WE live in such a sick world!!

I used to ask all my friends to read news about the world and actually know what all is happening throughout the world.

But now I think it’s better that people know little other than what goes in their lives…or they would have already know that The world is such a sick place!!

I am glad that almost no one or just a few knows who “Amanda Todd” was or “have ever read horrifying stories about war crimes on women” or “know why saddam hussain,Gaddafi deserverd to be killed” or “know why average life expectancy in African countries like angola, zambia etc is less than even “40″ years” or “the fact that a girl is raped every “18 hours” in Delhi only and among them 10% were under 10 years old”… …. the list is endlesss…I can keep going on …….

And it’s not just the women who feel insecure but the brothers, father, boyfriends and all of us who respect women. We have this “being afraid” feeling which just is deep in our heart and won’t mitigate but keeps on making us more afraid each day. It’s alarming & sad when you have to escort you sisters to a metro station just to make sure she is safe while she uses public transport or when she is outside home. It’s sad when you walk with a girl and concentrate more on her safety than concentrating on what she says. It’s condescending when you are with a girl and have to walk silently when some men pass lewd comment about the girl you are with!!

We pay taxes, we vote, we selected the government !! And all we ask for is them to do their work. We just ask politicians to make strong laws, police to protect us, society to be our moral support but what we get?? Politicians behaving like animals in the parliament, throw chairs, watch porn and fight on quota for promotion !!! The average cost of each minute in parliament is “2.5 lakh. Instead of valuing this time what we see is the honorable speaker asking the “representatives” of the country to calm down and behave. The police on the other hand making us feel secure , scares us. They blame the victim for travelling in the wrong bus, wearing provocative clothes and affirm us that they are doing all they can!! Rashtrapati Bhawan alone has 968 cops deployed inside. With 8,558 personnel , it has the biggest staff allocation among all Delhi Police units. But the second largest allocation is for VIP security, with 7,315 policemen guarding 416 VIPs roughly 20 cops to a VIP.The society everyone cares about is just a mere onlooker. Everybody is so busy when they should have had lend a helping hand to someone in need but instead society leaves no stone unturned in making our life miserable when we need their support the most.

We thought India would a better country when it’s free !! This is freedom… !! It is estimated that during the partition, up to 100,000 women were kidnapped and raped. And even after that rape cases have risen by “873%” since 1953 , even though we are more literate, more civilized and have more jobs !! Of the 5,337 rape cases in the last decade, in 3,860 the culprits were either acquitted or discharged by courts for lack of “proper” evidence. And this is when just 10% of cases actually ever get registered !!!

India keeps waking up .Before it was Jessica Lal case who was shot for not serving a drink in a bar, then it was the lokpal to remove corruption, now it’s the gang rape and soon it will be something else…. I don’t want to be part of the blame game and start blaming the government or police or society. I am just confused and want nothing but to just get rid of the fear I have for my mother, sister and everyone else…

I pray that one day we can have a safer INDIA. But I don’t think this happening anytime soon….

A letter from a scared & fearful Son, Brother, Friend…..

References for the stats

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crime_in_India

http://ncrb.nic.in/CD-CII2011/cii-2011/Table%205.3.pdf

http://www.sify.com/news/delhi-has-most-rape-cases-among-35-cities-news-crime-lk1t4dbghha.html

http://zeenews.india.com/news/nation/rapes-in-india-rise-by-873-percent-from-1953_817894.html

http://articles.economictimes.indiatimes.com/2012-09-07/news/33677082_1_monsoon-session-lok-sabha-parliamentary-affairs-minister

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rape_in_India

The post A letter from a scared & fearful INDIAN brother, son & friend !! appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

It seems that WhatsApp is full of vulnerabilities. Last year in May, it was revealed to the world that WhatsApp accounts could be hijacked without the user knowing it. This year in January, we came to know that the status of a WhatsApp user could be changed remotely. It was found in May 2011 that WhatsApp sends communication in plaintext and was fixed a year later in May this year. It hasn’t been a long time since these vulnerabilities were fixed. Now there’s a new vulnerability to make both WhatsApp and its users to worry about.

