Sharing folder between Linux host and Windows Guest in VirtualBox

Before you want to do this, please install guest additions in Virtualbox from the menu Devices-> Install Guest Additions.
Its a next next windows type wizard.
Once the installation is done.
Share the host Linux machine folder through Devices->Shared Folder.
Restart the Windows.{Shared Folder Name}.

Security by obscurity

I have a long list of username and passwords for various websites.
I cannot remember all, sometimes i have to reset the password.
Writing down the passwords in clear text is against my wish.
But i dont mind keeping the passwords in cypher text lol
The technique i am employing is security by obscurity.
I am not going to leak out the encryption technique i am using to anyone.
This is currently a quick solution i can think of !
Will do cypher text analysis, gain knowlege by reading more and hopefully develop some better solution in future 🙂
For now happy that i have offloaded all username and passwords from my mind to a file and got it encrypted too 🙂
I can disclose that the language that i used to develop my encryption tool is C 😉

Speeding the boot time with rcconf

I could identify and remove certain not so necessary processes and services that load during the booting of Debian GNU\Linux using the rcconf.
It is a console GUI tool, to enable/disable processes or scripts in runlevel configuration files of Linux.

Meaningful mount point names

I renamed mount points from the usual conventions of hda1 hda2 etc.
If one has to make changes about the mount point changes in /etc/fstab file.
To edit this file, one has to be root.

Before, my mount points used to be
/mnt/hda5 for /dev/hda5
/mnt/hda4 for /dev/hda4

Now they are more meaningful like
/mnt/dev for /dev/hda5
/mnt/backup for /dev/hda4

The fstab file looks like below
# /etc/fstab: static file system information.
#
#
proc /proc proc defaults 0 0
/dev/hda6 / ext3 errors=remount-ro 0 1
/dev/hda7 /home ext3 defaults 0 2
/dev/hda3 none swap sw 0 0
/dev/hdc /media/cdrom0 udf,iso9660 user,noauto 0 0
/dev/hda1 /mnt/hda1 ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/hda5 /mnt/dev ext3 rw 0 0
/dev/hda4 /mnt/backup ext3 rw 0 0

Once the editing the file is done. Just execute the following commands to umount and mount the partitions. make sure to save and close all applications before executing the below commands.
sudo /etc/init.d/umountfs stop
sudo /etc/init.d/mountall.sh

Google Gadget

I developed a simple google gadget that shows my recent tweet and my current twitter display picture 🙂
To add the gadget to your igoogle page please click here
The gadget can be found here

Wildcard string match in C

A project that implements the wildcard string matching that test a given string with a wildcard string. The wildcard string may contain wildcard characters * and ?. The result of the match will be either true or false.
For example
The result for the match of a given string Dinesh against the following wildcard strings will be true
1. Dinesh
2. Dines?
3. D*
4. Din???
5. Din*???
6. *Dinesh*

The source code can be checked out from here

Simple download manager using wget and shell script

I had to download a couple of large files from a web site. I built my own download manger which will download the file one after the other using simple wget tool and shell script. Thus the files were successfully downloaded over night without any human intervention !
The trick was simple,i had to just add the wget command with the url of the file to be downloaded one below the other in a shell script file.

for example
wget http://abc/a.jpg
wget http://def/d.jpg

scheduled downloads can be done by leveraging cron capabilities !

IRCTC

I am one of the million happy IRCTC users 🙂
I have never gone to railway station booking counters for at least 2 and half years. Reason is IRCTC is so reliable and convenient.
The different modes to book tickets through IRCTC is
1. IRCTC website
2. IRCTC mobile application
3. ngPay service using a mobile application.

Features i like
1. Convenient for reservation, cancellation and refund (if any).
2. Master passenger list
3. Debit and Credit payment gateways for many banks.
4. Good UI and User Experience
5. Quick Ticket Booking
6. Fairly quick response 🙂
7. TDS ( to file refunds )

I enjoy train journey, IRCTC helps in booking such journeys 🙂

Dictionary App

A simple application to fetch the dictionary results from the following websites

1. Google

2. AskOxford

3. Merriam-Webster

4. Wikipedia

The version 2.0 App can be downloaded from here

Tip: For frequent useage, please add it to your browser’s bookmarks.

IRCTC Save Passenger List Exception

The Exception reveals

1. Broadvision is the vendor for the Servlet Platform.

2. The site is based on Struts framework

Click Here