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