Thanks BharatMatrimony for enhancing your security

This is to say thanks to Team BharatMatrimony! Here’s why? Actually this Part II of the story, while the Part I is at

“Don’t see my password! Please… “

If you didn’t read the blog earlier, read that first. So that you can understand. In that I mention how the Passwords are under attack and how it can be protected.

After three months, I again to check the status of their protection. To surprise, everything changed now.

Forgot Password Mail

Forgot Password Mail

Wow! It’s a great step towards better protection. Clicking on the link took me directly to set new password instead of showing it in screen.

Reset the password

Reset the password

Thanks Team at Consim & BharatMatrimony for your effort protecting user’s privacy ! I hope you done with Hashing the user’s password.

And a great thanks for listening my voice on the same!

Kudoos for your team!

Update 1:

Here’s what my twitter card saying at https://twitter.com/kesavan2000in/status/327743732130652161

Tweet on BharatMatrimony

Tweet on BharatMatrimony

Posted in technology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reliance NetConnect+ on Ubuntu 12.04

After I shift to new area , [Future Homes at Kurunji Nagar] , I network connection becomes completely void.

  • BSNL Broadband and Airtel Broadband are completely not feasible as they clearly informed.
  • Vodafone IN shows coverage on my Mobile device , but it doesn’t actually.

I brother after a long quarrel comes down with a Reliance NetConnect+ . It works well with the stupid Windows7 in my VirtualBox but failed in Native Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS.

After did a long analysis on Google , it seems I need to install “gnome-ppp” but I have some other issues with “apt-get install -f “. So decided to ignore  “gnome-ppp” . And here is the final artifact on How to connect Reliance NetConnect+ on Ubuntu 12.04

  • Verify your MODEM detected in Ubuntu :

First command in ‘lsusb’ and make sure you find WCDMA device as in my case “Bus 002 Device 017: ID 19d2:fff1 ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM”

priya@localhost:~$ lsusb
Bus 001 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 002 Device 001: ID 1d6b:0002 Linux Foundation 2.0 root hub
Bus 001 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 002: ID 8087:0020 Intel Corp. Integrated Rate Matching Hub
Bus 002 Device 017: ID 19d2:fff1 ZTE WCDMA Technologies MSM 
Bus 002 Device 004: ID 5986:0190 Acer, Inc 
priya@localhost:~$

Modify the /etc/wvdial.conf

Then proceed to modify the contents of /etc/wvdial.conf as shown below. The Modem might be

Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0

or

Modem = /dev/ttyUSB1

depends on your case. Here’s my complete contents of /etc/wvdial.conf

priya@localhost:~$ cat /etc/wvdial.conf
[Dialer Defaults]
Init1 = ATZ
Init2 = ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
Modem Type = USB  Modem
Baud = 460800
New PPPD = yes
Modem = /dev/ttyUSB0
ISDN = 0
Phone = #777
Username = 93*0*9*2*4
Password = 93*0*9*2*4
Stupid Mode = 1                             
priya@localhost:~$
  • Connect with wvdial
priya@localhost:~$ sudo wvdial
--> WvDial: Internet dialer version 1.61
--> Initializing modem.
--> Sending: ATZ
OK
--> Sending: ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
ATQ0 V1 E1 S0=0 &C1 &D2 +FCLASS=0
OK
--> Modem initialized.
--> Sending: ATDT#777
--> Waiting for carrier.
ATDT#777
CONNECT 2400000
--> Carrier detected.  Starting PPP immediately.
--> Starting pppd at Tue Mar 12 09:04:20 2013
--> Pid of pppd: 6176
--> Using interface ppp0
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]
--> local  IP address 101.63.129.1**
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]
--> remote IP address 220.224.141.1**
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]
--> primary   DNS address 220.226.6.**
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]
--> secondary DNS address 220.226.100.***
--> pppd: ���[08]���[08]

If you’re able to see the primary DNS address 220.226.6.** and secondary DNS address 220.226.100.*** , success then say congrats to yourself.

If you face something weird , comment me. I try to look into it.

Enjoy!

Posted in linux, technology | Tagged , , , , , | 1 Comment

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Posted in Uncategorized | Enter your password to view comments.

Installing Apache/MySQL/PHP on ELCOT provided BOSS Linux

Today one of home town’s job seekers come home directly seeking advice on LAMP development.He said , he tried with XAMPP on his Windows7 , but it refuses to start the web server the Apache.

The laptop he own is a decent one, brought to him by the Government of Tamilnadu for Students in College/Higher education.

