Rooting and flashing Sony Xperia J ST26i

Writing this post after successfully flashing Sony Xperia J ST26i with DARK MOON AVD ROM

I followed the instructions given in
http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-j-e/development/st26i-dark-moon-avd-rom-4-1-2-v1-6-t2309415

Steps:
PART 1:

Take a backup of your contacts, sd card etc. I used My phone Explorer

Update the phone's firmware
Go to Settings > About phone > Software updates > System updates
or use SONY PC Companion

PART 2:

Unlock BootLoader
Followed the steps given here
http://www.android.gs/unlock-bootloader-sony-xperia-devices-universal-tutorial/

How to Unlock Bootloader of Sony Xperia Devices (official and universal tutorial)

1. Go here and check whether your smartphone is on the “unlock bootloader” list or not. If your phone is not listed there it means that you cannot use this guide for unlocking the system.
2. Also, on your handset type and dial: *#*#7378423#*#*; then go to “Service info -> Configuration -> Rooting Status” and check if the “Bootloader unlock allowed” says yes. If the “no” answer will be displayed then you will not be able to unlock the bootloader of your device.
3. Now, extract the file named “downloadinf.zip” (which has been downloaded before) on your computer.
4. Then, copy the obtained file (“android_winusb.inf”) to path c:\android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver.
5. Click yes if asked to overwrite something.
6. Type *#06# on your phone and get the IMEI number; write it down as you will need it a little bit later.
7. Now, go here.
8. On the first page click on “Yes, I’m sure”.
9. Agree to Sony’s legal terms and then hit “I accept”.
10. On the next page enter your name, email and your device’s IMEI number and click on “Submit”.
11. An unlock code will now be offered; note it down.
12. Turn off your device and connect the same with the computer by pressing on the Menu button (for the Xperia arc, Xperia arc S, Xperia neo, Xperia neo V, Xperia pro handsets), or on the Search button (for the Xperia Play device) or on the Volume Up button (for the Xperia mini, Xperia mini pro, Xperia ray, Xperia active, Live with Walkman, Xperia S smartphones).
13. Install the drivers on the path mentioned above (c:\android-sdk\extras\google\usb_driver).
14. Now, on your computer open command prompt: “start -> run -> type cmd”.
15. On the cmd window enter the following commands (one at a time): cd C:\android-sdk\platform-tools; fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce getvar version; fastboot.exe -i 0x0fce oem unlock 0xKEY (replace key with the code obtained before).
16. That’s all, now the bootloader will be unlocked.
17. In the end, remove the USB cable and reboot your smartphone.

Problem Faced: STEP 13  The driver to be installed was not accepted by the system.
Soln: 
Hold down the Windows key on your keyboard and press the letter C to open the Charm menu, then click the gear icon (Settings).

Click More PC Settings.

Click General.

Under Advanced Startup, click Restart Now.

NOTE: In Windows 8.1, the ‘Restart Now’ button has moved to ‘PC Setting -> Update & Recovery -> Recovery.’

After restarting, click Troubleshoot.

Click Advanced Options.

Click Windows Startup Settings.

Click Restart.

After restarting your computer a second time, choose Disable driver signature enforcement from the list by typing the number 7 on your keyboard.

Your computer will restart automatically.

After restarting, you will be able to install the  drivers normally; however, Windows will display a warning message. When the warning appears, click Install this driver software anyway

Soln from:  https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/disabling-driver-signature-on-windows-8/disabling-signed-driver-enforcement-on-windows-8

So after unlocking your bootLoader.

PART 3:

Download from here
AVD Rom Latest Release

Addon Archive

Kernel ftf

FIXES_FOR_AVD_1.6_V.zip

place Rom & Addon zip on externel sdcard

Download CynogenMod from here http://forum.xda-developers.com/xperia-j-e/orig-development/jlo-clockwork-mod-cyanogenmod-10-xperia-t2034639

Place the downloaded file ClockworkMod-6.0.2.5.img into the folder  C:\android-sdk\platform-tools

Instructions:

• Download ClockworkMod from the link above
• Switch off phone
• Hold Vol-UP button
• Insert USB cable, wait for blue light

On the cmd window enter the following commands (one at a time): cd C:\android-sdk\platform-tools

type:

run fastboot flash boot ClockworkMod-6.0.2.5.img

and then type

run fastboot reboot

• when the purple LED shines, press and hold the Vol-UP button

You are now in ClockworkMod Recovery!

