Tuesday, January 31, 2006
I’m going to be away for a week from tomorrow: to Kochi, to attend the IT Kerala 2006. Torque has a stall over there, and if you’re in the vicinity, I suggest you find your way to the IIITM-K posters and give us a peek-a-boo. I’ll be in and around the venue, and am excited about participating and being in Kochi (and also, taking a break from my really wacky schedule nowadays).
We’ll be having a nice company showcase there, and also talks on Fastblood and a couple more new ventures. Like Blag, and more.
I’m lugging my notebook along (and my trusty Airtel GPRS net), so expect posts on the road, and a log of my experiences over there. And photos. 
Tags: chaff
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Monday, January 30, 2006
The recent surge of patriotic movies and national fervour aside, whenever I go out today, I’m met more by a sense of optimism and hard-work-being-done than the traditional Indian way of treating work as a holiday. My view is of course, extremely myopic, but there is indeed something happening in this country that will make it soon
explode into the world scene.
Selling India Inc. at Davos is an interesting article on how the attitudes towards India have changed.
Tags: business • politics
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Sunday, January 15, 2006
On Microsoft’s redesign of Office 12. I’d seen some screenshots earlier that were really impressive, but it does look a lot like a Mac product now. In fact, so does Vista - the brushed metal look, and the eerily minimalistic feel. The article though, is an
excellent read anyways.
Tags: design • HCI
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Saturday, January 14, 2006
MacBook Pro, I’m in
love!
Tags: design
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Thursday, January 12, 2006
I recently got my hands on three laptops (off-topic: including my own, that made it 4 in a room - was a real geek trip that I should have taken some pics of) and I managed to hack into every one but one without much of a pain. This is a short lesson on what you should do to protect your laptop from anybody prying non-seriously, and also some tricks to get into a secured-looking Windows notebook.
The first roadblock any hacker faces is access. Don’t leave your notebook lying around. If you do pass it to your friends, leave your sensitive data in a locked account and do not accord administrator privileges to your guests. In Windows, the protection mechanism revolves around user accounts. User accounts in Win XP can be “Limited” or “Full”. For any non-trivial use, the limited account is crap, because it doesn’t allow you to install programs or do fun stuff. Full translates into complete access - there’s no middle route. (Actually there are more user roles - though the problem remains - and anyways, configuring it is not easy for an average user.)
So when you do create a password, choose one not easily guessable and one which has numbers and weird letter combos. The really silly security hole that all new computer laptops seem to face is the blank “Administrator” password fiasco. There exists, in every Windows installation, a “super user” called Administrator. The friendly blue welcome screen in Win XP masks this user, so you won’t (usually) see that in there. Ironically, in almost all notebooks I’ve encountered - Acer, Compaq/HP, IBM… the default Administrator password is blank. By simply tapping del twice while holding Ctrl + Alt, I’m faced with the traditional login dialog box, where I simply type in “Administrator” at the username box and press enter. Wham! Full access. Some HP/Compaq notebooks lock the Administrator account in a normal Windows boot, but you can boot into Safe Mode (F8 at startup, select Safe Mode) and overcome that limitation.
The solution? Log in as Administrator using one of the methods above and create a password.
The one notebook I failed to even scratch had a BIOS password set. The clever lady who was the owner had stumbled on the perfecto mechanism for dissuading a casual hacker. If it were a physical PC of course, I’d have it’s BIOS cell battery shorted, but opening up a notebook is not casually undertaken. Besides, my friend wants into her good books. 
Say, you’ve gotten access using the above method. You want in to the files in the ‘My Documents’ folder in the other account. By going to the Control Panel, ‘User Accounts’ addin, you can remove the password on the other user, thereby removing any protection he has on those files. Win XP Professional users can also use the Microsoft Management Console’s User Accounts snap-in to do the same.
Hope all notebook users and would-be hacker-kiddies learnt a lesson.
Signing off (for hopefully a long time), Vishnu, the geek
Tags: chaff
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Thursday, January 12, 2006
I’ve been working the past week on a project called Fastblood. It’s a scheme to connect blood donors to people who need it badly. Developed using OO PHP5 and an amazing Web 2-oh framework called Symfony, Fastblood aims to network all the blood banks in Kerala & serve as a one-stop solution for people who wish to request blood. I’ll be working on it in the coming weeks and add in sweeter features. For now, there are wireless and web tie-ins into the request interface.
There was a big launch today at Muscat hotel, with the inauguration of Fblood by the Chief Minister of Kerala and all; incidentally, that also led to me appearing in a couple of TV channels out here. If that gets to be a habit, I’ll start a Me on TV tag around here…
I’ll update this post later with an interim project report (technical) that I prepared earlier. Get that project report here. Due to some confusions while packaging, my laptop got exchanged with another today (hence no files), hope that’s resolved soon.
A few plans that I have for Fastblood:
- Add in AJAX tie-ins
- Opensource the project
- Add in a community feature ala orkut
Browse over to Fastblood, let me know your suggestions.
Later, I’ve noticed that my big highs tend to be coupled with pretty big lows. Going to veg out with some movies. Take care all & wish me luck.
Tags: development • me outside
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Tuesday, January 10, 2006
There will be, one day, in a small, rickety-rockety town,
a man named Thomas Crown.
Dear of heart will be he,
beautiful, brown, broken and free.
Into his life will come a vision oft not seen,
Of sweet curves, open and shut lips,
revolving heels and a rumor of easy access.
Word will be, you just got to press a button to get her going.
There was, on a day not long past,
with the same manner and cast,
a man who called himself an uncompleted half.
His baby didn’t mind him having a bit of fun,
but always knew where to draw that whispery line.
“Oh honey, can’t you come over tonight?”
Open, shut. Revolve, press a button.
Dial a tune, bad reception.
“I want to tell you something, I love-“.
Flicker, flicker, crackle crack.
A dead battery holds him back.
And then there is, a small lesson,
for all you aspiring vixens.
The easiest way to a man’s heart is
through his mobile.
Pick her up, hold her high, regard her
with just the right bit of envy,
Look into his eyes and tell him,
“I love your mobile, Thomas!”
Watch his eyes glisten, his breath draw closer,
his grip tighten on you.
Oh, and make sure you prepped yourself right.
Be prepared to show him your cute little button.
Tags: writing
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Tuesday, January 3, 2006
365 tomorrows is something that’ll stay on my must-read list for a long while. It’s a collection of really good short-stories and a wacky experiment in group writing.
Tags: literature
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