Saturday, November 29, 2008

Black Tornado

It all started late in 26th of November 2008. We had heavy rainfall in our area and it was flooding all over Tamil Nadu. We had power supply for about 6-8 hours. And we could recall the floods that ravaged this part in 2005. That is what happened in Tamil Nadu. In Mumbai, the situation was entirely different. Few terrorists came through a boat to the gateway of India and split themselves into groups. One group entered Taj Mahal Hotel, another group entered Trident Hotel and yet another entered Chatrapathi Shivaji terminus formerly called as Victoria Terminus. The terrorist then went on to seige at Narman Point later killing the jewish rabbi.

The police as usual couldnot stop the terrorist with lathis, pistols and rifles. How could they? The Chief of the ATS squad was killed. And the siege went on for two more days. The NSG commandos arrived early on the next morning and they took control of all the operations. The NSG started to clear the Hotel room by room. But unfortunately they had been verywell prepared for This long term sige. they had dried fruits and knew the layout of the hotel very well. After about 50 hours all the terrorists were eliminated with a high casualty.

The NSG commandos did a very good job and they are worthy of the jublation poured upon by the onlookers. When someone is watching you performing, its more probable that you might make mistakes. its more probable to commit mistake when the whole India is watching you do something. The same goes for NSG commandoes. The nation remembers their brave efforts and their sacrifice.

I like to point a few small issues that could be deadly. With Delhi jamia Encounter Inspector M C Sharma was killed just because of the fact that they didnt wear bullet Proof jackets(kevlar Vests). Its the normal practise that many soldiers are ready to give their lives for their single general or other top official(courtesy saving private ryan). Yet here we see the top officials dare to enter the Hotzone without much protection for themselves. Its a big loss for our country and for the police dept. We cant loose brave and good people like that.
The NSG commandos could have better organised the raid. Its very hard for them to even cordon as the terrorist kept moving from place to place. I could remember a scenario in band of brothers where the Commanders command their men to learn the map. Knowing the layout of the Hotel could make the NSG to literally roundup the terrorist.

Many people have indicated that we do not have enough laws to prevent terrorist strike. No matter how many laws we have, these terrorists are going to break all of them. No matter how much laws we have, the mumbai terror attacks could not be prevented without arming better training the police.

I will term Black Tornado as a successful mission and all the defense forces involving in eliminating the threat did a very good job.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Nisha's outburst

Its quite funny for the Tamil weather persons to name the cyclones just like the Americans do. These cyclones have been a continuous nuisance to our state. But still we have to depend on the rains for our growth. My friend has covered a lot of issues relating to the floods and the damage Nisha caused. I just want to add a few steps that can be taken to prevent the damage in the future.

First a survey of area which are susceptible to flood has to be identified. This is one of the most tedious job. And also try to find the population density in these regions. The above specified process can take a lot of time. So the government might not find it that important. This process could be taken by Media or other private organisations.

Then the government should analyze the survey and mark areas that are frequented by floods as say RED ZONE. The people residing in these areas should be vacated and given safe places which are in the GREEN zone(no floods). The farmers should be advised of the crops they have to grow in the rainy season and make sure not much loss is incurred to the farmers. Its better not to cultivate in the area which is near the rivers.

Information of possible flood should be conveyed before in the RED ZONE so that people have time to take precautionary actions. There is nothing to prevent the falling of trees on the road. To prevent that would require a tedious task.

The careful planning and action of the government could reduce the damages caused by these floods in the future. Hope we have safe place to live in.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Is it Safe?

Whenever we come across a situation or object, we might ask the question "Is it safe?". And We live in this earth. And as per the scientists it is believed that human beings are living in the same earth since the beginning. But is our earth safe? We might look around and we can say that there might be no danger around. But the fact is that we are surrounded by dangers in all sides. Let us look at an atom for example. Of the 108(or 110) elements many are harmful to us and it can even kill us. If an atom breaks, the energy released is extremely harmful to man. Yet we survive everyday and we have never witnessed such natural destruction in our life.

Lets see what are the other dangers that surround us. Look at all the surroundings... we have 3 forms of matter. Solid, liquid , gas. We live on land. well some might say that there are few who live on snow. That isnt a big issue. It is believed that only 3% of the land in earth is inhabitable. The rest are rainforests, ice caps or deserts.

I recently saw the most ecofriendly house to be built for a cost of 14000 pounds. Speaking of which i can remember a story from Bible about the difference between the house built on the rock and sand. The house was built in 3 huge containers with almost everything we require in our life. The real distressing fact about that house was that it didnot have a foundation making it easier to fall prey for any kind of natural disasters. I would prefer to live in a high tech car or van instead of such a house.

Though the land is safe for habitation, its not entirely safe. The land itself are dangerous to man. When the faults in the rock weakens resulting in earthquakes and landslides which are dangerous to man. The same thing is true for Water. we cant survive without water. I was once asked this riddle in my school days.
You swallow it and live. If it swallows you, then you die
The answer is water. Though we cant survive without water, water is still dangerous to humans. Eg Tsunami, floods etc. So is air. We cant live without air for more than 20 minutes but tornadoes, cyclones, hurricanes are dangerous. All these events might happen by chance but it doesn't happen everyday. we really dont know when they will occur. We can just identify the level of disaster only after it occurs.

We might say that the energy we get might be safe. But there are equal dangers in that to. I will discuss about electromagnetic energy and sound as they are most commonly used energy. Powerful radio waves can produce harmful effects in human. Microwaves can cause unusual perceptions and prolonged exposure could be dangerous. The light is dangerous to Man(LASER). The infrared radiations dehydrate the body and eventually is dangerous. The ultraviolet radiations can be utilized by the skin to produce vitamin D. But prolonged exposure or harmful UV rays can cause cancer. The xrays- gamma rays are extremely dangerous and there are just a few uses.

We use sound to communicate to our friends. But nowadays we are becoming silent. We use IM, sms and many other forms of silent communication methods. But sound is also equally dangerous to Humans. The infrasonic sounds can cause a feeling of anguish, fear nausea,etc and high decibel sound produced in a certain frequency in IF can kill the humans. The animal organs are designed to resonate at such a low frequency that high decibel sounds of such lower frequency isn't emitted by any natural phenomenon. It is literally impossible to say that this phenomenon could happen by chance.

The animals that lives with us and around us are afraid of humans yet they could be dangerous. Certain plants could also be dangerous. We eat food to live. Even the food itself can become harmful to man.

Its literally impossible to say that we came into this world by chance when we live surrounded by dangers all around us and literally ignore them all the days of our life. I personally see its impossible to ignore god when i look at His creations. Let Glory be to god Who loves us even though we might be sinners and is longing for us to return to him.

Sunday, November 9, 2008

Geiger Counter - best days

I did my schooling in zion matriculation school. During my final year in school, we had a day free as the professionals from the kalpakkam power plant came to our school to help us understand the aspects of radioactivity and the usuage of geiger counter which measures the radioactivity. It was August 1, 2003. I couldnt remember much of the happenings on the day but i do remember two things.

We were taken to some room, where they had radioactive material and they were demonstrating the usage of geiger counter. As usual, in the room, we made a noise. And the guy who was doing the experiment told us to keep quiet. He then continued the experiments and demonstrated how radioactivity was measured. The usually measured reading was in 1000s. And we took a few readings and the guy told us to do the calculations which we never did. He also told us that prolonged exposure to radioactivity can cause us various problems in our health and ultimately death.

After that we came to class. The professors came to class and explained about a theory.( i really dont know which was first: The theory or the experimentation) I could remember a question i asked them. If there is some problem in the kalpakkam nuclear power plant, then how much far would the destruction reach. He asserted that there wont be any nuclear disasters as it is very safe and told us that there are lots of precautions that were taken. I insisted that even if something goes wrong(worst case scenario) how long would the destruction reach. He told that such situation would be brought under control and the destruction can be stopped in 8 KM. During those days i used to think kalpakkam was in the north of chennai. But it is in south of chennai near the seashore. They answered a lot of other questions

Friday, November 7, 2008

Time.

Its a well known fact that time has seconds as one of the smallest measure. The Pendulum was the first instrument to measure second. There are other lower measures of time like nano seconds.

Minutes, hours, days weeks, month,years are the other ways to denote the passage of time. All of them are usual except for a week and month.


