Bapuli Online, Blog

StarryNight Sky new version

2011-12-23T03:05:00.005+05:30

I have finished building a new version of StarryNight Sky. The program now displays the chart of the entire night sky in realtime based on the current timezone and location specified.

Download StarryNight Sky

StarryNight Sky showing Jupiter

StarryNight Sky showing Orion

I will be unavailable for a few days from now and would like to apologize for not replying to some mails. I will be back after the new year. Happy holidays!

SoftonEyes new program

2011-12-02T00:58:00.006+05:30

Certain televisions come with light sensors to automatically adjust brightness depending on the room's lighting conditions.

SoftonEyes is a program that adjusts the laptop's brightness dynamically using the built-in webcam.
If the room's lights are turned off, SoftonEyes will automatically dim the display. It will again bring the display back to normal when lights are turned on.

Download Softoneyes

youtubeGet fixed

2011-11-24T05:18:00.005+05:30

Youtube changed its format again, http://www.youtube.com/get_video? now returns 404. Therefore youtubeGet stopped working. I managed to release a fix.

Those who want to use youtubeGet must download the new version here.

The direct link generated by youtubeGet must be pasted to a download manager software like Simple Downloader.

The downloaded file can be played in VLC Media Player.

Key Monitor anti-theft tracking software updated

2011-11-23T18:06:00.005+05:30

Key Monitor is a software that will help track keyboard usage of a laptop in case it gets stolen or lost.

Key Monitor will send keystrokes, the most recent screenshot and the IP address of the laptop daily or hourly to the e-mail address specified. The program works behind wireless routers but an active Internet connection is needed to send details of the computer.
Make sure to turn off Windows password at login. Otherwise the thief will format the hard disk, wiping Key Monitor and other tracking software from the system.

Download Key Monitor

BluetoothMouse Linux

2011-11-12T19:33:00.006+05:30

If you want to use BluetoothMouse app to control a computer running Linux, download the program here and follow the instructions given inside the Readme file.

If you don't have the BluetoothMouse app on your phone yet, download it from here and transfer the .jar file to your phone.

Antispy guard with kernel level hooking

2011-08-15T16:18:00.004+05:30

Antispy guard (add-on) for Wssecure Application Monitor now runs a kernel level driver and blocks applications that are not in the trusted list from running.

Note that Wssecure informs the user when a new program is started and when existing programs are modified. But it doesn't prevent new programs from being run. Antispy guard when used with Wssecure Application Monitor, prevents new programs from running.

Download Antispy guard for Wssecure

Important

Antispy guard must be run only after installing wssecure Application Monitor
and after all the system executables are added to the trusted list using the Advanced Controls option of wssecure.

Running the Antispy add-on without trusting the system executables initially
WILL make the operating system unusable.

The program needs Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable 2008 and .NET Framework 2.0 or higher. Works with 32-bit versions of Windows.

Click MusicalKEYS updated

2011-07-18T20:49:00.015+05:30

A newer version of Click MusicalKEYS is available. The program now saves recorded tunes in MIDI format instead of wav.

Download the new version of Click MusicalKEYS from my programs page. The old version has been replaced with the new version.

.NET Framework 2.0 or higher is required for running Click MusicalKEYS on Windows.

To install the Java version of Click MusicalKEYS on Linux, type ./setup in Terminal and press enter. After the files are extracted, a program launcher is created on Desktop.

If a Java Runtime is not currently installed, run sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jre to download and install OpenJDK JRE.

CPUTempAlert

2011-07-06T02:29:00.004+05:30

I recently wrote a program that will display the CPU temperature as a widget on the desktop. It will buzz when the temperature crosses the specified threshold limit. If the temperature reaches the critical temperature, it can automatically turn off the computer.

It is useful to get notifications when we do CPU intensive tasks like playing computer games and the laptop gets overheated.

Please note that only Intel processors running 32-bit versions of Windows are supported now. .NET Framework 2.0 or higher is needed which is pre-installed in Windows 7/Vista.

