Is the Official Web site of the Department of General Education , Kerala Hacked?

It seems like the official web site of the Department of General Education , Government of Kerala is hacked. Today i was checking the website and noticed a news "Hacked by the. Mo3tafa , Sha2ow" in the hot news box. The news content is just "tHe.Mo3tafA Was Here !!! Your Box 0wn3d By Deface Team We Love Iran Ashiyane Digital Security Team Special Thanks to Ashiyane Defacers & Programmers Team www.ashiyane.org/forums I Don't Know Any Rival For Muslims".

Home page of the Department of General Education: http://www.education.kerala.gov.in/

Posted news: http://www.education.kerala.gov.in/admin/news_details.php?id=39

Gmail Theme

Gmail officially launched theme for Gmail. 30 themes are available now. Some of them are color changes.

To customize your inbox, go to the Themes tab under Settings. They will be rolling out themes to everyone over the next couple of days, so if you don't see them yet, check back soon.

Gmail Voice and Video chat

Google is rolling out video and voice capabilities for the chat function that is embedded in the Gmail interface. It's simple to install and use.

The first time you use this feature, you'll be prompted to download and install a small plugin. To get started, visit http://www.gmail.com/videochat or click on the "Options" menu in a Gmail chat window and choose "Add voice/video chat.

PS: Video calls are only available between Gmail chat users with a Gmail voice and video chat plug-in enabled browser.

Voice calls are only available to those using Gmail chat or the Google Talk client.

FireFox 3 Features

User experience

• Easier password management. An information bar at the top of the browser window now appears to allow you to save passwords after a successful login.
• Simplified add-on installation. You can now install extensions from third-party download sites in fewer clicks, thanks to the removal of the add-on download site whitelist.
• New Download Manager. The download manager makes it easier to locate your downloaded files.
• Resumable downloads. You can now resume downloads after restarting the browser or resetting your network connection.
• Full page zoom. From the View menu and using keyboard shortcuts, you can now zoom in and out on the content of entire pages -- this scales not just the text but the layout and images as well.
• Tab scrolling and quickmenu. Tabs are easier to locate with the new tab scrolling and tab quickmenu features.
• Save what you were doing. Firefox 3 prompts you to see if you'd like to save your current tabs when you exit Firefox.
• Optimized Open in Tabs behavior. Opening a folder of bookmarks in tabs now appends the new tabs instead of replacing the existing ones.
• Easier to resize location and search bars. You can now easily resize the location and search bars using a simple resize handle between them.
• Text selection improvements. You can now select multiple ranges of text using the Control (Command on Macintosh) key. Double-clicking and dragging now selects in "word-by-word" mode. Triple-clicking selects an entire paragraph.
• Find toolbar. The Find toolbar now opens with the current selection.
• Plugin management. Users can now disable individual plugins in the Add-on Manager.
• Integration with Windows Vista. Firefox's menus now display using Vista's native theme.
• Integration with Mac OS X. Firefox now supports Growl for notifications of completed downloads and available updates.
• Star button. The new star button in the location bar lets you quickly add a new bookmark with a single click. A second click lets you file and tag your new bookmark.
• Tags. You can now associate keywords with your bookmarks to easily sort them by topic.
• Location bar and auto-complete. Type the title or tag of a page in the location bar to quickly find the site you were looking for in your history and bookmarks. Favicons, bookmark, and tag indicators help you see where the results are coming from.
• Smart Bookmarks folder. Firefox's new Smart Bookmarks folder offers quick access to your recently bookmarked and tagged places, as well as pages you visit frequently.
• Bookmarks and History Organizer. The new unified bookmarks and history organizer lets you easily search your history and bookmarks with multiple views and smart folders for saving your frequent searches.
• Web-based protocol handlers. Web applications, such as your favorite web mail provider, can now be used instead of desktop applications for handling mailto: links from other sites. Similar support is provided for other protocols as well. (Note that web applications do have to register themselves with Firefox before this will work.)
• Easy to use Download Actions. A new Applications preferences pane provides an improved user interface for configuring handlers for various file types and protocol schemes.
• Improved look and feel. Graphics and font handling have been improved to make web sites look better on your screen, including sharper text rendering and better support for fonts with ligatures and complex scripts. In addition, Mac and Linux (Gnome) users will find that Firefox feels more like a native application for their platform than ever, with a new, native, look and feel.
• Color management support. By setting the gfx.color_management.enabled preference in [about:config], you can ask Firefox to use the color profiles embedded in images to adjust the colors to match your computer's display.
• Offline support. Web applications can take advantage of new features to support being used even when you don't have an Internet connection.

