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PL-7008

Understanding PL-7008: Your Guide to AI Agent Certification

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Mastering API Fundamentals & API Security with these learning resources

devsecops learning resources

DevSecOps Learning Resources to start with

application security interview questions

Application Security Interview Questions: Expert Guidance and Insights

study plan to learn common skills in cybersecurity

Study Plan to learn common skills in Cybersecurity

Smileys for all chat messenger at one place

Chatting is funNow a days, chatting over net is very very common. And use of smiley makes more sense than words sometimes. Specially when you are in sad mood, angry mood or in romantic mood 😛

There are many keyboard shortcuts to send smiley or emoticons and in almost all chat messengers it will be more or less same. Most popular chats are Yahoo, GoogleTalk (Gtalk), Skype, FB emoticons too (FaceBook is at world rank 2)

I will post images for all possible emoticons of most popular chat services that i collected from various sites. few are common to all messengers and few are hidden one like yahoo smiley for flag, rose etc. Gtalk is having three different tastes for emoticons: Classic, Round, Square:

Gtalk Emoticons-IGtalk Emoticon-IIFacebook EmoticonsSkype EmoticonsSkype Emoticons-IISkype Emoticons III Yahoo EmoticonsYahoo Emoticons-IIYahoo Emoticons-III

Enjoy All the Emoticons at one place. Happy Alien blogging !

Safety tips for mobile users

be safe while talking on mobile Hi friends, according to present scenario every people who are above 14 are having mobile (except those who can't afford it). Its good thing to have to be in touch with friends and families but it may turn into devil if you misuse it either knowingly or unknowingly. So, its the right time to know that what we should do and what we should not do with mobile.

  • Only give your mobile number out to people you know and trust. (Specially for girls)
  • Don't do any transaction through smart phone if password or any personal information is getting to be stored in your mobile.
  • Don't talk rubbish or don't harass anyone on phone, it comes under Cyber Crime. (while break up couples usually do so. So beware guys!)
  • Avoid, unless absolutely needed, connecting to an unsecured wireless network through your mobile (whici is having wi-fi facility)
  • Do not use your mobile phone to communicate with strangers. Only text and call people or businesses you know in real life.
  • Never reply to text messages from people you don’t know. (One or two messages you can do to know his/her identity, if possible)
  • Make sure you know how to block others from calling your phone. Using caller id ,you can block all incoming calls or block individual names and numbers.
  • Make a record of your Electronic Serial Number (ESN) and/or your International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number. You can find out your IMEI number by pressing *#06# on your mobile phone's keypad, it will display a 15 digit number – that is your IMEI number.
  • If your phone is lost or stolen, report it to your local police station and your network operator immediately.
  • Think about how a text message might be read before you send it. (Married couples may face many issues because of such messages. No need to explain i guess)
  • You should never give anyone else's number out without their permission.
  • You should never take pictures or videos of anyone with your phone if you do not have their permission.
  • Do not allow others to take pictures or videos of you without your permission. Remember – these pictures and videos can be posted to the Internet.
  • Be careful if you meet someone in real life who you only "know" through text messaging. Even though text messaging is often the "next step" after online chatting, that does not mean that it is safer.

We follow most of the steps but knowingly or unknowingly we do such mistakes which leads towards Cyber crime. So, play safe, be safe and make the nation Cyber crime free nation. Source: http://www.staysafeonline.org

Be friendly but use your brain while talking on Social networking sites

lets be frdHi friends, If you are using internet then you must be having accounts on Facebook or Orkut or Myspace etc. (may be in all :)) My question is: Why you joined social networking sites?

1. Just for fun,

2. To remain in touch with my friends and relatives,

3. To make new friends specially beautiful girls :D,

4. To remain updated about others

Let me guess in most cases it would case no. 2 or 3 (correct me if I am wrong). As far as you are safe at this site its ok even if you are addicted to it. But if you are sharing your social or personal information then be aware before talking even.
Bit Defender did survey on it and found more than 90% internet users share sensitive data within 2 hours of continuous talks over chat messenger or over Social sites.  According to Internet World Stats, people are spending increasingly more time online, with global Internet usage up by more than 390% between 2000 and 2009. Over this period of time, the popularity of social networks amplified as well.

