Tuesday, September 27, 2011

A Word from my Sponsors.....


Monday, September 26, 2011

Brilliant or Blunder ?

In a recent speech to the U.N, our very own Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said "We must address the issue of the deficit in global governance. We need a stronger and more effective United Nations that is sensitive to the aspirations of everyone -- rich or poor, big or small. For this, the United Nations and its principal organs, the General Assembly and the Security Council, must be revitalised and reformed. The reform and expansion of the Security Council are essential if it is to reflect contemporary reality. Such an outcome will enhance the Council's credibility and effectiveness in dealing with global issues. Early reform of the Security Council must be pursued with renewed vigour and urgently enacted,"........

In this speech he plunged head-first into addressing global problems and spoke for the world as a whole. All in all, this much was a master stroke worthy of applause, however, in this same speech, he went on to emphasize the ills of globalization which not all believe in. While this does not adversely impact India's bid to join the U.N Security Council as a permanent member, Dr. Manmohan Singh also spoke directly against Western powers "forcing" democracy on countries who do not want it. Whether or not he was morally right, this statement will not go down well with the majority of the U.N Security Council permanent members, and of the only two who do not favor democracy, one has a border with India which is currently engaged as an active war zone under a ceasefire order. This gaffe certainly does us no favors.


At the end of the day, we can only hope for the best, expect the worst and ask ourselves, was this speech brilliant ? Or was it a blunder ?

Saturday, September 24, 2011

A World Class "Energy" University

PDPU, namely Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, is at least the most - advertised of universities. So, one may ask, what exactly do they advertise themselves to be ? Well, PDPU masquerades itself as an energy university with no parallel, but this very same university was devoid of any and all electric power for more than half a day this 24th September, 2011.

One must wonder how a university with its own solar energy farm AND its own wind turbine can manage to lose power for so long a time. Could it be that we have sullied the term 'educational institute' so badly that the sun is now embarrassed to shine on us thereby disabling the solar panels ?

One thing is for sure, we may not have the best engineering departments in the country, but the School of Petroleum Management must have a bunch of student experts on advertising....

Friday, September 23, 2011

The Online Battlefield

Throughout the ages, the periods of greatest technological advancement has been periods of turmoil, most specifically war, barring only the renaissance. History has seen us go from clubs to swords to automatic guns. The first world war gave us tanks and the second gave us jet aircrafts. With advanced times come advanced weaponry, refined and sophisticated in its capabilities, and what more potent a weapon than the all-pervasive internet. In this information age, there is no deadlier weapon than information.

While various armament companies such as Heckler and Koch, Barrett, Smith and Wesson, Kruger and Glock to name a few keep on researching smart bombs, pinpoint accuracy rifles and what not, the great arsenals of the world have begun to consider a paradigm shift to augment their ever-burgeoning stash of modern day weaponry. In this age of the atom and the electron, the face of warfare has changed. While in the past there was no secrecy in marching an army into enemy territory, the wars today are all about covert operations and misinformation. The other new addition is the birth of the cyber-warriors. They are the ultimate when it comes gaining sensitive information without getting caught.

This new unconventional addition relies on the capability of crackers (black-hat hackers) to collect sensitive data, disrupt normal functioning and otherwise inconvenience in every possible way, the target country as a whole at all levels. The most convenient thing about this form of warfare is the complete lack of bloodshed in it. No, this is not a humanitarian gimmick, what I really mean is that if you don't die, you can keep on fighting! Also, the host government who initiates the attack maintains complete deniability.

Not convinced ? Do you still think that this is some outlandish conspiracy theory ?

Well, the truth is that this form of warfare is hardly anything new. For example, Russia is known to have initiated cyber attacks against Estonia in 2007 in retaliation for an Estonian decision to relocate a Soviet war memorial. Russian hackers are some of the smartest and scariest in the world. They are more than capable of accomplishing a lot more. Another example that deserves mentioning is the attack of a private company. Mitsibushi Heavy Electronics (MHI) have been on the receiving end of this form of attack for quite some time now. MHI was attacked on multiple occasions due to their line of products which include all the Japanese Naval submarines and even F-15 construction for Lockheed Martin. Those F-15s arm not just the U.S Air Force but a number of other countries as well. Rumours have been flying thick and fast that these attacks have been undertaken at the behest of the PLA (People's Liberation Army) cyber warfare unit known as the Blue Army. In case you are not aware, the PLA is the unified military organization of all land, sea, strategic missile and air forces of the People's Republic of China.

