Secure Desktop Sharing using Microsoft SharedView

Though this information might not be something new to the techies, but I thought it to be wise to share a easy to use, secure Desktop Sharing application. It is provided by none other than Microsoft. It was quite surprising that I never heard of this nice little application.

Currently it is available as a Beta 2 release. It can share sessions with almost 15 users over HTTPS connection & hence is secured. To share your desktop you just need to download & install the application & create a new session for yourself. Once a session is created the application provides all the details regarding the link to access & the Username & Password for the session. You can share those details with any other user with a Windows Live ID who would be a part of the session. The best part is it - users can access a Web-based interface if they don't have the application installed. Similarly, you can also join a session shared by another Windows Live user.

Wont bore you by describing each feature in detail. It would be best to install & explore the features. You can also find more information by clicking here.

Outlook Mobile Access using emoze & Outlook Web Access

I guess emoze technical team have taken a serious note of the bugs which I had mentioned in one of my previous posts & have released a much stable version of emoze - 2.00(83). Most of the problems mentioned earlier seems to have been fixed by them. I was very confident that they would do so with their lovely application. I really love it!!!... it has made my life a lot easier.

In this post I would like readers to know how you can have Outlook Mobile Access (OMA) even without enabling OMA on your Corporate Mail Server. emoze has a functionality wherein you can provide the details of your Public Outlook Web Access (OWA) Server & it can sync the Inbox & Calendar for you.

The details required are -

1. Username
2. Password
3. Domain (provided to you by your Company)
   
4. OWA URL (eg, https://webmail.company.com/exchange)

Though this OWA to OMA functionality of emoze might be against the Security guidelines of some Corporates, it still is an excellent functionality for people who would like to access their Corporate Inbox & Calendar on the move.

Does your company also provide you a Public Outlook Web Access facility? Why don't you tweak in what I have just said.

Sorry for the Delay

My lovely readers, my sincere apologies to all of you for not keeping you posted on the changes that have happened in my professional life that forced me to stay out of the Blogosphere.

I also became a victim of the recent Global Meltdown. Though I was neither given a Pink Slip nor asked to go on an unpaid leave, I was forced to look out for a better career opportunity as I could find out that it was becoming difficult for my company to afford me. The result - I am again back to Pune, staying away from my comfortable home at Mumbai & working for a reputed US MNC as an IT Infrastructure Project Manager. One of my seniors once told me that working for a smaller firm gives you variety of things to explore & also gives you due recognition. Having worked with top Indian IT MNC's for past 5-6 years & then landing up in a small firm in last 1 year has taught me a lot of lessons. Now I can easily differentiate the quality.

After almost 2 weeks I have come to enjoy my weekend at Mumbai & also pursuing my hobbies like Blogging, etc.

Clean your Keys

Have you recently been to a Beach-side picnic & found that your lock is not opening with your original set of keys?... don't be surprised. Does your keys look similar to the one shown besides?

If the answer is YES then probably it was your Beach-side picnic which is possibly causing this malfunction. These unique keys circulating in the market from a couple of years look very strange, as they appear dotted, but are very very secure & their locks can open with only the original set of Keys or an exact duplicate of the original Keys. They are also double sided & can be used from any side.

I realized its secure feature after I went to a Beach-side picnic last month. After coming back from the picnic my door lock refused to open with the original set of Keys. Rather than forcibly trying to open the lock I carefully looked into the key & found out that very small sand particles had stuck in some of the grooves of my key. Obviously this sand was from the Beach :-) I then quickly removed my toothpick from my wallet & cleaned the entire key perfectly. And too my surprise the lock opened instantly without any difficulty. When my dad started complaining about the same problem with his key. I immediately insisted him to clean his key. He was totally amazed by my minute observation.

So next time your lock refuses to open with your key, check for dust particles before calling in the Locksmith.

In search of Yahoo Messenger 9.0 with Voice

Atlast I have found the hidden treasure. Its Yahoo Messenger 9.0 with Voice. After over 50-60 MB of useless downloading, I traced the version of Yahoo Messenger that I was looking for.

It all started from yesterday, when my old Yahoo Messenger 8.0 prompted me to download the latest available version. When I visited http://messenger.yahoo.com & downloaded the Yahoo Messenger 9.0 for India, I found that the CALL button had disappeared. I then recollected the earlier story which had happened with Yahoo Messenger 8.0. Though most of the forums mention that all versions of Yahoo Messenger allow free PC-to-PC Calls, I must admit that Yahoo Messenger with Voice is a different version from the Yahoo Messenger, which immediately gets advertised on the Yahoo Portal.

If you are a person who has suffered like me & wasted your precious Internet Bandwidth trying out various version of Yahoo Messenger 9.0, your search ends after reading this post. I have managed to download the Voice Call supported Yahoo Messenger 9.0 version from a different site. Though the downloaded version from the above link is 9.0.0.2018 & is the same version as available on http://messenger.yahoo.com for India, the version downloaded has Voice Call capabilities & the file downloaded from this link is an Offline Installer & will not ask for an Internet connection during installation. I presume that the Yahoo Messenger for India version does not include full Voice capabilities.

