Hussein's Blog

Four reasons that gets us upset (@alialmahdi)

2012-01-24T13:50:00.001+03:00

With or without our intentions we get upset and most of the time we dont know why.
Ali Compiles four factors that causes the frustration. Worth 5 minutes of your time.

A phone that runs on AA battery

2012-01-19T20:36:00.001+03:00

You know you want one!

We all carry multiple SIM cards.
‘Spare One’ Phone that Runs On One AA Battery is perfect to load your secondary numbers. A phone that just calls. You wont be worrying about charging it.

Run out of battery? No problem, Just stop at the nearest store and grap an AA one.

What #SOPA will do to you

2012-01-18T11:27:00.003+03:00

When you tweet a photo of your kid with Disney logo in the background. That's a $500 fine.
When you link your blog post to a Skyirm walk-through YouTube video that accidentally shows the player's Charles Jourdan watch or his girl friend's Louis Vuitton bag. That's a $1000 * (#seconds the watch was visible in the video) + $1200 * (#seconds the bag was visible in the video) Fine.
Seeding The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo (2011) from a piratebay tracking server. God forbids that's a year in jail.
Shooting a video of your kid taking his first poop in the bathroom while Nicole Scherzinger - Right There is playing in the background. Your kid will be old enough to clean your poop in prison.
You could get 5 years for uploading a Michael Jackson song. One year more than the doctor who killed him.
If a student posts a copyrighted work to a forum, the whole site could be taken down

I think the Illuminati is taking over the world very soon. Is the 2012 the end? [If I didn't reply to your comments I'm probably in jail for linking to Wikipedia]

Enable hotspot on iPhone (@mrbhr)

2012-01-17T20:28:00.001+03:00

Our friend @mrbhr wrote a nice article about How to enable Personal Hotspot on iPhone?
+1 for iPhone this feature was recently added on 4.3

Imagination Pooling

2012-01-14T15:25:00.001+03:00

We all imagine several sorts of things all the time. Some of you decide to share it to their close friends. Others keep it to themselves scared people will steal their thoughts and publish it as their own. However, very rare decide to publicly share their imaginations. I'm here to talk about this last segment.

Here is the fun part. Each one of us was born with limited unique set of imagination span. The more we learn new things the more our imagination span increases. Until it reaches a level where you think you know everything and here is where you stop learning. Your imagination freezes at its size.

You refuse to read books that don't interest you or watch movies that do not fit your standards or listen to other type of music or play video games that are not your style. Here is when the imagination gives you the delusion that you know "enough" and you don't need to know about other stuff. This will eventually kill potential creativity.

Let's go back to point one. We were born with unique imaginations. We compile our imagination into stories and we pour these stories into a medium. This medium can be a book or a movie or a play or a picture or even a video game. When you watch this movie or listen to this song or see this picture you acquire more imagination automatically. Even though you might think the movie is silly or that song is stupid.

When we watch movies we tap into other people imagination pool and build on it creating further imaginations. I refer to this as imagination pooling.

The point I want to make in this post is that pooling the imagination can broaden your thoughts spectrum thus generating even rich ideas. You cannot do this if you stick to talking to your close friends or listening to stuff you already know about or reading books on which you know the title or watch movies that you only like. That was me 2 years ago, until I met my wife my whole thoughts and imaginations changed. I feel myself as if my imagination experienced totally different dimension and I keep coming with even more ideas every day. She is in the fashion industry while I'm in the IT field. Totally different yet my imagination was doubled since the day i met her.

Never under estimate the power of learning and never think your knowledge is above all. Learn to share and acquire new things.

Are you an Apple Hostage?

2012-01-05T14:00:00.000+03:00

I don't know if you are familiar with the Stockholm syndrome. In 1973 a bank in Stockholm got robbed and the bank employees were kept hostages for 6 days. The weird thing is that the hostages became emotionally attached to their captors and were defending them even after they were released. Since then, this was referred to as the Stockholm syndrome.

