Best Computer Games

What do gamers look for in any video game? Obviously the answer will be different from one another as everyone has varied choices. No wonder the video game companies come up with amazing and distinct games to play. Whether you love action-adventure shooting, RPGs, or nerve-testing strategy games, PC games provides them all. Even though there are many other, better video game consoles in the market today, there are players who still can't get enough of the best computer games these companies have to offer. If you're a fan (just like my brother who can't get enough of World of Warcraft, and he's 22), here's a list of not just top 10 games of all time, but 100 best PC games. Let's check them out.

Best Computer Games of All Time

Compiling a list of top computer games sounds fun, doesn't it? Not entirely. Of course it's fun, but along with that comes a huge task of adding the best computer games for kids and adults, people who take playing video games very seriously. Perhaps you may not be completely happy with the list, however it has been put together keeping one thing in mind: entertainment.

1. Battlefield: Bad Company 2 - 2010
2. Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War II - 2009
3. ArmA II: Operation Arrowhead - 2010
4. Empire: Total War - 2009
5. Deus Ex - 2000
6. Demigod - 2009
7. Half-Life 2 - 2004
8. Civilization IV - 2005
9. World of Warcraft - 2004
10. SPORE Galactic Adventures - 2009
11. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - 2009
12. Killing Floor - 2009
13. The Sims 3 - 2009
14. The Secret of Monkey Island - 1990
15. Age of Conan: Rise of the Godslayer - 2010
16. The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 2002
17. Mass Effect 2: Overload - 2010
18. Half-Life - 1998
19. SPORE Creepy and Cute - 2008
20. Rome: Total War - 2004
21. Napoleon: Total War - 2010
22. System Shock 2 - 1999
23. Doom - 1993
24. Grand Theft Auto IV: Episodes from Liberty City - 2010
25. Battlefield 2142 - 2006
26. Dragon Age: Origins - 2009
27. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City - 2003
28. Unreal Tournament (UT2004) - 2004
29. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion - 2006
30. Football Manager 2007 - 2006
31. Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne - 2003
32. Company of Heroes - 2006
33. Singularity - 2010
34. Call Of Duty - 2003
35. Operation Flashpoint - 2001
36. Quake III: Arena - 1999
37. Eve Online - 2003
38. Fallout - 1997
39. Star Wars: Knights of The Old Republic - 2003
40. Baldur's Gate II: Shadows of Amn - 2000
41. Diablo II - 2000
42. Counter-Strike: Source - 2004
43. Mafia - 2002
44. Plain Sight - 2010
45. Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines - 2004
46. Wing Commander IV: The Price of Freedom - 1995
47. Far Cry - 2004
48. Ultima VII: The Black Gate - 1992
49. GTR 2 - FIA GT Racing Game - 2006
50. Battlefield 1942 - 2002
51. Pro Evolution Soccer 6 - 2006
52. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time - 2003
53. IL-2 Sturmovik: 1946 - 2006
54. Need For Speed: Most Wanted - 2005
55. Psychonauts - 2005
56. Sam & Max Hit the Road - 1993
57. Microsoft Flight Simulator X - 2006
58. Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos - 2002
59. Tropico 3: Absolute Power - 2010
60. Duke Nukem 3D - 1996
61. Quake - 1996
62. Command & Conquer 3: Tiberium Wars - 2007
63. X-COM: UFO Defense - 1994
64. Commandos 2: Men of Courage - 2001
65. Aliens vs Predator 2 - 2001
66. Star Wars Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II - 1997
67. Beyond Good & Evil - 2003
68. Syndicate - 1993
69. Black & White - 2001
70. Carmageddon II: Carpocalypse Now - 1998
71. The Sims 2 - 2004
72. EverQuest - 1999
73. Medal of Honor: Allied Assault - 2002
74. Tomb Raider - 1996
75. Thief: Deadly Shadows - 2004
76. Neverwinter Nights - 2002
77. Guild Wars - 2005
78. TIE Fighter - 1998
79. Age of Empires - 1997
80. Planescape: Torment - 1999
81. Dungeon Keeper - 1997
82. X3 Reunion - 2005
83. SWAT 4 - 2005
84. SimCity 2000 - 1993
85. Garry's Mod - 2006
86. Trackmania: United - 2007
87. S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl - 2007
88. Warhammer 40000: Dawn of War - 2004
89. Fahrenheit - 2005
90. Total Annihilation - 1997
91. Final Fantasy VII - 1998
92. The Longest Journey - 1999
93. Uplink - 2001
94. No One Lives Forever 2 - 2002
95. Frontier: Elite II - 1993
96. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay - 2004
97. Grand Prix Legends - 1998
98. Splinter Cell - 2003
99. Silent Hunter III - 2005
100. Cave Story - 2005

These were just 100 best computer games for mac or any other PC. Battle with the demons, zombies, aliens, and many others to experience a whole new world with these best computer games. Get your game faces on!

SCiB Battery Technology

I really like the idea of electric cars. However, the current lack of support in the form of charging stations the poor performance in regards to range and recharge time is something that makes me wonder if the electric car is just a pipe dream in terms of usability. That is where Toshiba’s SCiB battery technology comes in to smash any predetermined doubts you had regarding the electric car being unfeasible as a means of transport. Traditionally, it took electric car batteries over thirty minutes to charge (give or take a few minutes). The SCiB battery can recharge to ninety percent capacity in five minutes.
The buck does not stop there. The battery is touted to last ten years. That is not how long a single charge lasts – but how long the battery itself lasts before it will need to be replaced. This is good news for people who are ecologically minded. A battery can contain all manner of nasty materials that can do some serious damage to the environment. This is likely to be the battery that will finally make electronic cars possible and help reduce our need for (overpriced) petrol. It may also help companies finally start investing in electronic charging stations for vehicles.
There is no word on when this is likely to become available to consumers. However, it seems like it is something that it will not take long for companies who manufacture electric vehicles to start using in their production lines. It is something that will ensure that electric cars get the research that then need in order to make the technology feasible for the masses. I had some trouble finding out how far a single charge will carry the vehicle – if it is similar to that of the current electric vehicles that have been released then it may just be a winner.

USB power outlet concept

Universal Serial Bus, better known as the USB, has been present for many years in computer history. Today we couldn’t imagine our computers and devices without USB support, and when USB was invented, its creators had no clue that it would become such a hit in the future. Recently we got an interesting concept that might enhance and change the way in which standard USB works.

As you know, USB was created in 1995 and over the years we got three versions of it that have provided us with different transfer speeds. The USB port is now widely used for transferring files from your USB device to the PC and vice versa. Besides that, the USB port is also used for recharging portable devices such as phones, cameras and media players. I suppose the only flaw of this method is that you’ll have to keep your computer turned on in order to recharge your devices.
However, if you want to recharge your device without your PC, this interesting concept might be the right thing for you. Designed by Lv Jianhua, He Dawei, Zhou Hanxiao and Xu Yao, this is a power outlet that has USB ports on it that will allow you to recharge all your USB devices with ease.

This looks like an interesting concept but so far its just an early concept. Who knows, we might actually see USB power outlets someday when we check into a hotel in the future.

To compete with Facebook Google acquires Metaweb.

Google today made the competition even tougher for the social networking site Facebook the search engine has announced that it has acquired Metabeb that works on packaging information on the Internet.

Metaweb is a company that keeps an open database of the events and happenings of the world. Now Google wants to make the search even richer by adding more and more information to the web search page so that it is more meaningful for the users. By acquiring the company, Google has thus challenged Facebook which works on the same principal of dealing in the information.
Now if you type any word for instance barak obama birthday in the search box, you will see the answer right at the top of the page and specific events and dates will also appear. Earlier, Facebook had announced its Open Graph initiative to make the Web more meaningful.

Making melting pots: NITs asked to draw foreign students

HRD ministry officials feel there might be something, after all, to the ‘melting pot’ — the metaphor used by colleges in the US to describe diversity on campus. Now, they want a similar thing in India. In a March 4, 2010, circular to the National Institutes of Technology (formerly Regional Engineering Colleges), the ministry has asked them to go all out to attract foreign students. Not just non-resident Indians or people of Indian origin (PIO), but students from the US, UK and Australia as well. As officials see it, building diversity on campus is just a step away from preparing students to subsequently deal with increasing diversity at the workplace.

“Our curriculum is at par with international levels. What we lack is branding, and this will happen only when more foreign students apply to India,” says MHRD deputy advisor N Mohan Das. In the letter, the MHRD entrusts the National Institute of Technology Karnataka (NITK) with the responsibility to “evolve a framework for publicising schemes” by creating “a web-portal for application, submissions and the entire admissions process”.



