computer society newsletter

7/31/2019 Computer Society Newsletter

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Recently, a small debate ensued among OfficerTrainees over the topic of Networking whichwas being taught in the ICT classes. Some OTsheld the view that the content of the lectures onInt roduct ion t o Networking was too technical andmight not have much relevance in the field. Itwas also opined that the lectures should ratherbe made more lucid, practical and closer toground realities.

While endorsingthis view, the Com-puter Societ y be-lieves that Net-working holds ahighly significantplace in the field ofcyber crimes. Un-derst anding of t hebasics that werebeing taught in theclasses is very im-portant to handle ..

ISSUENo. 1

M AY2 0 1 2

V O L U M EN o . 1

A ROUNDUP OF THE ALL ACTIVITIES UNDERTAKEN BY THE COMPUTER S OCIETY SO FAR ............................. 2

S MART CARDS : HOW THEY WORK , THEIR USES AND PROBLEMS .................... 3

HANDHELD LASERS AS LESS LETHAL CROWD CON-TROL WEAPONS ............. 5

Computer

focusA ONLINE NEWSLETTER OF THE COMPUTER SOCIETY

SARDAR VALLABHBHAI PATEL NATIONAL POLICE ACADEMY

OTs debat e relevance ofNet working Knowhow

St aff Counsellors MessageI congratulate the members of Computer Society, its secretary Shri Abhishek Modi and editor

of newsletter Shri S. Chaitanya for coming up with an excellent online Newsletter full of arti-cles on very relevant topics like Smart Cards, Internet Telephony (VoIP), Lasers and Googlesearch etc. I would like to congratulate Lt. Norbu Wangzham of Royal Bhutan Police for com-ing up with an excellent article on Information and Communication Technology in the contextof Gross National Happiness of Bhutan. This is the age of technology and future of Indian Po-lice also depends on application of computer technology in its various day-to-day functioningupto the constabulary level. I hope this effort of members of Computer Society of 64 RR willgo a long way in developing technical aptitude especially computer aptitude among all ranks of Indian Police. I once again congratulate members of Computer Society.

ICT IN THE CONTEXT OF GROSS NATIONAL HAPPINESS IN BHUTAN .................... 6

THE TOP FIVE WEBSITES THAT YOU MUST VISIT ..... 8

SH. HARI KISHOREKUSUMAKARSt aff Counselor Computer Societ y

(Cont inued on last page)

HOW DOES THE WORLD S MOST FAMOUS SEARCH ENGINE WORK ?........................ 9

IP P HONES : USING A STAN-DARD INTERNET CONNECTION FOR TELEPHONE CALLS ... 7

UK RESEARCHERS PURSUE AUTOMATED LIP READING TO HELP TACKLE CRIME ....... 7

64RR


2/12

News f rom Computer Societ yA roundup of t he vari ous act ivi t ies undert aken by t he Comput er Societ y so far

E-Buddy SystemUnder the E-Buddy System, Officer Traineeswho have little experience with computers havebeen identified and assigned one Computer Re-source Person (CRP), who will help in under-st anding, t roubleshoot ing basic problems, ICT as-signments, developing basic IT skills etc. A meet-ing was organized by t he St aff Counsellor wi tht hese OTs to make them understand the conceptof informal association wit h fellow OTs to under-st and the basics of computers.

Computer QuizA quiz was organized on 16th March as part ofKhula Manch. It received enthusiastic participa-tion from all squads, which were represented by

two teams of twomembers each, one forbeginners and theother for advancedlevel. The audience,including the ust aads

participated through-out t he quiz and those

who got the right answers were rewarded withplenty of Director s Toffees.

WorkshopsA workshop on browsers was organized by Man-

j unath Singe and Abhishek Modi, members ofComput er Society, during an ICT class.

Short VideosRecent ly, t he Societ y played short videos onComputer Forensics during the ICT class t o t rig-ger curiosity among OTs. We hope to providemore such learning channels in the futurethrough online videos, notice board, e-mail, Blogetc.