Security and privacy

• One-click site information. Want to know more about the site you're visiting? Click the site's icon in the location bar to see who owns it. Identify information is prominently displayed and easier than ever to understand.
• Malware protection. Firefox 3 warns you if you arrive at a web site that is known to install viruses, spyware, trojans, or other dangerous software (known as malware). You can see what the warning looks like by clicking here.
• Web forgery protection enhanced. Now when you visit a page that's suspected of being a forgery, you're shown a special page instead of the contents of the page with a warning. Click here to see what it looks like.
• Easier to understand SSL errors. The errors presented when an invalid SSL certificate is encountered have been clarified to make it easier to understand what the problem is.
• Out-of-date add-on protection. Firefox 3 now automatically checks add-on and plugin versions and disables older, insecure versions.
• Secure add-on updates. Add-on update security has been improved by disallowing add-ons that use an insecure update mechanism.
• Anti-virus integration. Firefox 3 now informs anti-virus software when executable files are downloaded.
• Windows Vista parental controls support. Firefox 3 supports the Vista system-wide parental control setting for disabling file downloads.

Performance

• Reliability. Firefox 3 now stores bookmarks, history, cookies, and preferences in a transactionally secure database format. This means your data is protected against loss even if your system crashes.
• Speed. Firefox 3 has gotten a performance boost by completely replacing the part of the software that handles drawing to your screen, as well as to how page layout work is handled.
• Memory use reduced. Firefox 3 is more memory efficient than ever, with over 300 memory "leak" bugs fixed and new features to help automatically locate and dispose of leaked memory blocks.

I installed FF3 in my Vista machine and itz really cool. I can feel the improved performance, especially the memory taken by firefox process. Some of the addsons are updated automatically, but some of them need manual updation.

DOWNLOAD FF3

Apple iPhone 3G

Finally the iPhone 3G is officially released.

The main features are 3G, thinner edges, full plastic back, flush headphone jack, and the iPhone 2.0 firmware .They're also making sure it's available all over internationally, works with enterprises, runs 3rd party apps... and does it all for cheaper. Apple claims its 3G speeds trounce the competition, with pageloads 36% faster than the N95 and Treo 750 -- and of course it completely trounces the old EDGE data. Battery life isn't getting put out to pasture though, with 300 hours of standby, 8-10 hours of 2G talk, 5 hours of 3G talk, 7 hours of video and 24 hours of audio. GPS is also a go. Apple is using A-GPS, which supplements regular satellite GPS data with info from cellular towers. WiFi data is also worked into the mix, which should give users a pretty solid lock on where the heck they are on this planet. Apple hopes to launch in 70 countries this year. 8GB is available for $199, 16GB for $299 -- and the 16GB comes in white. Both pricepoints require a contract.

iPhone is relasing in 25 countries in this July 11. It will be available in India through Vodafone. But the releasing date not not yet fixed. Here is the iPhone India Site http://www.apple.co.in/iphone/

For more details visit http://www.apple.com/

GTalk hangs when winamp is playing

Google IM (GTlk) hangs/crashes if you use it with Winamp 5.5.

To solve this problem: Create a new file winamp.m3u under your Winamp directory (By default it is C:\Program Files\Winamp\). It worked :-)

Firefox Download Day: Set a Guinness World Record Enjoy a Better Web

What is Download Day?

