beating Tetris

(courtesy: Tvigle)

HILARIOUS Windows eRRORS

Errors that will make you roll on your back!

Now the best one:

An October Affair!

It rained magic this October
straberry dreams stormed me
navy blue sky poured onto me
hot air balloon flew high
and I boarded one
only to be carried into orange horizon
pearly angels flew by
and I could not hold onto one

that was the purple October
but it had to end...!

Wished the shower had just continued
the birds had continued tweeting
the song had swept the clock
the plants had flowered candies
and chocolates and cold coffee...!

But that was a dream
that was the purple October
and it had to end...!

I woke to the smiling sun
knew have skies to conquer
clouds to enjar
miles to fly
rise up and up and away
I let go the angels
the navy blue sky and clouds
I let go the candies, the chocolates
and the cold coffee
I let go the hot air balloon
and the magic rain.

I woke to smiling sun
to conquer the skies
to enjar the clouds
to fly miles
to rise up and up and away

and the purple October ended..!

Computers that you can wear!

If wearing a computer sounds incredibly clunky, you will want to visit Lynne Bruning and her work in e-textiles and conductive fabric and circuits. These are not wearable computers as you might traditionally think of a computing device.

In March 2011, she started hosting the eTextile Lounge as a ustream global hackerspace meeting to help build the community.
As smart phones and devices permeate global society, we will see more of these solutions and ideas integrated into our daily lives. For those with a disability or challenged physically in some way, it makes tons of sense to merge apps and the common mobile phone, or camera, or some new technology into the fashions we wear and the fabrics (curtains, upholstery, rugs) we surround ourselves with.

Courtesy: Forbes

Everything In Future will run on Android!

Diogo Ferreira, a young hacker who attended the Droidcon India, the first-ever international Android conference in the country believes that Android will power everything, from refrigerators to heaters to of course most of the mobile devices.  

Android is getting bigger and better. It is becoming increasingly powerful in all parts of the world, including India. Diogo Ferreira, a young hacker who turned up at Droidcon India, the first-ever international Android conference in the country believes that Android will power everything.
According to a report from The Hindu, Ferreira said that this open source mobile operating system will be ubiquitous, powering digital devices across the board. He said, “We'll see it power everything ... even cars, maybe.”

He cited an example of the CISCO gadget presentation at the event where he saw a smartphone with a tablet built into it (that's made on Android). This enables you to pick up the tablet from the phone and proceed for a meeting.

The sheer fact that Android is open source makes him believe that the platform has the potential to go places. He said, being open source, it can be adopted by anyone. "They just have to take the code and modify it in the direction of their choice.”

Ferreira, who is currently pursuing his Ph.D., is a known name in the Android world. He has developed apps and contributed significant code. He is a part of CyanogenMod, which maintains a community version of Android.
It is a distribution of Android that you can install in the device after you buy it. It offers features like private browsing, or something as simple as FM Radio that a manufacturer may choose not to enable. He says that the beauty of CyanogenMod is its property of being customised. It allows the developers to build what they want and use it on their device.
Commenting on the issue of Android dealing with 'hardware interface' and the perception that it is only for geeks, Ferreira said, it is unfair to make a comparison of low-end, slower-processing Android device with iPhone. If an iPhone is positioned against a high-end Android device, the latter one is the clear winner. The chinks with the user interface, he adds, are currently undergoing huge improvement by Google.

Having said that, the young hacker believes that Android is one platform that can bridge the gap between the high end and low end devices. He said, “Even if we consider the notion that performance is not to the optimum level, people who can't afford an iPhone should be able to be part of the ecosystem.”

courtesy: EFY Times

"How Easy It Is To Infiltrate Facebook"- forbes

Botnets, networks of hijacked computers controlled remotely for criminal gain or spreading propaganda, have been aggravating cybersecurity professionals for years. The near-billion people connected to social networks has made Facebook and Twitter the new juicy targets for similar schemes. These so-called social botnets establish fake Facebook or Twitter accounts (or take over real ones) and mimic human actions to harvest valuable personal information like email addresses and phone numbers. Truthy, a website created by researchers at Indiana University to analyze the spread of Web memes,exposed a year ago how Twitter bots were used to run astroturf and smear campaigns during the 2010 U.S. elections. The action has matured enough to the point where social botnets are for sale on the Internet black market for as much as $29 per bot.

Facebook over the years has created a sophisticated defense mechanism called the Facebook Immune System that is designed to identify spam and bot-driven clicks. It works pretty well–Facebook claims that only 1% of its users experience spam–but it definitely isn’t foolproof.

The UBC researchers set up a network of 102 bots controlled by a single botmaster piece of software. It’s pretty easy to set up sham automated accounts on Facebook. Hackers link their accounts to phony e-mail addresses, pick attractive photos for user profiles and pay cheap labor or use optical character recognition to the thwart the CAPTCHA codes that users have to input to “prove” they’re human.

The bots were able to send 8,570 friend requests. Eighty percent of Facebook users contacted okayed the requests. The botnet was then able to pull down email addresses, phone numbers and other personal data and not just of the direct connections but of Facebook users connected to those people. Their experiment showed that the controlling botherder can continue to do its work undetected and collect, on average, 175 new pieces of publicly-inaccessible user data per bot per day.

courtesy: forbes

conky for windows-finally only few weeks away

Still under heavy development Consider it an alpha! Currently it supports executing files and a full WMI implmentation Also has a few helper commands, configuration is in XML.

here is the screenshots of configuration window i downloaded from their developers' page (on my system configuration file showed warnings every 15 seconds, i had to use wonky with its default settings)

wonky-configuration application

screenshot of my desktop-showing wonky along with other desktop gadgets/features:

wonky on my desktop- left bottom

you can download it from here: http://code.google.com/p/wonky/

looks dull when compared to conky- its linux counterpart.
lacks many other cool details and features, yet you can rest assured- a full featured version is on the way.
whole configuration is in XML, so even if its configuration application keep crashing for now, you can still tamper with those XML files in the package. I think i have got a busy afternoon myself. Lets see how much decoration i can put in.

Some useful Windows Run commands!