Download CPUTempAlert

BluetoothMouse app for cellphones

2011-06-13T04:27:00.008+05:30

I am planning to write a remote control like application for cellphones through which a computer can be controlled wirelessly. Initially the program will emulate the functions of a computer mouse. In the later versions I will assign special keys for launching certain programs.

Update: I finished writing the app. Make sure that your computer has .NET Framework 2.0 or higher before installing. Your phone should support Java applications.

Download BluetoothMouse (Transfer the .jar file to your phone to install)

Download Btmouse (This program should be installed on the computer which needs to be controlled)

Fixed a bug in youtubeGet

2011-06-09T17:24:00.006+05:30

youtubeGet was unable to fetch the correct download link for certain videos. I modified it and it seems to work properly now.

Download youtubeGet

If your Internet connection gets disconnected often, you can use my Simple Downloader software to resume broken downloads. Works for links from youtubeGet also.

Download Simple Downloader

Home messaging updated

2011-04-21T16:09:00.005+05:30

I did some corrections to my Home messaging program. The good thing is that it can be used to send messages among computers in a home network without the need of an Internet connection.

In the server computer, localhost should be specified as the IP address. In all other computers, the IP address of the server computer must be entered.

Download Home messaging

my pet squirrel clips

2011-04-03T17:11:00.009+05:30

See more video clips of my pet squirrel on YouTube.

A very sad time for me

2011-03-08T01:18:00.013+05:30

My cat died. She was perhaps run over by a vehicle. She was pregnant, so the kittens died too.

I had picked up two abandoned baby squirrels. Unfortunately one of them died as well.

mywebcreator scripts

2011-03-07T00:04:00.001+05:30

mywebcreator consists of small scripts that can make a blog or announcement site. It allows users to add comments to posts using AJAX. The package can be customized according to the requirements by modifying the source code. Check demo and download if needed

A Little Princess Sara

2011-03-01T02:31:00.019+05:30

"How it is that animals understand things I do not know, but it is
certain that they do understand. Perhaps there is a language which is
not made of words and everything in the world understands it. Perhaps
there is a soul hidden in everything and it can always speak, without
even making a sound, to another soul."

I finished watching all the episodes of the animated series, A Little Princess Sara, based on the children's novel "A Little Princess".
The story features the life of a rich girl, Sara Crewe who turns into a pauper on her eleventh birthday following the death of her father.

I was unable to be of much help to a poor child much younger than this Sara, in real life.
Perhaps as a result of growing up, people lose both their intelligence and conscience.
Because I like children, and usually do not like adults, I honestly felt deeply hurt that time. And I confess, I should have behaved better.
But not just one, there are hundreds of poor children crawling on Indian streets, from what I have heard.

Does any Indian regret? Do people care?

MyBriefcase

2011-02-26T21:07:00.001+05:30

I updated MyBriefcase. The package can be used to upload files to a personal web server and manage them remotely.

It also can be used as an interface to create new accounts and host multiple websites on a server.
Download it here

VedicAstroChart

2010-12-07T01:24:00.002+05:30

The world's first sine table was constructed in India. The functions jya and kojya, closely related to sine and cosine, were initially used for the calculation of planetary positions.

The force of attraction of the moon on a 20kg mass at the surface of earth is about 0.0007N, which is much less than 1N, the force exerted by an apple of weight 102g. It is therefore highly unlikely that the gravitational force of the moon or the sun will affect a person. However, anyone who wants to do a statistical test on Indian astrology can download VedicAstroChart here. Predictions as per Vedic astrology to be added soon.
Note: Astrology could be a superstition. Do not rely on it.

A few words on Islam, religion, killing and such ...

2010-11-25T02:02:00.001+05:30

As you know, I am an animal lover (a vegetarian), a humanist and an atheist.

I don't like religions much. At least I don't think they have a place in the modern world. There was a day when the religious Christians executed many scientists accusing them of blasphemy because they claimed that Earth was not the center of the universe.
Fortunately people have improved a great deal, but it is sickening to see people getting accused of blasphemy and getting murdered and stoned to death in Islamic nations. I once came across a news where a Iranian Islamic father cut the head off his seven year old daughter. How come people who are Islamic become so cruel and murder without hesitating?