The reason for roping in NITs is that while these institutes are second-rung in India after the IITs, they are not recognised abroad. At the same time, the meltdown has made students look at relatively cheaper options in Asian countries, for both study and work, making it the right time to go international. Currently, the 15% quota reserved for foreign students is filled by NRIs and PIOs from the Gulf. “We do not get quality students due to a lack of information,” says Prof Sunil Sarangi, director of NIT Rourkela, Orissa. “Most people look at the US or UK, unaware of the facilities available here.” In its first year, the programme will focus on publicising Indian tech institutions in places with a substantial Indian population, like Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Later, the aim will be to target students from countries known to provide quality education, like the US, UK, France and Australia. NIT alumnus, home on vacation and teachers on official visits abroad, are expected to organise popularisation drives.



Even though the institutes are wooing foreign students, they are quite clear there will be strict norms for admissions. While the MHRD wants to make the admissions process under the direct admission of studies abroad scheme more user-friendly, Indian institutions say they will only accept “quality” students. “We are modelling the system along the lines of those in the UK and US,” says Prof Sandeep Sancheti of NITK Surathkal, mentor-director of NIT Goa. Entrance to foreign students from this year will be based on their scores from international admissions tests like the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) unlike earlier, when their school-leaving marksheets would suffice.



That doesn’t deter people like Catherine Nalubega of Ukraine, who is currently doing her second year civil engineering at NITK and plans to live on in India. Nalubega picked NITK over options in Russia and China, and feels the Indian government’s scholarship schemes, if promoted better, will attract more foreign students. Having more foreign students will also bring in foreign exchange; especially when the recession has made people look at value-for-money, cost-effective education options. It’s a win-win for everyone.

New NITs in India

New IIT announcements and news coverage overshadowed the new NITs announced in India. These NITs are not included this year AIEEE ranking as I exclusively ranked then based on GATE cutoffs and AIEEE scores. Probably I will add them to next year list because we will official data for them too.

Now the question is to join New NITs are not? If you read my earlier post regarding New IITs or old NITs and state universities, you may know my stand. If I am a student I definitely prefer Govt. run institute over private or deemed universities. The simple reason is Govt. run institutes offer same or better learning facilities on much lower cost. New NITs will participate in central counseling for this year B.Tech admissions.
New NITs and their mentors

Sl No.	NIT with Location	Mentor NIT
1	National Institute of Technology Arunachal Pradesh	NIT Durgapur
2	National Institute of Technology Delhi	NIT Warangal
3	National Institute of Technology Goa	NIT Surathkal
4	National Institute of Technology Manipur	NIT Agartala
5	National Institute of Technology Meghalaya	SVNIT Surat
6	National Institute of Technology Mizoram	VNIT Nagpur
7	National Institute of Technology Nagaland	NIT Silchar
8	National Institute of Technology Pondicherry	NIT Trichy
9	National Institute of Technology Sikkim	NIT Calicut
10	National Institute of Technology Uttarakhand	NIT Kurukshetra

Right from the beginning NIT Delhi, Goa, Pondicherry and Uttarakhand will share their place with Top NITs in India leaving behind old and private universities. Apart from geographical advantage they also have top mentoring institutes.
If you have any questions or want to share information please drop a comment and do not forget to subscribe for more details updates about engineering education in India.

Nintendo 3DS in the flesh and hands-on!

That Nintendo announced the 3DS was not a surprise -- that they had a couple-dozen of these things to try out, that was. We elbowed our way to the front of the line to try one out, and the effect is actually not bad. It's not great, but the 3.5-inch screen on top certainly gives a firm illusion of depth without resorting to glasses -- or eye crossing. The feel is definitely reminiscent of those 3D cereal box prints, and as soon as you turn the device from left to right to try to look around anything the effect is immediately lost. You need to stare at the screen for a moment for your eyes to adjust and then not move around too much. If you do you'll need to adjust again. But, stay reasonably still and it's a compelling effect.

The new analog slider on the left feels a lot like the PSP's analog nub, but larger and without the texture. It's a bit easier on the fingers, and comfortable. Overall the device feels just like a current DS or DSi, though we couldn't get a good feel for the weight thanks to a bulky tether attached on one end to the device, and on the other end to the row of ladies who were surely told to not let the gadgets out of their hands or face certain doom. The only thing we could do here is rotate along a still frame -- Pikmin in a field, for example -- and play with the 3D slider. It is a pretty convincing effect, but it's hard to tell at this point if it's at all compelling -- it wasn't anything more than novelty in this demo, and we still don't know how it stands up to fast-moving footage. Actual games were promised to us for the show floor, so we'll hit that up later today. We snagged a few pics before getting elbowed out of the way, so check 'em out!

Microsoft Kinect gets official, Video Chat announced

You knew it was coming, right? Hot on the heels of getting leaked a wee bit early Microsoft has made official the rebadging of a device desperately seeking a new name: "Project Natal" is no more, replaced by Microsoft Kinect. At a circus- and celebrity-filled affair, MS wrapped everyone in high-tech panchos (pictured after the break courtesy of Joystiq) and then took the wraps off of the new title. Quite a few game demos were shown, ranging from Star Wars to tiger petting, the Kinect interface to the Dashboard was shown (said by some to be Minority Report-like), and a video chat app called, wait for it, Video Chat. Through here you can naturally talk to friends (up to four total people at once was "shown"), and also share photos.

Sadly, no hands-on time was given nor did MS reveal the two crucial bits of information we're waiting for: price and date. Naturally a holiday release is expected, to give the Xbox 360 a nice sales boost, but we're hearing price rumors as high as $150. These choice bits of intel will surely be unveiled at Microsoft's event tomorrow -- if someone doesn't beat 'em to it. The hardware is still looking exactly like the early picture above, shattering hopes of a slimmer design to match new Slim Xbox 360.

Update: We've got official photos now, though solid textual info is still scarce. Stand by!

Update 2: So we're out of the wild, cult-like experience that was Microsoft's Kinect unveiling. Microsoft still has a lot of details to reveal, but there are a few things we gleaned from watching the demos:

• Almost everything was one person at a time, particularly in the Kinect Sports games. Even a game like beach volleyball or soccer was boiled down to individual "moments" of interaction that get strung together into some sort of competition. Even the running in place games were one at a time, though the river rafting and mining cart games (both with a similar mechanic of jumping and ducking through an obstacle course while picking up tokens) could be played with two people at a time. You can at least play games like volleyball simultaneously with someone else over Xbox Live.
• An interesting mechanic we saw was a second player "jumping in" to a game. In the mining cart scenario, when the second player jumped in it immediately went split screen, while in soccer different players took turns by just jumping into position. Sure, some of this stuff was edited for our benefit, but it seems Microsoft is working to make the introduction of a second player or the switching between players something less button-heavy.
• The Star Wars game was pretty badass-looking -- you play a Jedi, rushing down stormtroopers and deflecting laser bolts left and right, wielding a few Force powers, and confronting a certain deep-voiced Sith Lord for a one-on-one duel. Based on the gestures and action we saw, though, it was a pretty heavily scripted experience. Still, there's no scripting a two-handed light saber grip, and that particular action looked like everything we've ever wanted in a Star Wars game.
• The yoga game is actually a pretty smart use of the infrared and joint detection software we espied previously. Positions were "checked" by points on the joint -- making it certainly harder to fake the moves on Wii Fit -- and it seemed to have a tai chi element to it. Your avatar glowed a more intense red based on your three-dimensional approximation -- bright red for hands stretched forward, for example.
• Next up: Kinectimals, a baby tiger pet simulator. You can scratch its ears, snuggle, and teach the little guy to jump and play dead. Adorable? Dangerously so. No one can tell us the developer, but based on the lighting effects, art style, and similarities to the previously-shown Milo, we'd wager a guess that it was Lionhead Studios.
• The Kinect menu interface is about as simple as could be. You wave your hand to control a glowing cursor of sorts, and you push forward to "click" on the element you want. Of course, there's also a very simplified version of the Dashboard to go along with this control mechanism, so it's unclear if you'll be able to do everything via subtle hand waves, but the Twitter, Facebook, Zune and Netflix icons were clearly present.
• The MTV Games-developed Dance Central has some on staff divided -- only Ross will actually admit to being interested in playing it. A series of dance moves are presented, including elbow jabs, swinging leg, guitar, "rocking out" (with your hand in the air). The art style is akin to Rock Band / Guitar Hero, and to be fair, this is probably one of those games that can't be done as well on any other console.

US firm bribed Indian PSUs

Washington: Officials of Indian PSUs like BHEL and NTPC appear to be beneficiaries of bribes that were doled out by a California-based valve company to bag lucrative contracts, mostly for tools used in the construction of power plants.

Prominent among these Indian companies are Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd, Maharashtra State Electricity Board, Haryana State Electricity Board, National Thermal Power Corporation and Bhilai Electric, according to documents submitted by the US Department of Justice before a US court.

