My Punjab.

My Punjab is the “Land of the Five Rivers”.

My Punjab is not Punjab (India) or Punjab (Pakistan) – it is simply Punjab.

My Punjab is the land of great gurus like Guru Nanak and of warrior saints like Guru Gobind.

My Punjab is where there are Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims – with no difference.

In my Punjab people still discriminate on the basis of caste and call themselves the followers of Baba Nanak.

In my Punjab, a Punjabi would rather tolerate abuses on himself than his motherland.

My Punjab gave birth to 20-year-old warriors who sacrificed their life for the honor of the country.

In my Punjab bribing is a way of life; its an integral part of the system. The Government functions on that.

In my Punjab, a guest is still treated like a King.

In my Punjab you get Sarsoon da Saag with Makki Di Roti and a tumbler full of Lassi.

My Punjab has the worst police force on the Earth regularly accused of severe human right violations.

My Punjab is where you worship the soil cause of the glory it has.

My Punjab is where you get to listen the most lively form of music with a dazzling display of Bhangra.

My Punjab is the land of poets like Bulle Shah and Shiv Kumar Batalvi.

My Punjab is not Khalistan. My Punjab is not only for Sikhs. It is for our Hindu and Muslim brothers. The words of Guru Gobind, ‘Treat the human race as one’, will always guide us.

My Punjab is definitely not the corrupt Government officials who don’t work unless you stuff their filthy self with bribe money.

My Punjab is not for religious fanatics or people who have nothing else to do in their life except boast about the superiority of their caste.

My Punjab is my motherland. Canada or US. No matter where you are. There has never been nor will be a place like apna Punjab.

Vasda rahai mera Punjab. Proud to be a Punjabi.

Pulling together interesting search trends and patterns requires Google’s human and computing power together. Search statistics are automatically generated based on the millions of searches conducted on Google over a given period of time – weekly, monthly, and annually. With some help from humans, and a pigeon or two (LOL) when they have time, these statistics and trends make their way from the depths of Google’s hard drives to become the Google Zeitgeist report.

Or in other words, this means what specific terms did Indians search for most, using Google in April 2007.

>>

LOL. Ain’t it funny? Angelina Jolie? LOL LOL. We Indians. Phew.

2nd one is self explanatory.

Intex (India) is a computer accessories manufacturer, good all right but I never knew it was that popular!

DTDC is a leading Indian courier company.

Polaris – Can’t seem to fit this!!!!

SESA Goa is India’s largest exporter of iron ore in the private sector . . . Wonder . . .??

Franklin Templeton – Investment Firm . . . Must be mutual funds!

Homeopathy – Mostly found in all Indian homes. Trusted!

NCDEX – National Commodity & Derivatives Exchange Limited

Online Hindi Songs – Papuyaar Yaar!

Mona Lisa – LOL. Now why this.

Northern Railway – The best thing to happen to Indian Railways. The online enquiry system REALLY ROCKS.

Valentino Rossi – People do watch MotoGP

Stress – Ha ha. Stress. Good one.

Jiya Khan – LOL. This really made me go ROFL. Long legs I guess ?

Officially declared by Rolling Stone magazine as the #1 song of all times, Dylan makes your skin crawl. Check out the video.

The song is exceptionally brilliant – more so when you understand what it is about.

The meaning of the song can be found HERE.

LOL. I am not found of taking these so called ‘Nerd Tests’, however I didn’t have anything else to do so I went over to NerdTests.com and took the Computer Geek Quiz

The score? Well well well.

LOL! A Computer GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The test was pretty easy I think! (0% scored higher or 0% scored the same same as 100%. LOL)

Overall:

0% scored higher (more computer geeky),
0% scored the same, and
100% scored lower (less geeky).

What operating system are you taking this quiz on?

Sadly, Linux is still at 7% while Windows continues to lead with 82%.

A properly configured Linux system makes Windows look pathetic.

People think Vista is too good. I had installed Vista and believe me, it sucks! After an uptime of 2 days, the OS started giving problems – frozen windows and stuff. Just waiting for Fiesty Fawn to release!