They did survey by making a fake profile and sending friend request to more than 2000 users (male and female included age varying from 20-65 of 27 years mean age). After a week, the friendship request form proved very successful: out of the 2,000 requests sent by the test-profile, 1,872 were accepted.

A first analysis of the gathered datasets revealed that usually, on a social network, the first impression counts a lot: a very nice looking young woman will always attract a lot of friends. 94% of the 2,000-user experimental sample accepted to become friends with the test-profile.
Surprisingly 86% of them were from IT field (isn’t it hilarious), and more interesting ,31 % of them were from IT Security field. An industry that has been stressing the risks of using social networking sites for many years. (This really surprised me) Most of them added because of display picture which was of a lovely girl.

The worst thing with social networking site is, after having half an hour conversation with stranger they reveal many personal information like their parent’s names, address, spouse, children names (all these information can be use to crack passwords and in most of the cases it works).

They allow them to see their albums which may be copied for wrong purpose. In addition to that, after a 2 hour conversation, 73% revealed what appears to be confidential information from their work place, such as future strategies, plans, and unreleased technologies/software. The results of this study suggest not only that social network users accept unknown persons in their group just based on a nice profile photo, but also that they are willing to reveal personal, sensitive information after a short online conversation.

This means that social networks serve both as a meeting ground where people can present themselves and communicate, but also as a starting point for a virtual “friendship”, which brings people to divulge too much information because of the illusion of anonymity.
So, from the next time if someone sends you friend request or trying to talk to you over chat messenger, have patience do all investigations related to unknown profile (at least take help from Google) , if you feel O.K. then go on else reject it blindly. Never be too emotional over social sites and don’t reveal such things so easily. It may help them in social engineering and they may harm your system, your bank accounts, your reputation even you. See the images below for detailed analysis: frdship rateppl from diff jobpersonal info revealed Source: BitDefender

3 Easiest methods to make gmail your default Email Client

Love for GmailSometimes you don't need a bulky program just for sending an email like MS outlook, isn't it? And gmail lover would rather prefer sending any mail through their gmail account right? Sometimes you just need to send a website link, or just a screen-shot of  current web page  it really doesn't make much sense to start Outlook for these tiny things.

If you see any emailto: field, that will prompt you to open MS outlook by default which is annoying sometimes. (I really don't like). So if you click on that emailto: admin@aliencoders.org (say an example), it would rather shoot gmail instead of MS outlook. You can do this in three different easiest ways:

  1. Tweaking Firefox settings:

    • Click on  tools-> option
    • Click on Application tab
    • You will see content type and action column. Search for mailto content type and choose gmail from drop-down option against mailto column (you can choose yahoo mail or any other email client too)
    • I would prefer this method over any other methods, because there is no need to install any extra application.
    • It will work only if firefox is opened for sending mail
  2. Using Google-talk settings:

    • Double click on the Google Talk icon in the system tray(you need not to be logged in)
    • Click on the Settings link and go to general tab option
    • Now check the “Open Gmail when I click on email links” box in the Settings window.
    • Click “OK” and You are done hurray!
    • Many people use gtalk, so this is also fine and i would give it second preference
       
  3. Using Gmail notifier:

    • You need to have Gmail notifier installed in your system
    • Right click on its system tray icon
    • Select the Options menu and tick the box next to “Use Gmail for internet mailto: links”.
    • Select your favorite browser in the drop down menu and you are done now.
    • You may get error saying  “Cannot connect to your mailbox. and it always have an unnecessary pop-up to prompt whenever you try to connect gmail at startup.

