10 games every Android user must download

Here are ten games that every Android user must download on their tablet or phone of choice.

Even if you've been using an Android device for a while, there's a good chance that you haven't had the time to check out every app or game worth checking out. After all, the Google Play Store has hundreds of thousands of apps floating around and who's to say which one of them is actually worth downloading.

 

Well, here are ten games (both paid and free) that every Android user must have on their phone/tablet. So, sit back, relax and queue all of these for download from the Play Store.

The Simpsons: Tapped Out

Price: Free

Size: 32MB

 

Whether you're a fan of The Simpsons or not, Tapped Out is a game that you should play. It's kind of difficult to put this game in a pre-existing genre but suffice to say it could only exist on a touchscreen device. The goal of the game is to unlock tasks, characters, areas etc. by taking on objectives that you can complete simply by tapping on the screen. Now, that may sound a little too simplistic but give the game a try for about half an hour and you'll see how addictive it is.

 

 

Into the Dead

Price: Free

Size: 30MB

 

There is a glut of zombie games on the Play Store and we won't blame you if you're just sick and tired of it all. However in the midst of all the average zombie games out there, Into the Dead stands tall as a stylish and unique amalgamation of the zombie and endless running genres. The game looks really good and is quite simple to play, requiring you to merely swipe to avoid zombies. However, replayability and light strategy is also thrown into the mix with the introduction of challenges and weapons that can be unlocked.

 

 

Plants vs. Zombies 2

Price: Free

Size: 214MB

 

The sequel to one of the most popular games of all time, Plants vs. Zombies 2 takes all that was addictive about its predecessor and takes it up a notch. With plenty of new stages, new zombies and new plants to obliterate them, PvZ 2 will definitely take up a lot of your time. 

 

 

Angry Birds Star Wars II

Price: Free

Size: 47MB

 

When news of the first Angry Birds Star Wars game hit the Internet, many were intrigued but many also scoffed at it calling it an obvious marketing gimmick. However, the game turned out to be well made with plenty of unique gameplay elements. Now that the sequel is racing up the charts on the Play Store, it has certainly floored many with the combination of charm and challenging gameplay. For the first time you can also play as the Evil Pigs (represented as the Dark Side) and use gravity, the Force, Lightsabers and physics to bring down your foes.

 

 

Real Racing 3

Price: Free

Size: 12MB (another 1.2GB after initial download)

 

Real Racing 3 got plenty of hate when it first launched on account of its dependence on a huge quantity of in-app purchases and downloadable content. However, most of that vitriol has died down now that it's clear that even if you don't want to spend a Rupee, the game will still give you a lot of gameplay. The game also looks amazing and is surely one of the best looking and most refined gaming experiences on a mobile device. The game also offers a huge variety of tracks and cars that you can unlock or purchase outright.

 

 

Riptide GP2

Price: Rs. 199

Size: 47MB

 

Riptide GP2 is one of the best looking games that you can play on your Android device. It is also highly addictive and includes a vast array of gameplay modes (both online and offline). Apart from mere hydro-jet races, you can also perform stunts and earn points based on them. Since the game is very graphics intensive, be wary if you own an older Android device or one with less powerful hardware.

 

 

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Price: Rs. 270

Size: 1.4GB

 

Do I really need to tell you why you should download Vice City? Yes? Okay then. Vice City is only one of the best games ever released for the PC and consoles and even though its graphics may look outdated on monitors and TVs, it perfectly suits mobile and tablet screens. Even though its successor, GTA San Andreas is also on mobiles now, I will always have a soft corner for Vice City mainly because of its kick-ass 80's soundtrack.

 

 

Subway Surfers

Price: Free

Size: 29MB

 

Subway Surfers is, you could say, a 'spiritual successor' to Temple Run and although we prefer the latter (and its sequel), the former's amazing popularity means that it is something you should have on your phone even if it's only meant for your daughter or nephew or younger sibling. Subway Surfers is much easier than Temple Run and is also more hectic on account of the power-ups that you can collect and use while running. The game is also very liberal with its use of colours and will be enjoyed by the young 'uns.

 

 

Temple Run 2

Price: Free

Size: 41MB

 

The progenitor of all endless running games gets even better through its sequel. Temple Run 2 is better looking, has stages with more variety, multiple playable characters and more number of obstacles and ways to get around, under and over them. If you're exhausted by the number of endless running games on the Play Store, delete all of them and just keep this one around. After all, it is the best of the lot.

 

 

Dead Trigger 2

Price: Free

Size: Varies according to device

 

Dead Trigger 2 has become the Crysis of mobile games. It's the best game to show off the power of your new Android mobile/tablet and has gameplay that can immediately be recognized even by someone who has never played a mobile game. For the uninitiated, Dead Trigger 2 is a first-person shooter in which you play a survivor of a zombie apocalypse. You have to undertake missions to help out your fellow survivors and also to earn cash to upgrade your weapons and buy new ones. Since the game is so graphically intensive, you may not see the best performance if your Android device is old or underpowered. 

 

 

Have I missed out on your favourite game? Let me know in the comments section below or on Twitter @code_kill.

Microsoft Tweets Xbox News From Android Device!

Microsoft has had an ‘oops’ moment with their recent tweet about the Xbox gaming events. The company’s Xbox team tweeted some information about the Xbox gaming events recently. Interestingly, the team did so from an Android-powered device and though the official Twitter app for Android. 
Tweeting from Android devices isn’t unheard of for companies, but Microsoft would be the last company that you would expect to do so. The company has been hard at promoting its Windows Phone 8.1 platform, reportedly even offering OEMs free subscriptions for the OS. The aim was to have more OEMs to build devices based on the Windows Phone OS.



This is not the first time Microsoft has done something like this though. The company had earlier announced its Bing rewards for the iOS and Android before its own Windows Phone operating system. It seems that the company itself is realising the Windows ecosystem is not quite the place for advertisement right now, given the low number of users.