The revolving of the moon around the earth could almost take a month and that could be the reason of the origin of Month. I could remember the school days when i was taught the number of days in a month(30 or 31) based on the position of knuckles.

Because there isnt much significance in a week and month as per scientific issues but still its widely accepted. The other important aspect is that we rest(or given holiday) once in a week. the only solution we can get to know about week is in holy books of Hindu, Muslim and christianity(and also Jews) and may be even in Chinese ancient literatures. The most oldest claim of a week could(may) be in bible(and torah) which starts with a week and offcourse it says about the rest day(sabath). We can say that in a day the earth rotates once and in a year the earth revolves around the sun. But we cant say any such thing for a week except that we can see seven palnets in the night sky. i havent tried that though.

Lets get to other important events(on time) that might come in a year: A leap Year and a leap Second. We all know about the leap year. The rotation of the earth is slowing down at some rate each day. It is not a constant rate at which it slows down. So inorder to keep the time accurate, they observe a leap second in a day. There were 23 occasions from 1972 where a leap second was annnounced or introduced in a year.

Equinox are the days when the the earth has 12 hours of day and 12 hours of night. And the shortest day (winter solstice)and longest day (summer solstice)are either july 20-23 or december 20-23 depending on the hemisphere. Solar eclipse and lunar eclipse are two special phenomenon that might come in a year. But they dont have any significance in the time scale in earth.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

Encounters With Dogs!!!

Dogs are the best pet which never bites(ahem) anyone! At least i never got one. Its really interesting to find posters like "Beware Of Dog" but not anything like "Beware of Cats" or rats or squrriels etc.. Well i am gonna say my personal experience with dogs.

The first time i got scared of a dog was when i was in first standard. My dad told me not to look afraid or run. only then the dogs will chase. We used to play with the dogs in my uncle's house. They had two dogs. So i lost the fear of dogs.

But there are a few incidents i encountered. I used to goto take 2 buses to goto school everyday. And at times its more important to run to board a bus. And there are quite a few street dogs on the road. And the problem is if a dog see you running then it might chase you. And that happened once. The dogs run faster than us. And it barked at me chasing me. So i had to slow down a bit. The street dogs often barks and do not bite anyone. The pet dogs usually does both.

My uncle came to stay in our house for a month or so and that time we had 3 dogs. And thats when i was almost bitten by the second oldest dog when i tried to lift it with its stomach.

Recently when i went to tuticorin, my uncle there had a dog. If u rub the neck(not too hard or it will start to bite) it will feel very comfortable for a dog. I did that and as soon as i finished it it started to bark at me.

A few weeks back, as i was walking along a road, a dog started barking at me when i was about 50 meters ahead of me. And it was a pet dog which wasnt chained but big enough to scare anyone. I got a bit scared. I couldnt see any one who appear to be the owner of the dog. Whenever i see a dog, I just ignore it. But this time it was different. I cant run and do anything. All i did was just proceed forward as if ignoring the dog.When i walked past the dog, the dog was still barking at me and started to follow me. And thats the time someone started to call the yell "Tommy ignae va". Thank god. I never knew where the dog was until it tounched my fingers. Thats so close.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

The oldest Motor

The motor like system found in the bacteria that propels (or makes) the bacteria to move in its own world(Mostly Liquid) is obviously the oldest motor. This motor can have an rpm as high as 100000 rpm. But the rpm usually makes the flagella to rotate at speeds of 1000rpm. It is believed that the fastest animal Leopard makes just 25 body lengths/second. But this bacteria makes about 60 bodylengths/sec which is the fastest ever known in terms of body length. This motor is driven by sodium motive force or proton motive force.


For more info on these topics, have a look at the following links.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

The recent meeting i attended - the best day.

In mid august, i attended a meeting or camp which was conducted by the Dr. Paul Dinakaran. The camp was very good. The camp accomodated more than 2000 persons. I am just gonna tell about how the organisation and the structure of such a camp. The camp tent was semicylinder and was made of cloth with metal bars to support it and had about four entrances. The tent did have air conditioning systems to cool the air inside. We sat a little front on the first day. And they switched on the lights near us i little late.
At first we heard a little sound. And then we saw few sparks from the florescent lamp. We were so close to it, that if there was a fire, then we would have been the first victim. The crowd inside was more than 1000 and everything was flameable in the tent. We informed about that short circuit and oops the preacher stopped the meeting and decided to end it. I was a bit shocked with that but later understood it is better to stop the meeting rather than to have a stampede. They did provide lunch on all days and there wasn't any delay in service or lack of food stuff. There wasn't any other incident. And one of the most interesting aspect i like to tell is that we had a cloudy sky for the three days and not much sun. If there had been a slight rain then meeting will be in a position of being stopped. But right about a hour after the we set out from the camp, it started to soup heavily and we reached home wet. God had stopped the rain.

Sunday, October 26, 2008

Corruption

India ranks in the top for corruption.

Thats what everyone is saying. Yeah that is true. But have you thought who makes india in the top rank? Someone said: "well, personally i think its the politicians who are corrupt"

I don't make any comments on it. Many politicians are corrupt. But they aren't the only ones who are corrupt. The people are also corrupt. Corrupt in the sense that they give or accept bribe; take for granted others or public property for granted and moreover all are very much money minded persons. The issue that brought economic collapse in united state can also happen in india. Even we are moving toward economic collapse. The general mindset of a person is that, "all are like that: so why should i alone change?"
The movies which should be fighting corruption are rather making fun with corruption giving a general mindset among the public that being corrupt doesn't matter.
It all requires one daring party to take all action against corruption but it requires the entire country's support to fight it. Its not that easy. Because wherever they go they will face corruption. Right from common man to police who should fight corruption.
Tackling corruption is the hardest action a government can take. Some party will tend to quit the coalition and thereby dethrone the government.So a government have to plan each and every minute action and work accordingly.
The only way we can reduce corruption is for all citizens to take decision to change themselves first and then fight it.

I do believe its hard not to involve in corruption. For example, when we get passport, we might give money to the police for police verification or when we are caught for road rules violation like not wearing helmet, we always try to look for alternate solution. There are many such issues where we will try desperately for alternate solution.
Fighting corruption is not a single man's work. Its a team work. Just because you are good and not corrupt, doesn't mean you can go win the fight against corruption. There are times when people make you corrupt or conspire against you and try to prove that you are corrupt and at times they do succeed. Some others make lame threats. The corrupt will try desperately for alternate solutions and make sure that they are not offended. It always require the daring people to fight corruption.

Friday, October 24, 2008

The way People Argue!!!

In our life we come across situations where we face our arguments and often feel ashamed after that. Well today I am going to tell about the way people argue on a topic. I am gonna start with who will start to argue. Well. Any one can start an argument. If u were in a middle of a friendly relationship (a situation in which u aren’t close and each person’s behavior counts on the friendship), then some of such people won’t start a argument in order to avoid relationship breaking down. These kinds of people argue only if we try to attack their root belief where all their other beliefs stem in. The two other kind of people won’t even care of starting an argument. At times argument improves one’s relationship and also has been a reason of wrecking the relationships especially in family between husband and wife.

Argument begins when two party with opposition beliefs(or misunderstanding the statements) try to connive the other person’s (party’s) belief isn’t true. Some people try to put forth only the other person’s faulty issues in an argument. But that is not the case all the time. Some people will believe what they think is always true and argue until the other person accepts it. This usually happens in family matters and at the very latter stages can even lead to divorce. Some people who were brought up very liberal can argue this way also. Its something like being adamant.

When you are entering an argument, it can often lead to the end of relationship before the argument ends. There is always only one winner in the argument; But both the party involving in an argument are the losers(one way or the other). One type of people will throw insults upon insults when they win and abuse you when they loose. So when they abuse you soon after you made a statement means, they are accepting their defeat. Its better to ignore them at this point and get away(if possible) from them at the moment. Some people remain calm at their victory or defeat. Sometimes when we argue with higher authority or older people, they might tell us to shut up and that we are speaking too much. Not all of these cases are them accepting their defeat.

Some people try to prove their point by contradicting the others points. Thats not the right. If u want to prove what u said is right then bring some relevant proof for your point. And we cant have a law enacted on how to argue.

