Bom Sabado !! How? , What? and Why ?

 First Twitter faced an attack by hackers after a security flaw was unearthed by a user. Soon after, Facebook saw its worst downtime in four years and now its Orkut's turn to be under attack by a worm known as Bom Sabado.
The attack gave millions of its users , the creeps , due to all kinds of rumors about the worm like loosing your account , cookies (saved passwords , browsing history) etc.
  
About Orkut !!
It is a Google owned social networking site, launched in 2004 . It is one of the most visited websites in India and Brazil. In fact, as of April 2010, 48.0% of Orkut's users are from Brazil, followed by India with 39.2% and United States with 2.2%.The website currently has more than 100 million active users worldwide . While it may be small compared to Facebook (which boasts of half a billion users), 52 million active Asian Orkut users is, by no means, a small number.

About the worm !!
Bom Sabado virus ( meaning Good Saturday in portuguese which is also the official language of Brazil.) is a JavaScript based worm that spreads itself through Orkut scraps . The worm is an auto generated message which might look like just another scrap from your buddy. The scrap actually embeds a malicious JavaScript code which infects the profile of the person as soon as he opens the scrap page.

The browser will be hanged for some minutes or seconds.Soon after this, the code is executed and it will make the user join bot communities automatically. The worm then starts posting scraps to the user's friends using his name, thereby spreading itself. The worm also steals browser cookies.This might lead to your account(s) getting hacked/deleted/misused with .

Experts Say :

• DO NOT visit any profile on Orkut till this script is blocked.    
• Clear your cookies and cache right away and change your password and security question.
• Find out whether some communities have been joined automatically. If yes, do remove them.  
• DO NOT click on suspicious links on anyone else's Orkut user profile.   
• Let your friends know about this script and make them aware of the situation. ( It’s just an effort to minimize the damage ). 

Hey Google !! , watsay ? 

As on September 26 , 2010 ,the search engine giant Google Inc has announced that the virus attack on Orkut was removed.Orkut has now posted an entry at its support site where it says that the worm is now contained.
Google released a statement in their blog which notified all users that the worm was cleared and Orkut is safe. This is the second virus attack on Orkut. The attack came just after a month Orkut unveiled the new exciting home page and features.
"This is to inform you all that we’ve contained the 'Bom Sabado' virus and have identified the bug that allowed this and have fixed it. We’re currently working on restoring the affected profiles. Thanks a ton to each of you who’s made an effort to alert everyone else about this. I’ll make sure to keep you guys posted on more updates," said Google Inc in their blog.
    
General tips for Orkut Usage !!

• Don’t ever login to any site rather than www.orkut.com
• Don’t ever run any JavaScript while logged into your orkut account.
• Never use any flooder in your account
• Don’t ever share your password with anyone else and keep changing your password regularly.
• Don’t ever click suspicious link while logged into Orkut a/c. If you are curious you can copy the link and check them in other browser after cleaning it’s browser’s cookie and cache.
• Don’t ever install any suspicious script on grease-monkey and ALWAYS DISABLE THE GM before logging in to orkut.
• Do your mobile verification also, so that you can get back your a/c if hacker doesn’t change the mobile number there. visit :  http://www.orkut.co.in/Main#MobileSetupSettings
• Install a good Update Anti-virus and Anti Key logger and keep your system free from Key loggers and back-door trojans.
• Use Virtual Keyboard to enter your password for more security. 

 Happy Orkutting !! :)

Domi-mania

Pizzas !! yumm :) . We all love them , and Domino's Pizza , is the pizza-chain which seems to be delivering  more pizzas to our campus , than they are serving in their outlet  . Its popularity among the students is unparalleled  . And this time it was the social networking  site "Facebook"  , that lead to a new milestone in its popularity . All thanks to a hot and happening contest  , started by domino's pizza India group.

Super Fan Of The Day - The contest was simple and alluring , as it  just required the participant to upload a pic of their's on domino's pizza fb page , and the prizes that could be won were :

• Rs. 2500 worth of gift vouchers / coupons .
• a Super Fan Of The Day t-shirt , and 
• a Super Fan Of The Day mug . 

But , there was a twist .The winner was to be decided on the basis of the number of comments on his/her pic , that he/she had uploaded. The person getting the highest number of comments was to be declared as the winner of  the Super Fan Of The Day  title ,  for that day .

It was the perfect contest for people of our group , as we have a large gang of 25+ close friends and then we have around 150+ batch-mates . Then there are seniors , friends of friends and so on , and all connected through facebook .It seemed to be a cake -walk for us , and the first person to jump into the fight-club was none other than , our "neta" - Pranav Goyal a.k.a Aslam bhai.

With a friend list of 500+ friends , and then having a huge friend support ( both from boys' and girls' side !! ) and we all being well-aware of his "jugaadoo" abilities  , we were quite confident of his victory . He uploaded quite a funny picture of him bathing in a waterfall , :D ,  but who cared about the pic , as all that was to be counted was "the number of comments" . And then poured  in , huge amounts of comments , with many of us doing chatting via commenting on his pic , so that we increase his number of comments . But , as we know , when your day is bad , nothing can stop your failure   :P . Same happened with him , since as per rules of the contest ( Pranav  was not aware of !! :P ), only unique comments were to be counted , and even though he had highest number of unique comments for that day , but due to reckless commenting done by us  , his comment count reached 800 , and organizers , feeling that something was fishy , kind of disqualified him . :P

He was disappointed ,  angry , and ready for a revenge !! He posted a lot of queries asking questions from domino's ,  but all  in vain .

With his chance lost , he asked another one of our group's member Shashank Sharma , to run for the contest . He followed his footsteps , but this time ended with a positive result . He won !! and won big time . Then there was a girl from our batch , who managed to win too ( getting comments from many unknown people , which even posted their contact numbers for her !! ) ,thanks to her cute features :P .Seeing these people win , many of us got excited to take part .  

