GEEK GAZETTE
PAGE 2 Geek Speak
3
Hacking Windows Account
4
Gtalk tips and tricks Wi-Max over Wi-Fi
IN THIS ISSUE
4
Storage Timeline
16
Who invented the telephone
16
Simulating circuits in MATLAB
5
17 17
WIRESHARK History of EC tower
5 ONLINE SECURITY
Patent search IMEI tracking Technologies and Gadgets The Ins and Outs of GPS Google wave
6 7
18
IG Nobel Awards
19
Biggest missed tech Opportunities
20
Using your computer through mobile and twitter
21
Windows Shortcuts
21
Crossword
22
Web Tools for Students
23
8 9 10
Sixth sense
11
Area 51 Unravelled
14
WHIZ CARD 12
Cover Story
The IITR Smart Card - It's small, it's fast and it's convenient!
The GeekGazette Team Faculty Advisor
President
Vice President
S.N. Sinha
Divyanshu
Prashant Chaturvedi
Editors
Design
News
Gaurav Jain Kumar Ishan Rose Ketty Tete Mayank Garg Pushpender Tomar Tushar Gupta Prakul Abhay Gupta Mukul Kumar Pranav Kapoor Krati Verma Siddharth Bathla
Chandranshu Garg Cashmira Pramnaik Piyush Jalan Peeyush Goyal Sushmita Maltare Shubham Jaiswal Putta Ramakanth
Arnav Thakur Amik Singh T Shivanand Pratul Yadav Nitin Agarwal Ankur Aggarwal Shashank Shekhar Samrat Gorale Rahul Singh Rahul Tiwari Pranay Kapoor Srishti Ranjan Kumar
Finance Gunjan Sharma Murarka Vivek Anand Ghanshyam Prateek Batla Mayank Agarwal Abhanshu Mohit Pahuja Gurinder Rajat Shagun Nagar Nitin
Members of IEEE Council: Mohit Kalra, Prashant Chaturvedi, Arpit Gupta, Shashikant Pandey, Yogeshwar Singh Special Thanks to: Bhumika Malik, Sarthak Grover, Vidit Saxena
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Change is the only constant when it comes to technology. Innovations galore and new products which far exceed our imagination are launched almost everyday. Our experience with new technology leaves us experiencing that child like wonder which is too precious for us. It is this wonder that drives us and motivates us to experience the newest of the technology ourselves and then bring it to you. At the same time, looking back down the years and putting us in the shoes of the people of that era sends a chill down our spines when we realize that we are at a crucial juncture in the history of technology. The present issue of Geek Gazette can be seen as a manifestation of these seemingly contradicting, yet complimentary emotions. IIT Roorkee is about to witness a defining change with the introduction of Smart Cards. The possibilities are infinite and the Cover Story explores the same while providing an analysis of the technicalities associated with the “WHIZ CARD”, Geek Gazette style. On the other hand, we try to give readers an insight into the world of the ever celebrated EC Tower, which has been nothing less than a legend for those passing out from the hallowed portals of this ever revered institution. Some of the other highlights of this issue include an article on Sixth Sense, a captivating technology developed by Pranav Mistry, a PhD student at MIT. Then there are articles on “Simulating Circuits in Matlab” and “Patent Search” which will prove to be helpful for engineers. We continue with the Crossword in this issue too through which we hope to entice the 'geekomaniac' in you. We are still very young and the unbelievable response that we got from you after the first issue has proven to be our prime inspiration. We want to thank you all for your wonderful response and support. We believe in providing you with technology in its implementable and helpful form. This very nature of our work makes your suggestions and comments all the very important to us. Your feedback is welcome at geekgazette.iitr@gmail.com. We would like to extend our thanks to Prof S.N. Sinha who has been a constant source of guidance and motivation. And special thanks are due to our seniors who were responsible for making this Magazine a reality and who, even after passing out are still contributing in a big way.
Regards The Geek Gazette Team
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M
ost of the Computer Users in the World work on Microsoft Operating Systems. It may be Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 too is not far away from becoming a household name. There is one Little Application which is used to create a Hole or Backdoor in the Windows Operating System. This Backdoor can be used to manipulate the User Accounts, Login to the System Administrator Account without providing the Account Login Password or anything else. The name of the utility is 'Sticky Keys'. This is an application provided by the developers of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems to provide good accessibility to those who cannot type fast or are unable to use two keys on the Keyboard simultaneously, such as 'Ctrl+C', 'Ctrl+V', 'Alt+Ctrl+Delete'. To use the Sticky Keys hit the Shift key 5 times. The name of the Executable file of "Sticky Keys" utility is "Sethc.exe", it can be located at 'C:\Windows\System32\Sethc.exe'.
Detect Invisible users 1.) Start a new chat with the intended user. 2.) Set the chat to off the record so that it doesn’t get logged to the gmail account. 3.) Send a message to the user. If the user is online and invisible, the message will be delivered. 4.) If the user is offline, you will get an error message indicating that the user is offline.
GEEK GAZETTE
1. Locate the CMD.exe in Windows Director and rename “CMD.exe” to “Sethc.exe” and save it at the same location. 2. Restart the system, at the login screen, when User Account asks for account password,hit the Shift Keys 5 times 3. This will open the command prompt on the same windows user login screen 4. At command prompt, type in 'Net user hacker /add'. This will add a New user Account with the name 'Hacker'. 5. After this restart the computer again and get the 'Hacker' account listed on the User Account List and Login to the System. Now what grabs the attention of the attackers is that this Sticky Keys application is functional on the User Login Screen of Windows Operating System. This can be a very dangerous backdoor in Windows Operating System. Next time you start your computer try hitting the Shift key 5 times and to check whether or not someone has already compromised with your System.
Check if someone has blocked you 1.) Install and configure Pidgin on your Computer (Pidgin is an instant messaging utility and can be easily downloaded and installed). 2.) Log in to your Gmail account through Pidgin. 3.) Go to “Buddies” --> “Show Offline Buddies“. 4.) Pick any of the contacts from the list. 5.) Right click on your chosen contact name and select “Get Info“. 6.) It will show brief information of the contact, including the Contact Name and the Profile Picture. In case the person has blocked you, you will not see anything.