11 Free Ebooks On Computer Graphics And GUI Programming

Computer Graphics programming covers a variety of languages, including C++, Python etc. It is a much sought after field for programmers.

Wanted to learn computer graphics and GUI programming? Graphical user interfaces have often been the defining factors between successful and unsuccessful software, games etc. Here are 11 free ebooks that will make you that much closer to becoming a pro at this! 1. Computer Graphics (Nobuhiko Mukai) 2. Programming Vertex, Geometry, and Pixel Shaders (Wolfgang Engel) 3. Learning Modern 3D Graphics Programming (Jason L. McKesson) 4. O'Reilly® Programming 3D Applications with HTML5 and WebGL 5. 3D Rendering: An Introduction (Wikibooks) 6. Blender 3D: Noob to Pro (Wikibooks) 7. Blender Basics: A Classroom Tutorial Book, 4th Ed (J. Chronister) 8. HTML5 Canvas: Native Interactivity and Animation for the Web 9. O'Reilly® iPhone 3D Programming: with OpenGL ES (Philip Rideout) 10. 3D Math Primer for Graphics and Game Development (Fletcher Dunn) 11. Vector Math for 3D Computer Graphics, 4th Revision (Bradley Kjell)

6 Best Books That Every Budding Hacker Must Read!

Just like any genius, this doesn't come easy. There's a lot of practice involved and a lot of things to know. Hence, reading is a must for every hacker. Here are the best books! 

Everyone knows that a hacker by extension is always a programmer. What many don't know though is that there is a lot more to it. It's not just about knowing the language. A hacker is mainly defined by his curiosity to know what is otherwise not to be known.

While these books that follow are on hacking, they have a lot of golden knowledge on the subject. As a hacker, it's something you can never pass up on.


1. Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition

Hacking is the art of creative problem solving, whether that means finding an unconventional solution to a difficult problem or exploiting holes in sloppy programming. Many people call themselves hackers, but few have the strong technical foundation needed to really push the envelope.

Rather than merely showing how to run existing exploits, author Jon Erickson explains how arcane hacking techniques actually work. To share the art and science of hacking in a way that is accessible to everyone, Hacking: The Art of Exploitation, 2nd Edition introduces the fundamentals of C programming from a hacker's perspective.

The included LiveCD provides a complete Linux programming and debugging environment-all without modifying your current operating system. Use it to follow along with the book's examples as you fill gaps in your knowledge and explore hacking techniques on your own. Get your hands dirty debugging code, overflowing buffers, hijacking network communications, bypassing protections, exploiting cryptographic weaknesses, and perhaps even inventing new exploits.

2. The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing: Ethical Hacking and Penetration Testing Made Easy (Syngress Basics Series)

The Basics of Hacking and Penetration Testing serves as an introduction to the steps required to complete a penetration test or perform an ethical hack. You learn how to properly utilize and interpret the results of modern day hacking tools; which are required to complete a penetration test. Tool coverage will include, Backtrack Linux, Google, Whois, Nmap, Nessus, Metasploit, Netcat, Netbus, and more. A simple and clean explanation of how to utilize these tools will allow you to gain a solid understanding of each of the four phases and prepare them to take on more in-depth texts and topics. This book includes the use of a single example (pen test target) all the way through the book which allows you to clearly see how the tools and phases relate.

3. Metasploit: The Penetration Tester's Guide

The author of this book David Kennedy is Chief Information Security Officer at Diebold Incorporated and creator of the Social-Engineer Toolkit (SET), Fast-Track, and other open source tools. Some see this book as a right of passage for anyone to be a hacker.

4. BackTrack 5 Wireless Penetration Testing Beginner's Guide

Written in Packt's Beginner's Guide format, you can easily grasp the concepts and understand the techniques to perform wireless attacks in your lab. Every new attack is described in the form of a lab exercise with rich illustrations of all the steps associated. You will practically implement various attacks as you go along. If you are an IT security professional or a security consultant who wants to get started with wireless testing with Backtrack, or just plain inquisitive about wireless security and hacking, then this book is for you. The book assumes that you have familiarity with Backtrack and basic wireless concepts.

5. CEH Certified Ethical Hacker All-in-One Exam Guide

Get complete coverage of all the objectives included on the EC-Council's Certified Ethical Hacker exam inside this comprehensive resource. Written by an IT security expert, this authoritative guide covers the vendor-neutral CEH exam in full detail. You'll find learning objectives at the beginning of each chapter, exam tips, practice exam questions, and in-depth explanations. Designed to help you pass the exam with ease, this definitive volume also serves as an essential on-the-job reference.

6. CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide

CompTIA Security+: Get Certified Get Ahead: SY0-301 Study Guide is an update to the top-selling SY0-201 guide, which helped thousands of readers pass the exam the first time they took it. The SY0-301 version covers every aspect of the SY0-301 exam, and includes the same elements readers raved about in the previous version.

Each of the eleven chapters presents topics in an easy to understand manner and includes real-world examples of security principles in action. The author uses many of the same analogies and explanations he's honed in the classroom that have helped hundreds of students master the Security+ content. You'll understand the important and relevant security topics for the Security+ exam, without being overloaded with unnecessary details. Additionally, each chapter includes a comprehensive review section to help you focus on what's important.

Over 450 realistic practice test questions with in-depth explanations will help you test your comprehension and readiness for the exam. The book includes a 100 question pre-test, a 100 question post-test, and practice test questions at the end of every chapter. Each practice test question includes a detailed explanation to help you understand the content and the reasoning behind the question. You'll be ready to take and pass the exam the first time you take it. 

Here Are Google's 10 Most Interesting Works In Progress!

Even if some of these technologies eventually make their way to the market, the world will be an entirely different one!

