Archive for October, 2008

Published by Ahmad on 26 Oct 2008

How to Download eBooks from Google

As you know Google.com is the most popular search engine in the world.
Here are some tips to helps you find paid or free for students eBooks with Google:

Find Apache’s (default) Index page

Try this query:

+(”index of”) +(”/ebooks”|”/book”) +(chm|pdf|zip|rar) +apache

Find a particular eBook file

Try this query:

allinurl: +(rar|chm|zip|pdf|tgz) BookTitle

more google search operators at
http://www.googleguide.com/advanced_operators.html

It worked for me so I shared

Cheers

Published by Ahmad on 26 Oct 2008

Microsoft Windows 7 pre-beta build is 6801

Microsoft announced the availability of a critical security patch yesterday affecting a variety of Windows operating systems.
Windows 7 pre-beta
Microsoft Interestingly, the Windows 7 pre-beta build, which will be available to developers next Tuesday, also contains the bug. Microsoft stated “Customers running Windows 7 Pre-Beta are encouraged to download and apply the update to their systems. On Windows 7 Pre-Beta systems, the vulnerable code path is only accessible to authenticated users. This vulnerability is not liable to be triggered if the attacker is not authenticated, and therefore would be rated Important.”

In a support article Microsoft details some Windows 7 Pre-Beta file information notes. The build string on the notes is 6.1.6801.4106, the same build string that has been screenshotted recently.

It is believed(Screen Shot) that the 6801 build is a milestone 3 (M3) build released to select customers and partners over the last few months.

Microsoft will be releasing the build to attendees at their professional developers conference next Tuesday.

Published by Ahmad on 24 Oct 2008

Hacker’s Best Friend : Google

In the last few years a number of news articles appeared that warned of the fact that hackers (or crackers if you will) make use of the google search engine to gain access to files they shouldn’t be allowed to see or have access to. This knowledge is nothing new to some people but personally I have always wondered how exactly a thing like this works. VNUnet’s James Middleton wrote an article in 2001 talking about hackers using a special search string on google to find sensitive banking data:

“One such posting on a security newsgroup claimed that searching using the string ‘Index of / +banques +filetype:xls’ eventually turned up sensitive Excel spreadsheets from French banks. The same technique could also be used to find password files”
Google
Another article that appeared on wired.com told us how Adrian Lamo, a hacker who made the news often the last couple of years, explained that google could be used to gain access to websites of big corporations.

“For example, typing the phrase “Select a database to view” — a common phrase in the FileMaker Pro database interface — into Google recently yielded about 200 links, almost all of which led to FileMaker databases accessible online.”

These articles kept on coming up in the online news. U.S. Military and Government websites were vulnerable because admin scripts could be found using google, medical files, personal records, everything suddenly seemed just one google search away. But these articles seemed to show up once every half year and always talked about it as if it was something new. Another thing was, the articles never explained how one would actually go about doing this. Almost never an example of a search string was given. The last time I read one of these articles I decided it was time to find out for myself, whether google actually could do all they say it can. The following is a report of my findings and a description of some techniques and search strings one could use.

Theory

The theory behind this is actually quite simple. Either you think of certain data you would like to acquire and try and imagine in what files this kind of data could be stored and you search for these files directly. (Search for *.xls files for example) Or you take the more interesting approach and you try to think of a certain software that allows you to perform certain tasks or to access certain things and you search for critical files of this software. An example could be a content management system. You read up on this particular content management system, check out of what files it exists and search for those. A great example is that of the databases mentioned above, where you know the string “view database” is used on pages that shouldn’t be accessible to you and you then search for pages containing that string, or you check the software and notice that the option to view a database is linked on a webpage within this software called “viewdbase.htm” and you search for “viewdbase.htm”

The most important thing is to have a clear goal, to know what it is you want to find. Then search for these specific files or trademarks that these files have.

Google Search Options

Specific file types: *.xls, *.doc, *.pdf *.ps *.ppt *.rtf

Google allows you to search for specific file types, so instead of getting html-files as a result (websites) you get Microsoft excel files for example. The search string you would use would be this:

Filetype:xls (for excel files) or filetype:doc for word files.

But maybe more interesting would be searching for *.db files and *.mdb files. Google by the way doesn’t tell you you can search for *.db and *mdb files. I wonder what other file types one can search for. Things that come to mind are *.cfg files or *.pwd files, *.dat files, stuff like that. Try and think of something that might get you some interesting results.