It is possible that the details of the beneficiaries are listed in the sealed court documents, but no names were immediately known.
California-based Control Component Inc (CCI) on June 31, 2009, pleaded guilty before the US court to having committing bribery in 36 countries from 2003 to 2007.
India, besides China, the UAE and Qatar, are some of the major countries where Control Component Inc indulged in unfair practices to bag contracts.
According to court documents, the payments related to India were made between 2004 and 2007.

Topping the list is the Sipat coal-fired power plant of NTPC, for which CCI paid a bribe of $163,449 in two instalments to an official of a Moscow-based company, who has been identified as Vladimir Batenko in the documents submitted by the Department of Justice before the court.
On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that it has extradited Flavio Ricotti, a former executive of CCI on charges of bribing foreign companies. An Italian national, Ricotti, was arrested on February 14 in Frankfurt, and arrived in the United States on July 2.
The alleged bribe for the Sipat thermal power plant was paid in two instalments. The first payment of $26,865 was made on November 29, 2005 from the company's Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at Dresdner Bank in New York for the purpose of securing the contract for the Sipat thermal power plant.

The second payment of $136,584.98 was made in October, 2006 from the same Handelsbanken Bank account in Sweden to an account at the Baltic International bank in Latvia, the FBI alleges, for the purpose of making a corrupt payment to a Company 3 employee with regard to the Sipat thermal power plant in India, the DOJ said.

According to court documents, the CCI -- in two instalments on November 6, 2006 and January 9, 2009 -- made a total payment of $69,012 to BHEL and MSEB. BHEL officials are reported to be the beneficiaries in several other instances, but most of the amounts are less than $5,000.



In 2007, officials of the Bhilai Electricals are believed to have received $8,600, while those of HSEB received $15,802 through a transaction on July 7, 2007. In addition, Spin Industries, J Mehta & Co and MSEB were the beneficiaries of another bribery transaction of $15,000 made by CCI on March 3, 2004.
However, the court papers are not clear how many of these contracts were bagged by CCI and what was the value of the contracts it won.
The Department of Justice said CCI has admitted that from 2003 through 2007 it made approximately 236 corrupt payments in more than 30 countries, which resulted in net profits to the company of approximately $46.5 million from sales related to these corrupt payments.



Source: PTI

Sucessful night-flight of Solar plane makes

This is one 'fly-by-night' operator we are sure happy about. A giant glider-like aircraft has completed the first night flight propelled only by solar energy. Solar Impulse, whose wingspan is the same as an Airbus A340, flew 26 hours and 9 minutes, powered only by solar energy stored during the day. It was also the longest and highest flight in the history of solar aviation, organizers said.


The Solar Impulse, a solar-powered HB-SIA prototype airplane, is prepared for its first night flight attempt at Payerne airport, Switzerland on July 7, 2010.

The aircraft took off July 7 at 06:51 am and reached an altitude of 28,543 feet by the end of the day. It then slowly descent to 4,921 feet and flew through the night on the batteries, charged during the day by 12,000 solar cells, which powered the four electric motors. The aircraft landed on July 8 at 09.00 am.

Michael Jackson's kids

Despite the fact that it was their father’s, Michael Jackson’s, first death anniversary, his three grieving children were taken by Katherine, their grandmother, to Hawaii. There they were supposed to have some fun on that sad day.

Paparazzi noticed Blanket, 8, Paris, 12, Prince, 13 with their granny, friends and a security team during their small trip to Maui.
According to the latest reports, Paris was more depressed than her two siblings concerning the loss of her beloved father. Even this time, in the pictures made by reporters, she was swimming in a swimming pool with a serious facial expression.
According to some sources, Paris’ grief was so big that she couldn’t imagine how she was going to live further. But thanks to loving Katherine, who supported her granddaughter a lot, the girl started to feel much better.
On the contrary, Paris’ brothers were spending their time playing and smiling all the time. They were simply enjoying their pleasant getaway.
That source added that everybody in Jackson’s was in grief and this fact united them all and made them much stronger. That feeling of belonging and sharing the same emotions helped the children overcome their depression.

Project Nike--Nokia-Yahoo collaboration

After tying up with Samsung, Yahoo teams up with Nokia to announce their joint venture ‘Project Nike’ on May 24. This launch will facilitate search, email and other applications pre-installed on certain Nokia mobile phones.
Some Nokia S40 devices already come installed with Yahoo Ready and Yahoo Go. Samsung’s Android and bada OS based phones also support Yahoo mobile services.
 
Yahoo seems to give tough competition to Google and Microsoft as Google incorporates its own huge eco system on Android phones and some other phones as well while Microsoft has its Windows Mobile 6.5 and forthcoming Windows Phone 7 platforms.

Typewriters still go clickety clack, In i-Pad era

Ravi Robinson has been in love with his rusty but dependable typewriter for 40 long years and the bonds still go strong. In the era of the futuristic i-Pad and compact and high-speed laptop computers, Robinson has no intention of letting go the rickety machine that is his sole source of income.
He is not the only one.
The clickety-clack of typewriters still rings the air at the old court complex, abutting the Parliament Street police station, where middle-aged typists sit under open tin sheds filing up legal documents and affidavits.
Though the government has done away with tests for clerks and stenos on typewriters, these 60-70 typists are among the last bastions for the mechanical device invented in the 19th century that had to finally give way to the computer.
Roibinson explains his marriage to the typewriter.
‘I have been working here for the last 40 years. Typewriters still have their advantages as they do not require any electricity, are portable and easy to access,’ Robinson told IANS.
He is confident that computers and laptops can never totally replace the typewriter.
Seated a few tables away, Joginder Sharma echoed the sentiment. ‘All legal documents and certificates are typed. Anyway, I do this job to earn for my family,’ said Sharma, a veteran of 22 years at the complex.
Both Robinson and Sharma feel that computer work needs basic knowledge, which may be beyond their capacity to learn at this stage.
But they frankly admit that they are emotionally attached to the machine.
Yet, despite such loyal users, the typewriters are inching towards extinction as various hi-tech gadgets and electronic equipment flood the market every day.
Until about three decades ago, typewriters were omnipresent — in millions. Twenty years ago, India produced about 150,000 typewriters annually. Now, there is not a single manufacturer.
Despite the crunch, there are many still dependent on typewriters — either for work or simply for the emotional quotient of the old machine.
Indeed, dealers and retailers repair and reconstruct old, dilapidated typewriters.
‘Five years ago, typewriters accounted for 10 percent of my total sales. Now they only account for about 2-5 percent,’ Sunil K. Chawla of Chawla Enterprises, which sells typewriters and other electronic equipment, told IANS.
He said there were many loyal buyers for second-hand typewriters.
Rajesh Palta, owner of Universal typewriters in central Delhi, said: ‘Our business of selling second-hand typewriters is doing very well. We have customers who want them repaired because they have a certain emotional attachment to them. In fact people from the American and Japanese embassies have bought typewriters from us.’
The demand for typewriters mostly comes from courts, the army as well as paramilitary forces, according to the dealers.
One said that customers go for exchange offers, buying new typewriters over computers because they find them easier to work with.
‘The older generation finds it comfortable to work on typewriters.’
Anil Sharma, 60, a retired defence ministry official, has preserved his old but well kept typewriter in his work room.
‘It has a very special place in my life since it has been my faithful partner. It is in my houses so that I can see it each day,’ Sharma told IANS.

I was ashamed of cheating on my wife: Mahesh Bhatt

Filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt says his films “Arth”, “Zakhm” and “Daddy” were inspired from his personal experiences of cheating on his wife, being an illegitimate child and that of being an alcoholic.

“What people are ashamed of usually makes a good story… I was ashamed of cheating on my wife, of being a child born out of wedlock, of being an alcoholic. These emotions created ‘Arth’, ‘Zakhm’ and ‘Daddy’,” Bhatt posted on micro-blogging website Twitter.
His 1982 movie “Arth” is said to be a semi-autobiographical account of his extra-marital relationship with yesteryear diva Parveen Babi. “Woh Lamhe”, released in 2006, is reportedly based on Parveen Babi’s battle with schizophrenia and her relationship with Bhatt.
“Daddy” is a story about a young daughter who rescues her father from the brink of destroying himself from alcoholism. The critically acclaimed “Zakhm” is the story of an illegitimate child, played by Ajay Devgan.

India's best Medical colleges

If you wish to study at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) spend a day there. Step inside any OPD at 12 noon. Try walking up and down a corridor without getting trampled by the crowd. If you can imagine yourself one day in the future at the centre of this daily surge of humanity, handling patients swarming around your desk with patience-dare to think of AIIMS.

