Driving ... a looking back

Was remembering, the first days of driving in Vancouver. As the background, i was relocated from India to Canada 2 years back.

In India, we have right hand drive and Canada is a left hand drive.

The laws ??

Yep we don't bother much about it in India ( true freedom ) but Canada ? Its tickets and insurance hike.

Looking back some moments the blunders i did on road ( failed 3 time in road test to get a pass ).

Instructor said take left and i did through a no entry. We need no care on left turn when we drive right hand side. Same i did with right hand side also ( did too much care).

Another one : Her question " do u know what is this sign" pointing to a sign board. I said " stop sign" . She replied " ohh , sorry , i thought you don't know that, already three passed".

Second test : more care full, so drive on 30 all way( me intelligent ). Max is 50 then no problem, she said " queue on your back ".

sharing the links which helps to get license :

http://www.icbc.com/licensing/lic_utility_resource&man.asp

The below gives road sense tips:

http://www.icbc.com/licensing/drivingtips/tips_index.asp
( very nice video interactive tutor in skills )

Tailpiece : wondering how may i drive, if i go back to India - No, I don't drive

Sad part : I had 10+ yrs driving exp in India, but didn't get any concession because of the system difference.

© yankandpaste®

Drag to Change route - this heart needs more

was going through http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9737124-7.html?tag=head

Google maps new feature - "Drag to Change route". But sad to say google didn't read my mind.

Last some days i am seeing "Canada way paving project", still didn't see any way to mark a route to avoid while getting directions.Let google read this blog than mind and add another feature :-)


tailpiece: let systems run the world and we create systems.

© yankandpaste®

global warming or global cooling !

"The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in

Meltdown expected and the wheat is growing thin

Engines stop running, but I have no fear

London is drowning, and I live by the river"

-Strummer/Jones.


Buzzzword nowadays is global warming...... Its the new marketing mantra.
Billions are spent, many have high profiles jobs... scientists are honoured who predicts iminent destruction of earth and human lives.

Heard from a friend , that india wont be livable in few decades due to warming....

For all these blah blah.... aint there an other side ...!!

So i did some googling .. and voila.. there is this ice age theory too........

May be by another decade india could be the best place to live... due to global cooling.....
who knows.....

Kochu ...

Work Life Balance

was reading http://no2google.wordpress.com/2007/06/24/life-at-google-the-microsoftie-perspective/

The problem i see everywhere

Fresh out ppl :- time for proving them self - do do and prove ( a lot enthusiasm )

After 3 to 5 yrs :- I know the tech game , its all old tricks

After getting engaged/married :- life has a lot good things to enjoy, I am forced to sit to match with the fresh people ( confession time : i too made some body's life miserable )

After a Kid :- Life is beautiful , need money to live and pay the bills.

Kid growing :- good things , i have to prove now again, this is the time of achievement for my kid.

Late 40's - again confession

After 60's - life is beautiful again

May be i am wrong, don't know. But i used to see, a lot always does not understand the meaning of life and ends up in living for working than working for living.
May be let this be an eye opener.

tailpiece : Life cycle is repeating, ask your dad, he has gone through same.

© yankandpaste®

Its asia's time to talk back about hypocrisy

Its asia's time to talk back about hypocrisy

A person thowing a stone get the fruit from a tree.If the fruit falls down, who is the culprict ?

stone or the person who throwed the stone ?

Confused ??

read now :

"Companies that are polluting in China are owned by American, European, Japanese and others. They are benefiting from the cheap labor, from the resources and at the same time accusing China of pollution," the Malaysian official said.

"Let's take the hypocrisy out of the equation," he said.

Asian leaders also criticized the U.S. and Australia for not signing the 1997 Kyoto Protocol, which caps the amount of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases that can be emitted in industrialized countries

I think next 'll be Gulf , but who is worlds biggest Oil importer and burner ?? again :United States

ref : https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2174rank.html

This clearly shows there is no way to avoid the global warming and its time for us to pepare for it.

Tailpiece: kyoto ?? no... , US is calling for a war against global warming but no stop for emissions.

© yankandpaste® from : http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20070625-0040-worldeconomicforum.html http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/4916974.html https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/rankorder/2174rank.html

Embrace, extend, and exterminate

Do you think "Embrace, extend, and exterminate" is microsoft specific ??

