One day I had a dream. I was getting bugged every time I wrote a blog post, every time I sent an email, every time I wanted to host an image online. I had to search for a perfect image host. Photobucket was cool, but required signing in. Tinypic was also good, but I was bugged by the heavy pages, and short image life span. Other image hosts either prevented hotlinking, or were too slow and sluggish. At last, I ended up making my own image host under my own server.

One day I had this dream. I so wanted an image host which was quick, displayed minimal ads, respected my time, allowed embedding in blogs, did not require a hundred fields to get started…

And one day, my dream was realised. Ladies and gentlemen, put your eyes together forrrrr…

fumpr

Fumpr, which claims to be the world’s fastest photo storage, loads in .046 seconds. It has a logo, a file upload field, a button, two huge buttons, a small banner and some text. Its as simple as browse, open, upload, and you get URLs for different purposes (link to share with friends, embed code for forums, blogs etc.)

Fumpr in action! (this image hosted at Fumpr too!)

I tried it out, and I’m fascinated by the performance! Uploading images in no longer a pain! Your images are stored for ever. And the file size limit is a generous 7.5 MB. Your images also remain private - no one will be able to see them unless you share the URL.

Nice combination eh? Fumpr team, if you’re reading this, a few suggestions -

• Multiple image upload
• Firefox plugin
• Wordpress plugin
• Possibly personal galleries?

Waiting to see more innovations from the Fumpr team I recommend that you give it a try Thank you Fumpr!

Technorati Tags: fumpr, image hosting, fast image hosting, worlds fastest image hosting, images, photo hosting, photo storage, photos

Hi guys,

After a long time, I’m back with not so good news. There are serial bomb blasts happening in Bangalore. As I type this, there have been seven blasts, and an eighth one is rumoured. I’m keeping track through Twitter and Spy.

No news on why the blasts or who is responsible for these blasts. They are happening at a 15 minute interval.

And yes, the eighth blast has been now confirmed. I pray for everyone’s safety. Be safe. Be in a safe place, like a college. DO NOT VENTURE INTO CROWDED ROADS!

Meanwhile, for motivation, here is a post written by my close friend, guide, and psychologist, Mathews George

we got the message while sitting at a Clinical case conference.
As of now 3:45 pm, there have been 7 blasts that’s rocked around bangalore . And most of them near Christ college. all students are safe and not being let out of the campus for safety reasons. Latest news, the gates are open.
It’s terror.
But there’s singing practice for next week intra college competitions going on… people standing at the kiosk having coffee.. people calling up their parents … many not getting network on airtel, and hutch .. spice network is working.
Why do people have to kill!

We stay united no matter what, whoever blasted. we will be as resilient as the Rajashthan people. We students, though, from different places and don’t belong to B’lore will stay together and will not suspect each other. we will support each one of our fellow indians and keep the spirit and fight the evil forces.

Y knot.

http://www.georgelivestheday.blogspot.com/

Technorati Tags: bangalore, bangalore blasts, balck friday bangalore, bangalore blasts 25 July, 25 july, blasts

Hello all,

Today is Download Firefox Day! So please help create a world record by downloading Firefox 3.0 today

Its a 7.8 MB download, but it is the safest browser ever made. So go ahead and be a part of the world record by downloading Firefox today. Switch from your previous browser, or maybe update your Firefox from v 2.

To see the people around the world who will create the record (including yourself ) visit the Mozilla World Map.

Cheers! And good luck Mozilla!

Hello there dear pursuer!

I’m kind of nostalgic right now, so I’ll start of in the traditional grade 12 letter writing style…

I’m writing this letter blog to inform you that Spread Firefox, the Mozilla Firefox website, is organising a Download Day in order to achieve a world record by having the maximum number of people download Firefox 3 on that day, and to request you to participate in the same.

Mozilla aims to have 5 million downloads in a single day, when the first stable version of Firefox 3 is completed. Though the exact date is not known, it is expected to be sometime in June 2008. You can pledge your support, and your download, at the Download Day website. The Mozilla team will inform you via email about the exact date of the event. By participating in the event, you will not only be part of a world record, but you’ll also help make the web, and your computer, a safer and secure place. If you’re a bit hyperactive, and if you don’t have much activities to poke your head in to, you can also take up the cause in your school/college/office/locality and make a bash of the entire event (hey, yet another reason to have beer! ) . If you’re on Facebook, go ahead and add the event to your calendar! Mozilla is venturing in to fields yet unraveled through Firefox 3, which boasts of a lot more secure and safer system and interface. (see more below)

I once again hope that you will Pledge your support for this programme, and help make the open source effort a huge success!    

Yours faithfully,    Mohan K.

Well, yes, that a lot more balderdash. But coming back to the point of the post, this is awesome oppurtunity to support the Mozilla Firefox movement. And of course, if you’re not a Firefox user, this is a splendid time to switch!