They are cruel because most of them enjoyed killing animals when they were kids. There can be exceptions, but usually all Muslims kill an animal like a goat or bull through their own hands in the festival season of Eid al adha. They don't make the animal unconscious before killing but cut it slowly till all the blood drains out.

As Leonardo Da Vinci had said, killing animals is always a murder, and butchering is the same as murdering whether it is done in a slaughterhouse or not. But teaching children to kiss their pet and then smile and clap watching it getting killed is a different thing. It makes them careless towards the suffering of others and possibly teaches them to commit more heinous acts of violence and cruelty.

According to a study, "Anyone who has accustomed himself to regard the life of any living creature as worthless is in danger of arriving also at the idea of worthless human lives ".

FilesProtect patch

2010-11-19T17:14:00.001+05:30

Here is a patch for FilesProtect that will block certain API calls and prevent the program from being unloaded by viruses and trojans. There cannot be 100% security and every kind of security can be broken, but it is unlikely that viruses would be written specifically to break the security of my programs. Download patch for FilesProtect

Optical or magnetic or flash memory?

2010-10-31T14:42:00.005+05:30

Whether they are your personal photos or important documents, it is always a good idea to keep a backup of your valuable data.
When it comes to long term storage, which type of media should be used, considering reliability as the factor.

Should it be magnetic media like hard disks, or flash memory like USB pendrives or optical media like CD-R and DVD-Rs?
From my experience, I find CD-Rs quite unreliable. CD-Rs degrade very quickly when used and sometimes become unusable after a few years even if they are not dropped and scratched.

Hard disks can fail after a few years. However, I have never got a single CRC error while retrieving files from hard disks.
But magnetic media tend to lose their magnetic properties if they are not used for a long time. Also the movable parts can fail making the disk unusable over time.

Unlike hard disks, the USB flash drives do not have movable parts, which sounds promising.
However, flash drives have a fixed number of erase cycles and about 10 years data retention time. Also the electronic circuit can fail even if data is stored correctly on the flash chip.

It seems like there is no 'best' medium and it is good to copy data to multiple media and to copy them to newer media before the older ones fail.

Optical media like DVD-Rs will be good if they are stored in a safe place and are not used often, to prevent scratching.
Hard disks can be removed from the computer and kept in a place free from magnetic fields, and files on flash drives should not be deleted often.

It is recommended to perform integrity checks on data periodically, and after data is first copied to backup media.
Windows uses a fast CRC (cyclic redundancy check) algorithm to verify the file copy process.
However CRC is a very insecure hash algorithm, and MD5 and SHA are better suited to check the integrity of files.

If the checksum of the backup file does not match with its checksum when it was first created, the file is known to be corrupted.

Here is the link to my MD5 Calculator that generates MD5 and SHA-256 of files.

Update: I have added Save checksum and Load checksum options in the program that allows one to save the checksum to a file easily and to verify the file's integrity by loading the checksum file later.

USB modem mode switcher

2010-10-31T04:29:00.002+05:30

I got a 3G modem similar to the one that is on the picture. The problem is, the modem vanished from Device Manager each time I restarted my laptop. It didn't work unless I started the Chinese software application which was loading it.

After wasting some time trying to load it without the Chinese loader, I found out that such modems work as a virtual CD ROM device when inserted and do not expose any ports or the modem interface.

The loader gives them an eject command which changes their mode from storage to modem mode.

Here is a mode switcher for USB modem that can be used to load such modems at start up.
Download mode switcher

Bug fixes and updates

2010-10-14T00:32:00.001+05:30

Fixed a memory leak in wssecure which generated an out of memory exception.
Download wsSecure Application Monitor (New version)

Added multi-threading to Simple Downloader.
Download Simple Downloader

a remote exploit

2010-10-03T18:07:00.000+05:30

Yesterday my laptop got infected with a trojan. I didn't open any new program. So I suspect, it was a remote exploit.

