ClubHack is organising India’s first International Hackers’ Convention. Its a great opportunity to hob nob with the best hacking talent.
There is a lot of misconception about hacking.
As a noun it means “an incredibly good, and perhaps very time-consuming, piece of work that produces exactly what is needed”.
As a verb it means “to interact with a computer in a playful and exploratory rather than goal-directed way”.
I believe that true Hackers are physical and virtual beings who believe that
1. In an ideal world, information (and software) should be free.
2. We do not live in an ideal world, so software piracy and malicious hacking is a crime.
3. A hacker is judged only by his skills, intentions and willingness to share his knowledge.
4. You can create art and beauty on a computer.
5. Computers can change your life for the better.
You may love her or you may hate her … but you can’t ignore her!
No matter where you look, she is there…posing on a huge poster or being interviewed on the idiot box. She is a classic example of how good marketing can sell a bad product.
With virtually no beauty, no finesse and no acting prowess, she has still managed to survive and even grow in Bollywood. Her marketing techniques can be made into a case study for management institutes. Her ability to use innovative marketing tools (mainly controversy) is admirable to say the least.
Her media management skills are exceptional. “Media ne mujhe banaya hai” she said during a recent interview on Aaj Tak. How true.
I have keenly followed her antics for quite some time now (more out of morbid fascination rather than anything else) and am impressed. She is very very street-smart. She knows what the majority wants and she knows how to cater to the masses.
Did you know this? (source – the Rakhi Sawant Fan Club website)
Rakhi Sawant’s father (an ACP with the Mumbai Police) left home in protect after she insisted on continuing her acting career.
Her first break was in an Item Number opposite Govinda in Joru ka Gulam. Three years later, she auditioned four times before winning her breakthrough Item number Mohabbat hai Mirchi in Chura Liya Hai Tumne in 2003.
I know its difficult to make people laugh. I think these are the best TV series that have tickled our funny bones in the recent past:
5. Seinfeld
4. Yes Minister & Yes Prime Minister
3. Frasier
2. Scrubs
1. Friends
Why is it that ALL human beings (from the absolutely disorganised to the “Monica” organised) have a love-hate relationship with keys?
Do you know anyone who has never misplaced keys? Such an exceptional human being probably does not exist on ToGg’s great green earth.
Keeping this unique relationship (of humans and keys) in mind, I am proposing the following inviolable laws:
Poor man’s first basic law of keys
If you have a key, it will be lost.
Poor man’s second basic law of keys
If you do not have a key, you will lose someone else’s key.
Poor man’s third basic law of keys
If you have lost a key, it will be found when you don’t need it anymore.
Poor man’s first complex law of keys
The probability of losing a key at time “t” is directly proportional to the urgency of using the key at time “t+n”
Poor man’s second complex law of keys
The probability of losing the keys of a person “y” is directly proportional to how much “y” can make your life miserable.
Poor man’s third complex law of keys
The probability of finding a key at time “t” is inversely proportional to the number of people looking for the key (“x”) and inversely proportional to the urgency of using the key at time “t+n”
Ever since Nimda blew my data to bits (…literally), I have been very very worried about computer viruses (and worms and Trojans etc etc). I use AVG on my personal machine but sometimes there are files I am doubly suspicious about. Even if AVG gives the clear signal that the file is virus free, I need a “second opinion”.
virustotal.com is a great place to get not just a “second opinion” but 32 opinions on a suspected file !!
VirusTotal analyzes suspicious files and facilitates the quick detection of viruses, worms, trojans, and all kinds of malware detected by antivirus engines. Its features are:
- Its free!!
- It uses multiple antivirus engines (32 as of today!!)
- It features real-time automatic updates of virus signatures
- Gives you detailed results from each antivirus engine
Before you get the wrong idea, I am referring to my USB stick (or “pen drive” in common parlance 
Its quite convenient to carry your data on a portable drive (pen drive / portable hard disk). Its even better when you can carry your apps with you.
This is a list of apps that I carry on my USB stick:
1. Firefox browser with the following extensions -
- NetcraftToolBar for blocking phishing sites
- ShowIP for whois
- PhProxy
- Shazou for one click geo-location of websites
- Temporary Inbox for creating random email IDs for online registration
- X-Ray for analyzing web page source code
- Gspace to use Gmail space for online storage
- FireFTP for accessing FTP servers
2. Mozilla Thunderbird email client
3. Open Office for viewing / editing / creating docs, ppts, xls files etc
4. Foxit PDF Reader
5. PeaZip archive manager
6. CurrPorts process viewer
7. PC Inspector File Recovery software
8. Faronics System Profiler
The above are free to download and use. There are also some excellent “paid” apps that I have on my stick. These are X-ways Forensics, X-ways Trace and Elcomsoft office and archive password recovery software.
Its been 24 hours since we began playing around with U3… and I am impressed to say the least. If a suitable number of developers (and buyers!) show interest in U3, it has a great future…unless the next Microsoft operating system supports USB autorun
My friend and collegue Abhijeet Parandekar just broke up with his girl friend of many years. Instead of drowning his “dukh” in Vodka .. he decided to “code” some happiness into his life….by creating a simple U3 app for data privacy.
Based on the excellent open source project “True Crypt”, his app is titled “MySecrets“. The app (and the source code) and the 10MB MySecrets digital safe can be downloaded from here.
Enjoy!
IMPORTANT: MySecrets is free to download, distribute, enjoy etc etc. In case of any comments, suggestions, bouquets and brickbats…please contact Abhijeet directly….NOT ME!
My 18 month daughter can port an app to u3 (just kidding but it’s actually very simple). Just follow these simple steps:
1. Install U3 Package Prototyper onto your U3 portable drive. (You can get it from www.u3.com)
2. Using the U3 Package Prototyper that you have installed on your portable drive, create a u3p file based upon your application. (You need to select the source directory, destination directory and the main executable for your application).
3. Open your u3p file with WinZip and extract the manifest.u3i file. [Do not rename the u3p file to .zip]. Edit the manifest.u3i file. (Usually you only need to change the application name and description). After editing, add this file back to the u3i file.
4. That’s it! Now just use the “Add Programs” tab of your u3 launchpad and add the modified u3i file. You can use the “Manage U3 Programs” to set the program to “start on insertion”.
Enjoy
I love coffee. And I love having coffee in nice places (who doesn’t??). In my humble opinion, the 3 best places in the world to have coffee are:
1. The TCC @ Clarke Quay in Singapore
Excellent ambiance, nice coffee (DO NOT try the Lamborghini coffee).
2. The coffee shop on the roof of KFC opp the Pyramids at Giza
As a bonus you can watch the Sphinx and Pyramids light show for free! Try the authentic Egyptian coffee (very strong to say the least).
3. “Ankita” nearAsian School of Cyber Laws in Pune
Not a fancy place at all. Excellent machine coffee at 5 rupees a cup. But there is a nice tree under which you can BoC (brainstorm over coffee).
Its got a ton of action…even more than the earlier movies. Some scenes could have been left out (especially the one where Bruce Willis is “riding” on the back of an F35 jet!!)
I expected a lot more “geeky” stuff.. and on that front the movie was a very big disappointment. No interesting equipment really (other than a foldable keyboard !!). All “hacking” scenes were kiddish to say the least.
Saddest thing of the movie - Maggie Q is killed too early in the movie 
Most interesting place – Warlock’s “command center”(actually his mother’s basement).
Silliest Character - FBI Assistant Director Bowman (played by Cliff Curtis).
Best scene – shutdown of Washington D.C.’s traffic system.
Overall rating – see it for the hard action scenes and maybe for Maggie Q