According to the Wikipedia page for WhatsApp,

WhatsApp uses a customized version of the open standard Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP).Upon installation, it creates a user account using one’s phone number as username (Jabber ID: [phone number]@s.whatsapp.net) and an MD5-hashed, reversed-version of the phone’s IMEI as password.

And really, WhatsApp uses exactly the same procedure mentioned above without any variation. Neither there is any salting of the hash nor obfuscated MD5 variant. For example, on Android platform you can find any WhatsApp password using IMEI number with a single line of code given below:

md5(strrev(‘your-imei-goes-here’))

Finding the username is even more simpler. Your phone number is your username!

There are multiple ways through which one can find someone’s IMEI number:

1. Through direct access to the victims phone. Jost dial & call *#06# (in most cases) and you’ll get the IMEI number.
2. An app that silently sends the victims IMEI number to a server in the background (many applications do this already) & phone number, either by letting users fill it in themselves in a registration part of the app, or also silently (this method however isn’t always airtight but works in a lot of cases).
3. A hacker leaks a database/file with IMEI numbers with associated phone numbers.
4. A spammer buys this information from an app developer.

SAMPLE ANDROID CODE:

To retrieve IMEI number:

TelephonyManager tm = (TelephonyManager) getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);

String device_id = tm.getDeviceId();

To retrieve  phone number:

TelephonyManager tMgr =(TelephonyManager)mAppContext.getSystemService(Context.TELEPHONY_SERVICE);


mPhoneNumber = tMgr.getLine1Number();

To retrieve voicemail number (just for fun):

TelephonyManager.getCompleteVoiceMailNumber();

By implementing this code you can tap anybody’s WhatsApp messages. You can hack anybody’s WhatsApp account with just their IMEI numbers.

This vulnerability can leak user’s sensitive data and messages. Or it is possible that it may already have been happening with users or maybe with you!

So next time think twice before sending any sensitive information or receiving any message over WhatsApp because you never know where is it going or from where is it coming. It may be possible that there may be  a hacker on the other end. WhatsApp is far from secure right now.

Source: SamGranger.com

The post Hacker finds another WhatsApp Vulnerability appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

Scientist have already demonstrated maneuvered and controlled insects which could be guide to follow a path. Even you can just use a “DIY kit” to build your own remote controlled cockroach, a cyborg cockroach!

A team of researchers from NC State have taken this to the next level. They have developed an electronic interface through which they were able to remotely control cockroaches along fairly precise paths.

The basic idea behind this research for cyborg cockroaches is to use insects at places where humans cannot go like chemical contamination site or a collapsed building. Through this technology, the robotics researchers can achieve such power without building complete robots to work. But they would have to control cockroaches in order to make this work.

NC State team of researchers have found a way to do so. They can tap cockroaches ‘ natural sensory pathway to stimulate certain movements.

Researchers fitted a 0.7 gram micro-controller at the cockroach’s back and wired it to its antennae and cerci. Cerci senses movement in the air and gives the roach a sense that something is approaching from behind, prompting it to move forward. While the antennae senses the obstacles at the front and tells it to turn left or right to avoid physical impediment.

The researchers can prompt the “biobotic” cockroaches to scurry forward by sending small electric impulses to its organs. They have demonstrated their success with a cyborg cockroach following a curved path.

If you still don’t believe it, see the video yourself.

Source: popsci.com

The post Scientist demonstrate Cockroaches that would Follow Your Orders appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

Kashmir the state which has been lauded as “heaven” on Earth but instead is a haven for terror. But did you ever wonder when it all started? It all began when newly formed Pakistan attacked the princely state of Kashmir, which was not a part of the “newly independent” India.

How it all started ?

After the attainment of Independence from British rule, the princely states were given a choice by the Article 2 (4) of the Independence Act to select whether to accede to India or Pakistan or remain outside them. The princely state of Jammu & Kashmir was under pressure from both “India” & “Pakistan” to accede to them.

