Change is Constant

One thing that I've noticed that never changes all through our lives is - Change. There is always something or the other around us that just keeps on moving back and forth. Isn't it rightly said that we are vibrational beings? We keep on changing in form, shape, location and so happen with the things around us as well. The only change that we notice the most is - Time!

My life is also no exception to this rule. It has been a roller-coaster ride already till now, with its own share of twists and turns, and ups and downs. However, these changes have only made me better as they came and transformed to another change. I somehow feel that "Change" is also a form of energy - it can neither be created, nor be destroyed, but only transformed from one form to another!"
Anyways, I am just thankful for whatever I am today and all that I've got so far. It has been one amazing adventurous ride and I look forward to a great time ahead as well. I remember reading a quote long time back, which goes like this -

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, champagne in one hand - strawberries in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming "WOOHOO - What a Ride!"
- Attributed to an octogenarian named Mavis Leyrer, of Seattle

Life is too precious to be wasted in compromising on things we don't really want. I believe in going where your passion takes you. I've always lived that way and that is what I am going to do now too.

After a long and tiring journey of corporate life and its politics, I am saying it a quit and going forward to another phase of my life. I am going to take my passion as my profession now and test myself where my true abilities lie.

I can't promise anything to myself as of now, except for the fact that I'd try to give it my best shot; rest only time will tell. I remember someone asked me once - "What should I do? Should I do something I am good at or something I really love to do?" and my answer to her was -
"Do what you love to do, because your passion will drive you in that and you will eventually become good in doing that. Excellence comes from passion and a vision that makes you push your limits so that you can build your road to success. There is no freeway for it."

So, here I am leaving my freeway journey and going to explore a different way for myself. All I can say now is I hope I do well! :)

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So Much For Bouncer: New Android Malware Uses Facebook To Spread

Even though Google recently introduced a malware-blocking system called Bouncer to keep the Android Market safe from malicious software, crafty spammers and fraudsters are still managing to find ways around the restrictions to get their software onto users’ phones. The latest example? A malware program disguised, innocuously, as an Android app called “any_name.apk.” And it appears the malware is using Facebook’s app on Android phones in order to spread.
The software was discovered by security firm Sophos, which came across the malware after receiving a Facebook friend request. When checking out the user’s profile, the researcher, Vanja Svajcer, found a link posted to the requester’s Facebook profile page that, when clicked, directed the browser to a webpage which started an automatic download of an unknown software application to the device.
The software installed and downloaded immediately, without any request for authorization or input from the end user. However, although Svajcer doesn’t mention this in his analysis, for software to automatically install from outside the Google Android Market, the phone’s default settings must have been changed. Typically, Android phones are shipped with a setting switched on that prevents mobile apps from installing from sources besides the official Android Market. Many savvy Android users switch this setting off, though, because they enjoy the freedom that Android provides in discovering apps from alternative app stores and download locations – like the treasure trove that is the XDA Developers forum, for example.
Unfortunately, malware like this is the nasty side effect. And there’s nothing Bouncer can do about it. The link the researcher clicked did not appear to be an APK file by nature of its URL, just a typical website. And it was placed into the user’s About Me section on Facebook, as if it was a link to that person’s homepage.
Of course, many folks would simply ignore a friend request from someone they didn’t know, but curiosity often gets the better of us. (Do I know them? Did we meet at some point, and I forgot?) One errant click, and oops, you’re infected.
In this particular case, the malware in question appears to be a program designed to earn money for fraudsters through premium rate phone services, a scam popular outside the U.S. for the most part, which involves having unsuspecting users send out text messages to premium rate numbers (those that charge). The scammers, who are operating the numbers, end up collecting the money from the victims’ accounts.


The app attempts to associate itself with the Opera browser, and an encrypted configuration file contains the dialing codes for all the supported countries where the premium rate numbers are hosted.
As a side note: a few days later, the researcher visited the same URL, but was directed to an all-new website where another APK file was automatically downloaded (hilariously called “allnew.apk”). This one was functionally similar, but different on the binary level, indicating it was a new variant of the same malware.
Maybe it’s time for Android’s Bouncer guy to get pre-installed on handsets, too?

