I’ve often tried to use MS Word tables and do computations with the values in the tables. Example:

Suppose, the following conditions hold true:
c1 = a1xb1
c2 = a2xb2
a3 = a1 + a2
b3 = b1 + b2
c3 = c2 + c2

Click on the c1 cell, click on the “Layout” button, click on “Formula” button, in the Formula field, enter the following:
=PRODUCT(a1:b1)
Similarly, for c2 use =PRODUCT(a2:b2).
For a3,b3,c3 use =SUM(ABOVE)

The whole day today was spent in analyzing Nutch Source Code with Anshul. It is almost 8:00 pm now and nothing has been done yet! Have received an e-mail from Chris Mattman and Ashish Vaidya giving some pointers. Hopefully, it’s gonna help!
Had problems while compiling the code as well. It’s strange that when I installed j2sdk from Java Sun site I did not get javac in the /usr/java/jre1.5.0_02/bin directory. So since I did not have enough time to look for the files, I simply downloaded Netbeans and got the thing compiled with Daddu’s suggestion!
Will blog later when I can get some success with Nutch.
-Rajat.
Rajat’s Abode

I recently purchased 2x2GB Memory upgrades for my fantastic Dell XPS M1210. To upgrade the memory there were 2 slots one located at the base of the laptop (the black bottom) and the other was located below the keypad. I searched a lot on the Internet but could not find the location of the 2nd slot.
The owner’s manual also did not mention the location of the DIMM B slot (the 2nd memory slot). See the details on the manual about how to remove the keyboard to reach the 2nd memory slot.
The key to reach the 2nd slot is to first remove the hinge cover (the cover that has three button saying Power, “Media Direct”, etc.). The hinge cover is not screwed so you can just lever it up using a thin, flat object and pop-it up, remove the three screws fixing the keyboad, pulling the keyboad out and right in the middle you will see the memory slot.
Hopefully, this post will help someone upgrading memory on their Dell XPS M1210.

This week I got the CREA certification to add to my list of CISSP, CEPT, Visa QSA. This certification required a good practical and conceptual knowledge of reverse engineering. The certification requires a good working knowledge of components such as IA-32 assembly language, malware reversing, expert level knowledge of IDA Pro, OllyDbg, HiEW, Dumpbin etc., PE File header, repairing packed and compacted binaries, using system level reversing etc. The exam was good and tested on the concepts of the reverse engineer.

This has been a weird one, finding version information on the operating systems.
On Ubuntu, the following gets the version information
  cat /etc/issue
  cat /etc/lsb-release

On Linux, finding the kernel version
  uname -a
  cat /proc/version

On Windows, from Start-> Run -> cmd.exe
  winver
OR
  systeminfo

This is very simple but still there are a few times when memory fails and we’re not able to do the obvious.

To see the information about the hardware mapping :
  lshal

Finding your CPU Information
  cat /proc/cpuinfo

Finding memory information
  cat /proc/meminfo

Maximum number of SYN requests that the host will remember which did not receive an ACK from clients:
  cat /proc/sys/net/ipv4/tcp_max_syn_backlog

Finding data bus-size or bit-size i.e., whether my CPU is 32-bit or 64-bit:
  sudo lshw -C cpu | grep width

Let’s assess the situation: You have a 3G phone which allows tethering, a windows machine, a wireless access point and another PC that is connected to the LAN port of the wireless access point (or typically called a wireless router). The wireless access point is a home network and your ISP decides to disconnect your signal or is experiencing some problems. How do you share your 3G connection, so that other computers can connect through the wireless AP and use your cell phone’s 3G connection? It’s actually quite simple.

Tether your smartphone (in this case let’s say blackberry). Blackberry tethering in Windows over AT&T is allowed using a software called AT&T Communication Manager. Install ACM, and connect your Windows machine using a mini-USB cable to your phone. Goto Start->Run->cmd.exe. Type ipconfig /all to see the IP address and the DNS servers IP addresses.

Now connect the WAN link of your Wireless access point to this Windows machine’s ethernet port. Setup a static IP for this Windows machine say 192.168.10.1 with a netmask of 255.255.255.0. Now go to Network connections (from Control Panel), right click on the Mobile connection representing your blackberry, click on Advanced. In the Internet Connection Sharing section, check the box that says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection” and select “Local Area Connection” (this is the same connection you connected to the WAN port of the wireless AP). Click OK. You may have to disconnect and reconnect your ACM connection to allow the settings to take effect.

Now that this is done, connect to the administration interface of the wireless access point to the other PC that is connected to the LAN port (or through the wireless) to the access point. Go to the administration interface of the wireless AP, and set a static IP for the router in the same subnet as with the Windows box (the one you set with 192.168.10.1). Set the static IP on the AP to be say 192.168.10.2 (remember this has to be the same subnet), netmask as 255.255.255.0 and then the most important, the default gateway to 192.168.10.1 (the IP of the windows box on the ethernet card). To set the DNS server addresses, use the same addresses you found using ipconfig /all in the first step. Otherwise you could also use open DNS servers or any other DNS servers but it’ll be best to use the DNS servers pointing to the ones used by the tethered connection because you can rule out DNS issues if something isn’t working and it comes down to troubleshooting. Once on the router, the static is set, the gateway is set, the DNS is set, you should be able to connect from your wireless network to the internet through your 3G connection! 🙂
Happy internet sharing! 🙂
Here is a schematic diagram:

[tethering]                [static IP]    [static IP]   [internal IP]  [DHCP address]
                                   |         |                |           |
[ phone ] <==> [Windows machine]:eth0 <==> wan:[Wireless AP]:lan <==> [client]

Dell had this program called Dell Vista Express Upgrade as a part of which once you pay for your XP Pro you become eligible for a Vista upgrade. The interesting thing was it was an introductory offer and they would ship the DVDs upon Vista’s release if we activated the upgrade. I did activate the upgrade but I did not receive my DVDs until a few days but when I eventually did it was a “Dell Vista Upgrade Assistant DVD”. What was even more interesting was that this DVD was not even an installation DVD (with no warnings on it that it was not the OS installation itself which I assumed all along). It was just a DVD because Dell likes sending DVDs to users! So I contacted Dell about the OS when I couldn’t boot up the OS and they said that no wonder…this is not the OS. So I asked them where’s the OS and the customer care went “you should have it”! Now if they didn’t ship it and I didn’t receive it (although I paid Dell for it), who should have it! They tell me Microsoft has it. It just seems illogical that the person who I pay for the software would not be the one to ship it out to me. The Dell Resolution specialist called today and said there’s nothing he could do. They have my money, they didn’t ship out the DVD…and so be it! Do what you can! That’s just the worst ever case of customer care I’ve ever seen!