Basic Computer Awareness WorkshopA workshop was organized by Riyaz Iqbal, a mem-ber of Comput er Societ y, in the IPS Mess on Basic

Computer Awareness for t he benefit of t he OTs.DC File Sharing PlatformA DC file sharing platform has been initiated to

facilitate search of academic and entertainmentcontent on available resources, sharing of re-sources between OTs et c.

NetworkingWith regards to the inabilit y expressed by someOTs recent ly in underst anding networking con-cepts, Computer Societ y expressed it s desire t ohelp such probationers during lectures, whichwas duly endorsed by DD(BC).

HelpdeskComputer Societ y also ensured t hat t he basicproblems faced by OTs are responded t oprompt ly by the Computer Sect ion besides infor-mal help.

Academy WebsiteThe Societ y is in the process of updat ing the NPAwebsite on temporary basis and fully renovatingit in long run.

NoticesThe Societ y recently t ook the init iat ive for chan-nelizing all training related notices to the e-mailaccounts of t he OTs, so that it not only helps inquick communication but also builds IT-savvinessamong OTs.

Planned ActivitiesThe Societ y wil l be holding a computer f est ival inthe near future, where OTs will get an opportu-nity to listen to an eminent personality, learnsome advanced skills t hrough workshops, andparticipate in competitions of varied nature etc.

One essay compet it ion is also being contem-plated with respect to IT and policing, for whichtopics will be intimated in due course.

Other ideas which are on t able are organizing onepaint ing compet it ion in NPAs Kendriya Vidyalayaon the theme of computers, basic level classes

for the Instructors and other staff members andinstalling in-house SMS broadcast ing f a- cility for use by various clubs and socie-t ies of t he Academy.

Computer Focus 2 Computer Society, SVPNPA


3/12

Smart Cards: how t hey Work, t heir Uses andProblemsAbhishek Modi, Secret ary, Computer Societ y, at t empts a br ief exposure t o var ious machine reading t echnologies, benefit s and usage of smart cards and their deficiencies

While thinking about what article to write forthis newsletter - as Secretary of the ComputerSociety I should wr it e something I thought aboutwr it ing on topi cs such as CCTNS, CCTV cameras,Digit al Signature and what not . However, it wasduring the announcements made by the Class Com-mander, regarding some OTs forgetting to carrytheir Smart Cards for regist ering att endance that Izeroed in on this topic. Besides it s t remendous use

across various sectors of t he economy, i t is used inour own Academy by everyone. The smart card-embedded ID card given to all of us isas smart inside as it is outside. In thisarticle, I attempt a brief exposure tovarious machine reading technolo-gies, benefits and usage of smartcards and its deficiencies.

Two maj or parallel t echnologies that run acrosssmart cards are those of Magnet ic St ripe Cards

(widely used as credit cards or debit cards or ATMcards) and Barcode, used extensively in retailshops. A magnet ic st ripe card i s a card capable ofstoring data by modifying the magnetism of tinyiron-based magnetic part icl es on a band of mag-netic materi al on t he card. Somet imes call ed swipecard, it is read by physical contact and swiping pasta magnetic reading head in a credit / debit card bil l-ing machine or an ATM machine. A barcode is an

opti cal represen-tation of infor-mation regardingthe object towhich it is at-tached, usuallyon a sticker or asa print. Barcodes

represent informa-tion by varying

width and spacingof parallel lines. The barcode is read with the helpof a barcode reader that shines a light on to the

barcode and interprets the information from thelight reflected.

Smart cards are usually of two types: Contact -based and Contactless. A smart card usually con-tains a microprocessor. Think of the microprocessoras replacing the usual magnetic stripe on a creditcard or debit card. The host computer and cardreader actually "talk" to the microprocessor. The

microprocessor regulates access to t he data on t hecard. In a contact based smart card, the microproc-essor is under a gold contact pad on oneside of the card. Hence it is in physicalcontact with the reader. A contactlesssmart card is a card in which the chipcommunicates with the card reader with-

out physical contact through electromagnetic in-duction. These cards require only close proximityto an antenna to complete a transaction as com-pared to contact-based smart cards.