How To Access Run Command?
The shortcut to RUN command is "Windows Key + R"

Control                                                                Command

Accessibility Controls                                            access.cpl
Add Hardware Wizard                                          hdwwiz.cpl
Add/Remove Programs                                        appwiz.cpl
Administrative Tools                                             control.exe admintools
Automatic Updates                                              wuaucpl.cpl
Bluetooth Transfer Wizard                                    fsquirt
Calculator                                                              calc
Certificate Manager                                               certmgr.msc
Character Map                                                       charmap
Check Disk Utility                                                     chkdsk
Clipboard Viewer                                                      clipbrd
Command Prompt                                                     cmd
Component Services                                                  dcomcnfg
Computer Management                                             compmgmt.msc
Date and Time Properties                                           timedate.cpl
DDE Shares                                                               ddeshare
Device Manager                                                        devmgmt.msc
Direct X Control Panel (if installed)*                           directx.cpl
Direct X Troubleshooter                                             dxdiag
Disk Cleanup Utility                                                    cleanmgr
Disk Defragment                                                         dfrg.msc
Disk Management                                                      diskmgmt.msc
Disk Partition Manager                                               diskpart
Display Properties                                                      control.exe desktop
Display Properties                                                      desk.cpl
Display Properties (w/Appearance Tab Preselected)   control.exe color
Dr. Watson System Troubleshooting Utility                 drwtsn32
Driver Verifier Utility                                                  verifier
Event Viewer                                                             eventvwr.msc
File Signature Verification Tool                                   sigverif
Findfast                                                                      findfast.cpl
Folders Properties                                                      control.exe folders
Fonts                                                                         control.exe fonts
Fonts Folder                                                              fonts

Centre To Promote FOSS At National Level; Seeks Tips From Kerala

The Centre seems to be keen on taking the Free and Open Source Software (FOSS)-based initiatives to the national level. It has reportedly asked Kerala to provide it with open software tips, which can be used by the Government to popularise its use at the national level.

According to a Deccan Chronicle report, the Department of Information Technology (DIT) has approached the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS) to seek help in this regard. “We will be submitting a set of suggestions on the FOSS-based initiatives that could be taken at the national level,” Satish Babu, director, ICFOSS told Deccan Chronicle. “There is a huge potential for open source which is now being used in new sectors including the film industry,” he added.

As per its IT policy, Kerala aims to support the use of FOSS in all projects, especially those for e-governance. One of the first states in the country to adapt to free software, Kerala is also working to maintain its leadership position and ICFOSS (launched in February this year) is a step in this direction.

The state government recently introduced FOSS in schools through the IT@School programme. The programme introduces specific FOSS-based ICT training programme for students who require special attention. It has been developed entirely on GCompris, a FOSS-based application. The IT@School project aims to empower the teachers and students of the state with ICT skills. Kerala also recently insisted on the use of FOSS-based software for the Aadhaar (a 12-digit unique number) enrollment.

BOSS wins over Windows in Tamilnadu

The TN state government’s Information Technology department has now resorted to Bharat Operating System Solution (BOSS)- A Linux based OS, bidding farewell to Windows. The move has come after a request from the Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

A government order was released in this regard on 9 November, which said that the IT department would use BOSS, a free and open source computer operating system. BOSS has been developed by the National Resource Centre for Free/Open Source Soft-ware of India. All the computer systems in the department will run on BOSS from Nov. 14th, 2011.

The Government of India is endorsing for adoption and implementation of BOSS on a national scale.” BOSS is available in almost all Indian languages. Babu also emphasised on the advantage of BOSS saying that apart from being open source, it does not crash easily. The state government has also installed BOSS in the laptops being distributed free to the students. The other state departments are also likely to follow the footsteps of IT department in this regard soon.

(Courtesy: EFY Times)

Linux Mint 12 "Lisa" RC

Finally Mint is available with gnome 3 desktop. That certainly promises a lot improved graphics.

New features at a glance:

1. Gnome 3 and MGSE
"MGSE" (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions) is a desktop layer on top of Gnome 3 that makes it possible for you to use Gnome 3 in a traditional way. You can disable all components within MGSE to get a pure Gnome 3 experience, or you can enable all of them to get a Gnome 3 desktop that is similar to what you’ve been using before. Of course you can also pick and only enable the components you like to design your own desktop.
The main features in MGSE are:
a. The bottom panel
b. The application menu
c. The window list
d. A task-centric desktop (i.e. you switch between windows, not applications)
e. Visible system tray icons

2. MATE

MATE is a fork of Gnome 2 which is compatible with Gnome 3. Thanks to MATE, you can run both versions of Gnome on the same system.
MATE is present on the DVD edition of Linux Mint 12. Users of the CD edition can install it via the mint-meta-mate package.

3. Artwork improvements

Linux Mint 12 uses a new theme called Mint-Z which is based on Mint-X and Zukitwo.

4. Search engines

Duck Duck Go: The new default search engine is Duck Duck Go. It doesn't show different results depending on who's making the search, it doesn't track or record user information, it provides you with optmized results and it's built on and contributes to Open Source.

Linux Mint 12 features the following upstream components: Ubuntu 11.10, Linux 3.0, Gnome 3.2.

Find More at: http://www.linuxmint.com

Much awaited AAKASH released and available at INR 2999!!

Aakash, the world's cheapest tablet device, has been in the news since it was announced by the Indian Government in 2009. The Android-powered device has already created much buzz in the technology arena with its price tag, which is the lowest ever for any computer worldwide. It has been able to evoke a lot of interest among world leaders and international organisations as well.

Designed and developed by Datawind in partnership with IIT Rajasthan, under the HRD ministry’s National Mission on Education through Information and Communication Technology (NME-ICT), the device has now been made available for all. Datawind has started booking of Aakash, aka Ubislate 7. The 17.8 cm (7-inch) tablet runs Android 2.2 OS and is priced at Rs 2,999.





Features

* Unbeatable Price: Only Rs 2,999 for the UbiSlate, Monthly Internet charges: Rs 98 / 2GB

* High Quality Web Anytime and Anywhere: Connect via GPRS or WiFi, GPRS: Embedded modem eliminates the need for external dongles and allows Internet access everywhere, WiFi: Allows fast Youtube videos at hotspots, Fast Web access even on GPRS networks, across the country using DataWind’s patented acceleration technology, Web, e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and much much more!

* Multimedia Powerhouse: HD Quality Video

* Watching movies in the palm of your hand on a 17.8-cm (7-inch) screen, Audio library software helps manage your full collection of songs

* Applications Galore with Android 2.2: Games, Productivity software: Office suite, Educational software, Over 150,000 apps!