Inurl

Another useful search option is the inurl: option which allows one to search for a certain word one would want to be in the url. This gives you the opportunity to search for specific directories/folders, especially in combination with the “index of” option, about which I will talk later on.

An example would be inurl:admin which would give you results of website urls that have the word “admin” in the url.

Index of

The index of option is another option that isn’t especially thought of by the creators of google, but comes in very handy. If you use the “index of” string you will find directory listings of specific folders on servers. An example could be:

‘index of” admin or index.of.admin

which would get you many directory listings of admin folders. (don’t forget to use the quotes in this case since you are looking for the entire “index of” string, not just for “index” and “of”)
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Published by Ahmad on 23 Oct 2008

Pakistans Richest Persons Of 2007/2008

Assets details are mostly of 2007

Short-listing Pakistan’s most influential business magnates or Groups has
never been an easy task because there are the people who have been very
powerful in nearly every regime that has held this country’s reins since the
last 60 years and then we have had those seasonal species that manoeuvred
their voice to be heard better than most within the power corridors, but
later vanished into the oblivion for one reason or the other. We have
selected only those tycoons who have made their presence felt for a better
part of country’s history, have earned consistently, have been setting up
units at regular intervals or have been legends in stocks, currency or real
estate business.

The list excludes many names that have previously qualified and all of Pakistan’s most prominent feudal land lords who would definitely make it to the top 10, expect the few land owners which have declared their assets and work force and registered with the CBR Islamabad. In order to promote the new and “unknown” Pakistani magnates we have excluded in previous entities.
money
Unfortunately, our extensive research does not currently include the names of a few stars that shone brightly amidst the galaxy of the influential creed of yesteryear like
C.M.Latif of BECO- the Steel Man of Pakistan- who did make a lot of name
once, but then got gifted with contentment somehow, although the late
business wizard got very badly hit by Bhutto’s nationalization of 1970 which
had inflicted an astounding thud to everybody in business then. Had it not
been the case, many of our tycoons may well have managed to gain the kind of
status greeting the likes of Birlas and Tatas in India today, if not the one
saluting Bill Gates or Warren Buffet. Among these gifted individuals, you will find
politicians-turned-businessmen, businessmen-turned-politicians or even the
businessmen-cum-politicians. With malice towards none and with no intention
to decorate somebody, We thus takes the pride of announcing these names. We hope this document will go a long way in serving as the most authentic endeavour of its kind for a very long time to come. It has been prepared very carefully in consultation with leading real estate barons, stock moghuls, business leaders of virtue and senior bureaucrats at the Central Board of Revenue.

Mian Muhammad Mansha Yaha, Pakistan

Ranking:1 Worth: £1.25b ($2.5billion)Industry: Businessman
Mansha has around 40 companies on board. Mansha, who owns the Muslim Commercial Bank is also setting up a $ 17m paper mill. He is one of the richest Pakistanis around. Nishat Group was country’s 15th richest family in 1970, 6th in 1990 and Number 1 in 1997. Mansha is on the board of nearly 50 companies. He is deemed to have made investments in many bourses, currency and metal exchanges both within and outside Pakistan. He could have bought the United Bank too, but then who doesn’t have adversaries. Nishat Group comprises of textiles, cement, leasing, insurance and management companies. If Mansha was bitten by Bhutto’s nationalization stint of 1970, his friends think he was compensated by Nawaz Sharif’s denationalization programme to a very good effect. There is no stopping Mansha and he is still on the move.
Nishat group assets are $4.4Billion. He is sometimes even regarded as the richest Pakistani around by his friends claiming he does not “show it off”.

