Vivek Sanghi - Tech Blog

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Now about phishing
2006-12-01 01:12:05
I wrote a post on spam, praised Gmail and now I get a phishing e-mail that even Gmail couldn?t block.Whosoever wrote that mail was such a dumbo. It had a glaring spelling mistake. They ?tanked? me for my patience :)). Here is a picture of the e-mail with a link pointing to a bank?s website. The link appears to be legitimate and normal at first glance.And once I hovered my mouse cursor over the link, the real link underneath was revealed. Also, observe the ?Tank? right underneath (lolz)To know more about phishing check this wikipedia page. Until next time.
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The World is Flat ? Thomas L. Friedman (Book Revie...
2006-12-01 01:12:05
ISBN: 0141022728Tagline: The Globalized world in the Twenty-First centuryHanging around for almost a month with The World is Flat, I finally completed it despite all the time constraints I was under. I have never read such a thick book back-to-back in my life until this one and this book is very special not just in that sense. I could have completed it within a short span but the sheer density of information and ideas in this book forced me to read it slowly and in parts. So I used to read a couple of pages and then sit back and ponder about them in my free time in order to assimilate the information well.After reading the first few pages of this book I understood how important and dense this book was and to beat the density which posed such a challenge, I actually used a pencil to underline important points as I read this book. Why? This isn?t just a book to be read and kept in the cupboard to gather dust; it can serve as a great reference book for a variety of purposes.About the A...
More About: Book , Thomas , The World , Fried

The Tipping Point ? Malcolm Gladwell (Book Review ...
2006-12-01 01:12:05
ISBN 0349114463Tagline: How little things can make a big differenceI was looking forward to reading books by Malcolm Gladwell and finally got my hands on The Tipping Point . It is not a very big book and I managed to finish it in three days, reading only in my free time. Most of you might be aware that The Tipping Point is popular bestseller and a highly appreciated book. I am glad I was able to take time off to read this one.About the AuthorMalcolm Gladwell covered business, science and medicine for the Washington Post before becoming the New York City bureau chief. Currently he is a staff writer for the New Yorker. He has also authored another popular book by name BlinkThe Tipping PointThe Tipping Point is a book in which the author tries to explain why certain things happen the way they do. In the numerous examples that he explores, he shows that for a big-time change to occur, very minor change (involving the right set of numbers) tends to be the cause. For example, Fashion chang...
More About: Book Review , Review , Book , View

Listen to your blog and blog podcasting
2006-12-01 01:12:05
I have recently added a ?Listen to this article? link in my post footer and a link to my podcast feed in my blog?s sidebar. Using the link in my post footer, you can listen to my articles by way of streaming mp3 audio. Isn?t that cool?Yes. But how did you do that?I was never into podcasting and had no clue about it. However, while browsing instabloke, I came across a link in its post footer which read ?Listen to this post?. Through that link I found out about Talkr.Talkr is a podcast server that?s very easy and free to use. To learn more about Talkr click here registering at Talkr, you can submit your blog?s RSS feed to them and the. Aftery will create a podcast feed with your posts converted into speech perhaps using some ?text-to-speech? software at their end and it?s pretty fast too. So you don?t have to use podcast creation software, host the prepared MP3 files somewhere and setup a feed to it. Talkr will take care of it all. Talkr will also contain instructions on how to add t...
More About: Pod , Podcasting , Podcast , Blog , Your

Auto-hide blogger navbar like Windows taskbar
2006-12-01 01:12:05
Hello Friends,Avatar from Blog ger atto has put up a comprehensive post on how to get your blogger navbar to auto-hide like the Microsoft Wind ows taskbar. This means that after using the code from his post you can get the blogger navbar to hide and appear only when one hovers the mouse cursor over the navbar section.To view what I am talking about, just view my blog in Firefox and check out the navbar section. See how the navbar appears when you bring the mouse cursor near it and auto-hides when the mouse cursor is taken away. You can learn this hack on Bloggeratto from here.
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Displaying widgets only on comment, label, search ...
2006-12-01 01:12:05
Hello Friends,From certain site tracking services, I have been looking at the way people come to know about my blog and I realized that only few of them access my blog directly (using its main URL). Most of them come looking for some hack (like social bookmarking, Google Translate etc) and land on an individual post page. When they land on such a page, a lot of space under the article + comments section goes waste as my blog?s sidebars (in most cases) are longer than the length of the post + comments section. This is also the case on label, archive and search pages. I was wondering how to make efficient utilization of this wasted space so that such first time readers (of my blog) get enough information about my other posts and I am able to convert them to returning readers/visitors.I turned to instabloke for ideas and found that Blogbloke has made very good use of this space by posting a list of other articles, newsfeeds of his blog and adsense code. Inspired by his ingenuity, I dec...
More About: Widgets , Widget , Play , Men , Search

