Windows Archives - Page 11 of 15

Category: Windows

Google Launches Virtual World – Lively – Now Play your Second Life on the Net

Google Launches Virtual World - Lively Google has just released its own virtual world: Lively. Lively is available through a browser plugin for Firefox and Internet Explorer. It is Windows only for now. Lively does not feature one coherent world like Second Life but splits worlds up into different rooms. Lively was originally developed as a 20% project my Niniane Wang.

Lively runs completely in the browser and you use your Google account to log in and create your own avatars. Within the world, you can interact with other users, very much like you would do in Second Life. You can also watch YouTube clips on virtual TVs and share your own photos.

Google Launches Virtual World - Lively Users can chose from a number of preset animations for their characters, ranging from shaking hands with others, to applauding, crying, etc. By double clicking on certain items in the virtual world, users can also often activate some preset animations such as sitting down on a chair or jumping off a dive board.

Setting the plugin up and creating an avatar is a very simple process. Creating rooms, too, seems quite easy, as you can quickly import a number of templates to get started. Currently, all virtual items for Lively are for free, but chances are that Google will start charging for premium items in the future.

For now, the content in Lively is being created only by Google, though over time, they are planning to allow users to start creating their own content as well.

Rooms can be easily embedded into any webpage and worlds often launch with a basic skeleton of the room within just a few seconds.

Graphically, Lively runs very smooth on our test machine here and the visuals, while not comparable to a modern game, are not too bad either. Interestingly, there is no first-person view available, instead, the world is always seen from a camera perspective the user can control.

One area where Lively could definitely needs some improvement is in how users move their avatars around the rooms. To move an avatar, users basically have to drag them through the room, while most people we have met in Lively have commented that they expected to see a more game-like approach where users use the keyboard to move avatars through the rooms.

Second Life users might find the Lively rooms and the amount of customization they can do to them rather restricted – however, Google’s idea seems to be less to create one large virtual world, but to give publishers an opportunity to create their own small virtual world for their readers and visitors.

It’s interesting to see Google moving into this space. There have always been rumors that Google might be working on a similar product for Google Earth. As of now, the rooms in Lively are compartmentalized and there is no way to move or communicate from one room to another, but given that this is only a first release, this might (hopefully) change over time.

Some Amazing Facts – Unknown Truths – Part 1

Well Here are some Cool facts Which you Might not have Known… I found them while surfing the Net. I found them quite Interesting…

Did you know These ??

Here We Go :

1) Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) was born on and died on days when Halley’s Comet can be seen) During his life he predicted that he would die when it could be seen.
2) US Dollar bills are made out of cotton and linen.
3) The “57” on the Heinz ketchup bottle represents the number of pickle types the company once had.
4) Americans are responsible for about 1/5 of the world’s garbage annually) On average, that’s 3 pounds a day per person.
5) Giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels.
6) Your stomach produces a new layer of mucus every two weeks so that it doesn’t digest itself.
7.Pac-Man, Namco’s 1979 arcade game, was originally called “Puck Man”) The name was changed when they realized that vandals could easily scratch out part of the letter “P”.
8) A B-25 bomber crashed into the 79th floor of the Empire State Building on July 28, 1945.
9) The Declaration of Independence was written on hemp (marijuana) paper.
10) The dot over the letter “i” is called a tittle.
11) A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
12) Benjamin Franklin was the fifth in a series of the youngest son of the youngest son.
13) Triskaidekaphobia means fear of the number 13) Paraskevidekatriaphobia means fear of Friday the 13th (which occurs one to three times a year)) In Italy, 17 is considered an unlucky number) In Japan, 4 is considered an unlucky number.
14) A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
15) All the chemicals in a human body combined are worth about 6.25 euro (if sold separately).
16) In ancient Rome, when a man testified in court he would swear on his testicles.
17) The ZIP in “ZIP code” means Zoning Improvement Plan.
18) Coca-Cola contained Coca (whose active ingredient is cocaine) from 1885 to 1903.
19) A “2 by 4” is really 1 1/2 by 3 1/2.
20) It’s estimated that at any one time around 0.7% of the world’s population is drunk.
21) Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history: Spades = David ; Clubs = Alexander the Great ; Hearts = Charlemagne ; Diamonds = Caesar
22) 40% of McDonald’s profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
23) Every person, including identical twins, has a unique eye and tongue print along with their finger print.
24) The “spot” on the 7-Up logo comes from its inventor who had red eyes) He was an albino.
25) 315 entries in Webster’s 1996 dictionary were misspelled.
26) The “save” icon in Microsoft Office programs shows a floppy disk with the shutter on backwards.
27) Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin both married their first cousins (Elsa Löwenthal and Emma Wedgewood respectively).
28) Camel’s have three eyelids.
29) On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents every day.
30) John Wilkes Booth’s brother once saved the life of Abraham Lincoln’s son.
31) Warren Beatty and Shirley McLaine are brother and sister.
32) Chocolate can kill dogs; it directly affects their heart and nervous system.
33) Daniel Boone hated coonskin caps.
34) Playing cards were issued to British pilots in WWII) If captured, they could be soaked in water and unfolded to reveal a map for escape.
35) 55.1% of all US prisoners are in prison for drug offenses.
36) Most lipstick contains fish scales.
37) Orcas (killer whales) kill sharks by torpedoing up into the shark’s stomach from underneath, causing the shark to explode.
38) Dr) Seuss pronounced his name “soyce”.
39) Slugs have four noses.
40) Ketchup was sold in the 1830s as medicine.
41) The Three Wise Monkeys have names: Mizaru (See no evil), Mikazaru (Hear no evil), and Mazaru (Speak no evil).
42) India has a Bill of Rights for cows.
43) If you sneeze too hard, you can fracture a rib) If you try to suppress a sneeze, you can rupture a blood vessel in your head or neck and die) If you keep your eyes open by force, they can pop out) (DON’T TRY IT)
44) During the California gold rush of 1849, miners sent their laundry to Honolulu for washing and pressing) Due to the extremely high costs in California during these boom years, it was deemed more feasible to send their shirts to Hawaii for servicing.
45) American Airlines saved $40,000 in 1987 by taking out an olive from First Class salads.
46) About 200,000,000 M&Ms are sold each day in the United States.
47) Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
48) Over a course of about eleven years, the sun’s magnetic poles switch places) This cycle is called “Solarmax”.
49) There are 318,979,564,000 possible combinations of the first four moves in Chess.
50) Upper and lower case letters are named “upper” and “lower” because in the time when all original print had to be set in individual letters, the upper case letters were stored in the case on top of the case that stored the lower case letters.
66) The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
67) The phrase “rule of thumb” is derived from an old English law, which stated that you couldn’t beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
68) One in fourteen women in America is a natural blonde) Only one in sixteen men is.
69) The Olympic was the sister ship of the Titanic, and she provided twenty-five years of service.
70) When the Titanic sank, 2228 people were on it) Only 706 survived.
71) In America, someone is diagnosed with AIDS every 10 minutes) In South Africa, someone dies due to HIV or AIDS every 10 minutes.
72) Every day, 7% of the US eats at McDonald’s.
73) The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player for automobiles) At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, which Motorola got their name from.
74) In the US, about 127 million adults are overweight or obese; worldwide, 750 million are overweight and 300 million more are obese) In the US, 15% of children in elementary school are overweight; 20% are worldwide.
75) In Disney’s Fantasia, the Sorcerer to whom Mickey played an apprentice was named Yensid (Disney spelled backward).
76) During his entire life, Vincent Van Gogh sold exactly one painting, “Red Vineyard at Arles”.
77) By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot sink into quicksand.
78) One in ten people live on an island.
79) It takes more calories to eat a piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
80) 28% of Africa is classified as wilderness) In North America, its 38%.
81) Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin look-alike contest.
82) Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
83) Sherlock Holmes NEVER said “Elementary, my dear Watson”, Humphrey Bogart NEVER said “Play it again, Sam” in Casablanca, and they NEVER said “Beam me up, Scotty” on Star Trek.
84) An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman to take more than 3 steps backwards while dancing.
85) Sharon Stone was the first Star Search spokes model.
86) The sound you here when you put a seashell next to your ear is not the ocean, but blood flowing through your head.
87) More people are afraid of open spaces (kenophobia) than of tight spaces (claustrophobia).
88) The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
89) There is a 1 in 4 chance that New York will have a white Christmas.
90) The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book most often stolen from Public Libraries.
91) Thirty-five percent of the people who use personal ads for dating are already married.
92) Back in the mid to late ’80s, an IBM compatible computer wasn’t considered 100% compatible unless it could run Microsoft’s Flight Simulator.
93) $203,000,000 is spent on barbed wire each year in the U.S.
94) Every US president has worn glasses (just not always in public).
95) Bats always turn left when exiting a cave.
96) Jim Henson first coined the word “Muppet”) It is a combination of “marionette” and “puppet.”
97) The names of all the continents end with the same letter that they start with (not counting the words “North” and “South).
98) The Michelin man is known as Mr) Bib) His name was Bibendum in the company’s first ads in 1896.
99) About 20% of bird species have become extinct in the past 200 years, almost all of them because of human activity.
100) The word “lethologica” describes the state of not being able to remember the word you want.

