These guys developed the fastest and one of the cleanest car washes in the world. Still working on a couple minor bugs though . I am sure that after this, you would always prefer the traditional way to get your car washed up.

…Too fast and too dangerous ..

Also view : Drawing lamborghini in MS paint.

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Scenario 1:

When ever you boot your system launch any program on your system, system resources allocated with that particular application will be loaded as well. The task manager will have details about each of the application alive at any point (or we assume so).

When you look into the processes list in Task Manager, you will mostly able to match the name of the program with the application running, however there are a few applications which makes it very difficult for you to figure this, like for example when users launch the Trend Micro Anti-Virus, it’ll show up as ntrtscan.exe in task manager. It’s tough for an avg. Joe to understand which program or which DLLs processes is loaded in Task Manager.

Scenario 2:

User will be unable to copy a file or folder as it that particular resource is being used by another application. Now this sounds ridiculous to the user because he knows that he has closed all the other applications and there is nothing that he can see!!

This is when Process Explorer comes to your rescue. With Process explorer you can find all the hidden applications that are running behind the scene which may be using the files or folders you want to delete or close. It is a free system monitoring and exam application and can be employed as step one in debugging software or system issues. Sysinternals is the company that developed Process Explorer and Microsoft actively promotes it.

Download Process Explorer, to close all the applications that are running behind the scene and utilizing the resources you are trying to close.

This Guest post is by Gautam H N, who is the author of TechBuzz.in where he regularly writes about Computer tips And Computer Security.

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With the first screenshot you must have been clear that, some videos, even when there is no copy-right issue with them, appear as “Not available”. Second screenshot, I tried to change the url of youtube video from
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgEo_7rMH0Q to
http://www.youtube.com/watch/v/PgEo_7rMH0Q which inturn is a way to access blocked youtube videos(videos, which need you to be above 18) here in UAE , but that also didnt work. So any guesses what solved the problem ????

Solutions to this problem

Watch the video working,

There are two solutions for this problem :

1. Hotspotshield : This is a free vpn service, which connects to US network. Hence you get assigned a US ip address and hence, you can watch youtube video without any problem. This clearly state that this problem is only for a particular region. Download hotspot shield from here.
2. Youtube High Quality video option to the rescue :If you want to save yourself with the hassle of switching on hotspot shield, then here a better option. Append &fmt=6 or &fmt=18 or &fmt=16to the end of the url and watch the video getting played. For example the above url will become :

   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgEo_7rMH0Q&fmt=6 or
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgEo_7rMH0Q&fmt=18 or
   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PgEo_7rMH0Q&fmt=16

3. Only for UAE ( Etisalat Proxy ) : This option will work for Etisalat Internet Connection. If you are using IE then go to Menu >> Tools >> Internet options >> Connections >> Lan Settings >> and check the option use proxy. In proxy text box enter 213.42.1.19 and port enter 8080. Click ok in all the dialog boxes and now your youtube videos will start working.

Did you ever encounterd such problem , or its just UAE ??

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If you are running Windows Me or Windows XP, we recommend that you temporarily turn off System Restore. Windows Me/XP uses this feature, which is enabled by default, to restore the files on your computer in case they become damaged. If a virus, worm, or Trojan infects a computer, System Restore may back up the virus, worm, or Trojan on the computer.

Windows prevents outside programs, including antivirus programs, from modifying System Restore. Therefore, antivirus programs or tools cannot remove threats in the System Restore folder. As a result, System Restore has the potential of restoring an infected file on your computer, even after you have cleaned the infected files from all the other locations.