AUTUMN 2009
T
here are three different ways for accessing the Internet today, viz. dialup access, broadband access and WiFi access. The main problem with dialup and broadband access is that they are pretty expensive and cannot reach all areas. The main problem with WiFi access is that hot spots are very small, so coverage is sparse. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access- technology based on the IEEE 802.16 standard (also called Broadband Wireless Access)) has solved all of these problems. It offers an amalgamation of the features of both the WiFi and wired access. ÂŚ The high speed of broadband service ÂŚ Wireless rather than wired access, so it would be a lot less expensive than cable or DSL and much easier to extend to suburban and rural areas. The fastest WiFi connection can transmit up to 54 megabits per second under optimal conditions. WiMAX would be able to handle up to 70 megabits per second. The biggest difference isn't speed; it's the distance. WiFi's range is about 100 feet (30 m). WiMAX will blanket a radius of 30 miles (~50 km) with wireless access.
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WiFi operates in unlicensed spectrum (in fact cordless phones and WiFi interfere with each other). Most WiMAX operate on frequencies which require a license. Frequency bands - 2 to 11 GHz and 10 to 66 GHz (licensed and unlicensed bands). When multiple users are connected to a WiFi access point, they are in constant battle for connection, and users experience varying levels of bandwidth. WiMax technology, however, secures each user with a constant allotment of broadband access. Built into the WiMax technology is an algorithm that establishes a limit to the number of users per WiMax access point. When a WiMax tower is nearing its maximum broadband capacity, it automatically redirects additional users to another WiMax access point. WiMAX protocol is designed to accommodate several different methods of data transmission, one of which is Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP). VoIP allows people to make local, longdistance and even international calls through a broadband Internet connection. WiMAX is a second-generation protocol that allows for more efficient bandwidth use, interference avoidance, and is intended to allow higher data rates over longer distances With all these features in its kitty, we can assume that feature belongs to WiMAX
The idea of EC Tower was conceived by Dr. Kamal (the then HOD of the Electronics Department) in 1976 and was inaugurated by the then Governor of U.P. The 13 floor building has 1/3rd of its height underground and the building has a lift too. A mobile van for measuring wave intensity and a transmission point on top of the tower were set up for propagation (effect of rain, fog on wave propagation) studies. The tower had an unreliable lift system and the project was too time consuming. With the emergence of microwave as transmission waves, the project became obsolete and eventually the Tower was shut down. Reopening the Tower is being reconsidered. With a new lift system placed, the laboratories and classrooms could be easily accessed by the physically handicapped students. The Tower could also be used to monitor security in the campus and furthermore, projects on wireless communications could also be undertaken by students.
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GEEK GAZETTE
P
atent search refers to searching patent databases for patents that have been filed or granted till date. In this world where advancements in science and technology take place rapidly and regularly, patent search has become important for an intellectual because of following reasons: 1. It makes one aware of the works that have been done in one's field. Thus the fruitless efforts of the person in duplicating the works are saved. 2. It helps one to ascertain whether one's work is novel and worth patenting. 3. It acquaints a person with the fields that are emerging, the fields that are so much worked upon that nothing substantial is left to do in them and the fields that have been ignored by most of the people and thereby posses potentiality for success while working on them. Thus it helps one to choose the field in which one's work will be fruitful. 4. It acquaints a person with the latest developments in his field. Thus it helps him in deciding the starting point of his work. 5. Sometimes technology used for solving one problem can be applied in some modified way to solve another problem. So by doing patent search one gets access to invaluable sources of information in one's field. There is a multitude of patent database sites. Few are hosted by international organizations and database vendors whereas rests are maintained by individual national patent offices. Patent database sites provide data in one of the following form: © Bibliographic (with or without abstract, details) © Full text © Both of the above forms Some of the patent database sites are paid and rest are free. Some of them provide information about all patents filed while others provide information about only the patents that have been granted. Some of the free patent database sites are: 1. WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization) – http://www.wipo.int – WIPO initiated an international patent filing system under patent cooperation treaty (PCT) covering more than 110 countries. This site provides bibliographic information with abstracts for international patents applications filed through the PCT system. 2. EPO (European Patent Office) – http://www.ep.espacenet.com – It is worldwide database of patents granted and PCT applications filed. 3. USPTO (US Patent and Trademark Office) - http://www.uspto.gov – This site gives bibliographic and full text for both patents granted and patents filed in USA. 4. Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks - http://www.ipindia.nic.in – It provides bibliographic information, with abstract, regarding both patents granted and patents filed in India.
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PAGE 75
You lose your mobile phone, ever wondered how the Police go around tracking it? It is through your phone's IMEI number. What is an IMEI number? The IMEI ( International Mobile Equipment Identity) is a unique 15 digit number assigned to every GSM and WCDMA mobile phone. This number can be found either at the rear of your mobile phone or by typing *#06# through you phone's keypad.
How is it used to track your mobile phone? Every network has its EIR (Equipment Identity Register) wherein all the IMEIs are classified into 3 categories, namely black, grey and white. Black mobile are those which are either reported stolen or whose operation on the network adversely affects the network operation, Grey are taken as non conforming to standards of the network but they are allowed network operations and White are those which conform to all the standards of the networks. Whenever any mobile logs onto a network or requests any service from the network the IMEI number of the mobile device is sent to the network operator which is then checked in the EIR and action is taken as per the list in which your IMEI is present. Whenever any complaint is made about a lost mobile phone, the Police registers that IMEI into the black list of all the networks. As a result when someone else logs into any network using the stolen phone, an indication regarding this would be given to the police and the thief can be caught.
Finding mobiles in India Lost mobile phones are difficult to recover in India because IMEI tracking is not done by the Indian Police and neither do the operators in India support the same. If you lose your phone in India, the police would record your IMEI number but no action is taken by them. So be careful and carry your phone safely. Also if you lose your phone immediately contact your mobile operator to get your SIM deactivated to avoid any misuse of the same.
Threat by Chinese mobile phones Chinese mobile phones are nowadays pretty common in use due to their variety of “features� and low cost. But as these phones are illegal they have no valid IMEI numbers so whenever any such phone logs into a network, it generates a random IMEI number and sends it to the network. This kind of generation makes the phone untraceable and is commonly used for criminal activities.
GEEK GAZETTE
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TECHNOLOGIES & Bluetooth 3.1 : Bluetooth SIG adopted the latest version of Bluetooth that is Bluetooth 3.1, which features speeds way beyond faster than Bluetooth 2.1 as it uses both the Bluetooth and WiFi modules for transmitting data. Devices equipped with both Bluetooth 3.0 and Wi-Fi will be paired via the former, while data transfer is actually carried out via an ad-hoc Wi-Fi connection. Benefits of this include throughput transfers of up to 24Mbps as well as better energy efficiency.
