Secure remote access setup for your desktop

If you're like me then you surely have more than 1 machine at home. I count 3 -- my sturdy old desktop, my netbook and my official laptop. I often feel the need to access my desktop from my other machines. It could be as simple as stopping some download on my desktop so that the internet works faster in my laptop or it could be to take a backup of the movie reviews that I write on my netbook. In either case, here is a simple guide to setting up remote and secure access to your desktop.

Things you'll need:

a) Teamviewer -- a freely downloadable software
b) Some time to configure the whole setup

Are you ready? Let's go....

Step1 -- Download and install team viewer

Easy enough. Go to www.teamviewer.com and download the latest version. I use version 5.0.8703, but ideally later versions should work fine. Install it on to your desktop. Once installed, run teamviewer and go to "Extras --> Options"

This leads you to the options screen where you need to setup a few different options.

Step 2 -- Setting up to accept incoming connections

i) General -- Start Teamviewer with Windows.

Enable this by clicking on the checkbox. This will ensure that every time your machine is on, teamviewer is automaticaly ready to accept incoming connections. See screenshot below with the relevant checkbox highlighted

ii) Turn on "Incoming Lan Connections" to "accept exclusively". This is a security feature to prevent your machine being from outside your network. In other words, it means that only people using your wireless connection can connect to this machine. I do hope your wireless is security enabled with a strong password. See below for the option you need to turn on:

iii) Next, let's add a password to this whole setup. After all how can anything be secure without a good password setup? Go to "Security" option on team viewer "Extras --> Options --> Security" and setup a password. Also, set "password strength" as "Disabled (no session password" as we're going to use our own defined password

iv) Almost done, but did I not promise you a really secure access? This step is optional, but adding it gives a extra layer of security to the whole setup. I like it and I recommend you do the same though you're good to go now

Install teamviewer on one of your clients (i.e. the laptop from which you want to access your desktop). Just install teamviewer. No need to change any options. After installing teamviewer, when you start it, you'll get an ID and password. This ID defines your laptop's unique ID. Note down this number. You'll need it in a second (Note that I've deliberately deleted password and part of ID from the screenshot for my safety :))

Use this id in the "whitelist" of your desktop. This will ensure only this particular ID can access your desktop remotely and that too whilst inside your LAN only! The option to configure this is under "Extras --> Options --> Security --> Configure"

Here, "whitelist" all your laptops/desktops through which you need to access your main desktop remotely. In other words, this means only these particular ids will be allowed through. Use the option "Deny access -- except for the following ids". Give the userid you noted down in the previous step. Follow the same for other laptops that you own as each one would be given a different ID by teamviewer. Note that in the screenshot below, I've deliberately removed a part of the userid

That's it, you should be good now to access this machine through wireless within your LAN

Step 3 -- accessing your machine

Fire up teamviewer in one of your laptops. Make sure your main desktop is on (off course!). Use the LAN id. In my case, it is 192.168.0.100 -- it could be different for yours. To check that, open your teamviewer in the desktop and look at the ID field. Use this ID and the password you specified and use it to access away your desktop to glory.

Let me know how it goes and if this tutorial needs any corrections!

Turntable.fm -- How it could change your online music experience (or not)

So when I heard about this new startup www.turntable.fm -- I was excited. The sites billed it as "Anti Pandora". For those of you who don't know, Pandora serves up music depending on your taste. Turntable takes it up a notch further by letting other people play music for you

The concept is very simple and I'm surprised that this has not been done before. A virtual DJ is just what the doctor ordered.

So, I was pleasantly surprised when I could try this out. But be warned, it's not yet open to public so don't fret if you don't have access to this site yet. Firstly to login you need to use your facebook account and one of your friends should be already on the site. In my case, somebody was on and I was through to the next level (Thank you whoever it was!)

Now, you're presented with a list of rooms and you can choose one to enter



The rooms are ordered in descending order by the number of people in the room. You can also search for a room. I searched for "Rock" and entered one of the rock rooms.