To turn off the System restore

1. Right click My computer and click Properties , else follow the shortcut Windows Key + Pause .
2. Click on System Restore Tab and Check the Box “Turn off System Restore”.
3. Save

Virus and trojan are nothing new in today’s world. These spread basically with removable storage like pocket HDD , Flash disks etc. These trojan or virus at times act in a very weird manner. I wonder whether you encountered this Trojan named Bloodhound.Packed.Jmp which is highly undetectable by many antivirus program(including norton) since its a Trojan Horse(and not a virus), many antivirus just skip them. When my friends computer got affected with this Trojan, the moment you doubleclick C:\ Drive, following screen will appear :

I wonder if any of you have also got the same screen. Everytime you doubleclick C:\ drive, the above mentioned screen will appear, deleting the same 2t99k.dll file. Even after scanning the drive 5 to 10 times with Norton Antivirus, no detection took place. Finally, I remembered this article published by Arpit recently which proved to be of great help.

Since Norton doesn’t detect this, you have to look for alternatives. The best solution is AVG antivirus (free edition) which detects and heal this trojan . But again, this doesn’t solve the problem fully. Next thing which I encountered was when you double click the drive, the following dialog will open.

When such things happen, you can easily make out that an autorun.inf file is created in your drive. Anyway you can access the drive by typing the drive letter in the address bar, but deleting this file could be a hefty task for some people as the virus or trojan will keep resetting “Show hidden files and folders” option in “Folder Options” even if you try to enable.

So the only way to delete this file is to get to windows command prompt.

1. Go to Start Menu and Run ( shortcut : Window Key + R )
2. Type CMD or Command and press enter
3. Type cd\ (this will take you to the root directory)
4. Type the drive letter and press enter ( in our case its C: )
5. Type “Attrib -h -s autorun.inf” (without quotes) and press enter. This will make the file visible.
6. Type “Del autorun.inf” (without quotes) and press enter. If this doesn’t work, go to the drive and manually delete the file using Shift+delete key ( for permanent deletion)

Start the AVG scan again and check for any trace of any virus or Trozan. You can schedule it to run everyday around 8pm which is the time for Dinner for most of us and hence idle time on Computer.

Prevention is better than cure. Hence keep your system updated with latest antivirus definitions, security updates. Prevent installing any software which gives you a security warning unless you very sure about it. A little google about the products or browser plugins you are not sure off, can prevent you from lots of future troubles.

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Recently Nokia released another update for Nokia N95 8GB edition phone. This update is released really fast, as previous update was just nearly 3 months back. To make a symbian phone bug free is a hefty task for Nokia but again that doesnt stop the kick ass success of nokia phones ( You must have seen the Nokia Q1, 2008 results, didnt you ?? ) .

Previous firmware update brought lots of issues to Nokia n95 8gb. The main problem it created were

1. N95 8gb Spiderman edition, Access key removal (irreversible). Blame game at nokia discussion
2. Video recording Stuttering problem (Video recording will halt for 1 or 2 second in every 5 to 10 secs of recording). Read full discussion about this here , here and here
3. Saving the video or image after capture became slow. Discussion here
4. Bugs in browser

Since these bugs affected a whole lot of people, the next firmware update was expected pretty soon and here it is. I wonder whether many will be interested in this update as its nearly 100mb in size (screenshot below). I updated my phone and have noticed the following changes (official change log will be out within next few days) :

1. Autorotation of screen based on Accelerometer
2. Browsing seems to be more stable while going through Youtube
3. Video stuttering problem is solved.
4. Video gets saved within 3 to 10 seconds after you finish shooting (It depends on length of the video), hence memory access problems seems to be solved.
5. Image processing seems to be improved in Auto Mode
6. Overall phone accessing speed improvement.

Nokia N95 8gb phone is a beauty with full capabilities of a Multimedia Computer. Without any arguments, its one of the best mobile phone I have used till now. There is so much under this small device. No wonder, Nokia N95 has nearly sold 10 million units till now ( no official announcement yet ), in less than a year. I hope Nokia Tube 5800 also keep up the expectations.

Have any doubts or questions regarding the Nokia 8gb latest firmware, feel free to ask in the comment section.

