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Winsock2 LSP Corruption & Fix
2007-07-04 07:08:00
Figure: Wins ock 2 Architecture (Source: Microsoft)IntroductionMicrosoft Windows Winsock provides network socket facility for Applications via Service Provider Interface (SPI) and is extensible via Layered Service Provider (LSP). A LSP is a Dynamic Link Library (DLL) that uses Winsock Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to insert itself into the TCP/IP stack from where it can intercept and modify all the TCP/IP inbound/outbound internet traffic taking place between Internet and the Application accessing internet. In simple words, LSP typically handles low-level Internet-related tasks, and data is passed through a chain of these programs on its way to and from the Internet.Winsock LSPs are available for a wide range of useful purposes, e.g. internet access control, web content filtering, traffic analysis etc. The Winsock API prvoides a mecahnism for layering providers to implement only higher level custom communication functions. The layering order of all providers is kept in th...
More About: Corruption

Tandem Paragliding in Queenstown
2007-06-25 12:33:00
Ever wondered what it would be like to be a bird, to soar hundreds of feet above the ground, take in the view and get that feeling that you can actually fly? Well, paragliding experience can help you fulfil that fantasy.Very recently, I had an opportunity to experience the exhilarating Tandem Paragliding flight from the top of the Skyline Gondola in Queenstown , New Zealand. The Skyline sight also allows friends and families to enjoy this event with you, offering other facilities at the top of the gondola such as bar, restaurant and coffee shop, also viewing platforms and a luge ride for anyone needing more time to build up the courage.About Queenstown Tandem ParaglideQueenstwon Tandem Paraglide was the first paragliding company in Queenstown established in 1991. QTP has 15 local and international pilots working all year round. They are all NZHGPA registered and have many years of experience, and they have been taking people for the flight of their life since 1991.The flight takes y...

Kawarau Bridge Bungy Jump
2007-06-20 09:45:00
I had booked myself onto the AJ Hackett Bungy Jump and to my surprise I survived the 43 Metre Bungy Jump from Karawau Bridge . The Kawarau Bridge Bungy is home to the original 43 Metre Bungy Jump and is the first commercial Bungy site in the world. If you've heard of Bungy, you've heard of Kawarau. It is located 25 KMs outside Queenstown (New Zealand) in a picturesque valley overlooking the crystal clear Kawarau River.IntroductionKawarau is the place to go for New Zealand's only bungy simulator as well as a real jump from the bridge. Kawarau Bridge Bungy is also the only Bungy in Queenstown where you can choose to bob above the water, touch it, or be fully immersed. You can also choose from a number of options; topple over backwards, forwards, with another person, spin or somersault. Spectator areas are perfectly positioned for viewing the frantic and funny facial expressions and body language of the real jumpers. It’s a user-friendly site in superb surroundings - the perfect se...

ZOHO: Software as a Service
2007-06-07 07:52:00
The future of Software would be in offering Software as a Web Service . This would allow Users to use Web based tools to edit, write, collect and publish online. Most of Internet Users has only seen a glimpse of this new reality via increased use of search engines, web-based social networking tools, image archives, blogs and online collaboration tools. But a lot more is coming in form of web applications offering flexibility, increased availability & affordability, less dependency, more usability and heaps of other rich features. In this Blog, I am going to discuss about the most popular web based Project from ZOHO.IntroductionZOHO is one of the brands from AdventNet, a software company started in 1996 focusing on building affordable software for businesses. ZOHO Services hosts wide array of online WEB based Office Productivity Suite and Collaboration Applications that runs in almost any Web Browser and can be accessed from anywhere in the world with an internet connection. Zoho bel...