* Full sized-USB port and Micro-SD slot: Expand memory to 32GB, Use any ordinary pen-drive, Even plug-in a 3G dongle

* And It’s a Phone!

Configuration
* Hardware:

o Processor: Connexant with Graphics accelerator and HD Video processor

o Memory (RAM): 256MB RAM / Storage (Internal): 2GB Flash

o Storage (External): 2GB to 32GB Supported

o Peripherals (USB2.0 ports, number): 2 Standard USB port

o Audio out: 3.5mm jack / Audio in: 3.5mm jack

o Display and Resolution: 17.8-cm (7-inch) display with 800x480 pixel resolution

o Input Devices: Resistive touch screen

o Connectivity and Networking: GPRS and WiFi IEEE 802.11 a/b/g

o Power and Battery: Up to 180 minutes on battery. AC adapter 200-240 volt range.

* Software:

o OS: Android 2.2

o Document Rendering

* Supported Document formats: DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX, XLS, XLSX, ODT, ODP

* PDF viewer, Text editor

* Multimedia and Image Display

o Image viewer supported formats: PNG, JPG, BMP and GIF

o Supported audio formats: MP3, AAC, AC3, WAV, WMA

o Supported video formats: MPEG2, MPEG4, AVI, FLV

* Communication and Internet

o Web browser - Standards Compliance: xHTML 1.1 compliant, JavaScript 1.8 compliant

o Separate application for online YouTube video

o Safety and other standards compliance

* CE certification / RoHS certification

o Other: Additional Web Browser: UbiSurfer-Browser with compression/acceleration and IE8 rendering.

Accessories

* Full set of accessory options:

o Car charger

o External antenna

o Keyboard case

* Convert it into a laptop!




(courtesy: EFY Times)

New Background

M in love with my blog's new background. And this is not because it looks fantastic, but because i designed it myself. It certainly not is best graphics work but considering no one can question a bit of self praising- it simply is astonishing!!!

 Here is the complete 'ART Work' :

“The Future Of Linux Mint Is Gnome 3”

The Linux Mint developers see Gnome 3 as the way forward and also decide to shift to the Gnome 3 desktop for the first time with the forthcoming release of Linux Mint. However, it will continue to support the 2.x branch of Gnome. The developers note that the release will allow users to install, in parallel, the MATE Desktop Environment, a fork of Gnome 2.32.
“In Linux Mint 11, we made the decision to keep Gnome 2.32. The traditional Gnome desktop, although it’s not actively developed by the Gnome development team anymore, is still by far the most popular desktop within the Linux community. As other distributions adopted new desktops such as Unity and Gnome 3, many users felt alienated and consequently migrated to Linux Mint. We recorded a 40 per cent increase in a single month and we’re now quickly catching up with Ubuntu for the number #1 spot within the Linux desktop market,” the Mint developers write in their blog post, with an aim to give you a better idea of what Linux Mint 12 will be like.
Linux Mint 12, code-named "Lisa", is based on the current Ubuntu 11.10 "Oneric Ocelot" release. It is expected to arrive by the end of this month.
The post further adds, “From a technological point of view, Gnome 3 is a fantastic desktop, and it’s getting better with every new release. It will take time for Linux Mint to develop a Gnome 3 desktop that is on-par with what we had with Gnome 2, but eventually we’ll be able to do much more with it than was possible with the traditional desktop…With this in mind, the future of Linux Mint is Gnome 3, the present of Linux Mint is a simple question: “How do we make people like Gnome 3? And what do we provide as an alternative to those who still do not want to change?”
In order to provide users with a familiar experience on the Gnome 3 desktop, the developers have announced MGSE (Mint Gnome Shell Extensions), which is a desktop layer on top of Gnome 3 that makes it possible for you to use Gnome 3 in a traditional way. “You can disable all components within MGSE to get a pure Gnome 3 experience, or you can enable all of them to get a Gnome 3 desktop that is similar to what you’ve been using before. Of course you can also pick and only enable the components you like to design your own desktop,” the developers explain.
Gnome 3 is being described by developers as a "a fantastic desktop" that is "shiny, elegant and modern looking". Gnome 3 in Linux Mint 12, the developers add, requires to let you interact with your computer in two different ways: the traditional way, and the new way, and it’s up to you to decide which way you want to use. With MGSE, Linux Mint users will be able to use the familiar elements of their previous desktop, but they will also be able to selectively disable those elements "to get a pure Gnome 3 experience". MGSE features the bottom panel, the application menu, the window list, a task-centric desktop (i.e. you switch between windows, not applications), and visible system tray icons. It also includes additional extensions such as a media player indicator, and multiple enhancements to Gnome 3.

Gnome 3 requires video acceleration and that is something most systems have. Linux Mint 12 will let you run Gnome 3 within Virtualbox. By enabling 3D acceleration within your virtual machine, you can enjoy Gnome 3 and MGSE without any additional drivers.

Read at: “The Future Of Linux Mint Is Gnome 3” , Mint Blog

(courtesy: EFY Times, Linux Mint)


'via Blog this'

Thousands Of WordPress Blogs Hijacked!

(courtesy: EFY Times)



A recent report from anti-virus firm Avast says that cyber criminals have hijacked thousands of WordPress Blogs to deploy malicious codes. According to the revelation from Avast, the hackers are exploiting a critical hole in the TimThumb WordPress add-on to deploy malicious code on a large scale. The anti-virus firm has said that it blocked more than 2,500 infected sites in September and a similar number is anticipated for October as well.

Avast says that the hackers are installing the professional BlackHole exploit framework on the affected servers, which tries to infect visitors to the WordPress blog with malicious code. The framework tries out various vulnerabilities in the visitor's browser and installed plug-ins, mentions a report by The H.

However, the anti-virus firm has not revealed what kind of hole in TimThumb is being exploited. It is believed that Avast is indicating on the same vulnerability that was exposed three months ago which was being actively exploited at that time. Attackers have been successful in finding vulnerabilities in WordPress installations but it seems many admins are not aware of the danger yet. The reason cited is that may be they don't even know that they have installed the vulnerable script on their server.