Asif Ali Zardari, Pakistan

Ranking:2 Worth: £900m ($1.8billion) Industry: Politics
Asif Ali
Our Current President as well :)
Asif Zardari dubbed “Mr 10%” an unknown happy-go-lucky son of a small-time businessman who struck gold by marrying one of the worlds most glamorous women Former Prime Minister of Pakistan Benzair Bhutto. Taking advantage of his wife’s authority he is known to have taken kickbacks from many deals inside and outside of Pakistan. The most famous was a $4 billion deal to buy 32 Mirage jets from the French company Dassault. Documents, which include letters from Dassault executives, indicate an agreement was reached to pay a 5% “remuneration” - about $200m - to Marleton Business, a BVI company controlled by Zardari. Besides these many more kickback deals were taken with companies such as ARY Gold, Société Général de Surveillance (SGS), Cotecna, and ZPC Ursus, a Polish tractor company.
Zardari assets holding amount into hundreds of millions of dollars easily, Having 8 prime properties in the UK, of which once is the famous Rockwood Estate 365 acres in Surrey, worth £4.35m has now been sold and money sent back to the Govt. of Pakistan.
Also 14 multi-million dollar mansions in the USA, including owning Holiday Inn hotel Houston, Texas Owned by “Mr 10%” and Iqbal Memon and Sadar-ud-Din Hashwani.
They (Zardari and B.Bhutto) also have huge business ventures in the Middle East running into hundreds of millions if not billion mark. Mr Zardari also has huge stakes in sugar mills all over Pakistan,which include:
Sakrand Sugar Mills, Nawabshah, Ansari Sugar Mills, Hyderabad, Mirza Sugar Mills, Badin, Pangrio Sugar Mills, Thatta and Bachani Sugar Mills, Sanghar.

Sir Anwar Pervaiz & Sheikh Rizwan, (Chinioti)

Ranking:3 Worth: £750m ($1.5billion) Industry: Businessman
Chairman & Ceo of Bestway Group. The Bestway Group started in 1976 with its first Bestway cash and carry warehouse opened in London. Today the have in total around 50 Cash and Carry’s. Including their recent takeover of rival group Batleys for around £100m. Bestway Group ventured into Pakistan’s huge the cement business in 1995 and set up cement manufacturing plant in Pakistan at a cost of $120 million.
Taking Advantage of Pakistan growing economy they also acquired a 25.5% stake in United Bank Limited in 2002. Today, the Bestway Group has interests in cash & carry wholesale, property investments, retail outlets, milling of rice, lentils and pulses, cement production and more recently into banking. The group’s total sales amounted to in excess of £ 2 billion. The group provides direct employment to thousands in the UK and Pakistan. The have many interests in Pakistan too. Sir Anwar Pervaiz and his his partners sheer hard work has bought them to outstanding international levels, which definitely makes him an ideal role model for many young Pakistanis today. He still on the move!

Nawaz Sharif & Shahbaz Sharif family, Saudi Arabia/Pakistan

Ranking:4 Worth: £700m ($1.4billion) Industry: Politics/Businessman
Mr Sharif Businessman turned politician the former Prime Minister of Pakistan. He was ousted in a military coup in 1999 and was forced to forfeit $9million dollars and some of his assets including his $5m Mansion is Raiwind near Lahore. Before becoming PM he was a major share holder along with his brother and cousins of Ittefaq Group, having assets well in excess of £50m in the 90’s. However he got richer when he took commissions from foreign companies for construction in Pakistan. He build the first motorway and many new roads and took heavy kickbacks. He then also stole $100m from the Iqra funds, he started a new scheme “Ghar Apna” in which he again looted around $40m, the “Mulk swaaro” scheme involving public & govt. money collections to help pay pf Pakistan’s debts also was pocketed. Today he lives in exile in Saudi Arabia where it is known he has a new huge business empire in various sectors.
Continue Reading »

Published by Ahmad on 07 Oct 2008

Nokia Manufacturer IMEI country of origin Check

IMEI is the unique number identification of a cell / mobile phone. All mobile phones have a unique number - therefore you would not find two with the same number.

To check your IMEI number, key in “*#06#” (star hash zero six hash) on your Nokia mobile phone’s keypad just as you would when you dial a phone number to make a call.
Nokia
More detailed info. This only applies for phones after year 2004.
Format of IMEI is just like show below:
AA-BBBBBB-CCCCCC-D
AA-BBBBBB = Type Allocation Code (TAC)
CCCCCC = Serial sequence
D = Luhn check digit. (or zero if no checks)

From AA: you can know the Reporting Board - example 35 is BABT (British Approval Board for Telecommunications).

Use this to help you decide on a purchase! This is repost of an early member’s with a few newer editions:

To find out where your nokia phone was made look at digits number 7and 8 (YY) of your IMEI.

XXXXXX/YY/ZZZZZZ/A

XXXXXX = Type Appoval Code

ZZZZZZ = serial number

A = check digit

10 = Finland also 01 = Finland
20 = Germany
30 = Korea
40 = China
50 = Brazil, USA, Finland
60 = HK, China, Mexico
70 = Finland
80 = Hungary
91 = Finland

There may be more please list by commenting and not grantee about accuracy.

You can always look at the sticker under your phones battery. Its not always correct :)

sometimes it is MADE BY NOKIA

Good Luck!

-Ahmad