Security research is making me skeptical and paranoid about everything. Is that a good thing or bad?

--
[Update] Yes, I do think it is a good thing because it makes me question about the security concerns of the seemingly innocuous choices we make everyday, like giving my email address to win an ipad or installing a browser extension "for a cause" that would donate for every tab I open and also will track my browsing behavior for targeted advertisements (which they do anyway though) or giving an "anonymous" handwritten review which is "obviously" anonymous just because it doesn't have my name on it! There is this fine line between being paranoid and being precautious, of which I am kind of aware of but do not understand, yet, where the line lies.

My photography practice

My photostream on Flickr: sheetal_shundori

PHP file upload

http://php.about.com/od/advancedphp/ss/php_file_upload.htm

Today is the day

, originally uploaded by sheetal_shundori.

Today is the day to be Happy
Today is the day to be Free
Today is the day that will change everything

Social Business

Social Engineering and Koobface virus

Koobface, whose name is an anagram of the word "Facebook", is a special worm that spreads through messages in social networking sites like Facebook and myspace. One of the ways it affects users is:

1. One of friends writes a message on your wall with a video link saying "Funniest video ever!" or "My Home Film;)"

2. When you click on the link, it asks you to install the "Adobe flash player" to see the video.

 which is actually the Koobface worm.

3. You download it and become a zombie.

More on KoobFace:
The Real Face of KOOBFACE, analysis by Trend Micro.
Koobface virus hits facebook
Koobface scam by Berkeley researchers
Wiki has some good links

Some days are so b e a u t i f u l
that they make all the other days worth living! :D

I love to read good things people say about Bangladesh.

I was reading Prof. Justine Cassell's interview, who is the director of CMU HCI research. She traveled 40 countries, yet when asked about them she mentioned wonderful things about Bangladesh.

This is what she said:

What countries have you traveled to?

Well, I’ve probably traveled to forty countries… In 2002-2003, I was on sabbatical, and I had a grant to study young people and the Internet. In one year, I went to twenty-one countries. That was the best year of my life. I spent two weeks in each country. It was so great. As you can tell, I don’t mind being uprooted. I love foreign countries and places I haven’t been before.

I was in really exotic places. I was in a country that was the smallest self-governing country in the world, called Niue. It’s a tiny little island near New Zealand. They only have 562 families in the country. They actually have a lot of people outside the country who are Niuean. But it was so tiny. There was one store in the capital of the country. Well, there was one grocery store. I love that place. I kept extending my stay. First I was supposed to stay only four days, then I stayed seven days, then I stayed ten days. I would’ve stayed longer if I could. It was just so different.

I also love going to Bangladesh. I’ve been there three or four times now. I’ve really enjoyed it each time. Once again, it’s really different from anywhere I’ve lived. I’ve been very warmly welcomed, with a tremendous amount of generosity, by people who don’t have a lot of material possessions. I was privileged to hang out with a group of young people who had grown up in the slums of Dhaka and through the innovative thinking of a Bangladeshi photographer had become photographers themselves. Those young people had so much to say about being the subject vs. the object of their own experience – being behind or in front of the camera. It’s a country that floods severely every year, and yet a significant segment of the population is too poor to move from the flooding areas – and so they take their stuff and move to the top of the hill. The young photographers I spent time with – who call themselves “Out of Focus” – took me around the country to see the effects of the floods, and talked to me about the ways in which Bangladesh gets used in the world press as what they called “poverty porn”. And I’m upset when the 7-Eleven doesn’t have whatever I want. It just really gives you a perspective on things.

Read Full Interview

Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid.
~Albert Einstein

Fear is the Mind Killer

Fear is the Mind Killer, originally uploaded by Terra Kate.

"I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing.
Only I will remain."

Stanford Prison Experiment

They who dream by day are cognizant of many things which escape those who dream only by night.

{explored Front Page}, originally uploaded by Siréliss.

Trust I seek and I find in you
Every day for us something new
Open mind for a different view
And nothing else matters

Listen

Am I smart enough?

Yet another phd advice :D, but I loved it. I try to remind myself of this from time to time, it's nice to hear the same thing from a professor.
Excerpt taken from here

Am I smart enough?

That's the wrong question. There is no such thing as ``smart enough''.

If you love playing the piano, play it. You don't expect to be Alfred Brendel or Vladimir Ashkenazy. But you are doing something productive for yourself and those around you. Research is the same. If you enjoy doing it, pursue it. You will usually find that you can contribute something. As you go on, you will discover your strengths and find you have something unique to offer. Maybe there are others who are smarter in some way; they can compute complex probabilities in their head faster than you can, or whatever. But your contributions may be valuable in other ways.

As discussed above, research has many components. Problem solving, identifying issues, presentation, modeling, and criticism are amongst them. See what aspects best suit your abilities and personality. There is probably a niche for you somewhere.

What is written above about kidding yourself does NOT refer to ability or perception of ability; it refers to motivation and honesty about motivation. I want to be sure you are pursuing research for the ``right'' reasons.

Toys for photographers

If you are thinking about buying new toys to try out photography, check out this awesome site of Ken Rockwell.
It contains almost every bit of details about camera models, glasses, flashes or anything related to photography. It also provides you comparison of popular models so that you can decide for yourself.

Normally I spend too much money on gazettes that I might never use in my life!
This site really helped me to concentrate more on "real photography" that consists of thinking about composition, looking for interesting ideas than buying new things which are not necessarily going to make me a good photographer overnight.
So, do all the research you need before buying new things and only buy new toys after you are an expert of the current ones.