Download Day is Mozilla's attempt to set a world record for the most software downloads in 24 hours and will occur on Firefox 3 launch day.

When is Download Day?

Download Day will coincide with the general availability of Firefox 3. The clock will start ticking when Firefox 3 goes out the door! They don’t have a definitive date for Firefox 3 yet, but it should be in June.

How do I take part in the record?

It's simple--just download Firefox 3 as soon as it is available, preferably from Download Day Headquarters. You'll get a customized certificate by downloading from Headquarters.

How will I know it’s time to download Firefox 3?

Please provide your email address when pledging to download Firefox 3 and they'll send you reminder emails and notify you of the exact date. Or, you can check back at Download Day Headquarters for an update or follow "mozillafirefox" on Twitter for status.

Yes, I pledged to get Firefox 3 during Download Day to set the Guinness World Record for Most Software Downloaded in 24 Hours. :-)

Create a portable slideshow for your website, blog, Myspace, etc from your picasa web album

Create a portable slideshow for your website, blog, Myspace, etc from your picasa web album..

Using Picasa Web Albums you can create a Flash slideshow to embed in your blog or webpage. Each slideshow features built-in playback controls, size options, and the ability to display captions.

To create and embed a slideshow:

1. Sign in to your Google Account for Picasa Web Albums at http://picasaweb.google.com using your Google Account username and password.
2. Click the My Photos link and select the album you'd like to make a slideshow.
3. Click the Embed Slideshow link. This creates a Flash slideshow from the album you've selected. When you update this album, your slideshow is automatically updated to show the latest photos.
4. To embed the slideshow, copy and paste the HTML code that's shown into your blog or webpage.

Here is a sample album (My cats)

Goodbye for Netscape Navigator

A web browser that gave many people their first experience of the web is set to disappear.

Netscape Navigator, now owned by AOL, will no longer be supported after 1 March 2008. The company recommends that users upgrade their browser to either Firefox or Flock, which are both built on the same underlying technologies as Navigator. Netscape was created by Marc Andreessen who as a student had co-authored Mosaic, the first popular web browser.His company Netscape Communications Corporation released the first version in 1994.

File extension validation Javascript

You can use this function to validate the extension of a file.

// function to validate the extension of a file

// You can specify the file type in the code "valid_extensions = /(.doc|.pdf)$/i;" . If you want to add .docx supprt simply add |.docx (ex:(.doc|.pdf |.docx| .your-extension) )

var valid_extensions = /(.doc|.pdf)$/i; function CheckExtension(fld) { if(fld.value) { if (valid_extensions.test(fld.value)){ return true; } else { return false; } } else return true; }

Ubuntu Mobile

Introducing Ubuntu Mobile - full Internet, no compromise

Ubuntu Mobile is an Ubuntu edition that targets an exciting new class of computers called Mobile Internet Devices.
Ubuntu Mobile, based on the world's most popular Linux distribution, and MID hardware from OEMs and ODMs, are redefining what can be done in mobile computing.

Ubuntu Mobile, a fully open source project, gives full Internet, with no compromise. Custom options may include licensed codecs and popular third-party applications.

• Full Web 2.0/AJAX fidelity, with custom options of Adobe Flash®, Java, and more
• Outstanding media playback so you can enjoy videos, music and photos with superior quality and easy navigation
• A suite of applications that work seamlessly to meet every need of a digital parent, student or anyone who is on-the-go
• Facebook®, MySpace®, YouTube®, Dailymotion®, 3D games, GPS, maps, in short, the full Web 2.0 experience delivered into your hands as a compact and powerful device that's easy and fun to use

The product of Canonical collaboration with Intel® and the open source community, Ubuntu Mobile is the software that makes it all possible.

Clutter User Interface

Click here for more details

What is Struts?

What is Struts?

Struts is a free open-source framework for creating Java web applications.