I checked wssecure logs and found a line \appdata\local\microsoft\windows\temporary internet files\content.ie5\cknizna8\update[1].exe
which was the malware.
The update[1].exe file which was downloaded through an unpatched vulnerability had created a file rcks.xfo in the system32 directory, and also had changed the Shell entry of the registry to explorer.exe rundll32.exe rcks.xfo etupv
The rcks.xfo is actually a DLL file with a renamed extension and the malware was using rundll32.exe to run its entrypoint etupv. This file has several more entrypoints like bjbkaji and nprkg.

The malware looks like a variant of the trojan Oficla with a different signature and is not detected by Avira or avast as of 10/3/2010

Notes widget

2010-09-09T02:27:00.000+05:30

Notes is a widget like program for Windows XP through which a user can write notes on the desktop. Download Notes .Net Framework 2.0 or higher is required.

To delete a note, clear the text and press either the back or forward button.

MAC address changer

2010-08-31T17:57:00.002+05:30

I looked up a tool for changing the MAC address of my wireless adapter because editing the registry is not easy. The evaluation versions that I found were not satisfactory. So, here is a free version that should work well. Download MAC changer

Home made EEG instrument working!

2010-08-27T00:55:00.001+05:30

We managed to make an EEG recording device using some probes connected to a INA118 instrumentation amplifier and three LM358 operational amplifiers. The amplified signal was given to an analog to digital conversion circuit containing the MCP3201 and SP202ECP ICs. The circuit was finally plugged into the COM port of the PC and sampling was done at a rate of 100Hz using my program. The EEG waveform is displayed clearly on the picture.

To those who do not know, EEG is a method of recording the electrical activity of brain. With a device like this, it will be easy to study the patterns of brainwaves during different states like sleeping, alert, relaxed and occupied.

EEG waveform (sleep) after applying a low pass filter with cutoff frequency 31Hz.

Programming for Beginners book

2010-08-08T21:08:00.000+05:30

My book Programming for Beginners, aimed at school students and beginners is now on sale. Read more and buy

Book Reader App for mobile phones

2010-07-22T15:15:00.001+05:30

Nokia phones do not come with a text reader to read text files. At least the model that I have doesn't have one. My idea was to create a Books App that would read text files (ebooks saved in plain text format) from the memory card. The phone runs out of memory if the text file is large, so I thought of reading every hundred lines as a page, and put a Read More command to go to the next page.

Save some text files in the root of the memory card and select one of them in the app to begin reading.

Download Books App (Transfer the .jar file to your phone to install)

More kids from India

2010-07-07T22:25:00.001+05:30

Loved the expression on their faces.

Youtube video downloader

2010-04-25T17:52:00.004+05:30

I came across different video downloading sites for YouTube and tried many downloaders. Some of them used to work before, but I was unable to download video using any of those sites now.

I made a small link fetcher for YouTube that will give the direct link to the video file, either in .flv or .3gp based on the selection.
It is coded using Visual Basic 2010, so you need to download .NET Framework if you are running XP.

Download youtubeGet

Network Activity Icon in Windows 7

2010-04-24T22:00:00.004+05:30

Windows 7 unfortunately doesn't come with the network icon which blinked at the bottom right of the screen in Windows XP. I made a similar program which changes its picture when the computer sends or receives packets in a network. Download it

Here's the code fragment that does the work.

ModemSignal widget

2010-04-17T23:29:00.007+05:30

This is a little utility that shows the signal quality of the 3G/HSDPA modem/cellphone that is connected to the PC using either bluetooth or cable. Changing the location of the cellphone sometimes gives a better signal. With this program, you can check the signal from the desktop easily.

You have to select the COM port of the modem when the program is launched for the first time. Also, you must have the .NET Framework installed.
Tell me if there are bugs to fix.

