BFF and Facebook Security – Is my account secure?

Guys, since some days, we are seeing a lot of people posting BFF in the comments on Facebook to know their account’s security status. Do you think it works? Let’s find out.

Before digging deep into it, let us first have a look at one interesting feature of Facebook.
You might have noticed that, when you type certain words in comments, the word gets highlighted and some overlay animation is displayed for a short time.

For example, in the below GIF I have typed the word “Congratulations“. Observe what happens:

 

Have you noticed those animated balloons? That is what the feature is all about. It is named the “Text Delight” feature and is introduced by Facebook some time ago.

It works on specific keywords in the comment. Let’s try out one more as in the GIF below:

 

Awesome! Isn’t it?

Now you might be thinking what’s the point in explaining about this feature, while I am here to know about the damn BFF thing. Guys, “BFF” is actually one of those keywords which activate the Text Delight animation. You will find a complete list of the keywords just by a simple Google search.

Have you also noticed that the word “Congratulations” is highlighted in orange? Similarly, the word “BFF” has got its green color. Let’s finally type it:

 

Yay! My account is secure! Jokes apart.

Some fellow has used this feature and created a hoax around it. Let me assure you guys, there is no relation of your account’s security with this damn BFF comment. Yes. It is a hoax.
For some people the word BFF isn’t highlighted just because they might be using an older version of the Facebook app.

So, calm down and stop commenting BFF on Facebook! Have a happy and safe Social Networking 🙂

LinkedIn JavaScript SDK – Detecting login window close event

This post covers the solution of a frustrating question – “How to detect login window close event while using LinkedIn Javascript SDK?”

As per the documentation, we are supposed to use the following code to authenticate a user using the api:

IN.User.authorize();

The above code was also responsible for opening the login popup.

Now, in order to detect the login window’s close event, the above code needs to be replaced with the following code:

var linkedin = IN.UI.Authorize().place();
linkedin.onWindowRemove.subscribe(function() {
// perform some action
});

The linkedin object gives us access to the LinkedIn’s authorization UI – which is usually the popup which opens when a user tries to sign in using LinkedIn.

Creating a WiFi hotspot in Windows 7 + Sharing Internet connection for use, in Android

Nowadays, almost all cell phones have an inbuilt WiFi adapter. And also, Android OS is much popular these days. Thus most of us have an Android phone with latest WiFi technology, may be 802.11 b/g/n. As almost all PC’s today are equipped with a WiFi adapter and almost every computer OS provides the feature of creating a Wireless Connection, one may think of creating one and share the internet connection for use in Android. But it is of no use, as Android is unable to detect “ad-hoc” wireless networks and it needs an “infrastructure network”. Its well enough if you have a wireless router as its somewhat not possible to create an “infrastructure network” using PC’s WiFi.

But, here comes the twist. The line you read just 2 seconds ago is wrong. Yeah, one can create a Wireless Network using PC’s WiFi for use in Android (Under some conditions!). This guide features a complete tutorial on creating a Wireless Connection in Windows (detectable by Android) and sharing your Internet Connection over WiFi.

Sharing internet connection over Wi-Fi in windows…..

This is a complete guide to explain the procedure of sharing the internet connection over Wi-Fi (Wireless Network Connection). I have shown here the steps for sharing an Ethernet connection, but  the steps remain same for sharing other types of connections. Lets begin…..

1. First of all, we will have to assign a static IP address to the Wireless Network Adapter. To do so, open the “Network and Sharing Center” by clicking on the network icon in the notification area of the taskbar.

2. Then click on  “Change adapter settings”.

3. Now, right-click your Wireless Network Adapter and select “Properties”.

4. In the Properties window, double-click on “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)” as shown in the figure.

5. Now, set the IP address manually. The “Subnet mask” will be automatically set once you set the IP address. Now, as this PC will be connected to the internet directly, we will leave the “Default gateway” empty.

6. Also, set the “DNS server address” just same as the DNS server address of your currently working Ethernet adapter.

You can find the DNS address using Command Prompt. Open the Command Prompt (type cmd in run and press enter), write the command : “nslookup localhost” and press enter.

This command will return the answer as shown in the figure below. Here the address listed after “address :” is the DNS server address of your Internet Connection.

7. After setting the IP address and DNS server address, close the window and again open “Network and Sharing Center” as shown in the first step. Now, click on “Manage wireless networks”. It will list the available wireless networks and will allow you to manage them or add new networks.

We will create a new wireless network. So click on the “Add” button.

8. It will start the wizard for adding new wireless networks. Click on “Create an ad hoc network”.

9. Now, give your new network a name. Also select the desired “Security type” or you can also select “none” if you want it to be an un-secured network.  After that, provide the “Security key” as per the security type. Save the network by clicking on the check-box below and press next.