Global search giant, Google has been silently working on becoming far more than just a search and advertising company. So much so that in the coming years Google might be known for projects that normally don't go with its portfolio. These projects could well in time change substantially our lives and our mindsets towards it. Here are 10 of the most awe inspiring projects the company has up its sleeves:

1. Google Invests Heavily in Robots

-In just the past year, Google has made nearly 10 robotics-related acquisitions (including DeepMind) and has invested heavily in places like Japan known for rapidly growing robotics.

2. Google Experimenting With Taxi Services

-Google recently acquired a patent on a technology that would allow consumers to get free taxi rides. Through the same, Google might bring its digital-advertising strategy to the real world!

3. Google Joins Automakers in Developing Driverless Cars

-Google's interest in developing a 'driverless' car is not new. However, it's still years from actually getting on the road in large numbers and gaining regulatory approval.

4. Google Aims for the Moon

-Google's Lunar X Prize rewards companies, organisations, groups, institutions and others interested in going to the moon for the progress they make toward getting there. Up for grabs is $40 million in prizes.

5. Google Fiber Growing Slowly

-Google Fiber is expanding each day (offering extremely fast Internet speeds). It's up and running in Kansas City.

6. Project Loon Floats Trial Balloons

-Google will float balloons over designated areas (preferably areas where Internet is not avaialble) and provide an Internet signal to those living there.

7. Smart Contact Lens Do More Than Sharpen Vision

-The contact lens will be worn on a person's eye and will measure glucose levels every second: particularly helpful in case of diabetes.

8. Calico Tackling Health, Wellness Issues

-Google has formed a subsidiary, known as Calico, that will tackle health and well-being.

9. Google Expands Renewable Wind Energy Resources

-Google relies heavily on wind farms to power its data centers.

10. Google X Envisions Space Elevators

-Last year, Google X announced that it was looking into developing a space elevator to lift people and payloads into orbit.

This Year's Top 5 Linux Distros For Beginners

Linux will reach places in the year 2014. So, if you don't wish to miss the opportunity, get started today with any of these top five Linux distros for beginners. 

Amongst the hundreds of Linux distros available in the market, there are just a few that cater to beginners. The factors that have been kept in mind while selecting the distros are out-of-the-box support, user friendly UI, easy installation and great online support.

Let’s take a look at the five best distros for beginners below -

1. Ubuntu 13.10 – This is the most popular one having a rigorous release cycle with more bleeding edge features implemented in each release. As Ubuntu is not equipped with a load of software and codecs pre installed like Linux Mint, users might face trouble playing certain media formats and require a few command line installations. Ubuntu comes equipped with its own user interface known as "unity".

2. Linux Mint 16- This is the second most popular Linux distribution as its user friendly. It comes equipped with tons of software. The distro functions quite well out of the box with no time trouble wasted in troubleshooting. Mint stresses on what is best for its users and offers what the mainstream linux users demand.

3. Zorin OS – This has been optimized for users who are switching from windows. It is very similar to Windows 7 and has "zorin look changer" which can make your desktop appear similar to older Windows versions and Mac OS X. Zorin OS also has four premium versions (Ultimate, Business, Multimedia, Gaming).

4. Peppermint OS 4 – This is a very light distro equipped with LXDE desktop envioronment. LXDE is quite simple to use and most people will find it to be a straightforward DE. The OS gets booted quite quickly making it ideal for older computers or netbooks.

5. Pinguy OS 12.04 LTS – This is an Ubuntu based distribution coming with a lot of preinstalled software. It is good for users who wish to find out more about the extensive software which Linux offers. It is quite convenient as it has almost all the software that a user might require.

10 Operators In Linux To Learn And Remember

There are often times when you need to execute or not execute multiple commands on the command line. Alternatively, you may want to place conditions on the execution of commands. That is when operators come in handy

Chaining operators in Linux allow the user to automate processes and streamline the working of a system when it is left unattended. Operators help in placing conditions and combining various commands together. Knowing the operators and using them at the right time can reduce your work by a lot.

1. Ampersand (&): This command is used in order to make a command run in the background. All you need to do is type in your command followed by a white space and then the operator. This leaves the command to operate in the background. You can also use this to run multiple commands in the background.

For one command,

xyz@localhost:~$ ping ­c5 www.xyz.com &

Two commands,

root@localhost:/home/xyz# apt-get update & apt-get upgrade &

2. semi-colon (;): This command is used in order to run several commands in one go. The commands are executed sequentially.

root@localhost:/home/xyz# apt-get update ; apt-get upgrade ; mkdir test

This command will start with the update part, then execute the upgrade command and then the mkdir command.

3. AND (&&): This is the logical and operator. This executes the second command if and only if the first command has been executed. It is often used to check the exit status of the last command.

root@localhost:/home/xyz# ping -c3 www.xyz.com && links www.xyz.com

In this case you are trying to visit xyz.com if using the links command. But you want to check if the host is available first.

4. OR (||): The logical OR operator executes the second command if the execution of the first command has failed.

xyz@localhost:~$ apt-get update || links xyz.com

In this, the ‘links xyz.com’ command will be executed since the user is not allowed to update the system.

5. NOT (!): This is the logical NOT operator that executes all statements except the one exception that you have provided.

6. AND – OR (&& – ||): This operator acts like an if-else statement. So, if you want to ping xyz.com and echo ‘Success’ if successful and ‘Fail’ otherwise.

abc@localhost:~/abc$ ping -c3 www.xyz.com && echo "Success" || echo "Fail"

7. PIPE (|): This operator is used when the output of the first command is to be the input for the second command.

xyz@localhost:~$ ls -l | less

We are pipelining the output of the ls-l command to less.

8. Command Combination {}: When you want to put in a combination of multiple commands.

Combine two or more commands, the second command depends upon the execution of the first command.

