Archive for 2014

Home Archive for 2014

There's a good news for web developers, bloggers, white hats and general internet users and there's a bad news for hackers, black hats, spammers and some of my friends. :p

Google is finally saying bye to the old, irritating and difficult captcha. They are introducing a new captcha which will differentiate between humans and bots in just one click.

This amazing move by Google might reduce spamming (There's no way on earth to stop spamming.) The system uses image recognition as the method for keeping bots away. You might see a picture of an object, then asked to select similar photos from a grid to verify you’re a human. The images on the grid aren't the same object, humans can easily solve these kinds of puzzles, bots can't.
There are a lot of websites that are already using such techniques. I have seen a few websites that ask you to solve a small jigsaw puzzle before proceeding.

Here's an example of Snapchat's Captcha:

Here are a few facts about Captcha:

Millions of CAPTCHAs are solved by people every day. reCAPTCHA makes positive use of this human effort by channeling the time spent solving CAPTCHAs into digitizing text, annotating images, building machine learning datasets. This in turn helps preserve books, improve maps, and solve hard AI problems.
reCAPTCHA improves Google's knowledge of the physical world by creating CAPTCHAs out of text visible on Street View imagery. As people verify the text in these CAPTCHAs, this information is used to make Google Maps more precise and complete. So if you're a Google Maps user, your experience (and everyone else's) will be even better.
reCAPTCHA helps solve hard problems in Artificial Intelligence. High quality human labelled images are compiled into datasets that can be used to train Machine Learning systems. Research communities benefit from such efforts that help build the next generation of groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence solutions.
reCAPTCHA digitizes books by turning words that cannot be read by computers into CAPTCHAs for people to solve. Word by word, a book is digitized and preserved online for people to find and read.

This PasteBin is a demo code of how captchas can be used: http://pastebin.com/B2ccx5ry

Every time you solve a Captcha, you create something new. Lots of Love :D

Ubuntu is fast. Faster than Windows or any other OS. It creates negligible amount of temporary/junk files. Still, we might sometimes show some extra love to our Ubuntu and clean those junk files. Its actually a very difficult task to clean junk from your Linux System because of the complex locations and names of the files. If you're on Windows, all you need to do is install a software like CCleaner and click clean but Ubuntu is a class apart.

But, the exception has arrived, guys! A very easy to use, user-friendly, automatic GUI junk cleaner is now available for Ubuntu. BleachBit, like its name suggests, bleaches your system and cleans the junk files. There are a lot of options available in BleachBit.

Here's how to install:

Open a terminal and run:

sudo apt-get install bleachbit

After it is successfully installed, search for bleachbit in your dash:

There are two versions of this app available: Normal User and Root User.

I have run the root version of the app. You can see the number of options available in the app.

Please take care before cleaning everything out. Not everything that can be cleaned must be cleaned. You can also preview your system before cleaning it out.

Preview will show what files will be deleted, here's a screenshot:

Love your Ubuntu back. Cleanliness is next to godliness.

Here's a list of options and their descriptions available:

APT
autoclean: Delete obsolete files

autoremove: Delete obsolete files

clean: Delete the cache

Bash
History: Delete the command history

Deep scan
Backup files: Delete the backup files

.DS_Store: Delete the files

Thumbs.db: Delete the files

Temporary files: Delete the temporary files

Filezilla
File transfer client

Most recently used: Delete the list of recently used documents

Firefox
Web browser
Cache: Delete the web cache, which reduces time to display revisited pages

Cookies: Delete cookies, which contain information such as web site preferences, authentication, and tracking identification

Crash reports: Delete the files

DOM Storage: Delete HTML5 cookies

Download history: List of files downloaded

Form history: A history of forms entered in web sites and in the Search bar

Passwords: A database of usernames and passwords as well as a list of sites that should not store passwords