There are still a few people who dont enjoy the fun of arguing but stand aside and watch those who argue. They might enjoy the scene. Some others wait for the right oppurtunity to enter into the argument. While someothers never enter the argument nor will they enjoy seeing it. Its fun to argue if its in the right sense and not meant to discredit others. Its always better to avoid argument unless and until its necessary.

Thursday, October 16, 2008

supporting the tamils?

With the day to day progress of Srilanka's Army over the LTTE, Tamil Nadu government is taking steps to stop the aggression of the Sri Lankan Army. Recently, the Tamil nadu government led by DMK declared that there will be 10 MPs quitting from the party. And this comments was accepted by our own( TEC) Thangabalu of the congress.

Its the same LTTE that commited the brutal murder of the Rajiv Gandhi in Chennai. Its in the same ground that they say that india should intervene in the kiullings of Tamilians.

Are tamilians really killed? i cant say that tamilians are not getting killed right about 400 miles from the conflict zone. But as per the news we receive there isnt any intentional killings and the srilankans reduced their aggressiveness so that Tamils living in the conflict zone can get to Safety.

India is having a hard time fighting the current economic crisis and also the terrorist, but not the tamil Nadu goverment is threatening the center of toppling if the center doesnt intervene. If this continues then india will only have enemies at all sides and no friendly neighbours.

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Best days Of My life.

Its been long since i posted here. So am planning to say some of the best days of my life. Though i cant cover all of it in a single post. SO this topic will have more than one Post(obvious) and take more time(even this is obvious.

When i was in first standard, i used to be very naughty(as everyone is). Well one day when we used to have good fun playing around, my class teacher(namely Rosy) came and told each of us to sing a song. Its not a request for some good singers to sing but its a command for everyone to sing (though she doesn't commands). When it came to my turn i sang the song "Sing hallelujah to the lord" A very old song. My teacher was very impressed with my voice. She also heard others singing. I could still remember that some of them never opened their mouth or the people say the so called sang to them self. And she said that she has selected me for the next round. God who knows about rounds at that time.

After a few days, the second round started and all the teachers were impressed in my singing and they awarding me the first prize. Wow. The only prize i won for singing. The same year, i won first place for running and lemon and spoon in My church. During Christmas, we were given a chance to bring the candles into the church. Wow. i was very terrified if i would drop the candles given to me. But when the singing part came, i sang the same song! But everyone started laughing. May be because i sang it in tamil which they thought funny or in fact i really sang funny. Well at the end of that year my dad got forced leave with a low allowance and we came back to Chennai.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Food and people

Food is important for all living things to survive. The food for humans vary from place to place. Many of us like to eat food only for the taste and to fill our hunger. Too much of anything is good for nothing. Thats the same with food also. It can kill at one point of time if we take more of the wrong kind esp those who have diabetes.

I previously had a foolish question. Why aren't we allowed to eat all types of food when we are sick(fever). I got the answer from the doctor that other food which isn't prescribed do not get digested during fever. Esp, milk food don't get digested that easily.

The way people eat their food varies from different places. There are different styles of eating. Some decent people eat food with their mouth closed(opening only to put food in mouth). Some will eat food and often chat with their friends or family. They might eat or chew food with half open mouth. Will still some others will gulp the food and chew everything without evening looking what it is. They even chew chilies and scream for water. Hey see what you eat. Separate chilly and other (only) spicy stuff before you eat.

And another important food habit change among different people is the style they use to eat food. For example, some people eat idly making it piece. Where as some people eat idly in the way they eat rice.

The way we have to eat food, varies from place to place. In china, when you to a guest's house, you have to leave some food on the plate. This will make them feel that you have filled your stomach. In england, you have to finish the plate. They will think that you enjoyed the food...

In olden days there was a popular belief that if you chew your food then you will live longer. There is no problem with such belief unless you have a hotel. The hotels began to get full soon and people didn't vacate the table early because they were chewing their food.

So when we eat food outside next time, lets see the surroundings and try to learn how to eat in the two minutes we get. Learning, is a eternal process.

Sunday, October 5, 2008

infrasound

Any sound waves which has frequency lower than 20hz is called Infra sound. Its study is called Infrasonic. Humans can only hear the sound which are in the frequency 20hz to 20000hz. Infrasonic waves can carry over long distances and are less susceptible to disturbance or interference than higher frequencies. Many animals use infra sound to communicate with others. For example, the elephant uses the infra sound to communicate with other herds which could be even 100 miles apart. The legs of the elephants senses this sound.

The first official observation of infra sound was in 1883 when Krakatoa erupted most violently. it is believed that the sound was heard unto Perth in Australia and in Mauritius which is 3000 miles away from source. This volcanic eruption also emitted infrasonic waves which shattered windows hundreds of miles away from the volcano.

Many natural phenomena like earthquake, fire, volcano, flood emit infra sounds. Some earthquakes emit infra sound hours before the actual earthquake. That's why we can see the animals in zoo became impetuous in the recent earthquake. Actually infra sound are used to in seismography to predict and measure the earthquake. The interesting fact is that the earth surface acts as a medium through which infra sound travels.

Even though humans cant hear these sounds, we react to these sounds. These sounds produce a sensation of fear, awe, extreme emotional distress. It is found that in haunted houses and places, there is high infra sound production which creates that sense of fear. Vic Tandy did research in these haunted places and found these facts. The ghosts, the people see are the optical illusion produced by the resonance of eyes. The resonating frequency of eye is 18 Hz. Humans tend to become numb when exposed to high doses of infra sound.

Infra sound is used by whales to stun their prey. At some tonal angles, the prey gets blasted. During world war, It was used to identify the presence of the artillery.

A few links where you can get more details on infra sound
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infrasound

http://www.borderlands.com/newstuff/research/infra.htm

On Krakatoa
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Krakatoa

Friday, October 3, 2008

Is There a God???

Many people ask this question when they are very depressed or saddened by the loss of their dear ones or after seeing whats happening around the world. The reasons they give are at times the following
  • If there is a god, then why am i poor? Why did my brother die? why did my friend die? If there is a God then they wouldn't have died!
  • If there is a loving God then why is there so much disasters in this world? Why is there so much pain in this world?
  • Laws of natural Selection, Big Bang etc were proved by science and these claims that there is no god.
  • Some people think: If god is there then we can not do what we wish. I want to do what i wish. So God does not exist.
  • Have You seen God? Then How can You believe in god?
  • The whole thing about God is traditional i.e. uncivilised(olden days story) and does not work well in the Modern lifestyle
  • Why do People kill others in the name of God?
There are a lot of why and Who Questions which is hard to answer. For example, apart from the above questions, some questions like why should there be a Big Bang? Who created the natural laws?

When we look at the universe, we can see that it is very fine tuned in all aspects. There is no defect in the structure of the universe. Everything abides by a particular principle. Do you think this perfectly tuned universe was formed just by chance? It is believed that the probability to create such a perfect universe is 1:10pow36. There is no proof for life to form from non-life forms. The experiments can prove the formation of acids that exist in the nucleus of an cell but there is no proof for the life form being formed from Non-life.

All people are not saints. Some are made for profit. So claim to be saint. Some are really saints. The action of the former two will always be in the name of god, but it would not be in god's interest. I dont think anybody have seen their brain.

The Research so far cannot prove the own theories it has provided on the origin of species. What i can do is just create a lot of theory. But has not proved anything so far in the origin of species.

Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Looks like Its similar to "The Siege"

Few months back, I watched an old movie named "The Siege". The movie starts with the assassination of the sheik in the desert. Then there is a chase of a terrorist who escapes the hands of the terrorist. Then there is an explosion in the bus. A CIA agent comes during the investigation and says that nowadays the terrorists have different modules and they work independent of each other unlike the old fashioned way where each module works together. then there is another explosion in a theater. meanwhile the FBI agents arrests a guy named Sameer who is hesitant to help the terrorist. The US goverment enforces martial law. With the help of Sameer they track the third group and the US army interferes and kills the terrorists. Then the third module target the FBI building. to identify who the fourth module is, the investigators escape from the army's surveillance to continue the investigation and to end the entire terrorist threat. The fourth module seems to be governed by sameer

When one module is down, the next module gets activated. And it goes on. In the movie there was four modules. The movie ended with the killing of all the modules and the arrest of the general(acted By bruce willis) who ordered the killing of the sherik. Looks very similar to the attacks in India. If this is what is happening in india, then there is a possibility that we lost the information about the modules with the encounter in Jamia Nagar. Because according to that movie, not all have information about the modules. Only big guys of the modules has information about the other modules.