Strange enough, the link from where I downloaded the Voice Call supported Yahoo Messenger internally queries Yahoo Server itself, but this direct download link is not posted on Yahoo Portal. Anyways my purpose is solved & I hope that you would also be a satisfied Yahoo user after downloading this version.

Single Sign On (SSO) with OpenID

OpenID has been into existence from quite sometime but I thought of discussing the same looking into its growing popularity & acceptance across the Internet community. This post is mainly dedicated to those people who are absolutely clueless about this Open Authentication Protocol & those who have heard of it, but haven't explored much on the same. Single Sign On (SSO) with OpenID is actually Single Set of Authentication Credentials rather than the true SSO scenario used on Corporate Intranet applications, where the user needs to login to the application only once & get authenticated multiple times by other SSO supported applications.

The best place to know about OpenID is by looking onto Wikipedia or by visiting the OpenID Home Page. In short, OpenID enables users to use a single set of authentication credentials (Username & Password) across multiple Portals supporting OpenID authentication. Trying to find an anology, you can relate OpenID to authentication services similar to Active Directory used in Corporate Networks. OpenID is in the form of a URL which would contain a Username in conjunction with the domain which is providing the OpenID services. Surprisingly, you might already have an OpenID & might not have realised the same. To know whether you already have an OpenID check here. There are many Sites which offer OpenID's as an add-on service & there are few Sites which dedicatedly provide this service as a primary service. Yesterday I registered with one of such site & thought of sharing more info on the same. It is managed by one of the most trusted Certifying Authorities (CA) - VersSgn. For registering an OpenID in this you need to register at https://pip.verisignlabs.com . Once registered, your OpenID URL would be username.pip.verisignlabs.com & the same URL can be used across any Site supporting OpenID authentication. For eg, www.livejoournal.com supports OpenID & hence if my username is jack at pip.versignlabs.com, I can use jack.pip.versignlabs.com as the OpenID URL. Check the screenshot below -

This was all about the basics of OpenID. I would now talk about some Value Added Services provided by VerSignlabs. Once you login to their Portal, on the right hand side you would find the section of Links. Out of them the most interesting of them is One-Click Sign in which enables you to do a Single Sign On (SSO) to a list of sites supported by VeriSign Labs. The procedure to do a One-Click Sign In can be found here. In short, to enable One-Click Sign in, a VeriSign Labs user needs to store the authentication credentials of all the accounts on the Internet, supported by VeriSign Labs. Check the screenshot below -

To make One-Click Sign in work, the user needs to install a Bookmark in the browser which is protected using a One-Click Key.

For getting authenticated in any site added in the One-Click Sign in screen, the user has to visit the login page of the site & click on the Browser Bookmark. If the user is already signed on to pip.verisignlabs.com, the username & password in the site would get auto-populated by One-Click Sign in & the user will get automatically logged on to the site. Check the screenshot below -

If the user has not got authenticated by pip.versignlabs.com, then the site would prompt you to enter your OpenID & Password. Once logged on to pip.versignlabs.com, your OpenID One-Click Sign in remains valid until you close your Browser.

In addition to One-Click Sign in bookmark, one can also install the VeriSign Labs Firefox Extension, called SeatBelt, which shows the authentication status at your pip.versignlabs.com. A green status indicates Logged out & a red status with username indicates Logged in.

VeriSign Labs also provides you FREE Browser Certificate for added security. You can also pay as low as 5$ & get a Security Key to have an extra layer of account protection. Aren't all these features pretty interesting?

Why don't you register today!!!

Sync your Browser's Stored Passwords & Bookmarks using Foxmarks

First it was Bookmarks, now its Browser Passwords too. What am I talking about ? Its about the new updated version of Firefox's plugin, Foxmarks 2.5.3. Do install it now & enjoy the freedom of seamless & secure Bookmark & Browser Password synchronisation across your Home PC, Laptop, Mobile, etc. For detailed feature list click here.

Keep your Cell Phone's Contacts & Calendar Synced with ZYB

Say bye bye to loosing your Contacts / Calendar data due to loss of your Cell Phone or a Cell Phone crash. ZYB is here.

I have lately discovered this useful Mobile Social Networking site which also doubles up as your Cell Phone's Contact & Calendar backup system. The best part is currently its offered FREE of cost.

Rather than describing more on the Social Networking features I would concentrate & brief you about how to configure the ZYB on your Cell Phone -

1. Currently it supports Syncing of Contacts & Calendar data.
2. To Sync your data, it first gathers your active Cell Phone number & SMS'es you the Configuration settings.
3. Once the Configuration settings are saved onto your Phone, you can Sync your Phones Contact & Calendar data by choosing ZYB from the listed Sync Profiles on your Phone.
4. It provides a very useful web-based feature to track duplicate Contact details on your Cell Phone. So if you have there are two entries of the same name - one containing the Cell Phone number & the other containing the Landline number, ZYB would suggest you to consolidate both these entries. It would also suggest you to delete an entry if it exists more than once.
5. ZYB automatically scans the uploaded Contacts & prompts you to connect with your friends who are already registered on ZYB's server. It does this by matching the Cell Phone number of your Contact uploaded with any registered users' Cell Phone number.