Apple is spending millions to keep their users clipped to its products. Take a look at this:

You can't download OTA MP3 and save it to the device, it should be from ITunes.
You can download apps only from the Apple Store.
If you are Bahraini, screw you, you have only the Bahrain or Saudi Apple Store which contains either sex stories apps or Islamic calenders. No Angry birds.
You can't trick apple to change your Store to US to get more stuff. You have to have a credit card, even if you do have one, is not smooth to install.
You can't replace the battery or have a backup one use this one only.
No you can only charge iPhone with this charger, what? oh no, no microUSB.
Flash? Who needs it?
You can only buy applications, music from ITunes not from another site.
You cannot test your app without a license, buy a developer license and install your app.
Last but not least expensive products that locks you down.

Despite that the guys from iPhone Dev Team spend so much time to hack the OS and unlock it. Every user is waiting for this jailbreak yet they don't confess. Now it is nice that IOS users have some degree of freedom after this latest jailbreak, but this should not be necessary. "Apple really needs to trust their users with their own devices." -- grant

That is what's happening between Apple and their users. What really baffles me isn't Apple, but Apple users! It is like they are saying "My kidnapper didn't beat me every night and sometimes I even got cake."

Are you an Apple hostage? I'm sure not.

An idea: Get rid of the shopping queue

2012-01-03T19:22:00.001+03:00

Sometimes shopping with wify can keep the brain juices flowing.

Create a microscopic unique RFID tags and attach them to products. So that no two tags in the world are the same.

Customers now select their products.( clothes etc.) And they simply place their cart in a big scanner( just like the ones at airport) the scanner now scans all item at once using the radio and deletes them from the system.

So with just one scan all your items are scanned and the price is calculated. You pay with your card and that's it.

No cashier. No Queue.

Happy New Year?

2012-01-03T17:37:00.002+03:00

We have been designed in a way to measure and calculate everything around us. We label everything with age or size or experience or strength so we can compare them. Thus was the need to create a system for measuring time. The current universal calender being used on Earth is the Gregorian calendar or the Christian calendar.

This calender started when Jesus Christ was born 2012 years ago. Since then, we set date for everything. Inventors set dates to launch their inventions, businessmen set dates to end their projects, Human Resources pay the workers by the hour, politicians set dates to start and end wars, people have been executed in certain dates, others have been honored in different dates And we celebrated New Year Eve every single year, since then.

We need time, without time we can't keep track of the progress. Here is the bizarre* idea: Although we created this time scheme from scratch, which has nothing to do with God, we still keep labeling years as "Bad" Or "Good". If you thought about it there is no such thing as bad or a good year, it is a year, it is just a time span that we created. Yet we wait 12 months to wish each other a "Happy New Year", why don't we wish each other a happy life time? Why wait 12 months to do so. Why don't I be happy this month? or Why don't you say Happy New Month?

And even if somehow people will argue that 2011 was in fact a bad year at least for us in Bahrain. If there was some power affecting how a year "runs", than this power is within us. To prove it, look at this thought experience I created, I called it the Car Keys Anomaly.

If this power, some call it faith, was external, then it doesn't know what is 2011 or 2012 2075 or January or December means, it has its own time scheme, and if it is to be applied it will be applied and projected on that time scheme not our calender. It could be on 17 August or 31 of May!

My point, if you want to do something, go do it now, don't wait until you write your next year's resolutions. You can do whatever you want whenever you want wherever you want. We have put this calender just for organizing your life, you may remove it and start now. This system is good but you don't have to stick to it. You can just start your success anytime.

Happy New Year!

Why I chose Andriod over iOS

2011-11-29T16:27:00.001+03:00

My dad keeps confusing me with this question, "Which is better Galaxy or iPhone?" This post was to clear his question a bit and anyone who might ask.

The opinion I'm residing here is my own. I will list the Good things about iOS (iPhone4) and then the bad things , and I will do the same with Andriod (Samsung Galaxy S2)

If I was the type of user who downloads apps, surfs the web and plays songs, then yes I would get an iPhone. But unfortunately I want more.