I tried to uninsatll the exisiting XAMPP package and re-install the same.Still no luck. The problem is with Windows Socket server and it is not listening at port 80 and others.

Whenever I try to start the Apache, I received the message:

Syntax error on line ## of :path/to/apache/conf/httpd.conf:
Listen setup failed
....
alloc_listener: failed to get a socket

As the laptop comes with Dual-OS pre-installed with C-DAC ‘s version of Debian/Linux OS, the BOSS, I go for LAMP and not XAMPP and/or WAMP.

1) Get your root password : I don’t have the root privilege and need it now.

elcot@boss:~$ sudo -i
root@boss[~]#passwd
You can now choose the new password or passphrase.

A valid password should be a mix of upper and lower case letters,digits, and other characters.  You can use an 8 character long password with characters from at least 3 of these 4 classes, or a 7 character long password containing characters from all the classes.  An upper case letter that begins the password and a digit that ends it do not count towards the number of character classes used.

A passphrase should be of at least 3 words, 11 to 40 characters
long, and contain enough different characters.

Alternatively, if no one else can see your terminal now, you can pick this as your password: "Canvas$assure3victim".

Enter new password:
Re-type new password:
passwd: password updated successfully
root@boss[~]#

2) Install the Apache web server

root@boss[~]#apt-get install apache2
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  apache2-mpm-worker apache2-utils apache2.2-common
Suggested packages:
  apache2-doc apache2-suexec apache2-suexec-custom
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  apache2 apache2-mpm-worker apache2-utils apache2.2-common
0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 44 not upgraded.
Need to get 474 kB of archives.
After this operation, 2,675 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main apache2-utils i386 2.2.16-3 [164 kB]
Get:2 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main apache2.2-common i386 2.2.16-3 [307 kB]
Get:3 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main apache2-mpm-worker i386 2.2.16-3 [2,224 B]
Get:4 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main apache2 i386 2.2.16-3 [1,386 B]
Fetched 474 kB in 32s (14.7 kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package apache2-utils.
(Reading database ... 160490 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking apache2-utils (from .../apache2-utils_2.2.16-3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package apache2.2-common.
Unpacking apache2.2-common (from .../apache2.2-common_2.2.16-3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package apache2-mpm-worker.
Unpacking apache2-mpm-worker (from .../apache2-mpm-worker_2.2.16-3_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package apache2.
Unpacking apache2 (from .../apache2_2.2.16-3_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up apache2-utils (2.2.16-3) ...
Setting up apache2.2-common (2.2.16-3) ...
Enabling site default.
Enabling module alias.
Enabling module autoindex.
Enabling module dir.
Enabling module env.
Enabling module mime.
Enabling module negotiation.
Enabling module setenvif.
Enabling module status.
Enabling module auth_basic.
Enabling module deflate.
Enabling module authz_default.
Enabling module authz_user.
Enabling module authz_groupfile.
Enabling module authn_file.
Enabling module authz_host.
Enabling module reqtimeout.
Setting up apache2-mpm-worker (2.2.16-3) ...
Starting web server: apache2apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
.
Setting up apache2 (2.2.16-3) ...
root@boss[~]#

Now pointing the browser at http://locahost/ must reports that “It works” kind of message.