Aren't all these features really interesting. I now find Syncing my Contacts more easily done using ZYB rather than my Nokia PC Suite, as this can be done anytime, anywhere; even if I am not connected to my PC. I now feel that my Contacts & Calendar data are safe & secure using ZYB. I also read that Vodafone has acquired this company. So you can expect more wonders to be released soon.

I am still exploring this site. In the meantime why don't you activate your GPRS connection & stay Synced with ZYB!!!

emoze 2.0(70) incompatibility with Nokia 6110 Navigator

After 2 days of vigorous tweaking on my Nokia 6110 Navigator with the latest version of emoze 2.0 Push Mail application, I have finally decided to declare that the latest version of my favourite Push Mail application is not completely compatible with Nokia 6110 Navigator.

It all started from day before yesterday when my older version of emoze, v1.50(11), started popping up the error "Please verify your GMail credentials". I had been using emoze from past 8-10 months without any problems. I had infact forwarded almost all my e-mail accounts to GMail where I had a consolidated list of all my mails.

After facing the authentication problem I tweaked a couple of times & finally ended browsing the emoze Portal for an updated version. I downloaded emoze2_s60_91.sisx after selecting Nokia 6110 Navigator from the menu & also installed emoze 2.0 to my cell. Initially I was very excited to find few new to the updated version, but my excitement was shortlived. I must say that the latest version is very buggy & does not work well with Nokia 6110 Navigator. Infact I must say that this version has not been thoroughly tested on S60 3rd Edition v9.2 OS-based phones.

I have searched lots of forums & have hardly managed to find a solution to my problems. This is an independent opinion & may not match with others. The problems I am facing is listed below -

• After configuring a mail account if you go to its Settings->Rules->Inbox & change the default setting for "Cleanup older than... 1 week" to None, all the mails downloaded in the Mail account disappear
• I now have a new problem - I am receiving an audible mail alert, but the visual alert of "1 new mail" has stopped appearing on my main screen
• After configuring multiple mail accounts if the bandwidth gets chocked while downloading mail for one of the accounts, the other accounts suffer & get an illogical error "Please check your login credentials "Wrong credentials provided. Please verify (-37)". This error does not necessarily mean that your login credentials are wrong
  
• The icon appearing in the main screen is very cryptic. In previous version there were a couple of indications - a cross indicating disconnection from emoze Server, a red play sign indicating all read mails & successful connectivity with emoze Server, a green play icon indicating Sleep mode, a red closed envelope indicating unread mails & successful connection with emoze Server & a green closed envelope indicating unread mails in Sleep mode. In the latest version it either shows a red play icon showing disconnected state or a green play icon showing connected state
• Unable to send any mails
  

I have managed to tweak with a lot of settings but have only one thing to conclude - emoze 2.0 is buggy with S60 3rd Edition v9.2 phones, probably because it is programmed for 3rd Edition v9.1 phones (emoze2_s60_91.sisx). I hope the people at emoze are working day & night to fix the bugs & restore users confidence in my favourite FREE Push Mail application.

Fixing Picasa moviethumb.exe Error

Many Picasa users might have found an irritating error after installing Picasa. Whenever Picasa is launched it pops up an error saying "Abnormal Program Termination c:\program files\google\picasa\moviethumb.exe . Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime Library". After doing quite a bit of Googling I have accumulated some data on this error which I shall share with you all -

1. moviethumb.exe is the plugin which shows the thumbnails of all videos in folders watched by Picasa.
2. The error happens due to conflicts with Picasa & other existing DivX codecs.

Solution - Since some people like me & many more are both addicted to both Picasa & also other existing DivX applications, we need to find a workable solution. The solution suggested is recommended by few experts on the Google groups & is not any authorised Google solution. Infact Google has still not provided a fix for this problem.

Though everything gets fixed if you uninstall Picasa, but the best way everything works out is by launching Picasa, clicking on Tools -> Options -> File Types & unchecking the Movies section.

This solution has currently worked for me & you may try out the same to fix this nagging bug.

3 FREE PC Security Tools to keep your PC / Laptop Safe & Secure

In an IT world full of Virus Attacks, Trojans, Hack Attacks, it becomes increasingly important to keep your personal PC safe & secure from unauthorized access. Since your personal PC is bound to contact lot of confidential data.

In this post I would share 3 FREE PC Security Tools which I have been using from quite long & have kept my personal PC & Laptop safe.

1. Anti-virus Software -

Among all FREE Anti-virus applications I have found avast! Home Edition to be quite light as well as effective solution from virus protection. You can download it by clicking on the pic given below.


2. Personal Firewall -

I have been using ZoneAlarm Free Firewall from almost 7-8 years from now & have found it to be very good for personal use. You can download it & try it out by clicking on the pic below.


3. Anti-Spyware -

Most newly turned techies seem to be quite aware of Anti-virus & Personal Firewall applications, but many still have no clue how much of a menace a Spyware & Adware program can be. To handle such menacing programs one can install SpyBot - Search & Destroy. Its Resident Shield functionality ensures that any major Registry Entry changes (like change in Startup, etc.) gets first authorised by the user, thus keeping your PC / Laptop safe from malicious Ads that get loaded as soon as your PC boots. To download Spybot click on the pic below.


This post contains just a brief description of the mentioned products. Please visit respective vendor's website for detailed product information. The icons used in this post are copyrighted by the respective application providers.