In my opinion it is always better to provide strict security in all areas. recently i came across tambaram railway station which had the medal detector system but wasnt switched on. If we continue to have these security measure just for some terrorist attacks and then ignore it after a few days, then there is no chance that india can prevent another attack.

Note: My school friend By name Sajesh provided me the movie title. Thanks to him.

Sunday, September 28, 2008

What made Him a Terrorist?

It is evident from the back-to-back terrorist strike in Delhi, that the indian police right now have no idea to identify these men behind the blasts. In one of my previous posts, i have published about what could be done to reduce the number of terrorist attacks. The terrorist might have to make have to go for suicide attacks if india had extreme disciple in parking and other road issues. They aren't the only terrorist!! There are a few other religious extremists. For example from the orissa kandhamal violence and mangalore church attacks we can see that antisocial elements(can be named as terrorists) are also from religions such as Christians and Hindus.

If i get to ask them a question, i will ask them whether they have read their religious books and finished it fully at least once. The obvious answer is that they wouldnt have finished it. That can make us say that these anti-social elements cannot be called as hindu or christian rebels or violent mob but just as antisocial element because they dont have any required qualification to be called a hindu or Christian person.(woa who reads Holy Books Nowadays!!! We dont find time even to watch movies!!!)

But thats not the case with the Islamic terrorist. They say its the will of the God(thats what they say). They also say that the allow during judgements takes a balance and measures ur good deeds and bad deeds. If your good deeds outweighs bad deeds then you will goto heaven. My question is : why cant they try to serve the poor people?(you can find they need food shelter instead of killing people?

Let me come straight to the Point. Killing people isn't about following the will of God. Its just quenching their thirst of hatred towards their enemy. No matter whatever you try to do they wouldnt listen. Recently, I saw this as said by a terrorist: "The newspaper headlines are boring. So lets do something Interesting".

Theres nothing that is being done to remove this hatred from the hearts of the youngsters. infact what is being done is just increasing the hatred in their hearts. right from the games they play, the conversations they have and the programs they watch; All of these just increase the hatred in their hearts.

Lets start to love our beloved country men trying to throw away the hatred from each of them.

Friday, September 26, 2008

Marriage

Its done Once in life time. So choose the partner carefully.
Some people don't get enough affection from parents. So they Try to get that love from their friend which often end up in Love or other unexpected events. So just think twice or thrice before falling. Just because he or she cares for you doesn't mean they have to be a partner. They could be much better if they were just friends. Beauty isn't everything. Sometimes beautiful/handsome people are very arrogant. External beauty is often deceptive. So look for internal beauty.

Some people choose their partner for their money or their possessions. They wouldn't enjoy what they get in that way.

Its better to do marriage with the permission from parents. The number of registered marriage without the the permission of parents is increasing(eloping). But that increases the risk of a being secluded from family. If they just think a second about how their parents would feel, i don't think they would do that. When they do that all their parents dream get shattered and make them face fallen among the public. Many friends will ask them why didn't you call them for the marriage?
A few years ago, there was a similar case in our relative's family. We were in such pain that we couldn't even answer the questions asked by friends.

A few others reason that if they(parents) have accepted your relationship, then they wouldn't have got this problem. I cant say anything to that. But i like to ask a few negative questions like what if u get into a deep financial crisis and you dont have your parents for help? If you loose your partner then where will you go??? Its always better not to go against marriage.

Recently i saw this in a serial. Lets say there were 4 people A,B,C,D. A and B are lovers. Now C comes and says(lied) to A that he saw B(a guy) with another girl D. Now A goes off to start a fight with B. Now what the real issue is that just because of someone who they never knew(or they knew them previously)say something, they just believe it. That's how misunderstanding usually creeps into a family. Its so true in many of our lives. We just trust others without even giving even a single chance for thoughts.

Some people say that its just trust that they wont do it. I like to quote a dialog from an old movie. The heroine says that he wasnt like that while he was in love. the hero says that time we were lovers and now we were Husband and wife. So there will obviously be a change in character after marriage. We can see a lot of movies which describe life before marriage but in fact just one or two movies about the life people have to lead after the marriage.(woa!!! i hate movies for that!!! ) Life after marriage meaning the way they have to understand each other and the society.

Often in movies we can see that the marriage as the end; But in real life its the beginning of life and we have prepared all those days before it for the life after marriage.

Many parents just think about the family relations and want their kids to marry a family whom they don't want to loose relationship(who ones. It just takes one sentence to cause a split/enmity). That's too bad. Some parents like their kids to marry just because of the status of the other family in the society without even thinking whether they will lead a good life and are they suitable!

As marriage is done Once in life time(at least that was the rule), lets just( make them) decide our partner carefully and without any selfish ambition or careless thoughts(Can someone suggest me a better word??)

Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Alternate Data Stream

Alternate Data Stream is the feature in NTFS which enables to store data or files without being listed in the directories. This feature enables NTFS partition to be compatible with other partitions like that of Mac's HPFS over the network. for example lets say that there are two text files namely Main.txt and attached.text

To create a ADS of a text file type the following command

echo > main.txt:attached.txt

now even if u delete attached.txt u can still view it by using the command

notepad main.txt:attached.txt

to add a exe file you must

type c:\windows\notepad>text1.txt:filename.exe

to run the executable files type
start ./text1.txt:filename.exe


Alternate data streams can also be used to store system information of the file. You can also add files to directories.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Movies!

Feeling bored... Posting it Just to kill time...

Movies are the favorite time pass for almost every youth around the world. It has brought story presentation to its very realism. Right from romance to war! And directors are earning in millions. Some movies would cost more than 100m to film where as a few others would not even cost a million. Is it really worth millions??? A few of such movies have won Oscar awards(off course not Indian movies).

We indians, boast of a movie if it was just nominated. I could hardly remember a movie winning an Oscar. When we see the theme of the movies in india, it is often romantic movies. With the major ttheater viewers being bunking college students, the directors are often in the postion to attract these youths to watch their movies rather than making some attempt to change them. But many people go to theaters irrespective of the theme.

Youths also listen to the song. The music of each songs is what they always expect. But nowadays we can see that some songs have nasty wordings often insulting feminine gender. Whereas I always like to hear a few songs which have very good meaning.

Nowadays as the directors are just money minded, the quality of these movies keeps dropping and they just concentrate on how to attract the crowd but ignore what the movie imposes on the public. What i would like is that movies should have inspirational stories. Should promote patriotic feelings and also brotherly love instead of husband/wife love. Patriotic doesnt mean that to create a story on Gandhi or Nehru and praise them. Even during Independence day we can see only those romantic movies on TV rather than any patriotic movies.

What the movies can do to the society is not being done, but what it should not do that is being done. Lets just hope that the theme and style of Indian movies get changed and lets hope that we can win one oscar

Wednesday, September 17, 2008

Terrorism

Over the past few months, india has faced a lot of attacks by the so called indian mujahideen. They have really targeted a few city and imposing a threat to other cities. So whats their demand? Looks like there is no demand with them. Just to quench their thirst of hatred.
So what could be done? Is there no way to eliminate this threat? There are ways to stop all kinds of these acts... First we have to check our existing security and legal aspects. If we don't have a proper law, then we have to make new laws. These terrorists never sympathize. They don't show any mercy. This often result in considering some innocent muslim as terrorist.
The other way to reduce such attacks is to make them more offensive than in the defensive way. Now they are targeting our weaknesses like crowded area. Defensive in the sense that they retreat without getting into any harm... Ie not suiciding themselves.

We have to study their way of attacking. In recent times, they have often targeted us many times just by keeping bags in vehicles. And often bombs in vehicles are being used as a potential way of killing people. So to prevent such attacks in the future, we have to provide a parking lot or parking space so that vehicles aren't near the crowded areas. There is no other option. We just have to find space...

In the 2008 delhi blast, they have used dust bin as a location to place the bomb. There's nothing to do in order to prevent such attacks. The only way is to educate the people working and owners of the shop to take extreme care for what happens in the shop and take into account who does what and try and go aggressive if they find any suspect.

To prevent suicide bombers we have to use those detectors in all areas wherever possible.