The Goal ? Eliyahu M. Goldratt and Jeff Cox (Book ...
2006-12-01 01:12:05
ISBN: 8185984131Tagline: A process of ongoing improvement.The Goa l was not on my reading list. However, it was lying around in the house and I decided to go ahead with it. The size of this book was very uninviting and from all the text on the covers and in the intro pages, I thought that I?d be better off reading this book during or after my MBA even though it seemed like a best-seller. However, once I started to read I realized that this whole "Theory of constraints" thing is actually presented in the form of a story which is very easy to grasp.About the AuthorDr. Eliyahu M. Gold ratt is an internationally recognized leader in the development of new business management concepts and systems, and acts as an educator to many of the world?s corporations. He is the originator of the Theory of Constraints (TOC) and his ideas have revolutionized the way companies work.In addition to his pioneering work in manufacturing management, he holds patents in other areas, ranging from medical devic...
More About: Book , Goal , The Goal

Show recent posts under a label (category) in a drop-down from horizontal n
2006-11-28 00:41:00
Dear readers,Based on the new JSON format and the JavaScript code for displaying recent posts from Hans of beautiful beta, I now present horizontal navigational menus with auto (activates on mouse hover) drop-downs which display the most recent posts under each of your labels (say categories).To see this in action take your mouse cursor to the "Beta Hack" or "Hack News" section in the navigation bar in my blog's head section (i.e. just below the hidden navbar).This hack will allow readers to browse a particular label category by simply clicking on the label name in the menu or go directly to a specific post under that label by clicking the post title that appears in the drop-down. Therefore, this does not take away the navigational advantage of horizontal tabs in header and at the same time it allows a blog author(s) to give exposure to the most recently updated posts from various label categories.I found the code for this drop-down menu on dynamic drive at the following link. (Don...
More About: Cat , Show , Post , Cent , Down

Allow your labels to be searched in Technorati and Del.icio.us tags
2006-11-25 19:50:00
Hello Friends,I have developed a simple little add-on for your blog. To know what I am talking about, just see the labels in my post's footer. Notice the tiny Tech no rati pic beside each label. When clicked, it shows you all the posts from bloggosphere that have been tagged with the label in question. (See end of this post for Del.icio.us how-to)It is a good way to allow your reader to search Technorati using tags and serves as a sort of "related posts from other blogs" link. Installing this code is fairly simple. Just follow these steps:1. Edit your template HTML code and check the "Expand Widget Templates" box. Make a backup of your template if you are not used editing HTML.2. Look for your post footer i.e. look for <div>3. Then in there, look for the labels code i.e. look for <span>4. In there, look for the main label href i.e. look for:<a expr:href='data:label.url' rel='tag'><data:label.name/>< /a>and immediately after that line add this code:<a ...
More About: Search , Labels , Your

What's with the backlinks?
2006-11-25 18:46:00
On recently published posts across all blogs I am seeing similar backlinks pointing to some page2rss thingy. The mess of links in there, led me here.What 's up with Blogger? What new feature or bug is this? :DTechnorati Tags: blogger search, blogger, backlinks
More About: Backlinks , Links , With , Hat

JSON, customizable widgets and other applications
2006-11-24 10:03:00
Hello Readers,There is some really good stuff happening in the Blogger hacking world. This comes after the recent announcement on Blogger buzz regarding Blogger (or I can say all of Google) moving to JSON (JavaScript Object Notification) data format for feeds.The hacks I am referring to are:1. Hoctro's Recent Comments/Posts widget.2. Ramani's Customizable Recent Comments Widget .3. Hans's Customizable Recent Comments Widget with date and post title (offered in one-click widget install feature).And this is not it, Stephen from Singpolyma-tech has announced an upgrade for his popular hack - Peek-a-boo comments on main page. All this is really good stuff!Technorati Tags: JSON, Beta_hacks
More About: Applications , Cat , Widgets , Other