Open the Web root located at

root@boss[~]#cd /var/www

3) Install the MySQL DB server

root@boss[~]#apt-get install mysql-server
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libhtml-template-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl mysql-client-5.1 mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-core-5.1
Suggested packages:
 libipc-sharedcache-perl libterm-readkey-perl tinyca
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 libdbd-mysql-perl libdbi-perl libhtml-template-perl libnet-daemon-perl libplrpc-perl mysql-client-5.1 mysql-server mysql-server-5.1 mysql-server-core-5.1
0 upgraded, 9 newly installed, 0 to remove and 44 not upgraded.
Need to get 21.3 MB of archives.
After this operation, 50.5 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libnet-daemon-perl all 0.43-1 [46.6 kB]
Get:2 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libplrpc-perl all 0.2020-2 [36.0 kB]
Get:3 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libdbi-perl i386 1.612-1 [879 kB]
Get:4 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libdbd-mysql-perl i386 4.016-1 [138 kB] 
Get:5 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main mysql-client-5.1 i386 5.1.49-1 [8,301 kB] 
Get:6 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main mysql-server-core-5.1 i386 5.1.49-1 [3,933 kB] 
Get:7 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main mysql-server-5.1 i386 5.1.49-1 [7,814 kB] 
Get:8 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libhtml-template-perl all 2.9-2 [65.9 kB] 
Get:9 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main mysql-server all 5.1.49-1 [64.4 kB] 
Fetched 21.3 MB in 6min 36s (53.7 kB/s) 
Preconfiguring packages ...
Selecting previously deselected package libnet-daemon-perl.
(Reading database ... 160956 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libnet-daemon-perl (from .../libnet-daemon-perl_0.43-1_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libplrpc-perl.
Unpacking libplrpc-perl (from .../libplrpc-perl_0.2020-2_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libdbi-perl.
Unpacking libdbi-perl (from .../libdbi-perl_1.612-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libdbd-mysql-perl.
Unpacking libdbd-mysql-perl (from .../libdbd-mysql-perl_4.016-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-client-5.1.
Unpacking mysql-client-5.1 (from .../mysql-client-5.1_5.1.49-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server-core-5.1.
Unpacking mysql-server-core-5.1 (from .../mysql-server-core-5.1_5.1.49-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server-5.1.
Unpacking mysql-server-5.1 (from .../mysql-server-5.1_5.1.49-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libhtml-template-perl.
Unpacking libhtml-template-perl (from .../libhtml-template-perl_2.9-2_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package mysql-server.
Unpacking mysql-server (from .../mysql-server_5.1.49-1_all.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libnet-daemon-perl (0.43-1) ...
Setting up libplrpc-perl (0.2020-2) ...
Setting up libdbi-perl (1.612-1) ...
Setting up libdbd-mysql-perl (4.016-1) ...
Setting up mysql-client-5.1 (5.1.49-1) ...
Setting up mysql-server-core-5.1 (5.1.49-1) ...
Setting up mysql-server-5.1 (5.1.49-1) ...
Stopping MySQL database server: mysqld.
130118 13:07:42 [Note] Plugin 'FEDERATED' is disabled.
130118 13:07:42 InnoDB: Started; log sequence number 0 44233
130118 13:07:42 InnoDB: Starting shutdown...
130118 13:07:47 InnoDB: Shutdown completed; log sequence number 0 44233
Starting MySQL database server: mysqld.
Checking for corrupt, not cleanly closed and upgrade needing tables..
Setting up libhtml-template-perl (2.9-2) ...
Setting up mysql-server (5.1.49-1) ...

4) Verify that MySQL is up and running

root@boss[~]#mysql -uroot -p
Enter password: 
Welcome to the MySQL monitor. Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 41
Server version: 5.1.49-1 (Debian)

Copyright (c) 2000, 2010, Oracle and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.

This software comes with ABSOLUTELY NO WARRANTY. This is free software,and you are welcome to modify and redistribute it under the GPL v2 license

Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the current input statement.

mysql> Bye

5) Install the stable PHP5

root@boss[~]#apt-get install php5
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
  apache2-mpm-prefork libapache2-mod-php5 libonig2 libqdbm14 php5-cli php5-common php5-suhosin
Suggested packages:
  php-pear
The following packages will be REMOVED:
  apache2-mpm-worker
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  apache2-mpm-prefork libapache2-mod-php5 libonig2 libqdbm14 php5 php5-cli php5-common php5-suhosin
0 upgraded, 8 newly installed, 1 to remove and 44 not upgraded.
Need to get 6,391 kB of archives.
After this operation, 16.8 MB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main apache2-mpm-prefork i386 2.2.16-3 [2,284 B]
Get:2 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libonig2 i386 5.9.1-1 [134 kB]
Get:3 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libqdbm14 i386 1.8.77-3.1 [147 kB]
Get:4 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main php5-common i386 5.3.2-2 [518 kB]
Get:5 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main libapache2-mod-php5 i386 5.3.2-2 [2,768 kB]   Get:6 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main php5 all 5.3.2-2 [1,072 B]                    Get:7 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main php5-cli i386 5.3.2-2 [2,741 kB]              Get:8 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main php5-suhosin i386 0.9.32.1-1 [80.8 kB]                            
Fetched 6,391 kB in 2min 15s (47.2 kB/s)                             
dpkg: apache2-mpm-worker: dependency problems, but removing anyway as you requested:
 apache2 depends on apache2-mpm-worker (= 2.2.16-3) | apache2-mpm-prefork (= 2.2.16-3) | apache2-mpm-event (= 2.2.16-3) | apache2-mpm-itk (= 2.2.16-3); however:
  Package apache2-mpm-worker is to be removed.
  Package apache2-mpm-prefork is not installed.
  Package apache2-mpm-event is not installed.
  Package apache2-mpm-itk is not installed.
(Reading database ... 161407 files and directories currently installed.)
Removing apache2-mpm-worker ...
Stopping web server: apache2apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
 ... waiting ..
Selecting previously deselected package apache2-mpm-prefork.
(Reading database ... 161403 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking apache2-mpm-prefork (from .../apache2-mpm-prefork_2.2.16-3_i386.deb) ...
Setting up apache2-mpm-prefork (2.2.16-3) ...
Starting web server: apache2apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
.
Selecting previously deselected package libonig2.
(Reading database ... 161408 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libonig2 (from .../libonig2_5.9.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libqdbm14.
Unpacking libqdbm14 (from .../libqdbm14_1.8.77-3.1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package php5-common.
Unpacking php5-common (from .../php5-common_5.3.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libapache2-mod-php5.
Unpacking libapache2-mod-php5 (from .../libapache2-mod-php5_5.3.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package php5.
Unpacking php5 (from .../archives/php5_5.3.2-2_all.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package php5-cli.
Unpacking php5-cli (from .../php5-cli_5.3.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package php5-suhosin.
Unpacking php5-suhosin (from .../php5-suhosin_0.9.32.1-1_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for man-db ...
Setting up libonig2 (5.9.1-1) ...
Setting up libqdbm14 (1.8.77-3.1) ...
Setting up php5-common (5.3.2-2) ...
Setting up libapache2-mod-php5 (5.3.2-2) ...