Session restore: Loads the initial session after the browser closes or crashes

Site preferences: Settings for individual sites

URL history: List of visited web pages

Vacuum: Clean database fragmentation to reduce space and improve speed without removing any data

Flash
Multimedia viewer

Cache: Delete the cache

Cookies: Delete cookies, which contain information such as web site preferences, authentication, and tracking identification

LibreOffice
Office suite
Cache: Delete the cache

History: Delete the usage history

Skype
Chat logs: Delete the chat logs

System
The system in general
Cache: Delete the cache

Clipboard: The desktop environment's clipboard used for copy and paste operations

Custom: Delete user-specified files and folders

Broken desktop files: Delete broken application menu entries and file associations

Free disk space: Overwrite free disk space to hide deleted files

Localizations: Delete files for unwanted languages

Memory: Wipe the swap and free memory

Recent documents list: Delete the list of recently used documents

Rotated logs: Delete old system logs

Temporary files: Delete the temporary files

Trash: Empty the trash

Thumbnails
Cache: Delete the cache

Thunderbird
Cache: Delete the web cache, which reduces time to display revisited pages

Cookies: Delete cookies, which contain information such as web site preferences, authentication, and tracking identification

Index: Delete the files

Passwords: A database of usernames and passwords as well as a list of sites that should not store passwords

Vacuum: Clean database fragmentation to reduce space and improve speed without removing any data

VLC media player
Most recently used: Delete the most recently used list

X11

Debug logs: Delete the debug logs

System (Root options)
The system in general

Cache: Delete the cache

Clipboard: The desktop environment's clipboard used for copy and paste operations

Custom: Delete user-specified files and folders

Broken desktop files: Delete broken application menu entries and file associations

Free disk space: Overwrite free disk space to hide deleted files

Localizations: Delete files for unwanted languages

Memory: Wipe the swap and free memory

Recent documents list: Delete the list of recently used documents

Rotated logs: Delete old system logs

Temporary files: Delete the temporary files

Trash: Empty the trash

Keep following me on twitter and G+. Lots of love. :)

What's up everyone! I have created a small light weight API that you can use in your Java code to connect to your wordpress website/blog. It is in initial phases and does the basic functions. Hope it helps!

To download click here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BziaxOG6e3ODTEw2NjFSVzZveXc/view?usp=sharing

GitHub Repo: https://github.com/siddhantminocha/javapress

How to use:

It's a very easy to use API. 1) Download the zip.
2) There are two folder: lib and php. Upload all the php files to your wordpress directory and place all the jars in the "lib" folder in your classpath.

3) There are 8 php files. Open each file one by one.
find the line

if( $password == "newpassword"){

and change "newpassword" with a password of your choice in all the files. Don't forget the quotes. For eg. if you want to change the password to SiddhantMinocha, you will change the line like:

if( $password == "SiddhantMinocha"){

Do this in all the 8 files. Use the same password in all files.

4)After you are done with php files, its time to move on to the java codes.

5) First, add the jars to your classpath.

6) Read the self explanatory code.

import javapress.*;

public class NewMain {


    public static void main(String[] args) {

javapress myblog = new javapress();
myblog.wordpress = "http://localhost/wordpress"; //your website location
myblog.password = "newpassword"; //the password you have set in all php files.

myblog.CreateNewPost("A new post", "This is the content of the newest post", 11); //Pass variables in the method


    }

}

Supported methods are:

CreateNewPost();

createCategory("categoryName");

createNewUser("username", "email", "password" );

deleteCategory(categoryID);

deletePost(postID);

getCategory("categoryName"); //Returns Cat ID

updatePost("postID", "postContent");

getPostType(postID); //returns type of the post in a string.

Lots of love! Happy Coding! :D

I'm a Linux user since years and completely love the power, flexibility and security Linux has to offer. I migrated to Ubuntu 4 years back and no looking back since then. I don't like Windows on Desktop but Windows Phone is one heck of a thing. Totally love the UI and UX Windows phone flaunts. Windows Phone is actually how customizable a phone should be. But Ubuntu and Windows Phone are not good friends. Its really difficult to share files between them.

