Touch Typing and Programmers

Is touch typing essential for good programmers? Its a good question. But is it fair? I recently was surfing and looking for people's blogs about touch typing. After reading much about them , I decided to give touch typing a go.
Let me tell you I am really good with Hunt and Peck style of typing. Over the time I have developed a fast typing in HNP(around 80 WPM). But as I read about many people arguing that a programmer must know how to touch type, I decided to learn touch typing.
So I installed tuxtyping on my ubuntu box (yeah its a great application). started getting some lessons. It was great in about 3 days I was able to type without looking at the keyboard. If you have enough experience as a programmer , you will have a good knowledge of key positions. With practice you can remember all the keys very easily. I was touch typing, not at my own rapid speed of 80 WPM @HNP. But still around 15 WPM.
So did I continued? The answer is NO !!!
Why?
The fact I usually program in languages like C, HTML, java. It was really hard.
Touch typing is for writing text, but as it comes to code... well it becomes ugly. The very essence of touch typing is in positioning your hands and not moving them, that's how you can type fast. But in programming we need to use {}, () "" <>, -> & TAB / * like chars. Which will make your hand move. After moving your hand you need to position your hand correctly OR you gonna miss.
So after 3 days I stopped touch typing. But you know what? I realised that when I am coding I am already touch typing with HNP :)
Peace !!!

BackTrack5 and Windows XP Virtual LAN setup in Virtual Box

Well This post is for those guys who are trying to setup a virtual pen test lab on Virtual Box. I know Whole process of installing the two OS is easy, but How to get them on the same virtual LAN?
This process is Easy too, Just go to the setting section-> network setting and then choose VIRTUAL_BOX_HOST_ONLY_ETHERNET adapter for both the OSes.
Again You might have figured that already. :)

But here is where most people will get stuck. Most user will then try to ping the other OS to check if they are in LAN. Amazingly only windows system will be able to PING the Backtrack 5 System. But Backtrack won't be able to ping back.  The Ping command seems to stuck.

So How to make BACKTRACK 5 Ping the Windows System Ping?
Its your lucky day :)
--->>>turn off windows firewall . :) :)<<<---
Please leave comment if you were stuck at this point and this post really helped you go over :)
Cheers.

P.S. I really LOLED after I tried this on my virtual box windows installation and my backtrack was able to ping it :)

backtrack 5 in virtual box pinging another virtual windows machine

Firefox's unusual multiple tabs opening bug

Today encounter a very (funny) odd looking bug in firefox. (Its not strictly related to Firefox, but anyways.)

The Bug:

If you have chosen the option in Firefox called "Open link in new Tab" and your default PDF file viewer is Firefox (Yeah it can happen with some people). If you download a PDF file and try to open it. The firefox will go in a infinite loop opening multiple Tabs (sometimes over 300, the only way to stop it using the "stop" icon in main menu).
Most people (non technical ones) get really annoyed with this. Installing and uninstalling the Firefox won't kill the problem (as its not entirely related to web browser).

Solution:

Only solution is to unassociated PDF files with firefox , thats it.
Right click any PDF file and then choose Open with menu and choose your default PDF viewer (Adobe or foxit). Choose Always open these files with this application. and you are done.

Why C programming Language is a powerhouse.

In this era of modern programming language, where there are like tons of programming languages available to computer professionals. C programming language which was developed like 40 years ago is still a persistent entity.
I know in this new world new languages has taken over the programming world. Languages like C#, Java, Python or others. May be (new) "people" don't like C/C++ anymore (I should be precise). But if you look at most core part of modern software system, they are still coded in C /C++. I will support my argument with following famous software.
Gecko :     This is the layout engine of Mozilla FireFox web browser. So this is the heart of FireFox and it is still written in C.
Android  : To days most famous mobile operating system. Core part of android is written in C/C++.
VLC player : Most preferred Video player, guess what its written in C/C++.

Doom engine : Id software Doom game engine, written in C/C++.