Embrace: Development of software substantially compatible with a competing product, or implementing a public standard.

Extend: Addition and promotion of features not supported by the competing product or part of the standard, creating interoperability problems for customers who try to remain neutral.

Extinguish: When extensions become a de facto standard because of their dominant market share, they marginalize competitors that do not or cannot support Microsoft's extensions and create an obstacle to new competitors.

Interesting to find a document which describes the Voice mail call flow used by google talk.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/123347/Google-Talk-Voice-Mail-Call-flow

Looks this document is googletalk reverse eng:.As you know the libjingle protocol and Jingle are very similar, they are not the same, and are not interoperable.

tailpiece: corporate always carry their ego, and keen in their interests.They are not interoperable with public standards.

© yankandpaste®

Self proclaimed children

Every body is in Buzz (web 2.0, voice 2.0 Life 2.0 (SL) etc etc ), I don't know even i can put my name like unni 2.0.This reminds me the bubble on 2000, which ended in closing and laying off a lot.

Its back. Lot new self proclaimed children

The last one i herd :

Self proclaimed child of CraigsList and YouTube (don't ask me who is mother) or may be expecting one of them to adopt.

http://realpeoplerealstuff.com/

As youtube offers me to upload video and give me HTML to link to any site ( not only craigslist ) i am not sure why we need this.

craigslist ?? its the most popular free adv site in north America.
you tube ?? its the most popular video sharing site.

tailpiece: Make hay while the sun shines. Don't ask questions.

Links : http://vancouver.craigslist.org/about/cities.html
youtube : http://www.youtube.com/

© yankandpaste®

Life's Little Instruction Book

---courtesy: Ram---

Have a firm handshake.
Look people in the eye.
Sing in the shower.
Own a great stereo system.

If in a fight, hit first and hit hard.
Keep secrets.
Never give up on anybody; miracles happen everyday.
Always accept an outstretched hand.

Be brave. Even if you're not, pretend to be; no one can tell the difference.
Avoid sarcastic remarks.
Choose your life's mate carefully. From this one decision will come 90 per cent of all your happiness or misery.

Make it a habit to do nice things for people who will never find out.
Lend only those books you never care to see again.
Never deprive someone of hope it might be all that they have.
When playing games with children, let them win.
Give people a second chance, but not a third.

Be romantic.
Become the most positive and enthusiastic person you know.
Loosen up. Relax. Except for rare life-and-death matters, nothing is as important as it first seems.

Be a good loser.
Be a good winner.
Think twice before burdening a friend with a secret.
When someone hugs you, let them be the first to let go.

Keep it simple. Be modest. A lot was accomplished before you were born.
Beware of the person who has nothing to lose.
Don't burn bridges. You'll be surprised how many times you have to cross the same river.
Live your life so that your epitaph could read, "No Regrets".

Be bold and courageous. When you look back on life, you'll regret the things you didn't do more than the one's you did.
Never waste an opportunity to tell someone you love them.
Remember no one makes it alone. Have a grateful heart and be quick to acknowledge those who helped you.
Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it foryou.

Visit friends and relatives when they are in hospital; you need only stay a few minutes.
Begin each day with some of your favorite music.
Once in a while, take the scenic route.
Send a lot of Valentine cards. Sign them, 'Someone who thinks you're terrific.'

Answer the phone with enthusiasm and energy in your voice.
Keep a note pad and pencil on your bed-side table,
Million-dollar ideas sometimes strike at 3 a.m.
Show respect for everyone who works for a living, regardless of how trivial their job.

Send your loved ones flowers. Think of a reason later.
Make someone's day by paying the toll for the person in the car behind you.
Become someone's hero.
Marry only for love.

Count your blessings.
Compliment the meal when you're a guest in someone's home.
Wave at the children on a school bus.
Remember that 80 per cent of the success in any job is based on our ability to deal with people.

Don't expect life to be fair.

And the Winner is ...

Iphone with youtube player
Apple TV with youtube player
Leopard with ZFS from sun
"I'll cook; you bring the wine" between sun and Linux

and microsoft is behind Linuz distributers.