Smart cards improve the convenience and securityof any t ransact ion. They provide tamper-proof stor-age of user and account identity. Smart card sys-tems have proven to be more reliable than othermachine-readable cards, like magnetic stripe andbarcode. They protect against a full range of secu-rity threats, from careless storage of user pass-words to sophist icat ed syst em hacks. The costs tomanage password resets for an organizat ion or en-terprise are very high, thus making smart cards a

cost-effective solution in these environments. Fol-lowing are some of the specific usage of smartcards:

Government-sponsored schemesSmart cards can signif icantly enhance government sability to provide publicly funded services throughthe increased security offered by smart cards. Re-cent ly, t he Worl d Bank suggested smart cards as areplacement for ration cards. According to it, amore technically advanced form of food couponscould be introduction of smart cards in the PDS,which could be redeemable also at approved pri-vat e t raders and/ or f air price shops. Cit izens canalso gain increased security and convenience when

Smart cards can significantlyenhance governments ability

to provide public servicesABSHISHEK MODI


SYMBOL OF UNIVERSAL CONTACT-LESS SMART CARD


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using smart cards designed for interoperability be-tween services.

SIM Cards andTelecommu-nicationThe mostprominent ap-plication ofsmart cardtechnology isin SubscriberIdentity Mod-ules (SIM), re-quired for allGSM phones.SIM cards rep-

resent over half of all smart cards consumed eachyear.

Loyalty and Stored ValueAnother use of smart cards isstored value. Stored value ismore convenient and safer thancash. The applications are nu-merous, such as t ransport ation,parking, laundry, gaming, retail,and entertainment. Delhi Metrois a prominent example.

E-CommerceSmart cards make it easy for consumers t o securelystore information and cash for purchasing. The ad-vantages t hey off er consumers are: The card cancarry personal account, credit and buying prefer-ence information that can be accessed with amouse click instead of filling out forms AND Cardscan manage and control expenditures with auto-mat ic l imit s and report ing.

Bank Issued SmartCardsCustomers can usesecure smart cardsfor fast, 24-hourelectronic fundstransfers over theinternet. Costs are

reduced: transac-tions that normally would require a bank em-ployee's t ime and paperwork can be managed elec-t ronically by the customer wit h a smart card. Smart

cards increase trust through improved security.Features such as Two Factor Authent icat ion ensureprotection of data and value across the internet.Threats such as t he "Man in t he middle" and "Troj anHorses" that replay a user name and password areeliminated. It is improving customer service.

Healthcare InformaticsThe explosion of health care data introduces newchallenges in maintaining the efficiency of patientcare and privacy safeguards. Smart cards addressboth these challenges with secure mobile storageand distribution of patient information, from emer-gency data to benefi t s st atus.

Problems

The plastic card in which the chip is embedded isfairly flexible, and the larger the chip, the higherthe probabili ty that normal use could damage it .

Securit y is generall y good but never100% sure. If t he card reader s com-puter hosts malware, the securitymodel may be broken.

Using a smart card f or mass t ransitpresents a risk for privacy. Imaginethe anxiety caused if DMRC comes to

know about your movements on a particular dayusing the smart cards issued to you.

Most smart card syst ems in use serve one purposeand are related to j ust one process or is hardwiredto only one application. The approach of future istherefore towards designing multi-application cardthat can perform a variety of functions such as ac-cess cont rol, e-commerce, healt h care informat ion,ticketless airline travel, car rentals and electronicident if icat ion etc.

Smart cards of the future may even stop resembling"cards" as smart card t echnology is embedded int orings, watches, badges and other forms that willmake them remarkably convenient to use. In thenear future, we believe all PCs and Network Com-puters will be integrated with smart card readers,either as part of keyboards or become internaldrives or as external units. We can envision a fu-

ture when smart cards would be integrated intopocket-sized PCs wit h biometric sensorsand human interf aces.