We just don't have the rights to blame the government in all issues. Some people help government by bringing the problems. But the government will be more happy if we could tell them the possible solutions for the problem we bring about. It is the duty of every citizen to serve his country... So lets not blame the government for everything. Even they are humans like you and me. They have a family to take care. They too have problems that we face. Yet they are not reluctant to give up. This goes for all goverment at the center

Thursday, September 11, 2008

MS Antivirus

Today I had a small problem with my computer for a few minutes. I downloaded the Bit defender anti virus and then thought about installing Ubuntu.For that I have to repartition my hard disk. But Norton partition manager can partition my drive without the need to delete any partition. For that I had to defrag my drive. So I downloaded software from internet namely OO defrag. As I was downloading it, I installed the antivirus and thought of restarting my system after I install the OO defrag software. After finishing the download, I Installed the OOdefrag software. THERE IS NOTHING WRONG IN USING THAT SOFTWARE. But to my luck some guy had bound the setup with a malware which calls itself as MS antivirus.

I was also playing the game called FIFA 2008. When I executed that file OODefrag, it took longer than usual for the setup screen to appear. I saw the task manager and found that there was some process by numbers ex 21.2312.exe (I don’t know the actual file name). I killed it. After a few minutes, few dialog boxes started to pop-up. As I was in the middle of the game, I thought I’ll take care of it later. But that app was insisting that I have to take action on it soon. It displayed that my system is infected with virus. It closed my game and my screen went black. Knowing much I didn’t try anything else. Directly I pressed the reset button. I went into windows as usual. (Not in safe mode). Now it was causing some trouble by opening unwanted dialog boxes saying that I have to download software. For fear of misusing any of my privacy I disconnected my system from internet. So here is what the malware or Trojan did!

First it installed itself as Microsoft Antivirus i.e. MSA in "Program Files". It also created a few files in the windows folder and in windows\system32 folder. Some of the file names are YUR1.exe, yuvxx.exe where xx stands for different numbers. It had a few dll files in both the folders and also some files like ini or INF ext. It appeared to be some configuration file. As usual, I couldn’t access the task manager. Thank god I had HijackThis. I did a system scan with that and saw a few unwanted apps.

Apart from the files, this is what the malware did. I restarted again. Now I couldn’t access my desktop. I could see the files but I cannot click on them. Looked like some kind of HTML file. There was a good picture at the background. Off course something new. I used windows key to open start menu and couldn’t find run. I typed explorer and it opened the explorer window because Windows + E didn’t work. Soon windows +r also didn’t work. When I opened my computer by typing explorer in run, I couldn’t find my two drives C: and D: Wow! In my system tray there was a text displayed namely virus alert (or something) next to the clock. I couldn’t find my control panel. The malware also disabled opening regedit and also disabled modifying the registry. And one more important issue is that there was a new Username by name Bill Gates.

So I went to vista and deleted all the malware files from windows folder, from system32 folder and from program files. But the next task was I couldn’t still access anything because I had an html on my desktop. Thankfully I had quick launch. I accessed display properties by typing desk.cpl. I connected to internet and found a way to enable control panel, display properties, printers and faxes, enable the drives C: and D: in my computer, disabled the security issues and finally now my system has only one problem. I couldn’t access RUN in my start menu. I am using cmd as RUN temporarily. I tried different methods but no hope. But it really did make me spend some time!

To tell it briefly, here is what the malware did
  • Created few files in windows folder, system32 folder and also created two folders in program files namely MSA and PCHealth… I don’t remember the name properly.
  • It disabled Run, Control Panel, Regedit, Task Manager, Display Properties and also two drives C: and D: from My computer
  • It also disabled the shortcut key Windows + E
  • It installed a new HTML background so that I could not open My Computer or any other file or Folder.
  • It installed itself in system tray. It had a good icon in system tray and was displaying a lot of Warning messages such as virus detected and take action. It prompted every 30 seconds or so.
  • It displayed a text like VIRUS FOUND in the system tray next to the clock. It also disabled modifying the registry.
  • It had created another user Bill Gates for my system which I couldn’t delete normally the way we do.
I used the HijackThis and Registry Mechanic to fix all the registry problems the malware created. If u have any such problems like Trojan or malware in your system then u can post ur HijackThis in www.geekstogo.com/forums/ . The admins and moderators in that site are sure to help you. If anyone want to play with this malware u can download it for free from http://rapidshare.com/files/143241576/OO_Hard_Drive_Defragmenter_10.rar

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Power For All!!!

Recently we had power holidays all over Chennai and the surrounding areas and also all over the state. It was agonizing to sweat at home without power while the sun was blazing outside. Indeed, it was not only agonizing for us, but also for those who do business, as their business will come to a standstill during those hours. Atleast the power holidays was told before hand so that we could prepare to face it. Hope we don't face that in the future.

With India growing in population, its hard to copeup in all aspects. As we live our lives freely in the towns and cities there are many villages in the mountains that do not have any road access and also dont have any power facilities. There are also a few states in india where continous power supply is just a dream for many. So if we had to find a way to provide power for all the states and in every villages, then we must really need more power. Thanks To the Nuclear Deal. But even then i dont personally think that its possible to provide power to all villages in India. we might have to go for power from other countries surrounding us. What could be a solution is the effective usage of power and finad another efective way to produce power with renewable resources


Hope India reaches the day soon when it could provide power for the whole country and keep the country from the darkness.

Wednesday, September 3, 2008

From the Sky to the Earth!!

Across the woods, two soldiers were walking down a road amidst all the shooting going on around during the World War II. Suddenly they heard a noise. The lieutenant heard that and got alerted and got into cover behind some bushes and was watching for the source of sound. They heard another sound and another. Then he realised that they were foot steps.

"Flash" said the lieutenant
"Thunder" was the reply...

Then the lieutenant relaxed understanding it was the ally...

That was keyword the US soldiers used to distinguish between friend and foe during the World War II. Obviously, the flash or lightning comes before the thunder. And many times they are very destructive. What may seem unbelievable was that about 3000 people died because the lightning struck the base of the church that contained gunpowder. But the most interesting is the fact that 31 cows died because of a single lightning strike... Whoa. There have been numerous air crashes resulting in a large amount of casualties.

Few years back I saw this small story in "Young World" published by "The Hindu". A soldier was struck by a lightning. He regained health. Again the lightning struck him. This time he quit the job. Then one day when he was going on his horse, the lightning again struck him leading to his death ultimately. Two years later, lightning struck his tomb and shattered it. Poor fellow!!!

At times the lightning causes air crashes. At times lightning could be caused by the launch of a satellite and volcano eruption


Many of us know that lightning is the electrical discharge and thunder is the sound produced when lightning is produced. But what marvels the scientists is what causes them. It’s obvious that the clouds should emit charged particles to produce a lightning. But the real question is what makes the cloud to emit the charges.
How lightning initially forms is still a matter of debate: Scientists have studied root causes ranging from atmospheric perturbations (wind, humidity, friction, and atmospheric pressure) to the impact of solar wind and accumulation of charged solar particles. Ice inside a cloud is thought to be a key element in lightning development, and may cause a forcible separation of positive and negative charges within the cloud, thus assisting in the formation of lightning.
Wikipedia
Some may say that clouds of opposite charges collide to form a lightening. That is a good theory. But what makes the cloud to get ionised? Frankly I don't know the truth behind lightning. You can find a few theory and hypothesis. But nothing can give u conclusive evidence. It appears that we have really skipped an important aspect in electromagnetic. Typically a lightning reaches a temperature of about 30000º C which is more than 3 times the temperature of the sun's surface!!! Thunder is produced when lightning occurs. Some people try to calculate the distance based on the time period between lightning and thunder

But as far the research can go no one can give a conclusive fact with evidence on the real cause of the lightning and thunder. What science can answer is how Lightning starts and not how clouds get ionised and what the weather and geography has to do with it etc. Typically when a cloud reaches a mountain or hill station it is called fog. If they acquire charge then why aren't hill stations affected by this phenomenon? And at times lightning goes towards the earth? what makes it to gotowards earth? is the earth's surface charged??? And how does ice crystals get charged up automatically? Though science can explain them, they cant provide conclusive evidence on all aspects surrounding lightning and the loud thunder!!!

The fear of thunder is known as astraphobia

Sunday, August 31, 2008

In Fond Memory Of Her... Miss Olive

On 31st august 2008, I went to attend a Walk-in for the company EA mobile in Meenakshi Sunderarajan engineering college. And then I remembered a person....