GADGETS
by hand, which means you can print on notebooks, greetings cards, boxes, sleeping midgets, and other things that won't quite fit into a traditional printer no matter how much you maneuver them. It's also supposed to be silent, so you can use it to print in meetings or recording sessions. And all this in a package weighing just about 250grams. It's expected to cost around $200. PrintDreams reckons we'll see the PrintBrush by the end of 2009.
Dual Screen laptops Q-SOUND Bluetooth headphones: Bluetooth Headphones from Q-SOUND is a concept which avails solar power for flawless operation. Well placed solar cells on the headband enable charging of the Q-SOUND Bluetooth headphones wherein a charge of 1 hour can yield upto 2.6 hours of output also it has an option for NiMH batteries as well. Such a concept is very important considering the energy crisis and also freedom from carrying around batteries. Hoping the actualization of this product would give startling results.
RS1 Xtreme M3 simulator Almost any geek can afford to build a multi-monitor gaming rig these days, but the RS1 Xtreme M3 simulator is ahead of the curve in two areas. Not only does it come with an authentic racing seat, the whopping US$29,395 kit further features a curved projection screen and a three-axis motion actuator. The former produces a realistic panoramic view of the race circuits, while the latter can recreate up to 2G acceleration coupled with onscreen synchronized force feedback. The system is also compatible with various offthe-shelf games such as Need For Speed Undercover.
World’s smallest printer The British company PrintDreams reckons it's ready to unveil what it calls the world's smallest printer: the PrintBrush. The PrintBrush will print to A4 size, in black and white, at up to 600dpi resolution. You have to sweep it across the paper
The Alaska based company,gScreen,aims to launch its dual screen laptops for professional designers, filmmakers, photographers and really anyone who can't live without a dual screen for everyday productivity. The chassis (which we expect is at least 6kgs) is built around the 15.4 inch screen (though the first units that come to market will have 16-inch or 17-inch screens) and its twin, identically sized screen slides out from behind the first using a uniquely designed sliding mechanism. It will run Windows 7 and be powered by Intel Core 2 Duo processors 4Gb of RAM and high-end Nvidia GF900M GT discrete graphics. The plan is for fast 7,200 RPM hard drives and six or nine-cell batteries. It will also have a DVD player so you can watch a flick on one screen and refresh Giz on the other. Expected price: Around $3000.
Trip Glasses Trip Glasses, allows you to sit back, relax, and fast track meditation, hallucination. Simply put on the glasses and headphones, gently close your eyes, touch the button, and that’s it – the built-in LEDs will start to flash in sequences showing you trippy colors and patterns as you listen to some audio tracks pumped through the headphones. The blinking lights, colors, patterns, and sound will be interpreted naturally by your brain, putting you into some kind of gentle meditation, hallucination. After 14 minutes, the glasses will turn off automatically, allowing you to relax and just “go with the flow”. If the light seems to be too bright for you, you can always place the small stickers, included in the package, over the LEDs to dim it. That way, you’ll achieve meditation or total relaxation at its best.
AUTUMN 2009 AUTUMN 2009
PAGE9 PAGE
The
Ever wondered how early men deciphered direction?? Long before magnetic compasses were developed, men found their way amid vast expanses by looking at the position of particular stars in the sky and using them as & reference points. It is hard to tell how precise the method was. But even today, of the same technology is used in the form of GPS (Global Positioning System) albeit with man-made stars! Yes, GPS is a worldwide radio-navigation system elementary physics courses in high school! However, formed from a constellation of twenty-four satellites the trick here is accurate timing and accurate and their ground stations. GPS uses these man-made positioning of the satellite(s) for which careful stars as reference points. And not surprisingly, GPS is monitoring is required and atomic clock accuracy are extremely precise – to the extent that it can calculate required. Besides, correction of delays is essential. positions accurate to a matter of meters. And advanced The rest is simple geometry. The minimum number of forms of GPS can go up to centimeter accuracy! reference points in space that we require to know Of course, developing such a exactly where we are is four. You can precise measuring system would work it out yourself. To help you out, have cost a lot. Sure enough, the US knowing your distance from one point Department of Defense spent a puts you on a sphere centered at the whopping $12 billion to develop it. So point, two points make it a circle, three what was it that necessitated such reduces the set to two points and a fourth huge spending in the first place? reference point will put you at exactly Well, it all goes back to the days of one point. However, in practice three are the arms race when US decided it sufficient since one of the points would needed much superior positioning almost always turn out to be a ridiculous technology that could help it hit answer. The fourth measurement is also Soviet Union silos from the sea with as much precision used, but in order to compensate for the imperfect as the Soviet could hit US ones from the land. clocks that we use in receivers instead of the atomic clocks used in satellites. It basically works by calculating the distance from the
Ins
Outs
GPS
reference satellites by measuring the travel time of radio signals as all of you must have done in your
For an excellent tutorial on the specifics of GPS, we refer you to http://www.trimble.com/gps/index.shtml.
GEEK GAZETTE
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oogle. The name in itself inspires awe and respect. And though, we have had a fair share of innovation brewing up in Internet Communication lately, none of them has been able to capture the imagination of general public the way Google has. Google is a phenomenon. And the wonderful thing about them is that they don't rest on past laurels. Instead they make WAVEs. Google Wave to be precise. Just when you thought that Internet Communication had reached its zenith with the likes of Facebook, Twitter and Instant Messaging doing the rounds, Google decided to come up with a product that at the very least is insanely innovative. Undoubtedly the most contemporary rethink of email, Google Wave is all set to change the way we communicate online. Here is a sneak peek into how.