10. The name of the newly created wireless network and its security key (if any) will be displayed now. Note the security key for your reference and save it at some safe place. In order to connect to this network, this security key must be provided. Now close the window.

11. Turn on your Wi-Fi adapter (if off!) and check whether your newly created network is listed in available wireless connections or not. If everything is configured properly, the network will be listed and your PC will be connected to it.

12. Now, this wireless network will be also listed on the other PC through which we want to access the shared internet connection.

In that PC, make the changes in IP adress by opening the properties of  Wireless Adapter as shown in the steps 1 – 4. Here also, we will provide a static IP address. Set the IP address in the range similar to that of the host PC (host PC is the one which is directly connected to internet i.e. which we configured earlier). The subnet mask will be set automatically as you know. Now set the IP address of the wireless adapter (we configured above) of the host PC as the default gateway of this PC. Also the DNS server address should be same as that of the DNS server address of the wireless adapter of the host PC. Now close the window.

13. Again come back to the previous PC (host PC). Disconnect it from all the present connections.

Now open the properties of its adapter through which it is connected directly to the internet (It will be “Local Area Connection” i.e. LAN adapter in most of the cases). It may also be the dialer if you have a dial-up connection. After opening the properties, go to the sharing tab.

Now, select the check-box to allow users to connect through internet connection. From the drop-down box select the Wireless Network Adapter which we configured previously. Click ok and that’s all.

Image shown below is for dialer.

14. Now connect this PC to internet and also connect it to the newly created wireless network. Also connect other PC to this PC’s Wi-Fi network. And that’s all. The internet connection is now shared among these two PC’s. If everything went correct, you will be able to browse internet also on that other PC.

These were the steps to share internet connection between Ethernet Adapter and Wireless Adapter. Similarly you can share between other types of adapters.

Install Windows Vista or 7 using USB…..

Many a times it happens that we want to install any OS in our machine but the CD/DVD Drive doesn’t works. At that time we have to go for alternate ways of installing the OS. Here I will show the steps of installing Windows Vista or Windows 7 using a USB Drive.

You will require a USB Drive (Should be of minimum 4 GB), DVD / Image file (ISO) of Windows Vista or 7 and of course, a machine having Windows Xp, Vista or 7 installed. The steps are simple. First of all I will recommend that you take a backup of the data in the USB Drive because we will need to format it. Now in order to install the OS from this USB Drive it should be made bootable. Follow the below steps to make it bootable and prepare it for the installation :

1. Plug the USB Drive, open “My Computer” and note the drive letter of the USB Drive.

2. Now, open Command Prompt. (Type cmd in Run and press Enter.).

3. Type the command FORMAT H: /FS:NTFS (Replace H: here with the drive letter of your USB Drive.). This command will convert the file system of your USB Drive to NTFS.

4. Now, insert the Windows Vista or 7 DVD, or if you have an Image file (ISO) then mount it using UltraIso or similar programs.

5. Open the Command Prompt, type G: and press Enter. (Here, G: is the drive letter of your DVD Drive or the Virtual Drive in which installation media is mounted.).

6. Type CD BOOT and press Enter.

7. Type the command BOOTSECT.EXE /NT60 H: (Replace H: here with the drive letter of your USB Drive.).

8. After some processing, the Command Prompt will display this message : “Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes.”. Once you see this message, copy the contents of the DVD or the ISO Image file to your USB Drive.

Now your USB Drive is ready for installation of the OS. Restart your machine and enter the BIOS. Assign highest Boot Priority to your USB Drive. (This means that after restarting, your machine will first boot from your USB Drive.). Now, exit the BIOS with the option of saving the settings. Make sure that your USB Drive is plugged. After your machine restarts, it will boot from your USB Drive and will start the process for installing the OS.

Microsoft Office 2010 Installation Issues – Mainly for Xp SP2 Users…..

There are many people like Me who still use Windows Xp even though Windows 7 is available. In this post I have tried to focus on the common installation errors encountered during the installation of Microsoft Office 2010. Even I myself was frustrated after trying to install it on my machine but the setup failed every time.

The most initial error (or a warning we can say) which is shown at the beginning of the installation is that it requires Windows Xp SP3 and it refuses to install on machines running Windows Xp SP2.

Well, the most common solution to this error is that you can update your copy of windows using Windows Update and it will convert it from SP2 to SP3. But, updating requires much time unless you have a high-speed internet connection ! There are many alternate ways of solving a single problem. You might be knowing that it is very easy to fool Windows OS ! (Hope anyone from Microsoft doesn’t read this post !). I just googled a little and found that there are very simple steps to convert your Windows Xp SP2 to SP3 so that MS Office 2010 can be installed. By saying this it doesn’t mean that it will update your system files and will convert it fully to SP3. What I mean to say is that, only some registry entries will be changed so that when the MS Office 2010 setup utility checks for the current Service Pack of the OS, it will find it to be SP3 even though it is SP2 in real !