       

    Personally i avoid installing unnecessary application, if that work will get accomplished by other easier way, isn't it. i would use Gmail notifier when i will not have any option (which will never happen unless and until Firefox or gtalk is there :P)

Firefox and Google Talk settings images:Gmail option in Firefox  Gtalk settings for gmail I hope you will surely like this. need your comments! Happy Alien browsing 🙂

Firefox tweak to bypass blocked sites

Firefox tweaks Hi folks!, Why to use any proxy server or any application when we can achieve the same thing just by tweaking firefox a little bit? Most of the people have account in facebook. People use to open it in an organization frequently. Second things that users wish to do is chat over yahoo or skype or gtalk or aol or jabber etc. Make Firefox to work for facebook:

  • Click on Tools->options
  • Click on advanced tab (you will see general, tabs, content….advanced at last)
  • Click on Network (second option after general)
  • Under connection click on setting button (a pop-up box will come out)
  • Check Manual proxy configuration radio button

    • Leave SSL and SOCKS host blank at  IP address and port no: 0
    • For the rest HTTP, FTP Gopher leave as it is being set by your organization

    You are done! Click on Ok and come out of all those options. Try to open facebook or meebo or chat based site (except orkut). If its saying access denied, try that link with https i.e. https://www.meebo.com or https://www.facebook.com Now it will open (working for me).

  • For chat option you can use https://www.meebo.com, https://www.imo.im(its having skype option too) or http://java2script.org (click on below shown chat icons)

Note:

  • You will not be able to open orkut anyhow.
  • If you gmail chat is disabled, then after setting your firefox option as above said, you will be able to chat through gmail.
  • You can't open youtube too

Check the images below: (click to view larger size) firefox proxy settingsProxy connection settings Let me how its works for you all? Happy Alien browsing !

Types of Network Hardware

computer network The label network hardware is generally given to any piece of equipment with the task of moving data. Common categories of network hardware include:

• Routers routers and switches

•Switches 

• Network Interface Cards

Routers A router is a network device with interfaces in multiple networks whose task is to copy packets from one network to another. Routers operate at Layer 3 of the OSI Model, the Network Layer. A router will utilize one or more routing protocols to create a routing table. The router will then use the information in its routing table to make intelligent decisions about what packets to copy to which interface. This process is known as routing.

Routers are available with many interface types, such as Ethernet and DSL. Wireless routers support wireless interfaces, such as 802.11 (Wi-Fi). Not all routers clearly fall into the category of network hardware. Routing software makes it possible to build a fully functional router out of a normal computer

Switches A switch is a network device with multiple ports in one network whose task is to copy frames from one port to another. Switches operate at Layer 2 of the OSI Model, the Data-Link Layer. A switch stores the MAC Address of every device which is connected to it. The switch will then evaluate every frame that passes through it. The switch will examine the destination MAC Address in each frame.

Based upon the destination MAC Address, the switch will then decide which port to copy the frame to. If the switch does not recognize the MAC Address, it will not know which port to copy the frame to. When that happens, the switch will broadcast the frame to all of its ports.

Before switches became available, devices called hubs were used. Hubs were less intelligent netword devices that always copied all frames to all ports. By only copying frames to the destination ports, switches utilize network bandwidth much more effectively than hubs did. Another piece of network hardware related to the switch is the Bridge. A Bridge is effectively a two-port switch. Because few users need a two-port switch, they are no longer manufactured. NIC

Network Interface Cards A network interface card is an expansion card which installs into a computer and enables that computer to physically connect to a local area network. The most common form of network interface card in current use is the Ethernet card. Other types of network interface cards include wireless network interface cards and Token Ring network interface cards. Other terms for network interface card include network adapter, network card and NIC. Network interface cards are becoming rare, as most motherboards now include built-in network interfaces.

Ultrasurf: to bypass blocked sites

Blocked site made frustrationIn most of the colleges or IT industries, you will observe that many sites will be blocked or even you will not be able to hat through online messenger. People use to open orkut, facebook, youtube but they will not be able to open it due to proxy enabled firewall in hat organization. I also got annoyed with such things and one day go to know, how to surpass all these barriers.

Why to use or test any proxy site to open such sites when there is a small application for it which does its job at its best. Yes! ultrasurf is there to solve your problem. (You can smile :)). More than 70% organizations usually ban  Social networking sites. Few companies allow with some term and conditions. Sometimes its good to not having access to such sites, else it may harm work culture and productivity. But it may be used for refreshment and kind of updates about friends, families, about other companies, sites etc.

