Forking in PHP on Mac OSX using pcntl_fork

1)sudo port selfupdate

2)sudo port update outdated

3)sudo port install php5-pcntl

4)Try the following example

$pid = pcntl_fork();

if($pid) {

// parent process runs what is here

print "parent\n";

}

else {

// child process runs what is here

print "child\n";

}

?>

Init script to mount EBS and attach elastic IPs to EC2 instances

Modified init script to mount EBS automatically to your EC2 instances.  It also dynamically attaches your instances to an elastic ip.  You have to provide both EBS volume id and elastic ip as userdata separated by pipe symbol for this script to work.  Sample userdata 

vol-12345678|171.213.234.123

You have to use 

update-rc.d mountec2vol start 47 S . stop 35 0 6 . start 37 6 .

to add this script to startup. This script also additional code to mount mysql data directory and nginx directories from EBS. You can skip that part.



#! /bin/sh
#
# /etc/init.d/mountec2vol
#
# chkconfig: 234 20 50
# description: Assigns an EC2 EBS Volume to a device and mounts the device
#
# To add this as a service run:
# /sbin/chkconfig --add mountec2vol
#
# VARS
#
DEV="/dev/sdh"
MOUNT_POINT="/vol"
EC2_LOG='/var/log/ec2.log';
SELF=$(cd $(dirname $0); pwd -P)/$(basename $0)

export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.13/
export EC2_PRIVATE_KEY=/root/.ec2/pk.pem
export EC2_CERT=/root/.ec2/cert.pem
export EC2_HOME=/usr/local/src/ec2-api-tools-1.3-36506/
PATH=$PATH:$HOME/bin:$EC2_HOME/bin
MAX_TRIES=60

attach_ebs()
{
/bin/echo "=====================================" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/bin/echo "Date: "`date` | tee -a $EC2_LOG;
/bin/echo "Attaching Elastic Block Store Volumes." | tee -a $EC2_LOG
ec2-attach-volume $VOL -i $INSTANCE -d $DEV 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
CTR=0
while [ ! -e "$DEV" ]; do
/bin/sleep 1
CTR=`expr $CTR + 1`
if [ $CTR -eq $MAX_TRIES ]
then
/bin/echo "WARNING: Cannot attach volume $VOL to $DEV -- Giving up after $MAX_TRIES attempts" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
exit 1
fi
done
}
mount_ebs()
{
/bin/echo "Checking if $MOUNT_POINT is present" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
if [ ! -d $MOUNT_POINT ]; then
mkdir $MOUNT_POINT 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
fi
/bin/echo "Mounting EBS to /vol " | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/bin/mount $DEV $MOUNT_POINT 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
}
mount_mysql_dirs()
{
/bin/echo "Mounting mysql dirs" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/bin/mount /etc/mysql/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
/bin/mount /var/lib/mysql/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
/bin/mount /var/log/mysql/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
/bin/mount /usr/local/nginx/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
}
unmount_mysql_dirs()
{
set +e;
/bin/echo "stopping mysql" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/etc/init.d/mysql stop;
set -e;
/bin/echo "Unmounting mysql dirs" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/bin/umount /etc/mysql/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
/bin/umount /var/lib/mysql/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
/bin/umount /var/log/mysql/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
}
unmount_nginx_dirs()
{
set +e;
/bin/echo "stopping nginx" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/etc/init.d/nginx stop;
set -e;
/bin/echo "Unmounting nginx dirs" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/bin/umount /usr/local/nginx/ 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
}
unmount_ebs()
{
/bin/echo "Unmounting Elastic Block Store Volumes." | tee -a $EC2_LOG
/bin/umount $MOUNT_POINT 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
}
detach_ebs()
{
/bin/echo "Detaching Elastic Block Store Volumes." | tee -a $EC2_LOG
ec2-detach-volume $VOL 1>&2 2>>$EC2_LOG
}
populate_aws_data()
{
/bin/echo "Populating AWS data" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
INSTANCE=`curl http://169.254.169.254/latest/meta-data/instance-id 2> /dev/null`
USERDATA=`curl http://169.254.169.254/1.0/user-data 2>/dev/null`;
}
parse_user_args()
{
/bin/echo "Parsing user_args " | tee -a $EC2_LOG
VOL=${USERDATA%|*};
IP=${USERDATA#*|};
echo "usedata vol ip";
echo $USERDATA;
echo $VOL;
echo $IP;
}
bind_ip()
{
/bin/echo "Associating ip address: $IP to $INSTANCE" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
ec2-associate-address -i $INSTANCE $IP;
}

# start/stop functions for OS

case "$1" in

start)
populate_aws_data;
parse_user_args;
bind_ip;
attach_ebs;
mount_ebs;
mount_mysql_dirs;
sh -x /vol/ec2_stuff/everytime_by_mountec2.sh;
;;
stop)
unmount_mysql_dirs;
unmount_nginx_dirs;
unmount_ebs;
detach_ebs;
;;
restart)
set +e;
$SELF stop;
set -e;
sleep 60;
$SELF start
;;
*)
echo "Usage: $0 {start|stop|restart}" | tee -a $EC2_LOG
exit 1

esac

exit 0




Auto Mounting EBS on EC2

I assume that you have already created a EC2 instance (On top of your custom AMI),  EBS volume (both in the same availability zone) . Below are some instructions to automount EBS on EC2. 

AutoMount Init Script

===========================

http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/thread.jspa?threadID=25071&start=0&tstart=0

1)apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-bin sun-java6-source

2)cd /usr/local/src/

3)wget http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/servlet/JiveServlet/download/30-25071-102530-2022/mountec2vol

4)wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads/ec2-api-tools.zip

unzip ec2-api-tools.zip

5)edit mountec2vol

set JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.13/  or equivalent

set EC2_PRIVATE_KEY EC2_CERT

set EC2_HOME=/usr/local/src/ec2-api-tools-1.3-36506/

set VOL and DEV

6)cp mountec2vol /etc/init.d/

7)chmod +x /etc/init.d/mountec2vol

8)test  mountec2vol

/etc/init.d/mountec2vol start

/etc/init.d/mountec2vol stop

9)update-rc.d mountec2vol start 15 2 3 4 5 . start 47 S . start 35 0 1 6 .