Collaboration at the corporate level, along with more than 50 percent consumer broadband penetration and the rise of Internet video, will push traffic growth to between 300 percent and 500 percent per year. This is far beyond the 50 percent to 100 percent per year growth typically expected today.

but who benefits ??

and the winner is ... CISCO : Cisco has sold more than 900 Carrier Routing System, or CRS-1, routers( worth above $1.8 billion) to more than 85 service providers throughout the world due to increased traffic on the Internet.

© yankandpaste®

Somebody says: The king is Nude

Was reading "SIP: The Never-Ending Hype Wagon" . It says the people expectations vs actual.

"Today, H.323 commands about 80% of the international long distance VoIP minutes, which is an estimated 15.8% or 49.4B minutes of all international voice communication. Even Skype, perhaps the single-largest VoIP network, has not caught up with H.323 in terms of minutes of traffic. (Skype had 13.8B minutes of VoIP traffic in 2006 and held a 4.4% share of the international voice business.)

Where does this leave SIP? People are still working hard to try to make SIP a success story, even after trying for so many years and gaining so little market share. Standards bodies including the ITU SG11 and ETSI TISPAN are trying to position SIP as the NGN protocol and a replacement for the PSTN systems already deployed. But perhaps what is not so well understood in the industry is that the carriers are not likely to provide new, innovative services on top of SIP. What would be the financial motivator? Will users pay for new kinds of services and capabilities? What would those services and capabilities be? Can SIP provide them and would SIP be the right choice? So far, nothing new or innovative has been delivered and as financial reality sets in, you will likely see that little actually changes"

Read the article at : http://www.dailypayload.com/2007/0618.html

tailpiece: finally i understood, why SIP mag changed its name to unified communications mag. Reality strikes :-).
© yankandpaste®

We have 10 years, folks. And then it's man the lifeboats, or head for the hills

That's the conclusion of James Hansen and five other scientists. They've just published a paper with the Royal Society in England. It says melting ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctic could soon reach a point of no return. The team even says the recent reports from the United Nations' global warming conferences are too conservative in their projections of what could happen.


The paper urges quick and decisive action, including attempts to scrub greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Hansen is outspoken and a favorite target of global warming disbelievers. In all fairness, Hansen's been at this climate change thing a long time. Back in 1999 he co-wrote an article on changing temperature patterns around the world. At that time his map showed the U.S. seemed to be cooling temporarily. He didn't try to jiggle the data.

Believe Hansen and his cohort, or diss them, we will soon see who's right. Scientists are actively tracking the ice sheets in Antarctic and those on Greenland where changes will be closely measured.

Details at :http://environment.independent.co.uk/climate_change/article2675747.ece


© yankandpaste® from :http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9731211-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20

Indian Presidency: Symbolism and Beyond

Of late, presidential election has become a topic of popular debate in India. So much so that our mail boxes, TV channels, newspapers, and magazines are full of campaigns and debates on who should be the next president. From Kalam to Narayanamoorthy, the popular imagination has never been so lively about a presidential election. After all, as a friend reminds us on one of the chain mails, electing the president has always been the prerogative of the Electoral College and not of the general public. And, all said and done, it has always been a political appointment too, no matter how much ever you dislike that fact. So what brings in the new interest in presidential elections?

24/7 TV? Maybe, yes. But there is one more thing that you need to factor in. The Kalam effect.

Like it or not, APJ Abdul Kalam made presidency a thing of popular imagination. He played to the middle-class galleries. He delivered inspirational speeches that would give the motivational gurus a good run for their money. He spoke about dreams, vision, and hope. And, the middle-class India never got tired of dreaming and hoping; they never got tired of giving standing ovations to Dr Kalam, either.

Kalam seldom spoke of the hard realities (did he ever?), he exhorted the newspapers to play down the negative stories (read the hardcore news), he wanted the media to paint a rosy picture (a.l.a., the India Shining campaign, perhaps), he vividly narrated how the Israeli newspapers dumped all that Hamas killing and suicide attacks to inner pages and celebrated the positive stories of growth and development, of hopes and dreams on their front pages. Well, there is more. So many more speeches that vie for the most-forwarded speech honor along with those of the Narayanamurthys and Bill Gateses of the world. Kalam's speeches keep coming back to us from people whose only contribution to the democratic process is selective forwarding of mails. So, when the time to think of our next president came, his fan club started campaigning for his second term through chain mails and blogs. They even asked us to sign an online memorandum seeking a second term for him. Mails kept flooding our mail boxes, until Kalam himself put an end to it saying he wouldn't seek a second term.

