2009 was a very eventful year. I got out of high school, joined college (but my college life hasn’t taken off yet) and started blogging.

I was fascinated by computers ever since I was 8-9 years old. I had been goofing around with computer parts, html bits and my handy soldering gun. My dad suggested me to document it. I wasn’t really a ‘writer’ kind of a person so, didn’t care much. Then, this year my friend Pramod (techmonk.com)  gave a speech about blogging and gave me his blog address. I was impressed and thought “oh, thats’s cool” . This sparked my excitement and started blogging. Plus, I wasn’t new to the internet world. I used to create some decent websites before. This sort of turned out to be an advantage.

Initially, I was bubbling with ideas and was posting around 3-4 topics / day. I was so excited that I didn’t even correct some of my typos and grammatical mistakes (I think I’ve got to revamp them sometime). I was posting all my previous hobby projects. I was also posting some fixes I could find out. Here are some of my articles which I loved to write.

• Do it Yourself – Cheap Portable iPod / Laptop Speakers
• How to connect a Laptop / Computer to a TV – This is one of my first hobby projects.
• How to make a USB Charging dock – This solved my mobile charging vows.
• How to Overrun / Crack BIOS’s CMOS Password – This is how I evaded my computer lockdown.
• Blogger – Featured posts widget with Thumbnails using Labels – One of my brainstorms (which is very rare).
• Complete wordpress guide: How to change your webhost or domain and still retain all the settings – I recently tried to migrate over to wordpress on a free webhost but it was a disaster (downtime). On the bright side, I learnt a lot about wordpress. If you guys need some help with migration, mail me.
• Change custom domain in Blogspot / Blogger using 301 redirect – WordPress didn’t happen so, I was back on Blogger.
• How to Repair / Recover a Waterlogged device – Mobiles, Flash drives, iPods, Cameras
• Some of my Xbox 360 Articles – Fixes and stuff
• Turn your Palm into a Universal Remote – I know, this is so 2002
• Use a Free Rapidshare account like a Premium User – Hack – I know, there are better apps out there.

OK, Back to my story (:D). Within 15 days, my traffic rose to 100 Unique visitors a day. Then slowly, after about 2 months it was still the same. Then slowly I ran out of excitement and my frequency tapered down. I sort of “ran out of ideas” – writer’s block. I was a little worried (I still can’t believe that was me) about it and started “forcing ideas” out of me. This started a wave of crap articles. Here it is:

• The Best Free web-hosting Solution
• Google Voice / Phone search now in India!
• How to backup your Bookmarks, History, Passwords – Google Chrome
• Best Related Post Widget / Hack for Blogger (With Thumbnails)
• Sleep well with Goodnight Timer
• So what is Google Chrome OS all about?
• Offline access for Gmail.

So, Things I have learnt in 2009 are:

• Never write about something about which you don’t have a clue what it is
• If you don’t like writing, please DONT. It’s not your thing.
• Golden Rule – Please don’t write only for traffic and money. I’ve seen many blogs where the content is eclipsed by the advertisements and It’s not very pleasing.

Plans for 2010 (quite ironic to the title, huh?):

I have a train load of exams coming up, so I must give them a little priority. (everyone knows what exam pressure is). So, I cannot post frequently in the coming days. Plus, I’m not really Shakespeare when it comes to writing. I will only post if I find something very interesting. I’ll try to bring some quality articles. Also, (I know this is an awkward favor to ask) If you want to guest post on my blog, you can do that now as I can’t give much time to it. I’ll try to integrate Adsense sharing program if you want. Contact me.

Coming to my hobby projects, I’m learning PHP and just started peering into C. I also plan to homebrew on my Xbox 360. I just need an Xbox 360 with the right kernel number.

Things I will learn in 2010:

• Indian education system sucks. (I’ll have my 12th exam)
• I can never become an academic.

With a personal (and brackety) goodbye to 2009, I sign off. And once again, Happy New year 2010 to you all!

And don’t forget to share your views.

How secure is your account?

• Your email is secured with SSL encryption. If anyone tries to make a brute force attack (trying all the combinations) it will take him about 20 years with the fastest computer in the world.
• It is reinforced by CAPTCHA. So, after about 3-4 wrong attempts. A CAPTCHA should be entered for every password trial. So, a bots cannot be used.
• Even if a guy has overcomed the CAPTCHA problem. After about 20-30 wrong attempts, the account will be locked for 24 hours.
• But, this system can still be cracked. Read on..

How can your account be hacked?

• Keylogger – This is a malicious program which records all your keystrokes and sends it to the Internet.
• Cookie steal scripts – Cookie is a small piece of information in your browser, containing your username and password. A hacker can send you an email with a script which snatches the cookie and sends it to the hacker.
• Phishing – A very good replica of a trustworthy website (say gmail) is made. When you login in that website, your username and password is sent to the hacker.
• Guesswork – Some people can actually guess your passwords with your social networking profiles.
• By the Email service itself. Yes! they can have access to your account. They do it when you are in serious trouble.
• Well, I am not a hacker so, if there is any other ways please add it in your comments.

How to protect your account?  

• Use a good Antivirus Software like Avast, NOD32 etc. This removes the chances of keylogging and cookie robbery.
• Always look into the address bar before logging in any website. See to it that its gmail.com not gmaile.com or something like that.
• Try not to use a public computer because, they can be loaded with malicious softwares
• Always use a secure password. The best method is set a password with spelling mistakes and some numbers in it. Let it be a proper noun. Eg: My favourite actor is Emma Watson. So, with some tweaks here and there, I have a password 3mmaw4tzen (3=E and A=4). Cool huh?

So what do you think? Got any protection tactics? Whatever you think. Comment on!

What you need:

1) A couple of cables from the charger or this would be very handy.

2) USB Cable

Procedure:

1) Cut open the USB Cable. You can find 4 wires. The red (5 volts) and black (ground) is all you need.

2) Connect the positive wire to red wire of the USB cable. Connect the ground to the black wire of the USB Cable.

3) Tape the wires and that’s about it.

For HDTVs (High Definition Television)

Some HDTV have VGA slot which will let you connect your computer easily with a VGA Cable. But many don’t have it, but do have Component Cable.

For that, you can make a VGA and Component Cable. Click Here. (If you aren’t very experienced, i think you can buy one)

For SDTVs (Standard Definition Television)

You can use an S-Video port on your Computer. You can connect it to the AV ports (Composite) using a S-Video to Composite Cable. (Again, you can buy it but, its more fun this way)
You’ll need this port.