Day-Light Saving bug: Impact on the Digital World

In case you don't know about it: the day-light saving time (DST) is going to begin at 2AM on Sunday, March 11, 2007 (instead of April 1) and end at 2AM on Sunday, November 4, 2007 (in the past it used to start in April and end in October).

FYI: The sole idea of day-light saving time is to save energy by using more of the solar energy that we get for free. The Energy Policy Act 2005 contains an addendum to the Uniform Time Act (2006) which aims at saving more by using more of the sun's energy.

But what does it mean to us (other than making us wake up an hour earlier in the morning)? It won't be as devastating as Y2K bug(estimated loss: $23 billion), for sure. But, let's see what could happen if sufficient measures are not taken: most of the time-sensitive applications (for example, time cards) do not know how to react to this change, and it could lead to incorrect arrival and departure times in the travel industry and result in errors in bank transactions, causing late payments. In addition, trading applications might execute purchases and sales at the wrong time, and cell phone-billing software could charge peak rates at off-peak hours.

Microsoft and other software-makers have created patches to fend the blow. But it seems that the companies using Microsoft Exchange as their email client can still face problem. Many of them still use MS softwares which Microsoft has stopped providing support for: Windows 2000 and Windows XP prior to SP2 are probably the best examples.

Let's see how it can affect us!

Read more:
CNN, CNet, Wikipedia, Microsoft

How to Intercept a Text Message in a Cell Phone

Wanna eavesdrop a mobile phone conversation or intercept a text message? That is so "super" illegal. And I am not here to teach you how to do it (believe me, I have never tried it).

It happened recently in Wal Mart where a technician was caught red handed! And based on that incidence Christopher Beam of Slate described how one can achieve such a feat.

There are a few ways to do this. One method, phone cloning, lets you intercept incoming messages and send outgoing ones as if your phone were the original. If both phones are near the same broadcast tower, you can also listen in on calls. To clone a phone, you have to make a copy of its SIM card, which stores the phone's identifying information. This requires a SIM reader that can read the card's unique cryptographic key and transfer it to another phone. (Warning: This is super illegal, but there are still sites that show you how.) The problem with cloning is that it only lets you intercept messages sent to one phone number. Plus, you need physical access to the target phone to make it work.

It's also possible to intercept unencrypted or poorly encrypted messages directly as they're broadcast over cellular channels. (If the network uses sophisticated encryption, you might be out of luck.) To steal messages with your phone, you would need to upload illegal "firmware" onto your phone. This essentially turns your phone into a radio and allows it to pick up all the texts broadcast on a given channel—instead of limiting you to the ones addressed to you. You'd also need to know the network for the target phone—Verizon, Cingular, T-Mobile, etc.—and you'd have to make sure that both your phone and the target are within range of the same base station. This method isn't too expensive since you don't need much more than a computer, a phone, and some firmware that any serious techie could find online for free.

There are websites to find the illegal firmware, and the point I'm trying to make here is that any person with some technical knowledge will just need a computer, an internet connection and a phone to eavesdrop your mobile phone conversation or intercept your text messages.

Sources: Slate, FCC

Top 13 Firefox Extensions that I Can't Live without!

I have been using Firefox for quite sometime and as everyone else I was just amazed to see how well it can be tweaked to do the things that I want to get done. The best feature of this browser is the incorporation of loads of extensions which help you do all sort of things from news reading to blogging. Here are 13 of them which I like most (well, I have a lot more than that installed, but I think these are the best and 13 is a cool number!).

1. All-in-One Sidebar
All-in-One Sidebar (AiOS) is a sidebar control, inspired by Opera's. Click on the left edge of your browser window to open the sidebar and get easy access to all your panels. It lets you quickly switch between sidebar panels, view dialog windows such as downloads, extensions, and more in the sidebar, or view source or websites in the sidebar. It includes a slide-out button and a toolbar, all of which can be extensively customized.


2. Diigo Toolbar for Firefox
The best tool to do all your online research. Highlight, bookmark, or forward -- all in one! You can share your bookmarks from any computer and forward the link to someone else just by a click of your mouse. But the best feature that I like (and use often) is the ability to highlight and leave sticky notes on the pages.


3. Performancing
Performancing for Firefox is a full featured blog editor that sits right in your Firefox browser and lets you post to your blog easily. You can drag and drop formatted text from the page you happen to be browsing, and take notes as well as post to your blog.


4. Tab Mix Plus
Enhance your tab browsing experience with tab mix plus. You can customize what various mouse events (click and pointing) can do to the tabs. For example, whenever I point my mouse to a tab it comes to the foreground and it saves me a click (of course, you can use key combinations instead)! It helps you to configure how and where to open new links and lets you modify how the tabs should look. Tabbed browsing without Tab Mix Plus? No way!


5. URL Fixer
Everybody makes mistakes while typing in the address bar. This extension corrects most of the misspelling of .com, .net, .org, .edu, .gov, and .mil, as well as the protocol (http:, https:). It will also correct errors in country code TLDS such as .com.XX, .net.XX, and .org.XX.


6. Wizz RSS
A nice RSS and atom feed reader. I use it to get all the feeds that I need to do my online research!

7. Parent Folder
Use it to go to the parent folder. It's useful when you have a long URL and you want to go home (the parent folder)!

8. Download Statusbar
View and manage downloads from a tidy statusbar - without the download window getting in the way of your web browsing.

9. Flashblock
Block annoying flashes using it. You may turn it back on if you want!

10. No Script
This is the best that I have seen (that's why it's in #10). It makes your web browsing hassle-free without any sort of web annoyance: it allows JavaScript, Java and other executable content to run only from trusted domains of your choice.

11. TryAgain
It will keep trying to load a page again and again if it did not load at your click.

12. Cooliris Preview
Look before you leap: this extension lets you preview a web page without actually clicking at and visiting the page.


13. Keyconfig
Configure key combinations to fit your needs in order to enhance the experience of mouse-less browsing.

Hope you'll like the top 13 list. Looking forward to your feedback.


Source: Firefox Extensions

Mac's advice: write down your password on a paper

Write down your passwords on a piece of paper? Are you kidding? Aren't those supposed to be committed to memory and never to be left a trace on paper?

That's what the mandatory information security courses teach us (I had to take one last month). Well, let's consider the downside of what we have been taught: what if you forget your password of your router? You might say, "No problem! there is reset button on the rear panel". Reset it and your settings are gone! Don't you remember how many times you had to sweat yourself and were about to get a heart-attack when you could not log into your online credit card account thinking that somebody must have gotten an access to it? Well, here's a solution from Mac: the Mac cheat sheet:

Whether your Mac asks you for certain information or you're seeking help from Apple or an Apple Authorized Service Provider (AASP), there may come a time when you need to have your various passwords, dial-up numbers, mail server addresses, email addresses, hardware specifications, serial number, and other information handy. And then you discover that you've either forgotten or misplaced this information

So fill out the cheat sheet, stash it where you and only have an access, and sleep well - never ever worrying about what if you forget your password.

Link: apple.com