Then suddenly something happened. At some ceremony hosted by Infosys and attended by Kalam, an over-enthusiastic Infoscion asked the President, what did he think of Narayanamoorthy as the next President. Of course, playing to the gallery once again, (or was it just a matter of courtesy?!—courtesy, which the Infoscion, who threw such an embarrassing question at their guest, lacked), Kalam responded: “Fantastic!" Rather he chanted that three times, I read. That set the tongues wagging again. And, yes, Narayanamoorthy fits the middle-class aspirations, he lives one of the most colorful dreams of middle-class India, and yes, once again, the forward-mailers, the new opinion leaders of the great Indian middle class, were back with their campaigns, obscenely rigged surveys, and chain mails. Fortunately, that failed to go beyond the initial hype and died a slow death and the mailing middle-class went back to their daily routines, chasing their rainbow.

But, now the focus is back on the presidential election, once again. Prathibha Patel’s nomination set up the new debate. People from the opposing camps suggested that it was symbolism and nothing else. They said she was chosen because of her gender. Some others said, she was pliant and would make a female Fakrudheen Ali Ahmed. And the middle-class felt disillusioned to see one more political appointment at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.

Suddenly people seem to have developed a problem with political appointments to Presidency. They respond as if this is the first ever political appointment. In fact, it has always been political appointments, of people whom the ruling parties thought would fall in their line, sign on the dotted line as and when needed. One doesn’t need to go too far in our history. Zail Singh, R Venkataraman, S D Sharma, K R Narayanan, all of them had affiliations with the leading parties of their times. And many of these nominations had symbolic value too—Zail Singh as president when Punjab was burning; KR Narayanan, in the post-Mandal India. (Beyond symbolism, Narayanan deserved the seat as much as any of his illustrious predecessors. Many a time, he proved that too. He spoke up whenever required, and proved that the constitutional figurehead does not necessarily be a rubberstamp always. )

Then came Kalam, the poster boy of middle-India. And what a symbolic act it was. A Muslim: celibate, vegetarian, veena-playing Muslim. So different from the Muslim Other that the then ruling Sangh Parivar was trying to project as the spoilsports in this holy land. Kalam was celebrated for he was so unlike a Muslim, for it suited the BJP, smarting from the Gujarat pogrom, to have a Muslim as the President. And, Kalam, with no political background, no inclination to deal with the hard questions, happily went around the town preaching vision statements. He evaded the hard questions, avoided confrontations, and happily parroted the Sangh Parivar line that India as a country had never invaded any country and that India had always been a victim to invasions and intrusions (he’d conveniently forgotten the fact that the concept of India as a country happened much later, evolved during the struggle for independence, and that we were just another bunch of infighting kingdoms till then).

Kalam was celebrated as a Muslim who reads Gita everyday and has tremendous patriotism. (I fail to get the connection there. I don’t read Gita, does that mean I’m less patriotic? Or is it that only Muslims have to read Gita to affirm their patriotism?) People with saffron undies jus exclaimed over their sundowners: why can’t THEY all be like him? And, a most sought after symbol was created: A Muslim, so unlike a “Muslim”. And the middle-class India, who are so eager to hit forward to any mails that suited their political interests, didn’t have any problem in celebrating this symbol.

Now coming back to Prathibha Patel and her candidature, what if it is a symbolic gesture towards the women folks in India, who have been fighting for 33% reservations all along? Or are we trying to say that they don’t even deserve this symbolic support, appreciation for their rights and abilities? Why are we so worried about its symbolic nature? Is it just because it doesn’t suit our ideals, the values of a depoliticized lot that is looking for motivational gurus, people who share their dislike for politics? Prathibha Patel is a politician, and ours is a democratic country with strong political affiliations. And if you think you can elect the president or the government of this country through e-mail campaigns, without ever bothering to vote in an election, well, sit back and relax. There are others who actively participate in this political process and have their say in the way our democracy works. Let them decide. Or, stop this armchair activism and join the queue to vote next time.

© yankandpaste®

Secure transport of media ( Voip )

What ?

What is secure transport of media ?