Now time for some fun. Which includes going out and writing some kewl programs. I love this life!

In BTW, if music is for the soul, then this is it:

The song is With Or Without You by U2 from the album ‘The Joshua Tree’

Can’t understand how people manage to live without music! Seriously. In BTW, check out the

Music

page on the top.

Republic Day congratulations to all my fellow countrymen.

May the following things be banned in India – in the true spirit of being of an Indian.

1. Congress and BJP (Political Parties) – Congress for the anti – Sikh riots in 1984, in which innocents Sikhs were massacred in many parts of the country. People like Jagdish Tytler and Kamal Nath were responsible inspite of that, they were introduced in the Cabinet. The Nanavati Commission took 20 years almost to submit its reports. This happens only in India.

BJP for the 2002 Gujarat riots. Innocent Muslims were killed throughout Gujarat. And yet Narendra Modi escapes, fights the elections again and wins. Pathetic. Had it been some other country, such a person would have been brought to justice immediately, his role in the riots was clear cut. Yet he continues to be the Chief Minister. Rightly said, sometimes in a democracy all the fools are on the same side of the majority.

The surprising part? In both the cases, the police actually helped in propagating the riots. This speaks volumes about the police force in our country.

See the videos of either the anti – Sikh riots or the Gujarat riots. Then you will realize how insane some people can be. You won’t weep, you will cry out loud.

2. Television - Ekta Kapoor and her stupid shows in which according to her she shows the empowerment of women. Right. 6 to 7 marriages of the same lady and this is called empowerment. The only thing she is bringing out to the audiences is – that she is lousy. Her concepts are pathetic. The audience? I am really surprised how people see these shows. I even heard that some of my friends watch them. How sick can someone get I mean?

Big Boss. It sucks so much that I won’t even talk about it. Stupid show. Stupid people.

3. Religion Based Politics – Any party that uses religion as its base should be banned and the leaders be sent to a maximum security prison – they are like terrorists. Seriously.

4. Cellular Companies – Of course its not feasible to ban them but the way they loot customers its really pathetic. Misleading consumers by calling a 64 Kbps connection as BROADBAND.
Our country can do a lot better if people stop this caste crap and religion bullshit.  Jai Hind.

Mozilla Firefox is slowly becoming the de facto web browser – making people finally realize that IE is pathetic. On a personal level, almost all of my sane friends use Firefox (thanks to me!) . This post deals with the memory leak problem in Firefox (what a memory leak is; explained further)

Programmers are familiar with the term memory leak. For others, memory leak is un-intentional memory consumption by the program wherein it fails to release memory no longer needed. Think of it like this – whenever you run a software, a specific amount of memory is allocated to it. Since we are dealing with Firefox, let us concentrate on that. When you open Firefox assuming an empty page, it takes up some amount of memory to load the interface. Next, supposing you open Gmail. The memory consumption increases (cause of Gmail). After that you sign out of Gmail and once again return to an empty page. If Firefox is still consuming the same amount of memory it was when Gmail was open – this is a memory leak. Gmail is no longer loaded but Firefox has failed to release the memory it allocated. This way the leaked-out memory keeps on increasing and hence slows down your computer if you have less RAM. (Programmers: memory leak does not mean that the memory is physically lost, it means that the program logic can’t access the memory due to faulty code)

“To check how much memory Firefox is using:”

Right click on the Taskbar and choose Task Manager. Now choose the Processes tab. Look for firefox.exe And note down the memory usage.

Typically, if you have no open windows or tabs (a blank page; which can also be brought about by typing about:blank in the address bar), Firefox should not consume more than 50 MB of memory. Anything more than this and means memory has already leaked out. (just a sentence!) Time for action.

1. The easiest solution is to restart Firefox. This will bring the memory back to a level it should actually consume.

2. Many a times, the themes and extensions cause a memory problems. The way to check this is to start Firefox in safe mode. To do this, go to Start > Run. Enter:

firefox -safe-mode

Press Enter. This starts Firefox in safe mode. Now check the memory usage after using it for sometime. If memory allocated decreases dramatically, means that the themes or the extensions are causing problems. Using the default theme or updating that extension might help.