Everything is king-size here-from the awe-inspiring campus with nearly 18 lakh patient footfalls a year, an array of 50 disciplines, 25 clinical departments and six super speciality centres managing every type of disease, to more than 54,000 wannabes who compete fiercely for one of its 77 MBBS seats.
"It's a place that has always swarmed with brilliant doctors-chairing international committees, giving lectures around the world, getting diseases named after them. With them as mentors, students are encouraged to vie with each other and become role models themselves," says Dr R.C. Deka, AIIMS director.
The top destination in the India Today survey of academic excellence in medicine this year is once again AIIMS. As it turns out, it's not the only institute to have retained its position.
The top five medical colleges this year have survived the shake-up in the rankings, visible more in the middle order. Chasing AIIMS closely are the Christian Medical College (CMC), Vellore, the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC) in Pune, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education & Research (JIPMER) in Puducherry and the Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC) in Delhi.
The Kasturba Medical College, Manipal, gave a credible performance by moving up to the sixth slot from last year's ninth, pipping at the post the Madras Medical College, Chennai, in the process. Lady Hardinge Medical College, Delhi, muscled its way to the seventh spot.
A welcome entrant in the Top 10 league this year is St. John's Medical College, Bangalore, which jumped four slots to grab the eighth position.
Research is what sets the toppers apart. AIIMS, which brings out more than 50 per cent of all the medical research from India, published over 1,500 original work in high-impact journals this year.
"Our faculty had 381 ongoing projects and initiated 110 new projects worth nearly Rs 58.7 crore," says Deka. At CMC, research is the mantra, too, with number of publications zooming up-from less than 100 in 2002 to over 220 now. "At least 3 to 4 per cent of our budget is set aside for research," says Dr. George Mathew, principal. From epidemiology to stem cells, motorised hands to the indigenous rotovirus vaccine-the pipeline is varied and growing.
AFMC is one of the few colleges to have research at the undergraduate level. The Indian Council of Medical Research has assigned as many as 18 projects to MBBS students here. "This is the highest a medical college has got at that level," says Lt Gen D.P. Vats, director and commandant of AFMC. There's much to learn at the 105-year-old CMC. The serene ambience, away from the madding metros, is ideal for those who believe in giving back to society.
There's a wealth of clinical experience to be gained from the Community Health and Development Unit, which sends graduates to outlying villages every year for a few weeks, to get hands-on exposure to rural hospitals. "We want to create a workforce of physicians who can meet the challenges of modern medicine and at the same time be socially conscious," says Mathew.
Along with Tufts University, US, CMC is planning to bring all lectures and demos online for students working in hospitals within its network.
For a different experience, enter the Connaught Barracks in Pune. Check out the hum and buzz, the bright young faces, the breathtaking campus and doctors in crisp white or green busy on the rounds.
The place radiates the combined aura of military discipline, the pride and power of India's armed forces along with the exuberance of a medical college. From a humble postgraduate training centre in 1948, it has grown today into a formidable institute with 29 departments, 35 courses and six affiliated hospitals-for those who want to serve the armed forces.
"We prepare 'doctor officers' and not just doctors. They have to be mentally strong in war-prone areas, alert and also compassionate," adds Vats.
Cash-rich corporates may have changed India's healthcare delivery landscape, but they do not seem to have made much headway in medical education.
That's probably because the fundamental metric of most of India's top medical schools is premised on research, in which the private sector lags seriously behind. Intellect doesn't seem to have kowtowed to the jingle of coins in the world of medical education yet.

Windows 7 vs Vista

A study by Janco Associates conducted .According to the reports of the study Windows 7 hold 14.6% of market share in the professional segment against 12.8% in Vista.
We already know that Windows 7 was largely successful entry , with 90 million copies since launch in October. Janco Associates, a consulting firm in management information systems,  learned that Windows Vista has exceeded seven companies.Within nine months of their release, the increase was even more bitter for Vista, with only 6% market share according to Janco Partners, against 14% for  windows 7 today. Please keep in mind that Janco Partners study  is based on  RTM version of Windows 7 (available in August) and not leaving “official” last October, which explains the nine months already reached.

The new OS already would total 14.6% market share against 12.8% in Vista, which has been a real flop in the company and contributed to the unusual longevity of Windows XP .

However, the figures Janco differ markedly from those of other analysts. NetApplications gives 11.6% of market share to Windows 7, 15.6% and 63.4% to Vista to XP. StatCounter is more generous for Windows 7 (14.5%) and Vista (20.5%), and more conservative for XP (57.1%).
But their statistics do not focus, like Janco, solely on the professional sector. The wisest of all is that Microsoft believes that Windows 7 has 10% market share.

A NEW FEATURE UPDATED ON GOOGLE

Google made a decision to promote its new feature. It provides a background image on the homepage of Google with showing a photo. In case you have an account of Google, it is possible to alter the displayed photo.


 In case you prefer a background back, international users of Google are out of luck. There were made tests in the German as well as UK Google homepage. It was revealed that users get the link that can be found on the left lower corner that is used for removing the background image. But when it comes to clicking on it Google displays the featured background image.





 As for the google.com homepage, the link works. You can get a white and empty background back when you click on the link. Take into consideration that the Remove Background Image link appears in case you need to change the image.
So as you may understand it is better to take advantage of the link on google.com.
But still one should admit that it is a bit annoying to see a photo in the background especially if there is a bug due to which it is impossible to delete the photo.

Samsung to launch Samsung S5603 in India

As 3G services are going to start in India in several months, it is expected that demand for 3G enabled handsets will grow.

It looks like Samsung has understood that and for that reason the company released its new 3G enabled phone in India. It comes under the company’s Star brand. The latest model comes under the name of the S5603. The handset features a 2.8 inch QVGA LCD touchscreen that is able to display 262K colors.
Moreover, it comes with a 3.2 megapixel camera and includes a power LED flash that considered to be a common thing. The cell phone is enabled with a front camera that can be used for video calling purposes. Furthermore, the mobile device offers 80MB of internal memory that it is possible to expand with the help of microSD cards.



Also the handset is equipped with an FM Radio, music player as well as mobile blogging. The device packs in Li-Ion 1000 mAh battery that offers 3 hours of talk time. The handset has the price tag of Rs.10,000 and is available across the country.

FIFA World Cup Fever

 Twitter has released a special website that is dedicated for FIFA World Cup fans. So now you are able
 so it will be possible to leave tweets about the football World Cup.
It was noted by Twitter co-founder, Biz Stone, that football fans are provided with a great opportunity to connect with teams, players as well as brands that used by twitter in order to join the matches in a new way.
The new FIFA World Cup page of Twitter consists of live widgets, real-time search and also Top Tweets. The Top Tweets algorithm retweets and selects the most interesting tweets. If you need to know about some details of matches you can visit the page.

But do not expect that it is all. When anything is tweeted about FIFA World Cup, a user can use #WorldCup hashtag anywhere in the text, one can a Football icon. It is visible on Twitter Web interface. In case you want to insert a flag of a particular country in your twitter you have to use #ESP for Spain, #BRA for Brazil, as well as #ENG for England.

World Cup 2010 schedule

 

The FIFA 2010 World Cup started with a bang. After a grand opening ceremony, it was time for the teams to get back on the field. Today's first match of the World Cup 2010 was played between Mexico and hosts South Africa. The match ended in a draw with both the teams managing to score a goal each. World cup scores - Mexico 1, South Africa 1.

 

The second match of the 2010 FIFA World cup was played between France and uruguay. The second match also ended in a draw. France and Uruguay both had their chances but failed to convert them and the match result was 0-0.

 

You can watch World Cup 2010 live on your tv sets. If you are staying in South Africa you can watch the live matches of the Football World Cup 2010 on SABC. In India live action can we watched on ESPN and Doordarshan tv channels. In Italy people can watch all matches on Rai, Phillipines on ABS-CBN, In Spain on Canal and NHK in Japan.

 

Live streaming of the FIFA 2010 World cup can be watched on Vshare, Sopcast, P2P and Justin Tv. A number of sites have the latest updates, details and latest scores, highlights and results of the FIFA World Cup matches. Even the World Cup 2010 brackets is also posted on many sites.

 

Here is the World Cup 2010 schedule and fixture according to Indian Time (IST).