Think, you use a voip application ( voip phone or any other voip application ) and you are transfering money from bank. You pass your details ( SIN,DOB, Address, Telphone Pin etc ) and all these data can be sniffed and played by some other user in the network using a simple sniffer.

This is possible because, for Internet communications, media is normally transported using RTP.

What is RTP ?
The Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) defines a standardized packet format for delivering audio and video over the Internet. RTP is not secure, means anybody can capture RTP and can access the content media transmitted over RTP.For secure communications of media using RTP use SRTP.

What is SRTP ?

The Secure Real-time Transport Protocol (SRTP) defines a profile of RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), intended to provide encryption, message authentication and integrity, and replay protection to the RTP data in both unicast and multicast applications.

HOW

How you can say SRTP is secure and how it make sure its secure ?

For encryption and decryption of the data flow (hence providing confidentiality of the data flow), SRTP standardizes utilization of only a single cipher, AES, which can be used in two cipher modes, which turn the originally block AES cipher into a stream cipher.

To authenticate the message and protect its integrity, the HMAC-SHA1 algorithm (defined in RFC 2104) is used, which produces a 160-bit result, which is then truncated to 80 bits to become the authentication tag appended to the packet

SRTP relies on an external key management protocol to set up the initial master key. Two protocols specifically designed to be used with SRTP are ZRTP and Mikey.

There are also other methods to negotiate the SRTP keys. There are several vendors which offer products that use the SDES key exchange method

WOW, brain overload, say me something simple.

K ,Simple words. SRTP requires other protocols for making secure sessions. There are 3 ways to do this

1) ZRTP - a key agreement protocol which performs Diffie-Hellman key exchange during call setup in-band in the Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) media stream which has been established using some other signaling protocol such as Session Initiation Protocol (SIP). This generates a shared secret which is then used to generate keys and salt for a Secure RTP (SRTP) session.

ZRTP can be used with any signaling protocol, including SIP, H.323, Jabber, and Peer-to-Peer SIP. ZRTP is independent of the signaling layer, because it does all its key negotiations in the RTP media stream.

more details : http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-zimmermann-avt-zrtp-03

2) MIKEY - a key management scheme that can be used for real-time applications (both for peer-to-peer communication and group communication).
more details : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3830

3) SDES - SDES defines a key excahnge method for SRTP profile using SDP.
more details : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4568

Where i can find all the details ?

RTP : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3550
SRTP : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3711
ZRTP : http://tools.ietf.org/html/draft-zimmermann-avt-zrtp-03
MIKEY: http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3830
SDES : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4568
HMAC : http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc2104


© yankandpaste®

Apple Safari Crash 2

Another Crash :-). While opening a URL. We captued with visual studio debug screen

We belive this 'll be the end of apple safari crash reports in this blog. Sad to say there are more crashes found but we have no intensions to use this blog as a apple crash report space :-)

© yankandpaste®

Apple Safari Crash 1

Safari 3 - Apple claims "The worlds best browser. Now on windows,too"
We adds "Crashes a lot :-) on our XP".

What you did ??

Go to menu Edit->Reset Safari...-> Reset , do it 3 to 5 times in a loop (repeatedly).

Safari ( Version : 3.0.1(522.12.2)) crashed .

Another crash we found is still we are reproducing it ( yes there is one more we found)

tailpiece: Software is 100% bug free before its made.

© yankandpaste®

VoIP could be used by terrorists

UK police have claimed that the rising popularity of VoIP could be abused by terrorist organisations, reports Sky News.

Concerns have recently been raised regarding the security risks of VoIP and this new comment will add further significance to the debate.

Peter Sommer, a research fellow at the London School of Economics, said that terrorists could use VoIP to avoid traditional phone-tapping methods."The problem for law enforcement is you can issue a warrant but you may not be able to enforce it against the company because the company is overseas.

"If you can enforce it, you have still got no idea where the person is who is making the call - if you get hold of the content, it is going to be encrypted and you are not going to be able to decrypt it."

However, the news network reported that the new national e-crime unit was expected to devote much of its time to overcoming the difficulties of tracing VoIP-using terror groups

TailPiece : New technologies, new threats - Its time for new securaty standards.