10)Bundle the new image

ec2-bundle-vol -d /mnt -k /mnt/pk-balbal.pem -c /mnt/cert-balhbalh.pem -u userid  -r i386  -p automountingebs

11)upload the new image

ec2-upload-bundle  --url https://s3.amazonaws.com/subdir/ -b yourbucket  -m /mnt/automountingebs.xml -a accessid -s yoursecret

12)register image

ec2-register yourbucket /subdir/automountingebs.xml

Some additional info to create EBS 

=========================

On local machine

================

ec2-create-volume -z us-east-1c -s 10

ec2-describe-volumes vol-VVVV1111

ec2-attach-volume -d /dev/sdh -i i-IIII1111 vol-VVVV1111

On EC2 Instance

===============

apt-get install -y xfsprogs

modprobe xfs

mkfs.xfs /dev/sdh

echo "/dev/sdh /vol xfs noatime 0 0" >> /etc/fstab

mkdir /vol

mount /vol

http://developer.amazonwebservices.com/connect/entry.jspa?externalID=1663

AutoMount

=========

http://www.ioncannon.net/system-administration/199/automounting-amazon-ebs-volumes-on-ec2-instances/

Nginx + PHPFPM + Memcache + Mysql + XCache + Monit + Logrotate

Step by Step

============

1)install debian (in case of EC2 - grab a public debian image and create a instance using it)

2)apt-get update

3)apt-get install openssh-server

4)apt-get install vim screen rsync rcconf telnet emacs locate unzip

5)set up .bashrc and  .vimrc

6)apt-get install sysstat subversion sudo

7)add new users and configure sudo

8)aptitude install postfix

9)apt-get install mysql-server mysql-client

10) mysql_secure_installation 

11)aptitude install build-essential libtool libltdl3-dev libgd-dev libmcrypt-dev libxml2-dev libmysqlclient15-dev flex m4 awk automake autoconf bison make libbz2-dev libpcre3-dev libssl-dev zlib1g-dev re2c

12)install php with fpm, curl, mysql

  Install PHP with FPM, CURL, Mysql etc

  =============

  1)sudo apt-get install libcurl4-openssl-dev(if 4 is not found, intall libcurl3-openssol-dev)

  2)sudo apt-get install libjpeg62

  3)sudo apt-get install libjpeg62-dev

  4)sudo apt-get install libpng12-dev

  5)cd /usr/local/src/

  6)wget http://in.php.net/distributions/php-5.2.8.tar.bz2

  7)wget http://php-fpm.anight.org/downloads/head/php-5.2.8-fpm-0.5.10.diff.gz

  8)gunzip php-5.2.8-fpm-0.5.10.diff.gz 

  9)tar -jxvpf php-5.2.8.tar.bz2

  10)patch -d php-5.2.8 -p1 <>

  11)./configure  --enable-fastcgi --enable-fpm --with-mcrypt --with-zlib --enable-mbstring --with-openssl --with-mysql --with-mysql-sock --with-gd --with-jpeg-dir=/usr/lib --enable-gd-native-ttf --without-sqlite --disable-pdo --disable-reflection --with-curl --with-mysqli=/usr/bin/mysql_config

  9)make

  9)make test

Test whether both mysql and mysqli are supported

  10)sudo make install

13)vi /usr/local/etc/php-fpm.conf 

:63

www-data

:66

www-data

You may want to add: /usr/local/lib/php to your php.ini include_path

14)install  xcache

   Install XCahce

   =============

   1)wget http://xcache.lighttpd.net/pub/Releases/1.2.2/xcache-1.2.2.tar.gz

   2)tar -zxvf xcache-1.2.2.tar.gz 

   3)cd xcache-1.2.2

   4)phpize

   5)./configure --with-php-config=/usr/local/bin/php-config --enable-xcache

   6)make install

15)install nginx

  Install Nginx

  ==============

  1)wget http://sysoev.ru/nginx/nginx-0.6.36.tar.gz

  2)tar xzvf nginx

  3)cd nginx

  4)./configure --sbin-path=/usr/local/sbin --with-http_ssl_module --without-mail_pop3_module --without-mail_imap_module --without-mail_smtp_module

  5)make

  6)make install

16)configure nginx

    Configure Nginx

    ==============

    1)cd /usr/local/nginx/

    2)vi conf/nginx.conf

    read for more details

    http://www.yawn.it/2008/04/30/nginx-php-php-fpm-on-debian-etch-40/

    Enable forwarding php requests to php-fpm by uncommenting the handling of .php files

    edit fastcgi_param as follows

    fastcgi_param SCRIPT_FILENAME /usr/local/nginx/html$fastcgi_script_name;

    https://calomel.org/nginx.html

    http://articles.slicehost.com/2008/5/15/ubuntu-hardy-nginx-configuration

    http://articles.slicehost.com/2008/5/16/ubuntu-hardy-nginx-virtual-hosts

    3)change log format to include response time 

    http://wiki.nginx.org/NginxHttpUpstreamModule#.24upstream_response_time

17)configure xcache

    Configure XCache

    ================

    1)vi /usr/local/lib/php.ini

    add the following contents 

    magic_quotes_gpc=0

    [xcache-common]

    zend_extension = /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/xcache.so

    [xcache]

    xcache.shm_scheme = "mmap"

    xcache.size = 64M

    date.timezone = “Europe/Rome”

    default_charset = “utf-8″

18)install memcache extension for php

  Install Memcache extension for php

  ===================================

  compile php with memcache support

  http://www.mail-archive.com/php-install@lists.php.net/msg15223.html

  1)wget http://pecl.php.net/get/memcache-2.2.5.tgz

  2)tar -zxvf memcache-2.2.5.tgz

  3)cd memcache-2.2.5

  4)phpize 

  5)./configure 

  6)make && make test

  7)$ sudo make install

  Installing shared extensions:     /usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/

  8)vi /usr/local/lib/php.ini

  Add the following to php.ini

  extension=memcache.so

  display_startup_errors = On

  extension_dir = "/usr/local/lib/php/extensions/no-debug-non-zts-20060613/"

  9)run memcache test case in genlib/testcases/basic_memcache.php 

19)test nginx - add init scripts 

Test nginx add  init.d scripts

=======================================

1)nginx

2)php-fpm start

3)create a info.php file and test it.

4)sudo kill `cat /usr/local/nginx/logs/nginx.pid`

5)add init.d scripts - follow instructions in 

http://articles.slicehost.com/2007/10/19/debian-etch-adding-an-nginx-init-script/

20)test php-fpm - add init script 

Test php-fpm add init.d scripts

===============================

1)cd /etc/init.d/

2)ln -s /usr/local/sbin/php-fpm php-fpm

3)/usr/sbin/update-rc.d -f php-fpm defaults

21)optimize

optimize

=======

Find out the number of connections to phpfpm from nginx

$netstat -np | grep 127.0.0.1:9000 | grep -v TIME_WAIT

set appropraite value for variables in php-fpm.conf 

set request_terminate_timeout to 10s

set request_slowlog_timeout to 6s

set user and group to  www-data 

set max_children to 20

perform ab testing and optimize  worker_processes, worker_connections in nginx and max_children in php-fpm.conf

22)add logrotate scripts for nginx,php-fpm

       logrotate scripts

       ================

       1)create logroate conf for nginx and php-fpm - copy logroate files from conf_files dir 

       2)add entries for nginx and php-fpm logrotation at /etc/cron.daily/logrotate (not needed if /etc/logrotate.d is included in the logrotate.conf files, just make sure logrotate is called daily)

23)fine tune php-fpm.conf - enable slow query - set max execution time

24)fine tune mysql - enable slow query - log queries that don't use index

25)check if query cache is turned on in mysql - optimize it

Optimize Query Cache in mysql

============================

1) show variables like 'query%';

2) show status like 'qc%';

http://dev.mysql.com/tech-resources/articles/mysql-query-cache.html

26)install monit

  Monit

  =====

  1)apt-get install monit

  2)vim /etc/monit/monitrc  - configure it

  3)create /etc/monit/monit.d directory - add sshd,nginx monit config files here

  4)add include /etc/monit/monit.d/* option in /etc/monit/monitrc

  3)monit -t

  4)vim /etc/default/monit  set startup=1

  5)test monit

vim tip for copying code from webpage

Sometimes copying code from webpage to vim can be painful. You might end up loosing all the newlines. So I prefer to copy (from webpages) using html source. If you use html source, you will have to replace &gt, &lt .. and lot more to <,> and stuff.