First Round Football Matches

June 11
07.30pm – South Africa Vs Mexico – Johannesburg (SC)

June 12
12.00am – Uruguay Vs France – Cape Town
05.00pm – South Korea Vs Greece – Johannesburg (SC)
07.30pm – Argentina Vs Nigeria – Port Elizabeth (Ellis)

June 13
12.00am – England Vs USA – Rustenburg
05.00pm – Algeria Vs Slovenia – Polokwane
07.30pm – Serbia Vs Ghana – Pretoria

June 14
12.00am – Germany Vs Australia – Durban
05.00pm – Netherlands Vs Denmark – Johannesburg (SC)
07.30pm – Japan Vs Cameroon – Bloemfontein

June 15
12.00am – Italy Vs Paraguay – Cape Town
05.00pm – New Zealand Vs Slovakia – Rustenburg
07.30pm – Ivory Coast Vs Portugal – Port Elizabeth

June 16
12.00am – Brazil Vs North Korea – Johannesburg (Ellis)
05.00pm – Honduras Vs Chile – Nelspruit
07.30pm – Spain Vs Switzerland – Durban

June 17
12.00am – South Africa Vs Uruguay – Pretoria
05.00pm – Argentina Vs South Korea – Johannesburg (SC)
07.30pm – Greece Vs Nigeria – Bloemfontein

June 18
12.00am – France Vs Mexico – Polokwane
05.00pm – Germany Vs Serbia – Port Elizabeth
07.30pm – Slovenia Vs USA – Johannesburg (Ellis)

June 19
12.00am – England Vs Algeria – Cape Town
05.00pm – Netherlands Vs Japan – Durban
07.30pm – Ghana Vs Australia – Rustenburg

June 20
12.00am – Cameroon Vs Denmark – Pretoria
05.00pm – Slovakia Vs Paraguay – Bloemfontein
07.30pm – Italy Vs New Zealand – Nelspruit

June 21
12.00am – Brazil Vs Ivory Coast – Johannesburg (SC)
05.00pm – Portugal Vs North Korea – Cape Town
07.30pm – Chile Vs Switzerland – Port Elizabeth

June 22
12.00am – Spain Vs Honduras – Johannesburg (Ellis)
07.30pm – Mexico Vs Uruguay – Rustenburg
07.30pm – France Vs South Africa – Bloemfontein

June 23
12.00am – Nigeria Vs South Korea – Durban
12.00am – Greece Vs Argentina – Polokwane
07.30pm – Slovenia Vs England – Port Elizabeth
07.30pm – USA Vs Algeria – Pretoria

June 24
12.00am – Ghana Vs Germany – Johannesburg (SC)
12.00am – Australia Vs Serbia – Nelspruit
07.30am – Slovakia Vs Italy – Johannesburg (Ellis)
07.30am – Paraguay Vs New Zealand – Polokwane

June 25
12.00am – Denmark Vs Japan – Rustenburg
12.00am – Cameroon Vs Netherlands – Cape Town
07.30am – Portugal Vs Brazil – Durban
07.30am – North Korea Vs Ivory Coast – Nelspruit

June 26
12.00am – Chile Vs Spain – Pretoria
12.00am – Switzerland Vs Honduras – Bloemfontein
Second Round – ROUND OF 16

June 26
07.30pm – Group A winner Vs Group B 2nd place – Port Elizabeth

June 27
12.00am – Group C winner Vs Group D 2nd place – Rustenburg
07.30pm – Group D winner Vs Group C 2nd place – Bloemfontein

June 28
12.00am – Group B winner Vs Group A 2nd place – Johannesburg (SC)
07. 30pm – Group E winner Vs Group F 2nd place – Durban

June 29
12.00am – Group G winner Vs Group H 2nd place – Johannesburg (Ellis)
07.30pm – Group F winner Vs Group E 2nd place – Pretoria

June 30
12.00am – Group H winner Vs Group G 2nd place – Cape Town
Quarter-finals

July 2
7.30pm – 1st Quarter-final – Port Elizabeth

July 3
12. 00am – 2nd Quarter-final – Johannesburg (SC)
7.30pm – 3rd Quarter-final – Cape Town

July 4
12.00am – 4th Quarter-final – Johannesburg (Ellis)
Semi-finals

July 7
12.00am – 1st Semi-final – Cape Town

July 8
12.00am – 2nd Semi-final – Durban

Third Place (July 11)
12.00am – Semi-final losers – Port Elizabeth

Final (July 12)
12.00am – Semi-final winners – Johannesburg (SC)

Apple's 'new baby' iPhone 4

Steve Jobs, Apple CEO, announced the new iconic device iPhone 4 which runs on iOS 4(previously known as iPhone OS) with gorgeous retina display, 720p HD video recording, FaceTime-video calling application, multitasking, folder organisation and a better battery along with more than 100 new features added to the existing ones.

iPhone 4 runs on iOS 4(previously known as iPhone OS) with gorgeous retina display, 720p HD video recording, FaceTime-video calling application, multitasking, folder organisation and a better battery along with more than 100 new features...

Hardware and Design:

 

 

The device is clearly “the biggest leap since iPhone” as Jobs said. Surprisingly thinner by 24% than the 3GS, the iPhone 4 is a mere 9.33mm (less than a centimetre!). This makes it the thinnest smartphone on the planet. The phone supports micro SIM, the same as in iPad.

 

 

On the hardware part it will have its own A4 chip that sits inside the recently launched iPad and is very fast and relatively smaller than the existing chip on iPhone 3GS. Being faster than 3GS means HSDPA/HSUPA speeds of 7.2Mbps down and 5.8Mbs up, which is quite good and real fast. The smallness of the chip allows for a longer battery which promises 40% more battery which will give 14 hours talk time on 2G, 7 hours on 3G, audio playback up to 40 hours, video up to 10 hours, internet over 3G up to 6 hours and 10 hours on Wi-Fi.

 

Other additions are 802.11n Wi-Fi, a gyroscope to detect motion on three axes and works much more precisely by coupling with accelerometer and compass to give a 6-axis motion sensing- a first on any phone. Finally, the device has an LED flash and 5 MP camera with larger and back illuminated censor to give stunning images. Apple had reduced the pixel-censor size ratio for better quality picture unlike other phone makers who increase the pixel density on the same small censors. There is a front VGA camera for video calls (however the back camera can also be used by a simple tap).

 

The back camera has the ability to record High-Definition or HD videos at 720p resolution at 30 FPS (frames per second, an industry standard). To add to the user experience, Jobs announced the iMovie for iPhone which could be used to edit the video footage from the phone, add transitions, effects etc. to make a movie on the phone itself.

 

The iPhone 4 will have an unique ‘Retina Display’ which offers four times pixel density than the current iPhone. The current iPhone 3GS has a pixel density of 163ppi (pixels per inch) but iPhone 4 takes it to 326ppi that is unseeable to the human eye. The human eye can see up to 300ppi and iPhone 4 has exceeded the standard by a huge notch. Why the fuss? The text on screen will look as clear as a printed book. The characters won’t pixelate and it will offer a sharp and crisp resolution of 960X640, way above the current phones in the market, with a normal contrast ratio of 800:1.

 

Design is a packed powerhouse with some “cool engineering”, in Jobs’ own words, the steel rim that wraps the sides has been used as antennae for GSM, UMTS, Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth radios. It promises better call quality over Wi-Fi. We have seen that Apple doesn’t waste even a single inch of space on its devices and makes use of it. (The circle around the camera doubles up a s a GPS antennae!). It retains the same physical buttons with a ringer/silent switch, volume up and down, sleep/wake or on/off along with one microphone near the 3.5mm stereo headphone jack for noise cancellation.

 

 

Software:

 

 

It runs on the renamed iOS 4 which packs some great and most awaited features like multitasking, folder organisation, Bluetooth key board support, spell check, playlist creation etc. The name has been changed to iOS as it runs on iPhone, iPod touch and iPad as well.

 

 

Multitasking was a feature that was deliberately not included by Apple in its previous iPhones as it drained the battery significantly. “We are not the first at it but we have got it just right”, Jobs claimed regarding multitasking. He said they have a better chip and better technology which does not drain the battery by unnecessarily running additional programmes in background.

 

Multitasking comes with a cool interface which appears once the user presses the home button twice and with a swipe of fingers one can see what apps are currently running. That means one can listen to music, browse web, switch to calls or play games without quitting the running applications.

 

Next big feature in the iOS 4 is folder organisation which now gices users the flexibility to store a whopping 2160 apps against the existing 180. One can simply hold an app icon and drag it onto another to make a folder, then rename it and place it anywhere on the home screens.

 

One can now have more intelligent dictionary which can be made to learn words and check spelling as well. The iPhone users can see a red dotted line if they type a wrong word and tapping on them will suggest them the right words for that combination of letters. A good and handy feature if you are in a habit of blogging or emailing from iPhone.

 

Integrated iAd platform which is a new venture for Apple is a great way to serve advertisement to users. Ads will be displayed in the applications but tapping on them won’t drag the user somewhere from where he/she cannot return! It will be in the app itself and will return to the app once the user wants it. Apple will give 60% to the developers and keep the 40% of the revenue with itself.