For example, check if a file ‘xyz.txt‘ and ‘xyz1.txt‘ is available under my Downloads directory or not, and output corresponding output.

xyz@localhost:~$ [ -f /home/xyz/Downloads/abc.txt ] || echo “The file not available”

xyz@localhost:~$ [ -f /home/xyz/Downloads/abc1.txt ] || echo “The file not available”

Here you are checking if the files abc and abc1 are available in the Downloads directory.

9. Precedence (): As the name suggests, use this if you want to execute a command in the order of precedence.

(comm_x1 &&comm_x2) || (comm_x3 && comm_x4)

In this the second part in parantheses will be executed if the first one fails.

10. Concatenation (\): This operator is used to concatenate large commands over a number of lines in the shell.

xyz@localhost:~/Downloads$ nano test\(1\).txt

10 Free And Handy UNIX Shell Books

There are many online resources on Unix, but it's hard to get a hold of the best ones. To make that easier for you, here are the greatest of the lot..                                                                                                    

Online resources are great as they are available for all to see and benefit from as per convenience. Here are ten UNIX Shell books that are free and handy - 


1.The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction (W. E. Shotts, Jr.) - This book teaches you from your very first terminal keystrokes to compiling full programs in Bash, the very popular Linux shell. For further information you can visit - The Linux Command Line: A Complete Introduction (W. E. Shotts, Jr.)

2.UNIX / Linux Korn Shell Quick Reference Guide – This is a concise guide to Korn Shell. You don’t require to go through huge volumes for quick reference lookups. This has many examples for saving time. For further information you can visit - UNIX / Linux Korn Shell Quick Reference Guide

3.Learn Vimscript the Hard Way (Steve Losh) - This book introduces you to Vimscript, the main programming language for customizing Vim. For further information you can visit - Learn Vimscript the Hard Way (Steve Losh)

4.Gawk: Effective AWK Programming (Arnold D. Robbins) - This book gives an introduction to the awk programming language and goes into detail to explain the several features of the language and its syntax, and detailing the various GNU extensions. For further information you can visit -Gawk: Effective AWK Programming (Arnold D. Robbins)

5.GNU Bash Reference Manual (Chet Ramey and Brian Fox) - This book is a reference for GNU Bash, the standard GNU command-line interpreter. For further information you can visit –
GNU Bash Reference Manual (Chet Ramey and Brian Fox)

6.Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours (Veeraraghavan) - This book is aimed at assisting Unix and Linux users to get optimal performance out of their systems. It shows them how to take control of their systems and work efficiently by harnessing the power of the shell to solve common problems. Teach Yourself Shell Programming in 24 Hours (Veeraraghavan)

7.O'Reilly® Learning the Korn Shell, 2nd Edition (Arnold Robbins) - This book demonstrates how to use the Korn shell as a user interface and as a programming environment. For further information you can visit –
O'Reilly® Learning the Korn Shell, 2nd Edition (Arnold Robbins)

8.O'Reilly® sed & awk, 2nd Edition (Dale Dougherty, Arnold Robbins) - Sed & Awk give a description of the two text processing programs that are mainstays of the UNIX programmer's toolbox. For further information you can visit - O'Reilly® sed & awk, 2nd Edition (Dale Dougherty, Arnold Robbins)

9. Learn Regex The Hard Way (Zed A. Shaw) - When you're done with this book you will be able to read regex strings, understand what's going on with regex, learn when to use them, learn to write them, and learn how to write simple parsers to avoid abusing regex to process your strings. For further information you can visit - Learn Regex The Hard Way (Zed A. Shaw)

10. Unix/Linux Shell Scripting - This is the previous page of Unix/Linux Shell Scripting and it will soon be converted into a book. For further information you can visit - Unix/Linux Shell Scripting

29 Resources To Learn Growth Hacking

Growth hacking has become so popular that even the biggest tech companies are hiring growth hackers. 

 Growth hacking is in a way the evolution of traditional marketing jobs. Growth hackers have one aim, that is to grow a company. It works too! Don't believe us? Just ask Facebook, Twitter and thousands of other companies that have seen success through this. So, if you want to encash on the growing trend of being a growth hacker, here are 29 reference resources for you. 

1. What is a Growth Hacker? – The term growth hacker was coined by a man named Sean Ellis. In this link, he defined what it means.

2. What is Growth Hacking? – This is a thread from Quora, where people have given various descriptions of growth hacking and what it is.

3. What is “Growth Hacking” Really? – This is more of a professional approach towards what growth hacking actually is.

4. Growth Hacker is the New VP of Marketing – Growth hackers are somewhat different from the marketing teams, even though they both have the same goals.

5. Defining a Growth Hacker: Three Common Characteristics – Data, curiosity and creativity are the three main characteristics of a growth hacker.

6. The Definitive Guide to Growth Hacking – This is a ten chapter guide that covers all the aspects of growth hacking.

7. An Introduction to Growth Hacking - 3 Quotes to Explain the Future of Marketing – These three quotes describe the basis of growth hacking. Anyone interested in the segment must read them.

8. Debunking the 6 Most Common Myths about Growth Hacking – Just like the term hacking, growth hacking is also easily mistaken.

9. Building Growth into Your Team – This article tells you how to build a growth oriented team.

10. How to Hire a Growth Hacker – If you’re looking to hire growth hackers then this is what you should ask them in the interview.

11. Good Questions to Ask When Interviewing a Growth Hacker – If you want to make your candidates take a test, then these are good questions to put on it.

12. Is It Better to Recruit a Growth Hacker or Hire a Growth Hacking Company? – This common question is answered by Andy Johns, who is a growth hacker himself.

13. What are the Top 10 Consumer Internet Growth Hacks? – These are well known growth hacks that were successful.

14. 13 Critically Important Lessons From Over 50 Growth Hackers – An experienced interviewer provides 13 tips for growth hackers.

