Suramya's Blog : Welcome to my crazy life…

March 30, 2006

Painting directional signs outside subway stop in NYC

Filed under: Interesting Sites — Suramya @ 5:21 PM

Anyone who has been to NYC knows thats its easy to get confused which direction is which when travelling via the Subway system, its ok during the day (When you can look at the sun and figure out which way is east… unless its noon… then you are SOL)

Someone decided to actually do something about this and painted directional signs outside some of the subway entrances… Really good work. Unfortunately the person didn’t sign the sign so we don’t know who to thank…

Here’s an example:


Subway entry Directional signs
Subway entry Directional signs

Thanks to Adam Fields for the link

– Suramya

March 29, 2006

The Spider of Doom

Filed under: Funny News,Tech Related — Suramya @ 10:55 AM

Ok, this is just plain hillarious.. Though I do feel sorry for the poor sysadmin who had to trace this issue and I am impressed that he actually managed to solve it. Basically:

“Josh [Breckman] was called in to investigate and noticed that one particularly troublesome external IP had gone in and deleted all of the content on the system. The IP didn’t belong to some overseas hacker bent on destroying helpful government information. It resolved to googlebot.com, Google’s very own web crawling spider. Whoops.”

So when googlebot crawled the pages it deleted them as it went through them. This is really poor application design, the authentication mechanism depended on the client to have javascript enabled and if they didn’t it assumed that allowed the visitor full access to the site.. Not smart…

Complete Writeup: The Spider of Doom – The Daily WTF (Has some good suggestions on how to avoid this)

Thanks to Daily Blogoscoped for the link.

– Suramya

March 28, 2006

Google 3.0??

Filed under: Funny News — Suramya @ 10:17 AM

Google 3.0?
Google 3.0??

Thanks to Coolz0r – Marketing Thoughts for the link.

– Suramya

March 27, 2006

Firefox Bug Causes Relationship to Break Up

Filed under: Funny News — Suramya @ 6:20 PM

This is one of the more interesting bugreports I have seen. Basically:

A couple engaged to be married shared a computer. He used Firefox to visit a bunch of dating sites, being smart enough not to have the browser save his password. But Firefox did save the names of the sites it was told never to save the password for. She happened to stumble on this list had a big fight (According to her: sh*t hit the fan) and then they broke up. This is after 5 years of dating… Stupid guy… lucky girl (That she found out about this before tying the knot)

I guess FireFox should start promoting itself as: “The browser you can use to find out if your significant other is cheating on you”

Bugzilla Report: Bug 330884 (Read it, its interesting)

Thanks to Schneier on Security for the link.

Cya,
Suramya

March 20, 2006

Scrolling LED bra sends mixed messages

Filed under: Funny News,Interesting Sites — Suramya @ 4:18 PM

Found this while browsing through Cnet (Honest!)… And I think this is really funny:

“After years of reminding blokes that ‘our eyes are up here,’ someone’s gone and invented a bra that seems to say “but my breasts are down here,'” wrote the blog’s Star C. Foster.

Only downside in getting this is that its about $500 a piece… I think getting a new iPod would be cheaper and more useful.

Original Post: Scrolling LED bra sends mixed messages

Purchase them: Here

– Suramya

March 11, 2006

Tools to check folder ACL’s in Windows

Filed under: Computer Software,Computer Tips,Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:30 PM

Tools to use that show “ALL” of the the ACL’s permissions that are on these network folders:

I haven’t tried any of these tools yet so I can’t vouch for them. However these were recomended by smart people that post to the Security Basics @SecurityFocus Mailing list so I am sure that they work ;).

Thanks,
Suramya

March 10, 2006

Google: A giant hard disk in the sky?

Filed under: Computer Related,My Thoughts,Tech Related — Suramya @ 12:52 PM

There have been rumors to the affect that Google might be releasing a new service that allows users to store unlimited amount of data on their servers and access it from anywhere… While this sounds really neat and useful there are a couple of issues with it that you might want to think about (If you are planning on using it. I am not)

1. First as soon as the data is off your computer and on google’s they have full access to it, they can scan it to generate targeted ads. (They already do that with your email). If a google employee wanted to they could read you private documents (You tax returns, your love letters, your whatever… ). Not saying that they will just they can.