The following will do it automatically for you.
:%!perl -pne 'use HTML::Entities; $_=decode_entities($_)'

Thanks to godlygeek from #vim .

Wifi at Changi Airport

I just checked out the free internet terminals in Changi Airport. Few of them run secured version of Internet Explorer. I was also able to use "Wireless@SG", the free island wide wireless at Changi. The speed was amazing. I had to download JavaDoc for JDK 1.5. It completed in 12 minutes. If you are not aware, JavaDoc for JDK 1.5 is 150MB.

IT Security Awareness Day 2007 at Singapore Poly

I gave a talk on WebSecurity at Singapore Poly at the IT Security Awareness Day Event. Around 300 students attended the event, and most of them were school kids. I mostly spoke about Johnny's Google Hacking Database, and little bit about XSS. Justin Lister from InterSect Singapore also spoke at the event. He organized a simple game to explain Phishing. Thanks to Samson, and Cecil for organizing the event.

Lunch with David Axmark, Co-founder of MySQL

David Axmark, the Co-founder of MySQL was in Singapore today. The local MySQL interest group meet along with David at GeekTerminal for lunch. David patiently answered variety of questions relating to BitKeeper, GIT, SpikeSource's testing framework , Enterprise version of MySQL, SQLite, India, SQL Injection, etc. Thanks to Wong for organizing the event.

UandMe

Social networking has grown a big way. FaceBook has taken social networking to a different level. UandMe is a mobile social networking application build by Locatrix. UandMe goes one step further, by integrating with GPS. With UandMe, you can know where your friend is, find a near by restaurant to meet with your friend, create alerts for various events, etc. Location based advertisement is also possible when you integrate with GPS. I guess UandMe will change the way people meet, dine, work etc. I was privileged to meet with Mark White, the founder of Locatrix. He was also kind enough to demonstrate UandMe.

Security Related Groups in Singapore

1) LinkedIn Group for OWASP
2) OWASP-Singapore mailing list
3) Security Meetup - Singapore == Next meeting on 13th Dec 2007.

OWASP Meeting at GeekTerminal Singapore

Two days back, I attended the second OWASP-Singapore (Open Web Application Security Project) meeting at Geek Terminal. Six people turned out and we had three different presentations. Michael Boman spoke about "Overcoming USB (In) Security". He also demonstrated Lock Picking. Wong from Resolve spoke about ILDP Strategies. Later we discussed about MMORPG hacking. We discussed about SecondLife hacking, gaming client hacking, gaming logic exploitation, etc . We also discussed about developing a framework to test and prevent Game Hacking. Later we discussed about websecurity. The whole meeting went for around 3 hours. I wish more people join.

Singleton Vs Static

Singleton, MVC and Factory patterns are the design patterns I use very often. I also use static classes, more often than Singleton, but static classes are not design patterns. For every implementation of Singleton, one can come out with an alternate implementation with static classes. Lot of critics argue that Singleton is not the right way to program, and it is an anti-pattern. Singleton patterns can be considered as substitutions for global variables, and they are most useful when you want to use the same instance all over your program. Using one object ( say of type Class A) to manage instances of a different class (say Class B) , and providing all functionalities using the objects of Class B is obviously a better coding practice. This is a better replacement of Singleton pattern, compared with static classes. Here is an interesting discussing I'd with Cybereal at #java@irc.freenode.net. Cybereal explains why Singleton is a bad wrt to dependency injection.


(12:03:11 AM) codeshepherd: cybereal .. Aren't Singleton the best suitable implementations for Database connection pooling ?
(12:03:43 AM) codeshepherd: In a more general way... Singletons are best suitable to manager global variables..
(12:03:53 AM) cybereal: singletons *ARE* global variables, basically
(12:03:56 AM) cybereal: and that's why they are bad
(12:04:24 AM) cybereal: codeshepherd: you shouldn't need to use a singleton to use the same resource across a program
(12:04:50 AM) cybereal: but because people are lazy about typing and passing on dependency information to instantiated objects, you find they will lean towards singletons to do little more than save some keystrokes
(12:05:01 AM) cybereal: It's really hard to justify it for any other reason
(12:05:41 AM) cybereal: codeshepherd: despite being an anti-pattern, it does get used frequently so you'll still need to know how to deal with it, and sometimes to work around them
(12:06:02 AM) cybereal: at least in java if you really need to you can bury a singleton in a separate classloader instance
(12:06:13 AM) codeshepherd: So how will you implement a Database connection pool? Just a static class ?
(12:06:30 AM) cybereal: no, a regular class that you pass around to all the new instances of other classes that need to know about it
(12:06:44 AM) cybereal: like handing out invitations to a party
(12:06:58 AM) cybereal: you don't hand out houses with those invitations, and people aren't expected to figure out the address themselves
(12:07:06 AM) codeshepherd: then.. some dumb guy who comes tomorrow will start creating instances of the regular class..
(12:07:13 AM) cybereal: it won't matter
(12:07:24 AM) cybereal: but even so, if he's dumb he's gonna do dumb things :)
(12:07:34 AM) cybereal: you shouldn't write bad code just to try and protect from dumb coders
(12:07:54 AM) cybereal: but the point is you should be able to have more than one in the same vm, and not have them hurt each other
(12:07:56 AM) codeshepherd: It is really a debatable issue..
(12:08:54 AM) cybereal: codeshepherd: you probably won't really see it this way until it eventually comes back to bite you in the ass as it has me :)
(12:09:08 AM) codeshepherd: I still agree with the fact that.. you let one class (A) provide all functions.. and another class manage instances of Class A.. .. that looks more clean..
(12:09:33 AM) cybereal: you're making a mistake of thinking a class should ever be in charge of anything
(12:09:37 AM) cybereal: INSTANCES of classes should
(12:09:43 AM) cybereal: classes are blue prints
(12:09:54 AM) codeshepherd: hmm.. ok....
cybereal cybereal
(12:10:19 AM) codeshepherd: interesting argument.. thanks a lot cybereal
(12:10:28 AM) cybereal: nothing stops you, as I already described, from sharing a single instance of a class across your whole app
(12:10:50 AM) cybereal: you get what you want from a singleton without the limiting factors, and all it takes is a little longer parameter list in constructors :)
(12:11:18 AM) codeshepherd: ok.. I guess I will realize it better when it bites me back..
(12:11:24 AM) cybereal: hehe ok

GMail's POP and SMTP service.

GMail's POP and SMTP service have been giving lot of troubles lately. Very often, I'm not able to send out mails via SMTP, and downloading new mails occurs at snails pace. Many others have reported the same problem, and I hope Google fixes it very soon. Email is an essential service, and use web interface for checking emails can be tedious if you have dozens of email accounts with a variety of service providers.

Red Black Tree

TreeSet is an implementation of Red-Black Tree in Java. It implements the Set and Collection interface. Here is a short yet excellent video on adding new nodes to TreeSet.

Barcamp - Brisbane, Australia.