 

 

iMovie, a video editing application from Apple and iBooks, a book reader with the power to buy books from the iBookstore are two added attractions apart from FaceTime, a video calling feature. FaceTime lets the users make a video call from iPhone 4 to iPhone 4 over Wi-Fi and gives a decent quality as well. This can be used with both the cameras of the phone and cameras can be swapped as the user desires by tapping an icon on the screen.

The full specification sheet with some stunning images and features are posted on Apple’s website. As the banner on the site reads, “This changes everything. Again.”

Kevin Mitnick

Kevin David Mitnick (born August 6, 1963) is a computer security consultant and author. In the late 20th century, he was convicted of various computer- and communications-related crimes. At the time of his arrest, he was the most-wanted computer criminal in the United States.

Kevin David Mitnick
Adrian Lamo, Kevin Mitnick and Kevin Poulsen (photo ca. 2001)
Born	August 6, 1963 (age 46) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	Computer Consultant, Mitnick Security Consulting Author
Website http://www.kevinmitnick.com

Early life

At 12, Mitnick used social engineering to bypass the punchcard system used in the Los Angeles bus system. After a friendly bus driver told him where he could buy his own ticket punch, he could ride any bus in the greater LA area using unused transfer slips he found in the trash. Social engineering became his primary method of obtaining information, including user names and passwords and modem phone numbers.[2]
In high school, he was introduced by "Rirm Puk"[citation needed] to phone phreaking, a method of manipulating telephones, which he often used to evade long-distance charges. He also became handy with amateur radios, which he allegedly used to gain unauthorized access to the speaker systems of nearby fast food restaurants.
Computer cracking

Mitnick gained unauthorized access to his first computer network in 1979, at 16, when a friend gave him the phone number for the Ark, the computer system Digital Equipment Corporation (DEC) used for developing their RSTS/E operating system software. He broke into DEC's computer network and copied DEC's software, a crime he was charged with and convicted of in 1988. He was sentenced to 12 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release. Near the end of his supervised release, Mitnick hacked into Pacific Bell voice mail computers. After a warrant was issued for his arrest, Mitnick fled, becoming a fugitive for two and a half years.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Mitnick gained unauthorized access to dozens of computer networks while he was a fugitive. He used cloned cellular phones to hide his location and, among other things, copied valuable proprietary software from some of the country's largest cellular telephone and computer companies. Mitnick also intercepted and stole computer passwords, altered computer networks, and broke into and read private e-mail. Mitnick was apprehended in February 1995 in North Carolina. He was found with cloned cellular phones, more than 100 clone cellular phone codes, and multiple pieces of false identification

Confirmed criminal acts:

Using the Los Angeles bus transfer system to get free rides[4]
Evading the FBI
Hacking into DEC system(s) to view VMS source code (DEC reportedly spent $160,000 in cleanup costs)
Gaining full administrator privileges to an IBM minicomputer at the Computer Learning Center in Los Angeles in order to win a bet
Hacking Motorola, NEC, Nokia, Sun Microsystems and Fujitsu Siemens systems.

Alleged criminal acts:

Stole computer manuals from a Pacific Bell telephone switching center in Los Angeles
Read the e-mail of computer security officials at MCI Communications and Digital
Wiretapped the California DMV
Made free cell phone calls
Hacked Santa Cruz Operation, Pacific Bell, FBI, Pentagon, Novell, California Department of Motor Vehicles, University of Southern California and Los Angeles Unified School District systems.
Wiretapped FBI agents, according to John Markoff,although denied by Kevin Mitnick.

Arrest, conviction, and incarceration:

After a well-publicized pursuit, the FBI arrested Mitnick on February 15, 1995, at his apartment in Raleigh, North Carolina, on federal offenses related to a 2½-year computer hacking rampage.
In 1999, Mitnick confessed to four counts of wire fraud, two counts of computer fraud and one count of illegally intercepting a wire communication, as part of a plea agreement before the United States District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles. He was sentenced to 46 months in prison plus 22 months for violating the terms of his 1989 supervised release sentence for computer fraud. He admitted to violating the terms of supervised release by hacking into PacBell voicemail and other systems and to associating with known computer hackers, in this case co-defendant Louis De Payne.
Mitnick served five years in prison — four and a half years pre-trial and eight months in solitary confinement — because law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone".[10] He was released on January 21, 2000. During his supervised release, which ended on January 21, 2003, he was initially forbidden to use any communications technology other than a landline telephone. Mitnick fought this decision in court, eventually winning a ruling in his favor, allowing him to access the Internet.
Under the plea deal, Mitnick was also prohibited from profiting from films or books based on his criminal activity for seven years.
Mitnick now runs Mitnick Security Consulting LLC, a computer security consultancy.

Controversy:

Mitnick's criminal activities, arrest, and trial, along with the associated journalism were all controversial.
Though Mitnick has been convicted of copying software unlawfully and possession of several forged identification documents, his supporters argue that his punishment was excessive. In his 2002 book, The Art of Deception, Mitnick states that he compromised computers solely by using passwords and codes that he gained by social engineering. He claims he did not use software programs or hacking tools for cracking passwords or otherwise exploiting computer or phone security.
Two books explored the allegations: John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura's Takedown, and Jonathan Littman's The Fugitive Game. Littman made four main allegations:
journalistic impropriety by Markoff, who had covered the case for the New York Times based on rumor and government claims, while never interviewing Kevin himself.
overzealous prosecution of Mitnick by the government
mainstream media over-hyping Mitnick's actual crimes
Shimomura's involvement in the matter being unclear or of dubious legality
The case against Mitnick tested the new laws that had been enacted for dealing with computer crime, and it raised public awareness of security involving networked computers. The controversy remains, however, and Mitnick is often cited today as an example of the quintessential computer criminal.
Supporters of Mitnick have asserted that many of the charges against him were fraudulent and not based on actual losses.
Media:

In 2000, Skeet Ulrich and Russell Wong portrayed Kevin Mitnick and Tsutomu Shimomura in the movie Track Down, which was based on the book Takedown by John Markoff and Tsutomu Shimomura. The DVD was released in September 2004.
Further controversy came over the release of the movie, with Littman alleging that portions of the film were taken from his book without permission.
A fan-based documentary named Freedom Downtime was created in response to the corporate-based documentary Track Down.
Mitnick is the co-author, with William L. Simon, of two computer security books:

• The Art of Intrusion: The Real Stories Behind the Exploits of Hackers, Intruders & Deceivers
• The Art of Deception.

44 deemed universities derecognized by GOVT

New Delhi, Jan 19: The center on Monday, Jan 18, informed the Supreme Court of its decision to derecognise 44 deemed university across the country.

In the affidavit filed in the Supreme Court, the Human Resource Development

ministry cited irregualties in giving the 'deemed' tags to these institutions during the time of HRD minister Arjun Singh under the first UPA government.

Human Resource and Development ministry added that the government has approved the recommendations made by the high-powered P N Tandon committee and the Special Task Force, which set up to suggest measures to tackle the problem.

"The Review Committee came across several aberrations in the functioning of some of the institutions deemed to be universities. It found undesirable management architecture where families rather than professional academics controlled the functioning of institutions," the affidavit said.

The Center's study which includes 126 deemed universities across the country found 44 universities completely unfit to be conferred with the deemed tag.

44 other universities will given time to improve themesleves, while the remaining 38 was found to be doing well.

6 universities in Karnataka is on the unfit list. Tamil Nadu has 16 universities out of the 44 derecognize list. Uttar Pradesh has four, Haryana, Uttarakhand, Rajasthan and Maharashtra has three each and one each in Gujarat, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Bihar.

In a recent statement, HRD minister Kapil Sibal, questioned the functioning of these universities.

Sibal said that some of these universities do not fulfill the eligibility criteria and were found to be lacking in basic infrastructure like university campus and teaching staff.

The affidavit by the center,  came after the Supreme Court's directives to act on a PIL, seeking action against deemed universities which flout academic standards and norms and function solely on commercial purpose.