But till now , the people who were commenting for these people , had got annoyed from regular requests of "please comment !! " , and some of them had even stopped responding :P .  Many of the seniors and batch-mates started felt it amusing that how for a few free pizzas , people were putting so much effort . But , as it is said , free and easy things are to be won !! Not Left . So , me and one of my friend too ,  participated later in the contest and won it !! . It was like , our batch-mates were trying to rob domino's , and our pics going all over the net getting famous !! :D  .

After a successful stampede at the contest ,the winners  ( and their friends :P ) , are eagerly waiting for the prizes to arrive . And FYI , Pranav is still running for the contest in which you have to get highest number of comments in a duration of 2 weeks :P . Lets hope , luck favors him this time .

All praises to domino's for the contest ( in return they got a record number of page visits and large number of people joining their group !! )  , as it was quite an ingenious publicity idea by the company . Hoping to see some more of such contests from their side in future .

Together Again...

an ode on melancholy...................by me .

The first time I saw you ,
It was the last time I needed to see someone  ,
you smiled, you winked , it was like god has sent you ,
to fix the heart , that was left broken . 

the laughs we had , the things we shared ,
how beautiful was the time spent,
fortunate we were , that we got paired ,
as it was what , the destiny meant.

Day turned nights , and nights turned day ,
we were writing the book of trust , that our love would portray ,
life had its goal , its path earlier  , now we had a  companion to travel it with ,
when together we were , it was magical...free from fear and minds of crith.

Every journey has its hurdles , every mishap has trauma ,
artless is the life which is simple , it should have its content of drama,
there are no roses without thorn , no love without pain ,
Baby , there is nothing to hide , nothing to mourn , as I believe , the wishes we had , we  would attain .

Fun without you , is not fun anymore ,
life is a lost ship , far away from its shore ,
grasp my grief , realize its agony,
I have lived a single life , but deaths are many .

The glee will return , the time will bend ,
living in our world , by our love we would be penned ,
my life without you , is sand without rain ,
Oh baby , i want you to be with me , walk with me , live with me ... once again ,

 I want us to be together again , together again !!!

Passion Or Career

"I don't want to be in this branch , Computer Science is not my piece of cake..!! " . These were the words of my friend , a 3rd year student doing B.Tech in comp. science . I kept on thinking after listening to them , that is it not the case with many of us , and have not we all faced the same frustration many a times in our lives . A simple question is that , why do we fall in such circumstances , and what is it that leads us to dig our own graves .

• Is it because of the reason , that while making crucial career decisions , we don't have enough knowledge about the different field options ?
  
• Is it because , that we are so insecure and defensive , that we follow footsteps of the so-called peer , so that we are not left alone ?
  
• Or Is it because , for a 'safe' future , which means good job , family and getting settled , we choose the path which has more probability of achieving all these 'ambitions' ?

Falling a prey to either of the reasons , we join a particular college , a branch , with innocent dreams , but it is not a surprise , that after few years most of us feel dejected and we start loathing the branch we had taken as "our own choice" . This dejection has had , very serious repercussions on the students . They try to change their working areas after graduation , some suffer in studies , some suffer at their jobs , and some in serious cases , getting so much depressed , have threatened their lives and even lost them .

I have been witnessing such scenarios from a long time . Newspaper articles , comments from friends and sometimes my personal experiences , have made me ponder ,what is important in life : Passion Or Career ?

Should we sacrifice our passion for something , just to have a safer , easier lifestyle ? A person who is interested in non-conventional areas like painting , dancing , singing , writing and acting , should he join engineering , medical etc. just because these what the others are doing , and these areas have a "secured future" . ?

Imagine a guy , studying in a branch , he has no interest in . He can never fulfill the expectations of others . Leaving aside others , he himself can't live a life full of compromises and settlements . Even if he somehow manages to get through studies , gets a job , will he be able to do it with same zeal and ardor as he would have followed his passion.His life will be like a flower , which is loosing its scent day-by-day . Is this a safe future ? Is this the future , he worked so hard for ? . Definitely not.

A successful life , is where you are doing the work you like , with full effort and enthusiasm and spending a happy and peaceful life. Being content with your life is what that should matter . Earning lakhs of money can buy you luxuries , but can never satisfy your innate desires . A painter , might not earn a lot , but the pleasure that he earns when he completes his artwork is incomparable . A musician might have to stay jobless for years , but for him playing his instrument is what that matters as it is an eternal feeling for him.

Then comes the point , Is following your passion being selfish ? . You are not thinking of the family , and your responsibilities towards them ? This is a common dilemma , people face as responsible members of their families.

But , this point is a superficial argument , as a passion-less , enthusiasm-less life will only lead to a person becoming dissatisfied with life .His behavior towards others and himself getting devastated . His failure at doing his job at his best . Think of a doctor who wanted to become a writer .He somehow managed to pass exams of medical .Will you risk your life by getting operated from him ? . For him , being a doctor is a source of income , but is this not putting lives of people at stake ? Same is the case of a civil engineer who is not passionate about his job and he might be building bridges and towers for people. He might succeed in few works , but when he fails due to lack of enthusiasm , the consequences are ruinous.

Want to read about people changing careers after 50 , read this
http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/55588

Mind you guys , want to have a happy life ? , then try making your passion your career , rather than struggling to convert a career option into your passion , as the later is an impossible job . Path may be difficult , facing failures will be a routine , oppositions and criticism will become a natural reaction , but the person who will live up-to all of these will be truly satisfied in life. Even when he will be earning less than what he could have by taking some other option , he will be SATISFIED and HAPPY !!

A quote from one of my favorite movies Fight Club :
"God damn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. "