Zero Day Bugs exposed in IE & Firefox
2007-06-05 09:03:00
Michal Zalewski, a computer security expert and white hat hacker published demos of four different browser vulnerabilities on the Full Disclosure mailing list. These Multiple vulnerabilities pertaining to cookie stealing, keystroke snooping, page hijacking, malicious downloading and content spoofing can be exploited by malicious people to compromise a User's System.MSIE bait & switch vulnerability (page update race condition), has been rated critical affecting Microsoft's IE 6 and IE 7 (fully patched). This IE Vulnerability gives attackers a window of opportunity to run malicious Javascript to hijack the System. Firefox is not vulnerable. Click here for an online demo and technical details.Firefox cross-site IFRAME hijacking bug was rated as a major vulnerability that could allow Malicious Coders to use Javascript to inject malicious code including keystroke snooping and content spoofing attacks, on pages that rely on IFRAMEs to diplay contents or store state data. Click here for...
More About: Bugs , Pose

Google acquired FeedBurner
2007-06-04 09:08:00
Google has acquired FeedBurn er, a Chicago-based company that provides media distribution and audience engagement services for Blogs and RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feeds. Feedburner provides an extensive feed and blog advertising network for online publishers to promote, deliver and monetize their content on the Web.What it means for GoogleGoogle feels that by acquiring FeedBurner it will be able to capitalize on the growth and expansion of its advertising reach. Google is a market leader of paid search advertising and has a huge network of websites already using Google's AdWords online marketing system which is the main source of revenue for Google. By having acquired FeedBurner, it can put ads in more than 400,000 RSS feeds that FeedBurner has and it can expand its AdSense Web site publisher network with the FeedBurner publishers. Google is planning to integrate FeedBurner's technologies with a number of its own products.What it means for AvertisersGoogle advertisers will b...
More About: Google , Acquire , Googl

Microsoft Surface
2007-06-03 04:08:00
Microsoft Surface Microsoft has unveiled its Surface Computer Technology, a project that has been kept under wraps for five years. They have launched its first commercially available Surface Computer , that provides effortless interaction with digital content through natural hand gestures, touch and physical objects.How does Surface Work?Surface is essentially a Windows Vista PC tucked inside a shiny black table base, topped with a 30-inch touchscreen in a clear acrylic frame. Five Infra red cameras that can sense nearby objects, hand gestures and touch are mounted beneath the screen. Users can interact with the Surface by touching or dragging their fingertips, with their hands and gestures and by putting real world objects taged with speical bar-code labels on the surface. Unlike most touchscreens, Surface can respond to more than one touch at a time.Surface key FeaturesUsers can interact with the digital content and information without the use of a mouse and keyboard. From digital ...
More About: Microsoft , Microsoft Surface

Google got Gears
2007-05-31 09:52:00
IntroductionGoogl e has launched Google Gears (BETA) which is an open source Browser Extension that can be used by developers to create Web Application that can run offline. Google Gears is cross-platform, cross-browser and will work with all major browsers (currently Firefox 1.5+ & IE 6+) and is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS.How Gears will Work?Google Gears' APIs will allow you to store and cache application data (HTML, JavaScript, images etc) locally on your desktop, store and access data from within the browser in a database. There will be a worker thread pool module for performing operations in background making web applications more responsive. The first program created with the Gears API is the Google Reader feed-reading application, which is available as of now.Is it Useful?One of the biggest drawback of an online applications like Google Docs & Spreadsheets, Gmail, Google Reader etc is that you need a fast and reliable Internet connection to use them. No Conne...
More About: Ears

Jaiku.com
2007-05-31 04:19:00
What is it?Jaiku .com is an online social networking service that allows users to share their presence by broadcasting short messages called jaikus about what they are up to, how they are feeling, where they are going etc to a group of friends via Web and mobile. The messages are delivered instantly via Instant Messanging, RSS feeds, Mobile SMS etc to the users who have signed up to receive them. Jaiku gives you your own personal page at http://username.jaiku.com and you can customize your design, add icons, setup your location, share your web feeds.Social NetworkingInternet has turned into one of the social medias ever invented. Social Networking also known as Moblogging or microblogging has emerged as the next big thing on Internet. It has enabled communicating with lot of people from different parts of world all at once with the click of your mouse. It's all about you staying connected 24 hours. There are number of other social networking sites, such as hi5, dodgeball, twitter.I...