Faced with painful choices, the Maharaja of Kashmir, Hari Singh, decided to avoid accession to either country. Pakistan later attacked “the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir”. Later on, following a Muslim revolution in the Poonch and Mirpur area and an allegedly Pakistani backed Pashtun tribal intervention from the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa that aimed at supporting the revolution, the Maharaja asked for Indian military assistance.

The Attack by Pakistan

India set a condition that Kashmir must accede to India for it to receive assistance in the war. The Maharaja complied, and the Government of India recognized the accession of the erstwhile princely state to India. The Jammu & Kashmir National Conference volunteers aided the Indian Army in its campaign to drive out the Pathan invaders.

Pakistan was of the view that the Maharaja of Kashmir had no right to call in the Indian Army, because it held that the Maharaja of Kashmir was not a heredity ruler, that he was merely a British appointee after the British defeated Ranjit Singh who ruled the province before the British. There had been no such position as the “Maharaja of Kashmir” prior to British rule.

The war

Hence Pakistan decided to take action, but the Army Chief of Pakistan General Douglas Gracey did not send troops to the Kashmir front and refused to obey the order to do so given by Muhammad Ali Jinnah, Governor-General of Pakistan. Gracey justified his insubordination by arguing that Indian forces occupying Kashmir represented the British Crown and hence he could not engage in a military encounter with Indian forces.

Maharaja_of_Kashmir,_Hari_Singh_(1895_-_1961)

Local tribal militias and the Pakistani forces moved to take Srinagar but on reaching Uri they encountered defensive forces. Hari Singh made a plea to India for assistance and signed the Instrument of Accession. The British government also took part in stopping the Pakistani forces from advancing.

Pakistan finally did manage to send troops to Kashmir but by then the Indian forces had taken control of approximately two-thirds of the former principality. The Gilgit and Baltistan territories were secured for Pakistan by the Gilgit Scouts and the forces of the state of Chitral, another princely state that had acceded to Pakistan.

The animated “gif” from Wikipedia shows the J&K map with the areas under conflict:

Animated map showing events from the J&K 1947-48 war

The Choice by princely state of J & K

The “princely state” of Jammu & Kashmir, itself chose to become a part of India. The Pakistan forces won the initial phases of the war as the princely state were poorly armed and were incapable to compete with the “heavily armed” Pakistan forces. The Pakistani forces could have easily reached Srinagar and declared Jammu & Kashmir to be it’s dominion. But the forces stayed in the towns which it initially won and instead looted the cities and killed the local inhabitants.

Meanwhile, the princely state of Jammu & Kashmir asked India for help. India then airlifted troops to Srinagar and reinforced the princely forces. When Pakistani forces finally tried to move further into the state they faced strong counter-attack by the Indian forces.

The Indians after “more than 11 months” into war got the upper hand in all sectors. In 1948, Poonch was finally relieved after a siege of over a year. The Gilgit forces in the High Himalayas, who had previously made good progress, were finally defeated. The Indians pursued as far as Kargil before being forced to halt due to supply problems. The Zoji La pass was forced by using tanks (which had not been thought possible at that altitude) and Dras was recaptured.

At this stage, Indian Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, decided to ask UN to intervene. A UN cease-fire was arranged for the 31 December 1948. A few days before the cease-fire the Pakistanis launched a counter attack, which cut the road between Uri and Poonch.

After protracted negotiations a cease-fire was agreed to by both countries, which came into effect. The terms of the cease-fire as laid out in a United Nations resolution of August 13, 1948, were adopted by the UN on January 5, 1949. This required Pakistan to withdraw its forces, both regular and irregular, while allowing India to maintain minimum strength of its forces in the state to preserve law and order. On compliance of these conditions a plebiscite was to be held to determine the future of the territory. In all, 1,500 soldiers died on each side during the war and Pakistan was able to acquire roughly two-fifths of Kashmir, including five of the fourteen eight thousand plus peaks of the world, while India maintained the remaining three fifths of Kashmir, including the most populous and fertile regions.