Wipe data/factory reset, wipe cache partiton, go to advanced wipe dalvik cache. then go to mounts & storage format system.

Go to install zip from sdcard choose zip from externel sdcard. flash rom

when installation is finished go back to advanced choose fix permissions

PART 4:

Now we need to download and install flashtool 

http://www.flashtool.net/download.php

After installing it. 

The Kernel ftf  that you downloaded

"st26i_11.2.A.0.31 Kernel By Gavster26@XDA_Central Europe.ftf" needs to be extracted. 

You need to have 7Zip or any other file extracting programs.

Once you are done extracting you will find a file called kernel.sin 

follow the instructions in the video

Note: u need to browse for the kernel.sin file that you extracted.

Note:Be careful while browsing and selecting the right file, I happened to choose the wrong one and my phone would not startUp but I retried with the right file and it worked.

Now Flashing of new kernel is done.

PART 5:

Next for Addon Package: It is the same as the instructions in part 3. 

Except that here we select the addon package zip from sd card 

After that follow PART 4 (Flash the kernel again)

PART 6:

The file you downloaded FIXES_FOR_AVD_1.6_V.zip extract it and place the files on sd card.

Download Root Browser place it on ur phone SD card.

Start your phone and install the RootBrowser APK that you downloaded.

Now open it up and copy systemui.apk from the extracted files of FIXES_FOR_AVD_1.6_V.zip to /system/app give permissions rw-r-r
Note: there will already be a copy of systemui.apk rename it to sytemui_copy.apk and then push/copy the file. Tap and hold on the file for long and select permissions from the menu and give it as rw-r-r

Similarly copy  framework.jar to system/framework give permissions rw-r-r

Note: there will already be a copy of framework.jar rename it to framework.jar_copy.apk and then push/copy the file. Tap and hold on the file for long and select permissions from the menu and give it as rw-r-r

You are done.

Be careful while flashing/rooting/unlocking as the methods vary from each model.

Refer XDA forums when in doubt.

Top 5 reasons to root your Android device

1. Increase Internal memory
2. Fix any broken button
3. Better ROMS
4. Better Looks
5. Performance

If you have an Android phone and in need of any of the above for your phone. Then you need to root your android phone.

Rooting is a means of unlocking the device's capability allowing the user to have complete control.
Rooting method is different for different phone. Lookit up well before you proceed.
For more info: www.xda-developers.com/

Remove HulaToo adware manually

HulaToo is an Adware that puts ads on ur browsers and slows down ur system. It comes with unwanted downloads.


Anyways if you begin to see HulaToo ads on ur browsers its safe to remove them.

Steps:
1. Go to Control Panel and select Install/Uninstall Software and select HulaToo and Unistall it.

2. Reset ur Browsers.

3. Go to Win+R type regedit and hit ctrl + F and search for HulaToo and delete all the entries that contains this. Repeat this search and delete till there are no such entries

If the above steps does'nt work then do the following
Steps
1. Go to Win+R (run window) type services.msc

2. All the services running in your system opens up. Search for updateHulaToo.exe and utilHulaToo.exe and just to make sure look out for any name containing HulaToo in the window.

3. Now double Click on one process like updateHulaToo.exe select startUp type in the window as Disabled repeat the same for the other process i.e. utilHulaToo.exe and other services with the HulaToo in it.

4. Restart System

5. Go to MyComputer-> C Drive > ProgramFiles (x86) or ProgramFIles and delete HulaToo Folder. Later Reset ur Browsers.
6. Go to Win+R type regedit and hit ctrl + F and search for HulaToo and delete all the entries that contains this. Repeat this search and delete till there are no such entries

If u have any doubts or need assistance do as in the comment section

Consuming the Twitter API v1.1

A short tutorial on Consuming the Twitter API 1.1
Consuming Twitter API in Dot Net c#, using this you can collect tweets aggregate it to do some data-mining or for a simple widget on your website to display your recent tweets or tweets about any particular topic or entity. Here I shall show a simple way to search for tweets of a particular entity and display it on a GridView of a ASP.Net Application.

http://mashable.com/2014/04/06/game-of-thrones-social-networks/

Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service  that enables users to send and read short 140-character text messages, called "tweets"

Companies have already started using twitter as it is the new way to promote, connect and brand a company.