So, this is one software which I really love. BitTorrent Sync. It has a very light-weight user client which sits silently in the background and very user friendly mobile apps too. Now you'll say "I already have dropbox, blah blah!" so here's the answer, in your face. Dropbox creates an account on their website and everything you share goes to their server before it reaches your phone where as, Once a folder is added to Sync, it immediately tries to discover other devices that have a folder with the same key. Sync easily finds other devices by using multiple methods. It also allows Sync to work on a private network that is not connected to the Internet. These methods include contacting user-defined IP addresses, looking on the local network, using the distributed hash table (DHT), automatically registering with a Sync-specific BitTorrent tracker, and using a relay server. While devices becoming peers is an automated activity, all of these methods can be enabled/disabled by the user. Each file contained in a Sync folder has an associated torrent and is broken up into small pieces before it is transferred. Using the BitTorrent protocol, this protocol allows devices to receive file pieces from any peer simultaneously. The more devices a folder is shared with, the faster files are transferred. While the speed is not visible to the user, the accelerated speeds will be noticeable. File pieces are AES-128 encrypted when in transit. They are then decrypted and reassembled when they arrive at the destination. File pieces take the shortest and fastest path to get from one device to another. Transferring files on a local network is most often fastest, while using the relay server to reach a device halfway around the world is often the slowest. This is different than cloud services, which have to send files through centralized data centers and that's why its not like DropBox. I have never used DropBox in my life because if you're in India, you understand how painful is file sharing over the internet. (BSNL @ 60KBPS -_-)

You can get Sync at http://getsync.com/ The site is super cool and the software is very easy to install so I will not waste blogspot's database by writing about it. :p

After installing Sync, you can add a new folder.

Right click on the added folder and generate QR code. Scan this QR code in your mobile app.

A similar folder will appear in your windows phone.

You can now easily share files between your Ubuntu System and Windows phone. This app is also available for other devices.

Lots of love. :)

This is a tutorial on how you can automate your mouse through Java. I have also created a small tool where you can save mouse inputs with arguments. After, you're done with feeding the inputs, click execute and the tool will execute all the inputs you have saved. This is a very useful tool if you want to automate a specific task. A checkbox allows you to repeat the execution infinite number of times.

Here's a snippet of the code:

Robot bot = null;
try {

bot = new Robot();
bot.mouseMove(parameter, parameter2);

int mask = InputEvent.BUTTON1_DOWN_MASK; //For Mouse Button1 Click
            bot.mousePress(mask); //Press Button
bot.mouseRelease(mask); //Release Button

} catch (Exception failed) {
   System.err.println("Failed instantiating Robot: " + failed);
}


You can download the Java Executable if you want to run the program on your system from this link.

How to Execute:
1) Click on this link and download.
2) Open Terminal (CMD, if you're on windows).
3) Type cd /path/to/file
4) java -jar ./EmulateMouse.jar (Make Sure you have java installed.)

How to use:

You have four options:

1) Move Mouse - This accepts two arguments. Enter the X and Y coordinates where you want your mouse to be moved.

2) Click - Emulates a mouse click.

3) Right Click - Emualtes a Right Click

4) Delay - Wait for x seconds.

Select the required option, enter correct arguments and click on Add Task.
Once you're done with adding tasks, click on Execute button. You can also check "Repeat" checkbox if you want these to be repeated. Please use Repeat very carefully. You might get stuck because your mouse will move automatically. (In such a case, you can go to your cmd where the EmulateMouse.jar process is running and press Ctrl+C to terminate the process)

You can find the GUI Tool and its source code at my GitHub Repo: https://github.com/SiddhantMinocha/EmulateMouse

The code is very easy and self explanatory. Hence, no need for long theories. ;)

Lots of Love! :)

Wordpress is very flexible but if you're looking on how to insert a post in wordpress through java, I can completely understand your pain. There are a lot of tutorials, libraries and methods available online but none of them seem to be working. They are very difficult to configure and some don't configure at all. I have tried most of the methods available online but no luck! Hence, I decided to create my own method which runs without even accessing the XMLRPC of wordpress.