The undeniable facts

The region that “Pakistan” conquered in now known as “Pakistan Occupied Kashmir” which they call as “Azad kashmir”. Pakistan even celebrates Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5, each year since 1990 as a day of protest against Indian control of Jammu and Kashmir.It is a national holiday in Pakistan. Nowadays, the so called “Azad Kashmir” is haven for terrorists. The terrorists who attacked Mumbai on 26/11 were trained in the regions of “Azad Kashmir”.

India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, had refused to give Pakistan their share of the money that was due to them after partition. But Gandhi went on a fast till death to protest against this injustice against the newly created Pakistani state and this pressure led to Nehru’s agreeing to pay the money so direly needed by the new Muslim nation. Pakistani text books and movies show Gandhi as being “Anti-pakistan” and one who failed to do anything for the million who died during partition. Neglecting the fact that “Jinnah” demanded the partition not Gandhi. But Gandhi is depicted as a villain in Pakistan while that  literally raised “Jinnah” to the level of God.

It is also ironical that India gave “Rs 55 crore” (Aroud “Rs 3500 crore” in today’s time) to Pakistan to help the nation. But Pakistan even though poverty ridden, decided to use these funds to attack Jammu & Kashmir which was an independent princely state.

Not many know that “Rs 55 crore” was just the “first” installment of a total of “Rs 75 crore” that was given to Pakistan in aid. But following the 1947-48 war the second installment “Rs 20 crore” was never paid. The “Rs 75 crore” that was to be paid was a result of Gandhi ji’s fast unto death, as he thought it was necessary to help Pakistan being a newly formed country.

Pakistan never won any of the “four wars” it fought with India, but still it is well known that Pakistan will not miss any chance if given to attack India. Recently, Pakistan attained “nuclear warfare” and has been touting itself as being tantamount to India’s military power. World powers have shown grieve concern on the security of these nuclear missile base as they could fall into hands of Taliban or other forces. We fear that they already are in dangerous and “incapable” hands.

Do tell us what are you views on the topic ?

The post The Kashmir War : Why and when did it all started ? appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

Amazon Kindle Fire

In Los Angeles, Amazon presented its new Kindle lineup. The interesting part is that the prices are insanely cheap. The new Kindle Fire HD With 4G LTE offers a full year of 4G LTE service for just $50. That turns out to be just $4.17 per month. Amazing, isn’t it?

Kindle is now back-lit like just like the Nook Simple Touch With Glowlight. Its name is now appended with “Paperwhite” now. The back-light glows softly during night and works great even during day-time. The Wi-Fi only model costs $119 and 3G model costs $179. The screen is also upgraded now. It is now sharper and responds better. Kindle now has this new screen (no back-light however) and costs just $69.

Kindle Fire’s hardware was updated last year and it was made cheaper also ($159). This year, there is a new 7-inch model called Kindle Fire HD which features a better display, better processor, double storage (16 GB). This all comes in an amazing price of $199. If it still doesn’t satisfies you, then there is another 8.9-inch tablet waiting for you. Amazon has worked on the quality of the screen and responsiveness of the apps and wants to compete with iPad. Amazon has also implemented some cool ideas like X-Ray which lets you tap on the screen while in the middle of all kinds of apps to get more information. Or when you click on an actor’s face while watching a movie, it will take you to that actor’s IMDB page.

The Wi-Fi-only, 16GB model of this 8.9-inch tablet will cost only $299. It also has a 4G model which costs $50 per year for 250MB bandwidth. It will also provide some cloud storage and app store credit worth $10. It would have 32 GB storage and 4G. All this will cost just $499 which is a lot cheaper than iPad.

Source: popsci.com

The post Amazon Launches Its Amazingly Cheap Kindles Series appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

verified twitter accounts

Twitter is one of the primary social network + micro blogging site out there.  On twitter instead of friends we have “followers”.  But did you ever wonder that from those hundreds or thousands of followers how many had that “blue tick”   against their twitter name. Or in simple words how many of your followers are “verified” twitter users.

