Turtle Festival - Velas - April 4th to 8th - 2014

Often occupied with Treks and Adventure related meetups, this time i want to have a break from it and thats where i called for "Velas - Turtle Festival" !!

Probably this was the first time where the complete meetup group with 15 members (excluding organizers) are new faces and first timers with GHAC -  who later turned to be my new friends !! What a start :) !!

Day 1 and 2 :  Hyderabad --> Pune --> Velas
Started from Hyd in Garuda bus to Pune and reached by morning 7:30, soon an unexpected breakfast buffet in Mariot , yes you heard it right :) . Our Attitude bus driver - Humid climate - passing time with "Antharakshini" and "Dumb charades" are just acted like catalyst in 7 hrs bus journey to velas.

Reached Velas little later than 17:00 and rushed to the beach to watch first hatching at 18:00.
FYI -  Turtle hatching dependent on temperature so i call it a purely natural. On the first sight we are lucky to watch 7 Turtles. We are very happy to watch baby turtles making their way towards sea. The path it make looks like a railway tracks.

After capturing the moments in camera - rejoiced in the beach watching heavy tides, however the climate was humid still at 20:00. Body cooled down after a quick shower in the village and soon had a typical village meal as dinner with Roti, Rice, Dal and Mutter Masala and Coconut chuckney

It was around 22:00, still no relief from scorching weather. At one point i presumed that staying in this village for more 1.5 days is really a tough job. Few of them decided to sleep outside in the open ground beside one of the house at extreme end of the lane.

Day 3 - Velas - Bankot Fort - Beach

Wakeup call at 6:00 am and soon rushing towards  beach for watching second hatching. Another lucky time as there are 6 hatching. As it was sunday morning, really heavy crowd which made the organizers to barricade before releasing them. Took several shots in different camera modes and spend several hours leisurely.

After breakfast,  poha ( typical food served for breakfast ) was a growing demand and after an hour or so finally had a yummy yummy poha. Later started to Bankot fort in our vehicle and reached their in another 30 mins or so - Spent a lot of time in the ruins and sitting on the top like Dil Chatha Hai type and time passed like anything.

Beach Kabbadi - 7 Stones - Dog & Bone are the highlight in the post afternoon and till late evenings.

Today there was no hatching , but we saw upper half turtle which was struggling to come out of sand to make its way to beach, it will take another couple of hours to develop the feathers which will help it to swim.                                                               ( as shown in the pic )

Day 4 - Monday Morning - Velas - Pune - Hyd
Apart from the struggle turtle in the previous evening , there were 8 newly hatched ones. For us this was the last session and the crowd was minimum as its not a weekend. Photographers struggled to catch the final day moments.

Passing time with Mafia Game and couple of pit stops 'n' reached pune by 17:30 pm.

Roaming on streets and passed time till 20:00 with variety of street foods/drinks like Coconut water, Bheel puri, Ice Cream, Pani Puri and Dhokla. Finally got into the bus at 20:30 and reached Hyderabad by 05:45 on Day 5.

100 Happy Days - to be Continued

                                                                            Day 12 - Angel and perfect weather

Day 11 - kiddie watering the plant (rain water harvesting) 

Day 10 - Shamirpet Hike and Surfing - Perfect day

                                                                           

Day 9 - Chicken bytes @ bread to cakes

 Day 8  - Eve of Shivratri , playing snake and ladder with

Amma, Anna and Vadina

Day 7 - True smile

Day 6 - Get ready - first day school

Day 5 - Inverted Tarzon Swing

Day 4 - Adventure Bonanza team

Day 3 -Surprise to see a good backpack & Sipper as freebie

Day 2 - Writing Farewell Note

Your smiling tit bits, violent looks, 

delicious biryani, comedy dialogue

Day 1 - Jaffa's Farewell @ Al saba

 

                                               

Linux Device Drivers - Hello World Programme

This is my first Linux device driver program. Lets start from scratch .

Hello.c

#include <linux/init.h>    ##
#include <linux/module.h>
#include <linux/sched.h>
#include <asm/current.h>
MODULE_LICENSE("Dual BSD/GPL");

static int hello_init(void)
{
    printk(KERN_ALERT "Hello, world\n");
    return 0;
}

static void hello_exit(void)
{
    printk(KERN_ALERT "Goodbye, cruel world\n");
}

Makefile

obj-m=hello.o
KDIR= /lib/modules/$(shell uname -r)/build
all:
    $(MAKE) -C $(KDIR) SUBDIRS=$(PWD) modules
clean:
       rm -rf *.o *.ko *.mod.* .c* .t*