I'm planning to fly a bit early for OSDC, so that I can also attend Brisbane Barcamp. It is on Saturday, 24/11/2007. I'm planning to talk there on websecurity. I'm also looking forward to meet David Novakovic, a Computational Linguistics researcher and geek from Gold Coast. He will also speak about his new technology incubator. Click here for complete list of talk at Brisbane Barcamp. Let me know if anyone else is also planning to attend.

Design Patterns by Codingkriggs

Codingkriggs has excellent set of videos on Design Patterns. I wish he continues making videos :)

Linus on GIT

The concept of distributed source code management system is very interesting. IMHO GIT is a much better idea compared with Subversion. GIT takes care of the social factors involved in running a open source project. Here is a talk by Linus on GIT.

Interactive Shell

Interactive Shells for some popular languages.

IPython ==> Python (supports readline)
IRB ==> Ruby (supports readline)
php -a ==> PHP
BeanShell ==> Java (interpretor for compiled language?? )
SquareFree Shell ==> JavaScript

Installing readline library should help you auto complete and browse through history.

Yahoo! Pipes

I've been playing with Yahoo Pipes for a while now. Here is a Yahoo Pipe to read orkut scraps. You can choose to receive the scraps in RSS form.

Douglas Crockford on JavaScript

YUI Theater has excellent talks by Douglas Crockford on JavaScript. JS follows prototype based objects and supported prototyped inheritance. Douglas explains the fundamental difference between prototype based object orientation and class based object orientation.

Meta Programming with Ruby at Singapore Ruby Brigade

Choon Keat Chew gave an excellent talk on Meta Programming at the Singapore Ruby Brigade today. He explained meta programming with a logger example. Generally in Java we program to the interface and subclass existing classes to introduce new features. But in Ruby you could directly implement the new method or feature to the object and it instantly gets reflected over the entire scope of the program. It is kinda dangerous in large teams, since anyone can override existing classes and change their behavior by modifying their methods. He also discussed extensively about method_missing , *args feature in Ruby. From what I understand the method_missing function lets you avoid "method not found exception", and also generate setter/getter and other simpler functions automatically. This is one case where meta programming is explicitly visible. He also discussed about simplicity of Rake. Implementing a simple task with Rake will take a lot less time compared with Ant. We also discussed about ducktyping, design patterns and readline library in the end.

FaceBook Developer Garage

Today I attended Asia's first Facebook developer garage at NUS Staff Club. The even was extensively advertised and there were around 200 people. But most of the people were only interested in business and social networking part. There were very few developers as usual. I was late; hence I missed the video conference with F8 developers from SanFransico. For those who didn't turn up, don't worry you did not miss anything.

Comparing Programming Languages

Comparing programming languages has always been interesting. A thorough understanding of Object Orientation, Static/Dynamic/Duck typing, Functional Programming, Generics, Aspects, Closures, Design Patterns, Data Structures and Meta Programming will let a programmer hop from one language to another very easily. For example, though both Java and JavaScript are Object Oriented, Java is Class-Based whereas JavaScript is Prototype-Based. Java forces programmers to implement proper namespaces, where as JavaScript does not. Most JavaScript programmers define variables in global scope, though it is possible to organize them with namespaces. Haskell is fundamentally different from other programming languages since it uses functions as basic building blocks. Python, Perl, Ruby and PHP support Dynamic Typing, where as C, C++ and Java support Static Typing. DuckTyping is implemented in the core of Python, but not in languages like Java, though you can emulate Duck Typing in Java as well. Design patterns are suppose to be language independent, but some of them get implemented in the core of some languages. For example the Iterator pattern is implement in Java, Python etc. So we don't even realize that we are using Iterator patterns when we use Python or Java. On the other hand we manually implement Iterator patterns in C.

Java Bean Shell

Java Bean Shell is a handy tool for Java programmers to test APIs, regular expressions, and other small code snippets. In particular if you are working on Client-Server architecture, it takes long time for you to test small changes in the back end. Though Java is compiled language, the interpreter tool in BeanShell will let you interpret the code. It can be downloaded from http://www.beanshell.org/ .

Demo

//to start Console
$ java -classpath ./bsh-2.0b4.jar bsh.Console
//to start Interpreter
$ java -classpath ./bsh-2.0b4.jar bsh.Interpreter
bsh % import java.io.Decoder;
bsh % String dir = "%2Fhome%2Fcodeshepherd";
bsh % System.out.println(dir);
%2Fhome%2Fcodeshepherd
bsh % System.out.println(Decoder.decode(dir));
/home/codeshepherd


The Interpreter does not support history and coloring. But the Console does. But the output from Console is thrown in the parent shell.

Open Web Application Security Project - Singapore Chapter

OWASP-Singapore meetup was held on 9th Oct at Geek Terminal in Singapore. Five of us meet and had a chat for about an hour. Geek Terminal is a nice place for geek meetups. I guess they provide laptops with wifi connection to use and they also have mini rooms with projects for conducting mini talks. I'm not sure if those laptops run Linux, would be great if it does so. Last Saturday Facebook and Slashdot community hosted a meeting there, but I could not make it . I hope we have more of these Security related meeting and Open Hack Days in and around Singapore.

An Informal Interview With a Haskell Hacker

2:33:03 PM codeshepherd: given that haskell is a functional programming language.. what are the main differences you find when you compare haskell with other langs
2:34:10 PM rajagopal.n: modifying the system state is something that is still tricky for me to do in some cases. For instance, I was thinking I had understood Monads properly, only to understand that there is more that I didn't understand clearly, when i tried to do some database manipulation using the HSQL connectors, and print the resultsets on a webpage using HAppS.
2:34:22 PM rajagopal.n: but otherwise, if all that you want to do is lot of computation
2:34:28 PM rajagopal.n: writing Haskell code is fun
2:34:36 PM rajagopal.n: you wanna one line binary tree?
2:34:38 PM rajagopal.n: you can
2:35:05 PM rajagopal.n: you can construct all such stuff with ease, without leaving space for much bugs.
2:36:43 PM codeshepherd: function are building blocks of language.. and not objects.. so is it difficult for people from OOP background to learn haskell ?
2:40:00 PM rajagopal.n: The difficulty of learning depends on the OOP that you were using. Most people find it difficult to get used to the concept of lazy evaluation, and immutable data in Haskell, being used to languages where the statements get executed in sequence, and having been used to using variables as counters and stuff. people tend to ask in C, C++, I can do a I++ to increment the value of I. but why does haskell make these variables immutable? It takes time for them to understand that immutability is a way to facilitate lazy evaluation.
2:40:27 PM rajagopal.n: It needs forgetting some of the imperative programming concepts to start accepting the functional programming concepts
2:41:46 PM codeshepherd: Does haskell support Meta Programming ? If so how different is it from Ruby's meta programming implementation ?
2:43:51 PM rajagopal.n: Haskell supports meta programming. I've just learnt it to understand some parts of the HAppS example blog application code. As I hadn't done any meta programming in Ruby, I'm not sure about how it compares to it
2:45:08 PM codeshepherd: Does Meta programming combined with Functional programming pose special advantages ?
2:49:53 PM rajagopal.n: I'm not sure about that da.
2:50:19 PM codeshepherd: ok.
2:50:41 PM codeshepherd: Does Haskell support Duck Typing ?
2:51:06 PM rajagopal.n: ya,