© yankandpaste® from : http://www.ihotdesk.com/article.asp?ID=18174383

SecondLife on XBox

How to ?
download and install Xbox Linux.

http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Main_Page

Look at http://www.xbox-linux.org/wiki/Getting_Started for detailed steps

Go to the the secondlife and download the linux second life

http://secondlife.com/community/linux-alpha.php

Enjoy !!!!

tail piece : ** THIS IS ALPHA IDEA, RUN AT YOUR OWN RISK! **

© yankandpaste®

Its Phone time !! iPhone and solar-powered mobile phone

Exiting phone times ahead. Apple Iphone launching on Jun 29

Watch the Tv ads . the new class of phones on the way

Apple adv : http://www.apple.com/iphone/ads/

Another news is World's first solar-powered mobile phone.

A Chinese company says it has developed a mobile phone that uses solar energy to recharge itself and can provide 40 minutes of talk-time after sitting in the sun for an hour.

Details : http://english.people.com.cn/200706/07/eng20070607_381987.html

© yankandpaste®

Thanks to technorati for listing us as one of the featured Blogs.

Thanks to technorati ( http://www.technorati.com/ ) for listing us as one of the featured Blogs.

Congrats for the yankandpaste team (writers, readers) for making it a success and lets continue the good work.

tail piece : good stuff always sells, no need of marketing :-)

© yankandpaste®

Real world Multimedia with Jingle

What ?

What is Realworld needs Multimedia with Jingle means ?

Developing real world needs ( phone, fax, whiteboard , video etc etc ) application using jingle.

What is Jingle ?

'Jingle' is a set of extensions to XMPP for use in VoIP, video, and other peer-to-peer multimedia sessions.

What is XMPP ?

Extensible Messaging and Presence Protocol (XMPP) is an open, XML-based protocol for near-real-time, extensible instant messaging (IM) and presence information (aka buddy lists). It is the core protocol of the Jabber Instant Messaging and Presence technology. The protocol is built to be extensible and other features such as Voice over IP and file transfers have been added

What is XML ?

The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose markup language. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet

When ?

When i have the know how ?
Now itself.


why ?

Why Jingle ?

XMPP has an all ready big, developed network which a lot ISP's provide jabber services for the clients. As voip is replacing the traditional PSTN.The options in front of the ISP's are
1) Use SIP
2) Use MGCP
3) Use H323

Or use an approch using XMPP Jingle ( low cost, low complexity )


Who makes these standards :
XMPP : www.jabber.org

How ?

Using Jingle you can write applications which helps the real world needs, The jingle is the core protocol which defines the session and the other content and trasport format definitons help to build application.

Content /Transport formats ?
Jingle Audio - for audio content format definition
Jingle Video- for video content format definition
Jingle UDP transport - transport using UDP
Jingle ICE transport - transport using ICE ( ICE - look previous post on ICE )
Jingle DTMF - a DTMF trasport using Jingle.

these format specifications uses XML mapped SDP for describing the session.

The problem with these definitions are
1) its only a subset of actual SDP.
2) These documents never gives the big picture as the RFC's descrbing the actual SDP and feature/extension definition( ex: ICE ).
3) Lot limitations as of now ( long way to go to become a full fledged telephony supoort ) (ex: early media , cancel a call ).


Options now ?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/95534/Jingle-Multimedia-Description-Using-SDP

Use SDP for session description and jingle for session initation.

Advantages :

1) SDP is an IETF protocol ( Open ).
2) SDP is well used by other protocols ( SIP, MGCP, RTSP etc etc ).This makes easy interoperability.
4) Avoiding duplicate information documents (copy paste of actual RFCs ) ex: ICE
5) Bringing in standard procedures for development ( ex: offer answer model ( rfc3264 rfc4317 ) ,PINT services (rfc2848), IPV6 rfc3266), Grouping of Media Lines ( rfc3388 ),Content Attribute (rfc4796), )
6) No IPR issues on usage of SDP because it is tracked by IETF.
7) New technologies have SDP extension ( ex: ICE-TCP, ICE etc etc ). Due to this addition of new standard applications
8) Already well written/matured documents for help on deployment and proved to best + good knowledge base.


Looks this is what the industry was looking for -

No more buzz words like sip trunking etc , XMPP has a server to server comminication defined and multimedia for all Jabber users using the Industry adapted applications using well defined SDP.


Where ?

Where i can find details ?