Cool Technorati Add-ons for your Blog
2006-11-21 17:51:00
Hello Readers,I have come across two cool add-ons for your blog. They are:1. Tech no rati Rank display widget by purplemoggy2. Technorati Blog reactions link from imessengr.com1. PurpleMoggy has posted a very useful add-on with which one can display their real-time Technorati rank in the blog's sidebar. To get a preview of the add-on and learn the code click here.2. Deniz from imessengr.com has provided the Blogger Beta code for displaying the number of links from other blogs to a particular post via Technorati's engine. To get a preview of this add-on and learn the code click here.
More About: Cool , Cool Tech

A Firefox extension and PurpleMoggy's hacks
2006-11-11 19:42:00
Hello readers,I have been using a Fire fox extension by name fasterfox. If slow browsing speed has been a problem for you, I recommend that you give it a shot.Coming to beta hack, this blog now uses two hacks which I picked up from Purple Moggy's blog. It appears that a tutorial has been put up for the search box. Please find the tutorial on implementing a 4-in-1 search box (like I have) here.The second hack I found in PurpleMoggy is a javascript based peek-a-boo system for linklists in sidebar. This is almost same as Blogger University's expand-collapse menu. Just that the hack I am using was picked-up by PurpleMoggy from here and modified using CSS such that it blended very well with my template as well.
More About: Hacks , Hack

Three column template finally!
2006-09-03 01:24:01
Do you find my blog radically different since your last visit? Yup its the three column template! Many thanks to Ramani of Hackosphere for working with the existing beta template codes to convert it to a three column template.Three column templates are useful if you have too many items on your sidebar and wish to avoid superlong side bars. To learn more about these templates click here. Also note that the label drop down and search result sorting on my blog is yet another hack from Ramani. For more info on that check out his blog.
More About: Final , Column , Plat , Template , Finally

India: Agenda 2020 for economic development
2006-08-30 13:03:01
(To download the file click here or continue to read)India : Agenda 2020 is one of the best research projects I have undertaken till date. I had done this project in 2004 as a part of my assignment for the qualifying round of a management festival called ?Vistas? organized every year by PES BBM (People?s Education Society, Bangalore). The event I had participated in was called ?The clerk of the course? or simply put the best manager of the lot. This was a very challenging event and the only one where individuals participated (i.e. no group participation). One hell of a fest it was for it drew the best out of us (me and my college fellas). Though I did not win my event, I did reach the finals (which you can say is an achievement of sorts ;-)) Talking more about the management festival, Vistas was a national level event with participating colleges coming from all over the country. They had Amity from Delhi, Loyola from Chennai, ICFAI (i.e. us) from Hyderabad, Christ College and a fe...
More About: Development , Men , Economic

Paul Van Dyk: The god of trance
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Talking of music I must tell you that I am an ardent follower of trance, electronic and euro dance music. And one guy, whose music I must say is earth-moving, is Paul Van Dyk. I have never heard music so hypnotic. Nothing pushes me to dance (I not a dance buff though) as much as this guy?s music. I tell you what you got to hear it to know it. I have the following albums from this guy:1. The Politics of Dancing Vol. 1 and Vol. 22. The Politics of Dancing 23. Out there and back4. Reflections I wish to have his older albums like seven ways, 45 rpm etc but could not find them here in India. And getting them shipped from else where is turning out to be too expensive. Other guys I listen to under these genres is BT, DJ Tiesto, Oakenfold and a few others. Worldspace?s channel 202 aka ?System? is a heaven for people with similar tastes.
More About: God , Trance , Paul Van Dyk , Tran

Google Sketchup
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Google does not stop fascinating me! Was checking out Google labs the other day, when I came across this software called Google Sketch up. It is a 3D-design software which is fairly powerful yet very simple and easy to use. And as usual (with Google) there is one version which is available for free.I downloaded the software and the tutorials were easy to follow. I finished them in a jiffy. As I had no 3D-idead to put on screen I just created a model of our television cupboard that we got recently done. Though the fine wood carvings cannot be reproduced in this software, what ever I could make of the cupboard was fairly good I guess.Other than that I also made a crazy skyscraper. Crazy coz every thing in it is round :-). I am sure it will be hell of a challenge for architects to created a skyscraper of that sort in real world ;-) For more about this software check out Google Sketchup
More About: Google , Ketchup , Googl , Etch