In the future, a single smart card willperform multiple applications such as

access control, e-commerce, healthcareinformation, ticketless air travel, identifi-

cation, car rentals etc.ABSHISHEK MODI


BANK ISSUED SMART CARD

IPS PROBATIONER USES SMART CARD FOR

ATTENDANCE


5/12

LASERs as less-let hal crowd cont rol weaponsHandheld devices developed by a UScompany can blind and disori ent indivi duals upt o 2400 meters away so that arrest t eam off icers can move in and subdue t hem physical ly

Tradit ional less-lethal crowd control measureshave been demonized as barbaric. The publichas unreasonable expectations of crowd cont rolt act ics in law and order sit uat ions, demandingmeasures that are pain-free, risk-free, and yeteffective in removing people from places theyare not allowed to be. Are there any technologiest hat can meet t hese challenges?

One possibi lit y that hasn t beentried on a large scale as yet lieswit h laser-based dazzler devices.Ranging from the size of a flash-light to models as big as a deckgun, t hese devices emit a beam oflight t hat has to be experienced to be appreci-ated. They dont just temporarily blind the tar-get ed persont he laser light appears t o move ina complex pattern that is profoundly disorient-ing. Many people experience nausea that persistsfor several minutes after the light is shut off or

directed elsewhere.A U.S. company called La-ser Energet ics has beensell ing two Dazer Laserproducts for some time.These are handheld de-vices that blind and dis-orient individuals from upt o 2,400 meters away so

t hat arrest t eam officers can move in and subdue

them physically. Its important to note that theeffect of these laser devices isnt to blind indi-viduals in the way a laser pointer shone intosomeones eyes would. The li ght causes no dam-age to the eyes.

BAE Systems parent company of Safari land anda maj or defense contractor is developing a lar-ger-scale laser device that works on a similarprinciple, but in this case for use on ships to fendoff pirate attacks. Merchant ships operating offthe coast of Africa are regularly attacked and oc-casionally boarded and captured by pirates, whot hen hold t he ships and crews for ransom. Mostmerchant vessels are prohibited from carrying

conventional weapons to repel t hese at t acks, andhave had to rely on sound cannons, water j et s,and usually just t rying to outrun the pirates whent hey can t get mi lit ary assist ance.

The devices have safeguards to keep them frombeing misused if t hey are captured. Laser Ener-getics uses a security code that will enable the

device for only 12 or 24 hours beforeit resets, and the operator can reset adevice at any time, disabling it untilt he security code is entered again.

A laser weapon of t his t ype could be asuperior crowd cont rol device. People

arent usually motivated to continue their activi-t ies if t hey can t see. Wit hout doubt , t he deploy-ment of a device l ike t his against a violent crowdwill be condemned as inhumane, and someonewill claim they were struck permanently blind,suffered an aneurysm, or possibly turned to

stone. It s got t o be bet t er t han lathi blows andrubber bullets though.

Source: www.policeone.com

The effect of these laser de-vices isn't to blind individuals in

the way a laser pointer shoneinto someones eyes would. Thelight causes no damage to the

eyes


Five Import ant Factsabout the IT ActThe Unit ed Nations General Assembly by resolu-t ion adopted the Model Law on Electronic Com-merce adopted by t he Unit ed Nations Commissionon Int ernat ional Trade Law in 1997. This is re-ferred t o as t he UNCITRAL Model Law on E-Commerce. Foll owing, t he UN Resolut ion Indiapassed t he Informat ion Technology Act 2000 inMay 2000.