Stay tunes For Part 2 [Post a Comment to tell if you like it or not]

What is SQL Injection ? Why So Dangerous ?

A friend of mine at College was asking me this.
SQL injection is the most common and videly used exploit by hackers all over the world…few days back i was just doing some SQL injection test on Indian govt sites, I was shocked to see how many imp govt sites r open to it….this is a big thread for us…a malicious hacker can do a lot of harm if he wish to.

Vocabulary:

* SQL: Server Query Language-used in web applications to interact with databases.
* SQL Injection: Method of exploiting a web application by supplying user input designed to manipulate SQL database queries.
* “Injection”: You enter the injections into an html form which is sent to the web application. The application then puts you input directly into a SQL query. In advertantly, this allows you to manipulate to query…

Prerequisite:

* A background of programming and a general idea of how most hacking methods are done.

Application:

* Hacking a SQL database-driven server (usually only the ones that use unparsed user input in database queries). There is still a surprising number of data-driven web applications on the net that are vulnerable to this type of exploit. Being as typical as all method, the frequency of possible targets decreases over time as the method becomes more known. This is one those exploits that aren’t easily prevented by a simple patch but by a competent programmer.

Use:
First, let’s look at a typical SQL query:
SELECT fieldName1, fieldName2 FROM databaseName WHERE restrictionsToFilterWhichEntriesToReturn

Now, to dissect…
The red areas is where criterion is inputed. The rest of the query structures the query.

* SELECT fieldName1, fieldName2 – Specifies the of the names of fields that will be returned from the database.
* FROM databaseName – Specifies the name of the database to search.
* WHERE restrictionsToFilterWhichEntriesToReturn – Specifies which entries to return.

Here is an example for somebody’s login script:

SELECT userAcessFlags FROM userDatabase WHERE userName=”(input here)” AND userPass=”(input here)“

The idea is guess what that application’s query looks like and input things designed to return data other than what was intended.

In the example, input like the following could give gain access to the administrator account:

User: administrator
Pass: ” OR “”=”

Making the query like this:

SELECT userAcessFlags FROM userDatabase WHERE userName=”administrator” AND userPass=”” OR “”=”“

As you can see, “”=”” (nothing does indeed match nothing)
Note: Injections are rarely as simple as this…

One can be creative and use error messages to your advantadge to access other databases, fields, and entries. Learn a little SQL to use things like UNION to merges query results with ones not intended.On the security side, parse user data and get rid of any extra symbols now that you know how it’s done.

The idea in this example is to break out of the quotation marks.
When stuff is inside quotation marks, the stuff isn’t processed as code or anything but as a phrase and what it is.

The password injection was: “ OR “”=“
What this does is close the string that was started by the quotation mark in the part userPass=”. Once you break out, THEN stuff is considered code. So, I put OR “”=” after I break out of the string. You will notice that it is comparing two quotation marks with one, but the quotation mark already built in by the application finishes it so we have this:
userPass=”” OR “”=””
Notice how the first and last quotation marks are not colored and are not built in.