In the words of Lars Rasmussen and Jens Rasmussen (Creators of Wave, also credited with developing the now popular Web App. Google Maps), Google Wave is what “Email would be like if it were invented today”. Simply put, “Google Wave is a real–time communication platform”. It ambitiously aims to bring together the nicer aspects of instant-messaging, email, web-chat, wikipedia, social networking and project management at one place to build a single elegant inbrowser communication client. And to achieve all this it defines a new concept called WAVE. A Wave in layman's terms is an equal part conversation and document, where people can work together with text, photos, videos, maps and more. At face value, it looks and feels like Gmail but what makes it different is its added capabilities. A Wave is shared amongst its participants i.e. anyone can be added to the wave at any time and changes can be made to it by any of its participants. Hence all participants are entitled to edit the wave, post snippets in between, or comment wherever they like. Sharing has also been altogether redefined in Google Wave by making it a simple two step process-Drag and Drop. Yes, all that one needs to do to share a file or a video is to drag it from the desktop and drop it in the wave. An interesting feature worth noting here is the all-new Playback option, which replays how the whole wave has evolved from the beginning by showing the contributions of all participants in sequence. But apart from all this, one single attribute that is bound to catch everybody's attention is the 'liveliness' of Wave. Google Wave introduces the concept of Concurrent richtext editing, which enables one to see on his/her screen nearly instantly what one's fellow collaborators are typing in the wave. Not only this, even simple features like Auto spell-check and Auto-translate in Google Wave have been perfected to the extent of mind-numbing finesse ,making
the experience a class apart. But Wave would have been ordinary by Google's own standards had it stopped just here. The thing that really makes Google Wave all the more special is that Google intends to penetrate web like never before through it. And the ace up their sleeve is the idea of Google Extensions. Google Extensions in short, are third party applications. Much like Firefox add-ons, Google Extensions would aim to provide added functionality within different platforms. Developers would be able to enhance Google Wave by authoring their own miniapplications. Extensions like custom-made gadgets (similar to Facebook Applications) and robots (enhanced versions of IM bots) hold immense potential as they would provide businesses with the liberty to modify Google Waves at will. Also, Google Wave allows for embedding individual waves into stand-alone applications such as blogs, independent websites etc. enabling seamless convergence of communication and collaboration. Thus in effect, Google Wave intends to achieve what has never been even attempted before. If Google Wave succeeds, the landscape of Web as we know today will never be the same again. If not, even then it would serve as an inspiration for future innovations. All in all, at least one thing is for sure- Google Wave is not just another brick in the wall.
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SIXTH SENSE
WON 2009 BEST INVENTION AWARD BY POPULAR SCIENCE
How does one perceive and see things around? To begin with, it is a silly question. We have our five sense organs for it, and wouldn’t it be wonderful if there were a sixth sense too? Today seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and feeling are not the only information required to decide the credibility of an object. Why else would ‘Google’ be so popular! But you cannot always ‘log on’ when you need information and knowledge about the object in front of you. That’s where Sixth Sense comes in.
S
ixth Sense It connects the digital world to the physical one. The device (which can be worn around the neck) comprises of a projector, a mirror, a camera connected to the cellphone and colored caps (like rings) which are put on the tips of thumb and the forefinger. The projector projects visual information enabling surfaces, walls and physical objects around us to be used as interfaces; while the camera recognizes and tracks user's hand gestures and physical objects using computer-vision based techniques. The software program processes the video stream data captured by the camera and tracks the locations of the colored markers (visual tracking fiducials) at the tip of the user ’s fingers using simple computer-vision techniques. The movements and arrangements of these fiducials are interpreted into gestures that act as interaction instructions for the projected application interfaces. The maximum number of tracked fingers is only constrained by the number of unique fiducials, thus SixthSense also supports multi-touch and multi-user interaction. It is just like watching search results only without a required screen!
For video of the device log on to www.youtube.com/watch?v=mUdDhWfpqxg
The Sixth Sense device caters to a variety of needs, like map navigation. The fingers would allow zooming in an out of the map layout and help search the exact location. If you buy some stuff, it will pop up all the information available about it, so you get the best deal. The drawing tool helps draw on any surface using the fingers. It recognizes free hand gestures too. Using hands ‘framing’ gestures, will click pictures and then later you can flip through those pictures. SixthSense also lets the user draw icons or symbols in the air using the movement of the index finger and recognizes those symbols as interaction instructions. For example, drawing a magnifying glass symbol takes the user to the map application or drawing and ‘@’ symbol lets the user check his mail. The SixthSense system also augments physical objects the user is interacting with by projecting more information about these objects projected on them. For example, a newspaper can show live video news or dynamic information can be provided on a regular piece of paper. The gesture of drawing a circle on the user’s wrist projects an analog watch. The mind behind this intriguing device is Pranav Mistry, an Indian Student pursuing PhD in the Fluid Interfaces Group at MIT's media lab. His work in detail can be viewed at www.pranavmistry.com
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GEEK GAZETTE
D
oes the "Satan" of hectic paper work during registration infuriate you? Of course yes, no one savours rehearsing those mundane forms each semester we show up here. Though technology has come up with smarter ways to redeem for such obsolete practices, ironically still not out of the window, our institute is in dire need of some kind of automation especially when the "Homo-Sapiens" mob is piling up exponentially. Here comes Smart Card, the IITR gameplan to unshackle its denizens. A smart card or a chip card is a pocket-sized card similar to the much celebrated credit card, but with many more functions and data storing capacity. It's small, it's fast and it's convenient.
Initial Phase The smart card implementation is a gigantic project and hence it's not realizable in one -go. The initial phase would include the dissemination and actualization of the cards. It'll certainly shrink-in the bulge of your wallets with the proposed unification of I-card, library card and the TBLS card. The hospital booklet will also be amalgated into it. Admittance to certain sensitive areas such as labs, server rooms at the computer center and night entries into departments will be monitored by it. You won't even have to bother to carry change while roaming around in the campus. With the epurse software included in “WHIZ” cards, it'll act as your debit card for the canteen bills, library fines and Xerox. The institute is also outlining the installation of boom barriers at the main gates. Entry will be controlled by the swiping of cards, thus slumping down the nuisance of traffic and increasing insecurity.
Second Phase Students may tend to fancy the second phase of implementation as "sweet n bitter". On one side it'll bring solace to students at the time of registration but on other the word proxy would be put into the endangered species category of the IIT lingo, thereby proving the old saying "luxuries come at the cost of some sacrifices" to be true. Yes people, attendance is going to be through “WHIZ” card. Though some of the witty minds would be contemplating some ideas to outwit this teaser, the implementation will be foolproof against all of the students' pursuits to happiness. Each classroom will have two biometric readers: one at the entry while another at the exit. Students put their fingers on the reader while entering and leaving the class. The professor just swipes in his smart card and the attendance is updated even with the Dean's database. You won't be able to bluff your parents uttering "bahut classes hain". The masterminds are conspiring to give your parents a login password where they can pull out your magic attendance numbers and wipe out some of their myths about IITians, the GAWDS!. As compensation, the automation of registration would bring some solace to IIT junta. The sponsored labs in the departments may also be given access through smart card. Last but not the least, you may also get the railway concession forms through it, without lingering in long queues at the DOSW office.