Web applications differ from conventional websites in that web applications can create a dynamic response. Many websites deliver only static pages. A web application can interact with databases and business logic engines to customize a response.

Web applications based on JavaServer Pages sometimes commingle database code, page design code, and control flow code. In practice, we find that unless these concerns are separated, larger applications become difficult to maintain.

One way to separate concerns in a software application is to use a Model-View-Controller (MVC) architecture. The Model represents the business or database code, the View represents the page design code, and the Controller represents the navigational code. The Struts framework is designed to help developers create web applications that utilize a MVC architecture.

The framework provides three key components:

• A "request" handler provided by the application developer that is mapped to a standard URI.
• A "response" handler that transfers control to another resource which completes the response.
• A tag library that helps developers create interactive form-based applications with server pages.

The framework's architecture and tags are buzzword compliant. Struts works well with conventional REST applications and with nouveau technologies like SOAP and AJAX.

What is Model-View-Controller (MVC) Architecture?

Model-View-Controller architecture is all about dividing application components into three different categories Model, View and the Controller. Components of the MVC architecture has unique responsibility and each component is independent of the other component. Changes in one component will have no or less impact on other component. Responsibilities of the components are:

Model: Model is responsible for providing the data from the database and saving the data into the data store. All the business logic are implemented in the Model. Data entered by the user through View are check in the model before saving into the database. Data access, Data validation and the data saving logic are part of Model.

View: View represents the user view of the application and is responsible for taking the input from the user, dispatching the request to the controller and then receiving response from the controller and displaying the result to the user. HTML, JSPs, Custom Tag Libraries and Resources files are the part of view component.

Controller: Controller is intermediary between Model and View. Controller is responsible for receiving the request from client. Once request is received from client it executes the appropriate business logic from the Model and then produce the output to the user using the View component. ActionServlet, Action, ActionForm and struts-config.xml are the part of Controller.

Javascript for validating a date

Javascript for validating a date.

Pass month, day, year as parameters. This function will return true if the date is valid.

// // arunmvishnu.blogspot.com

function validDate(month, day, year){ if(month =='0' || day =='0' || year=='0'){ return false; } switch(month) { case '1': //** jan case '3': //** March case '5': //** May case '7': //** July case '8': //** Aug case '10': //** Nov case '12': //** Dec if(day>=1 && day<=31){ return true; } else { return false; } case '4': //** APRIL case '6' : //** JUNE case '9' : //** SEPTEMBER case '11' : //** NOVEMBER if(day>=1 && day<=30){ return true; } else { return false; } case '2' : if(isLeapYear(year)){ if(day>=1 && day<=29){ return true; } } else if(day>=1 && day <= 28){ return true; } else { return false; } default: return false; } }

function isLeapYear(year){ // Checking wdr a year is leap year or not if(year % 4 == 0 && (year % 100 != 0 || year % 400 == 0)){ return true; } else { return false; } }

The full js file can be dodnloaded from here 

Ubuntu: Hardy Heron Alpha 5

The Ubuntu developers are moving very quickly to bring you the absolute latest and greatest software the Open Source Community has to offer. Hardy Heron Alpha 5 is the fifth alpha release of Ubuntu 8.04, and with this new alpha release comes a whole host of excellent new features.

The features are

1. Wubi 2. Xorg 7.3 3. Linux kernel 2.6.24 4. PulseAudio 5. PolicyKit 6. Firefox 3 Beta 3 7. Transmission 8. Vinagre 9. Brasero 10. World Clock Applet 11. GVFS 12. GNOME System Monitor 13. Virtualization 14. Firewall 15. umenu 16. Wubi

Checkout this official site for more details

Download Alpha 5

Get it while it's hot. ISOs and torrents are available at:

http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (Ubuntu) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/kubuntu/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (Kubuntu) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/edubuntu/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (Edubuntu) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/jeos/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (Ubuntu JeOS) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/xubuntu/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (Xubuntu) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/gobuntu/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (Gobuntu) http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/ubuntustudio/releases/hardy/alpha-5/ (UbuntuStu

The history of 404 error message

In the 1980's a group of scientists at CERN (Switzerland) started working on what was to become the media revolution: the World Wide Web(WWW), or simply 'the Web'. Their aim was to create a database infrastructure that offered open access to data in various formats. They started developing their protocol called CERN's internal network.