P.S.: The last line is actually "a note to self". I seem to having hard time remembering this.

Anonymous: Can we be friends on Facebook?

Anonymous: Can we be friends on Facebook?, originally uploaded by sheetal_shundori.

I absolutely love to show off my pictures :P

Looks like everyone is getting famous by doing the thing they really like!
like these girls on youtube who make make-over videos, or this flickr guy, or this programmer who wrote youtube instant, or salman khan from khan academy (google 10^100), or blogger julie!
what should I do?

English classics online

Classics at the Online Literature Library

Karhunen-Loeve transform in java

Background knowledge and matlab code here.
The matlab code below is taken from the previous paper.

%number of examples
N=size(X,2);
%dimension of each example
M=size(X,1);
%mean
meanX=mean(X,2);
%centering the data
Xm=X-meanX*ones(1,N);
%covariance matrix
C=(Xm*Xm')/N;
%computing the eigenspace:
[U D]=eig(C);
%projecting the centered data
over the eigenspace
P=U'*Xm;

Helpful lecture video
Download JAMA package
Java code:

import Jama.*;

public class KLTransform {

//Matrix x[i,j]= jth feature in ith example
public Matrix k_lTransform(Matrix x)
{
 
   x = x.transpose();
     
   int nExample = x.getColumnDimension();

  //calculate mean
   Matrix mean = getMean(x);
  
   double[][] oneD = new double[1][nExample];
   for(int i = 0; i < nExample; i++)
       oneD[0][i] = 1;
   Matrix ones = new Matrix(oneD);
  
   //center the data
   Matrix xm = x.minus(mean.times(ones)); 

   //Calculate covariance matrix
   Matrix cov  = xm.times(xm.transpose());
  
   /*
   In the matlab code, the covariance matrix is divided with N (nExample). 
   Now cov and cov/nExample have the same eigenvectors but different eigenvalues. 
   In this code, the division doesn't make any difference as we are only 
   considering the eigenvectors. 
   But there are some cases, like in Kaiser-Guttman stopping rule 
   where only the eigenvectors with eigenvalue > 1 are chosen, 
   division might make a difference.
   */
   cov = cov.times(1.0/nExample);

   //compute eigen vectors
   Matrix eigenVectors = cov.eig().getV();

  //compute pca
   Matrix pca = eigenVectors.transpose().times(xm);
   return pca;
}
 
public Matrix getMean(Matrix x) {
 int nExample = x.getColumnDimension();
 int nFeature = x.getRowDimension();
  
 double[][] meanD = new double[nFeature][1];
 Matrix mean = new Matrix(meanD);
  
 for(int i = 0; i < nFeature; i++)
 {
   double avg = 0.0;
   for(int j = 0; j < nExample; j++)
   {
     avg+=x.get( i,j);
   }
   mean.set(i, 0, avg/nExample);
   
 }
 return mean;
}
//test 
public static void main(String[] args)
{
  KLTransform kl = new KLTransform();

  double [][] d = new double[][]{{1, 2, 3},{4,5,6}};
  Matrix x = new Matrix(d);
  Matrix pc = kl.k_lTransform(x);

  pc.print(pc.getRowDimension(), 2);

 }
}

Note that in the matlab code, number of examples is the number of columns that is each column is an example. But the java code assumes each row is an example. So the matrix X in matlab is the transpose of matrix X in java.
To test the java and matlab code:
run java with :
X=
[1 2 3]
[4 5 6]

run matlab with: X = [1, 4; 2, 5; 3, 6]

syntax highlighting tutorial

If I were

I am tagged by Mahmud in the "if i were" thing.
If I wait and try to think about the "correct" answers of these questions, i'll never have time to answer them, so I decided to do it in NOW, it's now or never :P

If I were a month, i'd be April, my Birth month :D, and this month is like me - sunny and bright !

If I were a day of the week, I’d be tuesday- not monday when everyone is grumpy, not weekends when everybody feels relaxed and I don't know why tuesdays are lucky for me.

If I were a time of day, I’d be 5 am- awesome start of a super awesome day. 

If I were a season, I’d be summer, colorful and  cheerful

If I were a planet, I’d be earth - green and full of people :D

If I were a sea animal, I'd be a mermaid I guess and always want to be a human.

If I were a direction, I am always "right"

If I were a piece of furniture, I’d be a rocking chair -always in motion

If I were a liquid, I’d be orange juice- tangy in taste but kills the bacteria :D

If I were a tree, I’d be a daffodil - I am totally narcisist

If I were a tool, I’d be a knife, really handy and versatile :P 

If I were an element, I could never be just one element, i'm too complex :D.

If I were a gemstone, I’d be ruby- I love red

If I were a musical instrument, I’d be a flute - subtle but unique.

If I were a color, I’d be RED

If I were an emotion, I’d be ":P"

If I were a fruit, I’d be orange - with the shape of earth and color of sun.

If I were a sound, I’d be the sound of laughter.

If I were a car, I’d be the cheapest but useful one :D

If I were food, I’d be khichuri & omelet - easy to make and you can never have too much.

If I were a taste, I’d be a mixed taste of a various of spices- a little bit of chili, a tinge of cinnamon, some cardamoms, some lime juice may be and a handful of cilantro :D

If I were a scent, I’d be the smell of lemon - fresh!!

If I were a pair of shoes, I’d be flip-flop -  down to earth and unpretentious

And if I were a bird, I’d be a rooster - I have a voice and sometimes I scream relentlessly even if no one is there to listen.

And If I were to tag people, If i could tag ANYONE then I'd tag the dead ones - to know what they feel about their earthy life now.