AUTUMN 2009
How it Works Smartcards, based on the interface used for data exchange between card and card reader are of two types 1. Contact cards 2. Contactless cards "Contact cards" require cards to be directly inserted into the card reader to get in contact with the gold plated conductive micro modules for reading or writing data into the chip memory. According to ISO 7816, the international standards for Smart Cards, there are eight contacts but only six are being currently used. Pin 3 is the Clock pin, which is used to synchronize serial I/O and Reset pin 2 is used to reset the configuration of the smart card. VPP is the input for programming voltage. This pin has mostly been depreciated but is sometimes used in older chips for high voltage signal required to program the EPROM memory. Serial input/output is done through pin 7 and rest two pins are marked as RFU (Reserved for Future Use). Another variant is the "Contactless Card", which only requires it to be in close proximity to the receiver of card reader for the transaction to take place. These cards can either have their own inbuilt power source or can rely on inductive loop to utilize energy from the Low frequency electromagnetic radiation (Radio Frequency) emitted by Card Reader. It also consists of a microprocessor with storage device and antenna. The communication is done using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) induction technology. There are three common types of memory modules being used - ROM (Read Only Memory) which is mostly used to store persistent information such as card holder's name, etc. EEPROM (Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM) is used to store smart card programs or dynamic data which changes over time like address of cardholder, etc. RAM (Random Access
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Memory) is used during the execution of application in the smart card. Modern Smart Card can have an operating system of its own and incorporate complex cryptographic algorithms with the help of a coprocessor. The “WHIZ� Card issued by our Institute is basically a Combi- Card having both "Contact" and "Contactless" chips. Card's front face has a contactless RFID tag on left side of photo, and a Contact chip on the other side. The card will have the basic student information such as name, branch, address, emergency numbers etc. It will also contain some of your other information including your biometric i.e. the thumb impression on the chips. The Institute will be installing card readers at Department gates, Central Library, Computer Center, Main Gates, Hostel Canteens, Hospitals, etc, each of which will be connected to a system, placed alongside the card readers, i.e. a computer running software required for authentication and providing any further services. Then each of these systems will be connected using a dedicated LAN to a central database server running Windows Server 2003 and other applications. The server runnin e-Purse application for money transfers and recharging will be installed in the Accounts Department at Computer Center. This server will be connected to systems installed at Hospital, libraries and Hostel Canteens. Card Readers installed in sensitive areas will maintain databases of their own, without any connection with the central server. HCL has a three year contract for installation and maintenance of smart card system in the campus. Furthermore it'll also provide training to the IIT management staff to operate and look after the system after the end of their tenure. As and when required more and more add-ons will be included into the list of services.
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GEEK GAZETTE
If you are an ardent follower of modern conspiracy theories, the phrase “Area 51” might ring a bell. But if you aren't, perhaps after reading through till the end you'll probably become one.
A
rea 51 is the codename for a military base situated in the southern part of the Nevada desert in western US, about 90 miles outside Las Vegas – supposedly meant to carry out development, testing, and thereafter, training of sophisticated and advanced aircrafts and weapon systems. What arouses curiosity is the blunt refusal of the US government to acknowledge its very existence. Satellite images show runway markings, certain base facilities and buildings which have been omitted from official navigation charts and maps. The airspace above the region is out of bounds for civilian and normal military air traffic. Unauthorized personnel are barred entry into the area, which is heavily guarded and patrolled by land cruisers as well as helicopters. Due to the highly secretive nature of the project, and reports of unusual phenomena, numerous conspiracy theories and urban legends surrounding it have cropped up, most of which do not possess a solid factual backbone, but are only spun from personal opinions and judgements. For instance, some believe that it is a haven for carrying out reverse engineering of crashed alien spaceships, and scientific examination of extraterrestrial beings that might have wandered into Earth's domains. Scientists even embark on
experiments of time travel. There is speculation that the Apollo landing never happened – it was staged in the Nevada desert. Besides, the whole area is said to be linked by an underground railroad system. All these beliefs have been portrayed in Hollywood movies like “Independence Day”, “Indiana Jones”, “Tomb Raider 3” ; and TV Series “Seven Days ”, “Stargate SG-1” to name a few. Until a few months back, the only definitive statement issued by the government – in response to an environmental lawsuit, was “Any disclosures about military operations there can reveal classified information, publicising which would be detrimental to National security." In a recent development, Annie Jacobsen, an investigative reporter, interviewed five Area-51 veterans and published her findings in the April 2009 issue of the 'Los Angeles Times'. They are Colonel Hugh "Slip" Slater, aged 87 (commander of the base in the 1960s); test-pilots Edward Lovick, aged 90 and Kenneth Collins, 80; Thornton "T.D." Barnes, 72 (a special-projects engineer) and spy-plane fuel supplier Harry Martin, aged 77. Here is what these former associates have divulged: During the 1960's when a Cold War had severed relations between U.S. and the erstwhile Soviet Union, the United States had increased its aerial surveillance.
AUTUMN 2009 As part of the plan, the latter was developing and testing top-secret Mach-3 high-altitude spy planes, code-named 'Oxcart', built by Lockheed Aircraft Corporation, which had elite stealth and speed capabilities to evade the radar. Thousands of Oxcart flights took off from the base. Prior to this, the facility was used to analyse USSR designed aircrafts. Later, F-117 Nighthawks were tested before starting production, and such operations continue even today. Mr. Barnes accepts that they did reverse engineer a lot of foreign technology, including the Soviet MiG fighter jet. And while he was working on a nuclear rocket programme called NERVA, almost all the centres had underground connectivity. He also says that the UFO sightings could actually have been observances of Oxcart planes, having a wide, disk-like central frame (to account for “flying saucers”) for fuel storage enhancements. The aircraft's titanium body, moving at speeds greater than 200 mph, reflect the sun's rays giving the characteristic image.
9 PAGE 15 Because knowledge of the project was confined to only a few special circles, the reported UFO sightings raised even internal alarms. Some officers within the military establishment suspected these were actually enemy stealth planes intending to cause havoc. All these sightings have been listed in confidential archives. We can only imagine the levels of secrecy associated with “Area 51” from what we have learnt till now. But when certain high-ranking officials in the US military and government do not have access to such “classified” information at present, it is most unlikely that in the near future the curtains will be raised from America's most surreptitious undertaking. Who knows, the wait might never end!