3. Clearing the Firefox cache might help. To do this, press Ctrl + Shift + Del in succession.

4. Another method to cure the memory leak problem. Click here. (For advanced users only)

The ironical thing is that the Mozilla guys have done nothing to resolve this issue. For most people the easiest way out is method number one. Restarting Firefox.

Advanced people who know how to mess around with about:config, check the link in point 4.

Firefox rocks. Except the memory problem and loosing bookmarks!

Your passwords are the keys you use to access personal information – stored in your computer or your online accounts. It is not easy to break a password – there is no direct way to do this, however certain other methods do exist – if your password is weak (read on to find out more) – it can be recovered in a couple of minutes using an ordinary computer.Here are a few tips on choosing a strong password. As we proceed, I will explain clearly the difference between a strong password and a weak one. Or rather, how to classify them.

How to choose a strong password?:

A strong password is one which has a random string of characters. It should meet the following criteria.

1. Length – The rule of the thumb is – each character you add to your password increases the protection that it provides by many times over. An ideal password is 8 or more characters: 14 characters or more is recommended.

You can also use a ‘pass phrase’. Since many systems support the use of space bar in passwords (a space bar is equal to a *, it is counted as part of the password), you can create a phrase made of many words. For example:

Mypasswordcanneverbecompromised.

Such a password is easy to remember and very hard to recover.

2. Combine letters, numbers and symbols – The more variety of characters you have, the more secure is the password. Instead of your password being ladyluck, change it to l@dYlucK123. Use the entire keyboard, your password will be much stronger if you use all the symbols.

– A strong and easy to remember password in 4 steps –

1. Passphrase – Think of a sentence you can remember and if the password system accepts [spacebar] as a character – your password can be made very strong and very easy to remember.

2. Add complexity – Mix uppercase and lowercase letters and numbers. Letter swapping and misspellings are recommended. For example, if your password says, ‘My name is James Bond’, it can be also said as, ‘My nAMe iz J@me$ B0|\|D’ – which is a much better password than the former.

3. Add special characters – Like in the previous example, substituting @ for a, $ for S, increases the strength of a password.

4. Change your password regularly if it is simple. Doing so is a good practise.

Weak Passwords (Password strategies to avoid)

1. Avoid repeated characters – such as 123456, asdfg or adjacent letters on your keyboard.

2. Don’t use dictionary words (ever) – Using sophisticated tools (explained later) passwords that are based on words from the dictionary can be guessed/ broken in almost no time. This includes dictionary words spelled backwards, mis-spellings and substitutions.

3. Use more than one password everywhere - If you have multiple accounts, using a common password is not recommended. It is critical to use different passwords for different systems.

4. Don’t give out your passwords over e-mail or based on an e-mail request - Any e-mail that requests your password or requests you to go to a website to verify your password is almost certainly a fraud. Such a method is called as ‘phishing’
(read fishing). Read more here.

5. Do not type passwords on computers that you do not control – Computers such as those in Internet cafes, computer labs or airport lounges etc. are unsafe for any personal use other than anonymous Internet browsing. Do not use the computers at such places to check emails, bank balances, business mail or any other account that requires a username and password. Chances are – keyloggers are installed and your password will be recorded.

6. Do not use other information easily that can be easily guessed. This includes pet names, license plate numbers, telephone numbers, identification numbers, birthdate etc. If you have multiple passwords, you can store them in a ‘password safe’. Some safes worth checking out are:

(KeePass is highly recommended)

KeePass – keepass.sourceforge.net {Open source password safe}
Password Safe – passwordsafe.sourceforge.net {Same}
Norton Password Manager – Symantec {Paid}

===

How can passwords be broken?

Many password recovery tools are out there. They use a technique called a brute force attack. To understand this, let me give you an example.

I had a debate with my friend – I challenged him that I can get the password to his Microsoft Word (.doc) file. [To add a password to a Word file, go to Tools>Options>Security] He said it was impossible since it was clearly mentioned that passwords once lost can never recovered (Word says this).

Using a dictionary brute force, I got his password in 15 minutes on my Pentium 4 machine. Simple. Why? Why was I able to recover his password when Word clearly says that password can never be recovered?