Creating config file /etc/php5/apache2/php.ini with new version
Reloading web server config: apache2apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
.
Setting up php5 (5.3.2-2) ...
Setting up php5-cli (5.3.2-2) ...

Creating config file /etc/php5/cli/php.ini with new version
update-alternatives: using /usr/bin/php5 to provide /usr/bin/php (php) in auto mode.
Setting up php5-suhosin (0.9.32.1-1) ...

Now say a Hello, to php!

root@boss[~]#php
<?php
echo "Hello \n";
?>
Hello
root@boss[~]#

6) Configure Apache with PHP

Then I wrote some sample PHP scripts and try to load via the browser. OMG! The source PHP is delivered to client directly without getting phrased by the PHP Interpreter.

Find the httpd.conf located inside /etc/apache2/ and the following few lines to it.

<FilesMatch \.php$>
    SetHandler application/x-httpd-php
</FilesMatch>

Try to load it now! Works good…

7) Finally link PHP5-MySQL

Before leaving the spot, that LAMP is successfully installed and I just do a small task on reading contents from DB.

root@boss[elcot]#php /var/www/friends.php 
HiPHP Fatal error: Call to undefined function mysql_connect() in /var/www/friends.php on line 7

Opps! PHP is not talking with MySQL. Here’s how to make them.

root@boss[elcot]#apt-get install php5-mysql
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree 
Reading state information... Done
The following NEW packages will be installed:
 php5-mysql
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 44 not upgraded.
Need to get 64.2 kB of archives.
After this operation, 242 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Get:1 http://packages.bosslinux.in/boss/ savir/main php5-mysql i386 5.3.2-2 [64.2 kB]
Fetched 64.2 kB in 0s (70.8 kB/s) 
Selecting previously deselected package php5-mysql.
(Reading database ... 161480 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking php5-mysql (from .../php5-mysql_5.3.2-2_i386.deb) ...
Processing triggers for libapache2-mod-php5 ...
Reloading web server config: apache2apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
.
Setting up php5-mysql (5.3.2-2) ...
root@boss[elcot]#service apache2 restart
Restarting web server: apache2apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
 ... waiting apache2: Could not reliably determine the server's fully qualified domain name, using 127.0.1.1 for ServerName
.
root@boss[elcot]#

That’s all. Job Done.

Happy LAMP’ing…

Posted in linux, technology | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Don’t see my password! Please…

And it’s the time I cleanup my inbox and get shocked at seeing a mail from Bharatmatrimony reminding me to login often for them to serve me better(?). Here’s snapshot of their mail.

Login details carrying passwords in plain text

Login details carrying passwords in plain text

Again I try another attempt on ‘Forget password’ , they send passwords for all accounts with the same email id. OMG! Opos! Goosh!

Accounts with password in plain text in mail

Accounts with password in plain text in mail

So you’re storing my password in plain text format in your server systems? OMG! Unexpected totally.