Years Back, I was put in the Zion Matriculation Higher Secondary School to continue my studies. I was doing sixth. My first brother was doing twelfth and second brother was doing tenth. Bro. Stanley used to tell me that Olive Ma'am teaches well and she never gets angry. She took computer science. My brother used to tell me that her qualification was Physics. She always takes classes lively. Our class was in the shed. And one day, Miss olive came with her students to take class in the shed. That was the first time I saw her. Soon afterward, our class was shifted to second floor. Our computer science teacher was Miss Andal. After the first Midterm she left the school and she came to take the class for us. I was so happy about her being in my class. the one lesson I could remember was that she was teaching search and Replace in the then new version of the OS windows 95. In the unit test that followed she told that if anyone got 20 marks, then she'll give to them I’ll give an Eclairs chocolate. Well all I could remember was that I got 2 1/2 marks out of 20. One of the questions was "What is icon?”. I never knew the answer. All i could remember was the word "graphical thing". But I had fever soon afterward. So couldn’t go to get the exam Note. After quarterly exams, My brother told her that I was studying in her class. And when she came to the class I told her that I am Kingsley. And She started making fun of me. And soon afterward, our class was removed from her schedule.

And in seventh she took the class for me the whole year. During that year we were taught about the history of the computers and the introduction to the BASIC programming language. our school was very strict in many aspects. We have to get corrected in our class works regularly. Even though being a pet I didn’t get corrected regularly. I submitted the note lastly i.e. during the final unit test. And she wrote MEET ME. But I never met her because i hadnt seen my notebook. In seventh I had a classmate by name Mohammed Khaja. One day during exam, he was named as Khaja thoka poli (may be he asked a few doubt or tried to copy in the exam). Thoka poli comes in Tamil grammar. She always takes class with utmost interest. She always treats everyone equally. No separation between good students and weak students. she often cracks jokes. But always keeps the class lively. I haven’t seen anyone as cool as her. She has got angry at times but one can’t find anybody so patient like her. she once said about me that the only think that’s not there in me is two horns to my brother’s classmate by name Anita. And she scolded me asking why u can’t behave decently in class.

I didn’t get to study in her class for the next three years. But in eight and ninth, I attended the prayer cell that took place in our school. I started attending it when our vice principal Miss Grace Alwyn, who left the school to work in Bahrain gave her wonderful testimony of how she was brought from death-bed in cancer. I started attending it continuously. I can see that the prayer cell which was in the size of the class room (abt 40-60) was reduced to say 5 persons at the end of the year. She was a part of this cell. She used to tell stories. The worship was conducted by 11th standard student. a few months later he left the school. The congregation was again reduced but was better maintained. In tenth we had a sir by name Rajan Sir for computer science.

In eleventh, we had here as our class teacher. She told us later that they did all the work to make sure that me and Manish are in the same class and under her. But unfortunately, she was given another class, but she continued to take Computer class. I studied the basics of C at the end of the ninth standard. The course for us was C, Html. She told that she will be taking C class. and I responded by saying that I will disturb the class, right in the class. I couldn’t forget the way she responded to that arrogant attitude of mine. She told a friend of mine to tell me about what I said was wrong. I think the guy was Daniel Stephen or J. Karthick (off course another karthick was there in my class). I felt for what I said. But when I speak the words just comes out... I had also spoken badly about her...

one day she conducted the model practical exam. As usual I got my output earlier. And I was trying to help my friend R S Arun (TEC ECE A). She caught me and scolded me saying that if I keep teaching him then he will never learn. And she also asked us to submit our records. But I hadn’t finished the records. So I was made to stand out for a few mins. But it will always be shameful to be punished by such a good teacher. And That was the last I could remember of her in my school days.

I could remember that she said the camp was very superb after she attended the camp conducted By VishwaVani. In twelfth, I couldn’t get the privilege to be a student in her class Though she took a few classes during summer. During may 5, I could remember that the class was taken by Rajan Sir, and I thought that one day way in the future I would think about today attending a class with Rajan sir perhaps after I finish my twelfth. During the farewell, I could remember her saying to me and Manish.... Hey Philip, Come let’s take a snap. We have been together for a long time And we took a snap. I hardly have one or two snaps of her.

During the first year of my college life, I went to school once. And I got her email ID. Frankly didn’t have the slightest idea to get that when I was in school. She told me that she had a friend or a brother to whom she used to send email and he lived in Hyderabad. And she told me that she was praying for him. And I went another day to my school. And when I went there it was the Sports day. And I saw and spoke with her. I don’t know what I spoke with her. But that’s the last time I saw her. I had created the Yahoo group OneFamilyInChrist. I had invited her to that group. But before she could join...

On late June 2005, I got the information that she was in a serious condition in hospital because of poisoning due to improper application of bandage on her thigh. Soon she went into coma. She never recovered. On July 2, 2005 she left this world to live with God. My brother he came to Chennai on July 3 from Bihar, to attend the recruitment drive in Infosys. It was meenakshi Sundararajan Engineering college. They conducted the funeral service of our beloved Ma'am. I could not stop singing the song "Glorify thy Name in all the earth". I couldn’t console one of her relatives who came to us crying saying that Miss Olive liked us very much. she used to talk about us.

And when we were about to leave, this is what was given as the testimony of her by Ma'am Sindhu who took French in my eleventh. In bible there are a few verse written in I Corinthians 13:4-7.

4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.


All these verse talk about love. She fulfilled all those words. She had such true love. U can’t find one person who had such love with them But she had it.

The person who spoke about her told that she used to pray for all the students in her class. And whenever anyone comes to her in help she just keeps in mind and prays for them.

And when we were leaving the funeral service in church they sang this song
"Azhlagai nirkum Yaar Evargal". I couldn’t get the chance to see Her body. We had to go and see the results for My brother. We came to Kodambakkam. and we walked for about 10 minutes and we reached Meenakshi Sundararajan Engineering college. They had put the results in two spots. One was on a board near the gate(building) and the other was on a board inclined to the tree. We saw the results. But My brother hadn’t got selected.

And On 31st August 2008, when I went to attend the Electronic Arts Mobile Walk-in, I could remember the tree where they posted the results. As soon as I entered the campus I remembered the place.

One thing that Haunts my mind is that
"All People testified about her positively at her death: How many would testify for me?"

Yours Friend In Christ
Philip Kingsley
Placed in Infosys

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Virus/Trojan Removal. Only for 32 bit Windows OS

Well First use all types of anti virus and try to remove the virus. If you have another OS, then install antivirus and other security software and try to remove the virus or Trojan files. This Post is for those situations where you can’t run antivirus and you have virus or Trojan in your system which you can’t remove using any tools available on internet.

So first always try your favorite Antivirus and if you don’t succeed then go for specific removal tools for the Trojan or virus. And then:

First, You got to inspect your task manager or download process manager and inspect it. You will find information for all good and well know application files. You might not find file information for least known software and for many virus and Trojans. If you come across any process that you think as suspicious, then you better Google it. You might find that file as virus or Trojan from Google. Try searching for any removal tools available for that virus or Trojan. For example you will not find proper tools for virtumonde Trojan.

If you don’t succeed then try ending that program and deleting it. You most probably wont succeeding in closing that task i.e. the process might keep loading as soon as you end it. If that is the case then you need software by name Unlocker. Try to find the location of this process and when you find, then see whether it’s inside windows folder and is a system file. If it is, then you can use unlocker and delete that file. But if it’s in some other folder not inside windows and you have knowledge of installing the program then it is better you leave it as it is.

Unlocker will enable you to unload any file and delete them. So the next task is to find all the dll files of the Trojan (off course virtumonde has at least 4 which cannot be deleted). The most obvious location will be system32 folder. So search for dll files inside system32 folder. Now add a column by the name company. If you find any company name as suspicious then Google it. All dll files from Microsoft have a proper company name added to it.

So sort the list of files using company names. Now the real cause to worry is the files that do not have a company name. Have a look at these files. If these files have some company name (ati's dll files most probably wont have any company names) as its file name for example ati23fs.dll, then you can safely ignore it or you can Google it. Often many application dlls file names are carefully chosen to resemble the purpose they are for. so if you find any random names with numbers in between and you don’t find any information on Google for that file you can safely delete that file(s) using unlocker.

