Block Ciphers

What happens when the block cipher gets a bit altered in first fewer blocks.

Complete Linux desktop

As a developer/Desktop User, i use Linux . But dual boot option still remains intact. Since there is only one PC at home and people have different likings, dual boot becomes unavoidable.

I always tried to convince desktop users to use Linux for their document works and web bowsing. But had a very little success. Even though i know the workaround to overcome some discomforts using Linux for Desktop work, i could never put them on words in my blog. I wanted to leave it to experts in Linux desktop usage.

Recently i found a comprehensible article in web about how Ubuntu can be used in place of windows. The author has highlighted the practical and useful points about how to switch to only Linux PC (provided you do not share your PC with a windows lover).

Some tit-bits:

“imagine upgrading Windows and having all your third party applications upgraded at the same time, everything from utilities and browsers to games and office applications. That’s what the upgrade system does here, checking all packages not just those originally installed, and grabbing the latest versions. Literally, fantastic, as I don’t need to hunt around for these myself. I even got a new version of my Sound Juicer.”

Click here to read the complete work

BASE64 Encoding/Decoding. Choice and chaos

Tiered of web search. I could only get near results today. But nothing unique and useful. I was just searching for Base64 encoding libs for a java implementation. But not very successful though. I was taken to some forum people discussion about it’s support by SUN. Brighter side is, the implementation is done by almost all java application server vendors and the sad side is chaos on how to go about using the right library or in other terms, how to make the implementation generic.

One frustrating thing is that java.util.prefs.Base64  is one Class that exists with out any help for the people wishing to use it. It has so outside the package access. Still it must have some reason for the existence which is never the need of the hour.

SUN’s sun.misc.BASE64Encoder an alternative is not favored much among the community for a right reason and is said to becomeobsolete in future releases. If i use this implementation not considering about the side effects, my program may become an alien in the native land of java application servers(write once, run anywhere any platform…) . And again if i use a vendor specific implementation, i need to alter my program to a higher extent. So, am i going to write my own program for the base64 scheme or use the opensource version or buy!!

sun.misc.BASE64Encoder encoder = new sun.misc.BASE64Encoder();
FileOutputStream fos = new FileOutputStream(“encoded”);
encoder.encode(encryptionBytes,fos);

Ultimately the Open source solution would be my choice if i do not use my program commercially and i just writing for personal use. Good thing about it is that i can bug the author in case of any doubts. Even if he is busy writing doing some other work, i can take a look at the code myself.

But what if i am a programmer working for a commercial prop. organization ? A closed source programmer! Then my ultimate choice is not to use the open source program. Because it is next to impossibility to maintain the license integrity. So, my only choice would be to buy a licensed version of the Base64 encoder that works for all application servers or to trust sun.misc.BASE64Encoder with fingers crossed or write a program of my own if at all i have time to.

Finally i need to complete what i am supposed to do and not getting too deep in to the encoding part alone !!