Informat ion Technology Act 2000 addressed t hefoll owing issues:

Legal Recognit ion of Electronic Documents

Legal Recognit ion of Digit al Signatures Offenses and Contravent ions Just ice Dispensation Sys-

t ems for Cybercrimes (Cont inued on last page)


6/12

ICT in t he Context of Gross Nat ionalHappinessLt. Norbu Wangzhom, an of f icer of t he Royal Bhut an Police, enli ght ens us on the use of ICT in promoting nat ional goals in the only count ry that measures it s well being by Gross Nat ional Happiness

Bhutan is a small, isolated, landlocked Kingdomwith a rich and unique cultural heritage. Today,most Bhutanese are engaged in agri cult ure or em-ployed in the civil service. The Government hasrecognized the need to enhance the private sectoras a key source of future employment for a youngpopulation. Under the leadership of King Jigme Sin-gye Wangchuk, Bhutan has pursued a unique devel-

opment philosophy known as Gross National Happi-ness. The ultimate purpose of the government is topromote the hap-piness of it s peo-ple through thefour broad plat-forms of sust ain-able and equita-b l e s o c i o -economic devel-opment, conservation of environment, preservation

and promotion of culture, and enhancement ofgood governance. And Bhutan is the only country inthe world to measure its wellbeing by Gross Na-t ional Happiness.

Bhutan has been taking a deliberate move towardtechnological modernity since 1963 and there hasbeen an unprecedented growt h in t he diversit y andcapabilities of information and communicationt echnologies (ICT) in the count ry. It has been ob-served that technological change plays a crucialrole in long-term economic growth, and that todaythe availability and use of ICT is a pre-requisite foreconomic development. ICT in the form of printand broadcast media as well as Internet news web-sit es has ensured accountabilit y in government s,increased participation at all levels of society, andenhanced public debate through the inclusion ofdiverse views. These technologies, such as mobilet elecommunicat ions and t he Int ernet are nowfound throughout society and the economy. In theinformation driven economy that has emerged, ICTbinds t ogether individuals, companies and organiza-t ions ir respective of t heir geographical location.

ICT has both posit ive and negative impl icat ions onGross National Happiness. With the introduction of

ICT, it has brought tre-mendous change in eco-nomic growth and devel-opment, i.e. balancedand equitable socioeco-nomic development inthe country. It has alsohelped to capture,

spread and revive minor-ity culture and has fa-cilitated movement ofculture content aroundthe globe. Furthermore,ICT has improved envi-ronmental efficiency in-dustry sector by enhanc-ing environmental infor-mation management andhelps to predict and

mitigate the effects ofnatural disasters pre-serving the environment,both in its own right andas an important asset ofthe country. ICT,through its ability to im-prove workflows, publi-cize information and al-low two-way communi-cation, provides greatpromise in efficiency, transparency and participa-tion in governance.

Notwithstanding the many benefits that ICT ad-vances have brought, not everyone has been ableto enj oy these benefi t s t o the same ext ent. In somecases ICT is simply not available while in ot hercases affordability or lack of appropriate skills maybe the barrier t o adoption. Thus t he gap bet weenthose who have access to ICT and those t hat do notruns counter t o GNH. GNH reminds us t hat themeans must always be considered in t erms of t heend and t hat , t herefore, every step in material de-velopment and change must be measuredand evaluat ed to ensure that it wil l leadto happiness, not j ust more development .

Technologies such as internet, mobiletelecommunication are now found

throughout Bhutanese society and bindtogether individuals and organizationsirrespective of geographical location.

LT. NORBU WANGZHOM


Mobile Government, m-government, is the exten-sion of e-government t omobile platforms, as wellas the strategic use ofgovernment services andapplications which areonly possible using mobilephones, laptop com-puters, personal digit alassistant s (PDAs) and

wireless internet infra-structure.

Proponents of mGovern-ment argue it can helpmake public informationand government servicesavailable "anytime, any-where" and that the ubiq-uity of these devicesmandates their employ-ment in government func-tions. An example of suchbeneficial use of mobiletechnologies would bethe sending of a massalert to registered citi-zens via SMS in t he eventof an emergency.

Tr i vi a: Mobil e Government


7/12

Int ernet Telephony using IP Phones and VoIPMohneesh Mishra, Of f icer Trainee of 64RR, wr it es how a st andard Internet connect ion can be used t o make t elephone cal ls, wi t h t he help of VoIP t echnology.