Prelude> :t map
map :: (a -> b) -> [a] -> [b]
Prelude> let bar a = map (*1) a
Prelude> :t bar
bar :: (Num a) => [a] -> [a].

you see that it makes it Num
2:51:53 PM codeshepherd: Duck Typing with functions as basic blocks is kinda difficult to understand ? Do functions act like so called ducks in duck typing ?
2:54:16 PM rajagopal.n: There is not difference in the way you see functions and data in a functional programming language
2:57:02 PM codeshepherd: Is there any reason for people to choose Haskell over other languages for hobby programming ?
3:00:49 PM rajagopal.n: Haskell is pure functional. You get to learn a lot of new things, being a pure functional language that restricts modification to the state to be done only through monads. Learning Haskell and teasing the brain is refreshing when you get bored with all those languages that mostly differs only by syntactic sugar or a few extra features.
3:01:55 PM codeshepherd: ok

My talk at Singapore Linux Meetup

This wednesday I gave a talk on websecurity titled "Hacking the Web" at Singapore Linux meetup. This is my first talk in Singapore and as usual I was kinda nerves. Around 35 to 40 people attended the talk and there were lot of questions from the audience. We had some technical problems initially, with internet connection. I was not able to connect to the internet from my macbook because of dhcp version mismatch. So I'd to run through the talk without internet connection and then later borrow a Windows laptop to demonstrate things on internet. The slides are hosted at http://www.codeshepherd.com/hackingtheweb/hackingtheweb.html . Thanks to Darrel for organizing the talk and everyone else who came down. I will be giving the same talk at Singapore Poly, National University of Singapore, and Open Source Developers Conference 2007 at Brisbane, in the near future. Overall this talk turned out to be a very good experience.

Geeky License Plates

geeky license plates..
http://thesiblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/top-ten-geek-license-plates.html

Wife and Girl Friend

If
Family:Package
GirlFriend:Private
Wife: ?
Adultery: ?
Diverse: ?
OpenMarriage: ?

Choices
1)final
2)static
3)Public casting for Private
4)Abstract
5)Interface
6)BCEL


(03:18:29 PM) codeshepherd: if private is for girlfriend , then what is for wife ?
(03:18:46 PM) ***cybereal: hides his "jib" whatever that is...
(03:18:51 PM) Fanook: codeshepherd: static
(03:18:57 PM) cybereal: final
(03:19:18 PM) cybereal: unless you're in an open marriage, then it's abstract
(03:19:22 PM) codeshepherd: Fanook: static does not suit... finay may be ..
(03:19:36 PM) cybereal: Or if you're homeless it's transient...
(03:20:06 PM) Fanook: cheeser: hmmm, how would one implement a divorce then? :)
(03:20:22 PM) cybereal: Fanook: bytecode manipulation!
(03:20:26 PM) Fanook: hehe
(03:20:28 PM) cheeser: that's research i'll leave to others. P^)=
(03:22:08 PM) codeshepherd: adultery = ?
(03:22:21 PM) freeone3000: adultery is achieved through bcel.
(03:22:43 PM) freeone3000: Or those who put things public that should be private.
(03:22:57 PM) codeshepherd: hehe :)
(03:24:52 PM) cybereal: these metaphors would be more fun if java allowed multiple inheritence

A map is a collection of pairs, but it's not a Collection.

A funny discussion at #Java@irc.freenode.net


(02:13:47 AM) iamgedanken: sorry for the noob question, but what is the difference between an arraylist and a collection?
(02:14:13 AM) ojacobson: An ArrayList is one kind of Collection; there are others
(02:14:29 AM) Logi: ArrayList implements List extends Collection
(02:14:34 AM) iamgedanken: o rly
(02:14:42 AM) iamgedanken: ok that makes sense
(02:14:47 AM) ojacobson: ~javadoc Collection
(02:14:47 AM) javabot: ojacobson, please see java.util.Collection: http://java.sun.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/util/Collection.html
(02:14:49 AM) iamgedanken: thanks very much
(02:14:56 AM) Logi: HashMap implements Map which is a collection even if it doesn't implement Collection directly
(02:15:05 AM) kimtiede: An ArrayList gives easy random access to the elements
(02:15:12 AM) codeshepherd: Collection = List Or Set ; List = ArrayList or LinkedList .. iamgedanken
(02:15:21 AM) Logi: Map m=...; m.keySet() instanceof Set implements Colletion
(02:15:32 AM) cybereal_design_patterns_utah: Logi: to be fair, it's a relationship of collections as provided
(02:15:38 AM) cybereal_design_patterns_utah: entrySet, keySet, values
(02:15:43 AM) codeshepherd: List and Set are interfaces implementing Collection... ArrayList is a Class implementing interface List.. iamgedanken
(02:16:16 AM) iamgedanken: alright I understand now thanks for your time
(02:16:20 AM) iamgedanken: :)
(02:16:32 AM) codeshepherd: Logi: HashMap is not a Collection..
(02:16:45 AM) codeshepherd: HashMap does not implement the Collection interface ..
(02:16:48 AM) Logi: codeshepherd: it is with a lower case "c"
(02:17:24 AM) aditsu: in STL style it would be a collection of pairs :)
(02:17:33 AM) codeshepherd: Logi: sorry I dont unerstand.. what is the difference ?
(02:17:51 AM) ojacobson: codeshepherd: A map is a collection of pairs, but it's not a Collection
(02:18:01 AM) ojacobson: eg it doesn't implement the Collection interface
(02:18:03 AM) Logi: codeshepherd: Collection is an interface and Map doesn't extend it. but what ojacobson said
(02:18:21 AM) codeshepherd: oh ok.. Yes, in English.. not in Java :P
(02:18:26 AM) ojacobson: Right :)

Please don't tell anyone... that I..

Dig into dustbins in the bus stop,
Sniff wireless traffic in my apartment; watch what people do online,
Walk along the beach late at night,
Read other people's emails and IM conversations,
Delete all my email accounts,
Bully newbies in IRC and other mailing lists,
Run a keylogger in my machine.

Geek gatherings in Singapore

Unlike Bangalore, Singapore has very few Geek gatherings. Singapore Linux meetup, Novel Suse Linux meetup, Ruby Brigade, Singapore JUG, are the active geek gatherings in Singapore. On the other hand Bangalore boasts of many Geeky activities like "Hack Days", "Open Coffee Club meet", regular Linux user group meetings, Bangpypers meeting, PHP user group meetings, Blog Camps, Bar Camps, FOSS.IN, Freed, Geek gatherings at pubs, etc.

Syntax Highlighting for Code Embedded in Blogger

There are multiple ways for highlighting the syntax of code embedded in Blogger. One way is to generate HTML files directly from VIM using :TOHtml and extract the CSS part in it and use it in Blogger. You can do the same with Textmate or Emacs. Another alternative is to use Prettifier. Prettifier is very easy to use. All you need to do is add a CSS and JavaScript file in your server and link them in your blog template. Please look at the readme file for more details. In my case, Blogger does not allow me to upload JavaScript files and CSS files, so I'm hosting them on a different server. I have updated my earlier posts to use Prettify.

http://codeshepherd.blogspot.com/2007/07/eliza-loves-you-rogerian.html#links
http://codeshepherd.blogspot.com/2007/06/hello-world-orkut-chickenfoot.html#links

The Perl code has turned out bit messy, but the GreaseMonkey JavaScript code looks clean.

