Holiday Activities-I

Hi guys,

I was busy with my exams. Exams were quite difficult. It feels really good to finish the exams.

I’ll register my holiday activities in this post and I’ll be doing the same in the days ahead.

To begin with my exams were over on 14-12-09(Monday).

2012- A marvelous movie

I spent most of Tuesday watching cricket. It was the 1st ODI between India and Sri Lanka. It was a humdinger in which Sri Lanka lost by 3 runs. For the 2nd time in history both teams scored above 400, with the help of aggressive centuries from Sehwag and Dilshan.

After the cricket match, I sat down to watch the movie 2012. Already my friends told that the movie was wonderful, superb… The reviews also suggested the same. So I sat down to watch it with some huge expectations. The movie showed me more than what I anticipated. All those things, the collapse of California, the destruction of other places, volcanoes, Tsunami all seamed realistic. Don’t know how those were done. But one thing I observed along the film, despite the fact that millions of people were dying, our heart goes for the hero and his family to flee the devastation. As a final point they reach the ship that is designed to get away from the end of the world. As usual (as in all movies) in the end, everyone chooses humanity and save others.

A visit to Meenakshi Amman Temple after a long time

On Wednesday, I went to Meenakshi Amman Temple along with mom after a long time. It took 5 minutes to enter the temple after the usual security checks. There was a huge crowd standing for the free darshan. So we decided to buy the special darshan tickets (Rs.15/person). It took 15 minutes to enter the shrine. After worshiping Goddess Amman, we went to Shiva Shrine. It took approximately 10 minutes there. Subsequently after worshipping the remaining Gods we came out. If I go with mom, I’ll never be able to enjoy the art of the temple. She will be in a hurry. On that day also, it was the same with mom. After finishing the worships, mom started to go around the God Pillaiyar in Aadi Street. She will go around that pillaiyar 108 times on new moon days. It will take around 45 minutes. In that time, I went to the temple once again and roamed there for some time.

Then I came out and started watching the pigeons in the temple. They were eye-catching birds. Some had grey-black colors, some had grey-brown and some had green pigments in their neck. Only one pigeon was pure white in color. There were nearly 100 of them. If people came in close proximity they flew to the temple roof. They come back after sometime. 1st only 1 pigeon comes. Then one by one all pigeons come to feed on the grains that people leave for them. When they fly as a group, the beating sound of the wings will be very lovely to hear.

Crowded Market

After coming out of the temple, we went to the nearby Central Market to purchase vegetables. The market street was as usual jam-packed. The main reason was that the heavy vehicles blocked majority of the road, making it hard for the pedestrians to walk. Inside the market the entire way was packed with decayed vegetables and unwanted leaves. We bought Onion, tomato, potato and some more vegetables. The prices of the vegetables had been on a rise due to the monsoons and on that day also it was very high.

Meenakshi Bazaar

After finishing with vegetables, mom started to home and I went to Meenakshi Bazaar to get some DVDs. It’s a dreamland for movie lovers. You can buy all sorts of DVDs, English, Tamil, Hindi movies, songs, Games, etc. But u have to wander around and search patiently for there will be 1000s of movies. But I didn’t go in search of a particular movie. So I just entered a shop and bought two DVDs, The Grudge and Fast and the Furious. In the bazaar, u can also find a great number of electronic shops selling DVD players, Cell phones, USB Flash drives, memory cards, etc at a cheaper price. But the trouble is we can never know whether the product is authentic or not. So we can buy electronic goods there only if someone known to us is there. Otherwise it’s better to buy in a genuine shop, even though the cost may be a little high there.

The Grudge- A Horror movie

That afternoon I watched the movie ‘The Grudge’ with the DVD I bought. It is the English version of the Japanese film ‘Ju On’. The movie is about an American nurse who goes to Japan for work. She finds out some dreadful incidents in a house. The story is as follows,

A Japanese woman keeps on posting love letters to an American professor. When her husband finds out the truth, he murders his wife, son and commits suicide. On that same day the American professor sets out to see who sends him those letters. He is shocked to see all those awful things there. Coming back home he throws himself out from the 6th floor. In Japan they say, “If someone dies with rage or with unfulfilled desires, they start to hunt whoever comes to that house”. So the family who comes after that, the detective investigating that family’s death, the nurse who comes to attend that family and her lover, all die one by one and so ends the movie.

