Unlocking Airtel HTC Touch

After the bomb blasts menace in Bangalore yesterday, I thought it was all over. We went to watch ‘The Dark Knight’ on Sunday morning. My teammate called me and informed that a live bomb has been defused. Well, life can’t wait for anything. So, be alert and keep going.

After we came back from the movie, Neeraj dropped by and asked me which mobile phone to buy. He had a sexy HTC touch smart phone, so asked him what the problem was. He’s moving to Chennai and his HTC is locked with Airtel. Now we had two choices, go out and buy a new phone or unlock the HTC and use it with some other GSM provider.

Little research on Yahoo! Search threw some light on how to unlock HTC. There were many paid services around, but using credit cards on random sites is not a good idea and we Indians are fond of free stuff. So, I narrowed down on to a free stuff. Here is a blog that talks on the topic – to unlock a HTC Touch. Three simple steps, your HTC will be unlocked.

I feel the locking concept is seriously insane. But, he chose to buy it after knowing the fact that it’s locked with Airtel. Any way, we’ve unlocked it and now it works with any provider.

Caution: Use random downloads from the Internet at your own risk.

Black Friday in Bangalore

Eight serial bomb blasts rocked the IT hub of India today.  From the timings of the blasts, it looked pretty much like a coordinated attack. News channels reported it was triggered by a timer device. At least two people lost their lives and several injured. Police say the blasts were low intensity, but a blast is a blast. Why should someone play with people’s lives? Some time back, there was a terror attack in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore; now in several places. Where is Bangalore heading?

I don’t understand what terrorists (or anyone who did this) are going to achieve by doing this. I think people have learnt to live with all these problems, just forgetting the blues and going ahead. And in a country like India, what can police do other than trying their best to stop all this menace?

Nigerian scam turns religious!

I’ve seen many Nigerian scam mails since I started using e-mail, but this one is new to me. It’s directed towards “devoted Muslims” (as said in the email). It’s another aspect of “Social Engineering”. I feel people who don’t know about Nigerian scams will believe it easily because it’s not addressing everyone and is directed specifically towards Muslims. I think the spammer/scammer has no technology to figure out if I’m a Muslim or not from my e-mail address.

The mail’s subject is “Assalam Aliekum”. Here is the e-mail:

Assalam Aliekum, Waramotuhu LLAHI Wabarakathuhu
Praise Allah, The Most beneficent, The most merciful

I am Mrs. Malika Raza Azeem from Islamic Sharia Region part of Zanfara Nigeria. I am married to late Dan Usman Abdul-Azeem (Inna LLAHA wa Inna Lehi Rojihuun) of blessed memory who worked with Nigeria Embassy in Gambia for nine years before he died in the year 2003. We were married for 14years without a child. He died after a brief illness. Since after his death, I have been battling with cancer and fibroid problems.When my late husband was alive he deposited the sum of USD$25M (Twenty five million United States Dollars) with an oversea security company.

Recently, my doctor told me that my days are numbered due to my cancer problem.Having known my condition, I decided to donate this fund to Islamic organizations or devoted muslim individual that will utilize this money with all sincerity to the will of Allah, to fund Mosques, Orphanages, Widows and also propagating the Word of Allah and to ensure that the society upholds the views and beliefs of the Holy Scripture Quran). The Holy Scripture emphasized so much on Allah’s benevolence and this has encouraged me to take this bold step.

I took this decision because I have no child that will inherit this money and my husband relatives are new Converts and I don’t want my husband’s hard earned money to be misused by people I call unbelievers. I don’t want a situation where this money will be used in an unholy manner. I know that after death, I will be with Allah the Most beneficent and the most merciful.

I don’t need any telephone communication in this regards because of my health and also because of the presence of my husband’s relatives around me always.As soon as I receive your reply, I shall give you the contact of the Security Company in Abroad where the fund is been kept.

I will also issue you a letter of Authority and other necessary documents that will prove you as the original beneficiary of this fund.My happiness is that I lived a true devoted muslim worthy of emulation.(Eidina Siratal Lmustakheem). Whoever that wants to serve Allah must serve HIM in truth and fearness. Yah ayuah Ledhina Aamanu, Irjihi Illa Robika, Rodihatan, Mordihatan).

Any delay in your reply will give me room in sourcing for another Islamic organization or a devoted muslim for this same purpose.Maa Sallam (Inna Laha ma na)

Regards.
Mrs Malika Raza
malikaraza11@yahoo.xxx

Looking at the headers, email tracer on cyberforensics of India suggests that it’s originated from France (probably from a cyber cafe or home computer?). The site displays all possible details if you paste the full headers of the e-mail.