Half life engine : Written completely in C, C++ , the result? Well everyone knows ;)

Oracle DB : The Oracle Database management system, Owned in C/C++.

U Torrent  : Our beloved torrent client , written completely in C/C++
OK I think this is enough, the list is really long. But why I mentioned these examples? As you can see I chose them really carefully. How?
These example represents different programming scenarios. So as you can see C/C++ can tackle from web development system to database management system. The vary versatility of C/C++ is what it makes C a great programming languages. The code that C produces is far superior to any other language. The performance comparison is not even close. I know some languages specialize in certain part of programming (Like LISP excels in string handling), but C is still very very close to them. The C code is very close to even assembly languages. That is why most core system are still coded in C.
Languages like C#, java , python may have great programming supports in terms of API or libraries. These languages may also feature fancy stuff like garbage collection or dynamic variable types. But the raw powerhouse of C language is what it sets it apart from other language. (Most fast drivers still prefer the manual gear system then auto gears. right? )
Not to mention that while you have worked with C programming, it is very easy to migrate to other languages.
"At last there are only two type of programming languages in world. One is the language people always bitch about and other nobody uses".

Does Your Adsense ads Disapear in Firefox ?

I don't Know if it is a bug in Firefox or Its addon Ad Block Pro. But in case you are running Firefox with Ad block pro, there is a chance that your adsense ads will be blocked by ABP. Not only this, Ad Block Pro also messes with the latest interface change in Google Adsense . Most of the Adsense advertiser were not able to see the interface at all.
How to fix the issue? If you really love Ad Block pro, then simply go to your web address , right click on ABP icon and choose "Disable on ".
And this will hopefully unblock your adsense ads.
If this doesn't work out, Try Disabling ABP all together from addon menu.

Burnedpage.com in parking

I decided to park my domain burnedpages.com
My own wordpress installation was not working as I would have liked. Also it was becoming too cumbersome to manage 3 blogs. With me being busy with college website , I think I will start development for burnedpages.com after 2-3 months.

Another session went past

Its been one year now, this year has moved at a rate that I didn't imagined. Last year I joined Govt. P.G. College Kullu in feb. This session is near closing and I must say I learned so much in past year.
Understanding management skills in college from our beloved Nand Lal Sir ji. Learning SEO , website link building and Internet marketing with  my friend Gopal Krishan.Next month is going to be development phase for college website.  Govt degree college kullu is going to be updated.

Blogger having trouble?

Recently noticed that blogger is having trouble. Sometimes the application just crashes and sometimes the things don't work. I have seen some bugs when we use template editors. Not to mention the conflicting bug that arises when the autosave saves your post and you click publish at the same time.
The other day my friend Gopal's Blog got "Wiped " somehow. Like he told me he didn't do anything and his blog http://programminglanguageforstudent.blogspot.com/ just vanished into the thin air. This makes me wonder if it is safe to blog at blogger or not?

Why this blog is called Quantum variables?

Actually there is nothing about it that made it "Quantum Variables". This just shows my passion towards two of my favourite subjects. One is Quntum Physics, other being Programming . And the name sounds really catchy. And thats it.

Rejuvenation: Blogging with flavour

I am going to change the over all theme of the blog now. My blog will contain programming technique discussion only. Other tech stuff will be migrated to Burnedpages.com
I hope I could share some of my programming experience (good or bad). I also have this unusal  way of changing my work environment too. So expect to see discussion of C, C++, Java , C# , PHP, LISP etc.

Speeding your mobile broadband

I moved the article to here.
http://computersight.com/communication-networks/speed-up-your-mobile-broadband/

Wordpress site Infection : save your site

Today I witness something , that I never expected to happen. At office I was having chat with my friend Gopal. Gopal had subscribed to my wordpres site "burnedpages.com" through feeds. Suddenly his computer blocks an infection from my site (Thanks to Avast, the best in business). I was kinda surprised.
First I thought it was a false alarm but when i reached home, I couldn't access to my site. My own avast was blocking all the infection. So I figured something had wrong. It was my first time hosting a site, and I didn't wanted Google to show my site as unsecured.
I was using wordpress 3.0.1 with "erudite" theme. no other plugins.
I don't want google or other search engine to ban my site from search results, So here are some (desperate) steps that I took:-