Again to college

A seminar was conducted by civil department on Friday and some 10 of us were called to work for it on Thursday and Friday. On Thursday we had works like CD writing, arranging the bags and decorating the seminar hall. For most of the day we had no works. We were playing Carom for most of the afternoon. On Friday also we had no works for most of the time. We had to receive the guests, distribute Tea; snacks in the morning break, and then take charge of the lunch session so that things went on smoothly. The lunch was arranged well with a budget of Rs.110/ person. But some confusion took place. The lunch time mentioned was 1.15 pm. But all guests came by 12.45 pm itself. So we had to compel the catering people to arrange things swiftly. In the evening session too, the tea break was mentioned as 4 pm, but guests came by 4.30 pm only, within which all the refreshments and tea lost the flavor. On the whole the day was fine and it was a nice experience for us.

On Friday, the 2nd ODI took place. India lost in the last over by 3 wickets after scoring 301 with a radiant century from Dhoni.

CADD Quest 2010

On Saturday morning I along with Vimal Raj and Dhasthaheer went to write the CADD Quest scholarship exam conducted by CADD center each year. The CADD center was nearby Vimal’s house in China Chockikulam. I didn’t exactly know his house. So he told me to come near Eco Park. I went by cycle from my home. It’s almost 5-6 km from my home and it took me 20 minutes to reach there. At one juncture I didn’t know the exact way to Eco Park, so I asked a pedestrian and he guided me in the wrong way. Finally I reached his home. We went to attend the test as Dhas told he will come quite later. There were 50 questions. The questions were separated into English, Abbreviation, Technology, Science, Events, etc.

Avatar- An Amazing Film

After the CADD Quest we went to the movie Avatar at Ambiga Theater. I reserved the tickets the previous day for all 3 of us. The tickets were priced at Rs.60/Rs.50. I bought the Rs.50 tickets. It was good that I booked tickets, for there was a long queue there. I met my school friend Anand there. Also something interesting must be told here. I came back home after the CADD quest. Dhas stayed at Vimal’s home. For the film, Vimal and Dhas had come in doubles. Don’t know how Vimal managed to pedal the cycle for 5 km with Dhas at the back! I can’t forget the way those two guys entered the theater!

The film was splendid. It’s a human-alien conflict. Humans enter the planet Pandora to suck the wealth from them. The Navi creatures live along with nature. The hero is made to get into them, by changing his DNA, i.e. he takes the avatar of Navi Creatures. Finally he likes them, supports them and helps them to win the humans. The graphics were incredible. The whole set of creatures; bioluminescent plants in Pandora are mesmerizing. Only after watching the whole movie, I realized that I should have gone for the 3D version.

CADD Quest- Results

The next day (Sunday) I learnt that I scored 39, Vimal scored 33, and Dhas scored 27 out of 50 in the CADD Quest exams. The manager of the CADD Centre, China Chockikulam was interested in collecting a gigantic sum from us. We told that we wanted to do AutoCAD, but he insisted us to do a lot of other courses. He offered AutoCAD at Rs.6000. We then went to CADD centre, KK Nagar. There the manager was a woman. She spoke softly, listening to our needs. She offered the same course at Rs. 5000 and more importantly she didn’t insist us to join other courses. So we have decided to join there.

Planting a new Sapling

Yesterday (Monday) morning, I went to the nearby plant nursery and bought a sapling known as ‘Thanga Arali’. It bears yellow colored flowers. The saplings were priced at Rs.35 and Rs.50. I bought the smaller one. After coming back home, I dug a hole to plant the sapling. It was hard digging a hole, since the ground was solid. After digging the hole, we put in some fertile soil and then planted the sapling. It was nice to planting.

Yesterday the 3rd ODI took place. India beat Sri Lanka easily by 7 wickets, thanks to Sachin and Jadeja. Now India leads the series 2-1.

How safe r u?

Hi readers,

Hope u enjoy the changes in my blog.

R u a person who set password to the Operating System? Then this is for u.

Recently, my friend met with a trouble. He forgot his operating system password. He is using Windows Vista Basic OS. So, he is not able to work with his system. After a week’s struggle, he found out software from net to reset his password just today. The software’s name is OHP cracker. The software’s space is something around 500 MB. The downloaded file was in ISO format. So he has written it in a CD. Don’t know whether it will crack the password. We have to wait and see.