The report says that the add-on could have got onto the server as part of an installable theme – some themes use TimThumb to resize images. Avast has advised the admins and owners of WordPress blogs to check whether their installed theme uses a vulnerable version of TimThumb. Users can find an incomplete list of affected themes on the sucuri.net blog.

(read at:Thousands Of WordPress Blogs Hijacked!)

'via Blog this'

India's Cheapest Tablet To Go Global

Courtesy: EFY Times

Aakash is one Indian product which is grabbing international eyeballs with every passing day. The Indian Government also does not want to lose on this opportunity and has indicated that it is open to collaborate with international players for future development of the world’s cheapest tablet PC. Union HRD minister Kapil Sibal has said that such collaboration can make the device available to children across the globe.

Sibal said that if any company wanted to collaborate with the Indian Government on Aakash, it would be welcome, as "we want this tablet PC to be not only for the children of India, but for the children of the world". The device was unveiled on 5 October this year in the country.

read more at: "India's Cheapest Tablet To Go Global"

'via Blog this'

Why an ENGINEER boyfriend!!!!

Benefits of an ENGINEER BOYFRIEND!!

as adopted from MEGA ENGINEERING

Engineers are the BEST boyfriends ALL these ARE facts .. so.. here goes..   Advantage 1: Secure lifestyle. An engineer boyfriend can provide you with a secure lifestyle. At 27 years old, an engineer probably has a respectable, stable job that gives him a high income to own a car, invest, have a comfortable life, and get married and buy a house too. Law graduates are still working as a lowly apprentice in a law firm, most management graduates have just failed on their first business plan, the arts graduate is still looking for a job, and the medical school graduate is still living in a hospital. ''-   Advantage 2: Unmatchable industriousness. An engineer boyfriend will dedicate an unimaginable amount of his time and effort to understand you. Engineers strain really really hard to understand their work. You can believe that they will try really really hard to understand women too, just like how they understand their work, once they believe that you are the one. So even if they don't understand you initially, they will keep on trying. Even if they still do not understand, they will figure out the correct method to keep you happy (e.g. buy diamond ring = 1 week's worth of happiness=dh/dt.) And once they find out the secret formula, they will just keep on repeating it so that the desired results appear. Unlike the Lawyer who will argue with you, the Management graduate who will try to control your spending, the Arts graduate who will 'change major', and the medical school graduate who will operate on you. And you know what, it's really so easy to make engineers believe that you are the 'one'. Say that you like one of their projects and they will be hooked to you forever.-   Advantage 3: An engineer boyfriend will never betray your trust. Let me first tell you what is wrong with the rest of the others - the lawyers will lie about everything, management graduates will cheat your money, the arts graduate will flirt, and you probably just look like another cadaver to the medical school graduate. Your engineer boyfriend is either too busy to have an affair, and even if he does, he is too dumb to lie to you about that.   >>   Hence, an engineer is the most secure boyfriend that you will ever find - rich enough, will keep on trying to understand and please you, has no time for affairs, and too dumb to lie to you. So girls, why procrastinate? Get an engineer as your boyfriend!     

