like i got nothin` better to do.

I`ve never really been a very responsible person; now that i think about it, i feel that personality traits such as getting distracted easily, and laziness contribute in a major way to it.

As most of the blog posts put up here, this one is also posted a day before the college reopens. This time i had a dozen screenshots to prepare, try out a few python dbus scripts and write a detailed note on Huffman compression scheme ( i don`t usually do assignments on my own; but this one sounded interesting).

However, i had just installed a brand new Jaunty on my machine and the so, was obviously it was just not configured to work my way. I started with organizing my files and then moved onto theming my machine(something which seemed like it just HAD to be done juuust that very moment. )

So, i started getting themes from www.gnome-look.org and customizing them. 90 mins later, what you see on the right is what i got.

I was pretty happy with the new look, but (sadly) i dint stop there. :-/

I went on to changing the GDM login screens; and when i`m done with that i start modifying it(that went pretty well too; it was easier that i had expected). Aand after that i went to to get my dinner and right now, here i am writing this blog post like i got nothing better to do.

Adios! Lemme know how bad my desktop looks right now…

Back when coding was fun

There was a time when doing a project meant fun, rather than “completion-within-a-deadline”; there was a time when mere curiosity taught me a lot more than the will to learn, and “work” was`nt quite referred to by that term.

I don`t know why but i associate almost every song i hear with a person i know, an event in my life; sometimes even food and aroma.

One look at my first project while listening to one of my favorite songs during high school, brought back loads of old fond memories. C++ was the first language i had ever learnt. And my high school project was a simple, yet elegant Library Management System(along with ol` pal Aju). I had learnt a lot during the course of doing that project and it had taken us around 3 months to complete it. I remember checking the internet back then for ideas i could implement; but remember not liking any i had come across(maybe its `cause my googling skills were`nt half as good back then, dunno). However, the resource i had used to the fullest was the Turbo C++ Documentation. By the end of high school i had gone through all the documentation in Turbo C++ about graphics programming. Minimize resource requirements, Maximize Output. That seemed to work all the time.

Now, i never really was interested in graphics or the GUI aspect of programming(i still am not); i`d done the GUI part in the Library Management system just for the kick of it. And now, its been ages since i`ve coded that way.

College was a place where i was overwhelmed by the technologies and the limitless possibilities around me; and i started utilizing them – one by one. During my first year, i played and experimented with a lot of technologies around me; there were people who could clear half my doubts, books and magazines to double them up again. It must have been the most productive part of my life where i actually enjoyed getting to know stuff so much. From here, later on, spawns my ambition to work in the area of Information Security.

As time passed on, i got my hands on a handful of projects, doing them was fun at the beginning but then my attitude towards programming started changing slowly. I regret saying this, but from then on projects started becoming mere endeavors to learn something somehow AND put it on my resume. I resent saying that, but that is the truth.

All of this sudden realization, thanks to a song and one of my most prized pieces of high school code.

Now, i`ve decided to work on a web application(GUI again), just for the hell of it. I know i`ll learn loads, but thats not the point anymore.

`coz this time its for the fun in it.

Download videos from securitytube.net

It was a Sunday morning `n i was at home. I had to get on a train back to the hostel at noon; a lot of pending work undone, i had to download those videos from www.securitytube.net pronto.

I usually download videos put up on youtube using www.keepvid.com ; its a really good site which gets the job done – nice and easy.

However, videos from securitytube could`nt be downloaded this way; so here are a couple of ways to do it(thnkx to Anirudh and ideamonk)

Method 1 :
———
Viewing the source of the page in which the video is being played, and searching for “.mp4″ gets you the actual location of the video. All you have to do is use a download manager to download from that location. I use firefox, and i used the download manager which came with the addon named “DownThemAll!” for this purpose.

Method 2 :
———
In case you are using linux, then the videos get buffered into the /tmp directory. Mostly, they`ll begin with the name “Flash” to be followed by a few other numbers and characters. Just copy them to a different location AFTER the video finishes buffering.

Hope this helps!!!

Buffer overflows; the way i see it

Towards the beginning of this month, i was part of a team that had taken part in the CIPHER 5 capture the flag competition; due to lack of experience and preparation we had failed to fare well in it; we came out 22nd out of 32 worldwide.

However, buffer overflows was a topic i did not manage to cover fully during the preps for the competition; so i continued my work on it even after the it. My work is mainly on the Linux distro named DVL – Damn Vulnerable Linux(you mite wanna google it out if you have`nt heard of it);  its a linux distro based on backtrack which has got vulnerable apps of many various kinds which are excellent for practice. It was referred to me by Marcus J. Carey, a security auditor who has helped me in numerous occasions.