Not only him, I have seen many people forgetting the Operating System’s password. Most importantly windows don’t let us open if we forgot the password. I know certain easy ways to avoid these troubles.

Set the Hints Properly

While setting the password, windows will ask for a hint. Many users don’t set it properly. They set hints that r not at all related to the password. The main reason why windows ask us to set it is to help us in those hard times.

Have two administrators

While creating user accounts, create two administrators. Administrators have full power to change other’s passwords (including another administrator’s). So, create another administrator account even if u don’t need it. In case, u have forgotten the password, u can log in another administrator’s account and reset ur password.

Create a Password Reset Disk

Windows let u create password reset disks which will remember ur password. I have written the procedure below.

For Windows Vista

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.
2. Click on the User Accounts and Family Safety link.
3. Click on the User Accounts link.
4. In the task pane on the left, click the Create a password reset disk link.
5. When the Forgotten Password Wizard window appears, click Next

Note: You will need some kind of portable media before being able to create a password reset disk. This means that you will need a USB flash drive or a floppy disk.

6. In the I want to create a password key disk in the following drive: drop down box, choose the portable media drive to create a password reset disk on.

Click Next to continue.

7. With the disk or other media still in the drive, enter your current account password in the text box and click Next.
8. Windows Vista will now create the password reset disk on your chosen media.

When the progress indicator shows 100% complete, click Next and then click Finish in the next window.

9. You can now remove the flash drive or floppy disk from your computer.

For Windows XP

1. Click on Start and then Control Panel.
2. Click on the User Accounts link.
3. In the pick an account to change area of the User Accounts window, click on your Windows XP user name.
4. In the Related Tasks area on the left, click the Prevent a forgotten password link.
5. When the Forgotten Password Wizard window appears, click Next

Note: You will need a floppy disk or USB flash drive.

6. On the next screen, verify that a blank floppy disk is inserted in your floppy disk drive or USB drive is inserted.

Click Next to continue.

7. With the disk still in the drive, enter your current account password in the text box and click Next.
8. Windows XP will now create the password reset disk.

When the progress indicator shows 100% complete, click Next and then click Finish in the next window.

9. You can now remove the floppy disk or USB flash drive from your computer.

Note: Today floppy disks r out of date. So we have to rely on USB drives for this method. To me, using USB drives is quite an expensive option.

Setting Passwords Properly

One reason why my friend forgot his password is he set a very long password that had more number of characters. Due to this, even changing a single alphabet can affect u. To overcome this we can set the long password as a short abbreviation.

For example, if u want to keep “I like Ice Cream very much”, then consider the 1^st letters alone, ILICVM. U can mix up short and capital alphabets, numbers, and special characters. U can make it iLIcVM34&

Tips Given by Ankit Fadia

Ankit Fadia is India’s 1^st Ethical Hacker. At the age of 13 he hacked CHIP magazine’s website to put his photo in it. Later he confessed to the editor that he was the one who did it. Impressed, the editor told him to join when he was 18. He has helped US Government after 11/9 attacks. He has helped Indian Government in 2008 when Pak terrorists hacked our Government website. He says CID and FBI websites r hacked at least once in a month. Bank websites r the least hacked ones, as they r in constant watch.

He gives the following tips,

• Do not use any word that exists in Dictionary.
• Most common passwords contain username followed by his/her birthday. Avoid it.
• Try combination of alphabets, special characters, and numbers. Mix lower and upper cases.
• Do not have same password for all ur accounts.

Don’t think u r safe

Don’t think that u r very safe from hackers. Hackers r everywhere. U won’t believe me. Two of my classmates r well versed in hacking. They hack others mail and social networking accounts just like that.

One of those guys told us that he started hacking two years ago. He has invited his friends to his home one Sunday. When they had come, he has switched on his computer and checked his mail. He has asked his friends whether they would like to check their mails. They have sat one by one and each one of them had checked their mails. The arrangement was that whatever was typed in the check boxes will be copied in a text pad document and will be saved simultaneously. So at the end of the day, all their username and password was in his hand. Just think of, how many times we have sat in a browsing center and checked our mails.

A few months back, one of my friends Gmail account was hacked.  His password was changed. Not only that, the security question was also changed. So he lost his mail id. To worsen it, he had only one mail id, which meant all his contacts were lost. So, have a back up mail id always.