From your about us , it is clear that you are now able to read 20000000+ member’s password directly from the year 1997 onwards, roughly 15+ years.

BharatMatrimony.com

BharatMatrimony.com is celebrated as the Most Trusted Matrimony Brand combining tradition and technology. A network of 15 regional portals and over 2 Crore members, BharatMatrimony has found a place in the Limca Book of Records for facilitating a record number of marriages. BharatMatrimony has been recognised as the Best Matrimony Website 2007 by PC WORLD for technology and performance and is also listed in the NASSCOM’s Top 100 IT Innovators. All the awards we have won have encouraged us and we stand as the most preferred site for matrimonial search according to a study by JuxtConsult.

Come-on , Bharatmatrimony. I never ever expect this from you.You’re matured well. Don’t see my password.I thought you’re standardized in terms of user privacy and industry level customer information protection.

What kind of your records on Limca book and certification over ISO 9001:2008 matters to the people , if you’re still sending all our passwords in plain text mails?

Please Consim & Team at Bharatmatrimony, get your people trained on protecting user’s personal info.

Please go on reading the OWASP’s rules on storing passwords in server.

“Passwords are secrets that only the account owner should know. For the system that uses these passwords to authenticate its users, there is no reason to decrypt them under any circumstances. It is crucial that passwords are stored in a way that allows them to be verified but not reversed in any way, even by insiders.”

And please encrypt our passwords with stronger hash in future.

Bharatmatrimony & Consim, I hope you’ll block your (database)administrators to look into our passwords in future.

Any thoughts?

Posted in linux, technology | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Youtube Streamed Video on Local Disc

I always need to find the Cache of streamed media including youtube’s video in WebM format. Here is my environment

  • Firefox 16.0.2
  • Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS

There’re two types of YouTube cache in local directory.

  1. WebM
  2.  Macromedia Flash Video

Here I done with the HTML5 but for Flash , the trick is more similar.

Two possible trail and error way you can find the videos:

  1. Locate the WebM cache file (For most medium sized HTML5)
    yt(){
            # HTML 5
            find ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/ -type f -size +100k -ls|awk '{printf $11 "\n"}'|xargs file|grep -i webm|awk -F: '{printf $1 "\n"}'
    
            # Flash Video
            find ~/.mozilla/firefox/*.default/ -type f -size +100k -ls|awk '{printf $11 "\n"}'|xargs file|grep -i 'Flash Video'|awk -F: '{printf $1 "\n"}'
    
    }
  2. Locate mozilla-media-cache/media_cache (deleted) (For bigger size video)
yt2(){

        # This shows mozilla-media-cache/media_cache (deleted) which is cache of HTML5
        FX='';
        FX=`ps -ef|grep '/usr/lib/firefox/firefox'|grep -v grep|head -1|awk '{printf $2}'`
        if [ $FX != '' ] ; then {
                echo /proc/$FX/fd/;
                ll /proc/$FX/fd/|grep media_cache
        }   
        else echo 'No running firefox';return 0;  
        fi; 

}

Just copy that file to desired location.Enjoy the video in VLC offline.Hope this helps!

You can find updated working version always at my yt() of handy-tools

Posted in linux, technology | Tagged , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Finally here’s a new Guitar

I wish to play a Guitar loooong time but the wouldn’t happen. And this December, I done with it. Yes. I brought a new Givson Oxford Guitar from Lakhman Sruthi Musicals. As a beginner I’m recommended for Givson 125/150 but that particular model is not avail at the shop. The sales person there recommended me to go for Oxford as that is next version of Givson 150.

With my Zero percent knowledge on musical instruments, I don’t know what to cross check with and How to on that Guitar. I ask the person in-charge to play some of favourites.

  • என் இனிய பொன் நிலாவே … –  Prathap Pothan

He played that song in nice manner. I love the way he play.And I’ve to go for office too.It’s already 12:20PM and I’m 2Hours away from my office.

After paying INR.2855 towards the Guitar , I put it on my back.

Let’s see how I play this guitar in near future.

 

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மாமல்லபுரம்|Mamallapuram – A day in Pallava

That is one fine day after my vacation to office, they informed me that the coming Friday is Team Outing and the destination is some resort in Mamallapuram. I’m with fine with that idea as I’ve chance to roam around the Shore Temple.

On the day of outing, I leave home with  my Old nikon s3000 coolpix landing Mamallapuram by 01 pm. Immediately after lunch , I leave the resort entering the shore temple by means of back door.

The result is wow! I realy enjoyed the site and the pallava’s architecture and their love towards stone art .