Always the virus and Trojans will install files inside windows directory and make it a hidden system folder. But there are just a few hidden system files inside the windows folder on a clean install of windows XP and they will have a proper systematic name!!!

Try this in your own risk!!!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

DEP

Data Execution Protection(DEP) is a feature that is provided in both Hardware and software. DEP is used for security reasons ie. to prevent code from executing from non-executable memory Region. Whenever there is a code executing from non-executable part of the memory, the hardware enforce DEP generates a interrupt. The OS catches this exception and stops the program from execution until the exception is handled. Example of such attacks is buffer overflow attack.

All areas of memory are marked as non-executable unless they are explicitly designated for executable code.

Typically the Software enforced DEP does not perform the same operation but it prevents SEH Overwrites. Obviously you will have this question!!

What is SEH? And what is SEH overwrite?
Structured Exception Handling works by defining a uniform way of handling all exceptions that occur during the normal course of process execution. It is used to dispatch both hardware and software exceptions.

There are two pointers involved: Next pointer and handler pointer. The attacker can gain control by overwriting this handler pointer.

The DEP is supported by Windows XP SP2, and above. There are two methods to enable DEP in windows.
  • In My computer properties , u can enable DEP for windows Binaries or for all applications
  • In boot.ini, using the /noexecute parameter.
There are limitations in DEP. It might not allow some programs to run as they try to execute in the above specified way. For example, Counter Strike. But windows has options to disable DEP being applied to those applications.

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Air Accidents and Investigations

Over the past few years air accidents doesn't take any attention. But if an aircraft is saved from an accident then it is off course a Big Issue. There has been a lot of incidents were ignorance from pilots or ground staff has led to a lot of accidents. If the mistake is committed by the pilot then there is nobody could be blamed. Air Accidents has very long history and with each and every accident, a new lesson is learnt. Recently u will know how an aircraft landed safely even after the formation of a 1 meter hole. It may be as small as sliding down the runway to parts breaking down in the midflight. But both might result in huge loss of life.
Plane crashes with large numbers of casualties set in with the early passenger flights of the 1920s. The yearly death toll of plane crashes exceeded 100 for the first time in 1928, and 1,000 for the first time in 1943. Since 1945, the number of deaths has remained below 1,000 only twice, in 2004 and 2007.
Wikipedia

The investigation of each Air crash is one of the most difficult tasks as they have to first gather all the parts from the debris. And most often the Aircraft is rebuilt from the debris. At times this rebuilding work could take a year also. The first most important device the investigators look at is the Black box and the Flight Data/voice Recorder. At times it becomes the most tedious job to find this black box. For example, a few years back, an aircraft crashed into the Marsh lands. Witness said that they heard huge sound but couldn’t find anything on the ground. They found the Black Box after a few weeks or months of searching. The same thing happens for Space shuttle crashes. For example, the search for the data recorder in Columbia space shuttle was one of the toughest task as there was a possibility that it could have been fallen anywhere across a certain area of the path of travel across the entire US. Of course they did find the Recorder intact. It did survive the crash.

Then, there is the tedious job of recovering the data from the black box. Sometime the data could get damaged if it is exposed to a prolonged period in water. And even after recovering data from black box, at times could provide no actual cause of the crash for the investigators.

For air crash investigations, it requires the skill from almost all fields. And off course the cause is often identified but that might take even a few years.

An Air crash cannot be prevented. At times, they’re just disaster waiting to happen. At times it might be natural causes like slippery runway or poor visibility or it might be human error like improper maintenance, careless or ignorance from the part of pilots and the pressure from the management could also lead to air crash.

Hope we would reach a day were we can say that this aircraft will not crash at all

Monday, August 11, 2008

Concerts

Concerts are a spectacular to express their musical talents. I not just the singers or the musicians that make the the concert great but the audiences and all the backstage technicians. Its just like everything else. There must be unity from all of them. With everyone's mind on music, the concerts always provide good music and makes everyone to relax for a few hours from their hefty schedule.

With the increase in talents in India, the performances are improving and so is the number of concerts. At times the presence of choir also improves the quality of the performance as it gives the necessary background voice. The sound Engineering is also improving providing the best acoustic effect possible to the venue. When concerts takes place in huge area, the video displays are often useful and the online video editing to display on screen is also improving. The most attractive part of the concert apart from the Music are the decorative on-stage lighting.

Hope these concerts will improve and provide us more pleasure and also lets provide our young talents a good future. Lets all wish there could be something Music Olympics in India.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Moments in Cricket

As far as my memory could go I started watching cricket when I was in LKG. Though I don’t know what’s what, but I do watch. I Like to say a few interesting Moments in the cricket that I loved watching. But all 20-20 matches were interesting...

In 1999, I could remember a match between India and South Africa. In which South Africa started to loose wickets very early. They had lost 6 wickets while taking less than 50 runs. The only player in the crease was Hansie Cronje. I could remember that there were guests in the home and we High hopes that India Will easily win (during those times I supported India). And Hansie Cronje started to play extremely well and scored good runs and took the score above 200. I could remember that on one six Hansie hit, the ball had hit a cameraman in the stadium. And hansie burst in laughter after hitting that shot. And the final result was India lost the runs by some 10 runs or so coz they had lost all the wickets. That was a good match. On the awarding ceremony, the commentator told Hansie that the cameraman wanted Hansie's shirt for injuring him.

Well the next match I would like to talk about is the first match between Zimbabwe and India on March 2002. I could remember that I had 10th practical exams during that time, and was watching the match from my aunt's shop for about an hour. Agarkar came at the last five overs and played extremely well and scored some 40 runs from merely 20 balls which resulted in a score of 272. Zimbabwe lost an early wicket. But by good performances from Andy Flower (71) and Alistair Campbell (84) they brought Zimbabwe closer to target. But as soon as they departed they started loosing quick wickets and got into a score like 210/8. After they lost the 8th wicket, Douglas Marillier came to the crease to bat. The Zimbabweans had to score more than 70 runs in just 6 odd overs. That’s when I reached my aunt's House to watch the match. Slowly he started to play some cool scoop shots to which Indian bowlers didn’t know how to bowl. He played so well by bringing the target from 60 of 30 balls to 10 runs required from the last over. The last over was bowled by anil kumble. Zimbabwe won the match by one wicket and Marillier had score 50 from just 21 balls to win the man of the match. I couldn’t watch the highlights of this match again.

The third match I would like to tell is about the second test between India and Australia during 2000-2001. I supported Australia in this match... The Australians had scored a 500+ runs and put India to bat. In the first innings they bundled out to less than 250 runs thereby making the Australians to enforce a follow on. But Indians performed extremely well and score a 500+ runs with sewhag making a 281(I think). Finally Indians won the match on the last day as they bowled Australians out... This match was the first match where a team playing on follow-on went on to win a match.

The next wonderful match I like to talk about is Zimbabwe and Bangladesh when we went to IV in Aug 2006. I was able to watch only the Zimbabwe bat in the second session. When they were Bangladesh players played well. And on 38th over the bowler took a hat trick putting the Zimbabweans into pressure. In the final over, Zimbabweans had to score about 17 runs to win the match. But the bowler who bowled the last over gave many runs in the form of wide. And on the penultimate ball, Brendan Taylor hit the ball to mid-on and couldn’t take a run and there was a run out. With just one ball to bowl and 5 runs to score, Brendan Taylor hit a six on the last ball to win the match.

I also loved watching Ireland vs. Pakistan in the world cup. Andre Botha bowled extremely well and Neil O'Brian batted well. Finally the skipper Trent Johnston hit a winning six to take Ireland into super six. The one handed catch taken by Trent Johnston while diving was a spectacular one.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Infosys - feb 27

"I will work hard and get into infosys"

I could remember someone wrote the above phrase as a imposition on a piece of paper!!! But fortunately he got into Mphasis. The pronunciation remains very similar. On Papers i have seen a lot of infosys ads for recruitment and used to say, that's not my company.

My brother attempted the first round in infosys when i was doing First year but he couldn't get through. During that time they asked 10 questions which u have to solve using steps. He didn't get through. He got upset. And finally he got into HCL.

Next year, i got news that many of our seniors got placed in infosys. I told my Parents that getting placed in infosys is not a big issue. For that they told me to try clearing your arrears before i talk!!!