Why should you choose Firefox 3? Tristan Nitot says it all!

Ten reasons to choose Firefox 3 over your obsolete browser

Safer browsing

• 1 - Proven security track record, with more frequent, transparent updates, so that you use a safer browser
• 2 - malware protection to be protected against unwanted downloads such as viruses and trojan horses

Better browsing, with thousands of improvements

• 3 - Awesome bar, so that you can find places you’ve been before with a couple of keystrokes
• 4 - "Save on exit" so that when you launch Firefox, you’re immediately ready to surf, with last windows and tabs open
• 5 - Remember passwords without a dialog box, so that you decide to save the password after you’ve logged-in
• 6 - New download manager, users can pause a download and resume it later, with a search box to easily retrieve previous downloads
• 7 - Customizable: change the look and feel (themes) and add features (extensions) to Firefox through the built-in add-ons manager. More than 5,000 community-built extensions are available for free!

Better performance

• 8 - Fastest on complex Web applications, such as GMail so you are more comfortable, even on old machines
• 9 - Uses less memory than any other browser, so you’ll get more mileage out of your computer
• 10 - Moving the Web forward by supporting advanced Web standards so that the Web keeps evolving and benefits users in the long term.

Hey hold it! I know it sounds cool, but hold on buddy! Don’t download the beta yet… (damn, I just let slip that there is a beta download option! ) Try to hold off until the Download Day, so that you can contribute to creating history!

Talking about history, its time for me to vamoose and be history for the time being, so adios amigo! I’ll catch in a short while, with my next radically interesting (boring) blog post

Technorati Tags: firefox, firefox 3, firefox3, spread firefox, download day, firefox download day, world record, firefox download, firefox world record

Hi all,

I’m back with yet another pesky little malicious program, which none of the antiviruses seem to pick up. Some antivirus programs detect this virus as a version of the infamous Autoit worm. But this one seems like a very primitive attempt at a virus - and I’m still not sure what negative things it does, other than making your computer slow.

Symptoms

• Cannot directly double click and enter any drive (especially USB drives)
• Computer slows down
• A unknown "wscript.exe" or "monit.exe" or "scvhost.exe" in your Task Manager processes
• A hidden MSwin32.dll.vbs and autorun.inf files in every drive
• "We want Avnish sir back" in the Internet Explorer title space

If you have experienced any of the above problems, you have this little jerk on board your system.

What does it do?

• Makes it impossible to access the drives directly. i.e. You cannot enter the drives by double clicking on its icon in My Computer. If it does open, it opens in a new window.
• Makes your system slow.

Files involved

1. MSwin32.dll.vbs and autorun.inf in every drive
2. wscript.exe and monit.exe (and sometimes, scvhost.exe) in C:\Windows
3. 4 registry keys

Removal

The removal of this virus is simple. However, please note that this virus most often appears in tandem with another virus which creates .exe files inside a folder, with the same name as the folder. To remove that virus, check out the And Back Up blog, after you’re done with this removal. Fire up your Task Manager (Alt+Ctrl+Del) and end the processes wscript.exe and monit.exe

1. Open Folder Options (My Computer>Tools>Folder Options>View) and -
   > Enable Show hidden files and folders
   > Uncheck Hide extensions for known file types
   > Uncheck  Hide protected operating system files
   Click OK.
2. Go to each drive (C, D, E etc.) and delete(Shift+Delete and OK) the hidden files MSwin32.dll.vbs and autorun.inf. DO NOT insert your USB drive now. Finish the entire Removal procedure, do the Immunisation(given below) and THEN do this step (i.e. Step 3) for your USB drive(also Digicam, Mobile Phones, iPods, Music Players etc.).
3. Open Registry Editor (Start>Run>regedit>OK) and delete the following keys -
   ||  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
   CurrentVersion\Run\wscript

   ||  HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
   CurrentVersion\Run\monit

   Then, browse to the key
   HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main
   and double click on the key Window Title. Change the value of that key to "Microsoft Internet Explorer" (without the quotes :P).

Yup, thats it

Immunisation

Since this is a stupid little virus, its pretty easy to immunise yourself from it. And its pretty simple. Make a blank text file named autorun and change its file extension to .inf . (if you can’t see the file extension, repeat Step 2 given above). Now right click the autorun.inf file and check the option which says Read Only, and click OK.

You might also download and run the Symantec NoScript plugin - it disables all VBscripts on your system - making you less susceptible to viruses.

I still haven’t found out what great damage this virus does. Hopefully, the antiviruses will start picking up this creeper! Oh by the way, thanks to And Back Up blog for helping me out with removing the virus from my system - but many of his instructions do not work / are not foolproof / are not necessary. His removal program also does not work :(. And he provided the Symantec NoScript tip

Technorati Tags: MSwin32.dll.vbs, autorun.inf, autoit, virus removal, sohanad, noscript, vbscript, virus, removal, security, we want avnish sir back, internet explorer