RAJNIKANTH ONE LINER

1. Rajinikanth killed the Dead Sea.
2. When Rajinikanth does push-ups, he isn’t lifting himself up. …He is pushing the earth down.
3. There is no such thing as evolution, it’s just a list of creatures that Rajinikanth allowed to live.
4. Rajinikanth gave Mona Lisa that smile.
5 .Rajnikanth can divide by zero.
6. Rajinikanth can judge a book by it’s cover.
7. Rajinikanth can drown a fish.
8. Rajinikanth can delete the Recycle Bin.
9. Rajinikanth once got into a fight with a VCR player. Now it plays DVDs.
10. Rajinikanth can slam a revolving door.
11. Rajinikanth once kicked a horse in the chin. Its descendants are today called giraffes.
12. Rajinikanth once ordered a plate of idli in McDonald’s, and got it.
13. Rajinikanth can win at Solitaire with only 18 cards.
14. The Bermuda Triangle used to be the Bermuda Square, until Rajinikanth kicked one of the corners off.
15. Rajinikanth can build a snowman out of rain.
16. Rajinikanth can strangle you with a cordless phone.
17. Rajinikanth can make onions cry.
18. Rajinikanth destroyed the periodic table, because he only recognizes the element of surprise.
19. Rajinikanth can watch the show 60 minutes in 20 minutes.
20. Rajinikanth has counted to infinity, twice.
21. Rajinikanth will attain separate statehood in 2013.
22. Rajinikanth did in fact, build Rome in a day.
23. Rajinikanth once got into a knife-fight. The knife lost.
24. Rajinikanth can play the violin with a piano.
25. Rajinikanth never wet his bed as a child. The bed wet itself in fear.
26. The only man who ever outsmarted Rajinikanth was Stephen Hawking, and he got what he deserved.
27. Rajanikanth can do a wheelie on a unicycle.
28. Rajinikanth doesn’t breathe. Air hides in his lungs for protection.
29. There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Rajinikanth lives in Chennai.
30. Rajinikanth kills Harry Potter in the eighth book.
31. If you spell Rajanikanth wrong on Google it doesn’t say, “Did you mean Rajanikanth?” It simply replies, “Run while you still have the chance.”
32. Rajinikanth has already been to Mars, that’s why there are no signs of life there.
33. Rajinikanth doesn’t move at the speed of light. Light moves at the speed of Rajinikanth.
34. Rajinikanth knows Victoria’s secret.
35. Water boils faster when Rajinikanth stares at it.
36. Rajanikanth was once on Celebrity Wheel of Fortune and was the first to spin. The next 29 minutes of the show consisted of everyone standing around awkwardly, waiting for the wheel to stop.
37. Rajinikanth kills two stones with one bird.
38. Google won’t find Rajinikanth because you don’t find Rajinikanth; Rajinikanth finds you.
39. Rajinikanth gave the Joker those scars.
40. Rajinikanth leaves messages before the beep.
41. Rajinikanth once warned a young girl to be good “or else”. The result? Mother Teresa.
42. Rajinikant electrocuted Iron Man.
43. Rajinikanth killed Spiderman using Baygon Anti Bug Spray.
44. Rajinikanth can make PCs better than the Mac.
45. Rajinikanth puts the ‘laughter’ in manslaughter.
46. Rajinikanth goes to court and sentences the judge.
47. Rajinikanth can handle the truth.
48. Rajinikanth can speak Braille.
49. Bullets dodge Rajanikanth.
50. Rajinikanth can teach an old dog new tricks.
51. Rajinikanth calls Voldemort by his name.
52. The last digit of pi is Rajanikanth. He is the end of all things.
53. When Rajanikanth enters a room, he doesn’t turn the lights on,……… …. he turns the dark off.
54. Ghosts are actually caused by Rajanikanth killing people faster than Death can process them.
55. Rajinikanth’s calendar goes straight from March 31st to April 2nd, no one fools Rajanikanth.
56. Rajinikanth grinds his coffee with his teeth and boils the water with his own rage.
57. The last time Rajinikanth killed someone, he slapped himself to do it. The other guy just disintegrated. Resonance.
58. Rajinikanth once had a heart attack. His heart lost.
59. Rajinikant is so fast, he can run around the world and punch himself in the back of the head.
60. Rajinikanth can run at speed of light around a tree and screw himself.
61.Rajinikant can lick his elbows.
62. Rajinikant once ate an entire bottle of sleeping pills. They made him blink.
63. Rajinikant does not get frostbite. Rajnikant bites frost.
64. Rajinikant doesn’t wear a watch. He decides what time it is.
65. Rajinikant got his drivers license at the age of 16 seconds.
66. When you say “no one is perfect”, Rajinikant takes this as a personal insult.
67. In an average living room there are 1,242 objects Rajinikanth could use to kill you, including the room itself.
68. Words like awesomeness, brilliance, legendary etc. were added to the dictionary in the year 1949. That was the year Rajinikanth was born.
69. The statement “nobody can cheat death”, is a personal insult to Rajnikanth. Rajni cheats and fools death everyday.
70. When Rajnikanth is asked to kill some one he doesn’t know, he shoots the bullet and directs it the day he finds out.
71. Rajinikant can give pain to Painkillers and headache to Anacin.
72. Rajinikanth knows what women really want.
73. Time and tide wait for Rajinikanth.
74. Rajinikanth sneezed only once in his entire life, that’s when the tsunami occurred in the Indian ocean.
75. Rajnikanth taught Voldemort Parseltongue.
76. Rajinikanth collects Honey from his private Moon – HoneyMoon.
77. Rajinikanth can answer a missed call.
78. Rajinikanth doesn’t need a visa to travel abroad, he just jumps from the tallest building in Chennai and holds himself in the air while the earth rotates.
79. Rajinikanth’s brain works faster than Chacha Chaudhury’s.
80. Rajinikanth doesn’t shower. He only takes blood baths.
81. To be or not to be? That is the question. The answer? Rajinikanth.
82. The quickest way to a man’s heart is with Rajinikanth’s fist.
83. Where there is a will, there is a way. Where there is Rajinikanth, there is no other way.
84. Behind every successful man, there is a woman. Behind every dead man, there is Rajanikanth.
85. Rajinikant doesn’t bowl strikes, he just knocks down one pin and the other nine faint out of fear.
86. Archaeologists unearthed an old English dictionary dating back to the year 1236. It defined “victim” as “one who has encountered Rajinikant”.
87. There is no such thing as global warming. Rajinikanth was feeling cold, so brought the sun closer to heat the earth up.
88. Once a cobra bit Rajinikanth’ leg. After five days of excruciating pain, the cobra died.
89. Rajinikanth is a champion in the game “Hide n’ seek”, as no one can hide from Rajinikanth.
90. Rajinikant proves Newton wrong all the time. Every time he performs an action, he simply eliminates anything and everything that can provide the reaction.
91. Rajinikant is a weapon created by God to use on doomsday to end the world.
92. Aliens do indeed exist. They just know better than to visit a planet that Rajinikanth is on.
93. We live in an expanding universe. All of it is trying to get away from Rajinikanth.
94. If at first you don’t succeed, you’re not Rajinikanth.
95. Rajinikanth’s first job was as a bus conductor. There were no survivors.
96. Rajinikanth does not style his hair. It lays perfectly in place out of sheer terror.
97. When Rajinikanth plays Monopoly, it affects the actual world economy.
98. It takes Rajanikanth 20 minutes to watch 60 Minutes.
99. Rajinikanth’s house has no doors, only walls that he walks through.
100. Rajnikanth doesn’t answer nature’s call nature answers Rajnikanth’s call!!
101. Rajanikanth does not know where you live, but he knows where you will die.

EMPTINESS REVISED

o' love of mine...
with a song and a smile..
you're beautiful and divine...
like angels and a dream..

and song does'nt end here...
you've filled me with love..
for i dream all day and all night..
only about you...

distances might have created..
the emptiness.
and a roomfull of it..
lies at the bottom of dreams..ho..ho..o..

still i feel the sunrise..
that sweeps this hollowness.
for i know the love you hide.. from me...
but it makes me lonely.. yea..

you are ma sunrise and nightfall...
and i love you so dearly... yea..

there is no escape from this feeling... emptiness
yei yei yei ya.....:)

Overcloking:How and Why???

OVER-CLOCKING: HOW AND WHY???

AUTHORS

Ghanshyam Verma, Shivangi Sinha

KITS, Ramtek

Nagpur, India

ghanshyam.verma@ovi.com, shivangi.sinha@live.com

(paper presented at SPANDAN, 2011 - YCCE, Nagpur)

Abstract—This document is a summary of a passion termed as ‘OVER-CLOCKING’. The document contains a brief description of how overclocking of a component could be achieved, considerations one should keep in mind while over-clocking a system and the limitations, advantages, disadvantages associates with over-clocking.

Keywords-overclocking, FSB, CPU Multiplier, Clock rate, downclocking, stress tests, cooling, functional stability, limitations, advantages, disadvantages.

I. over-clocking: an Introduction

If you think overclocking sounds like an ominous term, you have the right idea. Overclocking is the process of running a computer component at a higher clock rate (more clock cycles per second) than it was designed for or was specified by the manufacturer, usually practiced by enthusiasts seeking an increase in the performance of their computers.

Overclocking is a popular technique for getting a little performance boost from your system, without purchasing any additional hardware. People who overclock their components mainly focus their efforts on processors, video cards, motherboard chipsets, and random-access memory (RAM).