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Linux Vs Mac OS X Vs Vista

CanSecWest security conference started a contest : Linux versus Mac OS X versus Vista. Who will get hacked first?
The participants were supposed to use a brand-new ‘zero day’ attack that nobody has seen before. The prize? US$20,000, plus you get to keep the laptop.

Contest is called PWN 2 OWN.

Pwn (which rhymes with own) is a hacker term meaning to take control of a computer.

The first day passed and nobody was able to hack into the systems as the contestants were only allowed to attack the computers over the network, but on Thursday the rules were relaxed so that attackers could direct contest organizers using the computers to do things like visit Web sites or open e-mail messages.

And this rule relaxation on the second day earned Charlie Miller $10,000 in just next two minutes. Well this must the be the fastest money earned by any Hacker ( might be ).

Quoting from the article at Washington post

Miller, best known as one of the researchers who first hacked Apple’s iPhone last year, didn’t take much time. Within 2 minutes, he directed the contest’s organizers to visit a Web site that contained his exploit code, which then allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers cheered him on.

For those who want to know how he did that would be disappointed as Miller was quickly made to sign a Non Disclosure Agreement , preventing him from discussing the flaw in Public. Since the contest allow to exploit the use of any preinstalled software on the machine, it is pretty likely that he must have exploited a flaw in world’s fastest browser, Safari (its not yet confirmed ). Quite possible, like the antivirus site installed malware by exploiting iframe property in browsers.

Last year’s contest winner, Dino Dai Zovi, exploited a vulnerability in QuickTime to take home the prize.

Considering the security flaws in Mac , I hope this would give you a second thought on not installing Windows Vista on a Mac. While apple is targeting Windows market share by providing an option of installing Vista, its actually trying to hit two targets at once ( selling a MAC PC and keeping it secure with Vista ) . So whats your take on Mac’s security. I hope Ashwin and Mayank are listening to me .

Also read : $84 million porn filter hacked by a 14 year old kid.

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Hacking technique used , is not new !!

Seems like the technique or the way used to hack the site is not new. In the past also many websites have been hacked and used to install such kind of malicious codes. Here is what was done

The attackers open an invisible iFrame Window within the victim’s browser, which redirects the client to another server. That server, in turn, launches attack code that attempts to install malicious software on the victim’s computer.

The malicious software is a variant of the Virut virus family.

Quoting more from the article :

The iFrame pages are commonly used by Web developers to insert content into their Web pages, but because it is possible to create an invisible iFrame window, the technology is often misused by hackers as a way to silently redirect victims to malicious Web sites.

AvSoft, based in New Delhi, sells an antivirus product called SmartCOP and has sold a second antivirus product called Smartdog. The company, which is not well-known in the U.S., also specializes in recovering data lost due to virus attacks. The company could not be reached for comment.

That data recovery service could come in handy for some, as Virut is known as a “parasitic infector” virus that is extremely difficult to remove. It infects all of your programs on your local hard drives, and then it starts hitting your network drives as well the first time you run.

Fortunately, the malware used to install Virut exploits only well-known bugs, meaning that users who are running antivirus software on fully patched systems will probably not be infected by the attack in its current state, security experts say.

Nobody is aware how the virus got inside the website as of now. The news is really shocking and do ring a bell about the highly insecure online world.

Moreover, it also give me an evil idea of marketing a product to create buzz all over the web world. Imagine, apple’s website getting hacked and publicizing Nokia or Sony. Similar way Microsoft’s website gets an advertisement of Linux !!! evil, isnt it ??… Well !! jokes apart, and I hope the webmasters find a solution to this frequent occurring problem and prevent such kind of incident in Future.

Remember the news about 16 year old kid hacking $84 million porn filter in just 30 mins ??

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When I wrote a preview of Nokia E90, I never knew it will come to this point one day. The Nokia’s power machine E90, is facing serious complaints regarding Microphone problems resulting in high background noise and scratches on the internal screen due to the keyboard. This whole issue has resulted in hampering Nokia E90 production.