UPDATE: We spoke to Google about this issue, and they’re telling us that the software installation process portrayed in the Sophos video could not have occurred as demonstrated. Even with an off-market malware-ridden APK file, the app would have downloaded to the device, but additional user-initiated steps would need to have taken place before the software installed and ran as shown. We’re still awaiting a response from Sophos on that front.
To be clear, Bouncer is a good first step towards protecting Android users, but regardless of what methods are used to lock down the Android Market, spammers and scammers can always find another way in.

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Microsoft Releases A Font Update For The Indian Rupee Symbol

The Indian Government approved the Indian Rupee currency symbol in July last year and within a span of less than three months, the symbol officially made it to the Unicode Standard.

The Indian IT department had initially proposed that the character code U+0971 be assigned to the Indian Rupee sign, as the code was within the range of Devnagri characters, but the Unicode Consortium approved the code U+20B9 which is the same range that is used for other currency symbols like Euro, Franc and Peso.
As the symbol is now a part of the official Unicode standard you need to update you existing fonts in order to type the new currency sign into a word processor or a spreadsheet using a regular keyboard.
There are a couple of fonts which support the Indian Rupee Symbol but they aren’t widely accepted fonts. So here is the good news, Microsoft recently updated all the common fonts that ship with Windows to include support for the new Indian Rupee symbol. You simply need to update your existing Windows fonts by installing the kb2496898 hotfix available for Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008 as well as Windows 7.
Once the update has been installed, launch Microsoft Word, change the document font to an update font, for example Arial, and type 20B9 followed by Alt+x.
There is however a small catch to this font update. If you add the Rupee symbol to your document through a computer with the new updated fonts and share it with somebody who doesn’t have the updated fonts, the person would just see some random junk character in place of the Rupee symbol.
So if you want to share a document with the Rupee Symbol, convert the document to PDF file with font embedding enabled which would preserve the character even if the font is missing in the other person’s computer.

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File Hosting Status Updates

After Megaupload is taken down by the FBI, the rest of the file hosting services are just as anxious as the prior because they could be the next victim of this process.

Here's the status updates from the rest of the file hosting i got from Fiohnel Fiver on Google+:

• MegaUpload - Closed.
• FileServe - Closing does not sell premium.
• FileJungle - Deleting files. Locked in the U.S.
• UploadStation - Locked in the U.S.
• FileSonic - The news is arbitrary (under FBI investigation).
• VideoBB - Closed! would disappear soon.
• Uploaded - Banned U.S. and the FBI went after the owners who are gone.
• FilePost - Deleting all material (so will leave executables, pdfs, txts)
• Videoz - closed and locked in the countries affiliated with the USA.
• 4shared - Deleting files with copyright and waits in line at the FBI.
• MediaFire - Called to testify in the next 90 days and it will open doors pro FBI
• Org torrent - could vanish with everything within 30 days "he is under criminal investigation"
• Network Share mIRC - awaiting the decision of the case to continue or terminate Torrent everything.
• Koshiki - operating 100% Japan will not join the SOPA / PIPA.
• Shienko Box - 100% working china / korea will not join the SOPA / PIPA
• ShareX BR - group UOL / BOL / iG say they will join the SOPA / PIPA

Japan, China and Korea have a say NO to the FBI and that even if laws are passed in the USA will not have any value within the sovereignty of their countries!

P/S: mediafire has start deleting copyright protected files. Only left is the personal files.

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Firefox 10 Released

It's February 1 and a new major release of Firefox has just been released. Firefox has now reached version 10. It's now available from auto-update mechanism that was built in into the product itself. If you happened to use a package from your Linux distribution, an update will come out soon enough since many packager disabled the auto update feature.

What's new on this release? According to the release notes, this version brings several new features such as:

• CSS 3D Transforms
• Anti-Aliasing for WebGL
• Invisible Forward button (will be visible when you press the Back button)
• Full Screen API
• IndexedDB API
• Inspect tool with content highlighting

Go get the new features and enjoy the new CSS 3D transformations (see some examples here)

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