My Five Goa 'n' lessons

1) Sun Raise and Sun Set are the best times to showcase photography skills

2) Never mingle with the group where you are the only non-drinker and if yes, then refrain from any responsibilities like planning or accounts

3) Full moon nights @ beach with occasional tides touching your feet is the most awesome feeling i ever had

4) If you are not interest then don't do it and if somebody force you against then outrage your feeling

5) Strictly adhere to your own ethics/passion/policy

CASTE - CASTE - SAME OLD QUERY

Today en route to my office, i saw a old man standing on the road and waving his hand to stop my bike. He must be aged 70+ wearing a white colored dhoti and holding transparent poly cover which has medicines.
i could not apply sudden brakes and stopped after few meters ahead,after seconds he came to me walking and asked for lift till main chowrasta (junction).

While travelling, he told me that he is suffering with fever and heading to BBR hospital, which is in my route towards office. i was driving slowly than my normal average speed due to obvious reasons. After 15 minutes we reached the hospital, happily got down from the bike and said  "Thanks sir (with smiling) ",
 immediately without waiting for my response he puked the same old transitional most irritating question.

"What is your caste ?" is it ******* ??

I was blurred for few seconds why he asked a question which is inappropriate and also assuming it ?

Call Waiting Option in Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS) - Andriod devices

I really tried hard to find the call waiting option in my Android phone. Couple of blogs says ICS completely removed this feature from settings. Really cursed my self to find call waiting/call barring feature in my Micromax A90S super phone

ICS moved this feature from settings menu to call logs :)

How to find Call Settings in ICS ?

Click on call logs and select the "call settings" as shown in the below screen shot

Select Voice Call  as shown in the below screen shot

 Select Additional Settings as shown in the below screen shot

Select the Target Sim card - My phone is dual sim, ignore this if not applicable

 Here's the Call Waiting !!!

Hope this saved your time :0

Micromax A100 Review

Micromax has recently launched A100 superfone phablet. This might be the china product known as K-touch but still it satisfies many users ignoring it.


Positive
5 Inches Display
Good processing
Loud speaker
Battery
Touch
< 10,000

Negative
Comes with single core processor and expecting dual core early october
Internal memory is not as shown in specifications
Not scrach resistence like gorilla
Camera is not so good comparing with other 5MP

The Potato Garden; Thought that matters... Isn't?

An old man lived alone in Minnesota. He wanted to spade his potato garden, but it was very hard work.

His only son, who would have helped him, was in prison. The old man wrote a letter to his son and mentioned his situation:

Dear Son,

I am feeling pretty bad because it looks like I won’t be able to plant my potato garden this year.
I hate to miss doing the garden, because your mother always loved planting time.
I'm just getting too old to be digging up a garden plot. If you were here, all my troubles would be over. I know you would dig the plot for me, if you weren't in prison.
......Love, Dad

Shortly, the old man received this telegram:

"For Heaven's sake, Dad, don't dig up the garden!! That's where I buried the GUNS!!"

At 4 a.m. the next morning, a dozen FBI agents and local police officers showed up and dug up the entire garden without finding any guns.

Confused, the old man wrote another note to his son telling him what happened, and asked him what to do next.

His son's reply was:

"Go ahead and plant your potatoes, Dad.......................... It's the best I could do for you from here." 

Moral:
No matter where you are in the world, 

If you have decided to do something deep from your heart,  

You can do it. 

It is the thought that matters not where you are or where the person is.

Meanings -- Awesome

CIGARETTE:
A pinch of tobacco rolled in paper with fire at one end and a fool at the other!

...
MARRIAGE:
It's an agreement wherein a man loses his bachelor's degree and a woman gains her master's

CONFERENCE:
The confusion of one man multiplied by the number present

CONFERENCE ROOM:
A place where everybody talks, nobody listens and everybody disagrees in the end

SMILE:
A curve that can set a lot of things straight!

YAWN:
The only opportunity some married men
ever get to open their mouths

EXPERIENCE:
The name men give to their mistakes

DIPLOMAT:
A person who tells you to go to hell
in such a way that you actually look forward to the trip

OPTIMIST:
A person who, while falling from the
EIFFEL TOWER,says midway:
"SEE I AM NOT INJURED YET!"

BOSS:
Someone who is early when you are late
and late when you are early

POLITICIAN:
One who shakes your hand before elections and your confidence afterward

DOCTOR:
A person who kills your ills with pills and Later with his bills.

English Vinglish Review

English Vinglish - Hindi Movie
Starring : Sridevi
Director : Gauri Shinde (debut)


Sridevi after her major release Judaai in 1997 is back after 15 year with "English Vinglish" by debut director Gauri Shinde.

