Archive for ‘Blog’ category

Embarrasing Google Street View images

23 March, 2009 | admin | Comments
Google Street View

Google Street View

Google was forced to remove hundreds of pictures from its street view mapping service within hours of its launch facing complaints from people who said that the system breached their privacy.

The street view gives 360-degree views of 25 cities and towns allowing users to take virtual tours from their computers or mobile phones. The initial laumch hit hundreds of thousands of visitors when it began on thursday; but google faced a deluge of complaints from homeowners and members of the public shown by its cameras, who demanded that photographs be taken down.

Blogger (including me!!) and internet sites posted embarrasing scenes captured by the service. Among the pictures removed were a man vomiting on a pavement, one leaving a sex shop and another entering a sex shop; another guy being arrested. These images were blacked out later with the message: “This image is no longer available”. However, street view users were able to travel a few meters down the road and turn the camera back to see the same people from a different angle.

Google spent more than a year coveing 22,000 miles to collect images with car-mounted cameras (one such car can be seen in the photo a the top of this article). Some people complained that viewers could zoom into the open windows of their homes which is a sole matter of privacy intrusion.

The company promised to remove any pictures to which individuals objected. “We put tools in place to allow people to remove images quickly”.

For more funny Street view images, goto www.telegraph.co.uk.

Windows: Generic Win32 Service Error

18 February, 2009 | admin | Comments
I’ve come across this problem myself and I tried googling a lot and found out a few methods to fix this problem but, the interesting part is that NONE works.
With this error, your audio, your networks, the graphics; all are affected. Your audio devices will not be shown in the devices section, your internet will not work and one thing for sure is that, you’ll be really pissed! The error seems to be caused by some old version of HP printer drivers. Microsoft has release updates for Windows XP sp2 but the problem still continues with SP3. (Haven’t tried with Vista)
I read about a few other methods other than the WORKING one I’ve given here, and that includes software updates or patches from Windows and HP; but as I’m using a new enough software, the patch didn’t work.
Anyway, here’s the steps for Manual fixing, which is by far the best:

1. Open Registry Editor: Start>Run and in the box type: regedit and press OK.
2. Find “TransportBindName”. (Edit>Find or Ctrl+F) It may take a few mins to search. (You can look for it yourself at the location HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\ControlSet001\Services\NetBT\Parameters)
3. Double-click on that value and delete the default value in the box and press OK.
4. Find the value “EnableDCOM”, located at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Ole
5. Double-click on that value and set the value in the box as ‘N’ which currently maybe set as ‘Y’.
6. Close the Registry Editor and restart your computer.
I think this will solve your problem.

Shristi.org: the Series of hurdles

11 February, 2009 | admin | Comments

I’ve been approached to build and launch the the website for the Techno – Management Festival of my university. I’ve designed and developed a couple of websites on my own and so it wasn’t a big deal, or at least i thought so, for me at FIRST. Things however, have been going pretty weasy and confusing with various hurdles and problems i’ve to face which are quite unexpected and uncool.

The very first hurdle was when znetindia.com took 3 days to process my domain registration order. The second one came when i found out that znetindia doesnt bundle DNS control with the domain registration; and for which i’ve to activate an extra addon for the domain paying extra money. The third was the unfriendly user interface structure of the znetindia account manager area (if you are a starter, i bet you won’t be able to find out where you should change your nameserver if your are changing your hosting service to some other service provider!). The fourth was when i realise that the TTL values for the DNS at znetindia was quite huge, which means any update in the DNS, A, MX, CNAME, NS, TXT etc will take time for its propagation. This happened when i mistyped the NS records and then i realise i mistyped it, i had to change it and for the change to propagate, i had to wait the whole day.

Later when everything from the domain point of view is working, unfortunately, my PC breaks down… or at least i thought so, coz later on i found it was my wireless modem problem. As an engineering student, and in the CSE branch, i use to do a lot of stuffs on my PC and it is not uncommon that i install a fresh copy of Windows a couple of times every month. This time, i’d already formated my PC 4 to 5 times since my semester starts, and that would be from the 1st week of Jan and i’ve already made it by heart the serial number to my copy of the windows. For development purposes, i’ve created a lot of complex structures, programs and databases that i don’t want to lose but i’d to compromise some to make my PC working again.