The Good about iPhone

Here is what I like about iPhone

Sleek Design: The phone is designed in a way not to let you worry much about whats inside. It is hard-locked. When unimportant stuff is locked to user it is easier to use. For instance most of us never saw an iPhone battery.
Simplicity: With only one physical button that takes you home whenever you are lost, even kids can use this phone.
Incredible Touch Screen: I admit that no device has yet been created that closely match the iPhone's touch screen. It is so simple grandma knows how to use it.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The bad about iPhone

Here is what I don't like about iPhone

Too Simple: Here lies the problem, iPhone is too simple. The iOS is designed in a way to "lock" users from the rest of the phone and just enable them to do the frequently most used stuff which works really great for 80% of users. As a developer, I want to know what's going on behind that progress bar when I download an app, or how much RAM an app is consuming, or what is the CPU usage. One would say "so? There are apps for that" Yes of course there are but it's not as good as if it comes Native. Plus most of these apps require a jail-break and we will talk about jail-break in a minute.
Syncing Rage: Unless you are syncing with one machine all the time your fine. The moment you sync it with other machine things go crazy, for some reason Apple doesn't like that and decide to delete all your stuff.
It is not a handset: Without iTunes you cannot use your IPhone, and to connect to iTunes you should two things 1) USB Cable 2) A laptop. Everything should sync through that, so you should always carry your USB with you. So I won't call the iPhone a "handset" unless Apple loses this hard coupling. With Andriod, thanks to Google Cloud services, you can setup your phone wherever you are without connecting it to a machine.
No Built-in WIFI Hotspot: I don't know about iPhone4S But IPhone4 doesn't have a WIFI tethering feature.
OS Update Errors: If Apple is trying to make the iPhone simple, it should make it all the way to the OS update, I haven’t met an average user who was able to update his OS Successfully in iPhone without losing his apps and music.
License to Develop: Fine, I understand how beneficial it gets to tab into the developer resources with a developer license, but to prevent me even from testing my app on device is something most developers won't like. So we should wait for weeks to get the license (mine took 2 months) or go on and jail-break in order to install a test app which what most people are doing by the way. So a clean message to apple: please lose the license to test.
No Jailbreak No Joy: There is any way to optimize and customize your iPhone without jail-breaking. Unless of course you jailbreak and void your warranty which consequently prevents you from getting any updates. Without a jail-break you don't know what on earth is going behind the scene.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The Good about Andriod

Here is what I like about Andriod

Naked OS: Andriod on the other hand is an open OS which comes out of the box with all what a geek might ask I can see through my OS and apps. I can see my device naked. It can do all what an iOS does, not with the same level of simplicity of course but Andriod is getting there with each release. You can take this OS and modify it the way you like.
Baked in Google Products: One more thing, Andriod, being a google product, and we know how all of us loves google, everything is baked in this OS, search engine, Google Mail, Maps, Documents, Picasa, Calendar and yes Contacts. The moment I entered my Gmail in my Galaxy S2, it starts pulling all my contacts with their numbers, emails, avatars, my Blog, Twitter and Facebook accounts into my contact list. All my calendar dates and anniversaries are automatically set, and most importantly. All Synced and ready to go.
Setup over WIFI: I have been using my Galaxy s2 for a week now and I NEVER connected it to a machine. I took it, charged it, entered my gmail account and voila! All sexy and ready to go.
Development Joy: Development is so easy, just download the Andriod SDK, write your code, install it to the device and enjoy, no licensing is required for testing your app. Just check the option to trust the Unknown apps and you are ready to go. Unlike iPhone where you need to purchase a development license even if you just want to test the app, so again, you need to jailbreak to install your app.
WIFI Tethering: Out of the box ready to use, used it so many times and enjoying it. I'm always connecting my BB to the my GS2 hotspot.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

The Bad about Andriod

Here is what I don't like about Andriod

Bad Market App: I didn't like the Andriod Market at all; I think it needs more work. Apple Store is much more organized.
Possible Viruses: Since it "can" be unlocked to unknown source apps, you are a potential victim of viruses which can hijack your phone.
Too much Built-in Apps: I would take this bad point to Samsung because they injected so much useless apps just for commercial benefits. At least allow me to delete them.
Auto Rotate: I would animate while rotating because sometimes the flip screen can get really frustrating.