SpringMVC + Hibernate + GridSphere + Apache Tomcat

I've successfully integrated GridSphere and SpringMVC. I've been using a lot of GridSphere Tag Libraries in my JSPs. Now I've to rewrite them using Spring specific tag libraries. In my opinion the GridSphere specific tag libraries are much easier to use compared to Spring tag libraries. The following link provides detailed explanation for integrating SpringMVC with GridSphere. http://docs.gridsphere.org/display/gs30/GridSphere+3.0+and+Spring+Portlet+MVC . Now I've to explore some templating Engines, and Acegi Tag libraries.

Happy News!!

I just received a email from Open Source Developers Conference, Australia, Committee, confirming that my talk has been accepted for the Conference. I will be speaking on "Web Security" at OSDC 2007, Brisbane, Australia this November. Let me know if anyone else is attending the conference.

Frustrating 3wplayers and Pr0n

Last night, I finished downloading Rush Hour 3. When I played it using mplayer, it prompted me to download 3wplayer. So I googled for W3player and found Perl source (look below for the link) for decrypting 3wplayer encrypted files into AVI files. I decrypted Rush Hour 3 file and it happened to be pr0n!!!

Wikipedia:
3wplayer is a rogue media player software application bundled with trojans that can infect computers running Microsoft Windows. It is designed to exploit users who download video files, instructing them to download and install the program in order to view the video.

Perl code to decode 3wplayer encoded video files: http://www.federicopistono.org/Futile_attempt_of_spreading_malware_3wPlayer_vs_perl_hackers

Why are programmers lucky?

#bioinformatics @ irc.freenode.net
(05:07:23 PM) _dan: my dad is an electronics enginerer, he has a room stacked full of stuff, always made me quite jealous, I mean I can hardly have an electron microscope at home..

The sarcastic subconscious

Many times I code in the dream only to wake up and realize that I haven't saved my code!!! Maybe technology will grow up soon to tap productive work from our subconscious minds. Maybe someday biologists will create a VIM plugin to save the code we dream of.

Intellectual Masturbation

Geek's Google query to search for porn: 'intitle:"index of" porn (mpeg|mpg|avi)'. Click here to try it. 100% satisfaction guarantied.

Eliza Loves You - Rogerian psychotherapist

Recently I ported the ElizaLovesYou Gaim plugin to Pidgin. Click here to download the source. Most conversations with the Eliza bot are quite uninteresting. But the one I saw today needs special mention. It is one of the most interesting conversations I've seen with Eliza bot.Here goes the conversation. Scroll down to read the code.

(05:51:39 PM) J: alo
(05:51:39 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Hi J/Talk.v104FA524C95, The maniac is sleeping or eating or buzy doing some shit!!!.
(05:51:39 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: I am his dumb slave bot :). You can speak to me if you want!!!
(05:51:50 PM) J: hi Jayshree and arch here
(05:51:51 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.
(05:52:27 PM) J: hello
(05:52:28 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: How do you do. Please state your problem.
(05:52:58 PM) J: i'm fine. how r u?
(05:52:59 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Do you say you'm fine for some special reason?
(05:53:45 PM) J: yes cause we re are goibg to the ice cream parlor
(05:53:46 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.
(05:54:17 PM) J: how do u do?
(05:54:18 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you ask?
(05:54:35 PM) J: generaaly i'm concerned about your health
(05:54:36 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Do you want my health?
(05:55:11 PM) J: how can i take your health?
(05:55:12 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: What is it you really want to know?
(05:55:42 PM) J: generally how are you?
(05:55:43 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Oh, I?
(05:55:54 PM) J: yes you only..
(05:55:55 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: I understand.
(05:56:15 PM) J: ok give me the answer..
(05:56:16 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.
(05:56:30 PM) J: how are you?
(05:56:31 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: What are your feelings now?
(05:57:09 PM) J: i'm still wondering why are you not answering my question?
(05:57:10 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Is it important to you that your question?
(05:57:32 PM) J: yes..
(05:57:33 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.
(05:58:08 PM) J: no problems in life
(05:58:09 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why 'no'?
(05:58:42 PM) J: because i stay happy all the time..
(05:58:43 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: You say because you stay happy all the time?
(05:58:50 PM) J: yes..
(05:58:51 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please tell me some more about this.
(05:59:12 PM) J: being sad is again sad...
(05:59:13 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Earlier you said your question.
(05:59:55 PM) J: yes, i was asking you how are you?
(05:59:56 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you tell me you were asking me how are me now?
(06:00:15 PM) J: okies i'm confused now..
(06:00:16 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you say okies you'm confused now?
(06:00:49 PM) J: because you don't seem to answering my question.
(06:00:50 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you say your question?
(06:01:10 PM) J: i think i should talk somethiong else..
(06:01:11 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Do you really doubt you should talk somethiong else?
(06:01:39 PM) J: no i don't have ant doubts..
(06:01:40 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why 'no'?
(06:01:59 PM) J: because i'm clear
(06:02:00 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Do you say because you'm clear for some special reason?
(06:02:28 PM) J: yes because i have taken bath 2day..
(06:02:29 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.
(06:02:40 PM) J: did you take bath?
(06:02:41 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: You're not really talking about me -- are you?
(06:02:56 PM) J: yes i'm talking about you.
(06:02:57 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why don't you tell me a little more about this.
(06:03:08 PM) J: like what?
(06:03:09 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: But your question.
(06:03:23 PM) J: i forgot my question..
(06:03:24 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Is it important to you that your question?
(06:03:37 PM) J: no not important.
(06:03:38 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why 'no'?
(06:04:03 PM) J: pk let me move on to somthng else.
(06:04:04 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: But your question.
(06:04:17 PM) J: i discad that question
(06:04:18 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you say you discad that question?
(06:04:34 PM) J: i;m not interested in that question..
(06:04:35 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Can you elaborate on that?
(06:04:40 PM) J: no
(06:04:41 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why not?
(06:04:59 PM) J: because i forgo my quetion
(06:05:00 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Is it important to you that your quetion?
(06:05:10 PM) J: not important
(06:05:11 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: But your quetion.
(06:05:41 PM) J: hello can you type some other line
(06:05:42 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: We were discussing you -- not me.
(06:05:57 PM) J: oh sorry..
(06:05:58 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: I've told you that apologies are not required.
(06:06:20 PM) J: thanks for reminding e
(06:06:21 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: That is interesting. Please continue.
(06:06:38 PM) J: i don;t have anything to say now
(06:06:39 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: You say you don;t have anything to say now?
(06:07:17 PM) J: yes
(06:07:18 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please tell me some more about this.
(06:07:46 PM) J: we are going to the ice cream parlour to eat ice ceam
(06:07:47 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Would you like it if they were not going to the ice cream parlour to eat ice ceam?
(06:08:09 PM) J: no i will not like it.
(06:08:10 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why not?
(06:08:30 PM) J: because i want to eat ice cream
(06:08:31 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: What would it mean to you if you got to eat ice cream?
(06:08:51 PM) J: i would be happy
(06:08:52 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you say you would be happy?
(06:09:07 PM) J: because i like ice cream
(06:09:08 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: That is interesting. Please continue.
(06:09:44 PM) J: ice cream is creamy and cold, that makes it good thing to eat after food
(06:09:45 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Does talking about this bother you?
(06:09:57 PM) J: no not at all
(06:09:58 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why 'no'?
(06:10:23 PM) J: why should i have problem with it?
(06:10:24 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: That's quite interesting.
(06:10:29 PM) J: hmm
(06:10:30 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: That is interesting. Please continue.
(06:10:43 PM) J: ok now i'm tired
(06:10:44 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Can you elaborate on that?
(06:10:52 PM) J: tell me some stories
(06:10:53 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.
(06:11:10 PM) J: ya tell me cindrella story.
(06:11:11 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Tell me more about that.
(06:11:23 PM) J: you have to tell me that.
(06:11:24 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Do you wish to believe I have to tell you?
(06:11:38 PM) J: yes
(06:11:39 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why don't you tell me a little more about this.
(06:13:25 PM) J: i don't have anything more to say.
(06:13:26 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Why do you say you don't have anything more to say?
(06:14:11 PM) J: ok bye!
(06:14:12 PM) Codeshepherd's Bot: Please go on.