15. The 7 Ways Dropbox Hacked Growth to Become a $4 Billion Company – These are 7 ways in which growth hacking was behind making Dropbox the $4 billion company that it is now.

16. 21 Actionable Growth Hacking Tactics – These are 21 growth hacks that have been tried already.

17. What are Some Decisions Made by the Facebook Growth Team to Help Facebook Grow? – Facebook’s original growth team spread the concept and website over to more than 500 million users.

18. Growth Hacking Referly: New User Onboarding Workflow – This is how a product can be spread during new user onboarding.

19. Six Steps to Growth: What I Learned As 500 Startups’ Growth Hacker in Residence – This is a six step project for growth hacking.

20. How We Put Facebook on the Path to 1 Billion Users – See what Chamath Palihapitiya, former VP of User Growth at Facebook, has to say about growth hacking.

21. Who Are The Best Growth Hackers? – Members from the Quora community talk about the best growth hackers and their characteristics.

22. Stacking the Odds for Authentic Growth – It is important to develop your growth hacks over around ‘must have experiences’ that will be given to the customers.

23. Growth Hacking Your Way to Viral Lift – This is a short background on the topic that also explains the difference between marketing and growth hacking.

24. What 300 Years of Growth Hacking Can Teach Us – These are some of the older marketing technique, which have been tried and tested.

25. 19 Growth Hacker Quotes – Want many views on growth hacking? Here are 19 of them.

26. The 5 Phases of Growth Hacking – These are the five different phases of growth hacking.

27. Meet the Growth Hacking behind Facebook, Twitter, and Quora’s Astonishing Success – This is Andy Johns, the growth hacking expert behind the above mentioned websites.

28. How Tempo Growth Hacked Their Mobile App Before It Even Launched – This is the pre launch testing done by mobile app Tempo before they became live on the App store.

29. Growth Hacking 101: Read This to Become a Magician – This is how you should approach growth hacking.

10 Top Open Source Projects That Emerged Last Year!

Open source technology reached newer heights in 2013. CodeKill Group brings ten greatest open source projects that made news in the year gone by. 

The sixth annual Black Duck Open Source Rookies of the Year awards have shortlisted the ten leading open source projects which commenced in 2013. This year's contenders range from cloud computing, software virtualization, privacy, social media, and the Internet of things. The selection has been done based on the statistics from Black Duck’s Ohloh site, which is the leading open source software directory.

1.Appium – This is an open source test automation framework that can be used with native as well as hybrid mobile apps. It runs iOS and Android apps through the WebDriver JSON wire protocol. With mobile apps becoming core to our operating infrastructure, agile development methodologies need automated testing for delivery. Appium had initially begun as a tool for SauceLabs to assist customers in building a scalable, automated test environment and now has taken on a life of its own with a rapidly expanding, diverse developer community.

2.Docker – This has created the kind of excitement which is rare for a rookie open source project. Its aim is to enable the easy creation of lightweight, portable, self-sufficient containers via any application. Docker was begun by a small, commercial firm called dotCloud, but the project has grown roots and turned the heads of the big names, which include Red Hat and Google.

3.Exercism – This is a collaborative educational tool for people learning programming languages. It was initiated by Katrina Owen, an instructor who works at a small technical school in Colorado. It was started as an effort to assist students learn more collaboratively.

4.Ghost – This is solely for publishing content on the Web. It's completely customizable and completely open source. It permits you to write and post your own blog, offering the tools that make it easy and fun to do.

5.InfluxDB – This is a time-series, events, and metrics database which is written in Go without external dependencies. It is created for distribution and scale horizontally, but it can be handy even if you're running it on a single box. It also comes with a SQL-like query language created to be used with time series and analytics.

6.OpenDaylight – Its aim is to offer a fully functional SDN platform which can be used directly without the need for other components. It's aimed at making an open, standards-based SDN controller platform which is ideal for deployment in a range of production network environments.
7.OpenIoT – This started as a research project which is partly funded by the European Commission with the aim of enabling a new range of open, large-scale, intelligent Internet of things applications with the use of a cloud computing delivery model.

8.Serverspec – This offers a simple approach to testing your server configurations without any configuration management tools. By using this, you can write RSpec tests for checking your servers' configuration.

9.Tox – This project is a secure instant messaging and video chat application aimed at replacing AIM, Skype, etc. It is aimed to be a user-friendly, all-in-one communication platform for text, audio, and video chatting, and is committed to complete privacy backed by "leading class" encryption.

10.XPrivacy – This is created for preventing applications from leaking sensitive data. It can limit the categories of data that an application can make use of by feeding an app fake data or no data at all. Many data categories can be restricted, which include contacts and locations.  

9 Linux Terminal Emulators That You Can Use

A terminal emulator is one that emulates a video terminal within a separate display architecture.

Default terminals aren't always up to the mark. You can dislike anything from the features to the look and feel of a terminal. Many users often want to add a little more zing to the terminal that they are working on. For this purpose, terminal emulators come in handy. Here are nine such emulators that add a lot more to the command line.

1. Guake: This emulator is based on the Yakuake Terminal emulator from the KDE desktop environment. Interestingly, this terminal’s design is inspired by first person shooter computer games like Quake. Fedora, Debian, ArchLinux and Ubuntu have this as part of their default repositories.

2. Terminator: This is a cross platform terminal emulator, which has some very useful features. It is also available in the default repositories of well known Linux distributions like Ubuntu and others. It was released under GPL.

3. Yakuake: As mentioned before, this terminal emulator is what inspired the Guake emulator. It is based on the KDE Konsole technology and comes as an app for the KDE environment. It does face some conflicts with a GNOME desktop, but runs perfectly smoothly on KDE.