(Feel free to add more in comments)

Conclusion

So I either get an iPhone, jailbreak it, customize it the way I want, and then be extra careful while syncing it not to lose my stuff. This way I can't enjoy any new updates by Apple anymore. Not to mention that to Jailbreak you need to make sure a Jailbreak software is available to the iOS you already have, and until now no good jailbreak is available for iOS5 for iPad2 and iPhone4S. Or get a clean Andriod handset and do whatever I want.

Both iOS and Andriod have their pros and cons, it depends on your needs.

"So no dad I don't know which one is better, you decide."

Microsoft Word Blogger Tool

2011-11-29T13:42:00.001+03:00

So I was trying a feature in Microsoft Word 2010, which allows you to connect to your existing Blogging platform (major blogging services supported) and write posts directly from your Word enviorment.

After I finished writing the post and was ready to post, I got this message.


Blogging from MS2010

"No thanks. I'm good."

October 2011 Songs Page (mp3)

2011-10-15T15:12:00.000+03:00


2011 October Songs

Rip your Car CD, Enjoy only Mp3, direct downloads, on your phone.

October 2011 Songs Page
share the love.

test

RIP Steve Jobs

2011-10-06T03:51:00.000+03:00

A eulogy of action

I can't compose a proper eulogy for Steve Jobs. There's too much to say, too many capable of saying it better than I ever could.
It's one thing to miss someone, to feel a void when they're gone. It's another to do something with their legacy, to honor them through your actions.
Steve devoted his professional life to giving us (you, me and a billion other people) the most powerful device ever available to an ordinary person. Everything in our world is different because of the device you're reading this on.

What are we going to do with it?

By Seth Godin - 5th October 2011

Yahoo and Bing Maps have the most out-dated satellite images

2011-10-02T15:25:00.002+03:00

One can easily tell how outdated Yahoo and Bing Maps are using Maps Compare Tool I wrote last year.

I compared Burj Khalifa in Dubai (the tallest building in the world so far) with 4 different maps and here is the result.

Click to enlarge

Construction of Burj Khalifa began on 21 September 2004, and the building officially opened on 4 January 2010. The time of this imagery in the picture above is 2nd of October 2011.

Google Maps is up to date, Burj Khalifa is fully completed.

Google Earth is up to date, you can also see the Building 3D model fully updated.

In Bing Maps satellite imagery the building is still half finished.

Big Fail for Yahoo Maps, the building is not even there in their 2011 Imagery.

You may compare other locations as well and tell us what you see.

VIVA Bahrain creates a Tipping Point for iPhone, Smart or Rushed?

2011-09-28T13:28:00.003+03:00

Despite the bad service VIVA is known for, it sure knows how to break into the market. VIVA is always knows as the big risk taker since its entrance in Bahrain. After unintentionally creating a tipping point for Nokia 1202 last year, it comes this year with an interesting iPhone offer that almost 85% of Bahraini citizens can afford. Creating another Tipping point for iPhone and iPad devices.

Batelco had an iPhone offer long before VIVA does but it didn't tip. That's because you need to be a 6 month post-paid client (later redesigned to be only 3 months) in order to get your iPhone as installments.

VIVA offer doesn't require you to be an existing post-paid client to get your iPhone. Just go and grab your device with a new post-paid line and service.

iPhone were once expensive devices that not everyone can afford when Nokia was the master. Now almost everyone has an iPhone in Bahrain especially teenagers.

That's big risk VIVA is taking here. Not everybody signed up for this offer can afford to pay, yet it made iPhone available for everyone. I know people who are unstable at their jobs who have VIVA iPhone. I can see a potential amount of law-suits that VIVA will file against those customers who will fail to pay the installments.