Why?? – Connecting with customers, InstantFeedBack, Latest News, Marketing etc

Why Twitter Analytics are Imp?

Analyzing your followers, your own activity, and what other people are talking about online are all smart ways to make sure you’re getting the most benefit out of your social media presence.

see what users are saying about your business or products, and monitor Twitter feedback as best as possible.

Twitter API v1.1 

Twitter bases its application programming interface (API) off the Representational StateTransfer (REST) architecture. 

By allowing third-party developers partial access to its API, Twitter allows them to create programs that incorporate Twitter's services.

Twitter supports a few authentication methods and with a range of OAuth authentication styles you may be wondering which method you should be using. When choosing which authentication method to use you should understand the way that method will affect your users experience and the way you write your application.

Initially Twitter had API v1 which was pretty much straight forward 

Where you constructed the url and pinged it to return ur result in JSON or XML

Then when the API was updated to v1.1 many third party apps were affected coz of it.

There are many reasons for this, like request limitations to prevent the abuse of the service.

In this article I shall focus on getting the data of a twitter home-timeline or a twitter search.

If you use the...	Send...
REST API	OAuth signed or application-only auth requests
Search API	OAuth signed or application-only auth requests
Streaming API	OAuth signed

What can it do?

Steps

Create an twitter account

Head to dev.twitter.com/apps/ and log in using your Twitter ID and password. 

Click the Create a new application button and enter the name and description of your application. The website should be a page where you can download your code but, since you’re still writing it, enter your home page URL and change it later. Leave the callback URL blank.

Next

•Create an Access Token

Click the Create my access token button at the bottom of the Details tab on your application’s page. You’ll now see various strings against:

•OAuth: Consumer key

•OAuth: Consumer secret

•Token: Access token

•Token: Access token secret

Now coming to Visual Studio

Hope you got nugget Manager if not install it from extension manager

Create a ASP Application Project.

Go to Nuget Package Manager-> Package Manager Console

In the console that will appear at the bottom of VS type in

Install-Package TweetSharp

TweetSharpis a Twitter API library that greatly simplifies the task of adding Twitter to your desktop, web, and mobile applications. You can build simple widgets, or complex application suites using TweetSharp.

using TweetSharp; // In v1.1, all API calls require authentication

var service = new TwitterService(_consumerKey, _consumerSecret);

service.AuthenticateWith(_accessToken, _accessTokenSecret); 

Here we see we need to replace the keys and tokens which we had generated earlier from the twitter website.

var tweets = service.ListTweetsOnHomeTimeline(new ListTweetsOnHomeTimelineOptions());
foreach (var tweet in tweets)
{
    Console.WriteLine("{0} says '{1}'", tweet.User.ScreenName, tweet.Text);
}

You can try out this simple app on console, that will get all the statuses from your current timeLine

Here is my app , 

A simple web app with a gridView to hold the tweets. All tweets that contains "Bruce Wayne" are searched from twitter and displayed here.

The code:

Default.aspx.cs

using TweetSharp;
 
 
namespace Tweetz
{
    public class TweetAttribs {
 
        public string imageUrl { get; set; }
        public string userName { get; set; }
        public string tweetText { get; set; }
 
 
}
 

    public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
 
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            List<TweetAttribs> tweetsList = new List<TweetAttribs>();
            var service = new TwitterService("oHLA", "OgKbtiOg");
            service.AuthenticateWith("22fwghS7T", "HMEB5jvSVve");
            var options = new SearchOptions { Q = "Bruce Wayne"  };
 
            var tweets = service.Search(options);
            foreach (var tweet in tweets.Statuses)
            {
                TweetAttribs taObj = new TweetAttribs();
                taObj.userName = tweet.User.ScreenName;
                taObj.imageUrl = tweet.User.ProfileImageUrl;
                taObj.tweetText = tweet.Text;
                tweetsList.Add(taObj);
            }
 
            GridView1.DataSource= tweetsList.ToList();
           // GridView1.BackImageUrl = "http://9to5mac.files.wordpress.com/2012/07/screen-shot-2012-07-08-at-8-45-25-pm.png";
            GridView1.DataBind();
 
        }
    }
}

note:  The keys used are samples, please generate your own and then run the code.