• Backup of Data:- I used my website admin tools to get access to my wordpress database and then exported all the data to my computer. after all its your work and it shouldn't be wasted. My site provides an easy way to export the database using "PhpMyadmin". phpmyadmin has an export option that can be use to export your data to a text file. This backup is very usualful  if you need to change wordpress database name. In most cases it wouldn't be necessary though.
• Change FTP password : I guess hackers some how accessed my ftp password, or used sql-injection techniques to transfer the infected code to my index.php file. Any ways I changed my ftp password to a secure and hard to crack one.
• Deleted WordPress:- Then I deleted all word press files. (Yeah its better to delete it and then install a fresh one, rather then cure the infected file yourself. You can remove  'Extra Melicious code' from your webpages,but i guess wiping is better ;)   )
• Note for users:- Created a html page in my site saying that my site is undergoing maintenance.It is great for your traffic, otherwise people may go like "WTH, this site was working yesterday".
• Upload the original installation: If you have original installation of wordpress in your computer , you can upload them back and get your site to its original state easily.
• Access modification  : Change file permissions on your site so only you can write them.

And my sites was up and running in 10 mins. Next time I will be more careful.

What I have learned :- Don't use Wordpress own theme installation module . Why? it uses FTP and its better if you do it from your FTP client. Choose a hard password to crack for your wordpress installations. Its better that your site remains under maintenace mode rather then spreading infection. I hope it helps those wordpress sites that have such infection. Wordpress is great blogging tool and such incidents shouldn't put a question mark on it. Webmaster can be and must be a little careful next time.

Beat within my heart

Music is something that is just beyond description. The very essence of life , pleasure and faith. A calm beat that constantly loops while you surf the net. An aura of music beats that surrounds you when you are happy , a simple song that you hum every sec of the day.
It remarkable how taste of music varies with person to person , place to place and time to time. With so many genre of music around us, how we like so many form of music . From plain jazz , Hindi songs , ghazals  to  pop ,rock and  metal.
Music has the power of devouring you in it. An affliction that constantly beats within you. How we enjoy every line of our favorite song. Feel every word of the song ,listening to every line like its part of our life. Singing it like we are the one who created it.
Our culture is rich in Music forms. So many flavours , types and colors,  defines music and the way we appreciate it.

"Music is Life ".

Wiki Leaks : Down?

I was just trying to search wikileaks at google, and guess what? their main domain appears to be down. "www.wikileaks.org" is down. I think government striped their domain name from name server or somehow prevented access to their name server or even worse their site may be under attack. I think thier other mirrors are still operational. I found their facebook account showing some mirrors working directly on IPs.

But what I found interesting was how google's search engine still is able to search them. Just type "wiki leaks" and google searches page that don't have a domain name , but rather a static IP. Strange? well kinda yeah. I mean how the hell they did that? ( might have been the cached pages... don't know for sure). I mean it blows up the SEO right? Or is it just googles own preference to find them cause it is a burning topic?

Is it possible to remove wikileaks from Internet? Well the answer is probebly "nope". Why? Because Internet was designed for this specific purpose. (I know you don't know that. So here is a link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arpanet ).
Internet was designed to endure a Nuclear attack. So it even works if some of its portion is blown.

P.S. dismantling Internet would be the only way to bring down wikileaks to dust i guess  :)

Google Docs: Moving with World

How many times it happened to you that you got a laptop to edit your word document  or create a presentation in 30 mins!! just to find that the laptop doesn'nt have office suit in it.