Sridevi is a house wife with 2 children named sapna and sagar. Sapna elder girl always humiliates her mother with her lack of english knowledge. Her husband was also not supported her in running her business as laddu maker but she manages it alone from home.

Story tooks a shape when shashi (sridevi) was invited 1 month before her niece wedding in newyork. She manages to get visa and convinces immigration who were shooting questions at her. Her interest towards english and dedication in learning are screened amazingly.

Climax of the movie will definitely roll tears in your eyes with sentiment cum message to every family. Realizing her feelings finally her husband and daughter will confess themself for not being respectful.

Movie is a must watch specially with your family. It delivers a message to every husband and children to respect the feelings of a wife and mother.

Manager Vs YumRaaj - Humour

Company - Layoff - Awesome

XYZ Office -> A fire alarm rang at 6 PM when almost all shift employees are in office (approx 5000). As usual entire office was evacuated within 3 mins & every employee gathered outside office.
 
10 mins passed..................................5 more mins passed.



Security Officer -> Announcement started, "Dear Employees - With melting heart I am making this announcement that for many of you it will be a last evacuation drill, as we are laying off almost 80% employee. While moving in who-so-ever ID card won't work are layed off & all their belongings will be  couriered to them tomorrow. We followed this approach as we don't want to fill email box size with layoff mail in thousands & also to avoid any fight inside office". Hope you have nice career ahead. Please move in & try your luck. :-)  :-(

India - Corruption - Protests - 'No'Change

Must! Must! read
Ant and Grosshopper - Indian Version of story - too good and fact


Original Story:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant is a fool
and laughs dances plays the summer away. Come winter, the Ant is warm and
well fed. The Grasshopper has no food or shelter so he dies out in the
cold.


Indian Version:

The Ant works hard in the withering heat all summer building its house and
laying up supplies for the winter. The Grasshopper thinks the Ant's a fool
and laughs dances plays the summer away.

Come winter, the shivering Grasshopper calls a press conference and demands
to know why the Ant should be allowed to be warm and well fed while others
are cold and starving.

NDTV, BBC, CNN show up to provide pictures of the shivering Grasshopper
next to a video of the Ant in his comfortable home with a table filled with
food.

The World is stunned by the sharp contrast. How can this be that this poor
Grasshopper is allowed to suffer so?

Arundhati Roy stages a demonstration in front of the Ant's house.

Medha Patkar goes on a fast along with other Grasshoppers demanding that
Grasshoppers be relocated to warmer climates during winter .

Mayawati states this as 'injustice' done on Minorities.

Amnesty International and Koffi Annan criticize the Indian Government for
not upholding the fundamental rights of the Grasshopper.

The Internet is flooded with online petitions seeking support to the
Grasshopper (many promising Heaven & Everlasting Peace for prompt support
as against the wrath of God for non-compliance) .

Opposition MPs stage a walkout. Left parties call for 'Bengal Bandh' in
West Bengal and Kerala demanding a Judicial Enquiry.

CPM in Kerala immediately passes a law preventing Ants from working hard in
the heat so as to bring about equality of poverty among Ants and
Grasshoppers.

Lalu Prasad allocates one free coach to Grasshoppers on all Indian Railway
Trains, aptly named as the 'Grasshopper Rath'.

Finally, the Judicial Committee drafts the 'Prevention of Terrorism Against
Grasshoppers Act'[POTAGA] , with effect from the beginning of the winter..

Arjun Singh makes 'Special Reservation' for Grasshoppers in Educational
Institutions in Government Services.

The Ant is fined for failing to comply with POTAGA and having nothing left
to pay his retroactive taxes, it's home is confiscated by the Government
and handed over to the Grasshopper in a ceremony covered by NDTV, BBC, CNN.

Arundhati Roy calls it 'A Triumph of Justice'.

Lalu calls it 'Socialistic Justice'.

CPM calls it the 'Revolutionary Resurgence of the Downtrodden'

Koffi Annan invites the Grasshopper to address the UN General Assembly.


Many years later...

The Ant has since migrated to the US and set up a multi-billion dollar
company in Silicon Valley ,

100s of Grasshoppers still die of starvation despite reservation somewhere
in India ,

....AND

As a result of losing lot of hard working Ants and feeding the
grasshoppers, India is still a developing country...!!!

Apple IOS 6 Maps - London Metro

 
London Metro - Apple iOS  6 Users

Asia Submarine Cable Express Takes off

A new 7,800 km undersea data cable has opened to traffic in Asia linking Japan, Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines which could aid in financial trade.

The Submarine-cable Express (ASE) transfers data via an optical fibre system at 40 gigabits per second means data transfer capacity of 40 Gbps is the equivalent of downloading a high-resolution DVD in about two seconds.