An IP phone use Voice over Internet prot ocol(VoIP) t echnology allowing telephone calls t obe made over an IP network such as the Internet.VoIP, or Voice over Internet Prot ocol, is amethod for taking analog audio signals, like thekind you hear when you talk on the phone, andturning them into digital data that can be trans-mitted over the Internet. VoIP canturn a standard Internet connec-tion into a way to place free phonecalls. VoIP is a revolutionary tech-nology that has the potential tocompletely rework the world'sphone syst ems.

VoIP t echnology uses the Int ernet 's packet-switching capabilities to provide phone service.VoIP has several advantages over ci rcui t swit ch-ing that is used in conventional t elephony.Packet switching allows several telephone calls

t o occupy the amount of space occupied by onlyone in a circuit -swit ched network.

A telephone call life looks like the following on IPPhones:

1. You dial thephone numberof the party youwish to talk to.2. The phone

number data issent in the formof a request toyour VoIP com-pany's call proc-essor. The callprocessor checksit to ensure that

it's in a valid format.3. The call processor determines to whom tomap the phone number. In mapping, t he phonenumber is t ranslated to an IP address . The softswit ch connects t he two devices on either end ofthe call. On the other end, a signal is sent toyour friend's device, telling it to ask the con-

nected phone to ring.4. Once your friend picks up the phone, a sessionis est ablished between your IP Phone and yourfriend's IP Phone. This means t hat each syst emknows to expect packets of data from the othersystem. In the middle, the normal Internet infra-structure handles the call as if it were e-mail or aWeb page.

5. You talk for a period of time.During the conversation, your sys-t em and your friend's syst em t rans-mit packets back and forth whenthere is data to be sent.

You finish talking and hang up thereceiver.

In VoIP, several telephone callsoccupy the space occupied by only

one in a conventional telephonenetwork

MOHNEESH MISHRA


Automat ed Lip Readingto help tackle CrimeLip reading by human expert s is alr eady used in court s in

several count ri es but is cont roversial and is prone t o error

The Universit y of East Angli a (UEA) in the UK isleading a proj ect t o develop l ip-reading sys-tems with crime-fighting potential. UEA hopes todevelop a system capable of translating videofootage of lip motions into text.

Richard Harvey, a senior lecturer at UEA said, The number of t rained lip readers is fall ing assign language is increasingly preferred. Human lipreading is already used in court, but it is contro-versial and prone to error. With an automatedsyst em you can know the error rat e

Source: www.computing.co.uk

Q u o t e s

Once a new t echnology rolls over you, i f you'renot part of the steamroller, you're part of the

road. - St ewart Brand Men are only so good as their t echnical devel-opment allows them to be. - George Orwell


8/12

The Top Five Websi t es t hat you must visi tManj unat h Singe, Secretary of Of f icers Club, at t empt s t o li st a f ew ext remely useful websit es

It is unfair to pick and choose j ust f ive among t hemilli ons of websit es available on the Int ernet.

The choice will have a personal bias and favorit eli st varies from person to person. However, here i san at tempt t o list few websit e which are extremelyuseful for an average computer user or even a be-ginner.

1. Digital Inspiration : www.labnol.org

Digital Inspiration is maintained by Amit Agarwal,an IIT graduate who quit his job to become India sfirst and only professional blogger. The purpose ofthis site is to help you take maximum advantage ofthe software tools and web technologies at yourdisposal so t hat you spend more t ime doing thingsyour really love.

2. How Stuff Works : www.howstuffworks.com

How Stuff Works gives easy-to-underst and explana-tions of how the world (i.e stuff) actually works.Free of t echnical j argon, it explains t housands of

topics, from engines to lock-picking to ESP, wit hvideo and illustrations so you can learn how every-thing works.

There are various categories within the tech/ computer secti on of t he websit e which are of im-mense use. For example, Computer hardware, pe-ripherals, soft ware, securit y, Internet etc.

3. PC Webopedia : www.pcwebopedia.com

PCwebopedia is a must for anyone who want s t ounderstand the computer world. At PCwebopedia,you'l l learn what DDR and SDRAM are, what RAID

stands for, and how TCP/ IP beams messages aroundthe world.