Gone the days when you needed a office suit in your computers. With Internet technologies improving at rapid speed. You have all the office suit with Google Docs at your finger tips. Google Docs allows your to create basic word doc, excel-sheets , presentations , images at your Google home page.
Just follow http://docs.google.com/
All of your word documents , spread-sheets, presentation travel with you. Yeah no more pen-drives :)
No more shouting on cunning neighbour children who delete your stuff from computer when your are away.
No more headaches of finding the documents.
Google Docs also has an import function. Moreover it also allows you to link your spreadsheet or presentation to webpages. Nice isn't it.
Also has Template feature.Templates allow you to quickly create those Resume, Monthly bills etc.
Its better to watch it in action yourself.
Cheers. :)

Witch doctors and Computer Virus Infection

This article is dedicated to my good friends, who regularly get virus in their laptops and then bring them to me for the "cure". ( and I cleaned them with help of "Decease Cleansing Totem" (dedicated to my World of Warcraft friends) ).
Common Mistakes that lead to infections :

• "Antivirus are useless". Funny but true, most people think antivirus are worthless.
• "I checked this pendrive. It doesn't have any viruses". Really?? think again.
• "This pendrive may have viruses but don't worry, I just need this song from your HDD.". Great Work Einstein.
• "I formatted the pen drive, No more viruses!!!!". LOL.

You have virus infections: Symptoms.
Most of the symptomsare easily observable.

• Right clicking pen drives give Odd looking Menu items.
• Task manager has some unusual processes running.
• Task manager is blocked or not showing.
• Msconfig shows unusual entries at startup.
• Msconfig is blocked.

Avoid double clicking pen drives, either right click->explore or type the address at addressbar.  Get an anti virus!!! regularly update it. Scan every pen drives, even if the owner claims that its empty.

"Prevention is better 'then' cure".

P.S : thanks akshata, luv your comments.

Guarding my Computer: My Avast

Its been 3 years, yes three long years and no other anti virus program has come even closer to Avast. I use Avast home Edition and its awesome.
Being on Internet is not safe specially if you are not aware. Mal ware, Trojans, Root kits crawling around. Your friends running with scissors (pen drives) ready to hurt your computer.
How does Avast prevents all of these?

Avast Home Edition

• On access protection: protects you when files are accessed, very important for pen drives where virus auto run most of the time.
• Network shield: when your firewall fails, which usually do. prevents infection from Networks.
• Low memory print:  yes you wont even know Avast is doing its job.
• Boot time scan: very important, if you are caught off guarded, which is rare with Avast.
• Regular Update: gets updated 3-4 times per day automatically.
• Home Edition: free registration for 1 year.

"I was checking the traffic details on my blog. when i saw new links. I curiously clicked on them, to check the source of this traffic. And suddenly Avast blocks a JS-infection from the site.

Thanks to Avast my computer is safe again. :P

This article was written after that incident."

Together We Stand

The fun parts of job are the moments you share with your fellow colleagues. I have been fortunate, having great colleagues at work. Working at college has been like being in college once again. Cheers

Quotes and lines

Mark of  Genius, You throw rocks at them they make a wall  out of it , climb on it and say  "hey I am still over and above you   :P !!!".
I love such quotes. These small lines just describes the pain,barriers, struggle of a person. I usually get such good qoutes from my friends' SMSes,who get them from thier friends etc. But I rarely get programming qoutes. I searched the net and found some really funny one.
some of the quotes I really like:

• “The trouble with programmers is that you can never tell what a programmer is doing until it’s too late.”
• “In C++ it’s harder to shoot yourself in the foot, but when you do, you blow off your whole leg.”
• “Fine, Java MIGHT be a good example of what a programming language should be like.  But Java applications are good examples of what applications SHOULDN’T be like.”

Some lines by me :P (here it comes):-

• Programmer devotes 80% of his time on one half of the program and 80% of people like the other half.
• Programmer 1:" your code looks seriously messy!!". Programmer 2:" yeah I optimised it, so only I can correct it".
• For a programmer, who crys the most? the "keyboard" ofcourse.

Artificial Intelligence and Expert Systems

AI has been the most mysterious topic for me. I have always wondered about human like systems, System which can show intelligent behaviour. Describing intelligence is quite tricky, as human minds can do such things that a AI system cant even imagine (imagination in system is whole new topic to discuss).