Most of the tutorials available online are using the XMLRPC protocol with some libraries like RedStone, Apache XMLRPC etc. So here's my method:

We will do this by creating a custom php script. The PHP Script will take a few arguements as post requests, the post requests will be processed and a new post will be generated. You can find the php script here: http://siddhantminocha.blogspot.com/2014/11/how-to-create-post-in-wordpress-through.html

Save this php script as newpost.php in your wordpress folder. Now, let's start with java. Create a new java file, add your class name, main methods and call the following method. You will need to import a few libraries to make the post request(links below the post). :

public static void createpostviapost(String title, String body) throws Exception {

        String url = "http://path.to.wordpresssite.com/newpost.php";

        HttpClient client = new DefaultHttpClient();
        HttpPost post = new HttpPost(url);

        // add header
        post.setHeader("User-Agent", "PosterBotDefault");

        List<NameValuePair> urlParameters = new ArrayList<NameValuePair>();
        urlParameters.add(new BasicNameValuePair("title", title));
        urlParameters.add(new BasicNameValuePair("body", body));


        post.setEntity(new UrlEncodedFormEntity(urlParameters));

        HttpResponse response = client.execute(post);
        System.out.println("\nSending 'POST' request to URL : " + url);
        System.out.println("Post parameters : " + post.getEntity());
        System.out.println("Response Code : "
                + response.getStatusLine().getStatusCode());

        BufferedReader rd = new BufferedReader(
                new InputStreamReader(response.getEntity().getContent()));

        StringBuffer result = new StringBuffer();
        String line = "";
        while ((line = rd.readLine()) != null) {
            result.append(line);
        }

        System.out.println(result.toString());

    }

This will create your post and get you a result from the php script saying "Post Created".

You will need apache http client library which you can get from: http://hc.apache.org/httpclient-3.x/

Import a few classes by:

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.InputStreamReader;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.List;
import org.apache.http.HttpResponse;
import org.apache.http.NameValuePair;
import org.apache.http.client.HttpClient;
import org.apache.http.client.entity.UrlEncodedFormEntity;
import org.apache.http.client.methods.HttpPost;
import org.apache.http.impl.client.DefaultHttpClient;
import org.apache.http.message.BasicNameValuePair;

That's it! Lots of love! :)

Last week I was working on a project in Java. I had to create a function which could read data from a web page and take decision accordingly. Almost everything was working except that my Java program was not able to read data from the web page. I looked on the web and found a good library: JSOUP.

According to their website, jsoup is a Java library for working with real-world HTML. It provides a very convenient API for extracting and manipulating data, using the best of DOM, CSS, and jquery-like methods.
jsoup implements the WHATWG HTML5 specification, and parses HTML to the same DOM as modern browsers do.

scrape and parse HTML from a URL, file, or string
find and extract data, using DOM traversal or CSS selectors
manipulate the HTML elements, attributes, and text
clean user-submitted content against a safe white-list, to prevent XSS attacks
output tidy HTML

jsoup is designed to deal with all varieties of HTML found in the wild; from pristine and validating, to invalid tag-soup; jsoup will create a sensible parse tree.

I downloaded the library, but I was not able to find a good example that could let me going in no time. So here's how I used it! :)

Explanation:

JSOUP is very simple to use. Make sure its .jar is available and you have imported it into your program.

public static String getDetails(String link) {

        Document doc; //Define a new object Document. You will be able to //create this object only after you have imported jsoup.