Download ModemSignal

An old md5 calculator

2010-04-17T23:18:00.004+05:30

I came across this old md5 calculator which I had made before some months to check an .iso that I had downloaded from the internet. If you want, you can download it from here

It shows the MD5 of the file that is chosen.

Unnoticed Joy

2010-02-10T23:33:00.008+05:30

I found these kids playing on the way to the sea beach.

WorkReminder application

2010-01-22T00:50:00.007+05:30

If you like to note down your works and want to be notified on time, probably you will love this free application.
You have to specify the date, time and work. The program will remind you on time. Download it and tell me if you need any improvement in its code. Made it in a few hours and haven't tested it properly but it should work fine. Recently added a skin to it.

Download WorkReminder

Simple Downloader software

2009-10-23T22:39:00.006+05:30

I recently completed a program, Simple Downloader for downloading files with resume support. There are several programs like Download Accelerator which can do this job, but most of them are advertisement supported and install browser helper objects and toolbars. I was planning to make a GUI for wget, but later wrote the program without using wget.
Download Simple Downloader

Through the looking glass - explained

2008-12-10T14:03:00.041+05:30

If I had a world of my own, everything would be nonsense. Nothing would be what it is, because everything would be what it isn't. And contrary wise, what is, it wouldn't be. And what it wouldn't be, it would. You see?

In most places, children are regarded as inferior versions of adults. And we see how grandparents try their best to make the kids grow up with their numerous didactic moral stories and fairy-tales which end with "they got married and lived happily ever after".

The Alice stories by Lewis Carroll are very much different from these grow-up genre of stories because instead of teaching growing up to the kids, these stories were perhaps written to teach 'sense' to the adults.

'Through the Looking Glass and What Alice found there' is the second book of the Alice series of books. The story starts with the half asleep Alice who is half talking to herself and half talking to the kitten. Alice thinks the kitten would be punished for her mistakes but then remembers that she is the one who has done more mistakes and probably she would not be given dinner for 50 days as her punishment! The author is clearly against punishments, manners, and 'don't talk unless we speak’ but the story was certainly written to convey a deeper meaning.

Alice starts dreaming looking at the mirror (the looking glass) and enters a world which is very different from the world she might have imagined.
Inside wonderland, Alice appears in a game of chess which is actually played by unknown hands, and Alice merely plays her part. She starts initially as a pawn and tries her best to become the queen.
Throughout the story, she comes across characters who teach her many things. In one instance, she hears the poem of the Walrus and Carpenter where both of them trick little oysters and eat them all. Alice learns that none of them are actually good because both of them ate as much of the little oysters as they could though they pretended to look kind.
In another instance, Alice comes to know about the old man who looks for butterflies, turns them into mutton-pies and sells them in the street.

Unlike in other stories where the child characters do mistakes and are taught morals, in Through the Looking Glass, the adults like the Walrus, Carpenter and the old man are the ones that cause harm to little children.

The White Knight who says about the old man to Alice can be Carroll himself because he protects her from being the prisoner of the Red Knight once. He however informs her that he will not be able to save her afterwards and requests her to wave her handkerchief at him as a farewell, which would encourage him when his move ends.
After parting with the White Knight, Alice becomes the queen but finds out that there is no fun because the crown on the head does not feel comfortable. Finally, Alice hears a voice at the dinner party which asks the guests to do weird things like putting cats in the coffee and mice in the tea. Alice soon realizes that everyone is actually drinking her health.

She seizes the tablecloth, breaks everything on the table, and thus escapes the looking glass house. But it is likely that most children do not escape the looking glass house. Wonderland is a miniature image of the real adult world and Alice out of her simplicity thinks that it was a nice dream.
I personally find it terrible to see children growing up, and at least it is not a wonderful event that should be celebrated. Carroll surely idealized children and the prefatory poem of Through the Looking glass, written as a tribute to childhood, conveys a similar message.

Child of the pure unclouded brow
And dreaming eyes of wonder!
Though time be fleet, and I and thou
Are half a life asunder,
Thy loving smile will surely hail
The love-gift of a fairy-tale.