PermGen OutOfMemory
2007-05-30 08:09:00
If you are frustrated with Tomcat, JBoss, any other Java Application Server dying with an OutOfMemory Error every few times you redeploy your Java application code or if you have recently installed a new application in your Stable Java Environment and your Tomcat, JBoss is giving you hiccups by intermittently Crashing with OutOfMemory Errors , then keep on reading as I would like to share my thoughts with you as I have experienced the same issue.You have checked that your Server has lot of Physical RAM, even JVM Heap Memory has been allocated a significant amount of Physical Memory, your Garbage Collection (GC) is tuned properly but you are still getting OutOfMemory error. I am not going to discuss about Java Virtual Machine (JVM) Memory model and Garbage Collection (GC) as this is out of the scope of this article. But you can read the details here IntroductionSUN Java has a Generational garbage collector. Permanent Generation holds reflective data (meta-data) of the JVM itself, suc...

Free Anti Virus Software
2007-05-29 09:06:00
Earlier, there were Virus es but Now a days there are plethora of malicious programs like Trojan Horses, Worms, Spywares, Adwares, Root kits etc that can infect your computer and compromise Confidentiality, integrity and availability of sensitive information and data on your machine. If you are on an "always-on" Internet connection, You need to have a Security Software that offers REAL TIME PROTECTION. If you want complete protection against Malware, You need at least the following type of Software Applications.1. Anti-Virus - To protect against Viruses, Worms, Trojan Horses.2. Anti-Spyware - To protect against Spywares, adwares, malicious scripts, unwanted pop ups etc.3. Firewall - To protect against Network based Attacks (DoS, DDoS), unauthorized Access, restrict Access etc.I will discuss about the Anti-Virus Softwares for Home Users & Non Commercial Use focusing on the ones which are available for FREE. The following are the important features you must look at an Anti Virus softwa...
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Download YouTube Video
2007-05-26 11:17:00
Everyday, thousands of Video s are uploaded to Youtube Website, which allows you to view saved videos on their servers but doesn't allow you to download them. What if you like a YouTube Video and want to save or download it to your computer or What if you could never get the online video player working.If you are using Firefox Web Browser (Get it here), then you can download the VideoDownload er Firefox Plugin by Javi Moya . VideoDownloader add a small icon on the status bar at the bottom of your firefox window, and a toolbar button. Just click that and download the video you are watching.If you are using any other Browser or don't want to install firefox add on, then there are many websites which allows you to download Videos from Youtube and other Video websites. You have to simply paste the URL of the YouTube Video you want to download into a form on their website. The websites like YOUTUBEX KEEPVID and VIDEODL allows you to download Videos from YouTube, Google, IFilm, Metacafe...

Cyborg Name
2007-05-25 08:13:00
Have you ever wondered what your name would mean if you were a Cyborg ? This is my name or may be the meaning of my name from the Cyborg Name GeneratorO.M.B.H.A.K.A.R.Operational Mechanical Being Hardwired for Assassination, Killing and Acute Repair.OK, I thought it was going to be something stupid, but its not that bad.Cyborg Name Generator is a fun program that asks for your name and let you choose an Avatar and then it creates a robotic acronym from your name. It also gives you the HTML code of your custom Cyborg Name image which you can add to your MySpace, Orkut, Blog or other Web page.So, What are you waiting for? Have fun and Get your Cyborg Name today.