        Elements text = null; //Define a new object Elements
      String finalS = "";

        try {
            doc = Jsoup.connect(link).get(); //Connecting to the link.

            text = doc.select("div[class=torrentMediaInfo]"); //Select the <div> you //want to scrape.


            text.select("a").remove(); //Remove other elements. For eg, I removed all //anchors including links (<a href>).

            text.toString(); //Convert it into a string.

            finalS = text + ""; //assign the converted string to a better string variable;


        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        return finalS; //Return the string variable back!
}

//That's it! :D

You can select other sections in a web page too! For eg.

        text = doc.select("div[style=\"margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;\"]");

will select all the content within <div style = "margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;">

If you want to scrape content under other sections, all you have to tweak is this line: text = doc.select("div[style=\"margin-left:10px;margin-right:10px;\"]");

Keep trying, until you get the right content.
Lots of love! :)

If you have ever used a Linux System, you know what real power is. Linux systems, including Ubuntu, are far far ahead of Windows Systems. After using Ubuntu for some four years, I have literally forgotten how Windows CMD works. I cannot do without some basic Ubuntu commands on a System.

If you feel you're at same place, here's a relief pill for you. A very small and lightweight set of binaries known as GOW (GNU On Windows) is now available. GOW installs over 100 small commands on your Windows system and makes it a bit useful.

GOW is available on GitHub for free at https://github.com/bmatzelle/gow

Here's a list of all the commands available:

basename 5.3.0
bc 1.06
bison 2.4.1
bunzip2 1.0.5
bzip2 1.0.5
bzip2recover 1.0.5
cat 5.3.0
chgrp 5.3.0
chmod 5.3.0
chown 5.3.0
cksum 5.3.0
comm 5.3.0
cp 5.3.0
csplit 5.3.0
curl 7.27.0
cURL 7.35.0
cut 5.3.0
dc 1.06
dd 5.3.0
df 5.3.0
diff 2.8.7
diff3 2.8.7
dircolors 5.3.0
dirname 5.3.0
dos2unix
du 5.3.0
egrep 2.5.4
env 5.3.0
expand 5.3.0
expr 5.3.0
factor 5.3.0
fgrep 2.5.4
flex 2.5.4a
fmt 5.3.0
fold 5.3.0
gawk 3.1.6
gfind 4.2.20
gow
grep 2.5.4
gsar 1.21
gzip 1.3.12-1
head 5.3.0
id 5.3.0
indent 2.2.10
join 5.3.0
jwhois 3.2.4
less 394
lesskey 394
ln 5.3.0
logname 5.3.0
ls 5.3.0
m4 1.4
make 3.8.1
md5sum 5.3.0
mkdir 5.3.0
mkfifo 5.3.0
mknod 5.3.0
mv 5.3.0
Nano 2.3.1
nl 5.3.0
od 5.3.0
pageant 0.62
paste 5.3.0
patch 2.5.9-7
pathchk 5.3.0
pcre3 7.0
plink 0.63
pr 5.3.0
printenv 5.3.0
printf 5.3.0
pscp 0.63
psftp 0.63
putty 0.63
puttygen 0.63
pwd 5.3.0
recode 3.6
rm 5.3.0
rmdir 5.3.0
sed 4.2.1
seq 5.3.0
sftp
sh
sha1sum 5.3.0
shar 4.2.1
sleep 5.3.0
sort 5.3.0
split 5.3.0
su 5.3.0
sum 5.3.0
sync 5.3.0
tac 5.3.0
tail 5.3.0
tar 1.13
tee 5.3.0
test 5.3.0
touch 5.3.0
tr 5.3.0
uname 5.3.0
unexpand 5.3.0
uniq 5.3.0
unix2dos
unrar 3.4.3
unshar 4.2.1
unzip 2.3
uudecode 4.2.1
vim 7.3_46
wc 5.3.0
wget 1.11.4
whereis
which 2.20
whoami 5.3.0
xargs 4.2.20
yes 5.3.0
zip 3.0

These basic commands will give you a linux like experience on a Windows based System.