Arc2Google for ArcGIS 10.1/10/9x

2011-09-27T16:48:00.000+03:00

You guys were facing lots of problems installing Arc2Google. So I spend sometime compiling the whole thing into one MSI package that will do all the dirty registration for both x86 and 64 bit Windows. I have also tested it against ArcGIS 10.1 BETA and its working like charm.

Just a reminder that I have also updated the tool to support Yahoo and Bing Maps as well.

Enjoy

Click Here to Download The Tool for ArcGIS 10.1 (Also supports 10)

Click Here to Download The Tool for ArcGIS 9x (9.3,9.3.1,9.2)

Note: In Windows Server, Vista and 7 you should run the installation as Administrator, to do that you have to follow the following:

Copy Arc2Google.msi to C:\

Open notepad and write the following

Save As and select All files and type the name of the file as installarc2google.bat

You should have something like below

Right click and run as administrator

Then if you couldn't get the Toolbar in Arcmap, try running ArcMap as Administrator.

Shoot me and email for any help

facebook bans All Developers from Bahrain

2011-09-24T11:56:00.001+03:00

I just discovered that when I was trying to enable facebook timeline. If your hometown is Bahrain or Muharraq or Manama or any village in Bahrain You will not be able to create facebook Apps according to Facebook. Unless you change your hometown to any other country it will work.

Here is the prove.

Original Hometown/City:

When I try to create an application I get this

So I changed my profile to London.

Tried again and it worked.

Find out Serial killers from the Random numbers they select

2011-09-21T13:30:00.000+03:00

In a previous post, I talked about how Random Numbers are actually not so random and depend on many external factors.

Based on that formula, we could come up with a pattern and a relation between the random numbers selected by Serial Killers. Then plug this formula into suspects to rule them out.

Lets take 100 serial killer, and let each choose a number between 1 and 10,000. Chart out the results against their birthdays. Then use Fourear series and quantum mechanics to approximate a formula that will let you limit the numbers range. The resulted chart will be interesting. You may change the variables or add more and see the result.

Now, to test out if someone is a serial killer you only need to plug in his birthday and let him select a random number, if his result fell near the drive of the function. Then most probably your guy is a serial killer.

That's Nuts I know. But hey I'm thinking loudly. Others have listed the serial killers characteristics already.

An Idea: Traffic Ticket Generator

2011-09-19T13:00:00.000+03:00

I got a parking ticket last month, it was a 5 minutes stop. The traffic police usually sticks one of these tickets (on the right) to the window.

Instead of thinking of paying it, I took a minute to imagine how this process works, here is how.

Basically, in Bahrain, traffic police carry a large book of empty tickets. They walk in congested areas, find a vehicle violating a law (talking on the phone, drinking, illegal parking etc), write the vehicle number in an empty ticket with some details like vehicle model, driver details, vehicle registration.

I must mention to get these details the traffic police calls the main office. tear out the ticket and stick it to the window or hand it to you if you are there. Later he delivers the book to the main office and someone enters the tickets into the system manually. A pretty tedious process.

I know you will hate me, but I'm going to propose a design that will make their life easier.

How to optimize this

Lets use the Car Reader we proposed couple years ago. The reader has a GSM chip which can connect to the Internet, send and receive data, can scan license plates and displays basic information about the vehicle. We will add a mini printer in the Car Reader to print issued tickets and add that ticket to the database by connecting to the main office

So with one click I can:

1. Print the ticket with all vehicle details
2. Add the ticket to the database
3. Save 80% more time.
4. More tickets for us!

Perhaps I should delete this post.

An Idea: An Application to Prevent and Cure Cancer

2011-09-12T18:30:00.000+03:00

Science and Technology are advancing so fast that we are able actually communicate, use and control living organs. Here is the latest technology where some group of mad scientists created a robot with a "live" rat brain.

Therefore, its not impossible to use the Human API idea I wrote 2 years ago to cure cancer. Here my proposa.

The Human API is a set of methods and functions that allow us to write applications that can communicate with our body cells and organs through a device. But the Human API V1.0 I proposed 2 years ago can only access each cell individually regardless where this cell is. So I need to enhance this API to identify organs such as Liver, Colon, Stomach etc.