4. ROXTerm: This terminal provides a wide range of features for Linux power users. Interestingly, it wasn’t originally meant to be so. Rather, it was created to be a lightweight alternative for the GNOME terminal.

5. Eterm: This is a colour terminal emulator, which is perhaps the lightest one available. It is meant to be a replacement for the xterm emulator and is quite fast.

6. Rxvt: This is another replacement terminal for xterm. While it is not as light as Eterm, it still doesn’t take up much of the system’s resources.

7. Aterm: This Linux terminal emulator is based on the rxvt emulator. This terminal comes with attractive visual effects an has perform the basic functionalities that we see in terminals.

8. Wterm: This terminal emulator is also based on the Rxvt emulator. It has added features like background images, transparency and reverse transparency. It can be customised to a large extent.

9. TermKit: This is a graphic oriented terminal emulator, which has been created using WebKit.

19 Free Resources That Will Make You A Pro Git User!

Source code management and version control are important activities for any programmer. Git is the king of these activities. 

When it comes to working on a code as a team, Git is the pick of the lot. This version control and source code management tool is used by almost any programmer worth his salt. Learning about Git is almost considered to be an imperative for a programmer. So, here are a few ebooks and cheatsheets that will help you do it like a pro.

Free Ebooks

1. Pro Git

2. Pro Git Reedited

3. Git Immersion

4. Git internals

5. Git Magic

6. Git Pocket Guide

7. Git Reference

8. Version Control by Example (Mercurial, Subversion, Verasity)

9. Git Succinctly, Syncfusion

10. Git Workflows

11. Think Like (a) Git: A Guide for the Perplexed

12. Git In The Trenches

13. Conversational Git

14. Git From The Bottom Up

Cheatsheets

1. GIT Cheatsheet

2. Tower

3. Git Reference

4. Atllasian

5. Git cheatsheet from SalesForce 

Nine Greatest Hackers Of 2013

Code Kill Group takes a look at 2013’s hacking hall of shame members which include Anonymous and the Blackhole cybercrime gang apart from state-sponsored groups. 

Last year saw a series of hacks that were committed across the countries. These were carried out by groups who are well known for other hacking events As cited on informationweek.com, let’s take a look at nine hallmark hacking events of 2013 below- 1.Anonymous hacking collective - The group commenced the year with a legal bang by backing a White House "We the People" petition which argued that DDoS a/tt//acks must be protected as a form of free speech, for using it to protest injustice. Then the group’s Operation Last Resort meant hacking the US Sentencing Commission website establishing sentencing policies and practices for the federal courts in order to include a game of Asteroids for protesting federal prosecutors having threatened Reddit co-founder Aaron Swartz with a 35-year prison sentence for downloading millions of documents from the JSTOR archive, which drove Swartz to commit suicide. Anonymous earned great praise in October for its Operation Maryville that highlighted the case of two Missouri girls, ages 13 and 14, who were both allegedly raped last year with the prosecutors dropping charges against one of the girl's alleged attackers. 2.Stratfor hacker Jeremy Hammond - Jeremy Hammond hacked into the private intelligence contractor Strategic Forecasting in the latter part of 2011 and posted the stolen files to a server which now appears to have belonged to the FBI. The stolen information was distributed by him to WikiLeaks, that published it as part of its Global Intelligence Files program. Hammond was indicted in 2012 and in May 2013, he pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to engage in computer hacking. Once Hammond had pleaded guilty and Judge Loretta Preska sentenced him in November, his supporters launched a letter-writing campaign in pursuit of leniency, arguing in part that Hammond had been entrapped by the former LulzSec leader Sabu, who'd become an FBI informant six months before Hammond hacked Stratfor, and who was being monitored around the clock by handlers at the bureau. 3.Ex-LulzSec leader Sabu - Sabu whose real name is Hector Xavier Monsegur, the former Anonymous participant and ex-leader of LulzSec, was quietly arrested by the FBI on June 7, 2011. Monsegur who instantly turned into an informant has been assisting the bureau ever since. The assistance included collecting evidence and in certain cases entrapping members of Anonymous and LulzSec, and also assisting the FBI in identifying system vulnerabilities and exploits. Hammond stated that "What the United States could not accomplish legally, it used Sabu, and by extension, me and my co-defendants, to accomplish illegally." 4.Chinese APT1 attack crew - The alert was sounded in February when the security firm Mandiant published a report into a group operating from China known as APT1 which it stated had used spear phishing attacks to compromise 141 businesses in 20 different industries. Instead of being contract or state-sponsored hackers, Mandiant stated, APT1 was actually part of the People's Liberation Army Unit 61398, which it characterized as an elite military hacking unit. 5.Syrian Electronic Army - The Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) is another band of state-affiliated attackers. This is allied with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It serves as an online propaganda wing for Assad, it has hacked many sites in 2013 which range from National Public Radio and Reuters to the BBC and the Onion for protesting perceived reporting accuracies or slights against Assad. 6.Blackhole founder Paunch - The case of 27-year-old Paunch known as Dmitry Fedotov in news reports was arrested by police in the Russian city of Togliatti in October, along with 12 of his alleged cohorts. They are charged with building and operating -- and in Paunch's case, masterminding -- the well-known Blackhole crimeware toolkit that first came in the summer of 2010. 7.US bank DDoS attackers - The series of DDoS attacks against US financial institutions was started in September 2012 by a group known as Cyber Fighters of Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. The attacks have gone on with the group announcing the fourth wave of attacks in July 2013. Ending 2013, the attacks against Wall Street websites are continuing, which has earned the hacking group an accolade of sorts. 8.Federal Bureau of Investigation - The FBI's cracking of the Tor onion-routing system this summer, as a portion of a year-long investigation into a child pornography distribution ring. The Tor network is beloved by privacy aficionados and activists as it can be utilized for hiding not only data flowing over the Internet, but also who's communicating with whom. Also, Tor's hidden services marked by a dot-onion (.onion) domain name can make a website reachable only via the Tor network. 9.National Security Agency –As per documents leaked by Snowden, the agency's Tailored Access Operations division utilized malware for hacking into 50,000 PCs for surveillance purposes by 2012. As per the documents, the agency's Special Source Operations division has been hacking into Internet backbones as part of the digital dragnet. The surveillance operation was built for recording huge quantities of information flowing across the Internet.