Default.aspx

        <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
            <Columns>
                <asp:ImageField DataImageUrlField="imageUrl" HeaderText="Pic">
                </asp:ImageField>
                <asp:BoundField DataField="userName" HeaderText="ScreenName" />
                <asp:BoundField DataField="tweetText" HeaderText="Tweet" />
            </Columns>
 
        </asp:GridView>

References:

So just with a few lines of code and with some major help from tweet sharp we were able to fetch the info we wanted.

TweetSharp simplifies things a lot.         

https://github.com/danielcrenna/tweetsharp

https://dev.twitter.com/docs/auth

Getting over the Heartbleed

Not the love life, the life Online

The simple explanation:

Heartbleed allows a hacker/attacker to have access to a random chunk of memory on the server that contains ur encryption keys or un-encrypted passwords, site data etc while the hacker remains anonymous. You would not know if it hit you.

What can the end user do???

Check if your provider/website of which you are a member of has patched the heartbleed bug. 

Here's the list of websites which have been affected by the heartbleed bug.

http://mashable.com/2014/04/09/heartbleed-bug-websites-affected/

 Just change the Password.

 Android users update ur phones.

In detail:

Transport Layer Security (TLS) and its predecessor, Secure Sockets Layer (SSL), are cryptographic protocols which are designed to provide communication security over the Internet. 

One library that implements TLS is OpenSSL.

66% of the websites use OpenSSL, so knowingly or unknowingly u have been bugged.

A few versions earlier to the current OpenSSL, the negotiation between the client and server before sending expensive data was expensive. Most of the time the packets used to get lost or corrupt due to too many requests and need to drop its end of the TLS connection.

So the guys at the OpenSSL formulated a solution. i.e A way of telling that the server is available or its currently overwhelmed by different requests.  This way of telling if the server was available was done with the help of "KEEP ALIVE" messages known as "HEARTBEATS".

How does the HEARTBEAT work?

ex: suppose you send an request as a payload "you there man" the size is 13 so the webserver to whom you requested stores the payload as well as the size 13 into its memory. So when you send the "keep-alive" request the message is sent back to the client this is done by reading the message out from the memory of the server where it was stored following 13 places(size of ur payload).So, ur connection is kept alive.

The FLAW: Heartbleed

OpenSSL library never checked that the Heartbeat payload size corresponds with the actual length of the payload being sent.  A user is allowed to input any number up to 65535 (64 kilobytes) regardless of the true size of the payload. 

So now the attacker will send an heartbeat request for 64kb even though his payload size is 13 bytes. The server will start responding to the heartbeat request by sending the first 13 bytes and  continuing upto 64kb from the server memory to the client. The data received by the client will contain encryption keys, usernames, unencrypted passwords, user information, site information etc etc . In short whatever is put onto the server memory which is relatively everything.

All this can be performed anonymously and in a repeated manner so accessing different parts of the server memory. 

The CURE:

Affected users should upgrade to OpenSSL 1.0.1g. Users unable to immediately
upgrade can alternatively recompile OpenSSL with -DOPENSSL_NO_HEARTBEATS.

1.0.2 will be fixed in 1.0.2-beta2.

--Official Statement

Check if your site is affected by using this tool by LastPASS

https://lastpass.com/heartbleed/

You need to revoke your current secret TLS keys and regenerate new ones. Coz there is no telling if you have been hit and run coz all these attacks are anonymous. 

Android users of V.4.1.1 Jellybean, need to update their phones. (Better to update all android devices irrespective of the version) Download Lookout’s Heartbleed Detector or Bluebox’s Heartbleed Scanner apps, both of which will tell you if your Android device is affected by the bug.