Even more importantly: you can now shop for com-puter goods and get a patient explanation for whatall t he hardware t erms mean.

4. TED Talks : www.ted.com

Technology, Entert ainment , Design (TED) i s a non-profit enti t y devoted to Ideas Wort h Spreading.Over t he years, it s scope has become ever broaderto reach various fields. You can find t housands ofIdeas Worth Spreading. Usually t he videos are shortand the speaker is bound to respect audiencestime. TED Talks are a collection of inspiring ideaswort h knowing and spreading. Take a look.

5. Just Samachar - A news aggrega-tor : www.justsamachar.com

Just Samachar is a news aggregation site for an In-dian audience. It brings the news art icles from vari-ous sources like The Hindu, The Times of India,CNN-IBN, Reuters, Rediff, BBC etc. and puts t hemin a single page. Thus, you don't have to go to indi-vidual sit es t o see the news, Just Samachar does allt he hard work for you and puts t hem together.There are various features it off ers: News in t heview you prefer, Headlines added since last visitare highlighted, interesting statistics etc.

There are thousands of other sites likewww.howtogeek.com , www.techcrunch.com ,

www.about.com and, of course,www.wikipedia.org etc which are of immense help.

Tip : If you want to find an answer within a specificwebsit e, here is what you can do: go towww.google.com and type the websit e name, put acolon (i. e. : ) and then type your search query. Forexample if you want find an answer for what islinux? in www.howstuffworks.com then your querywill be: www.howstuffworks.com : what is linux. Itwil l list various art icles on that t opic in the speci-

fied website.

Happy browsing!



9/12

How Google Search WorksKaushal Kumar, 64RR OT, t akes us t hrough t he working of world s most f amous search engine

To find information on the hundreds of millionsof Web pages t hat exist, a search engine em-

ploys special software robot s called Spiders t obuild lists of the words found on Web sites. Whena spider is building its lists, the process is calledWeb crawling.

How does any spider st art it s t ravels over t heWeb? The usual start ing point s are list s of heavilyused servers and very popular pages. The spiderwil l begin with a popular sit e, t hen quickly begins

to travel, spreading out across the most widelyused port ions of t he Web.

Words occurring in the title, subtitles, meta tags(they allow the owner of a page to specify keywords and concept s under which t he page wi ll beindexed) and other positions of relative impor-tance are noted for special consideration duringa subsequent user search. The Google spider wasbuilt to index every significant word on a page,

leaving out the articles "a," "an" and "the."

Once the spiders have complet ed the task offinding information on Web pages, the search en-gine must store the information in a way thatmakes it useful.

In t he simplest case, a search engine could j uststore t he word and the URL where i t was found.In reality, this would make for an engine of lim-ited use, since there would be no way of telling

whether t he word was used in an import ant or atrivial way on the page, whether the word wasused once or many times or whether the pagecontained links to other pages containing theword. In other words, there would be no way ofbuilding the ranking list that tries to present themost useful pages at the top of the list of searchresults.

To make for more useful result s, most search en-gines st ore more t han just t he word and URL. An

engine might store the number of times that theword appears on a page. The engine might assigna weight or pagerank to each entry, with increas-ing values assigned t o words as t hey appear nearthe top of the document, in sub-headings, inlinks, in the meta tags or in the title of the page.

Searching through an index involves a user build-ing a query and submitting it through the searchengine. The query can be quite simple, a singleword at minimum. Building a more complexquery requires the use of Boolean Operators(simple logical operations) that allow you to re-fine and extend the terms of the search. TheBoolean operat ors most oft en seen are AND, OR,NOT, FOLLOWED BY, NEAR and so on.

So next t ime please fl aunt your knowledge ofsearch engines when you google in front of yourelder brother or your friends. Happy Googling !

Happy Googling !Please see graphic next page.