Now, i don`t pretend to be an expert on buffer overflows; i`d rate myself intermediate. However, i`ll mention a few guidelines you could follow which might help you at exploiting overflows. SO, here are the references(please let me know if there are better ones)
1. Try reading `bout buffer overflows on wikipedia.
2. Video tutorials on “Assembly programming in Linux” which`ll explain the basics of memory management and assembly programming on an Intel x86 system by Vivek Ramachandran.(1-7 is enough). Neat work.
3.Video tutorials on “Exploiting buffer overflows” by Vivek Ramachandran(1-5). Neat again(but a bit slow).
4.Try reading “Smashing the Stack” ; an excellent article by aleph1 which was published in the Phrack magazine.

Now, once you are done with all that you could try out DVL(i used DVL 1.4); i`d suggest you go through the challenges in the -

/dvl/exploitmes_package_04/

directory before going through the others. After going through all the above tutorials the challenges in that directory should be a breeze.;-) However, if you still find trouble there are a nicely written tut`s in that directory itself. I strongly advice you not to go through them in the beginning.

So what am i upto now? Well, i`ll let you know when i`m done with that…

P.S. if you wanna know how to download videos from www.securitytube.net , read this.

minor shockwave at perumbavoor

Its been a long time since i`ve last blogged; and its sad that i`m writing out a post on such short notice after a really long time.
I was sitting in my room, blog-surfing when i heard this really loud noise from behind. It was also accompanied with a strange and strong vibrating sensation. It passed as quickly as it had come; i rushed downstairs to ask mom `n dad about it. However, they had`nt experienced any sort of vibration on the ground floor; they had just heard loud noises.
I came back to the room to see a twitter update of an old chum, who lived nearby reporting the same. As time passed, more and more tweets from people who lived near me began to come up. We still had`nt got any formal confirmation or any news report confirming the same.
It was about 40-50 minutes later that the news was confirmed. We had a minor earthquake at perumbavoor. The epicentre was at mazhuvanoor; and i had gotten the news from www.manoramanews.com.
(NOT ABLE TO READ MALAYALAM IN YOUR FIREFOX BROWSER? INSTALL this firefox plugin.
More updates on this post will come up soon.

EV-DO on ubuntu 9.04

Using an EV-DO internet connection on your ubuntu was never that hard, but then again, its boring repeating the same steps on every new installation of ubuntu(unless you have a script to automate it; i.e.). Usually you have to mount the USB modem(type usbfs, just in case you`r wondering) and manually create a symbolic link /dev/modem which points to /dev/USBtty0 so that wvdialconf recognizes your usb device as the modem to be used.
However, In Ubuntu 9.04 i was surprised that mounting and creation of the symbolic link had taken place automatically.
So, all i had to do was run :-
$ wvdialconf
This resulted in the creation of a wvdial.conf file in the /etc directory which could be edited and used for saving the username and password.
However connecting using ‘wvdial’ still caused a problem; it just would`nt connect. Figuring out the solution was`nt hard though – There was a line which read :-
Modem – /dev/USBSL0
All i had to do was change it to
Modem – /dev/USBttyS0

and whoallah! Connected to cyberspace!

But the speed sucks! And i have no clue WHY!
Wanna know how bad the speed was…?

I was on a brand new Vista using IE…. i had better browsing speeds there. No kidding!

Innovation Room

Events which happen around me, though seemingly distinct at first glance, tend to create a lasting impression in my mind which form the basis for further thinking.

Two events which recently took place were:-
i) joining the social ubuntu forum at www.myubuntu.ning.com(which rightly claims to be “the social side of ubuntu”).
ii) reading a comment at the ubuntu forums. The comment was posted by a linux user; who had doubts desciding to move over to ubuntu. However, he found coding something he found uninteresting. He wanted nothing to do with a CLI interface and was asking the forum members`s opinion on whether or not he should move over into ubuntu.

This got me thinking.

Consider the case of a businessman, or maybe a housewife who blogs regularly on her favorite recipies; anyone who considers coding as the last thing they wish want to try out(I don`t blame them). Linux variants, in most cases, have their settings easily configurable via the CLI. Now, does a businessman need to learn bash scripting for setting the desktop environment for his basic needs?

Now, suppose a user posts his view on any popular forum as www.ubuntuforums.org ; ive lost count of the number of times i`ve seen them go unanswered. True, some questions may seem “lame” but experienced linux users seem to disregard that fact that a person might be using linux; not because he`s interested in the code(or is a wannabe-coder), but because its free. Not helping newbies and choosing not to answer their queries is not a good practice.

And this, i feel, is one main reason for the increase in popularity of ubuntu taking place at an incremental rate; rather than the exponential growth we would like to see. This is one major way in which the requirement of the end-users is not being met with.

And as usual, this is my attempt to bring about a small change in the way people perceive things.