Prevent It
An Apple a day keeps the doctor away, the first design to cure cancer is to prevent. So I'm gonna introduce the interface IBodyOrgan and create the classes that implements this interface such as Liver, Colon etc..

Now with this new Object Oriented design we can access each body organ individually as follows.

Lets say I want to access my Liver cells and detect if there are any abnormal cells in my liver. Here is the code to do so using the Human API.

Dim myLiver as IBodyOrgan

'get the liver organ as object
myLiver = deviceapi.getOrganByID("LIVER")

'lets send a signal for the liver to start detoxification.
myLiver.SendSignal(LIVER_DETOXIFICATION);

Dim eCells as IEnumBodyCells

eCells = myLiver.getCells()

'lets access those cells and print if any are abnormal

For Each pCell In eCells
   If pCell.isAbnormal() Then

   'print the location of the cell and its ID on a map for the doctors for investigation
     PrintCellMap pCell   End if
Next

This small application can print a map of abnormal cells in a human liver and quickly hand that to his specialist. Imagine if we can install this application into kiosks machines in public, so anybody can easily do a check up. Perhaps with the advance of technology and biometrics this application can be deployed on iPhone or Andriod so people can do a check with their mobile! I'm gonna write another post just for that.

Cure It
One can enhance this application to even cure the possible cancer by killing or disabling the growth of those abnormal cells. Here is a proposal.

Dim myLiver as IBodyOrgan
'get the liver organ as object
myLiver = deviceapi.getOrganByID("LIVER")

'lets send a signal for the liver to start detoxification.
myLiver.SendSignal(LIVER_DETOXIFICATION);

'lets access those cells and print if any are abnormal

For Each pCell In eCells
   If pCell.isAbnormal() Then
         'Send a signal to disable the cell
         pCell.Disable() '
   End if

I'm sure one day we will hear of an iPhone application that can cure cancer.

An Idea: Batelco: CSV Downloadable Contacts for Smart Phones

2011-09-10T16:18:00.001+03:00

Batelco is the leading integrated communications’ provider in the Kingdom of Bahrain with a very large customer base. It has a huge telephone directory.

When I want a number of a particular organization or restaurant I dial 181 and in a matter of seconds that restaurant's number is SMS'ed to my phone. Batelco made that service even cooler when they launched the Mobile Telephone Directory. All is free and easy to access.

I have a suggestion that might make this service even easier and much user friendly. Categorize the telephone directory into groups (Restaurants, Banks, IT Companies etc..) and make them available online for download as a CSV (a standard format for all smart phones Comma Separated values). Now If I'm a frequent restaurant visitor, I can download the restaurant CSV to my Blackberry, iPhone, Andriod even Nokia and have access to all Restaurants in Bahrain directly on my contacts.

We have only one problem, telephone directory is dynamic. It is being updated frequently, so you need to download that CSV every now and then and resynch it back to your phone and you do not know if that file is updated or not. To tackle this, Batelco can create a different page to release only the changes (delta) so it is easier to download and sync. This concept is similar to the database replication .

Math and Love

2011-09-06T21:11:00.002+03:00

Someone spend time creating these heart functions.

Heart Functions

17 Free GIS ESRI Courses [Professional Certifications]

2011-09-05T15:50:00.001+03:00

Upon completion of each of the following free GIS courses, you get a professional certification that will help you pimp your resume. All you need to do is to follow the training, then do an small exam after that, if you pass the exam you get the certificate.