Most times overclocking will result in a performance boost of 10 percent or less. For example, a computer with an Intel Pentium III processor running at 933MHz could be configured to run at speeds equivalent to a Pentium III 1050MHz processor by increasing the bus speed on the motherboard. Overclocking will not always have the exact same results. Two identical systems being overclocked most likely will not produce the same results. One will usually always overclock better than the other.

It is done through manipulating the CPU multiplier and the motherboard's front side bus (FSB) clock rate until a maximum stable operating frequency is reached.

There are many considerations to be taken into account before overclocking a system, otherwise in most of the cases it results in a very unstable system.

And if we are discussing overclocking than underclocking or downclocking could by no mean be over looked. It is the practice of modifying a synchronous circuit's timing settings to run at a lower clock rate than it was specified to operate at. It may be said to be the computer equivalent to drive a car at a speed below the speed limit. Usually, underclocking is used to reduce a computer's power consumption and heat emission, sometimes also to increase the system's stability and compatibility. Underclocking may be implemented by the factory, but many computers and components are end user underclockable.

II. a brief history

overclocking is nearly as old as the PC itself. Intriguingly, it was actually PC manufacturers rather than enthusiasts that got the ball rolling. Back in 1983, ever-conservative IBM capped early versions of its eponymous PC at a mere 4.7MHz in the interests of stability.

Soon enough, however, clones of the IBM PC shipped with 8088-compatible processors running at a racy 10MHz. Thus the battle for the highest clockspeed was started.

The next big step was the arrival of the Intel 486 processor and the introduction of much more user friendly overclocking methods. It was the latter DX2 version of the 486, launched in 1989, that debuted the CPU multiplier, allowing CPUs to run at multiples of the bus frequency and therefore enable overclocking without adjusting the bus frequency. While the adjustment of bus speeds usually entailed little more than flicking a jumper or DIP switch, changing the multiplier setting often required a little chip modding with a leaded pencil or at worst perhaps some soldering work. One way or another, impressive overclocks of certain clones of Intel's 486 chip from the likes of Cyrix and AMD were possible. For example, AMD's 5x86 of 1995, a chip based on 450nm silicon, could be clocked up from 133MHz to 150Mhz.

Intel, of course, has long been the master of making smaller transistors. In 1996 it introduced the Pentium Pro. Firstly, this was a much more sophisticated CPU than any before thanks to out-of-order instruction execution. But it also boasted tiny (for the era) 250nm transistors. 200MHz versions of the Pentium Pro were known to hit 300MHz, an extremely healthy 50 per cent overclock.

However, the Pentium Pro was a painfully expensive chip. In 1998, Intel released the original Celeron, a budget-orientated processor with a cut down feature set including no L2 cache. Stock clocked at 266MHz, retail examples of the chip were sometimes capable of as much as 400MHz. Big clocks on a small budget was possible for the first time.

III. over-clocking: how???

It is done through manipulating the CPU multiplier and the motherboard's front side bus (FSB) clock rate until a maximum stable operating frequency is reached, although with the introduction of Intel's new X58 chipset and the Core i7 processor, the front side bus has been replaced with the QPI (Quick Path Interconnect); often this is called the Baseclock (BCLK). While the idea is simple, variation in the electrical and physical characteristics of computing systems complicates the process. CPU multipliers, bus dividers, voltages, thermal loads, cooling techniques and several other factors such as individual semiconductor clock and thermal tolerances can affect it.

Before we go into details, lets have a look at the common terms we might hit while discussing overclocking.

· Clock rate-The clock rate is the rate in bits per second (measured in hertz) or the frequency of the clock in any synchronous circuit, such as a central processing unit (CPU). For example, a crystal oscillator frequency reference typically is synonymous with a fixed sinusoidal waveform, a clock rate is that frequency reference translated by electronic circuitry (AD Converter) into a corresponding square wave pulse [typically] for digital electronics applications. In this context the use of the word, speed (physical movement), should not be confused with frequency or its corresponding clock rate. Thus, the term "clock speed" is a misnomer. A single clock cycle (typically shorter than a nanosecond in modern non-embedded microprocessors) toggles between a logical zero and a logical one state. Historically, the logical zero state of a clock cycle persists longer than a logical one state due to thermal and electrical specification constraints.

· Clock/cpu multiplier- the clock multiplier (or CPU multiplier or bus/core ratio) measures the ratio of an internal CPU clock rate to the externally supplied clock. A CPU with a 10x multiplier will thus see 10 internal cycles (produced by PLL-based frequency multiplier circuitry) for every external clock cycle. For example, a system with an external clock of 133 MHz and a 10x clock multiplier will have an internal CPU clock of 1.33 GHz. The external address and data buses of the CPU (often collectively termed front side bus or FSB in PC contexts) also use the external clock as a fundamental timing base, however, they could also employ a (small) multiple of this base frequency (typically two or four) in order to transfer data faster.

· Dynamic voltage scaling- It is a power management technique in computer architecture, where the voltage used in a component is increased or decreased, depending upon circumstances. Dynamic voltage scaling to increase voltage is known as overvolting; dynamic voltage scaling to decrease voltage is known as undervolting. Undervolting is done in order to conserve power, particularly in laptops and other mobile devices, where energy comes from a battery and thus is limited. Overvolting is done in order to increase computer performance, or in rare cases, to increase reliability.

· Dynamic frequency scaling- It is another power conservation technique that works on the same principles as dynamic voltage scaling. Both dynamic voltage scaling and dynamic frequency scaling can be used to prevent computer system overheating.

Now as mentioned at the beginning of this section, over-clocking is done through manipulating the CPU multiplier and the motherboard’s front side bus (FSB). . So for example, take a Pentium 4 2.4GHz (2400MHz). It is designed to run at 2400MHz, no less, no more, but if you're lucky you can run it at a higher speed, say 2600MHz, which would obviously make it perform like a proper Pentium 4 2.6 GH z. The question is, how do we manage to do this, and can it be done to every processor? First we'll take a quick look at how clock speed (the 2400MHz part of our Pentium 4) is derived. All current processors are much the same, they have a multiplier, and a front side bus (FSB). In the case of the Pentium 4, the FSB or bus s peed is 100, 133 or 200MHz depending on what model of Pentium 4 you have. Our Pentium 4 2.4c processor uses the fastest 200MHz FSB, which Intel quote as 800MHz due to their marketing of the `Quad Pumped' bus, but we can ignore that. So, to achieve 2400M Hz from a 200MHz bus, we multiply 200 by 12, which gives the final clock s peed. So, For a Pentium 4 2.53GHz (which uses the older 133MHz bus) this would be And it works the same way for Athlons too, for instance, an Athlon XP 2500+ which is in reality running at 1.83GHz, uses a 166MHz FSB, has a multiplier of 11. So in theory, if we had other components that could support it, and the processor itself was capable of running at the increased speed, we could change the FSB from 166MHz to 200MHz.