His password was ‘ladyluck’. A brute force attack on the Word file started checking every possible password from a simple ‘a’ to the word ‘ladyluck’. So the password was compromised.

But had his password been something like, ‘920394290asdas23@#@#’ it would have taken years to get the password. That is why the emphasis on the length and complexity – brute force attack time is directly proportional to the length.

A network of computers (a farm as it is called) can be used for brute forcing. Such an attack, can typically recover a password that would take decades on your computer to break, in a few minutes. However, you are out of this!

Stay secure!

[Comments can also be found here]

Ok. I use Emacs cause its fast, very powerful and cause Richard Stallman is behind it!

A very cool feature in Emacs (apart from all other ‘great’ things it has to offer) is the Emacs Psychiatrist. Now what is that? Read the conversation to find out.

This is the actual conversation with a software. Yeah. Unbelievable!

To start the Emacs Psychotherapist, go to Help > Emacs Psychotherapist.

—–
Emacs: I am the psychotherapist. Please, describe your problems. Each time
you are finished talking, type RET twice.

Me: hello

Emacs: How do you do? What brings you to see me?

Me: i need your help. i have heard that you are a good psychiatrist.

Emacs: Why do you say that?

Me: hmm. cause i read about it somewhere.

Emacs: What makes you believe cause you read about it somewhere?

Me: what is there to believe in this? you are stupid.

Emacs: Maybe your plans have something to do with this.

Me: my plans? yes maybe.

Emacs: Is it because of your life that you say your plans yes maybe?

Me: what has my life got to do with this?

Emacs: I don’t understand.

Me: same here.

Emacs: Is it because of the people you hang around with that you are going
through all this?

Me: don’t insult my friends dude.

Emacs: Don’t tell me what to do. I am the psychiatrist here!
How do you reconcile problems at school?
Me: i never had any problems

Emacs: Are you sure that you not ever had any problems?

Me: yes. what makes you believe that i did have?

Emacs: When did you first know that you did have?

Me: i said i never had any.

Emacs: Perhaps this has something to do with any hobbies you have?

Me: maybe. how can you say? you are not good at this.

Emacs: Does the fact that can I say I am not good at this explain anything
else?

Me: no. it explains that you suck.

Emacs: I would appreciate it if you would watch your tongue!

Me: hell. you are really stupid.

Emacs: Perhaps you could avoid such unwholesome thoughts.

Me: i can avoid many things. like talking to you for example. i dont know
why i am wasting time.

Emacs: Possibly hangups you have are related to this.

Me: and what is that supposed to mean?

Emacs: Are you sure supposed to mean?

Me: you are nuts. really.

Emacs: Do you really think I am nuts really?

Me: yes. i have a gut feeling about this.

Emacs: What makes you think you did have?

Me: is this going anywhere?

Emacs: Is it because of your inhibitions that you are going through all this?

Me: yes.
Emacs: Can you elaborate on that?

Me: no. it is kind of personal.

Emacs: You mentioned that can I say?

Me: say what?

Emacs: Maybe this is related to your plans?

Me: no. why do you keep on repeating stuff?

Emacs: When did you first know that do I keep on repeating stuff?

Me: LOL. just came to know now.

Emacs: Is it because of your life that you say lol just know?

Me: goodbye. i am leaving.

Emacs: My secretary will send you a bill.

Me: you did not help me.i am not going to pay.

Emacs: Earlier you said can I say I am not good at this?

Me: that is why i am not paying.

Emacs: Does the fact that is why you are not paying explain anything else?

Me: no. it explains i am leaving. goodbye.

Emacs: How do you reconcile any hobbies you have?

Me: GET LOST.

Emacs: Bye bye.

Emacs: See ya.

By now I was laughing my ass off! I mean it was way too cool. It really really rocks! I have edited not even a single line. This is the exact conversation. Try it for yourself!

Fonzter.com is a popular teen blog which has a huge audience in Punjab.

I was surprised when I recieved an email from one of the founders – requesting me to write for the blog. Of course! I was too happy to accept.

Check it out once!