How long will it take for the Chinese to divert their attention from the Japanese and focus it on India instead? Who knows, given our poor cyber security record, they have already penetrated Indian cyber networks and are operating inside our country but outside our knowledge. What is to stop them from stealing research from the top-notch academies and research organizations we have or even taking over our nuclear arsenal?

In future, cyber attacks should be dealt with as seriously as other more conventional modes of warfare as it is no less than infringing the territorial integrity of the nation being attacked. If cyber criminals can harm people over the internet, organized groups with the same skill set can bring a country to its knees. While many of you might be thinking of Bruce Willis in Die Hard 4.0, it will probably take more than one senior detective to stop a military effort of that level, even if that detective be John McClane.






[P.S : Forgive me Bruce Willis, don't get me wrong, I am a die hard "Die Hard" fan. Yipee Kay Yay, <censored expletive / colourful profanity>....]

Sunday, September 18, 2011

Google+ and the Modern World of Social Networking

In a post-orkut, facebook dominated world, google+ is still struggling to find it's own identity. While twitter has dug deep into its fortified niche, google+ is slowly being relegated to the ranks occupied by myspace, etc. In this story of death before birth, one must wonder, is google really the future of the internet ?

If google+ really wants to take the offensive in the battle of the social networks, it must define itself first as formal (such as LinkedIn) or informal before moving on to the intricate details that will funnel traffic into it.

With an increasing number of apps accessing the internet and retrieving data for the user and google's all-too-intrusive collection of user data to "refine" searches, people are turning to other avenues of using the internet. While google strives to perfect android and ChromeOS, they have failed to notice the shift of users away from google. After all, people flock to a free service and leave even faster !

If google wishes to truly dominate the computing world, they will need to make a move to capture it now and monopolize it through consolidated effort much like microsoft did so many years ago.


[Before you ask, yes this post did start out with a focus on social networking and ended in the mad scientist type rambling about world domination ! :)]

Torres is not Chelsea material

Time and again, Fernando Torres as furnished us all with irrefutable evidence that he does not have what it takes to be a Chelsea footballer. His perennial out-of-form nature now begs the question, was he really ever out-of-form to begin with or is this pathetic display of footballing skill the true extent of his capabilities ?

Sunday, 18th September, 2011. It is Chelsea vs Man. U, easily the most important match the English Premier League has to offer. Chelsea despite being the quite obvious superior team was surprisingly down by 3-1 in the 95th minute. At this time, Torres was presented by a perfect through ball. The Man. U. goalkeeper De Gea being the rookie that he is was out of position by a simple bit of dribbling by Torres leaving the goal completely open. The defense was miles behind and the target seemed almost impossible to miss. "Almost" being the operative term used here. Personally, I was tempted to say it was impossible to miss, but once again, Mr. Torres always trying to prove that he can do what no one else can missed this golden goal-scoring opportunity. No other player, whether they be a goalkeeper, defender, midfielder, striker, an amateur footballer or even a person kicking the ball for the first time would have missed but Torres once again displayed his fine talent for finding the wrong side of the net.

In case no one has told you Mr. Torres, here's the secret........you're meant to get the ball to go INSIDE the net ! Not around, not under it and definitely not over it !


I say, just give him a couple million or two and tell him to stay at home for the rest of the season. He'll be doing the rest of the team a big favour. Spain may have won the world cup, but that does not make all spaniards world - cup material.





Also, I know Andre Villas-Boas is new and all and deserves more of a chance to prove himself capable, but what was he thinking ? Benching Anelka was Dumb with a capital D, plain and simple. We all hope Drogba a speedy recovery so that he may replace the inept Spaniard Torres. Though Sturridge is proving himself an asset to the team, I'd still pick Anelka over him for just the sheer experience and greater finesse in his play. Sturridge makes for a great substitute.