For example: I wish to see updated news of few companies or sensex through twitter, then how i will be able to see it if they will block twitter at office?Why social sites are banned?

  • Its daily traffic is over 8000 GB and daily hits would be near around 800 million
  • Its free to use
  • Latest version is 9.97
  • Its so light, size is 500 Kb approx.
  • You just need to download it and double click on it whenever you wish to use automatic enabled proxy server to bypass your organization's proxies.
  • It requires IE only and works on almost any O.S. version of windows (like XP,Vista, win 7)

Add-on for Firefox

Firefox users need to download the firefox add-on besides the above software: Download Firefox add-on(.zip) (md5: 6ce151b1b0ef8430031a8e9a69f38806)

Installation:

Unzip it, drag the wjbutton_en.xpi file to firefox window. Click the "Install" button in the pop-up window to install it. The UltraSurf icon will show at the right-bottom of the firefox window. Close all firefox windows and re-open firefox. A grey-out UltraSurf icon means UltraSurf is disabled. A bright colorful icon means UltraSurf is enabled. Click it to enable/disable it. To change the settings or uninstall it, go to "tools/add-ons" of firefox. Start UltraSurf program and enable the firefox add-on, your internet activities thru Firefox will be under UltraSurf's protection.

Automatic upgrade

When UltraSurf software releases a new version, you will see a pop-up window telling you to download the latest version when you open the UltraSurf home page. I hope you will like it. Comment is needed! Happy Alien Blogging You tube access deniedUltrasurf v9.97

Drupal installation problem in your system

Drupal Installation SolutionIf drupal is not working in your Windows(like if you have tried installing drupal but it’s giving some errors). Try these (worked for me) –

1. Increase PHP’s memory settings by doing–
a)      Click on the WAMP icon in your system tray (or wherever it is just click on it). It will show you all the options like Apache, Mysql, PHPadmin, Localhost etc.
b)      Select Config files (in newer versions ) or PHP (in old versions) —-à then click on PHP.ini
c)       Go to line “upload_max_filesize=2M”, change it to 32 M or more
d)      Save and restart WAMP

2. Got an ERROR : C:\WAMP\www\includes\file.inc on line 911 –
Do this : Go to the line where it is written “elseif ($depth>=$min_depth && ereg($mask, $file))” change ereg to mb_ereg

3. Setup Database problem

a) First create a database named drupal or whatever you want.

b) Enter the database username as root and password “”[null]
Keep in mind : When you are renaming the default_settings.php to settings.php then make sure you are copying the content of default_settings.php & renaming it to settings.php.
Keep this file in  sites\default. After doing all this I got my drupal site , hoping the same for you. Cheers!

Ava Find: An alternate to windows search

Ava FindHi friends, Have you ever noticed that searching any file on a clattered system is how tough through windows search mechanism? I feel irritated sometimes when windows search is on and on and after few minutes , saying that no match found. I have left even thinking that Windows is having such feature and i started using Ava Find 1.5. Its in my favorite application list now. Its fast searching features really amazed me. Some of its features are listed below:

  • Search without delay. (very very fast if its cached)
  • Searches accurately and will show you all the details you might want.
  • Scout Bot finds newly downloaded files automatically. You don’t even have to enter a search or have to refresh it again.
  • Browse Music/Videos/Programs etc folder at single click or you can select select all also.
  • Find documents you just saved: Suppose you forgot, where you have saved it. Not an issue at all if you have Ava Find. 🙂
  • Suppose you don’t the exact file name or folder name, no worries Ava Find does Advanced Name Search i.e. Match file names using * and ? wildcards.
  • Same right-click menu options are there for each file as it is in Windows Explorer.
  • Folders are shown with their sizes next to them. So, you need not to wait for windows properties to show their size.

Fair enough to use it freely or buy it. Ifs its Ava Find Pro then you can do network drive search also and if its free then you might not be able to do all right click stuffs too. You can use free version but after 30 days, it will disable few of the features that you may have in Pro. Its latest version is still 1.5 only Its of less than one MB in size. It costs 40 US Dollar approx. (can use trial version too.) You can download it from here Don’t forget to comment if you like this application.