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GEEK GAZETTE
1725 : Punch Cards : Perforated data loops to store pattern that were to be used on clothes 1846 : Punched Tape : Each row on the tape represented one character 1946 : Selectron Tubes : measured around 10 inches and could store 4096 bits 1952 : Magnetic Tapes : IBM 726 was a high speed magnetic system stored 2 million digits per tape 1956 : First hard disk developed that could store 4.4 MB on fifty 24 “ disks 1961 : IBM 1301 had max capacity of 28 million characters and rented for USD2100 per month 1971 : IBM developed 8 inch floppy disk 1978 : Shugart Associates developed 5 ¼ “ disk drive 1980 : Seagate developed first hard disk for microcomputers that could store 5 MB 1981 : Sony introduced the 3.5” floppy drive 1982 : Compact discs introduced used mainly for recording audio 1990 : Compact came to be used for data recording purposes that can store about 500 MB of data 1994 : Zip drives released that could store from about 100 MB to 2 GB of data 1994: Sandisk introduces flash memory starting from 16MB 1998 : DVDs released by Toshiba having size 4.7 GB but limited to companies 1999: Launching of 3.5" Solid State Drives having capacity of about 18GB 2005: Bluray released wherein it could hold about 25 GB or 50 GB data Future : 5 Dimensional drives that are expected to hold about 1.4 TB of data
Telephone was infact invented by Antonio Meucci. Alexander Graham Bell just got the patent for the invention of Telephone. Antonio Meucci, an Italian-born inventor developed a form of voice communication apparatus in 1857,in his Staten Island home. It was basically a link home that connected the basement with the first floor but he was unable to raise sufficient funds to pay his way through the patent application. He filed a patent caveat in 1871, which was forced to expire in 1874. In 1876, Alexander Graham Bell patented the electro-magnetic transmission of vocal sound by undulatory electric current. The United States House of Representatives in its resolutions HRES 269 IH dated October 17th 2001 and HRES 269 EH dated June 11th 2002 noted “if Meucci had been able to pay the $10 fee to maintain the caveat after 1874, no patent could have been issued to Bell". $10 can make a big difference to this world and to history. Do you think Bill Gates invented "Windows"? Then, you should use a 1984 Apple MacIntosh, when Bill Gates was playing with DOS and saying "640K ought to be enough for anybody"... But that is another story.
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AUTUMN 2009
T
o set up and connect each component for different circuits in the lab and get readings for different parameters and values is a tiresome job. Then as per the professor's demands, to plot those readings on graph, get the required curve and study the characteristics of the circuit takes a lot of time. Wouldn't it be amazing if all this could be done sitting in front of your PC. Yes, MATLAB can help you simulate your circuits and the job is done in just a few clicks. In this tutorial, we simulate a simple series RLC circuit.
Scope Voltage Measurement
Series RLC Branch
Current Measurement
Scope
Voltage Source
² In MATLAB command window, type “simulink” (without quotes) and press enter. Simulink Library
Browser window gets opened. ² From the Menu bar of Library Browser go to “File -> New -> Model” ² A new window named “untitled” opens up. ² In the left hand side of Library Browser window navigate to “SimPowerSystems”. ² Now, drag “SimPowerSystems -> Elements -> Series RLC Branch” block to the new untitled
window. ² Similarly drag © “SimPowerSystems -> Electrical Sources -> AC Voltage Source” block. © “SimPowerSystems -> Measurements -> Voltage Measurement & Current Measurement”
blocks. © “Simulink -> Sinks -> Scope” blocks two times. ² In the untitled window now you have all the required blocks. Join them accordingly to get the
desired circuit diagram as shown in fig. ² Double click the individual blocks to edit properties. ² For series RLC circuit, make AC Voltage Source's Peak Amplitude = 5 V and set parameter values of RLC Series Branch as Resistance = Inductance = Capacitance = 10. ² From Menu Bar select “Simulation -> Start”. One can even vary the simulation time for the circuit ² Double click Voltage and Current Measure scopes to see their respective curves. ² You can use Binoculars or Magnify tool to navigate within the scope.
Wireshark
Wireshark is a packet sniffing utility used widely by network administrator to analyse and troubleshoot network traffic. It can sniff any packet in a hub or wireless network. Switched LAN networks are not usually vulnerable to it but they can also be attacked using ARP poisoning. For sniffing the packets in the network, the application runs the network interface card in promiscuous mode. In some system this might require the application to run with superuser privileges like in Linux. All you have to do is to specify the interface like eth0 (Ethernet), wlan0(wireless LAN), etc and then start capturing the packets through it. after capturing you have to search for certain key words like password, username, etc in the packets and then analyse them, which also requires the knowledge of protocol specific packet structure. But most sites requiring password like gmail, have https connection in which the information is encrypted and therefore you may not be able to crack them. Also this is a crime - Dont do it!
GEEK GAZETTE
PAGE 18
Geek Gazette teach you 8 Easy Ways which will help you to Boost your
Online Security Installing anti-virus, firewall and anti-spyware software cannot inoculate your system from all kinds of potential threats. You need to be a bit savvy. Read on to acquaint yourselves with 8 useful tips to do away with the holes that still remain in your system. 1. Augment your anti-virus tool
6. Manage your passwords
Threatfire(www.threatfire.com) - It is a program designed to work alongside existing security products. Unlike traditional anti-virus tools, doesn't rely on signatures to identify malware; instead, monitors PC for suspicious malware-like behaviour. The only time the program responds is when it finds something suspicious, otherwise it stays idle.
A password manager like KeePass (www.keepass.info) enables to securely and easily enter passwords into any program. Only one master password is needed to use the program, so no excuse to use the same password across all online accounts (the program will even generate secure and random passwords for use).
2. Switch to plain text mail
7. P2P basics
HTML can be used to hide all sorts of unpleasant things in email. Set mail program to view all messages as plain text by default - individual messages can be viewed as HTML as per requirement.
Peer-to-peer networks are a breeding ground for malicious software, particularly in content that's been copyrighted. In such a case pick a trusted provider and client (such as uTorrent(www.utorrent.com)). Before sharing or receiving, scan all downloads prior to opening them.
