ImageRotator Javascript

ImageRotator JavaScript changes an image source of an image tag in a HTML page, from a fixed set of images in a particular time interval. The set of images are put under a folder called Images, the folder should be in the same folder containing the HTML file.

Don’t forget to read the licensing issues & trademark policies related to the images.

Download the project from here

Tip for Newbie:

Use FireBug Plugin to hack the web !

MAD

Make A Difference (M.A.D) is a youth volunteer network that currently functions in the three cities of Cochin, Pune and Chennai… 312 volunteers teach more than 1200 underprivileged kids English and computer skills in these three cities to enable them to have better career prospects…
These children live in street shelters and orphanages. Without proper guidance, their lives will go astray. MAD makes sure that they have the proper life skills to make it in life. Then MAD tries to get them placed at jobs where they can live their potential…

MAD was recently picked as one of fifteen finalists for the international Youth Social Entrepreneur Awards which is a prestigious award bestowed by the Ashoka group. MAD became the only Indian entry in this competition in spite of 521 nominations from 60 odd countries. The final winner will be picked by online voting.

Lets try and bring pride to our country by spreading word about the achievements of our countrymen. To stand up and be recognized in such a multi-faced international crowd is an achievement in itself.

Please Vote now at http://vote.makeadiff.in

Securing Wireless Access Point

In order to be safe from malicious people who misuse the wireless networks, it is mandatory to secure the Wireless Access Point(WAP).

The following configurations has to be performed on the WAP

1. Change the default admin user’s password to a strong password and keep it secret.

2. Enable WPA key for connecting to the wireless network.

3. Enable MAC filter. MAC refers to a unique address of the wireless cards of desktops/laptops/other devices that can connect to the wireless network. Thus even if someone comes to know a WPA key. They will not be able to connect to the wireless network because their MAC address is not listed in the allowed MAC list configured in the wireless access point

4. Use OpenDNS IP address for DNS servers, if the WAP acts as a DHCP server for the wireless network.

5. WAP has firewall builtin. Set the firewall rules appropriately so that it allows only certain services running on the WAP/ within the wireless network to be exposed and thus only those ports are open.

6. Take a backup of the configuration you have done on the WAP. This will be helpful if you lose the settings of the WAP because of reseting or accidental modification. In such cases you can apply the backed up configuration.

If you are ignorant about configuring the WAP, please get it done by some one who can do it.
Stay safe and secure.

Open source in Engineering Curriculum

Take GNU/Linux as your case study and use FOSS in subjects that you will encounter

for example

1.System Software
2.Data Structures
3.OOPS
4.Operating Systems
5.Computer Networks
6. Web Technology
7.Cryptography & Network Security
8.Embedded Systems

One can do his/her assignments, projects, research using Open Source Software!

When you can come to position of contributing to open source projects,
please do I guess it takes final year for that, but it depends on the individual.

Like a biology student disects rabit to learn biological science, Computer Science student has to essentially use Open Source tools and software to understand Computer Science.
Disect the code

Join mailing lists of your favorite open software to collaborate with the community.

Best way to store numbers in mobile contacts

Its better to store the mobile numbers/phone numbers in the proper format.

That is the number along with country and area code prefixed appropriately.

If stored this way, there will be no problem, when one goes roaming.

For example, when within india, a contact with 04424XXXXXX is valid even while roaming.

As in India, “0″ stands for dialing code for dialing an long distance call/calling a telephone number from a mobile network. But not valid while roaming Internationally.

So the best way to save it in contacts is +914424XXXXXX for a telephone in India

For a mobile it would be +9198845XXXXX

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_country_calling_codes

Country code can be intrepreted by moving right of symbol + in a phone/mobile number and matching it with the list given in the above link.

So the format to present visually describing a mobile number with country code in india would be

+91-98845XXXXX

Similarly the format to present visually describe the contry and area code of a telephone number in India would be

+91-44-24XXXXXX

The “-” in the above two example numbers is not valid for dialing, so for dialing the “-” are removed.

The “+” symbol is a placeholder for substituting the dialout code for the country from where the call is originating.

For India the international dialout code is 00 and for long distance call within India the dialout code is 0. But when dialing from mobile this is taken care of automatically by the mobile phone service provider. Thats the significance of “+” sign in mobiles

For more info on dialing to/from India

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%2B91

Port forwarding 80 to Tomcat port

For security reason Tomcat doesnt run on port 80.

The simple trick is to write an iptable rule to perform the port forwarding request arriving at port 80 to Tomcat port (say 8080).

Write the following content to the a shell script file say tomcat_firewall.sh

/sbin/iptables -A FORWARD -p tcp –destination-port 80 -j ACCEPT

/sbin/iptables -t nat -A PREROUTING -j REDIRECT -p tcp –destination-port 80 –to-ports 8080

And add this script as root in /etc/rc.local as shown below, this ensures the setting is done whenever the server startsup.

su – root “/path-to-the-file/tomcat_firewall.sh

Java Reflection

I tried my hands on Java Reflection. The below link gave me introduction to Java reflection.

https://www.objectfaq.com:8443/oofaq2/body/reflect1.htm

Another at http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/library/j-dyn0603/

Also please go through the documentation of :

java.lang.Class
java.lang.reflect.*;

A sample application can be downloaded by clicking here. People who dont know Struts framework, can use the sample project given in the first link to understand how dynamically create objects of class and invoke their methods.

Specification of the project

Development Tool – NetBeans 5.5.1

Framework Struts – 1.2.9

mailsend

Mailsend is a multi platform command line tool to send mails.

It has two modes : commandline and interactive

I have used this mailsend binary to send mails as a background process by using a wrapper shell script to read the necessary inputs required by mailsend from XML files. This script would be called by cron periodically. The XML files have the email data contained in it.

You can download the Opensource software from the below link

http://www.muquit.com/muquit/software/mailsend/mailsend.html

Software is Intangible

I was wondering, Why software occupation is uninteresting to few people ?

Fatigue is common to all types of occupation.

But the reason i believe why software profession is uninteresting is “Software is intangible”.

I feel that more research and innovation in software arena is possible, if people start enjoying the software development process and the draw an analogy of the concepts involved with the real life. After all, softwares are meant to automate the real world.

Joke

What is the difference between Software development and Construction process ?

SVN !

Other than an SVN, i feel the issues involved in the processes are analogous. Specially the HR issues lol