Geotagged Durgotsav at Mumbai

• Are you new to the City of Mumbai?
• Have you just missed out visiting different Durga Puja Pandals across Mumbai?
• Are you owning a GPS enabled phone / device?

If all the answers to my above questions is YES, then I have a solution for you. I have found out the GPS co-ordinates of few selected Durga Puja Pandals which I had visited this year. This way I have Geotagged Durgotsav at Mumbai. This would help travellers in locating these Durga Puja Pandals when they plan out their trip for next year's Durgotsav.

I hope you have a pleasant Durgotsav at Mumbai next year.

Mumbai Durgotsav 2008 Wallpaper

Those who love the Durga Puja / Durga Pooja festival can set the image posted below as their Desktop Wallpaper.

From Durgotsav 2008

Durgotsav 2008 at Mumbai

After 5 complete days of festive mood I have again resumed my duties. These 5 days from 5th Oct to 9th Oct were really enthralling for me & my family & we thoroughly enjoyed the Durga Puja celebrated all across Mumbai. This post is primarily directed towards all those people staying in Mumbai, who are still not aware how grandly Durga Puja is celebrated in a multi-cultural city like Mumbai. Three cheers to the spirit of Mumbai.

Here are some snaps from Durgotsav / Durga Puja / Durga Pooja 2008 at Mumbai -

Here are some videos from Durgotsav 2008 at Mumbai -

Saptami Arati during Durgotsav 2008 -




Notun Polli Puja Pandal during Durgotsav 2008 -




Vashi Puja Pandal during Durgotsav 2008 -




Chembur Puja Pandal during Durgotsav 2008 -




Powai Puja Pandal during Durgotsav 2008 -




Kumari Puja during Durgotsav 2008 -




Dashami Arati during Durgotsav 2008 -




Puja before Visarjan during Durgotsav 2008 -




Durga Visarjan during Durgotsav 2008 -

Setting up your own Bed Switch

You might have always wished that after that late night movie you could have turned off your lights without getting off your bed. In this post I would teach you how to make your own Bed Switch.

Procedure -

1. Open your CFL/Tubelight/Bulb holder.
2. Turn on the Switch & use a Tester to trace your Live & Neutral wires. n my case the Yellow wire was Live & is shown in the screenshot below.
3. Now turn off your Switch & remove the Live wire from the holder socket.
4. Get hold of a long wire pair (depending upon where you want to keep your Switch) & attach a Bed Switch at one end.
5. At the other end, fix one wire to the point from where you had detached the Live wire from the holder & the other wire should be twisted with the detached Live wire & sealed using an insulation tape.
6. Fix the holder back to the proper place.

Your Bed Switch should now be ready. To make best use of it always keep the main Switch from the Switchboard on & operate the room lighting from the Bed Switch itself.

Find it simple & interesting. Why dont you try out yourself.

FREE Laptop Tracking using Adeona

I just stumbled open a very useful, FREE, open-source utility called Adeona. Using this utility a System Administrator or any user can track the nearest location of a Laptop if the Laptop connects to the Internet on a regular interval. The concept behind this utility is Basic Networking - the TRACEROUTE utility.

I have already installed this utility on my Windows XP based Laptop. Once installed ,this utility runs as a Service in your Windows System (AdeonaClientService). If you receive an Error 193, 0xc1 while starting this service, just search for a file named program on your System Drive, delete the same & try restarting the Service.

Once running as a Service, this utility updates the current Traceroute information at regular intervals to its Server in an encrypted format. To retrieve this information, you have to use Adeona Recovery. The recovery option will only run if you have the adeona-retrievecredentials.ost file specific to your laptop (which stores your credentials). Each installation of Adeona on a separate Laptop or PC will generate a unique adeona-retrievecredentials.ost file, which is encrypted using the Adeona Password which the user sets while installing this utility. So keep this file & password safe.

Once the Adeona Recovery runs successfully it generates a log file containing the outputs of Traceroute utility gathered at different random intervals. Using this log file the System Administrator can trace the nearest location of the Laptop using the Public IP's found in the log file. The Mac OSX version of this utility also has the option to auto-click snaps of the user. from the Laptops inbuilt camera (if present). An exhaustive documentation on the features of Adeona is available on the Adeona Portal. Do go through the documentation & then download & install Adeona to track your Laptop.

FREE GPS Tracking & Mapping applications

After a pretty long period I thought of exploring for interesting GPS applications on the net. Finally after visiting few Blogs & Forums on the net I got some free GPS apps which I though of sharing with you people in this GPS-enabled era.

Buddyway
Its FREE, easy to use GPS Tracking Mobile app. It has a client component which to be installed on the cell. The cell phone app is quite easy to configure. One of the main requirements of any GPS Tracking app is Internet connectivity. So before you install this app on the phone, do ensure that you have Advanced GPRS, EDGE or 3G services activated for complete Internet to work.

To use the app you first need to register for a FREE Buddyway account. Once that is done, you have to install the Cell phone app & configure it to send regular GPS updates to your Buddyway account via GPRS/EDGE/3G. You can then create your own Trips on the Buddyway app on your Cell & continue travelling. Any user with whom you plan to share your trips, or any trusted person who has access to your Buddyway credentials can logon from the Buddyway Portal & track your current position.