#ElizaLovesYou v0.4
#Changes
#Ported v0.3 to Pidgin by Deepan Chakravarthy
#Email: codeshepherd AT gmail DOT com
#Thanks to sadrul and resiak on #pidgin@irc.freenode.net and Davo_Dinkum on ##English@irc.freenode.net for their help.
#ElizaLovesYou v0.3 - Rogerian psychotherapist for Pidgin
#Copyright (C) 2004 Scott Wolchok
#This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
#modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
#as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
#of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
#This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
#but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
#MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
#GNU General Public License for more details.
#You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
#along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
#Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.
#(You can find the GPL at http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html)
#You'll need to install Chatbot::Eliza from CPAN before this will work.
#Run 'perl -MCPAN -e "shell"' and answer the questions, then type
#'install Chatbot::Eliza' at the prompt. That should do it!
#'install Pidgin' at the prompt
#'install Purple' at the prompt
#Please note that this plugin is just a hook for the Perl Chatbot::Eliza
#module - the credit for the actual "bot" goes to the John Nolan, the
#writer of that module.
#Superdug is great!!!!



use Pidgin;
use Purple;
use Chatbot::Eliza;
use strict;

my %bots;
my $plugin;
my $data = "";
#my @timeouts; #Pidgin segfaults if we leave the send_message timeout and unload the plugin

%::PLUGIN_INFO = (
perl_api_version => 2,
name => "ElizaLovesYou",
version => "0.4",
summary => "Rogerian psychotherapist for Pidgin",
description => "Automatically responds to incoming messages on all accounts using the Eliza algorithm",
author => "Scott Wolchok ",
url => "www.codeshepherd.com/downloads/elizalovesyou.pl",
load => "plugin_load",
unload => "plugin_unload"
);

sub plugin_init
{
return %::PLUGIN_INFO;
}

sub do_eliza
{
my $im;
my ($account, $sender, $message, $conv, $flags) = @_;
$bots{$sender} = new Chatbot::Eliza unless $bots{$sender};

while($message =~ s/<.*?>//)
{
}; #HTML si t3h sux0r!
if($conv)
{
my $theIM = $conv->get_im_data();

#Tried to use a queue to hold timeouts so we could remove them at plugin_unload - the thing segfaults if there's a timeout pending and you unload it
# push @timeouts, Pidgin::timeout_add($plugin,10,\&send_message,[$theIM,$bots{$sender}->transform($message)]);
Purple::timeout_add($plugin,1,\&send_message,[$theIM,$bots{$sender}->transform($message)]);

Purple::Debug::info($::PLUGIN_INFO{name}, "tutorialpluginLeaving do_eliza\n");
}

else
{
$conv = Purple::Conversation->new(1, $account, $sender);
if ($conv)
{
print "ok.\n";
$im = $conv->get_im_data();

# Here we send messages to the conversation
$im->send("Hi $sender, The maniac is sleeping or eating or buzy doing some shit!!!.");
$im->send("I am his dumb slave bot :). You can speak to me if you want!!!");
}
else
{
}

}
}

sub send_message
{
Purple::Debug::info($::PLUGIN_INFO{name}, "tutorialpluginEntering send_message\n");
my ($IM, $message) = @{$_[0]};

Purple::Debug::info($::PLUGIN_INFO{name}, "Shifting timeouts\n");
#shift @timeouts;

Purple::Debug::info($::PLUGIN_INFO{name}, "tutorialpluginSending message\n");
Purple::Conversation::IM::send($IM,$message);

return undef;
}
sub plugin_load
{
$plugin = shift;

my $conversations_handle = Purple::Conversations::get_handle();
Purple::Signal::connect($conversations_handle, "received-im-msg", $plugin, \&do_eliza, $data);
}

sub plugin_unload
{
my $plugin = shift;

# for my $timeout (@timeouts) {
# Pidgin::timeout_remove($timeout);
# }
}

#Note: I got this from forsaken in #gaim on FreeNode and renamed it to getIM, his original credit follows:
#From Split.pl and edited.
#Michael Wozniak and Anthony Noto
sub getIM
{
my $thing = $_[0];
my @im_array = Purple::ims(); #get the array of IM's
foreach my $element (@im_array)
{
if ( Purple::Conversation::get_name( Purple::Conversation::IM::get_conversation ( $element ) ) eq $thing )
{
return $element; #return the correct IM
}
}

return undef;
}




Longing to get Chicken Pox

During the late 90's, when I was in my 3rd class I studied in a school by the name "Eden Garden". It's a residential school, and we were allowed to meet our parents once in two weeks. I still remember those days, we used to eagerly wait for our parents to come on the visiting days. Its was then that Chicken Pox entered our school. Wow, what a happy news it was. Anyone affected by Chicken Pox was allowed to go home. I was longing to get sick, go home and see my parents. I did get Chicken Pox and one of the staff member accompanied me home!!!

Hello World - Orkut - Chickenfoot - GreaseMonkey

A simple Chickenfoot script to stay online in orkut, its as simple as English..


for(var i=0;i<1000;i++)
{
go("http://orkut.com")
enter("Email","myemail@gmail.com")
enter("password","secret")
sleep(600)
click("sign in")
sleep(600)
go("http://www.orkut.com/GLogin.aspx?cmd=logout")
sleep(60)
}


Human are just biological machines. (2090)

Its 2090, and I am 100+ years old. Humans are fighting with Androids, but this time for a different cause. Humans want to be treated the same as Androids. They don't want to be looked down upon. And the irony is I live in a two bed room apartment with an Android named Codaro. Codaro's friends often visit us. It's very unusual for a Android to live with a human. The situation has gone from bad to worse. Androids have began to consider, humans as waste biological machines of no use to them. Some criminal human minds are planning to steal space crafts from Androids which are capable of traveling faster than light just to go back in time. We get news from our great, great grandparents, that Androids from future are invading them. Its very rare to see Androids getting married to humans these days. Yet we live happily in a world with no sense of time.