Our scum on orkut too
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Many of you who are using the social networking system called orkut might have seen the plethora of disgusting communities created by Indians and Pakistanis. These communities abuse countries, cultures, religious beliefs and gods. Like unrelenting insolent fools we have carried our lamenting disgust and hatred to a social networking site like orkut to display to the world the height of our foolishness, bad fanaticism, religious fundamentalism and uncivilized animal side.I wish that all such people get a chance to confront each other, so that they fight and kill and realize that this hatred is nonsense and inconsequential. I am not a universalist or some thing but yeah I definitely believe in toleration. First, religions were made for man and man was not made for religions. Second, religions were formed to give a direction to civilizations in general and men in particular. Our motive is to work for the improvement of the less privileged people and as a whole try to become a...
More About: Orkut , Scum

Ustad Bismillah Khan: The maestro
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Many of you (who follow the Indian news) may have heard about the demise of the legendary shehani (Indian clarinet) maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan . I write this post to pay my heartfelt tributes to this legend. Though I have not been an avid fan of classical music, this man along with a few others has been vividly engraved in my memory. Few pieces of music have moved me deeply and Ustad?s shehani is one among them. I believe that India has lost a great asset in the field of classical music. Yet the man has immortalized himself for ever with the music that he has left behind for us to cherish. My Salaam to the Ustaad.
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Eleven Minutes ? Paulo Coelho (Book Review 002)
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Paulo Coelho is a popular author who shot to fame with his best-selling book ?The Alchemist?. He has also written other books like the pilgrimage, the Valkyries, the fifth mountain, the Zahir (being his latest) and many others. Eleven Minutes is very different from his other works for it is based on an adult theme and contains vividly described scenes of sexual intercourses and ?eleven minutes? the name itself refers to the average duration of the act. Eleven minutes is the story of a girl called Maria. She was born and brought up in a Brazilian village. Just as any innocent young girl would, she had also fallen in love but had to face disappointment at a young slender age. This left her heart-broken and she becomes convinced that she will never find true love in her life. Her experiences teach her that she is a beautiful and can use this characteristic of hers to her advantage.She decides to earn money and support her family and in this pursuit she ends up in Geneva, Switzerland ...
More About: Book Review , Review , Book , View , Paul

Sony and Bose = Flaunt material
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Alright! Here is some thing very different from my routine metaphysical ranting and ramblings ;-). We purchased a 40-inch LCD television Sony KLV-V40A10 and a Bose Cinemate Digital Home Theatre Speaker System. Though I have not put every thing together as of now, the stuff looks pure flaunt material. The speaker system is not exactly one of the best that bose has to offer but it is certainly the best for the price and not to forget the various features packed in the unit. For more info on the T.V. and the Speaker System just click on the image and you will be taken to the company website. Make sure you open it in a new tab/window ;-) But the problem is that the Cable T.V. signals are so bad here that any top of the line T.V. will never be put to the limit. More over the cable transmits mono audio which is no good for pushing the Bose system. There is the Hathway set-top box thingy in the market nowadays that promises MPEG quality video and stereo sound output which will be much...
More About: Mate , Material , Rial , Teri

Biological Weapons: Issues and Threats by Chari & ...
2006-08-30 13:03:01
This book published by the Indian Research press, has been edited by P.R. Chari and Arpit Rajain. Before I move on to the book, I would like to mention a few words about the editors as given in the book. P.R. Chari is a former member of Indian Administrative Services and has also served in the Ministry of Defense. He has worked extensively on Nuclear disarmament and non-proliferation. Arpit Rajain has been working as a Research Officer in the Institute of Peace and Conflict studies since 1997 on Weapon s of Mass Destruction (WMD) issues.This book appears to be a collection of articles, research papers and essays which cover various aspects of Biological and Chemical Weapons. We all know that use of Biological and Chemical Weapons (BCW) is nothing new especially in India where it has found mention even in the ancient texts. But in today?s scenario there is common global enemy which is stateless and which does not fight war from the front (like in the battlefield). Yes, I am talking ab...
More About: Issues , Threats , Logic