XMPP : RFC 3920
XMPP IM : RFC 3920

Jingle : XEP-0166
Jingle Audio : XEP-0167
Jingel Video : XEP-0180
Jingle DTMF : XEP-0181

Jingle UDP transport :XEP-0177
Jingle ICe transport :XEP-0176

The xeps can be found at :http://www.xmpp.org/extensions/
Jingle SDP content description: http://www.scribd.com/doc/95534/Jingle-Multimedia-Description-Using-SDP




© yankandpaste®

Maps/Local services and terror

Maps/Local service offers great feature to plan and commute fast. According to people, its a great service.

Problems ??

we discover that the suspects being held for the JFK terror plot supposedly referenced Google Maps as a part of the supposed plan.

Here is a look at what the suspects said:

One of the plotters behind the alleged scheme to explode gas pipelines at John F. Kennedy International Airport directed his co-conspirators to use Google Earth to obtain detailed aerial photos of the targeted facility.

Details : http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2007/0604071google1.html

Now people started to say Maps/Local sites create new class of threat. Before map/local sites satellite image access of the earth was not the easly accessable.

Is maps sites are threat or the era we are now is a threat ? lets brainstorm But my 2 cents not to ban these local/map sites.


Tail piece : mosquito likes / looks for blood under a milk filled breast ( from an old proverb).

© yankandpaste®

Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE): Tutorial

Thanks for the Overwhelming responses for the ICE post, most asking for a good ICE tutorial. The link goes below

http://www.jdrosen.net/papers/ice-basic-tutorial.pdf

© yankandpaste® :

The Many Faces of Interactive Connectivity Establishment (ICE)

By J.D. Rosenberg



Without a doubt, one of the most challenging issues that VoIP system designers and network operators face is firewall and Network Address Translator (NAT) traversal. These days, almost every home with broadband Internet access has a NAT device — after all, NAT is the primary function of the broadband home router, the little magic that allows you to connect multiple computers to a single Internet connection. Most enterprises have one or more firewalls, and many smaller ones run NAT as well. Even some service providers use NAT; it is not uncommon for a cellular phone to have a private IP address. While NAT and firewalls are not a problem for traditional client-server protocols like those used for the web and e-mail, they are a huge problem for VoIP.

The industry has responded to this problem with many different solutions. These include Application Layer Gateways (ALGs), which add SIP awareness to NAT and firewalls, Simple Traversal of UDP Through NAT (STUN), which uses a “ping server” of sorts to allow low-cost traversal in consumer applications, and Session Border Controllers (SBCs), a close cousin to ALGs. SBCs have won the largest part of the market share of NAT and firewall traversal solutions. All of these techniques have their problems, and so the IETF worked steadily on producing a one-size-fits-all solution. That solution is called ICE: Interactive Connectivity Establishment.

ICE is a peer-to-peer cooperative NAT traversal solution, in which endpoints work with each other to discover paths through the network via a series of connectivity checks. This discovery is done in concert with network servers that help provide relaying and address translation functions. Work on ICE began in early 2003, and finally, a long four years later, it is now complete. ICE is extremely effective. It is robust, finding media paths even in the most complex network topologies. ICE makes sure that the called phone won’t ring unless a bidirectional media path is up and running. No more ghost rings and oneway audio that are common problems in VoIP. ICE is efficient, using relays and suboptimal paths only when absolutely necessary. It works across a broad range of environments without changes in configuration. It also provides lots of hooks for policy and allows for an evolutionary path from existing SBCs to ICE-based SBCs.


However, an interesting thing has begun to happen. ICE is also solving problems having little or nothing to do with firewall and NAT traversal. These include security, IPv6 transition, and dual-homing.

What does ICE have to do with security? Many VoIP systems today allow a malicious client to use the VoIP network to launch a denial-of-service (DoS) attack against a desired target. This attack, called the voice hammer, allows a single callsetup message to direct an 80 Kbps stream of packets (and possibly higher bandwidths) at a target device. This attack is easy to launch: An attacker sends a SIP INVITE message but lies about its media address, pointing to the target of the attack instead. Once the call is established, the called party will begin sending media toward the target. ICE prevents this attack. The called party won’t send any media at all until the ICE connectivity checks have taken place. Those checks happen along the media path, and in this case, they will fail since the target of the attack won’t respond to the checks. Consequently, no media is ever sent and the attack is prevented.

