A “not so funny” April Fools 09

Malicious code that was recently classified as a worm, surfaced in October 2008 exploits MS08-067 vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows family Operating System (surprise surprise !!). The worm is known by various names Downup, Downadup, Kido, and the most popular being Conficker.

Conflicker has gone through various stages of development that make it harder to understand; credits to the use of P2P mechanism encrypting the traffic using the latest and greatest MIT MD6 algorithm. A noteworthy mention about the client on an infected machine is that, it uses an intelligent algorithm that creates a daily list of 250 random domain names to communicate with its mother ship that advertises different domain names each day. Guess what, it gets even better, the newer variant Conflicker. C just upped that number from 250 to 50,000.

What makes this one extra special is that no one seems to still know what its gonna do on “D day”. Experts guess that April 1 could probably be that D day, but we never know…

Let the guessing games continue; in the meantime, if you don’t have the habit of installing Microsoft Windows security fixes or keep you Windows auto update OFF, it’d be a good idea to get to the Symantec website and attempt a removal of a possible infection.

Cheers, and have a SAFE April 1.

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truth happens

an interesting paradox

“Are we searching Google, or is Google searching us”

An interesting find via Slashdot pointing to a story by George Dyson, Engineers’ Dream

When Ed examined the traffic, he realized that Google was doing more than mapping the digital universe. Google doesn’t merely link or point to data. It moves data around. Data that are associated frequently by search requests are locally replicated—establishing physical proximity, in the real universe, that is manifested computationally as proximity in time. Google was more than a map. Google was becoming something else. …

“This was the paradox of artificial intelligence: any system simple enough to be understandable will not be complicated enough to behave intelligently; and any system complicated enough to behave intelligently will not be simple enough to understand.”

under the hood of TataSky

Over lunch a few of us folks discussed about the options for subscribing to television channels in India. TataSky seemed to be a good option with a good mix of channels and moderate initial setup cost of around Rs2499.

On casual online exploration, i happened to stumble upon this review about tatasky. Though the opinion provided seems to be one sided, the author sure does bring to light some very good points one should consider before investing there.

Here is what influences my decision.

1. Does not / sparingly works when it rains. So also consider a contract with the weather God.

2. The Set Top Box (STB) has only composite output. So irrespective of the transmission quality, you know you can never watch HD. I don’t want to have a TV that does Full HD (1080p) and have a STB that will not give me that content even though the provider _might_ offer it in the future. This is _not_ future proof.

3. No Free to Air channel unless you subscribe to the service. TataSky also does not permit repositioning the dish to recieve free to air channels from satellites other than TataSky’s (Insat 4a?)

4. TataSky owns the dish, so once you terminate the contract, off goes your dish and you are left with the STB that can not be used with other DTH providers. Considering the relatively low setup cost, this neednt be a matter of top concern if you think you are going to be a loyal customer for TataSky for a considerable time.

I am still not considering shifting from cable. Probably should wat for IP TV as well, befire makign the final call.

Why we use Linux

Vlad Dolezal blogs about “Why we use Linux”

We tell people we use Linux because it’s secure. Or because it’s free, because it’s customizable, because it’s free (the other meaning), because it has excellent community support…

But all of that is just marketing bullshit. We tell that to non-Linuxers because they wouldn’t understand the real reason. And when we say those false reasons enough, we might even start to believe them ourselves.

But deep underneath, the reason remains.
We use Linux because it’s fun !!

I can’t agree any lesser.

Since the day i migrated to this brighter face of the planet, ive been spending more fun, 1 on 1 time with my computer in tweaking stuff to my likes. Of course there were the troughs with undesired effects, but recovering from them and bringing about the desired change was a cherished learning experience by itself.

Open up and live free.

There she goes …

What are we without online services?
The more we move into the virtual world, the harder it is to get back to physical reality.