I`ve created a room in the social network at ning. try out the Innovation Room at http://myubuntu.ning.com/group/innovationroom

.

The idea behind this group is to provide a platform for :-

1. Tending to the needs of new linux users.
2. Bridge the gap between End-Users and Developers so that the former get to tell the latter, what THEY feel is required to be done.
3. I`ll explain this point using a simple example. Consider the case wherein, a task needs to be automated. In most of the cases, people opt for shell scripts which can help them in their tasks. But now, Users can put forward their requests and have them replied to.
4. Most importantly, the results produced by #1, #2, #3 mentioned above can be used to understand end-user needs in a more effective way; thereby improving the overall quality of the next distribution release.

Cheers!!!

battery life ubuntu 9.04 update #1

The KDE-desktop environment, however, has surprised me. It had a power-management daemon which provided the following profiles; powersave, performance, aggressive powersave, presentation, and Xtreme powersave.

Also, i went through the internet looking for power management daemons which could automate these tasks for me; and i found none. It was a hot summer afternoon, and i was bored. So, i decided to make one by myself. I have`nt started on it yet, i`m just doing a bit of reading on power saving methods for now. I`m hosting a project at codeplex and i`ll release it at its successful completion. Updates on the mini-project`ll be put up here every now and then, though.

i`ve named the project power-Xtended; and the alpha version of it is about done. It`s got only a quarter of the features i`d intended to put in; the GUI is designed using the Glade-interface designer(this`s my first experience with it) and i`ve used python along with it. Here are the improvement-statistics i`ve come across on using power-X.

quite satisfactory, for an alpha, don`t you think? i`ll be releasing the next update, pretty soon, and i`ll need all your help for testing it out on various environments.

UPDATE #2
more features, `n hopefully better power mangagement; powerX beta is almost done. Will be released soon.

UPDATE #3
the project has been moved from www.codeplex.com into a site of its own. The site will be put up here soon. Due to unforseen difficulties, the release has being delayed. Please be patient.

battery life, ubuntu 9.04 ;-(

I`ve been off the internet for a considerable period of time; hence the large number of updates in a single day

13th May 2009
Yes, i`ve been off the internet for quite a while now and this is what i`ve been upto. I use a Lenovo Y410 latop which runs Ubuntu 9.04(64-bit). Previously, i used to have a battery life of about 100 minutes while running Windows Vista(and i expect around 120 minutes for Windows 7);however, i was shocked to find out that the battery life had reduced to only about 50 minutes when running ubuntu.

My initial reaction, was to believe that ALL 64-bit O.S.`s gave a reduced battery live`s(ya, i know that`s a stupid thought; but that`s what came to my mind at first); but then i recalled instances of better power management by 64-bit O.S.`s.

Searching the Ubuntu forums provided me a thread with a considerable number of people stating the same problem as i, myself had. A solution was already provided(which i implemented without haste)along with a link(www.lesswatts.org), which had to be referred to, in case you needed more performance-tweaking.

The site provided excellent information on the various tasks which use up your battery-life and could be disabled in order to save power. The power-saving methods explained on the site, however, were “general” and not for any specific linux distro; which meant i had to find the corresponding tweak in Ubuntu for myself.

I managed to find the location of these files, a lot sooner than i`d expected. The configuration of these files can be tweaked in a lot of ways; the easiest among them being the tweaking the files in the following directory:

/etc/laptop_mode/conf.d/

i`ve put a few scratch-notes i`ve made in the process; i just could`nt type them out again, it`d bore me to death!!
(sorry about all the scribbling, i guess i`m just not patient enough for a good handwriting )

i`m open to learning, so, ideas, criticisms; ALL welcome!

whoa… dint see this coming!!

today`s one of those hot `n humid evening`s when you can think of  nothing to while away your time; its one of those days when the idea of watching a flick gets you headaches, and even your favorite song sounds like a blaring horn.

i generally get tired of things a bit too quickly; however, i finally decide play CounterStrike over the internet. however, the game keeps on crashing for some reason when i try to connect to online servers. i finally give up and switch back to ubuntu(i feel internet browsing`s faster on ubuntu) and read up stuff on the internet for similar-crash-cases.

the only crash cases i`d encountered before this were the packet-errors we used to have(and still occasionally have) while playing CS over a WLAN at our hostel. could a slower(on comparison with ubuntu) internet connection be the reason i`m having these errors? would these errors still persist if i could  game in ubuntu?

games in ubuntu bought into my mind the recent discussion i had with Abhishek….

if  i could only play CS on ubuntu.. `n then it hit me. could`nt believe it took me so long!!! i ran the game using the wine on ubuntu and whoallah!! it finds online servers, connects seamlessly and there is`nt even a hint of a lag while gaming!!

gotta go!!! lemme go and give `em a few headshots(and get a lot in return, i bet!)….