Each trip you create gets saved on your web account & has a direct link to a web-based map. Inside your account you also get lots of other useful information about your trip. Yesterday after installing this app I just strolled a few 100 meters outside my Building. The Trip screen shot is shown below.

Sea Clear

It is a FREE GPS mapping application which would be of great help for people working in GIS domain. Here you can create Routes with the help of an External GPS Receiver.

Since I have mentioned about External GPS Receivers, I thought I should also talk about another interesting Mobile App called Symarctic ExtGPS. This application literally converts your GPS-enabled Cell Phone into an External Bluetooth-enabled GPS Receiver.

It provides GPS output in NMEA-0183 standard. Your Cell can thus be used as an External GPS Receiver by pairing it with any device which supports an External Bluetooth GPS with NMEA-0183 standards. For eg, Nokia N81 has support for an External GPS Receiver via Bluetooth. You can thus turn on this app on your Cell after switching on Bluetooth & then pair it with N81.

Similarly, you can start the Symartic ExtGPS app on your Cell & access all the GPS data on SeaClear through a Bluetooth Dongle on your PC, as shown below.

So don't waste your time. Make full utilization of the GPS capabilities of your Cell Phone.

(Note: All the Cell Phone screenshots in this post are taken using the DEMO version of Remote S60 Professional. It is an excellent app to access your Cell Phones UI from the PC via USB or Blueooth.)

Making your own USB Data Cable

If you have USB cables lying in your drawer, they could be of lots of use in case of emergency. Take my case itself, a few days back the Data Cable of my USB Hard Disk went faulty when I desperately required it for some crucial data. So I scanned by drawer for those spare USB ables that my supplier had given me along with the Printer. The problem was that I only required the Male-end of the cable which would connect to my PC & not the smaller end which connected to the Printer. Similarly I found another similar USB cable.

Now I cut both the cables cautiously knowing that the USB Data Cable length should not exceed 1 meter, else my USB Hard Disk woul stop working. Then I found the USB cable colouring standards from Wikipedia. But to my surprise only of the these cables followed the standard, while the other one wasn't doing so.

With little bit of tweaking, I could trace the similar ends of both the cables & also found my Hard Disk started working with the wiring. To ensure proper connectivity it is recommended to solder the cables rather than just twisting it.

A little bit of final packaging & your hand made USB Data Cable is ready.

Isn't it easy to make? Make your own BEST out of WASTE now.

Using Linux Box for Transparent Proxying, Caching & Content Filtering - Squid with OpenDNS

Are you suffering from the following constraints in office ?

• Less Internet Bandwidth
• Unrestricted Internet access
• Very less budget for IT

You should then probably go for a Linux box where squid along with OpenDNS & iptables can bring the unrestricted Internet access under total control. You could then also use iptables for perimeter security purposes.

With regards to OpenDNS I have already discussed in my earlier post. Here I would briefly describe as to how squid can work in conjunction with OpenDNS. In the scenario depicted in this post, squid would primarily act as a Transparent Proxy & Caching Engine, with major portion of Content Filtering being managed by OpenDNS.

The configuration procedure is as follows -

1) Install Linux

2) Configure auto-starting of network service during boot-up -

chkconfig --level 35 network on

3) Configuring for permanent IP forwarding -

echo 1 > /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward

To keep ip forwarding permanent edit /etc/sysctl.conf & set net.ipv4.ip_forward = 1

4) Squid configuration

a) Install squid.

b) Check normal Internet access.

c) Now check squid from web browser setting the Proxy IP & Port to 3128.

If you receive an access denied error, add an acl in /etc/squid/squid.conf

acl aclname src 10.x.x.0/24 # Your Network
http_access allow aclname
http_access deny all

c) Configuring squid as a Transparent Proxy

i) Edit /etc/squid.conf & set

http_port 3128 transparent

ii) Check the access.log file located at /var/log/squid . If it gives a WARNING saying that squid cannot work in transparent mode, you then need to check whether your existing netfilter package is compatible with your existing Kernel. If not, you then need to upgrade/downgrade your netfilter package or your Linux Kernel or the entire Linux distribution, if required. For finding more information on the same please Google around.

iii) Port forwarding

iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -i eth2 -p tcp --dport 80 -j REDIRECT --to-port 3128

This command would forward all Port 80 (Internet) requests received on the Linux Server to the squid's 3128 Proxy Port.

5) Configure auto-starting of iptables service during boot-up

chkconfig --level 35 iptables on

6) Configure auto-starting of squid service during boot-up

chkconfig --level 35 squid on

8) Now in /etc/resolve.conf set the DNS Servers to the OpenDNS Servers

nameserver1=202.67.222.222
nameserver2=202.67.220.220

Your Linux Box is now completely ready to do Caching (thus reducing the Bandwidth utilization) that to in transparent mode. The advantage of this setup is that you can now extend the list of Blocked Sites from squid, since OpenDNS has a custom Block List limited to only 25 sites.

New improvised Missed Call Intimation service from Vodafone India

If you are a Vodafone India subscriber you might already be aware of the MCI (Missed Call Intimation) service. Its a very cheap service priced at Rs.10 monthly, which gives you the number of any caller who tried reaching you when your Cell was switched off or outside the coverage area.