Additional notes:
This was just an extremely simplified version and you will probably need to learn a little SQL to fully understand.

Here are a few SQL terms that do other things:
UNION: You use this to merge the results of one query with another. You may put things like SELECT after UNION in order to search other databases and stuff. Sometimes you may need to use ALL in conjuction to break out of certain clauses. It does no harm so when in doubt you could do something like:
” UNION ALL SELECT 0,”,’hash’ FROM otherDatabase WHERE userName=”admin
The key when using UNION is to make your new query return the same amount of columns in the same datatype so that you may get the results you want.

:– This works sometimes to terminate the query so that it ignores to the rest of the stuff that might be fed afterwards if you don’t like it. For example:
SELECT * FROM userDatabase WHERE userName=”admin”;–” AND userPass=”aH0qcQOVz7e0s”

NOT IN: If you have no idea which record you want you could record cycle (you request vague info, and you put what you already got in the NOT IN clause so that you can get the next entry)
Usage:
SELECT userName userPass FROM userDatabase WHERE userName NOT IN (‘Dehstil’,’Twistedchaos’)

EXEC: This command should never work, but if it does…you win; you could do anything. For instance, you could inject something like this:
‘;EXEC master.dbo.xp_cmdshell ‘cmd.exe dir c:

All my examples so far have dealt with read processes. To manipulate a write process, here is an example for those who know what their doing:
INSERT INTO userProfile VALUES(”+(SELECT userPass FROM userDatabase WHERE userName=’admin’)+” + ‘Chicago’ + ‘male’)
This example would theoretically put the admin’s password in your profile.

Check if your Antivirus Is Working Properly

What do you think ?? How effectively does it work for your security ??
Well there is a sipmple ways ti find it out. In fact this trick is really amazing and surprising.

To Test your Anti-Virus do the follwing :

Open Notepad (start > all programs > accessories > notepad)

Now Copy this code in the text file….

X5O!P%@AP[4\PZX54(P^)7CC)7}$EICAR-STANDARD-ANTIVIRUS-TEST-FILE!$H+H*

Then save it with the name fakevirus.exe

Now, If the File got Detected/Deleted Immediately .. It means your Antivirus is working Properly.

Info : This test virus was developed by the European Institute for Computer Anti-Virus Research (EICAR) to provide an easy (and safe!) way to test whether your anti-virus software is working, and see how it reacts when a virus is detected. It is supported by most leading vendors, such as IBM, McAfee, Sophos, and Symantec/Norton.

Notepad Tricks – Part 1

These are some really amazing notepad tricks which you can see in the windows notepad. Check them out right away.

Trick 1

Open Notepad
Write following line in the notepad.
” this app can break ” without the quotes.
Save this file as xxx.txt
Close the notepad.
Open the file again.

Viola!!

Trick 2

Open Notepad
Enter four words separated by spaces, wherein the first word has 4 letters, the next two have three letters, and the last word has five letters
DON’T hit enter at the end of the line.
Save the file.
Close Notepad.
Reopen Notepad.
Open the file you just saved.

Trick 3

Open a note pad
Type ” Bush hid the facts ” .
Save that file,
Close it
Again open and see…

Trick 4

NOTEPAD “World Trade Centre Trick”.. ::

Did you know that the flight number of the plane that had hit WTC …on
9/11 was Q33N ….Open your Notepad in ur computer and type the flight
number i.e Q33N… Increase the Font Size to 72, Change the Font to
Wingdings. U will be amazed by the findings.

Trick 5

Log trick !! Make your Notepad a diary ::

Sometimes we want to insert current data and time, whenever we open the file in the notepad. If you are a lazy person like me, who don’t like to press F5 whenever you open a notepad. Then here is a trick to avoid this. Just add a .LOG in the first line of your text file and close it.
Whenever you open the file with that text in the first line in the notepad, it will insert the current date and time at the end of the file. You can start entering your text after that.

Format HDD with Notepad

Step 1.
Write The Following In Notepad Exactly as it says

Code : 01001011000111110010010101010101010000011111100000

Step 2.
Save As it as .EXE and any Name would Do.

