random acts of the mindless

Ever had trouble in searching with the right parameters? Happens all the time! You have a general idea of what you need to search for but don't know how to put in the exact search patterns. As a result you are flooded with irrelevant information which you have to sift through to get the info you are looking for. Or refine your search criteria again and again till you hit the right combination. Frustrating! isn't it? Here comes the cavalary to the rescue. Google, the ever dependable (Yup, I am a big fan) has come up with Google Suggest, a search engine which tries to guess what you are searching for as you type and provides suggestions real time! So if you are looking for, say news on the latest space shuttle launch but do not remember the name of the space shuttle, all you have to do is to type 'space shuttle' and Google would provide a list of suggestion as a drop-down list you can scroll and select 'space shuttle discovery' and it will then search the net. Its pretty useful when you are searching for some obscure info which cannot be searched with obvious patterns. Try it out...

Google Suggest

Spoiler Alert: This article talks about an important incident in 'Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince'

So, like a good friend of mine pointed out, the first major demise in the Harry Potter saga has finally happened in the latest installment of this bestseller series. Dumbledore, the ol' geezer is accidently bumped off by Prof. Snape. The loyal fans are aghast while the rest of us are mildly amused. There are speculations abound on the intentions of the sinister looking Snape and indeed, of the author who, at this very moment, is plotting the next move in the epic.

But I say - Don't be too sure...Dumbledore might just come back in the next book...just like the wise wizard Gandalf...who seems to be the Rowling's inspiration for this character. Heck! it happens in our hindi soaps all the time! He may come back looking like Harrison Ford saying that he fell off his broomstick while flying over the himalayas and lost his memory...and most of his original face. He was rescued by the ascetics who restored his visage using the ancient art of plastic surgery. There he stayed with the ascetics and their pet Yetis learning the yogic approach to the defence against the dark arts...which involves stuffing exotic herbs into a long pipe, lighting it from one end and sucking it from the other. Then one day while practicing this art he fell off his tree branch and landed on his head and Voila! his memory came gushing back! So after another rather hasty round of plastic surgery, he hurries back to Hogwarts.

Perhaps the original Dumbledore was asking for a raise...so she coolly knocked him off for another cheaper dude. Far fetched you say! Oh ye of little faith! Our own Ekta Kapoor is a pro at it, maybe she's the one who convinced Rowling to do this. So can we expect the amazing lad to be called KHarry Potter from now on?

After 20 years of publishing, Phrack, the world's best known (and perhaps the first) magazine dedicated to hacking has decided to close its shop. Issue #63, their last one, will be released at the DefCon and What The Hack 2005 hacker conventions later this month. Submissions for this issue closed on the 10th of July.

Their first issue was released way back in November 1985. Phrack initally focussed on topics related to phreaking, but since then it has spanned the entire spectrum of hackingdom. At the center of a lot of contreversies and the target of many a law suit, the magazine covered the evolution of hacking from simple phone hacking (phreaking) to sophisticated mobile hacking.

The current editorial team said that they would pass on the baton to another team keen on restarting the mag. In the meantime, Phrack's website would be maintained till 2007.