Now, everything is set, the site is up (www.shristi.org, though still under active construction) and i’m using joomla cms for a quick built. A problem which i’d never faced before arises to my joomla hosting then. At the same hosting company, with the same apache, php and mysql configuration, i’m hosting another joomla website and it’s not showing any problem but however in this website, problems after problems showered. I’d the problem fixed temporarily although it’s not the best way to fix the problem.
The Joomla problem was that, whenever you try to upload/ install a component/ plugin/ module/ template etc, you got an error message “Warning! failed to move file”.
This happens because of certain settings and file permissions on your joomla host. There are methods to overcome this problem but they are not the best yet known. For some, setting CHMOD to 777 for the” public_html/tmp” file seems to work but for others it’s far from solving. Some solved it by disabling the FTP layer at joomla, but some solve it by just changing the temporary path “public_html/tmp” to “public_html/temp” or the vice versa. Other ways to solve includes giving the php file more space changing the php.ini, which requires contacting your hosting company. The best method, however, seems to be disabling the php “Safe Mode”, which also require you to contact your hosting company.
For now, as my works need to be completed in a short period, i’d changed all the files/folders concern to 777 giving permission to change and execute to all while making the installation and then changing back to the normal CHMOD file permission after the installation is over; leaving no ways for hackers to poke their nose in. If you are having this problem, u can do it as i’ve done as it is the simplest and will always solve it regardless of the FTP, php.ini, apache or any other settings.
NovaTechNetwork has done a great job with there hosting servers. I prefer them.
Anyway, let me see if there’re any other problems that are gonna pop up in front of me..

How to Install Adobe Flash Plugin for Google Chrome

8 February, 2009 | admin | Comments
Google Chrome

Google Chrome

The Adobe Flash player plugin is widely used all over the Internet, so it’s almost crucial that you install the Google Chrome Flash plugin if you wish to maximize your browser experience. If you’ve been prompted to install the Flash plugin but nothing happens, then you’ll need to manually install it yourself by downloading the Flash plugin from Adobe and playing a few tricks to install it into Google Chrome. No need to fear however because the installation procedure is pretty straightforward and you’ll have a Chrome Flash plugin enabled browser in no time.

  1. Download the Flash player xpi for Windows.
  2. Add a .zip extension to the file. It should now be: flashplayer-win.xpi.zip

  • Extract the contents and copy two files “flashplayer.xpt” and “NPSWF32.dll” (indicated in the screenshot below) over to C:\Documents and Settings\user\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins in XP orC:\Users\user\AppData\Local\Google\Chrome\Application\Plugins in Vista (thank you Derek), making sure to change ‘user’ to your Windows login name. You can avoid having to unhide hidden files in Windows Explorer simply by copying and pasting the directory path provided above into the path bar.
  • Restart Google Chrome, then see if you can watch a YouTube video to see if it worked. Or just come back to this page.
  • Internship Programs @ Microsoft Research

    15 November, 2008 | admin | Comments
    Internship Application – Instructions

    You must complete all pages of the application and confirm the details you have submitted in order for your application to be considered. Upon completion of the application you will be sent a confirmation email message. After the confirmation email, you will only be contacted about the status of your application if a research group is interested in considering you for an internship.

    Please assist us in processing your application efficiently by making sure you fill out the application correctly. Before applying, please be aware that the following pieces of information are required. You will need:

    • Advisor details including email address.
    • The name and email address of at least one person other than your advisor to provide a letter of reference.
    • Your preferred start and end dates, with second choices.
    • Your preferred lab and research areas, with second choices.
    • CV / Resume in PDF, Word Doc or Text file.
    Please be aware that if you do not complete the application fully your record will be marked as incomplete and your application will not be considered.

    Please carefully review the information you enter on each page before clicking the “Continue” button.

    Once your application is submitted the only way to change any of the details you submit will be to contact internts@microsoft.com.

    Other Notes:
    Internships in the US are typically 12 weeks long. Internship length varies at our international labs but is typically from 12 weeks to one year.
    You only need to complete one internship application to be considered for positions at multiple labs.
    We will keep your application on file for one year from the date of entry.
    Items marked with “*” are required.
    Questions? Please read the Internship FAQ.

    Internship Application Privacy Statement

    Send any technical support questions you may have to internts@microsoft.com.

    New users will need to create a logon

    Returning users can log on directly