The kaleidoscope in my head

Someone in me thinks that the era of competition between Codeshepherd and Deepan is over. Codeshepherd is an anathema to Deepan and so is Deepan to Codeshepherd.

Phantom memories

What do I mean by phantom memories?? Don't you ever feel, you had come across a situation sometime before in your life ? I am referring to those memories that don't really have a basis. Are these memories of us living in some other universe? Is quantum mechanics the answer the question? Did I die two minutes back in some other world ? Or did you kill me in some other world?

Music - making the religious harmony

AR Rahman, is a icon of passion, music, spirituality and many more. AR has a very interesting background which many of us don't know. He changed his name to "AR Rahman", before the movie Roja was released. He choose his own name. He converted from Hinduism to Islam. He has a vision to bring harmony between various religions in the subconscious level. His tool is the "language of nature". Vande matharam song has it lyrics taken both from Islam and Hinduism devotional songs.

A kind of Synesthesia

Answer this puzzle..

Father and son are driving along a river side road in a mountain. They meet with an accident when they cross a bridge. The father dies in the accident, and the sun is taken to the hospital. In the hospital, the doctor look at the patient and says "Oh this is my son!!". How is this possible??

If you know the answer, then you may not be suffering from Synesthesia. I am not yet sure if this can be called as a case of synesthesia. Anyway I will explain why those people who fail to answer this puzzle might be suffering from synesthesia. The answer to the puzzle is "The doctor is the mother". Given the fact that most doctors are men, the doctor profession is associated with male gender. And you end up thinking how can the father be alive?? Did he not die in the accident. Synesthesia is defined as a neurological condition in which two or more bodily senses are coupled. So here you can the sense corresponding to profession is couple with sense (??) corresponding to gender. May be I should ask Dr.Ramachandran if this is a correct instance of synesthesia.

Exploiting Unicode

Support for unicode characters lets us to use fancy alphabets. I use this link to generate all fancy character for my name and nick. For example look at the word "codeshepherd" in title, it should be like "ÇÖÐÊSHËþHÈRD". The only downside of using these fancy characters is, google index bot will not read it as "codeshepherd". So I might lose in the page ranking for the word "codeshepherd". If you are using GTK applications, you can use ctrl+shift+u+ *unicode number* to enter unicode characters.

CodeShepherd's Garbage Collector

Garbage collectors attempt to reclaim memory used by objects that will never again be accessed. So technically this blog is similar to garbage collector working on my brain. I blog just to kill my free time. Am not sure if someone would ever benefit from my blogs. What plays the role of garbage collectors in mammals ?? Proteases ?? A point to think over!!

Getting parallels to boot from fedora core paritition on macbook

I recently bought a macbook (2gig ram, 2ghz intel, 80gig hd). It runs both fedora and osx. I can boot to the same fedora core partition both from parallels and in the native dual boot mode. I use the rEFIt boot loaded to choose between linux and osx initially, if I choose linux then control passes from rEFIt bootloader to grub. rEFIt is a bootloader for EFI based systems like Intel macs. EFI is similar to bios on macs. I don't have a clear understanding of firmwares like EFI and BIOS. rEFIt bootloader provides a nice terminal which you can access even before you boot your machine.

The trickier part is to getting parallels to boot from the dualboot fedora root partition. I used bootcamp only to create a partition for linux initially. I tried resizing the OSX partition with parted, but ended up corrupting the OSX partition. So I had to reinstall OSX from scratch. So I advise people to use bootcamp to resize the OSX partition.

Steps involved in getting parallels to boot from dualboot fedora/ubuntu/debian/gentoo partition

1)Use bootcamp to create a new partition for linux.
2)Install rEFIt bootloader
3)Install fedora/ubuntu/gentoo/debian on the new partition
4)Make sure to install grub on SDA/HDA or whatever is the main disk. This happens by default in fedora, I am not sure about how other distros handle this
5)Now when you boot, you should find rEFIt bootloader with two primary options, one to boot OSX and another to boot Linux
6)Boot to OSX and install parallels
7)Start parallels and create a custom distro, for harddisk choose bootcamp option.
8)Edit the pvs file corresponding to the custom distro you created in parallels as follows.
In the [IDE devices] session change the line "Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp;" to "Disk 0:0 image = Boot Camp;disk0s3"
9)Boot to the linux in parallels. You will find your grub broken. I landed in the grub prompt.
10)In the grub prompt enter as follows
configfile (hd0,0)/etc/grub.conf
11)If everything goes well you will see the grub menu
12)Boot to linux in parallels.
13)If you had already booted linux as a native OS, you will need to reconfigure your X.
14)I have fuse sshfs installed both on OSX and Fedora, So I can mount the OSX partitions in linux and linux partitions in OSX. Eventually I can access all data in my harddisk from both the operatings systems.
15)Choose shared network option in parallels so that you can mount your sshfs paritions using a fixed IP.
16)I use firefox with google browser sync plugin. So I share the same bookmarks and history on both the operating systems.


These steps should ideally work for any linux/unix flavors. It works for me with Fedora Core 6. I am waiting for the Fedora Seven release.


Unsolved Problems
1)Sometimes the keyboard does not work after you choose linux from rEFIt bootloader. So you can't change the options you have set in your grub. you will end up booting to the default one. This seems to be a bug in apple firmware (EFI ??). It has been documented in the rEFIt website.
2)Every time I boot to linux from parallels, I have to enter "configfile" option manually. This is because grub can work only for one set of configuration. I have grub working for dual boot configuration. So I have to manually enter "configfile" option everytime I boot to fedora in parallels.
3)If you choose ram option to some number other than 512mb or 1024mb, you reach kernel panic in parallels.
4)I cannot use function keys on linux when i boot from parallels. Am not sure why parallels is not capturing it. I badly want to use ctrl+alt+f1 to get the ttys. ctrl+alt is used for releasing mouse from parallels. Haven't yet figured a way to getaround this. There seems to be sendkey option in parallels. Will have to explore that.
5)The X-configuration changes when you shift from dualboot linux to parallels linux.

Social life for geeks

Most people who are passionate about technology, tend to socialize at IRC. I often visit #linux-india, #english, #math, #gaim, #electronics, #robotics. Those channels that I visit less frequently are ##c, ##java, #tomcat, #mysql, #postgres, #physics, #linux, #bash, #anything, #gcc, #g++, #web, #javascript, #non-math, #perl, #python, #fedora, #ubuntu, #joomla, #bioinformatics, #hardware, #php, #oracle, ##windows, #chemistry, #biology, #photography, #ai, #machinelearning, #crypto, #damnsmalllinux, #dojo, #dslr, #ejb, #google, #gtk+, #haskell, #hprog, #music #robotics, #smalltalk, #subclipse, #xen, #xml, #uml. I go to freenode regularly. During week ends I also go to Dalnet and QuakeNet. Schools and colleges are not needed anymore, if someone is interested in learning computers.

My Besant Nagar home..

I will never forget my midnight walks to besant nagar beach. Absolute silence!!! sometimes interrupted by chennai police ..

Its really easy to add google maps to your site. Look at this link for a simple how to
Here is my besant nagar home.