Most motherboards today have a section in the BIOS which allows you to make changes to the bus speed, processor voltage, memory voltage, memory speed etc. Once in the BIOS, have a look for `Frequency / Voltage Control', `Softmenu', `Advanced' or similar menus, as these will be the areas that contain all the overclocking controls. Once in these sections of your BIOS, you can start experimenting; try increasing the FSB/Bus speed a few MHz at a time, saving and exiting the BIOS and booting in to your operating system to check if the overclocking has worked. Common overclocks are increasing a Pentium 4 2.4c to 3GHz, that's going from 200MHz FSB to 250MHz. Similar overclocks can often be achieved with other Pentium 4s, you just have to experiment, and always expect the worst!

There is also the question of voltages. A typical Pentium 4 runs at 1.525v, but by increasing the voltage to say, 1.6v, you may achieve a higher clock speed. It is best to try overclocking at default voltage until you find a limit, and then try increasing the voltage a little bit at a time to see if that helps. It is not advisable to increase voltage more than 10% over the default value. Increasing voltage will also increase the temperature of your processor, which in turn may limit its overclockability. Overclocking itself will increase the processor temperature, as the processor has to do more work. Make sure you have a decent heatsink/fan, or you could try more exotic cooling solutions such as water or phase change. Due to the nature of electronics, processors are usually able to run faster at lower temperatures, so if your processor is already running at 60^oC you will probably find that you can' t overclock very much, If at all. Finishing of, you need to remember a few basic things. For instance, memory speed is usually directly related to FSB, so if you increase the FSB on your Pentium 4 to 220MHz, you also increase the memory frequency to 220MHz. Many motherboards allow you to use a `memory divider', which can let th e memory run slower than the FSB. So, if the memory runs at the same speed as the FSB, the divider is 1:1. Common dividers are 5: 4 and 3:2. To work out the memory frequency from the divider, you divide the FSB by the first number, and then multiply by the second number. For example if we run a 200MHz FSB and use the 5:4 divider we get “(200/5) x 4= 160Mhz” or DDR320. These dividers can be useful at higher speeds to bring the memory speed down to specification. And just because your system can boot at its new higher speed, don't assume that it's 100% stable. You must test the system before continuing any important work.

IV. testing an overclocked system

Another important point worth mentioning here is, how would you determine the success of a overclocked system. Well one cannot simply determine it by running a 3-D game and then deriving the conclusion that, the system responded faster compared to non-overclocked situation. In most of the cases the result of overclocking is less than the 10% increase of original clock rate. And more importantly its rather naïve and childish to test overclocked systems using games or applications that require faster clock rates. A more professional approach is to use one of the many tools available online for this purpose. And if you can spare a few minutes for manual comparison the windows task manager will also suffice.

And to be more professional in you approach try something like Prime95 which you can use to really torture test your PC. If you need a utility to check what speed and settings you're running your system at, look no further than CPU-Z which provides CPU speed, FSB, memory timings and frequency, CPU voltage and many other things. A widely used benchmark utility is ‘SiSoftware Sandra’ which includes benchmarks for the CPU, Memory, Hard Disk, CDROM, Network etc. This is useful to check that your tweaking has actually made some difference!

Some of the benchmarks used to compare overclocking success are: memory bandwidth, clock rates, databases, scientific computing, memory bandwidth, 3Dmark and many more.

Popular stress tests include Prime95, Everest, Superpi, OCCT, IntelBurnTest/Linpack/LinX, SiSoftware Sandra, BOINC, Intel Thermal Analysis Tool and Memtest86.

V. a few considerations

There are several considerations when overclocking. First is to ensure that the component is supplied with adequate power to operate at the new clock rate. However, supplying the power with improper settings or applying excessive voltage can permanently damage a component.

A few considerations that one should always be sure of putting on the check list are mentioned in following sub-sections.

A. Cooling

All electronic circuits produce heat generated by the movement of electrical current. As clock frequencies in digital circuits and voltage applied increase, the heat generated by components running at the higher performance levels also increases. The relationship between clock frequencies and Thermal design power (TDP) are linear. However, there is a limit to the maximum frequency which is called a "wall". To overcome this issue, overclockers raise the chip voltage to increase the overclocking potential. The relationship between chip voltage and TDP is exponential due to the fact that as the chip warms, the resistance increases. This increased heat requires effective cooling to avoid damaging the hardware. In addition, some digital circuits slow down at high temperatures due to changes in MOSFET device characteristics. Because most stock cooling systems are designed for the amount of power produced during non-overclocked use, overclockers typically turn to more effective cooling solutions, such as powerful fans, larger heatsinks, heat pipes and water cooling. Size, shape, and material all influence the ability of a heatsink to dissipate heat. Efficient heatsinks are often made entirely of copper, which has high thermal conductivity, but is expensive. Aluminium is more widely used; it has poorer thermal conductivity, but is significantly cheaper than copper. Heat pipes are commonly used to improve conductivity. Many heatsinks combine two or more materials to achieve a balance between performance and cost.

Some of the most common cooling mechanisms and devices used are: air cooling, liquid submission cooling, waste heat reduction, conductive and radiative cooling, spot cooling, passive heat sink cooling, active heat sink cooling, Peltier cooling or thermoelectric cooling, water cooling, heat pipe, phase-charge cooling, liquid nitrogen, liquid helium, soft cooling, undervolting, integrated chip cooling technology, use of rounded cables, use of exotic thermal conduction compounds, heat sink lapping and more.

B. Stability and functional correctness

As an overclocked component operates outside of the manufacturer's recommended operating conditions, it may function incorrectly, leading to system instability. Another risk is silent data corruption by undetected errors. Such failures might never be correctly diagnosed and may instead be incorrectly attributed to software bugs in applications or the operating system. Overclocked use may permanently damage components enough to cause them to misbehave (even under normal operating conditions) without becoming totally unusable.