The list of universities which will be derecognized are as follows:

1. Christ College, Bangalore

2. Vignan's Foundation for Science, Technology and Research, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh

3. Lingaya's University, Faridabad

4. St Peter's Institute of Higher Education and Research, Chennai

5. Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Kanyakumari

6. Jaypee Institute of Information Technology, Noida

7.Shobhit Institute of Engineering and Technology, Meerut

8. Sumandeep Vidyapeet, Vadodara, Gujarat

9. Sri Devraj Urs Academy of Higher Education and Reserch, Kolar, Karnataka

10. Yenepoya University, Mangalore

11. BLDE University, Bijapur, Karnataka

12.Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences, Satara, Maharashtra

13.D Y Patil Medical College, Kolhapur, Maharashtra

14. Meenakshi Academy of Higher Education and Research, Chennai

15. Chettinad Academy of Research and Education, Kanchipuram

16. HIHT University, Dehradun

17. Santosh University, Ghaziabad

18. Maharshi Markandeshwar University, Ambala, Haryana

19. Manav Rachna International University, Faridabad

20. Sri Siddhartha Academy of Higher Education, Tumkur, Karnataka

21. Jain University, Bangalore

22. Tilak Maharashtra Vidyapeeth, Pune

23. Siksha "O" Anusandha, Bhubaneswar

24. Janardan Rai Nagar, Udaipur, Rajasthan

25. Institute of Advanced Studies in Education of Gandhi Vidya Mandir, Sardarshahr, Rajasthan

26. Mody Institute of Technology, Sikar, Rajasthan

27. Dr MGR Educational and Research Institute, Chennai

28. Saveetha Institute of Medical and Technical Sciences, Chennai

29. Kalasalingam Academy of Research and Education, Virdhunagar, Tamil Nadu

30. Periryar Maniammai Institute of Science and Technology, Thanjavur

31. Academy of Maritime Education and Training, Chennai

32. Vel's Institute of Science, Technology and Advanced Studies, Chennai

33. Karpagam Academy of Higher Education, Coimbatore

34. Vel Tech Rangaraja Dr Sagunthal R&D Institute of Science, Chennai

35. Gurukul Kangri, Haridwar

36. Grapich Era University, Dehradun

37. Nehru Gram Bharati Vishwavidyalaya, Allahabad

38. Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, Puducherry

39. Vinayaka Mission's Research Foundation, Salem, Tamil Nadu

40.Bharath Institute of Higher Education And Research, Chennai

41. Ponnaiya Ramajayam Institute of Science and Technology, Thanjavur, Tamil Nadu

42. Nava Nalanda Mahavira, Nalanda, Bihar

43. Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development, Sriperumbudur, Tamil Nadu

44. National Museum, Institute of the History of Art Conservation and Musicology, Janpath, New     Delhi.

Some highlights of the Cyber Criminal's 2009

Cyber criminals too can hold you to ransom, by encrypting important files or locking you out of your own computer

BANGALORE, INDIA: The past few months have witnessed wave after wave of online pandemics. Never-seen-before strains of existing malicious codes and completely new Trojans spread across millions of computers worldwide. Your computer, your identity, your money… nothing was spared in the cyber mafia's attempt to take over the internet.
Among the millions of attacks that Symantec has observed, a few stood out – in terms of reach, damage and sheer ingenuity. Read on for a lowdown on 5 highlights of the cyber criminal's 2009.
 
Locking you out of your own homepage
RANSOMWARE: Like in the physical world, cyber criminals too can hold you to ransom, by encrypting important files or locking you out of your own computer.
This threat uses scare or nuisance tactics—similar to rogue antivirus programs—in an attempt to demand ransom from its victims. Once infected with Trojan.Ransompage, an example of a Trojan that achieves this, your browser will display a persistent inline ad on every page you visits. The ad will cover part of the original Web page, as shown below. The ad will stay on the screen even if the page is scrolled. This ad is written in Russian and states that in order to remove the ad (and to gain access a porn site) the victim must send a premium rate text message to the number provided, and the user will receive a code to remove the ad.
You may think you can avoid this by simply switching browsers. However, the malware author is a step ahead and targeted three very popular browser with this piece of malware.
The other face of social networking
KOOBFACE: The Koobface worm infects users by using social engineering attacks. It spreads by abusing social networking websites or by employing search engine optimization techniques to lure potential victims to malicious sites.

MODE OF TRANSMISSION: The infrastructure used by the Koobface gang is relatively simple: a central server redirects victims to one of the infected bots where the social engineering attack takes place. While the central redirection point has been actively targeted by take-down requests, the Koobface gang has so far been quick to replace suspended domain names and blacklisted IPs with new ones.

A year has passed since Koobface was first detected; yet, this worm and the people behind it are still very active in keeping their infrastructure up to date, finding new means of propagating the infection, and taking advantage of their victims.
In just three weeks, Symantec observed 17,170 distinct infected IP addresses. This gave us a basis to gauge the extent of the infection. The figure below shows the geographic location of these Koobface bots. As indicated, several Indian cities are home to Koobface bots.
Flying into the cyber mafia's trap
AIRLINE TICKET SPAM: All of us want to travel the world, if only we could afford the astronomical airfares! Cyber criminals know that, which is why they've made it easy to grab cheap – or free – airline tickets to popular destinations. You don't even have to look for it online, because these offers land straight in your mailbox!
Symantec researchers are observing an increase in spam that is offering cheap airline tickets or gift vouchers to use towards a purchase of airline tickets. Spam messages are originating with email addresses, such as "AirlineTickets@spam-domain" and "Free.Airline.Tickets@spam-domain." A link redirects the user to an online form where the user's personal information and credit card details are requested. In many cases, it's the victim's money that will travel the world, and not the victim himself.
The top 10 headlines used in airline ticket spam are as follows:
Subject: RE: 2 [airline name removed] Airline Tickets
Subject: Fly the skies with cheap airfares.
Subject: Fly Anywhere in the U.S.
Subject: 2 Round Trip Airline tickets. Fly anywhere in the US
Subject: Airfare on us - with this [airline name removed] Airlines Reward Card
Subject: Airline ticket bookings made easier.
Subject: Airline tickets. The quickest way to anywhere.
Subject: Airline tickets to any place in the world.
Subject: Amazing deals across all airlines.
Subject: Book cheap airline tickets now!
Even death can't stop them
TRAGEDY SPAM: Three global celebrities passed away last year, and while the world mourned, cyber criminals got busy. The deaths of Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, and Michael Jackson were prime targets for spammers and malicious code authors alike.
Internet users saw a flurry of threats seeking to play upon the emotions and curiosity of the public around these events. If you looked for news, videos, pictures, or any information regarding these individuals and their lives, you're likely to have had a close encounter with the cyber mafia.

In just one of several examples, Symantec observed spam that appears to be a spoof on CNN but actually contains a link to a malicious Web page. Users who clicked on the link were redirected to a page that prompted them to download and run a file on a fake Flash Player, which actually installed malicious code.
Here are some of the additional spam and online tactics Symantec saw:
Spam with subject lines related to these deaths with malware attached Search engine poisoning campaigns injecting malicious sites into the top search engine results related to any of these deaths Sites and links claiming to host videos of the last moments of these individuals lives, but actually peddling fake goods or malware Social networking messages on these deaths that linked to malware Dial T for trouble The increasing use of smartphones has given cyber criminals a vast, lucrative new avenue to create trouble. Recently, we've seen a series of threats that target mobile phones. With India's mobile additions exceeding 12 million every month, the payoff for the online mafia is quite obvious. Described below two unique attacks.
PHONESNOOP: A Blackberry application called PhoneSnoop was released recently, which allowed remote users to listen in on a Blackberry user's surroundings.
 
The application is actually quite straightforward and uses standard Blackberry APIs that allow the interception of incoming phone calls. When a call is received from a preconfigured phone number, the call is automatically answered and the speakerphone is engaged. Someone who has had this application installed may not notice the incoming phone call and not realize someone can now listen in on the immediate surroundings.
THE IPHONE WORM: The number of attacks designed to exploit a certain operating system or platform is directly related to that platform's market share, as malware authors want the biggest bang for their buck. In 2009, we saw Macs and smartphones targeted more by malware authors, for example the Sexy Space botnet aimed at the Symbian mobile device operating system and the OSX.Iservice Trojan targeting Mac users.
An Australian hacker wrote the first worm for jailbroken iPhones. The worm has been dubbed "Ikee" and uses the default SSH password of jailbroken iPhones to log in and spread.

Many users who have jailbroken their iPhones in order to customize them have not changed their SSH password, allowing others to log in to their phone. Once a vulnerable iPhone is found, the worm changes the wallpaper to a picture of Rick Astley (a prank known as Rickrolling), deletes the SSH daemon, and begins scanning the network for other vulnerable phones.

Bharti to roll-out WiFi hotspots in India

Airtel plans to launch more than 1000 hotspots across the nation by end of 2010

NEW DELHI, INDIA: Toeing the lines of Tata Communications and state-owned telecom operator BSNL, Bharti Airtel is all set get into the WiFi market by launching hotspots across the nation.  Google Yahoo Microsoft: The WiFI war is on In a report in The Economic Times, Vikas Singh, CMO for Telemedia Services at Bharti Airtel had been quoted as saying, "Airtel WiFi hotspots will be strategically located at leading premium hotels, hospitals, chains of restaurants, coffee shops and corporate buildings that are the hub of corporate, community and social activities. For us, this is an initiative to increase customer stickiness and enhance average revenue per user (ARPU) of our broadband customer base." Airtel plans to launch more than 1000 hotspots across the nation by end of 2010, however, the service will only be accessible by current Airtel Broadband subscribers initially. Currently, Tata Communications are the market leaders in this segment with over 500 hotspots and BSNL is also in the process of setting up WiFi hotspots across the country.