The steps for doing this are as follows:
1. Go to the Registry Editor (open run and type ‘regedit’ ane press enter)
2. Go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\Windows
3. Change CSDVersion string value from 200 to 300
4. Reboot.
And that’s all. Your SP2 is now converted to SP3 ! Repeat the first four steps to get 300 to 200 parameter again. (To get back SP2 from SP3).

Also in some cases, after the setup starts, it sticks in between and displays, “Setup failed : Windows Installer is unable to update one or more protected system files. Setup is rolling back.”. Mostly this error occurs during the installation of MS Office 2010. This error not only occurs in Xp but it also occurs in almost all the versions. (Vista and 7).

There is also a very simple solution for this:
1. Just insert your Xp SP2 CD and Browse to the folder named “i386”.
2. Copy the “FP40EXT.CAB” file to some place on your Local Drive and extract it. (You will need some utilities like WinRar to extract it.).
3. Then copy the extracted contents to the folder “C:\Program Files\Common Files\Microsoft Shared\web server extensions\40\bin”. (Replace ” C: ” here, with the drive letter of your drive in which Windows is installed.)
That’s all. Run MS Office setup again and it will complete without any errors. I haven’t tried on other versions of windows but I think the above solution will also work for them.

One more error / warning it shows is that the setup requires MSXML version 6.10.1129.0. Just google a little or browse Microsoft’s website and you will find the installer for this version of MSXML. After installing it the setup will proceed normally. This error rarely occurs, and also is solved easily.

These were the 3 major difficulties which users face while installing Microsoft office 2010 on their machines. Hope this information solves their problem.

Track your laptop…..

While surfing on the internet I came across a site www.trackmylaptop.net which provides the service of tracing a stolen laptop. Its a free of cost service offered by Quick Heal to all the laptop users in India (who may or may not be using Quick Heal).  You just have to provide the MAC address of your laptop and this service checks into its database, and if some record is found then it gives you the ip address and the city where the stolen laptop is being used ! Also if you are purchasing some second-hand laptop then you can check whether it is a stolen one or not. But this works only if you know the MAC address of your stolen laptop !!! Visit the site for more information.

Hack the resources !

Just imagine that when u start ur PC, and boot into XP, you see your own image on the login screen….seems exiting….Its possible and u can do it yourself…just using some tools…..

IT Professionals (especially developers) must be knowing that a single application consists of several embedded resources…
An .exe file for some application may contain embedded bitmaps, icons, dialogs, etc. We can edit that resources(like bitmaps) and we can customize the look of that application according to our needs.

for eg: when we start quick-heal, we see a splash screen…what if ur photo appears on the splash screen…amazing….isn’t it?

I am talking about a tool named ResourceHacker. Its an amazing tool for editing the resources contained in the .exe or .dll file. You can replace the bitmaps, icons, etc. You can even edit the dialog boxes and string messages. You can edit almost all the resources…It is available for free download on most of the websites.

You can write your own name instead of “start” in XP’s taskbar using ResourceHacker. Just you have to do is to download ResourceHacker. Open the explorer.exe file in it. It will list all the bitmaps, icons, strings, etc. Just find the string “Start” and replace it with your name. Save the file. And restart the pc. You will find your name instead of “Start” in the taskbar…

There are many more things you can do with ResourceHacker…

Search the web for more……

A trick …..

There is a trick to hide the files inside an image file…

Some people may be knowing this but let me describe it for those who don’t know about this…

The trick is that you can hide your “so called” important files inside an image…..and when you open it(the image) with win Rar, you can find the files….. the trick goes like this…..

WinRar is needed for this…..

First of all, just  make a rar archive containing all thos files which you want to hide…..

Then select the image you want to hide the files into…

make sure both, the image and the rar archive are in the same folder

now open command prompt. Go to the folder where the files are kept. Then write the following command…(without double-quotes)

“copy /b <image file name> + <rar archive name> <new image file name>”

for example :

“copy /b abc.jpg + xyz.rar def.jpg”

after the command is executed successfully, you will find an image file with the name you gave as “new image file name”. In the previous example, you will find an image file named ‘def.jpg’

now right-click the image file and “open with win rar”…you will find the hidden files there

now you can delete the initial files..(the image file and the archive…..and not the new image file which was generated !!!)

A very good morning…..

Hey ! Good morning……after a long time….. Ah….there is some problem in my network connection…thus I am unable to update this

blog since a long time…Today somehow I managed to update it…feeling a little happy…

So…How’s lyfe ?

Hope everything is fine.ALL IS WELL…..

I will try to update this blog whenever possible…till then Good Bye…

Hope we meet again soon……