Muslims out there, don’t fall for it in the name of charity. This may (will) spread in the name of other religions also, so be careful.

NDNC Registry – Get rid of unsolicited calls

Credit call people and tele marketers are very disturbing most of the times. They call when you are at work, when you are on vacation (roaming!) and whenever. They call again and again to disturb and can piss the hell out of you.

If you don’t want to receive automated calls or calls from telemarketers, just call your operator and ask to put your number on NDNC – National Do Not Call Registry (of India). It takes around 45 days for your number to go on to individual do not call registries of all telemarketers, but definitely you will not receive calls from any such people after that.

If you receive an unsolicited call even after 45 days, call your operator and talk to them in a high pitch that they dint put the number on NDNC inspite of requesting it, things will be set right. Operator will directly deal with those telemarketers. Or you can directly tell the telemarketer that you are on NDNC and will sue their company. You will never receive a call from that marketer again.

It’s a free service, obligatory for any mobile operator to provide – by law.

FutureBazaar – The Worst Shopping Experience

I love the business model of Big Bazaar, but their online counter part sucks. The site is not a great one, but not bad too. I tried to shop some t-shirts on the site, I think it doesn’t like me. Always throws Null Pointer Exceptions.

Well, Java – the language I program in, Null Pointer Exception is the last thing you want to display to the user. The worst thing is that after validating my credit card, the redirection from my Banker’s site to the merchant site failed. FutureBazaar has thrown a null pointer exception.

Hell with it, I’ve to file an application for refund now. Careful when you shop on future bazaar.

Secure Camp I

I was there today.

I expected a big crowd there after seeing the registration page, but not even half turned up. I’ve been into security stuff at Yahoo! for quite sometime, so I have fair idea of web security. The web security part there was not very interesting to me, for, I know most of it already. I dint plan to speak there, but I prepared a short presentation on the fly about basic practices to avoid XSS, XSRF, SQL attacks. My laptop ran out of power and thanks to RSA guys who allowed me to use their laptop for presentation. I dint speak more than twenty minutes, I know that was not a good presentation, but next time I will plan to talk well before.

Most interesting part of the talk was a tool presented by Yash. He could capture passwords from sites that used SSL, which created a shiver down my spine. The tool captures data before it enters the SSL tunnel between the desktop and the website. It’s not a key logger.

If I’m right, Rasmus Lerdorf, the inventor of PHP said “the internet is broken”. Yash reiterates desktop (at least Windows) is even more broken.

The week that has gone by

This week was fully packed. Learning things for new project, cleaning things up from old project and preparing training material to train people in Java. Preparing presentations is a boring and hectic stuff: shouldn’t make any errors, should know what I put on the slides, should do research on things, OMG! Somehow, managed to prepare slides and surprisingly presented in the decided duration.

Tomorrow, going to SecurityCamp at RSA, Bangalore. And should roam on sunday.

Pressure or Complacency?

Once again, India lost the final of Asia cup. Doing well all over the series and losing an important match is something India repeats. Is it really pressure or the players have become complacent? Winning two out of last twenty-two finals is no way good by any statistics. Mendis was the man who ripped apart the Indian batting order, 6-1-13-6 is one of the best figures in one-day cricket. If it’s pressure, India should learn to handle it. Or if it’s complacence, I don’t know!

Congratulations Sri Lanka!

And now Mr. Musharraf cracks a joke (or was sarcastic) here. He appreciates the hospitality of Pakistan team that allowed two visiting teams to play the finals.

Running life on batteries

When we came home on Friday evening, it was darkness inside!

I forgot to pay our Rs. 118 electricity bill outstanding. The BESCOM guy came and gave a new bill and disconnected our power connection. Venkat had to pack his luggage and this should have irritated him. “Pay the bill, call the guy on this number, you will get the connection back” was the message on the notice board. If I had access to the Internet, I would have paid at the moment. “Somebody give me access to Internet” was my cry that time. My GPRS was not working at that time, thanks to Airtel.

I searched for wireless networks if something was available, found an adhoc but couldn’t connect. Then, I decided to give up. From then till next afternoon, I was running on batteries: my laptop and my mobile phone – no Internet. Laptop battery is a good timer, if you do not want to spend too much (waste) time at night, don’t connect your laptop to a/c power, you will sleep happily.

Finally, I woke up at 11 AM on Saturday, went to office and paid the bill online. After we called the guy, he told his office time was over and he could come only on Monday. In India, there is a second route for everything. My apartment got power at 6 PM finally.