How to secure network from hackers?

Every four minutes a network is hacked costing organizations millions of dollars. Using penetration testing tools, ethical hackers can save them from this pain




BANGALORE, INDIA: The history of crime prevention is similar to the history of warfare. First an offense takes place and to counter it a defense is developed. Modern age bandits are malicious hackers who strategically infringe into a network and get away with sensitive data. The worst that they can do with your data is, selling the data to competitors or can even blackmail you over your personal stuff.

The hacking business has surpassed illegal drug trafficking as a criminal money maker. Every 4 minutes a network is hacked and this costs the organization millions to cover for the losses. So instead of spending millions on covering losses the organizations prefer to protect their network by hiring people who penetrate the company network under a signed contract. These people are called ethical hackers or pen-testers who try to gain access into the network without knowing usernames and passwords. These people run various rigorous tests on the network and test its security infrastructure.

The techniques and software used to carry out pen-tests are called pen-tools or penetration tools. These tools are also used by hackers to hack into the systems and networks, so the basic difference between a pen-tester and hacker is permission. The pen-tester is permitted to actually hack into the network (up to a certain extent only), while the hacker hacks the network without permission and steals information. Pen-testing is a precautionary exercise that lets the organization know if there is any vulnerability in its security infrastructure so that they can correct them as instructed by the pen-tester.

Pen-testing can be categorized as Black Box testing; where the pen-tester has no knowledge of the system he will penetrate (simulation of the real time situation where the hacker works on an alien system), another type is White Box penetration testing, where a pen-tester is provided significant knowledge about the network and in many cases these tests are done in conjunction with the IT team of the company. After the tests are conducted a well documented report is written and presented.

Benefits of pen-testing
What is the need for us to pen test our network? Who will hack our network and what would he get in return? These obvious questions pop up in the mind of many business owners when probed  about security. Small enterprises lack a dedicated force for security of their information and if it exists it is more or less business driven, experts if any are not well experienced. The goal of the organization is liquidity and security is not given much concern.

Some businesses just get fine with automatic software updates, strong passwords, and a firewall, whereas others need some more control. For intruders it's about getting access to resources the easiest way possible and if we go by records there has been a sharp increase in security breaches within small enterprises. The big money is now in stealing personal identification number (PIN) information together with associated credit and debit accounts. PIN based frauds are directly related to withdrawing cash from a person's account. Small enterprises may be attacked as an opportunity or they may be randomly selected from large population of vulnerable organizations.

Unlike small and medium enterprises which are quite ignorant about their security, large enterprises spend significant amounts of capital on their security and privacy. Since the security of the large enterprises is directly related to their reputation, they take a lot of pain in ensuring that their networks are safe and secure. Another reason for large enterprises to protect their network is growing competition, as recently we have seen a lot of large emerging companies that are ready to meet any end to capture the market.

As organizations become more and more aware they have started budgeting over IT security practices and lot of small and medium business are also becoming savvier in making decisions over IT security concerns. The organizations are constantly thriving to gain the customer confidence, and so are spending huge amounts on their security practices and this is where penetration testing comes into picture.

We launched a Brute Force attack using a tool called Cain & Abel to decrypt the encrypted passwords added to the network.

Cain & Abel was used to launch an ARP Poisoning and Sniffing attack on the target network to fetch passwords.

Cain & Abel used for retrieving passwords of duped users on the network. You can see all the passwords and names of users who were duped on the network. Pen-test vs vulnerability assessment The vulnerability test gets into system till it isn't compromised while the penetration tests can compromise a system as per the contract with the company. Most organizations carry out vulnerability tests instead of penetration tests. Vulnerability test is only about identifying and quantifying the security flaws, while penetration testing is active analysis of the system for any weaknesses or flaws and can involve active exploitation of security vulnerabilities. Security issues are reported to the owner and often a technical solution is suggested. Penetration tools Many penetration tools are existent today and most are freeware, however our focus is on two important tools, VoIP and firewall testing tools. To test VoIP we selected Cain & Abel since this tool is developed for Microsoft operating systems. It is basically a password recovery tool with many useful utilities like dictionary attack, cryptanalysis, brute forcing attack, and ARP poisoning, recovering local security asserts secrets. An important feature of Cain and Abel is that it works within in an established LAN as soon as we move out from LAN this test is of little use. We performed some interesting tests with this tool, namely brute forcing attack, ARP poisioning and recovered LSA secrets for a local machine. Some useful and tested features of this test are: Protected password recovery:  Reveals locally stored passwords of Outlook, Outlook Express, Outlook Express Identities, Outlook 2002, Internet Explorer and MSN Explorer. Brute force attack: The most effective technique to generate password based on various combinations. It is applied to hash files generated through PwDump  utility. LSA Secrets Dumper: Dumps the contents of the Local Security Authority Secrets. Sniffer: Captures passwords, hashes and authentication information while they are transmitted on the network. Includes several filters for application specific authentications and routing protocols. The VoIP filter enables the capture of voice conversations transmitted with the SIP/RTP protocol saved later as WAV files. ARP Poisoning Attack: This attack is based on poisoning of the ARP cache of the switch, as it is known that all the traffic in a LAN is passed through a switch which maintains ARP (Address Resolution protocol) cache. The attack basically poisons the ARP cache of the switch so that all traffic will move through the attacker's machine without the knowledge of the user. Cain and Abel is user friendly and its results are 99% accurate. The newest version, v49.35, has added support for Windows 2008 Server in APR-RDP sniffing filter. For more references you can log on to www.oxid.it. A limitation with Cain and Abel is that you have to get into the network to use it. Another limitation is that since it is free and created for use in educational and security purposes, it can also be used by hackers to hack into your network. There are many network tools which are used for mapping networks, however the most popular of them is Firewalk which is used to gather information about the remote network. The principle of firewalk is based on traceroute. However, the limitation of traceroute is that with this we can only trace the response of the gateways but the knowledge about its internal network is not known. If we want to trace the network behind the firewall, we have to run a slightly different kind of probe. This probe lets us know the kind of traffic a firewall can pass through. To extract information with the traceroute probe it is necessary that we know the IP address of the gateway. Once we get the gateway IP we can now run a scan which will let us know the kind of protocol packets that are accepted by the firewall. This is simple. Run a scan and if you don't get a response then the protocol used by you is blocked by the firewall. Try sending packets for different protocols and monitor the response. By sending packets to every host behind the firewall an accurate map about network topology can be generated. Firewalk It is one of the popular reconnaissance and an open source tool used for determining what four layers will a given IP forwarding device will pass. The working includes sending TCP/UDP packets with TTL (Time to Live) one greater than the targeted gateway. The gateway will forward the packets to the next hop where they will expire and an error message stating ICMP_TIME_ EXCEEDED is displayed, however if the gateway blocks the packet it will give no response. To get the correct IP TTL that will expire one hop beyond the gateway, we need to ramp up hop counts. After ramping we can start scanning the network. Firewalk can be used as an hacking tool by hackers and can also be used by pen-testers to examine that ACLs (Access control lists are used on  routers to limit the protocols allowed to pass through the host system behind the router) are doing what they are intended to do. When we opened two ports SMTP (25) and HTTP (80) by port forwarding in the firewall and tried to scan them using NETCAT, these results were obtained. We tried a similar test to determine the network behind the firewall by creating a dummy network and running test over it. The network included a firewall (Endian), a mail server and a client computer. The three interfaces of firewall ? WAN , internal and DMZ were connected as a network. The WAN interface was connected to the Internet terminal while an internal network behind the firewall was made to which a mail pop3 server was connected and this was connected to the DMZ interface. A test machine running backtrack was used as an Attacking machine. A firewall probe was then run on the machine and results were recorded. As the setup was very simple and didn't have any misconfiguration in our case, Firewalk was not able to detect any configuration error in the setup. NETCAT NETCAT is a  computer networking service  for reading and writing network  connections using TCP and UDP  protocols. At the same time, it is a feature-rich network debugging and investigation tool, since it can produce almost any kind of correlation you would need. It is basically a UNIX based utility but its Windows compatible versions are also available. NETCAT can also be used as a port scanner which detects the open ports on the target machine. We used NETCAT for scanning the open ports on the target machine and to get the information of the network behind the firewall. One may think, it is even possible to connect to an arbitarary ports using even a simple tool like Telnet so what is the USP of this tool. The explanation lies in the fact that Telnet has standard input EOF problem so one must introduce calculated delays in driving scripts to allow network output to finish. Telnet also will not transfer arbitrary binary data, because certain characters are interpreted as Telnet options and are thus removed from the data stream.