Trivia: Technological Singulari t y

Technological singularit y refers t o the hypotheti -cal future emergence of greater-than-human in-telligence through technological means. Theterm was coined by science fiction writer VernorVinge, who argues t hat art if icial int ell igence, hu-man biological enhancement or brain-computerinterfaces could be possible causes of the singu-larit y. The concept is popularized by futurist s

like Ray Kurzweil and it is expected by propo-nents to occur sometime in the 21st century, al-though est imates do vary.

Since the capabilit ies of such intell igence wouldbe difficult for an unaided human mind to com-prehend, the occurrence of a technological sin-gularity is seen as an intell ectual event hori zon,beyond which events cannot be predicted or un-derstood. Proponents of the singularity typicallystate that an "intelligence explosion" is a key fac-tor of t he Singularit y where super int ell igencesdesign successive generat ions of increasinglypowerful minds.


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12/12

Debat e on Relevance ofNet working Knowhow

. . cases of cyber crimes in t he field. The Societyalso put forward t he idea of assist ing the OTsduring regular as well as ext ra lectures.

According to Smt . Anit a Punj , DD (BC), t he obj ec-t ive of t he classes is t o help t he OTs underst andbasic concepts so that t hey can ask cri sp andrelevant questions to cyber crime experts duringinvestigation and understand salient points whichmight provide further leads.

When the quest ion was put t o Sh. Vipul Kumar,AD (OD) and former AD (ICT), he came up wit h aninteresting analogy. He said that in reality, it ishighly improbable that any officer would beposted in a Naxal-affected area within two tot hree years of moving out of t he Academy butstill the Academy is making efforts to make OTsunderst and the t ricks of t he t rade. Simil arly, incomputers, it is highly probable that the first fewpostings would be in places where it is difficultto even find ICT infrastructure. However, later inthe career, networking concepts will be of im-mense use and help tackle cases effectively.

According to Wikipedia, Cyber Crimes are offences t hat are commit t ed against individualsor groups of individuals with a criminal motive tointentionally harm the reputation of the victim orcause physical or mental harm to the victim di-rectly or indirectly, using modern telecommuni-

cation networks such as Internet (Chat rooms,emails, notice boards and groups) and mobilephones (SMS/ MMS).

After taking all these views into consideration, itis evident that the topic of Networking, alongwit h other it ems in t he ICT syllabus, have beenincluded in the curriculum after much delibera-t ion. Hence, OTs may dispel doubt s in theirminds regarding the relevance of Networking fort raining. A sort of consensus did emerge about

the method of teaching basics during debate t hat t he lectures should be easy to un-derst and, use less j argon and bemore interacti ve and pract ical.


Five Import ant Factsabout the IT Act

Section 69 empowers the government and author-ized agencies to intercept, monitor or decrypt anyinformation generated, transmitted, received or

stored in any computer resource if it is necessaryor expedient so to do in t he interest of t he sover-eignty or integrity of India, defence of India, se-curity of t he St at e, f riendly relat ions wit h foreignStates or public order or for preventing incit e-ment t o the commission of any cognizable offenceor for investigation of any offence.

It has been criticized on the ground of lack of le-gal and procedural safeguards t o prevent violationof civil liberties of Indians. Moreover it waspassed in an eventful Parliament ary session withno discussion in t he House.

Co m pet i t i o n : Wi n Pr i z es ! Please answer t he foll owing quest ions andsend them to [email protected]. in as soonas possible. Readers who send the answers atearl iest wil l win handsome prizes !1. What are the views expressed by the for-

mer AD(ICT) on the relevance of Net work-ing ?

2. What is t he basic dif ference between con-t act and contact less smartcard ?

3. What are advantages of VoIP t echnologywhen compared to conventional teleph-ony ?

4. What approach is t he University of East An-

glia taking t o develop Automated Lip Read-ing?5. How will my search query look like in

Google if I want t o search "Cyber Crime" inthe website www.techcrunch.com ?

6. What is Dazer Laser ?7. How are webpages ranked in a t ypical

search engine ?8. What are Googlebot s ?9. What is UNCITRAL ?10. How is Networking useful in invest igating

cyber crimes?

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(Cont inued f rom previous page)