To know how many verified twitter users follow you use the simple trick:

1) Go to twitfrnd.com. It is a twitter tool that shows the relation between the followers of two different users.

2) In the first field enter “verified”.  Twitter.com/verified is an official twitter account that follows all the verified users on twitter.

3) In the second field enter your twitter username.( I entered my twitter username “@itsshashank“)

4) Finally you will get a summary of the relation. Look for the last section

Indicators The 37 accounts @verified follows that follow @itsshashank

Verified Users following @itsshashank

Or simple go to http://twtrfrnd.com/verified/ and enter your username in the second field.

It’s a pretty simple trick to find the number of verified accounts followed by you.

What is a verified account?

Any account with a blue verified badge on their Twitter profile is a verified account. 

Why does Twitter verify accounts?

Verification is currently used to establish authenticity of identities on Twitter. The verified badge helps users discover high-quality sources of information and trust that a legitimate source is authoring the account’s Tweets.

What kinds of accounts get verified?

Twitter proactively verifies accounts on an ongoing basis to make it easier for users to find who they’re looking for. We concentrate on highly sought users in music, acting, fashion, government, politics, religion, journalism, media, advertising, business, and other key interest areas. We verify business partners from time to time and individuals at high risk of impersonation.

The post Find how many “verified twitter” users are following you? appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

If you are a connoisseur of music, you could easily spot Sneha’s close to “reality” style of music.  Sneha is famous for using “real world” sounds in her music and using these she makes such melodious and “lively” sound. She says that she loves the “openness” of recording out of the studio, it gives her song a soul and a real feeling.

The sheer talent of the young musician was best seen in the MTV’s sound tripping series with the “tung tung da sound” soundtrack . In the feature Sneha Khanwalkar uses only the sounds from a village in punjab during a festival to create an amazing composition.

The video from MTV’s “tung tung da sond” by Sneha Khanwalkar:

In the song “Chi chaa ledar” she utilized the voice of a 12 year old “Durga” whom she found singing in a train in Mumbai. But the 12 year old even though lacking any formal training in music gives an exceptional performance and makes it hard to believe that she is just “12 years old”. Besides being amazing sung “Chi cha ledar” features a unique amalgamation of words which is very evident in Sneha’s style of compositions.

The 12 year old "Durga"

Also we loved the song “bahut khoob” from Gangs of Wasseypur 2. In “Bahut Khoob” Sneha uses voices of village children which were intertwined with 8-bit beats. The song has something to it, it will make your heart move to the beats. Giving to the innovative lyrics, the song “bahut khoob” use excerpts from a famous hindi poem:

Chattanon se krida karti
Kal kal karti, chal chal karti
Chattanon se krida karti
Kabhi idhar mud, kabhi udhar mud
Ban parbat mein lipti chupti.
Dharti ke har kisi chor se,
Ban parbat ke kisi mod se
Boond boond se bana hai, kaun
Chaar dhamoon se juda hai, kaun…

Sneha Khanwalkar is the personality in focus on Dailyjag and we are sure she deserves all the praise she gets. We are looking forward to more “innovative” and real living music from the talented musician.  Do tell us what other songs you loved of her.
Do see the “Making of “O, Womaniya”

The post Sneha Khanwalkar : The talented musician is the “Dailyjag” personality of the month appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

Apps are not just for kids or teens. Even adults and working professionals can get the most out of apps. When we talk about productivity apps, Evernote and Dropbox come to our mind. But there are other apps too which are really helpful but not everyone knows about them. Here is a list of such apps.

Clear: Drag, drop, pinch, and swipe your to-do lists.

There are lots of to-do list apps available in the market but clear beats them all with its simplicity. Using Clear is dead easy. For example, if you want to exit list and go back to your home screen/menu, you can simply pinch vertically on the screen to shut the list. For completing an item in the list, swipe right and for deleting it swipe left. For undoing your action, just shake your phone.It allows user to easily drag and drop items and set different colors for different items to increase readability.