I just got certified using ArcPad in a 3 Hours course. You will be needing an ESRI Global Account

Field GIS ArcPad Certificate

Free GIS ESRI Courses with Certification

Turning Data into Information Using ArcGIS 10

Duration: 6 modules (18 hours)

Introduction to ArcGIS 9 Geostatistical Analyst

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Getting Started with GIS (for ArcGIS 9.2-9.3)

Duration: 3 modules (9 hours)

GIS for Humanitarian Mine Action

Duration: 8 modules (24 hours)

Getting Started with GIS (for ArcGIS 10)

Duration: 3 modules (9 hours)

Working with ArcPad 7

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Introduction to GIS Data ReViewer

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Introduction to Map Production System-Atlas

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

ArcGIS Data Interoperability Basics

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Using ArcMap in ArcGIS Desktop 10

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Using Python in ArcGIS Desktop 10

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Editing in ArcGIS Desktop 10

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Mobile GIS: Creating Web Maps for Lightweight Mobile Apps

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Mobile GIS: Using the ArcGIS for iOS Application

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Hazus-MH Overview and Installation (for ArcGIS 9.3.1/Hazus-MH MR5)

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Basics of Geographic Coordinate Systems (for ArcGIS 10)

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Field GIS: Collecting and Editing Data Using ArcPad 10

Duration: 1 module (3 hours)

Bloggers, Enjoy the new Blogger Interface

2011-09-03T09:43:00.000+03:00

Finally after long time of waiting, Google has re-engineered Blogger with some sexy interface,

Posting can never be easier, attaching pictures is as simple as copy and paste, adsense and analytics are integrated.

Main Menu

All what we need now is a decent Andriod/iPhone app for blogger.

It looks like am sticking to Blogger for a while.

Cloud Pimps: How hackers can earn money on the "Fly"

2011-08-30T02:48:00.013+03:00

The Cloud technology usage is highly increasing by customers and general organizations. it definitely makes us worry less about the hardware and software but we can't help but worry about the data as well. In this post we will show how cloud system can help hackers make money.

What is a Cloud?
Lets define a Cloud in few words so fresh readers can comfortably continue reading. It is a farm of high-tech machines located somewhere secure. You throw your data on the cloud and the cloud takes care of maintaining it, installing latest applications and updating software patches etc. You simply enjoy high speed access through thin clients.

Since the booming of the Internet, hackers have found many ways to break into machines, these are few methods.

Classic Hacking
Hackers used to infiltrate individuals machines to harvest information by implanting viruses and trojans. The trojan get executed, hacker gets in through a backdoor. Machine get hi-jacked.

Zombie Network
Zombie Network happens when a multiple classic hacking is performed putting a network of machines at the hacker command controlling them in anyway he wants. He can use the power of this zombie network to crack bank encryption codes, DOS a web server or even infiltrate other machines and add them to his zombie network.

Cloud Pimps
With thousand fully configured and connected servers located on the cloud, communicating all the time and exchanging information. All a hacker should do is infiltrate this cloud and he will get access to a fleet of servers at his command. If the hacker managed to get into one server he can make it the master server (the Pimp) and all the other servers on the cloud can be the slaves (prostitutes). The master server use the other servers, for instance, to earn money by displaying ads on the organization websites hosted on those slave servers (after all he has access to everything). This is a pretty good way to earn money. Not only that, with powerful cloud servers at his disposal the hacker have the power to nail down another cloud and create a Cloud Pimp Network. This hacker can be a millionaire in no time just from ads.

I know some of you will say this looks like science fiction, after all the cloud is fully secured and firewalled with latest up to date security system. However, if well implemented, classic hacking can create multiple zombie networks which can be used to break in into a zero-day vulnerability in one of the software that is installed on the cloud. The hacker just need to setup his zombie network and analyze the software installed in the cloud for a zero-day vulnerability. Once found he breaks through that door.

Not easy, but implementable.

Twitter shields up with an extra layer of Security

2011-08-29T13:34:00.000+03:00

With their t.co domain, any posted URL in twitter will be shielded with this domain. Basically the shortened link of t.co will redirect to the URL giving twitter folks a door to process the link.

This way twitter can track and run security checks on all links on twitter. In case of any malicious links, Twitter can easily delete the reference and protect twitter users.

Of course this created an extra work for 3rd party twitter clients, and URL shorten services like twitlonger, in particular. Clients should now unpack the t.co to get the original URL before processing links.

As I wrote in a previous post added security decrease performance most of the time.