Aero is our new puppy – Labrador breed. He is about a month old and we bought him over the weekend.

Still there are a few things to arrange for him at home, but he is finding the marble floor comfortable enough to sleep at will. He already found a few cozy “nap-spots”.

Needless to say, Spurthi is on cloud nine.

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I would love to get more of these…

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For the last 2+ weeks, a specific version of Skype virus is on unleash and impacted many people I know. The virus looks more like a nuisance initially, but has the potential to impact the infected systems to a greater level.

The virus spreads itself with a message that looks like this “When was the last time you saw this photo [link]“. This message is broadcasted to all the contacts of a compromised account. Once the recipient clicks on the link, multiple things are observed to happen to the system. Firstly, the message is now broadcasted to the contacts of the newly compromised account. Secondly, the system leaves a trace of itself on the system. More often, the firewalls on the impacted Windows systems are turned off and the skype settings for the user are set in such a way that arbitrary programs can be executed by skype sessions.

The virus also appears to have two variants, in terms of the messages it sends – the URL can be a generic URL or a personalized URL that includes the skype id of the recipient. The second variant, IMO, has a better hit rate – who would normally ignore a link that is so personalized?

There are multiple fixes recommended for impacted systems/accounts.

• Make sure that skype settings are changed to not execute arbitrary / external code. Instructions at this post would help.
• Make sure you run Malwarebytes or any other good anti-virus
• Make sure that your Windows firewall is turned on.

Not clicking on such links is a prerequisite though.

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పై ఫొటోలో ఉన్నవి ఈ రోజు చదవడానికి సిద్ధంగా ఉన్న పత్రికలు, పంచాంగం.

The post ఉగాది శుభాకాంక్షలు appeared first on Raju Alluri's Personal Blog.

The post తెలుగోడి నమ్మకం appeared first on Raju Alluri's Personal Blog.

First time use of color manipulation tools of gimp…

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Shot this Ghirardelli cable car box with two different focus points. In both cases, used 5.6 FNumber and 3/10ths of a second of shutter speed. The Focal Length is 72 on the lens and didn’t use flash. Used the light coming out of a wall mounted fluorescent tube.

BTW, the surprising fact is that the box is not opened even after about two weeks.

The post Time to tempt with chocolates appeared first on Raju Alluri's Personal Blog.

Shutter speed at 1/30, F-Number 14 got me this picture:

The same scene, with shutter speed 1/20 and F-number 8 got me this:

Here is a branch and flower, with shutter speed 1/125 and F-number 13:

The same scene, with shutter speed 1/125 and F-number 16:

The same scene, with shutter speed 1/125 and F-number 20:

Here is a tree stem, with shutter speed 1/20 and F-number 16:

Same scene, with shutter speed 1/20 and F-number 10:

Same scene, with shutter speed 1/20 and F-number 8:

Here are a couple of random pics depicting water from a hose:

Shutter speed 1/800, F-number 5.6:

Shutter speed 1/640, F-number 5.6:

Overall, its a Sunday morning well-spent!

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$ uptime
 19:52:37 up 1013 days,  2:44,  2 users,  load average: 0.00, 0.00, 0.00
$

The configurations on the device change on a weekly basis, the server serves a few thousand queries every hour. The queries served cover few tens of domains and reverse pointers for large IP blocks.

Given the amount of activity and the dynamism involved, this uptime shows the stability and resilience of the bind program and the underlying Ubuntu linux.

Despite being fully satisfied with bind, the latest one I am getting fascinated by is tiny-dns. Key take-aways from tiny-dns include ability to cache queries and being able to serve PTR/A records off the same configuration lines. Segmenting the responses based on originating (source) IP block is also quite simple in tiny-dns.

Hope to bring up a few production systems in tiny-dns to ensure that we have a choice.

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The storyline is very focused; never intends to be a “feel good” one, but tries to give a vivid description of the dark side of politics and its ecosystem (like political journalism). The characters go darker as their inner selves and motives are exposed, yet maintain the political correctness in formal situations. Its an amazing script, from that point of view.

The cast played their roles to the perfection. Kevin Spacey needs no special mention. Whenever he looks into the camera and annotates on the situation and his ruthless next move, he is at his best. Robin Wright is very impressive, especially in situations where the character demands stubbornness. Corey Stoll is surprisingly effective, Michael Kelly plays shroud with ease and Kate Mara plays her complex character with ease. I love the background score and the title sequence – never fast forwarded the title sequence while watching these thirteen episodes.

Friday night happened to be the perfect time to complete the series. Looking back, I couldn’t believe that I completed the entire series in less than one week, given my really hectic work schedules. Credit goes to the gripping series and captivating cast. Waiting for the second series – they left that bait for me!

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