SwiftKey 3: Type faster, smarter, and more accurately.

If your smartphone’s predictive text system irritates you, then SwiftKey 3 is perfect for you. SwiftKey uses its AI to learn your writing style and predicts the words that you wish to type. Not just text, SwiftKey also predicts the people you know and the places you visit from your Facebook, Twitter and Gmail accounts. The app’s privacy policy clearly states that the company never stores the user’s passwords, login credentials or key presses. So you can use it without fearing much.

FreshBooks: Invoice, track time, and manage expenses on the go.

Cloud-based tools can make invoicing easy. You can track your unbilled hours (if you are doing hourly work) and can even manage team projects with team time sheets, including the option to have different rates for different projects. FreshBooks allows you to do this all on the go. It makes your job way too easy.

Captio: Email yourself with one quick tap.

Generally people use their emails as to-do lists. It is not a good habit but it is difficult to break for some people. Captio makes it even more difficult to break this habit! It makes it easier to send yourself an email with just a single click. Open the app, write a message, press “Send” and it’s done. It also integrates with Evernote and other note-based tools.

Wayk 4: Wake up with a next-generation alarm clock.

Wayk 4 is a “revolutionary alarm clock” as it is smarter than traditional wake-me-up devices. Simply turn the inner digital wheel to choose the hour and the outer digital wheel to choose the minutes for setting up an alarm. In the morning when the alarm will go off, it will remind you of time and will tell you the local temperature. You can even connect it with your Google Calendar or your RSS feeds and it will tell you all when you wake up in the morning.

Source: fastcompany.com

The post 5 Apps That Will Increase Your Productivity appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

Bionic Eye

It is exactly what we were waiting for, to help the blind see this colorful world. It is a major breakthrough in the field of medical science. Scientists have first time ever succeeded in implanting a prototype bionic eye through surgery which has helped a blind woman see shapes.

Researchers of Bionic Vision Australia have  announced their success with the prototype of the Bionic Eye. They shared the response of the implantee of the Bionic Eye after the implant, “didn’t know what to expect, but all of a sudden, I could see a little flash–it was amazing”. The team hopes to start ‘building’ shapes based on her vision which will lead to the creation of a complete bionic eye that can work like a real eye.

Nerve cells are stimulated by the electrodes in the Bionic Eye. The scientists can get feedback from the user on the ‘flashes of light’ in controlled environment. It will help calibrate the eye until it reflects the actual environment. Scientists say that it is not complete vision but it is definitely a big step towards it.

In future, they would be integrating an external camera with the Bionic Eye, and will be creating versions with more electrodes. A person can see large objects with 98 electrodes and can recognize faces and large print with 1,024 electrodes.

Source: popsci.com

The post First Ever Working Bionic Eye Implanted In a Blind Patient appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.

Apple vs Samsung

After its victory over Samsung in the patent war, Apple is now demands to add four more Samsung products in the list of patent-infringing products. If this happens then the list will include Samsung Galaxy S III as well.

Apple filed documents against Samsung in San Jose federal district court on Friday. Apple demanded to end Samsung’s release of “copycat products” and urged the court to pull Samsung products released after its lawsuit was filed in April.

Earlier Apple’s patent violator’s list consisted of 17 Samsung products but now it contains 21. Now it includes Galaxy S III and Droid Charge as well. Apple’s original lawsuit was against 28 devices but many of those are now no longer available in the market.

Apart from Galaxy S III, the list includes Galaxy S II 4G, Galaxy S II (AT&T variant), Galaxy S II Skyrocket, Galaxy S II (T-Mobile Variant), Galaxy S II Epic 4G (Sprint Variant), Galaxy S Showcase, Droid Charge and Galaxy Prevail.

On 24th August, Samsung was found to have copied Apple’s design innovations and Apple was awarded $1.05 billion by the jury.

Source: firstpost.com

The post Apple’s New Hit-List: Samsung Galaxy S III Plus 3 Others appeared first on Dailyjag : Read interesting news from all over the world.