3. Vet your email Most anti-spam tools only process email that's been downloaded from mail server - install PopTray(www.poptray.org) it can check and preview mail while it's still on the server, deleting unwanted and suspicious messages without exposing them to mail program. 4. Switch web browser
8. Create a virtual sandbox Sandboxie(www.sandboxie.com) enables to run any program in a protected and isolated space on hard drive. Changes made are discarded when sandbox is closed, so web surfing and opening mail attachments is without fear of malware sneaking on to PC.
Upgrade the latest version of Internet Explorer or switch to a browser that doesn't support potentially malicious Active-X controls such as Firefox, Opera or Chrome. Check that the browser's privacy and security settings are set to Medium or High. 5. Check web sites before you visit Install the free Web of Trust (www.mywot.com) plugin for Internet Explorer or Firefox (Chrome does not support it yet), to avoid unsafe web sites. Thanks to its traffic-light system for both sites and search engine results.
Answers to CrossWord ACROSS: 5.Opera 8.Lenna 9.ENIAC 11.Intel 14.Morse 15.Anaconda 16.Apple 17.Cuil 18.Ford DOWN: 1.Virus 2.Wave 3.Mozilla 4.Nomophobia 6.Weblog 7.CADIE 10.CDMA 12.Tesla 13.Yahoo
AUTUMN 2009
PAGE 19
Everyone knows about the Nobel Prize – feted to some of the most brilliant minds whose work has the capability to bring major changes to the way we live. Ig-Nobel award is just the complete contrast of this highly prestigious honour, which acknowledges the hard work put in for extremely weird and useless research. We present before you a few of these “glorious” undertakings which would first make you laugh and then think “Why on Earth would such a thing be utile?” CAR TELEVISION – FOR THE DRIVER (Jay Schiffman for Visionary Technology, 1993) Auto Vision is a device which uses a small projector near a car's dome light and a small mirror on the windshield above the driver's line of sight to make it appear as though a television screen were floating in space above the car. Schiffman asserts in his patent application, "This display actually enhances the attention of the driver to the visual task of operating the automobile." CLOCKY DRAWS YOU OUT OF BED (Gauri Nanda for Economics, 2005) If hitting the snooze button every morning is part of your daily routine; Clocky might solve your problems. This alarm clock on wheels motors itself away – off the table and onto the floor–and hides, forcing you to get out of bed, find it and turn it off. HUMANS AND FROGS – THE SAME FAMILY? (Physics, 2000) Andre Geim, Netherlands and Sir Michael Berry, UK used magnetic fields a few times stronger than those used in MRI, to overcome gravity and suspend a frog in midair. Their work proved that although frogs are not normally magnetic, they can attain magnetic properties if they are placed in an electromagnetic field and concluded that it would be possible to use the same techniques to levitate a person.
SWORDS FOR SUPPER....ANYONE? (Dan Meyer for Medicine, 2007) His study, "Sword Swallowing and Its Side Effects," was published in the British Medical Journal in 2006. At a recent meeting of scientists and science writers in Chicago, he demonstrated the act - swallowing a 15in. sword. He had to suppress the gag reflex, carefully slip the sword past his voice box and into his oesophagus, flip his epiglottis (the small flap of tissue that ensures that food enters the stomach instead of the lungs), repress the waves of muscle contraction that normally push food down the oesophagus, gently nudge his heart to the left and finally repress the retching reflex in his stomach. He could have swallowed a longer sword, he said, but had just eaten Chinese food for lunch, and wasn't sure how well it would go down. AND FINALLY, REINVENTING THE WHEEL (John Keogh for Technology, 2001) Keogh, a patent lawyer, specified on his application that he had created a "circular transportation facilitation device," and included detailed diagrams of his invention. He was reportedly trying to demonstrate that the system in Australia used to award innovation patents was flawed, and that the office was simply rubber-stamping submitted applications.
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YAHOO LOSES FACEBOOK In 2006, Facebook (created by Mark Zuckerburg) was a two year old social networking site not much popular. People thought of it as some digital brat not fit for their use. Then MY SPACE was a bigger player. MySpace's 100 million members totally swarmed Facebook's 8million. So when Yahoo offered Zuckerburg to buy it for a cool $1billion - nearly twice of what Rupert Murdoch had spent for MySpace in 2005 – he found it as a golden chance and grabbed the offer. In fact, the then-23-year-old and Yahoo shook hands on a deal in June 2006. After some time, Yahoo went under financial crisis, and its stock dropped 22percent overnight. Yahoo's CEO at the time, Terry Semel, reacted by cutting the purchase offer to $800million. Zuckerburg pulled out. Two months later Semel raised the offer to $1bn, but by then it was too late. Facebook was far away from the hands of Yahoo. Today, Facebook boasts some 250 million registered users and is worth roughly $5 to $10 billion. Three years and two CEOs later, Yahoo is still struggling to survive. Also, the owner of Facebook, Mark Zuckerburg is the world's youngest billionaire today! DIGITAL RESEARCH: THE OTHER MICROSOFT This one is a classic. In 1980, when IBM was looking for somebody to build a disc operating software for its new IBM PC, Microsoft was not its first choice. In fact, Bill Gates himself suggested that Big Blue contact Gary Kildall of Digital Research, author of the CP/M operating system. When they approached him, Kildall was flying to deliver a product to another customer, leaving his wife to negotiate with IBM. She didn't like parts of the deal IBM was proposing and sent the executives packing. Big Blue went back to Gates, who with Paul Allen whipped out MS-DOS, based on Tim Paterson's QDOS, which was itself based on CP/M. IBM ended up offering both Microsoft's DOS (for $60) and a version of CP/M ($240) to buyers of its original PC. The cheaper product won. Before DOS, Microsoft's biggest products were versions of the BASIC programming
13 GEEK GAZETTE
tool. After DOS, well...you know the rest. Would Microsoft have grown into the monolith it is today without the IBM contract? We'll never know!
