chrome extensions. I just thought I would share my favourite Chrome extensions. with you They all can be found at chrome.google.com/extensions. Hope you will enjoy it.

Google Mail Checker Plus – Notifies you when you got a new email. You can view new emails

from the extention without going to gmail

Google Dictionary (by Google) – when you double click a word within the browser it gives you

the definition. by clicking on the icon on the address bar, you can

look up other words.

Docs PDF/PowerPoint Viewer (by Google) - Views PDF files, Power Point files and other Google

Document files in the browser.

Remember The Milk for Gmail – Popular task managing tool’s plug-in for gmail. Manage your tasks

on gmail using Remember the Milk

Google Calendar Checker (by Google) - Notifies when you have anything scheduled on your Google

calendar

Google Wave Notifier - Notifils when you have new waves. Can view waves by double clicking the

icon on the extensions bar

Turn Off the Lights – When you click on the Icon on the address bar, the browser page will be fading

to dark and automatically focus to the video

Chromed Bird – A twitter Client. Shows the twitter time line, replies and Direct messages on the extension.

Clip to Evernote – Can save things you see easily when you surf web. Can access your Evernote account and search though your notes.

ChromeAccess – Quick access to all (relevant) 'about:' and 'chrome://' pages.

Google Share Button – By using share button you can share web pages with your social networks,

email and blogs.

Note Anywhere – Make notes inside Google Chrome. when you open that page again, the notes get

loaded automatically.

Secbrowsing - Checks that your plug-ins are up to date

Invisible Hand – Check if the product you are looking for on the internet is available in a lower

price

After the Deadline – Checks spelling, style, and grammar on your email, tweet, blog, ect.

AutoPager - Automatically loads the next page when you scroll the page down to the bottom,

without having to click to the next page

Opinion Cloud – Summarizes comments on YouTube Videos and Flicker pictures and provides an

overall overview of all comments

Thank You.

The Dragon

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 16:38:13 PDT

There are four of these kind of statues on the roof of my house facing out side. Yes it has got a little bit of Chinese influence to it. I took this picture with my old Camera. I Hope you guys will like it.

The busiest last semester and the end of the first year at the University

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 21:59:56 PDT

The last semester was quite busy for me as it was all about revision, completing assignments and projects. In the start of the last semester we got told and received the revision time tables. Even though it looked like quite a tight schedule I wasn’t tired as much like how I was after lectures. Around the same time we had quite tight dead lines to finish this massive reports. Embedded systems assignments which we had to use the annoying “ARM” board and the last group project report and the project demonstration.

Time Table compiler was my first year project and there were six group members. To start with I was just in charge of the Java script and JSTL components of the project but in the second semester and onwards I had to wear couple of hats which means I have been chosen to hold a shared group leadership. It was quite interesting. Because of the fact that some of required java script and JSTL parts to complete the project was out of the syllabus scope of the course so I had to research and self study on my own about certain things. In the mean time I was doing my own studies and research I co-operated with other people who was responsible with other components in the project. As an Instance I worked with other people who has been doing Databases, xHTML and CSS. We could finish the project at before the dead line and I thought it went better than I thought it would. The other reports quite well and I thought I did quite well on it.

The ARM board

The first report is about embedded systems with the ARM board. Which is Atmel AT91 ARM Thumb-based microcontroller provided by the Essex University. The software compiler has been already been installed on university computers and the IDE (Integrated development environment ) was Eclipse as it was recommended.The programming language we used to write these programmes was C. To download the compiled to the processor board we have used this application programme called Sam-Ba. It has been quite hard to work with the arm board because it kept crashing many times as we were trying to complete my assignments but finally I managed to complete it and finish the report. There were few three assignments

0 First assignment was to move the light to left and right to left and when you press 2,3 or 4 buttons, make it change the direction and then exit when you press button 8.
0 The second assignment was to further modify the program some that the green LED travels at twice the speed of the red LED. Then the last one

0 The third assignments was to Modify the program I have been given to create a reaction timer.
Pressing button 1 should start the row of LEDs as a countdown timer. When all the LEDs are go

out the timer should start counting.

Pressing button 2 stops the count and displays the time taken. So to test your reaction you

should press button 2 as soon as all the LEDs go out.
Pressing button 3 should reset the counter ready for the next attempt

The second report is about the group project and that was the biggest report I had to write in the first year. But I have managed to write the report within one and half days. I quite enjoyed writing the reports and I am happy with the marks I have got for them.

When we were doing our end term reports

I had mainly four exams at the end of the University year. They were Problem solving and essential skills for Computer Science, Procedural and Object Oriented programming, Information Systems and Computer Systems and Networks.