5 Things About Upcoming Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella

Microsoft is waiting for its next CEO to come on board. If rumours hold any truth, Satya Nadella is the man, who will take the reins of the Redmond giant after Steve Ballmer  

Online reports claim that Satya Nadella will soon become the CEO of Microsoft. Nadella, who has invested over 20 years in Microsoft, has been a quiet figure in tech circles. He could go from setting up Microsoft’s cloud computing infrastructure to CEO before too long. We are sure that you are curious to know about the next CEO of Microsoft. Look no further. Here are five things about the man you must know.

1.The India connection – He was born in 1967 in Hyderabad. He holds a Bachelor's degree in Engineering in Electronics and Communication from the Manipal University in India. He, then, went to US to continue his education and got his Master of Science degree from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

2. Initial years in Silicon Valley – Before his job at Microsoft, Nadella worked as a technology staff member with Sun Microsoystems. In 1992, he changed his job and joined Microsoft as a Program Manager in the Windows Developer Relations group. He rose quickly at Microsoft and became the Senior VP of Research and Development for the company’s online services. Nadella also became VP of the Microsoft Business solution group.

3. The cloud guy - Nadella was associated with Microsoft’s search engine, Bing, and assisted in growing the product, while he was still with the team. Nadella was key for assisting Microsoft’s technologies, its database, Windows server and developer tools to the cloud.

4. Magic touch - Nadella’s role as the President of Microsoft’s Server and Tools business is what has awarded him the position of CEO of the company. As president, Nadella got in place of Bob Muglia and assisted the company change business and tech from “client-server software to cloud infrastructure and services.” At the moment, Nadella leads Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group, working towards creating and running computing programmes, developer tools and cloud services.

5.The binding agent - Nadella and his team can deliver work on delivering “Cloud OS”, Microsoft’s next-gen backend platform that powers all of Microsoft’s Internet scale cloud services, as well as Office 365, Bing, SkyDrive, Xbox Live, Skype and Dynamics. The platform can also offer products to businesses, including Windows Azure, Windows Server, SQL Server, Visual Studio and System Center.

10 Video Tutorials On Kali Linux

10 Video Tutorials On Kali Linux 

The well known hacker's distribution based on the Linux Kernel has often been called the best of Backtrack.

In the open source community, Kali Linux is known to be the most advanced and versatile penetration testing distributions ever created. The return of Backtrack, Kali Linux is a Debian-based Linux distribution, which has been designed for penetration testing and digital forensics. Here are some tutorials relating to the Linux-based hacker’s distro. Hope you enjoy them! - Introduction to Kali Linux - The Linux Operating System Built For Hacking http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLQ8Yd0C7sM&feature=player_embedded - Kali Linux - How to Hack WiFi Tutorial - Sniffing WiFi Networks & Capturing Packets (BackTrack 6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-ab9nJTdM7g - Control remote computer with SET / Pirater un ordinateur (Kali Linux) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=BMtMZB4stS0 - How To Hack using Kali Linux Tutorial: DNS Enumeration with dnsdict6 - NS MX Subdomains SRV Records http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sSW-paL5_Wg&feature=player_embedded - Kali-Linux Install (Linux for Beginners!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=oC_-8o2ZJSg - Kali Linux How To Hack - Use SET to Create Backdoor EXE Meterpreter Session Persistence Keylogger http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFfIXbOBPqs&feature=player_embedded - How To Install Kali Linux on Raspberry Pi - Hacking and Pen Testing [write using Windows or Linux] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIbZq14IL90&feature=player_embedded - Virtualise and Install Kali Linux on VMWare Player http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kT-eqBa2pok - Run Kali Linux on Android http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uZ2eDb9EjzE&feature=player_embedded - How to Install Kali Linux (Backtrack 6): Full Tutorial with Tutorial of Subterfuge http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvpDMZlqMjA&feature=player_embedded

Top 10 Websites That Offer Free Online Linux Courses

These courses help in self-learing of your favourite open source technology!

 It would be highly unjustified to pay for learning something, which is available for free. Linux is the technology of present and future. So, fasten your belts and get on with the journey of learning Linux online with these free resources. These free online courses are courtesy some of the biggest names across the globe. Happy learning!

1. Back to Basics: Linux Fundamentals: Novell

-A boon for those interested in learning Linux fundamentals through self-directed study.

-Functions such as restarting and shutting down the Open Enterprise Server, logging in and out and managing the Linux desktop are focus here.

-Students can access a cheat sheet with the most common command terms used in Linux.

2. Building Dynamic Websites: Harvard University

-All the knowledge you need to build a website is here.

-Consists of various video lectures on how to build a website using Linux, as well as various other frameworks.

-Learn how to set up domains, design databases, program with Java and build web pages using CSS and XHTML.

3. Computational Physics: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

-Learn doing physics calculations using a computer as a calculator.

-Through external website links, it teaches how to use algorithms.

4. The Embedded Linux Quick Start Guide: YouTube

-Provides an introduction to the Linux environment.

-Students learn the four basic elements of Linux: toolchain, boot loader, kernel and user space.

5. Introduction to Linux: University of South Carolina

-Learn about what Linux is, the different versions available, and how to use it.

6. The Linux Effect: 20th Anniversary: The Open University

-Learn the origin of Linux, how Linux is used in our daily lives and the connection between Linux and cloud computing.