What does ICE have to do with IPv6 transition? One of the primary transition techniques is to use a dual-stack client, one that has both an IPv4 address and an IPv6 address. This introduces an interesting problem: When the dual-stack client makes a call, which address does it include in its INVITE as the target for media, IPv4 or IPv6? At the time it makes the call, it doesn’t know the capabilities of the called party, which could be IPv4 only, IPv6 only or dual stack. ICE has emerged as the solution to this problem. The caller includes both addresses, uses ICE’s connectivity checks to figure out which pairs work, and then uses them.

More generally, ICE helps dual-homed endpoints — those with more than one IP address. They are more common than you might think. My laptop has three IP addresses — one on the Wi-Fi network, one on the wired Ethernet, and one on my VPN. When I make a call from my softphone, which one should my laptop use? With ICE, my softphone would include all three, and then ICE would be used to dynamically figure out which one works. In fact, ICE can help me pick the one with the lowest latency, in order to optimize my experience in the call. ICE can also have configured policies to ensure only a specific address (such as my VPN), gets used.

These three applications are just the beginning. ICE can address other problems because it adds an important piece of functionality to SIP — exchange of messaging that follows the media path prior to call establishment and prior to the transmission of media. This small but important change will, I predict, make ICE a protocol for all seasons, not just the winter of NAT and firewall traversal. ICE is already considered one of the core SIP specifications by the IETF, and I anticipate we’ll see more and more reasons for this over time.


© yankandpaste® from : http://www.tmcnet.com/sip/0507/columns_speaking_sip_the_many_faces_of_ice.htm

Blogs won't change the world

The integration of the Internet into society at large necessarily meant individuals reverted to being marginalised in terms of overall influence.

The use of censorware by repressive governments is now becoming a legitimate policy matter. Conferences are being held, proposals are being made, press articles are being written. And people want to know: how can we make a difference in the fight against world censorship?

Unfortunately, I don't have a good answer. Non-governmental organisations, thinktanks, academic departments and so on all have their own hierarchies and barriers to entry.

Many years ago, when the Internet was much smaller, the corresponding reach of an individual aiming to be heard in it was much larger. But the integration of the Internet into society at large necessarily meant individuals reverted to being as marginalised in terms of overall influence as they are in society at large. It's not that nobody at all had a voice, but that the standard institutional power structures asserted themselves.

And blogs are no solution. Contrary to blog evangelism, blogging can sometimes even be detrimental in terms of building influence. That's counterintuitive, since the very rare person who achieves substantial influence via a blog is often widely touted as a success story.

But the complementary outcome is not widely publicised — that is, all the people who are blogging their hearts out and never being heard beyond a tiny fan audience. At this point, a blog evangelist usually states that it's possible to be happy even with only a select group of devotees. But they typically don't want to grant that it's also quite reasonable to be unhappy at not getting beyond that level. Talking mainly among a small self-selected group can also lead to a very misleading impression of the reach of one's ideas.

As one activist lamented (tinyurl.com/2jxb8q) regarding a censorware controversy: "I think the real lesson here is that, despite all the hype, blogs have not solved the `gatekeeper' problem. It's no longer true that a handful of media giants control what people get to find out about, but it's still true that an issue doesn't become an `issue', and has a hard time entering the public consciousness, unless it gets noticed by one of the new `gatekeepers of information'.

tail piece : Change is the only thing which never changes, Change will have a change resistance still change happens.world is a collection of people and people create blogs for expressing ideas, if these ideas reach more people and accepted , blogs can change the world.

© yankandpaste® from : The Hindu (http://www.hinduonnet.com/2007/06/01/stories/2007060102721100.htm)

Chevy Sequel rolls into hydrogen history

General Motors made history as its Chevy Sequel, one of the world’s most technologically advanced automobiles, became the first electrically-driven fuel cell vehicle to achieve 300 miles on one tank of hydrogen, in and out of traffic on public roads, while producing zero emissions.


hoo, its time for hydrogen highways !!!!!. emits water and runs , some body told me the hydrogen cells are going to make 100 times more Carbon dioxade.


The GM link : http://www.chevrolet.com/fuelcell/


© yankandpaste® from : http://www.saanichnews.com/portals-code/list.cgi?paper=28&cat=46&id=996798&more=0