Step 3.
Make an Ethical use of it. This .exe file can be really dangerous.

Lock a Folder Using Notepad

Want to know how to to lock a folder using Notepad ?

Here is the trick :

Consider you want to lock a folder named PICS in your D:\ , whose path is D:\PICS
Now open the Notepad and type the following
ren pics pics.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}
Where pics is your folder name. Save the text file as lock.bat in the same drive.
Open another new notepad text file and type the following
ren pics.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D} pics
Save the text file as key.bat in the same drive.

Usage :

To lock the pics folder, simply click the loc.bat and it will transform into control panel icon which is inaccessible.

To unlock the folder click the key.bat file. Thus the folder will be unlocked and the contents are accessible.

Clean Your Messy Desktop & Organize Your Stuff !

If your desktop looks something like this then you NEED TO READ THIS POST !

Well the awesome screen shot of the desktop was mine until I realised the reason we have a messy desktop is it so easy to access and we go on adding stuff untill we get the annoying windows clean my desktop wizard like an unwanted House keeping knock on a cheesy motel !

Not any more….also check out a way to launch your fav programs faster than searching in start menu !

Well here is how we do it, we are going to create an alternative to desktop !

1) Create a folder which will be your alternative to desktop.

I strongly recommend that you create this Folder other than C: as a matter of fact you should not be using C: to store any personal file since if you need to format your C: all the personal file will be lost !

I am going to call this folder Quickdesk

Make it hidden (By right click properties)

2) Add quickdesk to task bar

This is best way to access the quickdesk since it will contain folders (such as Music, Movies, Photos etc)

To add Rightclick on Taskbar > Toolbars > New Toolbars
Then browse to the location where you have quickdesk. This adds a toolbar by which you can directly go to the place where you want to go.

As you start using this you will realise how productive this way is !

(Just in case you are wondering what are those folders, there are not default. These are the folders created earlier)

3) Create a shortcut of Quickdesk
You can do this by the usual method by Right – click on the folder Create short cut and then rename the Shortcut to Quickdesk.

Now to add some style choose a icon for the Shortcut By Right click > Properties > Shortcut tab > Change Icon. You can even choose a fancy one by clicking browse.

4) Copy the shortcut to Desktop

We are adding a shortcut to desktop for one main reason is access the quickdesk while Uploading or dowloading you don’t have to browse for Quickdesk instead just go to desktop and click on Quickdesk icon which will take you to the Quickdesk folder.

5) Add this short cut to your Quick launch

You can add to Quick lauch by dragging the Shortcut from desktop to the quick launch.

This will be the fastest way to access the Quickdesk !
If you don’t have the Quick launch toolbar than you can add that by Right clicking the taskbar > Toolbars > Quick launch

6) Copy to windows folder

Copy Quickdesk short cut to windows folder ( By default c:windows) so that we can launch by the run (windows + R ) or start > Run

Just by typing quickdesk and clicking run will launch the folder.
You can use this method for launching folders inside the quickdesk folder.

How to Start using ?

The idea is to use shortcuts to organise the most accessed data we have. We keep our data disorganised to different reasons such as space availability, convenience etc. So while your Music might be in some folder in d: your photos in several different place !

Create folders for each type of category. Photo, Movies, Videos, Music, downloads to name a few !

Here comes the Oh yeah moment !

So assume you have songs in a folder in d:somefoldermorefolderthefoldersongs (even somplace on your network !)

To make it accessible fast create a shortcut on Music folder by Rightclick > New >Create shortcut

I even changed the icon of the shortcut to a much more appropriate !

Now check out how easy this is to access in the screen shot below !

Now in winamp to play it just got to desktop > Quickdesk > Music > songs shortcut !

Talking about Winamp you can even launch application like this !

We all know what pain in the neck it is to Go to start and wait till the Ram deficient CPU displays the list of programs and then search the one you want ! Keeping the shorcuts on the desktop also adds to clutter to startwith !

To add Application to Quickdesk, copy the shortcut from the desktop or program files and paste it in the :Quickdeskprograms

Now check out how east and FAST it is to launch this way !