April 29 - IQ tests on tickle
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Hmmm. Ever heard of Tick le.com. I gave an IQ test on this website a few days ago (just for fun types). The told me that my intellect type is Visual Mathematician ;-) and my score: 131. I then gave another test where in my true color came out as black (as if I did not know. BTW black happens to be one of my favorite movies, so I guess you see the relation. If not apply chaos theory ;-)). Then on checking my mail box I had this mail asking me to pay (why does every body ask only me ;-)) to view a detailed analysis of my IQ test result. I being stingy (as I have always been) did not :-) and moved on. And guess what, today they sent another mail saying that I am a top performer (how come??) and provided me my scores for free (kind of, I now get newsletter from Wal-Mart which goes into the junk mail folder of my inbox ;-)). ----------------------------------------- ---------- Excerpts from the test analysis: You have a strong ability to process visual-spatial and mathematical ...
More About: April , Test , Tests , April 2

Dance Bars Reopened
2006-08-30 13:03:01
It is good to know that the dance bars have been reopened. I think this was a quality and realistic decision by our judicial system which otherwise resorts to utterly failed attempts at moral policing and cultural conditioning of the masses (not to forget the role of the polity in pushing the judiciary).Whether the dance bars are open or closed, the prostitution business will not be largely affected. Nor will anybody be able to stop the girls working there from getting into prostitution because the system lacks that ability. Moreover it is the men who run the system and it also the men who indirectly run these dance bars and prostitution. Prostitution is one of the most organized businesses in our country (put some of the big players on test and they might just get an ISO 9000 or other such certification) and only lacks a legal sanction.It will be impossible to remove it from our society because it?s the society that created it in the first place. How can I say this? A few months a...
More About: Dance , Open , Bars , Opened , Pene

Well! Its been a while
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Ho ho! It been a while since I posted some thing here. As of now I have started walking on the path that will lead me to my desired destiny and in pursuit of the same I have submitted my resignation letter at Amazon (My current workplace). I will be releaved of my duties by the end of this month.
More About: While , Been , Well

April 19 - Back after internet outage.
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Alright. I created a blog and my internet con went down for two days. It rained heavily in Hyderabad. Still wondering... After all I created just a blog. Now that?s no big deal. Hmmmm. I will ponder more on that and try to associate the events using chaos theory ;-). BTW currently I am in planning phase of some real hard decisions. I have identified the two paths: (1) The easy and attractive path (on which I am currently walking) and (2) The right path (where even if I fail I would have learnt a lot). I am planning my transition from the easy path to the right path. I will write more about that in the near future.
More About: Internet , April , Inter , Back

First Post
2006-08-30 13:03:01
Hello there,I heard that these online blogs allow one to record their daily or weekly thoughts and post it online. It?s like a personal diary made "public". I thought that let me have one for myself. I am not sure if I will be able to update this blog on a regular basis but I will try to try my best ;-).If you like my blog or want me to update it more frequently please drop a line.Disclaimer:Any information in this blog that you think is defamatory or ?hurts? you was not meant for that purpose and any resemblance to any person(s) living or dead is purely co-incidental. The keeper (that?s me :-)) of this blog does not assume any responsibility for any thing posted here and cannot be tried in any court of Law for some thing as trivial as a personal opinion in a blog. Also note that I have used several images in this blog which I may have picked up from various sources. While I have tried my best, I cannot guarantee that none of the images will violate copyright and all that stuff. So ...
More About: Post , First , First Post

IQ tests on tickle
2006-04-30 22:19:00
Ever heard of Tick le.com. I gave an IQ test on this website a few days ago (just for fun types). The told me that my intellect type is Visual Mathematician ;-) and my score: 131. I then gave another test where in my true color came out as black (as if I did not know. BTW black happens to be one of my favorite movies, so I guess you see the relation.Then on checking my mail box I had this mail asking me to pay (why does every body ask only me ;-)) to view a detailed analysis of my IQ test result. I being stingy (as I have always been) did not :-) and moved on. And guess what, today they sent another mail saying that I am a top performer (how come??) and provided me my scores for free (kind of, I now get newsletter from Wal-Mart which goes into the junk mail folder of my inbox ;-)).------------------------------------ ---------------Excerpts from the test analysis:You have a strong ability to process visual-spatial and mathematical information. These skills combined with your strengths...
More About: Test , Tests