We thank the author and contributors of GOW for releasing a much needed magic.
Lots of love! :)

I've been using Ubuntu since a very long time now! I love the power that Ubuntu has to offer. If configured properly, Ubuntu is a real beast.
But beasts don't look beautiful. Ubuntu's default look has turned pretty amazing after they gave up Gnome and chose Unity. Unity is fast, easy to use and provides a modern approach to use your Ubuntu Apps but its boring. After a few months you'll want something new. Macs and Windows are working hard on improving their UI but we, the Ubuntu users, are still using a very boring and flat UI.
Let's see what we can do to improve our Experience without compromising with power.

This will be a three-post Series. In the first part of the post, we'll install a sexy dock and hide the boring dock.

First, we'll install a small Mac-Like dock in Ubuntu. Docks are very user friendly and provide handy access to tools we use often.

There are two popular docks: Cairo-Dock and Docky. We'll use docky because its lighter and better.

Docky is included in the official Ubuntu repositories starting in Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). To install Docky on Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid Lynx) or later you have to run a very simple command in your terminal:
This will Install Docky to your system. Docky has a lot of features and themes.

sudo apt-get install docky

Keep exploring and select the one which you like the most. Docky can be configured easily.

Now we'll hide the boring Unity Bar. To do this easily we'll install a small tool. To do this, run the following command in your terminal:

sudo apt-get install unity-tweak-tool

This will install the Unity Tweak Tool. Open the Unity Tweak tool.

Click on the first option that says "Launcher"
and change your settings like these:

You can also change your theme from Unity Tweak Tool.

I hope you enjoy your better looking Ubuntu! Here's what it looks on my system:

Please Note: I have used some more Tweaks that I will write about in the next post. Stay tuned! Lots of Love! :)

Update: Check out the next parts of this tutorial

-Make your Ubuntu Look better than a Mac. (Part 2 - Install Mac features on Ubuntu)

-Make your Ubuntu look better than a Mac (Part 3 - Install Mac Icons in Ubuntu)

-Add a sexy weather widget to your Ubuntu desktop!

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Captchas - The new one and the old one. Google introduces new captcha.

Here's some coffee for your Ubuntu. Install Caffeine and stop your Ubuntu from going to sleep or screensaver.

Speed up your Ubuntu System instantly. This little app will decreas app loading time by seconds.

Crash anybody's Whatsapp through a message remotely. A new vulnerability in Whatsapp.

BleachBit - Automatic GUI junk cleaner for Ubuntu. Free up your space and make Ubuntu Faster. The best CCleaner for Windows replacement in Ubuntu.

Privacy Indicator will help you keep your privacy in control instantly. Additionally, a new Ubuntu look.

Javapress - An API to connect wordpress through java. No need of XMLRPC or other libraries.

Add a drawer to Unity in Ubuntu. Ubuntu gets a drawer function like android, iOS, Mac and other OS.

Google launches a new dashboard to secure your devices and activities.

How to share files between Ubuntu and Windows Phone (and Windows Desktop, iOS Devices, iPhones/iPads, Androids, your spaceship, your fish and everything else) wirelessly.

Check if you're under government survillience. Journlists, NGOs, Human Rights activists, take a deep breath. Download free software Detekt.

Add a sexy weather widget to your Ubuntu desktop!

Mouse Automation in Java. Build your own GUI tool to record mouse actions and play them later.

Install LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) on Ubuntu. The easiest way you'll find on the interent.

Insert a post in Wordpress through Java.

Using JSOUP to fetch data from a web page.

Make your Ubuntu look better than a Mac (Part 3 - Install Mac Icons in Ubuntu)

Run Ubuntu/Linux Commands on Windows - GOW (GNU On Windows)

How to create a post in Wordpress through PHP.

Make your Ubuntu Look better than a Mac. (Part 2 - Install Mac features on Ubuntu)

Make your Ubuntu look better than a Mac. (Part 1)