We are very lethargic in setting password. Please be very careful hereafter. Change ur passwords if they r too simple. Better Late than Never.

Animal week

Hi,

Long time since I’ve written.

This week I came across many animals and I’ll be writing about all of them.

Wheat eating Squirrels

 To begin with last Tuesday, my mother had bought some 2 kg of wheat. Since there was lot of dust, she had to dirt free it. She had soaked it in water and kept them in a cloth. Then she had kept it in terrace for the wheat to dry. After some 15 or 20 minutes, she had gone to the terrace to dry the washed garments.

There was a shock. Some 7 or 8 squirrels were sitting there and eating the wheat. They had no problems with heat, since the day was chill and also the cloth was damp. Stunned she has set the squirrels off and she also sat there for some more time. But some squirrels still came. So she took the wheat and came down. Almost the squirrels must have eaten 250 grams out of the total 2 kg. A good feast for the squirrels and a good lesson for mom (and us too).

Squirrel in our Garden

They always eat the fruits that r present in our garden like custard apple and sapotta. Anyway I love the squirrels. They r pretty, minute creatures. Normally mom would give food to them each morning. They would be wandering all round the garden. They would eat the skins of the fruits, vegetables that we peel off. They would hardly ever come into the house. So normally they cause no big troubles. On the whole, they r smart, peace loving creatures.

Problem with Seals

On Tuesday afternoon, I was watching a program about seals in Nat Geo Wild. Actually I was changing channels simultaneously since all the programs in Tamil channels were unexciting. It was a wonderful program. Seals r animals that mainly live in sea, but they come to beach to mate with each other and to give birth. Newly born seals live long time in coastline (about 9 months). Once they enter the sea, they r alienated from their mother. They wander around the entire world. They mainly feed on small fish. They r hunted by sharks. They travel as much as 1500 miles.

The show specially concentrated a male seal. It went up from Queensland coast in Australia to Cape town in South Africa. It was 6 years then, being in its adolescence, it came back to Queensland to mate. But already the male seals had divided the territories and chased this away.

Sometime in between the program my mother came there. Seeing the seals she said “what creatures r these? Pakkave aruvarupa iruku… odambellam valu valu nu irku”. Then she went.

On Thursday, I was showing her my brother’s photos in Orkut. He uploaded his recent tour photos. He has gone to Punta del este, a seaside town in Uruguay. One of the photos showed the seals resting on a board in the coast.  Seeing that she was taken aback. She told that it was disgusting and told me to change it. But net crashed and the system remained in the same screen for a few seconds.

This was the picture that my brother took in Punta del este, Uruguay

But personally I enjoyed looking the seals.

A cute little Dog: Where did it come from and where did it go?

This was on Wednesday. Morning, after my father started to office, my mother slept. I was preparing for my exams that afternoon (apa than padikave arambichen. That was quite an easy subject). I was hearing some moaning sounds outside my house. In order to check it, I went outside. A small puppy was there trying to come into my house through the gate holes.

The atmosphere was cold. The puppy was trembling. Its appearance made us feel that it was 10 days old. It has somehow lost its mother. We tried to chase it out shouting. But it didn’t hear. Moreover its one foot was injured too. Then we touched it with a tiny stick. It went and slept nearby. Then I went to college by 11.30 am. When I came back at 6 pm it was still sleeping. Night too it was sleeping. Then by 10.30 pm there was the same moaning sound.

The next morning I found that it had slept at the neighbor’s house. Morning it was in the street again. Luckily its mother seems to have found it. Another dog (it might be the mother) was searching for something in the other end of the street the previous day. It was also not seen. So there is a lot of likelihood for union of the mother and the puppy.

Leaf Biting Worms: A problem yet Again

In our garden, there is a plant known as Nandhiyavettai. It bears beautiful white flowers daily. The plant (or a mini tree) would appear attractive. But often some small worms would come and eat all the leaves in it. Today I and mom found that they have come again. There was lot of worm’s excretions below the plant. So I and mom set out to look for those worms in that plant. Finally we found out 4 huge worms. We plucked the leaves and threw them out. I took some pictures. They will look so beautiful. But they r also very hazardous to the plant.

The picture of a leaf eating worm

U can see 3 of the 4 worms that we caught today

Totally, it was a fantastic week for me.