Reading wiki on the site describes as

“The Shore Temple (built in 700-728 AD) is so named because it overlooks the shore of the Bay of Bengal. It is a structural temple, built with blocks of granite, dating from the 8th century AD. It was built on a promontory sticking out into the Bay of Bengal at Mahabalipuram, a village south of Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu in India. The village was a busy port during the 7th and 8th century reign of the Pallava dynasty during the reign of Narasimhavarman II.”

I don’t know how much pain that Narasimhavarman II faced during his time of building this great structure, and he really won the race against time. These sand stone structure stands against time and salty sea wind and Tsunami for nearly 1300 years. I can’t believe this. Really great.

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Yay! I’ve now activated Flickr Holiday Gift

I always loves Flickr for their unbeatable photo sharing service even though frusted with their limits[see full limits here] such as 300MB upload per month and 200 Photos in photostream. But I failed to notice such limits when I moved from Yahoo! Photos in 2007 and I’m really sad to see these limits in 2011 when my [g]old photos gets locked within Flickr. I thought to pay for Pro that time and I’m not sure why I wait for this looooong time.

As I predict, here is my offer from Yahoo!’s Flickr. Today when I just look into Flickr they prompt me for the Holiday Gift. Wow! Immediately I activated my Pro account.

Flickr Pro Activated

Flickr Pro

And the bonus is the Pro offer is for 3 Months. Great news from Flickr for people like me.

Now I’m able to see all my 609 Items instead of 200 items. I can download in full resolution , I can backup all my old photos.

Here’s what Flickr greets at me :

Yay!

You have now activated your Flickr Holiday Gift.

Here’s what you get for the next 3 months:

  • Unlimited* uploads (up to 50MB per photo)
  • Unlimited viewing of your entire photo library
  • Post photos in up to 60 groups
  • Download your original, high-resolution photos – whenever you need them
  • Upload and play unlimited HD videos

 

Immediately I tweet on the same as:

love you @flickr. thanks @yahoo! for bringing me a perfect #holiday gift . rush! get your free pro account on #flickr.

Rush out quick. Get your Pro soon

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Test cases leaked from IRCTC Quality Control Lab

It’s one another testing morning and my brother ask me to book tatkal ticket for him from Madurai (MDU) to Chennai (MS) in www.irctc.co.in , a site designed to test online user’s patience.

Before I try to attempt, I ask him to book a ticket with a private Bus travel and ensured he got a one.Yes! I know this is as our first pre-step to book ticket at IRCTC. Because the site never allows you to book ticket in Tatkal mood/mode.

Okay! The time is approaching. my clock ticks 09:45 Am

Now I’m ready for the war.Here’s my preparation:

Two laptops: Dell inspiron powered by Intel i7 and Lenovo powered by Intel i3

Net Connection : BSNL Broadband 512 KBps Wired+Wireless WiFi mode

Operating System(s): Windows 7 genuine  and Linux distro of Ubuntu 12.08

Browser(s): Google’s Chrome, Mozilla’s Firefox and Opera

User profile(s): One per / browser. [In my case 2 profile * 2 machine=4 profiles]

By time 09:55 Am all the four profiles are logged in.

By 10:30 Am ,I’m busy with other important work.Yes ! that is guessing and reverse engineering the test cases of IRCTC site’s Quality Assurance control lab by studying the performance and behavioral of the site’s nature at time of booking tatkal ticket.

And at final, here’s the result. Please verify and enjoy the test cases. Here’s my twitter’s status: http://twitter.com/kesavan2000in/status/279887933794840576

#frustrated again with #IRCTC today. @IRCTC_Ltd Here’s IRCTC’s test cases leaked @IRCTC_sucks keep high confidential http://t.co/aGSekywl reply ·retweet · favorite

 

Also I start’s to follow @IRCTC_sucks twitter, where you can find similar cases and your’s will be not so bad.

IRCTC-Test-Cases

IRCTC Test Cases from Quality Lab

No luck at all. Really frustrated with this IRCTC. Blame it. Unable to book with all my experience! Hmmmm… Server Unavailable or Session timeout . These’re only two messages I received on my page navigation through all my browsers.Hate you, IRCTC.

I spend nearly 5 hours preparing this above test suite stuff. Guess, how much I frustrated by IRCTC to make and blog this? IRCTC, please listen.

And at final, I decide to donate/contribute in terms of time/money for IRCTC , if they gonna re-engineer them self.

It’s too late to act, IRCTC. Atleast now…

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