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A recent vulnerability called 'Padding Oracle' has just been found for ASP.Net apps. Using this vulnerability an attacker can:
a. Download files within an ASP.NET Application like the web.config file (say goodbye to your connection strings).
b. Decrypt data sent to the client in an encrypted state, like ViewState data within a page (did you say you stored your credit card numbers in session? Oops!)

But fear not, there is a patch available. More details about the vulnerability and its patch at Scott Guthrie's blog.

Cheers!

Update (28-Sep-2010): Microsoft's official patch is now available for this. More details on Scott Guthrie's blog.

More Info:
http://www.troyhunt.com/2010/09/fear-uncertainty-and-and-padding-oracle.html
http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/new-crypto-attack-affects-millions-aspnet-apps-091310

All right folks, finally here's the FAQ I promised.

Q: What features will the first release of getMeta have?
A: As mentioned in my previous post, the initial version will have only the below features:
* Movie Search with metadata retrieval
* Posters and Backdrop retrieval
* Folder processing

Q: Will it be a final (production) release?
A: Yes but it will still be a BETA. I require the help and encouragement of the community in testing it and letting me know of any issues that they may find.

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I loved using MetaBrower, it was a great app and it still is. However, it's no longer free and that something which saddens me. Initially when it decided that it will be paid and a yearly "subscription fee" of $20 will be applicable, IMHO, I thought it was a little more (considering you end up paying this every year).

I am using an older version of MetaBrower and recently I found that it is fetching small images for backdrops and posters. As per those guys, this is happening due to the changes at themoviedb.org's end. Thus, I finally decided to go and buy the new version which I presume will not have this glitch. Surprise! The price has just gone to $30 (29.99 to be precise). Great! And this made me think, what if I buy this now and what if this goes to $40 or even $50 next year? I backed out.

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Tata Indicom broadband customers face one very irritating issue. Whenever they need to access the internet, they need to open a browser window, logon to the URL and keep the browser window open as long as they're accessing the internet.

Now, I myself am a TIBB customer and I find it very frustrating to keep the browser window open all the time. Not only does it occupy some of your system memory but some space on your system taskbar as well. Worse is when some other application is using your internet connection (for example a download manager) and you accidently close the browser window by force of habit (I often do that!). Poof! your connection gets terminated, your downloads halt. This gets even worse when you're downloading from a site which does not support download resuming like RapidShare.

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This is a bit old but good one. How sharp is your right brain? Here's a quick test to find out. Look at the below image and see if you can find the image of a man as fast as you can.

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I'm not a big fan of Youtube and generally avoid "cool video" suggestions from my friends. But, every once in a while I do come across some beautiful and creative videos, this is one happens to be one of them.

This video highlights the transition of visual effects right from early 1900s uptill now. It's a beautiful collage of clips selected from several films (mentioned after the end of the video). The best part of this, in my opinion, is the background music, which is a track called 'Rods and Cones' by the 'Blue Man Group'. Check it out:

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Houston, we have a problem!

And when it happens to us, some of us leave it, not giving it much thought, some of us make our best attempts to retrieve it. If we're successful, great, if not, we let go of it then. Though, what we do not realize is that in majority of the cases, the data can still be recovered, barring cases where the physical medium carrying the data is damaged, of course.

So here's my question, what if the data you thought was lost, isn't and can still be recovered? Worse, what if you've given up on it, but someone else has recovered it and has full access to it? Scary thought? Yes. Improbable? No, because this is exactly what I witnessed a couple of months ago.

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A current, single-sided, standard DVD can hold 4.7 GB of information. That's about the size of an average two-hour, standard-definition movie with a few extra features. But a high-definition movie, which has a much clearer image, takes up about five times more bandwidth and therefore requires a disc with about five times more storage. As TV sets and movie studios make the move to high definition, consumers are going to need playback systems with a lot more storage capacity.

Blu-ray is the next-generation digital video disc. It can record, store and play back high-definition video and digital audio, as well as computer data. The advantage to Blu-ray is the sheer amount of information it can hold:

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Need to decrypt encrypted files on Win XP? Just follow the below steps:

1. Login as Administrator
2. Go to Start/Run and type in cmd and click OK.
At the prompt type cipher /r:Eagent and press enter

This prompt will then display:
Please type in the password to protect your .PFX file:

Type in your Administrator password
Re-confirm your Administrator password

The prompt will then display

Your .CER file was created successfully.
Your .PFX file was created successfully.

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