An EMEA network operator, reported 70 percent return for Nokia E90. This is really a huge number which convey the seriousness of the problem.

According to reuters Nokia is clarifies by saying :

Background noise during phone calls, which raised customer complaints, was caused by a defective component in the microphone.
Customers have also reported scratches on the phone screen caused by some keyboard keys touching the screen. Nokia said it has now added a strengthening layer on the screens and modified the keyboard, so the keys will not touch the screen.

Even though nokia has said that these issues are rectified, I wonder why these kind of issues have to arrive first to make nokia realize the fault in production. Why these issues are not taken care of at the time of testing the pre-release units?

During the last couple of weeks we have been seeing lots of production faults occurring in Nokia, and they are just bringing down reputation of one of the largest mobile manufacturing giant. Recently we saw the problems with Nokia’s Bl-5c batteries, symbian freak has posted problems with Nokia’s flagship model fashion model, Nokia N76 and also Nokia 6110. Mobile-review has also posted about problem with Sony’s S500i having with its keypad.

Nokia E90 was one amongst the most powerful mobile phone till date with HSDPA , WI-FI , GPS , QWERTY keypad, amazing display resolution of inner screen and many many more. The device has first hit the stores in June and is now sold for around 750-800 euros (a little over USD 1000) before taxes and subsidies.

Even though mobiles companies are unable to create a perfect mobile, atleast they should try to remove the production glitches. Do you have any such kind of problem with your mobile ?? Well i do have lots of problem with my Nokia N93. First the outer display gets filled with dust and also one amazing software problem in video recording. Nokia N93 records Black and white video in night mode. And more amazing is the solution from Nokia, who call it a feature. Check out the clarification at nokia forums.

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A new blame game is about to start, with Skype announcing that Microsoft Windows update was the reason for the skype outage of the weekend . Quoting few lines of the article which was posted at one of the Skype blogs earlier this day :

On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.

The high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact.

Even though these few words of blame on Microsoft update could make you feel like peeling the skin of hair, but could be seriously taken by Microsoft. Guys at Skype has done extensive research and finally claimed that there are no signs of any malicious activity which resulted this outage, and, hence user’s security are not at risk.

Quoting the article again

Normally Skype’s peer-to-peer network has an inbuilt ability to self-heal, however, this event revealed a previously unseen software bug within the network resource allocation algorithm which prevented the self-healing function from working quickly. Regrettably, as a result of this disruption, Skype was unavailable to the majority of its users for approximately two days.

Hey guys so be careful, Microsoft patch level updates can be vulnerable for your system . Do you agree that a microsoft patch level update can cause such a huge outage in such a popular service which now has crossed billions of users. Well, lets see what Microsoft has to say about this !! but yeah, we bloggers must learn some lessons with this !! Thanks tipsosaurus !!!

Do share your views with comments about your views on such claims by Skype ?? As for me , I seriously doubt this claim !!

Please note : skype is blocked in UAE, hence if you are visiting this blog at UAE , you can use this link to access the article . Alternatively you can learn some tricks to unblock websites here

via : gizmodo

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Well, getting publicized so soon was very hard for Amazon to take , hence they had no other option that to pull down the product page of the not yet announced camera model by Canon. Well, I think amazon should have known that bloggers are watching them.
So now since the pages are pulled down by amazon, if you try to access the link for the canon’s product you will end up in this

Very similar stuff happened with another product from Canon i.e EOS 40D – 10.1 Megapixel camera. The same page was also pulled down by Amazon after being reported by engadget.

Well !! I never knew that reputable site like Amazon will show so much of unprofessionalism while publishing about some product. Anyways its good that they pull down the pages , but people at engadget already knew about this , hence they still have the screen shots with full specification , delivery date and price of these products.

Links at amazon ( which does not exist anymore )

Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 1D

Screenshots at Engadget ( specification , delivery and price details )

Canon EOS 40D
Canon EOS 1D

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