Change ur passwords of websites that are affected(atleast by a letter) 

Even VPN's are suffering from Heartbleed. You will have to regenerate the client certificates. http://www.pcworld.com/article/2144962/vpn-provider-proves-openvpn-private-keys-at-risk-from-heartbleed-bug.html

Don't stop there, coz even if you have patched it from the patch received from the vendor there still might be a lot of ways to steal the information. Everyone's checking and trying to find out more vulnerabilities (so should you) and a few have found too like the Reverse HeartBleed

Reverse Heartbleed

The Heartbleed bug (CVE-2014-0160)can be used to attack clients as well as servers. Many organizations have hosts which initiate outbound SSL connections (pulling updates, fetching images, or pinging webhook URLs). These hosts are often on a separate infrastructure (with different SSL dependencies) within the organization firewall. These hosts may be vulnerable to the reverse Heartbleed attack. 

This is the tool to check for it. https://reverseheartbleed.com/

Reverse Heartbleed is more tricky for the attacker however once you have patched the heartbleed the reverse heartbleed becomes more trickier.

This bug has been around for 2 years

There are claims that no hackers knew about this and it was the researchers who found about it probably the NSA and Google(since a month) knew it. 

The race is on to find the next bug. It's got a reward too. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/04/16/open_ssl_crowdfunding/

Microsoft determined that Microsoft Account, Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Yammer and Skype, along with most Microsoft Services, are not impacted by the OpenSSL “Heartbleed” vulnerability. Windows’ implementation of SSL/TLS is also not impacted. A few Services continue to be reviewed and updated with further protections. 

 References:

https://www.openssl.org/

http://mashable.com/

http://blogs.technet.com

https://xkcd.com/
http://security.stackexchange.com

Accessing values inside nested dictionaries without using FOR loop in C#

consider the following example

In the code below, find the method 'AlphabetList' in the class 'QnTwo'. There will be a list of dictionary named ‘dictList’. Using a single linq query, extract from 'dictList' a list of string that would contain all the alphabets in 'dict1', 'dict2' and 'dict3'. Do not iterate (using for, foreach etc) any of the lists or dictionaries for extracting the answer.

 public void AlphabetList()
        {
            Dictionary<int, List<string>> dict1 = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
            dict1.Add(1, new List<string>() { "a", "b", "c" });
            dict1.Add(2, new List<string>() { "d", "e", "f" });
 
            Dictionary<int, List<string>> dict2 = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
            dict2.Add(3, new List<string>() { "g", "h", "i" });
            dict2.Add(4, new List<string>() { "j", "k", "l" });
            dict2.Add(5, new List<string>() { "m", "n", "o" });
 
            Dictionary<int, List<string>> dict3 = new Dictionary<int, List<string>>();
            dict3.Add(6, new List<string>() { "p", "q", "r" });
            dict3.Add(7, new List<string>() { "s", "t", "u" });
 
            //put the tuples into a collection
            List<Dictionary<int, List<string>>> dictList = new List<Dictionary<int, List<string>>>();
            dictList.Add(dict1);
            dictList.Add(dict2);
            dictList.Add(dict3);
        }

The solution here is to use LINQ

                var s = dictList.SelectMany(x => x.SelectMany(y => y.Value));

Employer E-Sewa PF India Annexure ii upload tool

This is an unofficial tool to help ease the process of uploading Annexure ii to the e-sewa portal.
The official instructions i.e the format for upload is specified here http://www.epfindia.com/ECR/AnnexureII_ErrorCodesList_10042013.pdf

Its a lot complicated for non tech people. So to simplify things I have created an excel sheet where you need to enter the employee details and then just click on a button which will generate the file to be uploaded in the specified format by EPF India.

You should be able to do it in 5 simple steps,  let me take you step by step

Step 1: Download the excel sheet Click Here

Step 2:
These are the columns you ll need to enter into the excel sheet

Open the excel sheet you will find the same columns 

So start filling your employees details, I shall fill the employee Anil Singh on my sheet

Step 3: 
Click on the generate file button.

Step 4:

Enter the path for the file to be stored along with the filename with the extension .txt

ex: d:\FileToBeUploaded.txt and click on Ok

Step 5:

Go to the destination folder/ drive whatever you gave in the above step and open it

Check if all the records are there and then just upload it in the portal.

Important: Every time you plan on using this sheet, use a fresh one, don't use previously entered sheets.

                Before uploading the text file you need to make sure there are no extra lines in the file.

If any doubts or clarifications mention them in the comments, I shall respond. If any errors in upload, epf provides the error codes etc,  post them too in the comments.

Later I shall cover the code of the Macro.