IRC rocks
(Pidgin to the rescue again)
I have been using Pidgin for a long time now to chat with my friends both in Google(gmail) as well as in Yahoo using this single super cool client. The usual trojans and boot-ins, that is so common among Yahoo messenger users, wont simply, just work in Pidgin, and thats the beauty of it.
Now the IRC story
I had heard about IRC, a long time ago - the intial impression I had was that, it was a place where hackers met. And 6 months back, one of my friends namely Mr.Manu Unni - who was chief project lead in localization of Open Office in Malayalam, again told me about the great world of IRC and told me to look our for my Linux queries there. As soon as I came back home, I installed a shareware IRC client, but to my dismay, found it rather intriguing and not so easy to use and I gave it up altogether.
Fast forward to today, I just Googled for IRC, came across an wiki entry on the same. But it was pretty boring(its not usually like that,though - wiki entries are one of my best sources of info), but I got a pretty interesting link referring to rfc(Request for comment) of IRC. Next I got a list of free IRC's from wiki. And i was surprised to see our dear own Pidgin there.
I googled for configuring Pidgin and IRC and got these links
- IRC for beginners : Just beginner stuff, to get you started
- Aussie Linuxchix : Joining the IRC channel - a nice guide to installing and using Pidgin
- The IRC Prelude: A detailed view, on IRC communication, including jargons and ways to talk and so on.
Currently I am logged on to the server irc.linuxchix.org and its really cool feeling to know that, you are part of a whole new world of gurus and students alike.
Rather that just burst in, I plan to learn the netiquettes of IRC cha tfirst and then proceed further.
It worked !!!!!!!
As mentioned in my previous(last) post, when disabled the feature - "turn off usb device on standby" , I am able to connect to the Internet even after the pc is back after a stand-by session. Hooray!!
(Before I had to log-out and then log-in after each standy!!)
Labels: hacking, internet, IRC, modem, net connection, pidgin
Well, I am back
(A snap taking during our way to Pune )
A small note about the photo
The snap was taken using my c653 easy share kodak digital camera. I had taken this photo while peeping out of the window in the train that we were travelling. Note that, the photo has NOT lost any details, even though the train was travelling at over 100 kilometer per hour (62.13 miles per hour)
(Note:The date in the photo had been mistakenly set wrong)
Trip to pune
The trip to Pune was really cool, and I got really excited about sytem and security testing, that I found myself reading some really good books/blogs on the same, after coming back. Some blogs that worth checking are :
- http://softwaretestingguide.blogspot.com/
- http://software-quality-testing.blogspot.com/
- http://www.opensourcetesting.org/
Brother also gifted me 5 cool books : 3 on java, 1 about google and one on software testing. The one on testing, really caught my attention, and I haven't laid down the book ever since. I've completed 5 chapters on the same: Software Testing by Ron Patton.
Strange modem not connecting problem
I have been a facing a starnge problem recently. Its like this. I connect to internet using Scientific-Altanta WebSTAR DPC2100R2 Cable Modem throgh my usb. I use for a while, and when I take leave and come after, say an hour, the computer would be in stand by mode.
When I return, i wont be able to connect to internet. I recently learnt that it could be that, usb goes to standby mode. This can be disabled as follows: Right click on my computer. click on properties. Click the hardware tab, and click on Device manager.
From the list, select USB serial bus controllers, select USB root hub. Double click it.Select the power management tab and uncheck Uncheck Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power I think, that must fix the problem.
I haven't tried out yet, and whatever may be the outcome, i will post it here. I got the result by googling for "standby XP modem problem" (without quotes)
Path to hacking (not cracking)
I feel one can learn a lot about security features, and various exploits in a software, if one has good grasp over software testing. And as I could learn from the recent past, people just not stumble across exploits or back doors in softwares;(although, some rarely do) But they systematically work out possibilities, leading to the security breach, and publish it in bug-forums where they could be rectified in future release.
As a side note, I happened to hear last week that, famous security related bugs are being auctioned off, for cool hard cash. Strange indeed!!
Labels: bugs, hacking, modem, net connection, pune, software testing