Initially when they started the service some 3-4 years back it came in a different form. For eg, if any caller tried reaching you when your Cell was unreachable, you would receive an SMS from the number 303 with some message like this..."You have 2 missed calls at 7:30 PM & 5 missed calls at 7:39 PM. To get more information send an SMS GET to 303.". After sending this SMS you could get the phone number of the caller trying to reach you. But this service costed Rs.30 monthly with addition cost of Rs.2 for sending the GET SMS.

About a year back they made a few changes to the MCI service -

• The free MCI service would provide you an intimation about a caller who tried reaching you, without any number details. And also that you could not receive this information by sending any further SMS. It is supposed to be preactivated for all subscribers.
  
• The paid MCI service would just cost you just Rs.10 monthly & would provide you initimation SMS'es like this... "You have 2 missed calls from +919812345678 at 7:30 PM.".

Until recently for both the free & paid MCI service would send you intimations from the number 303. I have recently found a very useful improvisement in the pai MCI service. For eg, if a caller tried reaching me from the number +919812345678 & could not reach me, I would receive an SMS from the number +919812345678 itself saying... "You missed a call from me at 9:40 PM.". The obvious advantage is, since the sender's number shown is the actual number & not originating from number 303, you save your time not searching for the number from your Contacts, which earlier had to be done.

Thanks to Vodafone India for bringing in such minor improvisements. Hope to see more of such interesting things in near future.

Sticking Stickers without spoiling your Windshield

If you are a vehicle owner, you are bound to have many stickers like Office Car Pass, PUC Certificate or Car Passes of various other institutions. For those who have specially installed a Heat Protection Film on the Windshield, they would mostly object to sticking anything on the Windshield.

I have devised a workaround which would reduce the surface area that gets stuck to the Windshield, thus protecting your film. Its quite simple.

1. Get hold of a clean transparent waste plastic sheet & stick your sticker to the same.
   
2. Now start cutting from the rim of the sticker until the entire sticker gets detached from the plastic sheet.
3. You would now have a Sticker a difference. A Sticker with no sticky surface.
4. Now cut at least 2 small pieces of transparent cello tape & affix your sticker carefully at a suitable place on the Windshield.

The Protective Film on the Windshield is now safe, as the Sticker is now easily removable due to 2 small pieces of transparent cello tape rather than the entire highly adhesive sticky surface of the Sticker.

I guess this tip would be helpful to protect your Windshield & the Protective Film in your vehicle.

Sweat out for a healthier life

Except a few job profiles, most of our jobs are office based. Also many companies have started with Work From Home. This post is primarily directed towards people associated with the IT industry.

Constantly sitting & gazing at the PC can have a lot of adverse effects on your health, if not now, but in your old age. I presume hardly a handful of us have the time to do a workout at home or Gym on a regular basis. The end result - Obesity, Pain in joints, Lethargy, Neck stiffness, Back pain, the list is endless..... Rather than heading towards an unhealthy future it would be wiser to take preventive actions at the right time. I would suggest some easy to do household work to keep you fit always -

1. If you have a Garden do Gardening yourself rather than telling the Gardener to take care of things.
2. If you have a Car don't keep someone to clean it. Clean it yourself if not regularly but every 2-3 days.
3. Rather than using your favourite bike use your Bi-cycle to visit nearby places.
4. Don't spend your weekends sleeping for long hours. Wake up at least by 8 am & spend a considerable amount of time cleaning your house or any other household work.
5. If you are not staying very high up in the apartment (say within 4th-5th floor), use your Staircase rather than the Elevator to reach your flat.
6. Use Public transport rather than Cabs, for places where you do not prefer to use your Car.

These are just a few handful of activities which would result in little bit of sweating. A comfortable seat within the office premises is just good for mind & not for the body. Believe me, absence of sweating is dangerous. I have started realizing things once I have joined a nearby Gym a month back. Sweating removes quite a lot of impurities from your body & opens up the pores on your skin.

So sweat out before its too late.

Reflexology Chart - Acupressure Points on our Palms & Foot

I had a scanned image of acupressure points present on our Palms & Feet. Thought of sharing the same with the readers.

Acupressure points on Palms -


Acupressure points on Foot -

Restoring FeedBurner Stats Code on Blogger

I have lately found an inherent bug in Blogger. If you "Revert widget templates to default" in Edit HTML section of Blogger, the FeedBurner Stats code gets deleted & tracking of all useful information about your site stops.

Now arises the question of why you want to revert widget templates to default. Sometimes it so happens that after customizing your Blogger template some of your widgets start misbehaving. Take the example of the Blog Posts widget.



While customizing this widget even if we select some options like "Posted by", it fails to appear on the Blog. At this point of time we are left with no other option other than reverting widget templates to default. But this deletes the FeedBurner Stats code.

To restore the code login to FeedBurner & click on your Blogs name. Now check on the lower left hand corner of your browser for the link FeedBurner Stats [PRO].



Now on the section of Get the HTML code to collect stats on your site select Blogger from the drop down list. A window would soon pop-up describing you the entire procedure to install the code on Blogger. Just copy & paste the code as per the procedure described & your site statistics collection would start once again.