Now its the summer holidays. Joined with an open source project and I am looking for a part time job as well. Hopefully I will be lucky (yn)

Thank you

Chathura Mazz

John Conway’s Game Of Life

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:46:25 PDT

Game of life is devised John Conway is a British mathematician John Horton Conway in 1970. As a part of my last Java assignment I re designed and added more components to the game under the Java lecturer Professor Simon M. Lucas’s guidance. I was really excited to make this application just after seeing Simon’s example of the Game Of Life.

Rules:

The universe of the Game of Life is an infinite two-dimensional orthogonal grid of square cells, each of which is in one of two possible states, live or dead. Every cell interacts with its eight neighbours, which are the cells that are directly horizontally, vertically, or diagonally adjacent. At each step in time, the following transitions occur:

Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by under-population.
Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell, as if by reproduction.

The initial pattern constitutes the seed of the system. The first generation is created by applying the above rules simultaneously to every cell in the seed—births and deaths happen simultaneously, and the discrete moment at which this happens is sometimes called a tick (in other words, each generation is a pure function of the one before). The rules continue to be applied repeatedly to create further generations

-Wikipedia-

You can create your own rules by changing the bits on the bit editor in the right hand side. You can stop and Resume your game anytime by just pressing the Start/Stop button. By changing bits you can create really cool patterns on the game window. As an example the following picture shows one of the rules I have made

I won’t talk about the Java code and the logics of this program but If you want to know or if you want to play this game, just email me or leave a comment. I’ll send you more information

Thank you for visiting My blog

Scribble

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:46:58 PDT

Scribble is a painting pad which enables you to draw really cool patterns on it. I made this peace of application as a part of the java assignment under the Java lecturer Professor Simon M. Lucas’s guidance. It’s been a great experience to make this application. It was a great experience to make Scribble. I was quite excited to see the end product after seeing completed application in the Lectures. I have completed the whole assignment successfully before the dead line and I am glad that I have got quite high marks for it and I have got full marks for this part of the assignment . I will soon post the other past of the assignment and it will be my next blog post.I have posted some random things I drew on it so you can get an Idea about what it looks like. Hope you will like it.

I wont post anything about the Java Codes of this application but if you want to know about it or if you want to try this application by yourself, just email me or leave a comment.

Thank you for visiting my blog

-Chathura Mazz-

My favourite Online Sync Software

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:28:24 PDT

I have been looking for a good software and a service to store and back up my documents, pictures and songs. Then I did a lot of research about it and found two really cool softwares. Personally I like both of them and I use both of them. They are

Dropbox (Download here)

and

Gladinet (Download here)

Dropbox uses their own service to service to store files.Once you have uploaded your files to your Box you can access it from anywhere. You can download its desktop client to synchronise your files on you Desktop Computer or Laptop, or you can download the mobile client to your ipad, iphone, Android device or to your Blackberry phone so you can access your synchronised files from your mobile device. and also if you want to access your files without installing anything you can access your files by just logging in to Dropbox website. This is so Cool because you don’t have to carry your memory sticks or hard drives or anything if you want to transfer or carry your documents. You just have to put your files in to Dropbox so you can access it from anywhere and you can add files to the same Box from where ever you have logged in so it will synchronise your other devices you have installed the clients so then you can access them it from anywhere you want. I use my drop box to store my University course work so I don’t have to carry them in my laptop or in my hard drive. They now have a new Dropbox Chrome extension so you can access your files on your browser It is very easy to use. You can quite easily share your files with your friends. The only draw back is that you just only get 2GB for free but you can buy more space if you want to.

Step 1 : Go to Drop Box Website or Click here

Step 2 : Download DropBox Client. its available for Windows, Mac and Linux users

Step 3: Register for a DropBox account

Step 4: Add Files to your Box which is in your Windows Documents By default

My DropBox

The other cool software I’m going to review is Gladinet. It is free but you can buy the Professional version which has more capabilities. Gladinet lets you upload files to poplar could storage services such as Skydrive, Amazon S3,Google Docs and other could storage services. I use this service just to back up my documents because they give 25GB for free which other services doesn’t. You can access your files by logging in to your SkyDrive account.Of course you can share your files with friends by getting the URL of the file or put them into a public folder. The thing I like about the Gladinet is its Management Console. You have bunch of cool tools on there to mange to use. You can transfer up to 50Mb large files in a one go but if you want to upload bigger files it spits the file into many parts and uploads it, when ever you wants do download it Gladinet puts them back together automatically. I found it very useful as I have been baking up large files.After you create set it up it creates a virtual drive in your computer so you can easily access your drive and transfer your files in to it.

I am sorry this is not a How-To tutorial so I wont explain how to set it up but if you want me to just let me know so I can do a video or a blog post about it.

The Gladinet Management Console

So yea those two are my favourite Syncing softwares at the moment. I will keep you guys posted if I find anything better. Thanks.

My Tunes

noreply@blogger.com (Chathura Mazz) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 02:49:55 PDT

This is instrumental track is one if my favourite tracks I have made. Sorry I haven’t named this one either. I’ll name it if you can come up with a good name.

Enjoy