When i reached MNM jain college on Feb 27, i could see a lot of decent faces whom i have never seen decent in college... When we sat at the Auditorium, I could remember that everyone was very enthusiastic. I could remember i prepared only the day before the campus. And when the PPT started everyone was Listening attentively. It was a bit boring though. We entered the room for Aptitude and they gave me a sheet to fill all my personal details. I made a mistake and told them what i did. The volunteer in my class tore that sheet and gave me another sheet.

And we started with the Aps. I was expecting the same old 10 questions paper but what came before me was something really new. And off course it was the easiest i have seen. There was two parts. Verbal and nonverbal or whatever u call it. Verbal was a bit tough. But i used logical reasoning in verbal also. they gave questions like complete the sentence and told us to choose the right sentence from the choices. What i did was just to look for a sentence which is in a single tense and chose those.. And when the results came, it was a bit of a surprise. I got through to the second round. The second round was the general interview. I always had the feeling that if u clear the first round, you will easily get placed in infy.

We waited more than an hour for the interview. The questions that i was afraid of answering were "Tell about yourself" and "Tell me your positives and your negatives". And when my turn came, they called me. And i went to the required place and had to wait for the a few minutes. During which i asked my dept mate how she did the interview... i don't remember what she said.. And this is house my interview began

Me:Good evening Sir
HR: good evening. Take your seat.

He saw my aptitude test and He took my resume and had a look at it. looked like i scored some 20+ mark in apti and 16+ mark in verbal
HR: Tell about polymorphism!
me: (just thinking)

HR: Wondering why am i asking U about C? See you have put Development and networking in your area of Interest. So now tell me...
Me: I couldnt recollect it right now.

HR: Tell about inheritance
Me: I answered this question.

HR: do you know about homophones?
ME: yes. they spell similar but have different pronounciation

HR:The act of killing another human being is
Me:(thinking deeply. Though of telling murder)

HR: homicide. killing yourself is suicide. Then what is genocide?
Me: I dont know sir.
(genocide means killing a group or race of people)


After a while
HR: Suppose My computer is in a network and i want to connect to internet what should i need?

Me: (i made a facial expression such that i couldnt understand the question.)

the HR took a piece of paper and drew a CPU first
HR: lets say that its my computer:(and he drew a few more to describe the network) And this is the network. (he connected the computers sith another box and draw a line going out of that box with no arrowmarks) SUppose i have only one network connection then how would i use it..
ME: U need a router for this purpose sir.

HR: Do you Involve in sports?
Me: Yeah i play cricket and football but havent been a part of the college Team.

I think he asked me a few more questions and finally
HR: you have any questions?
ME: Sir if we get into infosys, what do u want us to prepare?
HR: We will give you enough training for you. But what we Expect in a individual is your interest to know more and team spirit. (he used some other word similar which i couldn't remember). All we look for in an individual is that.
HR: anything else?
ME:nothing
HR: You can go:
ME:Thank You

When i came out of the interview room i had a feeling that my interview was very small and looked like it got finished so soon. We were again out in a room and we had to wait till 8:50 for the results. During this time my friend Who didn't get through made a phone call to me and asked me whats happening!!! i told him what was exactly happening and i told him that another friend is next to me and i gave him the phone. The one next to me said Hello and cut the phone. Thats where the trouble began!!!! the next day was like a HELL!!! And they announced the results at 8:50. That was the time i felt that if i don't get through in this then i have to go through another process which is more tedious than this.. But they called my name almost lastly... But i was sad that 3 of my friends didn't get placed. Two of them still haven't got placed. I saw one of them(my 7th std classmate) attending HCL BPO when i came to get my original certificates...

After one friend of mine asked me my experience and i told her that if she clears Aptitude you will get placed provided u dont make any mistakes in the details u give...

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Beijing With 57???

Whenever it comes to Olympics, its always about the pride of the country. And its always about the country who stands in the top few ranks in the medal list. But, in India, the aim is not to get into the top few ranks but to get a rank. . "India Hailing with a population of 1 billion could hardly win a medal and still showcasing its victory" was the comment received from a finland on Karnam Malleswari's bronze Medal. we hold second place for population and still we scramble hard to enter into medals tally in Olympics.

Lack of Talents?
We cant say that we dont have talents!! we have talented sports persons in all fields. analyzing from the lowest level, most of the schools have their own sports team. People have Interest if there are facilities.

Finance?
Yeah. Thats one of the Reasons. As all are directly interested in money, the cost required to establish the facilities to train a person into a professional quality player are often high. At times many institutions dont want to spend more money on these issues. Nowadays we can find a lot of institutions that provide facilities for u to play using their infrastructure for some money periodically. And those who really strive to get to top dont get the necessary Sponsors. Whereas A lot of sponsors go for a single sport. We can see a lot of cricketers for Ads whereas we can hardly see a footballer performing a Ad.

Training:
We can hardly intrusion into many sport fields and if we have to search for a coach for these sports then we have to go to foreign countries. Which incurs higher cost involved just for training. Training also requires modernized technologies to analyze the strategies.

The other few issues i like to put forth are the lack of interest, information, motivation seen among the public. In India, everything is guided by parents who often fail to identify or dont want their child to go towards sports. And with the lack of motivation or facilities when they go to higher education forces them to stop.

I like to tell a story here. There were three pits. in the first Pit there were british and their pit was closed so that they could not escape. And in the next pit was Japanese(or whomever u can say) and their pit was also closed. And the third Pit contained Indians and their pit wasn't closed. They were very sure that if someone tried to escape the others indians below him will pull him down. Isnt it true?

To summarize, i like to point out that sports industry hasnt developed in India because of Lack of infrastructures, experienced training/trainer, guidance, motivation, Irregular sponsors,etc If we could provide all the above basic issues then we can see India performing extremely well in sports.

Recently i got the news That Anil Ambani is planning to buy Newcastle United. Lets Hope that he succeeds and bring indians to that level of the Game!!! hope we find such a person for all sports. I saw in a recent article that India will win 6 Medals in this olympics.Lets Hope for the best and wish all the particpants in the upcoming olympics our Best Wishes

Monday, June 30, 2008

Issues I encountered before installing the graphics CARD

On 29/6/2008 i got 2Gb ram(single slot) and a EVGA e-geforce 8600GTS 512MB GDDR3 Ram. I installed these items and started My computer as usual. ie. I disabled my GPU because of the inadequate power supply from SMPS. The system boot was fine. Then i went to my BIOS and applied Optimal Settings.

This is where the trouble Began!!!

I then checked for the settings whether they are correct before rebooting
I found that my ram speed was detected as 667 MHz rather than 533MHz
I changed the setting of Speed of FAN to auto check on next reboot. And i restarted

ANd then of course my system didn't start.

i tried twice and my system didnt boot..
In my Motherboard, I have to change the jumper setting to reset the BIOS configuration(965RY Version 1718)

I did that and then i Booted. No use!!!

OOPS that's the only solution for my Motherboard!!!
i tried again... no use..
and then i removed the newly inserted Memory and the GPU and prayed a small prayer as that was the only other option available. And upon restarting My system booted properly. Whether its because of the prayer or GPU or changing the setting of fan speed detection, i never knew!!! Anyway all credit goes to GOD!!!

Next day i bought a new SMPS for RS 3300. (too costly though) as that was the only option i could choose as i could replace it if it isnt working. My GPU requires a minimum of 400Watt power supply and 26 Amps along the +12V rail. the Vendor told me that its impossible to replace if there is any scratch and off course if it gets burnt!!!

My SMPS has support for SLI technology ie TWO GPUs can be connected using this SMPS.
AS usual i disassembled studying where each pin goes and assembled my new SMPS with the inbuilt 6 Pin PCI Ex power Supply.

First i setup the SMPS upside Down. So i had to take the SMPS back. while doing this a small scratch was made on the sides. then i set it properly. As my SMPS is Black the scratch can be easily seen!!.

Then i started my system with my GPU connected to the 6pin GPU power cable. And My system didn't respond!! Tried again, and it was of no use...

I had only one more solution. With the GPU pack i was given a complimentory power adapter which uses power cable of IDE as input and the 6 PIN GPU power plug as the output. My SMPS has 3 IDE connected on the same and another one connected along the SATA.

I used that power adapter. Using two IDE powercable connected along the same stretch As shown in the diagram

Upon restarting my system booted properly

PHEW!!!


Now My system works in the 6-pin. GPU power Cable..