2. Storing it on Google’s servers will make it easier for law agencies/lawyers to get search access to your data using a subpeona. Adam Fields has a good writeup on why storing your data on google is a bad idea.

So if you still want to store stuff on google feel free to, but I am not. I might store encrypted files for a short time if I needed to free up space for something, but for a more long term solution I will stick to my DVD burner. 🙂

Original Article: Google: A giant hard disk in the sky?

– Suramya

March 9, 2006

New Biometrics scanner released

Filed under: Computer Hardware,Computer Security,Tech Related — Suramya @ 11:01 PM

This is an interesting new biometrics scanner that uses the layout of the veins in the user’s palm to authenticate them. Apparently its more reliable than fingerprints and safer. Couldn’t find any pricing information but I bet they are expensive right now. Hopefully the price will go down a lot so that I can afford to get one to play with.

Synopsis:

Fujitsu Computer Products of America, Inc. on Wednesday announced the global launch of its PalmSecure biometric authentication system. The contactless system identifies users by examining the layout of the veins in the palms of their hands.

The PalmSecure device uses a near-infrared beam, similar to that used by television remote controls, to map the layout of veins carrying oxygen-depleted blood back to the heart. According to Joel Hagberg, vice president of marketing and business development for Fujitsu, those vein patterns are unique in every person — even more so than fingerprints or DNA.

Complete Story: For security, Fujitsu talks to the hand – Computerworld

Thanks,
Suramya

March 8, 2006

An Introduction to awk

Filed under: Linux/Unix Related,Tutorials — Suramya @ 4:08 PM

A good introductory tutorial on awk. I have heard a lot about it, even used it a couple of times in shell scripts but never programmed using it. Check this article to learn more about it.

Synopsis:

The awk programming language often gets overlooked for Perl, which is a more capable language. Out in the real world, however awk is found even more ubiquitously than Perl. It also has a smaller learning curve than Perl does, and awk can be used almost everywhere in system monitoring scripts, where efficiency is key. This brief tutorial is designed to help you get started in awk programming.

The awk language is a small, C-style language designed for the processing of regularly formatted text. This usually includes database dumps and system log files. It’s built around regular expressions and pattern handling, much like Perl is. In fact, Perl is considered to be a grandchild of the awk language.

Complete Article: An Introduction to awk

– Suramya

March 6, 2006

Forwarded message I got and my response to it

Filed under: My Thoughts — Suramya @ 6:01 PM

Got the message below as a forwared email. So I sent back a reply with my comments on it. (Yes it was late and I was bored.). My comments are in Italics

Title of Email: Why ARE MEN HAPPIER?

Men Are Just Happier People– What do you expect from such simple Creatures?

> Your last name stays put.

True… You can also keep the same last name, just marry someone with the same last name as you…

> The garage is all yours.

Since your car is usually at the repair shop…

> You can wear a white T-shirt to a water park.

So can you. I don’t mind.. Honest.. 😀

> You can wear NO shirt to a water park.

So can you. I won’t mind… really. Honest

> Car Mechanics tell you the truth.

So you think…

> You don’t have to stop and think of which way to turn a nut on a bolt.

Ha ha, true.

> Same work, more pay.

More crap to deal with, more pay. Women are never asked to help move boxes around when the office runs out of space.

> People never stare at your chest when you are talking to them.

Unless I am wearing a T-Shirt with a smart ass comment on it.

> New shoes don’t cut, blister, or mangle your feet.

So you think..

> You know stuff about tanks.

Yup. Actually got to ride in one a long time ago.

> If someone forgets to invite you, he or she can still be your friend.

Or you can just show up anyway’s regardless of invitation

> Three pairs of shoes are more than enough.

Why do we need more again?

> You are unable to see wrinkles in your clothes.

Then maybe I need glasses?

> Everything on your face stays its original colour.

Unless I dye it.

> The same hairstyle lasts for years, maybe even decades.

True…

> You only have to shave your face and neck.

Yeah, but we have to do it everyday.

> You can play with toys all your life.

So can you, just different ones…

> Your belly usually hides your big hips.

N/A

> You can “do” your nails with a pocket knife.

Yup. Actually did that once.

> You have freedom of choice concerning growing a moustache.

Yeah, Do I want to be lazy or not? Will my mom/sister/significant other yell at me or not?

> No wonder men are happier.

No wonder men get paid more… Women spend most of their time at work creating such lists 😉

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