Implementing OpenDNS Content Filtering & Unblocking Yahoo Messenger on your Network

Few days back my Company Management asked me to implement some kind of Content Filtering mechanism which would restrict the uncontrolled Internet usage within the Office. There were also a whole set of requirements that should be met before Content Filtering could be implemented -

1. It should be transparent & no Proxy setting changes should be required on the Browser end.
2. It should be free, since the Company could not afford for a commercial application like Websense or e-Trust Secure Content Manager.
3. It should be easily manageable & should be able to provide minimal set of reports.

What else could meet the above requirements other than OpenDNS. I would personally recommend all Internet Security Administrators in a SOHO & SMB setup to go for this product. It not only provides DNS services but also doubles up as a DNS-based Content Filtering application. It actually works on a principle commonly known as DNS Poisoning. Their DNSServers would resolve the true DNS IP's for Domains that are allowed by the Administrator & would provide the DNS IP of a blocked page in case of a restricted domain.

All you need to do is register for a FREE account on their site. Once registered, you need to manually add all the Global NATed IP's in your Network through which Internet is accessed. Then configure your Perimeter device to block DNS requests from your internal Network to all other Internet DNS Servers excluding the OpenDNS DNS Servers 208.67.222.222 & 208.67.220.220. Now configure the scope on your DHCP Server to assign the OpenDNS DNS Servers instead of any other DNS Server. Thats it, it so simple. Once your NATed IP gets verified on your OpenDNS account, you can configure all sorts of Category & Domain based Content Filtering.

Please have a look at some screenshots from OpenDNS site -

1. Administration Page:

2. Statistics Page:


3. Content Filtering Page:




Troubleshooting for Yahoo Messenger -

As per the requirements of one of the teams, it was requested to block requests to maximum number of sites excluding Chat & Instant Messaging. I thus checked all the categories listed under Content Filtering option excluding Chat & Instant messaging. To my surprise I found that Yahoo Messenger client application stopped working totally in spite of Chat & Instant messaging being unchecked. Temporarily I gave the team a workaround by using Meebo for web-based for web-based chat & IM.

Now by using netstat I tried tracing all the Servers Yahoo Messenger uses to establish complete commmunication for all its features like Voice, Video, Chat, File Transfer, etc. I found that the IP's changed for every new connection establishment & soon realised that it was impossible unblocking Yahoo Messenger using IP's. The answer lied in the DNS names of these Servers. I thus waited for few hours for some logging to happen & finally my Blocked Domains report gave the answer. Here are the bare minimum list of Servers Yahoo Messenger client software uses to establish complete connection for most of its feaures -

1. address.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Address Book
2. beta.sip.yahoo.com - Yahoo SIP Server. Probably used for Yahoo Voice Services
3. filetransfer.msg.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo File Transfer
4. insider.msg.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Insider
5. msg.mud.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Text Chat
6. ns.yahoo.com
7. re2.yahoo.com
8. relay.voice.mud.yahoo.com - Probably used for Yahoo Voice Chat
9. scsa.msg.yahoo.com, scsb.msg.yahoo.com, scsc.msg.yahoo.com, scsd.msg.yahoo.com
10. stun.ycp.corp.yahoo.com - Yahoo STUN Server. Probably used for Yahoo Voice Services
11. shttp.msg.yahoo.com
12. http.chat.yahoo.com
13. natkeepalive.voice.yahoo.com
    

I feel that this list of Servers should be exhaustive enough (or might be not :-) to unblock Yahoo Messenger through OpenDNS or any other transparent Proxy mechanism. This list might change again when Yahoo does so. As & when I find any new Servers, I would keep adding them & updating this list.

I guess this post should be helpful for people looking out to implement easy, safe, robust & FREE Content Filtering mechanism & also to unblock Yahoo Messenger through that.

Ganpati Bappa Morya

The immersion of Ganesh idol's today culminates a wonderful & grand festival celebrated all over Maharashtra. This year could be said to be the beginning of Political Ganesh Pandals. Almost all big idols had big sponsorships & advertisements from Political parties.

I always make it a point to visit 2 specific Ganesh idols in the city of Mumbai. You guessed it right - the Ganesh idols of Ganesh Gulli & the Lalbaugcharaja, both located at nearby places in Lalbaug area, Parel. While Ganesh Gulli's idol is famous for its standing postures & theme based pandals, Lalbaugcharaja is famous for its immense faith among its believers. Its said that Lalbaugcharaja fulfills every visitors' wish.

It was the 75th year of Lalbaugcharaja. By looking onto the enormous crowd on TV, all my hopes of visiting Lalbaugcharaja doomed down. It all happened day before yesterday. when there came in a reference of an ex-employee of my company named Rizwan. Rizwan helped me & few of my friends to join the queue in between at Lalbaugcharaja, through his top class references, to make a successfull darshan of Lalbaugraja & Ganesh Gulli Ganesh idols. I heard that the queues were extending almost 1-2 kms & people waited on an average of 6-9 hrs to have a darshan. Thanks to Rizwan that the entire episode was wrapped up only in a matter of 1-2 hrs. People staying abroad can have a look at the snaps of Ganesh Gulli & Lalbaugcharaja Ganesh idols clicked from my Camera. The snap of the Ganesh idol at Ganesh Gulli is posted on the top. The snap of Lalbaugcharaja was clicked with great difficult & hence appears a bit blurred is posted below.