Here you see DJs playing and people listening. The avatars are silly, but passable since the site is still in beta. Here the real fun begins. If you like the song being played you can click on the "Awesome" button at the bottom or the "Lame" button if you don't like it. Enough lames will make the song skip. This is where Turntable cleverly adds a bit of social touch to it. The more people that like the song, the more the DJ's points go up. You can also become a fan so that you get notified if the DJ is playing anywhere

But what good is a DJing site if you cannot try it out yourselves? This is where the real fun and the problem lies in. Only the creator of the room can force DJs to leave. Otherwise you're stuck with the DJs. Yes you can "lame" their songs and make it skip, but then again the next DJ plays and so on in rotating order. So basically if there is a DJ in the Q who sucks he keeps getting another chance (which is good in a way). The only way you can DJ is if one of the DJs leave

So, I did a small time gig entering into one of the rooms which had only DJs (and maybe an audience or so) and this is where things got addictive. You keep adding songs onto your playlist and try to build a set based on what other DJs are playing. At this point though, bugs start to emerge. Some tracks don't have preview option so you don't know whether it really is the track you want or not, the search isn't very effective (though most of the tracks you search for are available) and at times the songs skip for no reason. The next screen shows me getting ready to play tracks and the # of points I've racked up



Boy, is the site addictive, Yes? I spent hours together doing this when I had other things on my plate (including watching Prison Break, Playing OpenTTD and taking care of my 1.5 month old baby!). Slowly and steadily I've built up 80 odd points and 3 followers. The inspiration for this article came last night.

I started in the evening in a room that had 5 DJs including me and 1 audience (Rock/Alt Rock was the theme of the room). After 3 grueling hours the room was starting to heat up with around 20 odd people in the room. By then I was tired and energy levels were dropping. And strangely, the room started emptying faster than cheese in a rat home.

Well, maybe the people had someplace real to go out and party rather than on the computer? This I feel may be the biggest downfall of this site. Folks who have things to do will probably be out partying hard rather than on this site


However all hope is not lost. The potential for this kind of site is tremendous. Imagine a virtual party with djs taking turn playing without a real turntable or stream djs from across locations partying virtually in different cities or countries. All in all turntable is here to stay

Update: I had stepped away from my machine and had a playlist on and was half expecting myself to be booted out of the room, but I was still around in the room when I came back. So if you have good tracks on your list, you probably don't need to be around too

Stalemating your opponent in time pressure (Chess)

The above game was something I played online a few weeks back. Nothing to be proud of but the theme is that I stalemated my opponent when I was in acute time trouble to escape a loss. Read on to see some commentary about the game

* I'm black and as early as move 8...c4 I made a mistake that lost me a pawn, but decided to complicate things as much as possible.

* My opponent should have continue 11.dxe6 instead of giving up his bishop for my kinght. The pawn on c4 is not going anywhere.
* 14. axb5 is an absolute blunder that led me right back into the game

* 19...Rxd5 was probably more accurate but I was scared about the advanced b-pawn. But plug this into a computer and the computer shows no fear of grabbing the d-pawn. Anyways, it's a moot point as I'm clearly winning here. But I think my idea too is clever forcing the exchange of a pair of rooks simplifying to a clearly won game

* 29...Nxa5 was more accurate and wins without any trouble. But the game continuation also is resignable for white. White at this time was still upset that he was losing a won position (as early as move 8) and understandably continued for some kind of blunder from me

* Fast forward to move 52 and you might be wondering what is white still playing on for? Well, time for one. I had about 3o0 seconds left on the clock (no increment)

* At Move 65, I had a mate in 3. 65...Qe7 66.Kg8 Qf8+ 67.Kh7 Ke7 68.Kg6 Qg8#/Qf7#. Try calculating this variation in your head and see how much time it takes. If you have 10 seconds on the clock, will you find this?

* Amazingly I was able to play 10 more moves in this time. By move 73, I had only 2 seconds on the clock. If my time runs out, I lose as white still has mating material on the board (pawns). A mate in 2 is still possible at this time (same pattern as the previous mate in 3), but off course If i could not see it with 10 seconds, how can I in 2?

* This was when I decided to stalemate my opponent and get 1/2 point instead of 0.

So, how many of you have stalemated your opponent to get away with a draw in time trouble when you were clearly winnin?

Aquaguard Infinity Filter Cleaning Process

Since I searched on the whole internet and the leaftlet that came with the Aquaguard Infinity cleaner and couldn't find a way to do this, I've decided to post my findings. I hope to achieve 2 things out of this:

a) Google will show this in searches of "Aquaguard Infinity Filter Cleaning" helping other people

b) I'll have a place where I can refer to when the next round of cleaning comes up

Here are the steps:

1) Make sure the machine is completely switched off

2) Switch on the main power switch (but make the sure the power button on the unit is off)

3) Press the "Custom Music" and "Free Flow" button together

4) After a few seconds, continue pressing the 2 buttons and press the power button on the unit once

5) Now, the power button should be in depressed mode (you should have just pressed it once) while the other 2 buttons should still be held depressed by you

6) After a few more seconds a couple of lights flash and water starts coming out. This means that the cleaning process has started

7) Wait for half a bucket to fill up before switching off the power button

8) Ideally this should be done once every 15 days. I recommend the mid of the month and start of the month for easy remembrance

Hope this helps.