In an office on the fourth floor (room 404), they placed the World Wide Web's central database.Any request for a file was routed to that office, where two or three people would manually locate the requested files and transfer them, over the network, to the person who made that request.When the database started to grow the number of requests grew and also the number of requests that could not be fulfilled, usually because the person who requested a file typed in the wrong name for that file.Soon these faulty requests were answered with a standard message: 'Room 404: file not found'.

Later, the manual processes were automated and people could directly query the database but the error message remained the same '404: file not found'. The room numbers remained in the error codes in the official release of HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol) and are still displayed when a browser makes a faulty request to a Web server.

Extend Your Life With iMac

Your .Mac membership gives you 10 GB of online email and file storage, as well as instant access to everything you need to extend your Mac experience to the Internet:

• Web Galley for sharing photos and movies (requires iLife '08)
• Website hosting with iWeb (included with iLife '06 or later)
• IMAP Mail and webmail
• Groups
• Sync
• iDisk storage
• Backup

You can share photos and movies online, send and receive email, publish your own website or blog, sync and back up important data, and more. Setting up your account on your Mac takes just a few seconds, so you can make full use of .Mac right away.
I signed up for a trial membership of 60days. Don't know whether i can try all those things because now i am working in Flip Media. If you have time don't wait.. Try your mac life :)

iPOD TOUCH

Steve Jobs introduced new Apple iPOD Touch. The new iPOD "the same size screen as the iPhone, but it is thinner (8mm), and it also touts the "same multi-touch interface" found on the iPhone. Additionally, it boasts a 3.5-inch widescreen display, the ability to "flick through your photos," and you even get the "slide to unlock" feature, too. Some features are Features

• Music

  If a picture says a thousand words, think of what all the album art in your collection might say. With Cover Flow on iPod touch, you can flick through your music to find the album you want to hear. And when you do, a quick tap of the cover flips it over to display a track list. Another tap starts the music.

• Video

  The 3.5-inch display gives you video like nothing you’ve seen before on a portable device. Watch your favorite movie. Catch up on television shows, anywhere. Enjoy video podcasts. Play music videos. All using multi-touch technology that lets you bring up onscreen controls and go widescreen (or back to full screen) with a tap.

• Photos

  iPod touch holds up to 20,000 photos you sync via iTunes. Flick to scroll through thumbnails. Tap to view full screen. Rotate for landscape format. Or perform some sleight of hand by opening two fingers to zoom in. You can even play slideshows, complete with music and transitions. Set any photo as your wallpaper to personalize your iPod touch...with a touch.

• Wi-Fi Wb Browser
• 

  Safari

  With Apple’s Safari browser built in, iPod touch is the only iPod that gives you wireless access to the web, everywhere you go. See websites the way they were designed to be seen. Sync your bookmarks or add a few as you go. Search the web using the touchscreen keyboard. Zoom in and out by tapping the multi-touch display.

• YouTube

  Got a bit of a YouTube addiction? iPod touch feeds it from anywhere with a special YouTube player built right in. Watch featured videos, check out the most viewed, search for something specific, then bookmark your favorites for future reference. It’s all the fun of YouTube — pocket-size.

It is available in in models based on its memory.

1. 8GB which will cost 299$
2. 16GB which will cost 399$

Other Features Tech Specification

Orkut's New Design

Orkut is rolling out it's new design. They wil pubkish this design in next week but not to all the users. They will roll it out to a small group of users randomly selected, and will continue to do so until everyone is on the new site. This look is very cool. Nice colour.. simply awesome :)