Wireless Security - Secure Your Router

Wireless enabled devices like laptops , smart phones and tablets  are common gadgets in the current generation. These devices are connected to wireless access points available in office or residence or sometimes in airport for internet access.

Recently I have conducted a survey on wireless security and some general features of wireless devices. I found more than 90% users either uses laptop/smart phones/Tablets connecting to wireless router present at their home/office for internet usage. I have also observed that most of the users are not aware of serious security threat.

Wi-Fi signals don't know where your house ends and where your neighbor's begins. Wi-Fi signal leakage gives hackers and neighbors the opportunity to find your wireless network and attempt to access it without your knowledge. Some important factors that account the usage of internet are 

      1)       Official works

      2)      Social networking

      3)      Personal mails/blogs

      4)      Sale and purchase from ecommerce websites

      5)      Online Banking

      6)      Other( googling…etc)

 

g   

    1.     What do you think about hacking the wireless router ?

 

“71.4% of the users know their router is prone to hack, while 28.6% are not aware of threats but they don’t believe it a foolproof secure”

Lets us assume what happens if your neighbor gains access to your wireless router Below is the figure showing the real time Wireless Access points observed from my room. Some of them are secured with WPA2 , few with WEP and some access points without security key. Also please note do not name your router with your flat number giving more privileges to the neighbors showing your identity.  Below are some examples showing the names with flat numbers.

       If neighbor / hacker gains access to your wireless router then all your activities can be monitored, believe me it’s a serious security threat. The below figure clearly shows how a hacker connects your network and steals the critical information like your browsing data including passwords and transaction details including the credit card number 

2.      How frequent do you change your router key/password?

"50 % of users never cared of changing password or key regularly and about 21.5% never changed their default password/key”

“Only 7.5% users change their key weekly/monthly”

First thing you need is to change the default username and password of your router. Any user connected can browse for your ADSL username and password to access the router interface. Router interface can be accessed using http://192.168.1.1 ( Netgear )  directly from any browser. Mostly the username is “admin” and password is “password” or “admin”. Please check the below attachment for default usernames and passwords

 Download 

3.     Do you suspect any change in your internet data speed or downloads recently?

“64.3% of users observe either their Internet speed is slower than actual from past few days or they feel their download limit is not in sync with their actual usage”

“35.7% never cared to analyze the bandwidth” – Below are some of the tools which can help to analyze the bandwidth.

Contact you Internet provider to get the details of your downloads and alert them if you find anything alarming.Calculate you Internet Download and upload speed from the below mentioned website or any other speed related tools http://www.speedtest.net/ www.2wire.com

4.     Type of password you prefer WEP / WPA ? wireless routers have an option of choosing the encryption type of Wireless equivalent privacy (WEP) and wifi-protected access (WPA).

“42.9% users not aware of encryption type WEP/WPA“

WEP Router key can be hacked in minutes by your neighbors. It is very easy to decode with tools like aircrack. WPA also prone but relatively better than WEP. 

Its time for you to change for WPA 2 with strong passphrase Which gives you more advantage

5.     Do you aware of mac address filter (enhanced security) feature on your router ?

“71.4% users router users does not aware of MAC Filter option“

Configure your wireless router to only allow certain MAC addresses to connect.

       MAC address filtering sounds great in theory. Every network device in the world has a unique MAC address – also known as a physical address - so using it to restrict the devices that can connect to your network sounds like wireless security’s “magic bullet”. There are two major shortcomings in this theory. Firstly, the MAC address is sent in the header of every data packet – unaffected by encryption – and thus is open to sniffer software. Secondly, MAC addresses can easily be spoofed – which also has genuine uses in networking - using readily available software.                        

 

Best Practices for making your network safe and secure

If you want to secure your Wi-Fi router do the following:

1. Firstly change the default username and password of your router. Anyone connected can browse for your ADSL username and password. Use a least 12 letter passwords. Mix it with caps, numbers and special characters. Don't use dictionary words.

2. Use WPA2 - AES. Last I've heard is that WEP and WPA1 has been hacked

3. Hide the SSID. There are hacker tools to unhide the SSID, but this extra step can make it a step harder for the hacker.

4. Use mac addresses. Also there are hacker tools to spoof mac addresses, another step to increase security.

5. Turn off DHCP. The hacker has to use Static ip address to join the network. Make the network ip different than the norm. This make it harder for the hacker to guess the IP range.

6. Limit the IP range of the network. Anyone outside the range cannot connect.

7. Turn off remote access. Some routers can be access remotely and router setting can be change. Turn this setting off.

9. Use a personal firewall like Commodo - freeware.