I have not seen thy sunny face,
Nor heard thy silver laughter;
No thought of me shall find a place
In thy young life's hereafter -
Enough that now thou wilt not fail
To listen to my fairy-tale.

A tale begun in other days,
When summer suns were glowing -
A simple chime, that served to time
The rhythm of our rowing -
Whose echoes live in memory yet,
Though envious years would say 'forget'.

Come, hearken then, ere voice of dread,
With bitter tidings laden,
Shall summon to unwelcome bed
A melancholy maiden!
We are but older children, dear,
Who fret to find our bedtime near.

Without, the frost, the blinding snow,
The storm-wind's moody madness -
Within, the firelight's ruddy glow,
And childhood's nest of gladness.
The magic words shall hold thee fast:
Thou shalt not heed the raving blast.

And though the shadow of a sigh
May tremble through the story,
For 'happy summer days' gone by,
And vanish'd summer glory -
It shall not touch with breath of bale
The pleasance of our fairy-tale.

There were many poems written in English literature like the Lucy and Little Lyca poems containing child characters but nowhere else there was so much yearning for the child and nowhere else was "childhood's nest of gladness" treated with so much respect.

Unlike what others might believe in, the author makes it clear through the statement "We are but older children, dear, who fret to find our bedtime near" that as children always like to play and never want to go to their beds, the grown ups are similarly afraid of their bedtimes (death).
The statement also suggests that the beliefs, morals and principles of wise people are of little worth because everyone is still afraid of the bedtime. So, in a way, the grown up’s world of sense is not much better than Alice's world of nonsense.

On the contrary, childhood has a nest of gladness because of which children, no matter what they might be going through, are usually happier than adults. As a nest protects the little birds from the dangers of outside, the childhood's nest of gladness protects children from the outside world.

The metaphors ‘voice of dread’, ‘the frost’, ‘bitter tidings’, ‘the blinding snow’, ‘unwelcome bed’, ‘raving blast’, ‘storm-wind’s moody madness’ used in the poem for adulthood are very different from a child's ‘silver laughter’, ‘sunny face’ and ‘dreaming eyes of wonder’. The author is protective towards the child and wants his magic words (story) to hold her fast and he expects her not to pay attention to the raving blast (society). He wants her to listen to his story once again before she is taken away by the voice of dread (grown ups), before she is summoned to an unwelcome bed (marriage bed) and before she turns into a melancholy maiden.

The concluding poem 'A boat beneath the sunny sky' ends with

Long has paled that sunny sky,
Echoes fade and memories die
Autumn frosts have slain July.

Still she haunts me, phantomwise,
Alice moving under skies
Never seen by waking eyes.

Children yet, the tale to hear,
Eager eye and willing ear,
Lovingly shall nestle near.

In a Wonderland they lie,
Dreaming as the days go by,
Dreaming as the summers die:

Ever drifting down the stream
Lingering in the golden gleam
Life, what is it but a dream?

In the poem, the author not only mourns over the loss of innocence in the child who was the inspiration behind his stories but also foretells the sad fate of other children (aging, decay and death) in the Wonderland, that is life.
The poem does not rely on philosophical statements like "life is a pain" or "life is suffering" but it so vividly describes it. The word 'ever' gives hope and perhaps by having the sense of wonder and fun that children have, one might look through the Wonderland of life.

The last chapter deals with a 'serious question', whether it was the Red King who was dreaming or whether it was Alice who was dreaming. The Red King could be a metaphor for a God like figure who dreams of us but again he is also a part of our dreams. It is not yet clear who is dreaming of whom but certainly one can wake up from the Wonderland of life.

The Alice stories have been analyzed by many and numerous people have given varying opinions on the subject.
Swami Vivekananda from India thought that the Alice stories represent Vedanta more than Buddhism. The moral he found in them is "the world is the same unconnected thing". The Russian translator of Alice in Wonderland, Vladimir Nabokov thought that the stories were more like his own adult novel, Lolita.