REAL NETWORKS REJECT I-POD People think Steve Jobs invented the iPod. Well he didn't, Jobs merely said yes to engineer Tony Fadell after the Real Networks rejected Fadell's idea for a new kind of music player in the autumn of 2000. (Jobs is famous for driving the design of the iPod.) MP3 players had been around for years, but Fadell's concept was slightly different: smaller, sleeker, and it focused on a content-delivery system that would give music lovers an easy access to what they wanted. Today that content-delivery system is known as iTunes, and Apple controls some 80 percent of the digital music market. Fadell worked at, and eventually ran, Apple's iPod division until November 2008. Real Networks is still a player in the streamingmedia world, but its revenues are just a fraction of what Apple makes from iTunes alone! MICROSOFT REVIVES A FALLEN APPLE Did you know that the famous software firm Apple which is now giving tough competition to software giant Microsoft was once forced to look upon Microsoft itself as its financer. Ten years ago Apple was in serious financial trouble. The sales of it flagship product brand “Mac” were being eroded by cheaper clones from Power Computing and Radius, as a result Apple was running low on cash and turnover. Then Apple received a much-needed infusion of cash - $150m - from a seemingly unlikely source: Microsoft, who also promised to continue developing its MacOffice suite. Steve Jobs, who negotiated this deal, was appointed as the interim CEO of Apple. The company then grew by leaps and bounds. And today, Microsoft is facing serious competition from Apple. If Microsoft hadn't revived the withering Apple we'd be struggling to play WinTunes on our WinPhones and Microsoft would have had its monopoly.
AUTUMN 2009
F
PAGE 21 15 15
or this purpose we will be using a free piece of software called tweetmypc, a simple Google search brings up their main website codeplex.com. The
homepage gives a description of the program and how to use it. Clicking on the download tab, will download it to your computer. This works only on Windows. Once you have the program downloaded go ahead and create a Twitter account, or use one if you already have an account. Select the settings option (of twitter account) and set it up so that your mobile phone works with it. Now you can send Twitter messages using your mobile phone. When you have this set-up and have tweetmypc installed go to program files, find the tweetmypc folder and create a shortcut in the desktop, the reason being it has to be run as an administrator. Then right click on it and select edit settings and enter your Twitter account's username and password. Once you have it posted, send twitter text message( in this case shutdown) using your mobile phone. tweetmypc checks for updates every minute so it shouldn't take longer than a minute for it to receive your message. And whenever it does you will see a small dialogue box popup which says windows will shutdown in 1 minute. The longest it will take is 2-3 minutes to actually respond. You can also logoff or restart your computer using this application.
Windows Shortcuts ÿ To copy
a file: Press and hold down the CTRL key while you drag the file to another folder. a shortcut: Press and hold down CTRL+SHIFT while you drag a file to the desktop or a folder. ÿ ALT+double click: Displays properties ÿ ALT+SPACE: Displays the main window's System menu (from the System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the window) ÿ SHIFT+click+Close button: For folders, closes the current folder plus all parent folders ÿ Windows Explorer tree control Numeric Keypad *: Expands everything under the current selection Numeric Keypad +: Expands the current selection Numeric Keypad -: Collapses the current selection. ÿ Windows Logo+M: Minimize all ÿ SHIFT+Windows Logo+M: Undo minimize all ÿ CTRL+SHIFT+ESC: Opens Windows Task Manager ÿ SHIFT: Press and hold down the SHIFT key while you insert a CD-ROM to bypass the automatic-run feature ÿ ALT+- (ALT+hyphen): Displays the Multiple Document Interface (MDI) child window's System menu (from the MDI child window's System menu, you can restore, move, resize, minimize, maximize, or close the child window) ÿ CTRL+TAB: Switch to the next child window of a Multiple Document Interface (MDI) program ÿ CTRL+F4: Closes the current Multiple Document Interface (MDI) window ÿ ALT+F6: Switch between multiple windows in the same program (for example, when the Notepad Find dialog box is displayed, ALT+F6 switches between the Find dialog box and the main Notepad window) ÿ To create
GEEK GAZETTE
16 PAGE 22
crossword ANSWERS TO CROSSWORD AT PAGE : 18
ACROSS 5) Web Application by a Norwegian Internet Software Company. Shares its name with a particular 19th-20th century French art form combining music and drama. 8) Probably the most widely used test image for all sorts of Image processing algorithms. Hint- A Former Playboy Model. 9) The first electronic computer weighed over 30 tons and had around 17000 tubes. Name it .11) “Our Superstars are a little different than yours.” 14) This 160-year old character encoding technique saved the day for Americans in the 1996 movie“Independence Day”. 15) Anyone going for Red Hat or Fedora has to first deal with this program. 16) Infinite Loop, Cupertino, California, USA. 17) This search engine claims to have a index (no. of webpages) larger than that of even Google.
If you have an IDEA and you want to becomean entrepreneur this is the OPPORTUNITY Deparment of Scientific and Industrial and Research (DSIR) has come up with Technopreneur Promotion Programme (TePP) to help students of IIT Roorkee to develop their ideas into commercial products. If you have any such idea then email the idea in brief to cell.ipr.iitr@gmail.com Contact: Divyanshu Mob. No. +91-9410543338 E-Mail Id: divyanshu26@gmail.com
18) The famous surname of the Father of modern assembly lines used for mass production. DOWN 1) Brain, Blaster, Rother J. 2) Connect- Huygens Principle, Google, Audio for Windows. 3) The Red T-Rex you see online everyday. 4) The fear of being out of mobile phone contact. 6) Everybody seems to be blogging these days. But, what is 'Blog' actually short for? 7) Complete the series. Google Gulp, Google Romance, Gmail Paper, ___________. 10) Code Division Multiple Access. 12) NVIDIA's latest brand of GPU's that promises to bring supercomputing to the desktop domain. Think Magnet. 13) http://akebono.stanford.edu/ is these days better known as http://www.__________.com/
AUTUMN 2009
17 PAGE 23 Tada List is easily accessible from any computer. Also, for a step up try Backpack. It not only manages tasks, but also allows one to set up pages to store important files, photos and the like. è Zoho Show: Using it one can edit, import, create and
publish PowerPoint presentations online without using Microsoft PowerPoint or any other application è Book Finder: . It allows one to compare prices of
more than 125 million books for sale from 4,000 sellers. So there's no need to go to Amazon, Half.com and all the other book sites as Book Finder can search them for you. è MynoteIT: By forming online class groups in it, one
. è Del.icio.us: This social bookmarking site allows one
to keep all bookmarks in one place and to share them with other people. The advantage to this site is that one can access one's bookmarks on any computer. How Google created Chrome logo?
can share, edit and search class notes, plan assignments with calendar, and get things done with task list. è Ottobib: . It is a simple bibliography tool that allows
one to enter multiple ISBN numbers at a time and retrieve the bibliographies in APA, MLA, or Chicago format. è Google Docs: It allows a group of people to share a
document and edit it concurrently. è Tada List: If you can't remember what homework
assignments you have, Tada List will do it for you.
Source: http://dashes.com/anil/images/google-microsoft-chrome-480.jpg