My 10 Commandments for new Car drivers in India

A new car...wow...a dream come true for many aspirants desperately wanting to drive their own vehicle. If this is not your first Car then no need of reading further. Before you hit the roads on a frequent basis its always wise to carry some handy tips desperately required while driving on Indian roads.

Driving Tips -

1. Practice regularly on empty roads before being a part of the maddening traffic.
2. BE VERY CAREFUL WITH YOUR POWER STEERING. We mostly learn driving on vehicles without Power Steerings & this is where all the problem starts. Since your new Car comes with a Power Steering you will notice that a small turn on the Steering causes your Car to turn more than expected. But believe me, once you get accustomed to your Power Steering you would find yourself handicapped without that. Warning you again: BE VERY VERY CAREFUL WITH YOUR POWER STEERING.
3. Install a Front Bumper metal guard along with a Pointer to give you safety as well as good judgement. The metal guard would ensure that your Front Bumper as well as the Engine is protected in case of minor bumpings here & there. The Pointer on the Left Hand Side would give you proper judgement about how much space your Car occupies on the road.
4. Practice U-turn & Parking with Reverse gear ample number of times. Do remember that you can park your Car much more precisely while Parking using the Reverse gear. While practicing U-turn do not accelerate much else you might end up ramming your Car onto the divider (just like I had done :-). While negotiating a U-turn drive very slowly & use the Steering based upon how much the Car is turning. Practicing U-turn would also give you a better control over your Power Steering.
5. Have a practice of looking onto all your mirrors (Left, Right & Rear View) during driving. Negligence can lead to accidents.
6. DO NOT TAKE SHORT LEFT TURNS. Remember, judging your Car's left portion of the body is much difficult as compared to the right, since you drive while sitting on the right. Whenever you try to overtake someone or try to take a left turn, turn slightly right before you turn left. This would give your Car the bare minimum space required to take the turn. A short left turn can also turn out to be very costly if you are Parking your Car in a congested area. You might end up having dents on your left doors or the rear bumper.
7. APPLY BRAKES GRADUALLY rather than applying suddent brakes. Suddent braking causes inconvenience to people in the traffic, & can also cause damage to the rear portion of you Car if someone ramms onto your Car due to sudden braking.
8. How much ever gentleman you are, you need to be very bold, aggresive & need to use abusive language while you are on the roads. Else its a tough day out for you on the field. People can easily take you for a ride if you accept your mistakes while on the roads. Its clear... you are a perfect driver (even though you are not) when you are on the road ;-)
9. Be very confident while you are driving. But never be overconfident. Overconfidence would cause a lot of damage to your Car which would turn out to be very heavy for your pockets.
10. Always keep a Nail Polish of the same colour as your Car's body. In the initial days you are bound to have minor scratches on your Car which can get easily covered using Nail Polish.
    

If you drive regularly for 3-4 months, there are fair chances that you would be a very good driver after going through my Driving Tips. All the best to you & happy journey...

Advantages of using Microsoft Windows Live Mail - WLM

Its almost 2 months since 30-June-2008 when Microsoft disabled the DAV Protocol. The main implication was that you could no more configure your favourite Hotmail / MSN / Windows Live Mail account from Microsoft's FREE Mail Client, Outlook Express. As an alternative Microsoft provided a new Mail Client named Windows Live Mail (referred to as WLM in future references). Initially I hesitated & got annoyed using the same due to its Vista look & feel, but now I have discovered some small but useful features which will tempt you to shift from Microsoft Outlook Express to Windows Live Mail, even for your POP3 & IMAP accounts.

Firstly its the look & feel which is lot more intuitive that Outlook Express. It colour codes your different Mail Accounts for easy differentiation. Screenshot shown below.



Next comes the speed of operation. WLM is surprisingly a light application. Though Microsoft is famous for making resource hungry applications, WLM negates their standard approach. It loads faster & even operates fast. You can also use it in Offline mode when you are not connected to net. Thanks to Microsoft that though it has retained the Vista look & feel it has not retained the resource hungriness of Vista in WLM :-)

And finally the most important feature for the techhies. Just like Microsoft Outlook & Outlook Express, WLM also has associated mail files. The Store Folder which was referred to as Local Folders in Microsoft Outlook Express, is now referred to as Storage Folders in WLM. Screenshot shown below.



But something which has totally changed is the cryptic storage of mails in .dbx & .pst files. WLM stores all individual messages as .eml files; which makes the e-mail messages more searchable in Offline mode. Though the is not according to the Subject of the e-mail, but still each individual e-mail in any of the folders resides as a .eml file. The Store Folder can be located & changed according to one's needs from Tools (+T) -> Options ->Advanced -> Maintenance -> Store Folder . Do remember that the Menu Bar in WLM is hidden by default & can be activated by depressing the ALT key. Since all the mails reside as .eml files in the Store Folder, they can be attached & sent easily to someone without requiring to export such messages. Also the Store Folder retains the exact tree structure of the Mail Accounts that you would see in the WLM interface.

Aren't all these features wonderful? Why are you still stuck up with your old Mail Client, Download WLM switch to Windows Live Mail today!!!