All these people missed the real purpose behind the stories. The reason why this Mathematics professor ridiculed his own subject calling it "Ambition, Distraction, Uglification and Derision" can be best understood by studying his quotes and reading what one of his child-friends wrote about him - "We cried when he went away. We were absolutely fearless with him. We felt he was one of us, and on our side against all the grown-ups."

Rude spirits of the seething outer strife,
Unmeet to read her pure and simple spright,
Deem, if you list, such hours a waste of life,
Empty of all delight!

Chat on, sweet Maid, and rescue from annoy
Hearts that by wiser talk are unbeguiled.
Ah, happy he who owns that tenderest joy,
The heart-love of a child!

I'd give all the wealth that years have piled,
the slow result of life's decay,
To be once more a little child
for one bright summer day.

A work in literature is the expression of one's emotion. A strong emotion creates a powerful character. Alice, like the silver laughter of children mocks at the madness of the adult world, never loses, and remains the most influential character for children and all child-like hearts.

Lekhaka

2008-10-13T13:28:00.006+05:30

Lekhaka is a transliteration software that can be used to write in Indian languages like Hindi and Oriya using phonetic keyboard.

Download Lekhaka for Windows XP/Vista

doll

2008-10-08T13:46:00.010+05:30

For the simple in heart,
For the children, grown up,
And for the children of childhood.

Drawn in pen and colored with Photoshop.

Classmate

2008-07-19T19:21:00.009+05:30

I had made a webapp, classmate, with my friend kira before a few days to show to kids how to make simple web applications. They have recently added an online status indicator to it. It is nice to know that they are getting interested in programming.

Antivirus efficiency test

2007-12-17T21:56:00.002+05:30

I conducted an antivirus efficiency test by installing a test program on different remote computers.
The program's work was to connect to a webpage and work according to the instructions from the page, the initial
instruction was to upload and update the screenshot of the system to a temporary directory on the server every 1 minute.
The program could also be given an instruction to copy itself to the root of all available removable disks after a specified interval.

From five systems, two had no antivirus software, one had norton, one had avg and the other had kaspersky installed and running.
The program was given to users those who were willing to test it and the program also contained code to terminate itself from running after December 19.

Unfortunately none of the security products were able to detect the test program for its spy-like and virus-like behavior.

The antivirus programs running in the system trays can be seen from the first two pictures.

Folder Checker

2007-10-09T21:44:00.002+05:30

Folder Checker will scan specified folders recursively for any changes and will alert you whenever they are modified. In case, a virus or malware modifies your important documents, you will be alerted.

Download Folder Checker

Port scanner

2007-01-09T18:53:00.001+05:30

It is possible to check your system from a remote computer and see whether your firewall is really blocking incoming connections or not. Using code like the following, a simple port scanner can be made. The program below checks TCP ports from 1 to 65535.

Imports System.Net.Sockets
Imports System.Threading.Thread
Module Module1
Dim i As Integer
Sub Main(ByVal arg() As String)
Dim ipaddress As String = arg(0)
For i = 1 To 65535
Dim cpobj As New check(ipaddress, i)
Dim th As New Threading.Thread(AddressOf cpobj.checkport)
th.Start() : System.Threading.Thread.Sleep(100)
Console.Title = "Port Scanner " & i
Next
End Sub
End Module
Class check
Dim ipaddress As System.Net.IPAddress, port As Integer
Sub New(ByVal IP As String, ByVal P As Integer)
ipaddress = System.Net.IPAddress.Parse(IP) : port = P
End Sub
Sub checkport()
Dim sck As New Socket(AddressFamily.InterNetwork, SocketType.Stream, ProtocolType.Tcp)
Try
sck.Connect(ipaddress, port)
If sck.Connected = True Then Console.WriteLine(port & " open")
sck.Close()
Catch
End Try
End Sub
End Class

Internet TV app

2006-12-09T03:04:00.004+05:30

This Internet TV Player app can be used to watch streaming TV on the Internet. I recently added a few stations and removed some dead ones.

Download TV Player