SIW - System Information for Windows
2007-05-24 08:54:00
I wanted to upgrade the Physical Memory (RAM) on one of the Windows Server and wanted to know the make/model/type of the RAM installed. I couldn't find any command or tool in Windows Operating System which could give me this information. I also didn't want to go to the Data Center and shutdown the server to get these details by physically looking at the Hardware.There are several occasions when you want a central place where you can get all the information related to your hardware, software and network. Unfortunately, Windows System Properties & Device Manager doesn't help. Many other third party softwares also doesn't serve the purpose to a greater extent and moreover you have to pay for it.I came across a very good software called System Information for Windows SIW . The software utility builds a detailed profile of your installed software, hardware and network and can create report in various formats.SIW is very fast in retrieving both the constant information (OS Version, So...
More About: Stem

Windows RUN Command
2007-05-23 09:21:00
I am very fond of the powerful Run command and find it very useful. I hate using the mouse to point and click a shortcut on the start menu. You can open the RUN command via Start Menu or simply press WIN+R i.e Windows key & R. Here is a list of the RUN commands I use on a very frequent basis.CONTROL PANEL RELATED1. control - Control Panel2. appwiz.cpl - Add/Remove Programs3. hdwwiz.cpl - Add Hardware Wizard4. wuaucpl.cpl - Automatic Updates5. fsquirt - Bluetooth Transfer Wizard6. Fonts - control fonts7. inetcpl - Internet Properties8. ncpa.cpl - Network Connections9. odbccp32.cpl - ODBC Data Source Administrator10. sysdm.cpl - System Properties11. nusrmgr.cpl - User Account Management12. firewall.cpl - Windows Firewall13. nusrmgr.cpl - User Account Management14. control admintools - Administrative Tools15. control schedtasks - Scheduled Tas...
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Microsoft Mangement Console (MMC)
2007-05-22 09:19:00
A lot of system administration tools that come with Windows 2000, 2003 & XP are already in a console form having an extension of ".msc". They can be used alone by typing the name in the RUN command or as snap-ins to a Microsoft Management console (MMC). My prefered and fast way is to type them in the RUN Window. The following is the list of some of the frequently used Cons ole commands.1. certmgr.msc - Certificate Manager2. compmgmt.msc - Computer Management3. devmgmt.msc - Device Manager4. dfrg.msc - Disk Defragment5. diskmgmt.msc - Disk Management6. eventvwr.msc - Event Viewer7. gpedit.msc - Group Policy Editor8. secpol.msc - Local Security Settings9. ciadv.msc - Indexing Service10. lusrmgr.msc - Local Users and Groups11. perfmon.msc - Performance Monit...
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Setup your own WikiPedia
2007-05-18 09:28:00
Recently, I installed MediaWiki software. MediaWiki is one of the best, free and easy to use wiki software package which was originally written for wikipedia . The popularity of wikipedia has helped MediaWiki to evolve and has also built a large population of competent users of the technology. You can download mediawiki software from hereRequirements for installing Mediawiki1. Web Server such as Apache or IIS2. PHP Version 5.0 or later3. MySQL or PostgreSQL 8.1 or laterIf you don't have a webserver, php and mysql database installed on your machine, or if you don't want to hassle yourself installing and configuring them separately, what you can do is install LAMP (Linux) or WAMP (Windows). Once you have installed LAMP/WAMP, the only thing you would have to do is simply follow the installation steps here.But if you are too lazy to install LAMP/WAMP or if you simply want to test it first, what you can do is download the VMware Virtual Appliance. You would either need a VMWare Player...
More About: Wikipedia , Setup

My First Blog
2007-05-17 09:27:00
This is my first blog entry and I do want to become a regular blogger, dealing with topics such as web technology, Hosting, Technical Tips, Useful applications, Media, Economy, Entertainment, Life and other topics that may be of interest.Blog s of David Wang, Guy Kawasaki, Amit Agarwal, John Agno and many others has influenced me and I am inspired to publish the rambling thoughts I may have. The purpose of this blog is to communicate and share some of my experiences, thoughts, issues faced and the solutions found with others. I hope to talk about what I’ve been doing, reading and learning from Work and Life, and pass on tips and tricks regarding technology & life. Looking forward to learning from you too.Thanks for reading and I hope all my time and effort is helpful (at least useful) to someone.