Vasily Smyslov vs Lembit Oll

White to play and win
(Not my post, but taken from http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1127089&kpage=1)

Thanks to a quick trip in our time machine, we find ourselves in prehistoric Britain. Ugg is sitting on the floor of his semi-detached cave banging two rocks together.

Uggette, his thick browed wife, is smearing mammoth dung on her cheeks, dreaming of the day when someone will invent make-up. "Why don't you go out hunting sabre-tooth tigers like the other troglodytes?" she asks. "Or you could go stare at the shiny black obelisk again."

"Peace, peace, light of my life, sharer of my cave, mother of my children. I'm trying to invent fire."

She tuts scornfully. "You and your silly ideas. It'll never work. All you'll do is get bruised knuckles and the neighbours will complain about the noise."

Ugg keeps knocking the rocks together. "Yes, but, just think what we could do with fire! We could stay warm and snug in our cave. It would frighten away the wolves. Then we could move away from being hunter-gatherers and start farming. Oh, and that would give us time for civilization, an industrial revolution, the internet..."

Today's puzzle is about inspiration and perspiration. The inspiration is to spot that we need to kick the black king away from the white rook on e4. Then we can grab the black bishop on g5. So the move that we really want to make work is 29. g4+. If we can force the black king to retreat, our next move will be 30. fxg5.

Of course, the problem with 29. g4+ is that it leaves the Re4 en prise. But let's not abandon the idea just yet. Let's see if we can make it work.

The black king is now deep into our territory and we are close to weaving a mating net. We must stop black from running back to safety via d5 or having the time to grab g4 with either pawn or bishop so the next move has to be 30. Nf2+ and black's reply is forced: 30...Kxf4.

Now black's king is nearly stalemated, so that any check would produce mate. We just need to cover the g3 escape square. Our rook is no longer needed to guard the d file, so 31. Rg1 comes to mind. We are threatening Bd2# or if 31...e4 32. Nh3#

A spark flashes from the rocks in Ugg's hands. It lands in a pile of leaves and starts to smoulder. He quickly blows on it, and seconds later we have fire.

"See! I told you it would work," says Uggette. "Now hurry up and invent handbags, cappucino and Jimmy Choos."

Humanity is based on a little bit of "I wonder if..." and an awful lot of stubbornness as we try to make the initial idea work.

"Quality is first, everything else is next"

In the software industry this is especially so true. Why you may ask? You may also ask what about end user's dumbness? Patience, all will be explained

Usually a number of issues crop up while deploying and maintaining big software applications. Some of them can be as simple as the "User Error"

Well, what exactly is user error? In simple terms, user doesn't know how something works. For example, you may have been wondering how to use the fridge. Well, you didn't? Welcome to the world of software

One of the first things that is attributed to user error (i.e. user not knowing how to use the software) is mainly due to lack of documentation. Many conveniently ignore this or even worse, don't fix real issues and put them onto lack of documentation. I don't know which is the worse evil. But that's ok, because the world is anyways going to end in 2012.

Coming back to the question of documentation. Let's assume that the documentation is great, but the user didn't read it. I ask, so what? How often do you read your TV manual? Once if you're jobless like me. But I'm sure you pretty much know how to use the TV most of the times without having to call the help desk of your television set

The answer is obviously simple. The way something works is way too complicated. Dumb it down. Now, you should be ok if you know that this isn't obviously my own theory, but something I've read. However if you're not ok, then you've earned the right onto a little secret

Web 2.0 is amazingly good for their great user friendliness. I started writing this blog in less than 2 minutes after I got an inspiration to write. All I had to do was right click on my homepage. Addthis plugin (http://www.addthis.com) has the option "Blogger". This takes you straight to Google login, off course if you don't have a gmail account (through which you can also get Blogger) then you're seriously behind in the race for browsing the entire internet. Oh wait, that's not the goal you say?

I disagree, but don't want to argue. So, let's get back to the issue at hand. Sign into gmail and you quickly setup your blog by typing few stuff that I forgot. And then start typing whatever you feel like.

Once this is over, I'll straight away right click and send it off to twitter to all my friends who will think I have no clue what I'm doing in life. But that's really ok because you and me are in the same boat if you have the patience to read through all this!