7. LPI Exam 201 Prep: Linux Kernel: IBM

-Prepare for the Linux Professional Institute Intermediate Level Administration (LPIC-2) Exam 201.

-Guides you through the components, compiling, patching and customising of a Linux kernel.

8. Programming Technique II: Introduction to Linux: Universiti Teknologi Malaysia

-Gives an understanding of the Linux operating system, as well as how it interacts with computer hardware and various computer programs.

-Introduces basic commands used in Linux programming and how to set up files and directories.

9. UNIX and Linux Tutorial Center: University of California at Davis

-Covers beginner to intermediate levels, including the definition and application of shells, as well as how to create, view and modify files and directories.

-Tutorials include text editors and C programming.

10. UNIX / Linux Tutorial for Beginners: University of Surrey

-Eight free tutorials on fundamental definitions and exercises for UNIX and Linux systems.

-Learn about directories, copying and moving files, killing a process, stripping needless code, getting help, file system security and redirection

Yahoo Mail Hacked!

Yahoo is the second largest email service globally, after Google’s Gmail

Yahoo informed on Thursday that usernames and passwords of certain Yahoo email customers were stolen and utilised to collect personal information of people, who the affected Yahoo mail users have off late corresponded with. The company did not state the number of accounts that were compromised.


Yahoo is the second-largest email service globally, after Google’s Gmail, as per the research firm comScore. There are about 273 million Yahoo mail accounts world over, which includes 81 million in the United States. It’s the recent in a series of security breaches allowing hackers to get personal information with the use of software which analysts state is quite sophisticated. Around 70 million customers of Target stores got their personal information and credit and debit card numbers compromised late last year.

According to Avivah Litan, a security analyst at the technology research firm Gartner, “It’s an old trend, but it’s much more exaggerated now because the programs the bad guys use are much more sophisticated now.” Yahoo Inc has stated in a blog post on its breach that “The information sought in the attack seems to be names and email addresses from the affected accounts’ most recent sent emails.”

The access to email accounts can end in serious breaches that involve banking and shopping sites. As numerous people re-use passwords across many sites, and also as most sites utilise email to reset passwords, hackers can try logging in to such a site with the Yahoo email address and ask that a password reminder be sent by email.

14 Websites To Download Free Ebooks From

Looking for a free ebooks on some topic? Your search ends here with these websites.. 

When looking for free ebooks, there are many resources online. But the problem is how to find the ones that are really trustworthy. There are quite a few websites available to this end. Here are 14 of the top websites where you can get free ebooks on technology and many other topics.

1. FreeBookSpot: This website contains over 4,000 free ebooks in 96 different categories ranging from engineering to fiction.

2. 4eBooks: This website has a pretty big collection of free ebooks on computer science.

3. Free-eBooks: This website can be used to download a number of free ebooks. They require registration though, which can be done for free.

4. ManyBooks: This website has over 20,000 free ebooks, which can be accessed from your iPad or ebook readers.

5. GetFreeEBooks: As the name suggests, this website contains a library of free ebooks, which can be downloaded by you.

6. FreeComputerBooks: This website contains 12 categories, which are further sub-divided into 150 different categories, all containing books on computers.

7. FreeTechBooks: This website contains books on computer science, engineering and other things to do with technology.

8. Scribd: This is like the GitHub for free ebooks. This allows online document sharing in Word, PDF and other formats.

9. KnowFree: Along with free ebooks, this website also contains video training and other materials.

10. OnlineFreeEBooks: Automotive Ebooks, Business Ebooks, Engineering Ebooks, Gadget Ebooks, Hardware Ebooks, Health & Medical Ebooks, Hobbies Ebooks, Programming & Technology Ebooks, Sport & Martial Art Ebooks. These are the nine categories that this website hosts.

11. MemoWare: This website has a number of ebooks, which have been optimised to be read on handheld devices.

12. OnlineComputerBooks: This website has free ebooks on computers and many other topics.

13. SnipFiles: This website has a number of free ebooks along with free software that you can download.

14. Bookyards: This website contains books, education materials and other content.

5 Useful And Lesser Known Firefox Secrets!

Firefox has a massive worldwide user base, second only to Google Chrome.

Mozilla's Firefox internet browser is quite popular amongst open source lovers. The browser is fast, easy-to-use and provides tons of useful features. Interestingly though, while many use this free browser on a regular basis, few of us know how easy Firefox can actually become. These are five lesser known features that people seem to miss usually.

1. Smart Keywords: When you go to a website with a search bar, you can simply right click on the bar and click ‘Add Keywords for this search’. This lets you create a smart keyword. Doing this, you can run searches on any website from the browser’s address bar directly.

2. Multiple homepages: Yes, you don’t have to have just one homepage. You can easily open multiple home pages. Open the Options tab in Firefox and click General. Locate the ‘Homepage’ bar and instead of putting a single website there, use the pipe operator (|) to separate the websites that you want. So, put down — www.google.com| www.facebook.com| www.efytimes.com. All three sites will open whenever you open Firefox.

3. Bookmarking RSS feeds: There are many websites that you may be checking frequently. For this, you can use a nifty feature from Firefox. All you have to do is right click on the Firefox toolbar, click on Customise and then drag and drop the RSS logo into the toolbar. Then you open the website that you regularly open and click on the RSS logo to add the RSS Feed bookmark. It will keep updating itself.

4. Take Firefox with you: You can install Firefox onto an USB drive and take it wherever you go. This ensures that you don’t have to change the settings whenever you use Firefox on a different computer. Here’s how.

5. Keyboard shortcuts: Firefox has an array of keyboard shortcuts that allow you to browse the internet much faster. The open source browser allows users to easily toggle between tabs, re-open closed tables and start private browsing. In addition, Firefox also has mouse gestures, although they aren’t quite near the elegance presented by Apple’s Mac OS X. You can find the shortcuts and gestures here and here respectively.