Friday, September 16, 2011

Code Magic : Loopy Loops -> Twisting the For Loop (C and C++)


Every textbook that teaches the basics of the programming languages 'C' and 'C++' will clearly state the syntax for the "For" loop as :-

for( initialization; comparison; update )
{

Body of Loop;

}

For example,

for( int i=0; i<5; i++)
{
cout<<"\n "<<i;
getch();
}

This will give us the output :-

 0
 1
 2
 3
 4

Now here comes the interesting part. Though in most cases a program will throw up errors while compiling if the syntax is not strictly followed, in certain cases, we can exploit the weaknesses in the coding of the programming language itself to veer away from the syntax without causing the compiler to interpret it as an error. In some cases, this provides us with definite advantages such as faster running of the program due to less number of calculations required to complete the program.
I will now demonstrate how to get the same result as the above example program with one such exploit.

New Syntax :-

for( initialization; update; )
{

Body of the loop;

}

New Example :-

for( int i=4; i--; )
{
cout<<"\n "<<(4-i);
getch();
}

In this, the value of the integer 'i' is first assigned as 4, then 3, 2, 1 and 0 respectively on subsequent loops.
So, the output of the program will remain the same. This modified loop will basically decrement the initialized value down to zero. That will be the point at which the program will be terminated.


P.S : Please comment if you liked this post. I hope to make this the first of many "Code Magic" articles.

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Tracking a blog ping.....



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Germany has done it !

Germany, one of the techno-hubs of the world and one of two "Research and Development (R&D)" world capitals (the other is Japan) has finally done it ! This mecca for engineering student is setting standards that only a scarce few could dare to dream about !

After the Fukushima nuclear tragedy in Japan, Germany took the initiative to avoid the use of civilian nuclear energy completely by phasing out all of their nuclear power plants with at least 35% of their power coming from renewable sources ! Not only are they well on track to achieve what was perceived as the ludicrous ravings of a nation gone mad, they are ahead of schedule. According to the German Association of Energy and Water Industries, the share of power generated from renewable sources has soared up to an all time high of 20% !
Wind power was the dominant source supplying 20.7 billion kWh (7.5 percent of total production) of the 57.3 billion kWh provided by renewable sources in the first six months of 2011, followed by biomass with 15.4 billion kWh (5.6 percent), photovoltaic solar with 9.6 billion kWh (3.5 percent), hydroelectric with 9.1 billion kWh (3.3 percent, and waste and other sources providing 2.2 billion kWh (0.8 percent). The most considerable jump registered solar power, increasing by 76 percent over 2010. To achieve this end, the German Federal Government decided not to cut subsidies for private solar-power generation as was initially planned.

Hats off to this enterprising German nation and their modern day miracle !

Now, some of you might be thinking that this was possible because Germany is a rich nation with deep pockets to pull from and make huge renewable energy projects. The truth is quite the opposite. Though Germany earns more than any other European nation, it is far from being rich. It is in fact one of the poorest in Europe. Only in 2010, 20 years after the re-unification of Germany, were they finally able to pay off the war reparations of the 1st World War with the interest owed. Even now, they are paying off the war reparations to all the allied countries the war reparations of world war 2. They will have to continue doing so for many years to come but I have full faith that they will be able to do so soon. Well, I hope so anyway.

Perhaps the reason why both Japan and Germany are so amazing at Research and Development is the fact that it is easy to earn from technology. They are forced to pay war reparations and it is this necessity to earn or fall apart that provides them with the drive to excel.

What ever may be their motivations, I hope to keep seeing engineering ingenuity from them for years to come.

Tuesday, September 13, 2011

In case anyone wants to join adf.ly, here is the sign-up link

A Word from the Sponsors

InReview -> Batman : Arkham Asylum (2009)

Batman is one of those characters which have transcended all boundaries and is a universally popular character. This DC comics legend has dominated the shelves of graphic novels(read comics) stores, filled cinema halls full of movie goers and now has been all immortalized in digital gameplay. Batman : Arkham Asylum (B:AA) gives the player the reigns to the "caped crusader" as he hunts through the island of Arkham Asylum trying to unravel the plot that the joker has set in motion.