In general, overclockers claim that testing can ensure that an overclocked system is stable and functioning correctly. Although software tools are available for testing hardware stability, it is generally impossible for any private individual to thoroughly test the functionality of a processor. Achieving good fault coverage requires immense engineering effort; even with all of the resources dedicated to validation by manufacturers, faulty components and even design faults are not always detected. A particular "stress test" can verify only the functionality of the specific instruction sequence used in combination with the data and may not detect faults in those operations. For example, an arithmetic operation may produce the correct result but incorrect flags; if the flags are not checked, the error will go undetected.To further complicate matters, in process technologies such as silicon on insulator, devices display hysteresis—a circuit's performance is affected by the events of the past, so without carefully targeted tests it is possible for a particular sequence of state changes to work at overclocked rates in one situation but not another even if the voltage and temperature are the same. Often, an overclocked system which passes stress tests experiences instabilities in other programs.

In overclocking circles, "stress tests" or "torture tests" are used to check for correct operation of a component. These workloads are selected as they put a very high load on the component of interest. The hope is that any functional-correctness issues with the overclocked component will show up during these tests, and if no errors are detected during the test, the component is then deemed "stable". Since fault coverage is important in stability testing, the tests are often run for long periods of time, hours or even days. An overclocked computer is sometimes described using the number of hours and the stability program used, such as "prime 12 hours stable for an test run using prime 95 for 12 hours”.

VI. limitations

The utility of overclocking is limited for a few reasons:

• Personal computers are mostly used for tasks which are not computationally demanding, or which are performance-limited by bottlenecks outside of the local machine. For example, web browsing does not require a high performance computer, and the limiting factor will almost certainly be the bandwidth of the Internet connection of either the user or the server. Overclocking a processor will also do little to help increase application loading times as the limiting factor is reading data off the hard drive. Other general office tasks such as word processing and sending email are more dependent on the efficiency of the user than on the performance of the hardware. In these situations any performance increases through overclocking are unlikely to be noticeable.
• It is generally accepted that, even for computationally-heavy tasks, clock rate increases of less than ten percent are difficult to discern. For example, when playing video games, it is difficult to discern an increase from 60 to 66 frames per second (FPS) without the aid of an on-screen frame counter. Overclocking of a processor will rarely improve gaming performance noticeably, as the frame rates achieved in most modern games are usually bound by the GPU at resolutions beyond 1024x768. One exception to this rule is when the overclocked component is the bottleneck of the system, in which case the most gains can be seen.

VII. Advantages

Here comes the most important question. What will we be getting in return after so much of hustle and bustle. Lets have a look at few advantages the overclocked machines can provide:

• The user can, in many cases, purchase a lower performance, cheaper component and overclock it to the clock rate of a more expensive component.
• Higher performance in games, encoding, video editing applications, and system tasks at no additional expense, but at an increased cost for electrical power consumption. Particularly for enthusiasts who regularly upgrade their hardware, overclocking can increase the time before an upgrade is needed.
• Some systems have "bottlenecks," where small overclocking of a component can help realize the full potential of another component to a greater percentage than the limiting hardware is overclocked.
• Overclocking can be an engaging hobby in itself and supports many dedicated online communities. The PCMark website is one such site that hosts a leader-board for the most powerful computers to be bench-marked using the program.
• A new overclocker with proper research and precaution or a guiding hand can gain useful knowledge and hands-on experience about their system and PC systems in general.

VIII. disadvantages

Many of the disadvantages of overclocking can be mitigated or reduced in severity by skilled overclockers. However, novice overclockers may make mistakes while overclocking which can introduce avoidable drawbacks and which are more likely to damage the overclocked components (as well as other components they might affect).

• The lifespan of a processor may be reduced by higher operating frequencies, increased voltages and heat, although processors rapidly become obsolete in performance due to technological progress.
• Increased clock rates and/or voltages result in higher power consumption.
• Even with adequate CPU cooling, the excess heat produced by an overclocked processing unit increases the ambient air temperature of the system case; consequently, other components may be affected. Also, more heat will be expelled from the PC's vents, raising the temperature of the room the PC is in - sometimes to uncomfortable levels.
• Overclocking has the potential to cause component failure.
• With sub-zero cooling methods such as phase-change cooling or liquid nitrogen, extra precautions such as foam or spray insulation must be made to prevent water from condensing upon the PCB and other areas. This can cause the board to become "frosted" or covered in frost. While the water is frozen it is usually safe, however once it melts it can cause shorts and other malignant issues.
• More common than hardware failure is functional incorrectness. Although the hardware is not permanently damaged, this is inconvenient and can lead to instability and data loss. In rare, extreme cases entire filesystem failure may occur, causing the loss of all data.

IX. why overclocking???

When overclocking is so much of work, and success rate is also very low. And even if succeeded one cannot measure the percentile of success. Hence the question arises why to take so much of pain and risk, when one can easily upgrade his/her system using parts available in the market. Overclocking can be an engaging hobby in itself and supports many dedicated online communities. The PCMark website is one such site that hosts a leader-board for the most powerful computers to be bench-marked using the program. And to add to this it provides higher performance in games, encoding, video editing applications, system tasks without paying any additional fee. Overclockers have a dedicated website, www.hwbot.com, where they can submit their score and get a rank.

X. conclusion

Bob Colwell calls over-clocking an "uncontrolled experiment in better-than-worst-case system operation.” It may not involve the adrenaline rushing stunts of real extreme sports. But geeks’ ‘XTREME’ sport called overclocking is second to none when it comes to passion, skills, excitement and triumphs.

And the rest-how and why- are just the details of this highly rushing sport. In words of few overclockers it’s the promise of extra performance for free.

Whatever the advantages and disadvantages of overclocking be, the overclokers surely form a very distinct genre of computer geeks. Even back home in India we have few prominent overclockers- Harshal Pravin Tank and Madhusudan Banik to name a few.

XI. bibiliography

While preparing this document we referred the works of following authors:

1. Wainner, Scott; Robert Richmond (2003). The Book of Overclocking. No Starch Press.

2. J. M. Rabaey. Digital Integrated Circuits. Prentice Hall.

3. How to overclock-chillblast (pdf)

4. Javed Anwer- Times News Network.