Not only is the lighting and musical score spot on for such a game, B:AA gives us a much more realistic view of the madmen the "vengeance of the night" has to deal with. Gameplay is never boring despite certain repetitive elements and while the fighting mechanics are easy to grasp, they take a while to really master. B:AA pits the gamer not only against the joker but other batman villains such as bane, killer croc and poison ivy. Also, there is the ever-present riddler with his hidden statues and riddles that you can solve for bonus unlockable content.

Graphics though stunning are not highly demanding and most laptops with a 2.4GHz processor, 3GB RAM and a dedicated 512MB GPU should be able to play it at full settings without much of a problem.
What really gives this game a ring of authenticity is the voice-acting done by some of the original voice artists from Batman : The Animated Series. This ensures that the joker has just the right amount of "crazy" in his voice.

As you can obviously understand, I will not be describing this game any further to avoid giving any spoilers, however, I will say this, it is one of the best games ever made and definitely worth playing. The freed Arkham Asylum inmates will ensure that the "Dark Knight" will be tested to his limits, can you handle it ?
 
Final Rating : 10 / 10

Note : This game is worth the money, and if you're like me, it's worth the time spent downloading it !


Saturday, September 10, 2011

Feed Shark

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Clash of the Titans : Social Networks do not Socialize

In a post-orkut, facebook dominated world, google+ is still struggling to find it's own identity. While twitter has dug deep into its fortified niche, google+ is slowly being relegated to the ranks occupied by myspace, etc. In this story of death before birth, one must wonder, is google really the future of the internet ? If google+ really wants to take the offensive in the battle of the social networks, it must define itself first as formal (such as LinkedIn) or informal before moving on to the intricate details that will funnel traffic into it. With an increasing number of apps accessing the internet and retrieving data for the user and google's all-too-intrusive collection of user data to "refine" searches, people are turning to other avenues of using the internet. While google strives to perfect android and ChromeOS, they have failed to notice the shift of users away from google. After all, people flock to a free service and leave even faster ! If google wishes to truly dominate the computing world, they will need to make a move to capture it now and monopolize it through consolidated effort much like microsoft did so many years ago. [Before you ask, yes this post did start out with a focus on social networking and ended in the mad scientist type rambling about world domination ! :D]

Thursday, September 8, 2011

Firefox Nightly Version 8 Download Link

Well, the Post title is fairly obvious. The main reason for posting is that I felt pretty stupid after extolling the virtues of nightly version 8 over 9 in my previous post to see that the nightly website had removed version 8 and had links only for version 9. So, for all you smart people out there who want Firefox Nightly 8, all you have to do is go to the "Downloads" link on my website and select the Firefox download (it's the only one there for now) and save the file. After that, just install and enjoy ! Here's the link -> http://jmexpress.hpage.com/

Future Firefox

Are you a firefox fan ? I mean, who wouldn't like a amazing browser that runs faster than.....well something really, really fast. Anyway, if you want to use versions of firefox that are yet to be released, you can do just that ! What you are looking for is a firefox "nightly" build. These builds are not even Beta stage but more of a development stage version of firefox. Some of your add-ons may not work with these new builds but I can personally assure you that they deliver top-of-the-line performance when it comes to internet speed. After all, its a browser, what more can you ask for ? The current version of firefox (stable) is 6 and Beta is 7. I've been using Firefox Nightly 8 for over 2 months and not only is it faster than both version 6 and 7, but it is also more stable and supports more add-ons than either of the "mainstream" builds ! Intrigued ? Well, you can download Firefox Nightly Builds from -> http://nightly.mozilla.org/ Another developer stage firefox is the "Aurora" ! Download it from here -> http://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/channel/ Last but not least, here's a direct ftp link to all the firefox builds you could ever want. In the mood for legacy or on the search for future versions, grab any version even before they hit the firefox website ! -> http://ftp.mozilla.org/pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/ If your an add-on junkie like I am, I would suggest that you do not use the Nightly build 9, rather the nightly build 8 as version 9 still needs some work in regards of managing add-ons. Version 8 however, is the by far the best browser I have ever used (that's right Microsoft, I said it, and for the record, Internet Explorer will never have a home on my computer, I'll use Opera or even Safari if I have to in case Firefox is not available!) LONG LIVE MOZILLA !!! |\/|[]Z!|_|_/-\ |2|_||_35