Sandeep Hegde

Getting Started with Your-Freedom Software

// February 18th, 2010 // View Comments // Software, Tutorials & How to's

I have explained briefly about Your Freedom in my last post “Your-Freedom – Bypass Restrictive Firewalls and Filters”. In this post we shall see how to configure Your Freedom and use Your Freedom software, with live screenshots and details. If you have any queries please comment at the end.

1 Registration process

Your first step in using the service is to register on web site. You need to visit http://www.your-freedom.net/ and create an account there. There is a link underneath the login and password form fields in the red part of the banner.

On the registration page, choose a username (preferably one that is not likely already used) and provide a password.

Once you’ve filled everything in, click on the “Create account” button. You will be asked to confirm your details by clicking on “Create account now”.

Within a few minutes you should receive an email containing an activation link. Activate your account by clicking on the link in the email (or cut&paste it into your browser).

What if you cannot access the web page because it’s blocked? Well, it’s a hen and egg problem then. Either ask someone else to create an account for you (or do it from somewhere else) and modify it later, or obtain the client software from another source than our server, and use the username “unregistered” and the password “unregistered” in it. This account will only provide access to Your Freedom web page, however. Alternatively, if you are able to send an email to the customer support, ask them to create an account for you. Just write to info@your-freedom.net telling them about your problem, suggest a username (please limit yourself to ASCII letters and numbers, dashes and underscores) and a password, and ask them to email you the client software (please state which type you’d like, read getting and installing client software ). If all the odds are against you and you can’t get the client software from anywhere else they’ll mail you a CD as well.

2 Getting and installing the client software

Once you’ve created an account you may use it to log in on the web page. This will give you access to the Download section of the page. Log in, then click on “Downloads”.  There are several ways to run the Your Freedom client, and consequently there is more than one download option:

• Windows Installer Windows users who already have a suitable Java Runtime Environment3 installed on their system and who have enough rights to install software should be able to use this version. The download is about 1 megabyte in size. If you are unable to download files ending in .exe, try to copy the link location and paste it in the URL field of a new browser window, then change the .exe to .txt.

• Windows Full Installer This version comes bundled with a JRE of its own so there are no prerequisites. Every Windows user should be able to use this one, provided that you may install software on your PC. The download is rather fat, about 28 megabytes. Again, this is an .exe file, try changing the ending to .txt if this is a problem. A benefit of this version is that it’s compiled to native code and will probably consume less resources.

Both Windows installer versions are installed by running the .exe file. Just follow the instructions in the installer and you should be done in a minute.

If you are not running Windows or if you cannot install software on your PC, your best choice is the Java archive version. Download the ZIP file and extract the contents into a folder to which you may write. This could also be a memory stick, or a CDROM, by the way. Then run the Java interpreter with the “freedom.jar” file. With Windows it’s usually enough if you double-click on the JAR file, but you may want to open a “cmd” window instead, “cd” to the directory and run “javaw –jar freedom.jar” instead. On Unix boxes you’d normally use “java –jar freedom.jar” or “kaffe –jar freedom.jar” or something similar; Unix users normally know.

Your Freedom also offers a Mac OSX installer version but  it might be less current than the others. You should be able to use the Java archive version on your Mac without problems – OSX is built on Unix and ships with a pre-installed JRE.

Alternatively  all files are also available from http://mediafire.com/yourfreedom.

Here is the screenshots of installation of Your freedom on Windows 7 operating System :

Generally, the Java archive version of the Your Freedom client should run on every computer that has a suitable JRE – and enough memory. We love to hear from you if you’ve managed to run it on an exotic piece of hardware (or in an unusual place)!

3 Connecting for the first time

When you start the Your Freedom client application for the first time, you’ll be presented with a “wizard”. It’s safe not to use it and enter all required information manually, but if you are unsure, give it a try first. Manual configuration may be required in difficult connection scenarios.

Now let’s assume that you are using the wizard. It will first present a Welcome page:

Do as you are told and click on the “Next” button. You’ll see this page:

If your Internet connection is through a web proxy, enter the details here. If you are unsure, try to click “Next” first. If all you get is an empty list of available servers like this:

(ignore the “auto-choose best” part) you need to figure out about your web proxy (or configure everything manually, e.g. if you want to use an FTP proxy!). If you get this:

then you’ve filled in the proxy details properly but you need to authenticate on the proxy. Click on “Next”…

… and fill in suitable login credentials. In many cases this will be your Windows Domain login (don’t forget to fill in the domain as well!). Just try until it works, you can click “Next” to try.

If you see this page:

it means that you have not provided a working proxy configuration. Click on “Back” and modify the hostname/IP address and/or the port setting. Many proxies “listen” on port 80, 8080 or 3128, to name the most popular ports. Check your web browser’s configuration, it should be able to tell you.

Oh by the way, if you find that the wizard has the proxy details already filled in, then it’s not magic – it just found them in your PC’s registry and probably has made life easier for you.

Let’s assume you’ve been able to make it work. (If not, please ask a knowledge person around you how you can use the web proxy, or try a manual configuration). It worked if you see something like this:

It’s important that you see a “yes” or a number in any of the columns HTTP, HTTPS, FTP or UDP. A “yes” means that the client has been able to use this protocol to connect to the server using the default port settings, a number would mean that it has been able to connect but on a different port, and a “no” means that the protocol could not be used to connect to this server. The results are sorted by preference (a number between 0 and 10), it indicates how well the server fits your requirements (if you’ve set any). Choose a server (any will do for now, unless it’s all “no” – don’t use “auto-choose best”), then click on “Next”.

On this page, enter your Your Freedom username and password; it’s the same you used to download the client from our web page. Click on “Next”.

It seems you’re done now! Click on “Save and Exit”. The main window of the Your Freedom client should now look like this:

Note that the client just doesn’t know anything about the server and your account’s profile before you’ve connected to the server, that’s why some of the values seem to be somewhat odd (including the bandwidth – it’s not unlimited unless you’ve bought a package). Click on “Start connection” and you should see something like this after a few seconds:

Note that all the details are now filled in, and the bandwidth reads “64.0k”. That’s kilobits, about the speed of an ISDN connection or a bit faster than with a high-speed modem. Click on “Account Profile” now.

This panel contains your account details. Without a package, you may not use any special servers (just the default ones), your bandwidth is limited, your maximum number of simultaneous streams is rather low and you may not relay connections from other PCs that use your PC as proxy. Your server connection will be terminated after 60 minutes (but you may reconnect when it happens). No server ports are assigned to you so none of them are forwarded to you. But at least, there are no access restrictions, you may access everything on the Internet.4

OK, time to configure your applications. Once you’ve set up at least a web browser to use Your Freedom the main objective should be reached: you should be able to access the web freely!

4 Configure applications – Automatically

Windows users can simply click on the “Applications” tab and see something like this:

This is a list of applications whose configurations can be modified automatically by Your Freedom. The ones that are installed on your system have working checkboxes, the other ones are greyed out. Tick the ones you wish to use with Your Freedom, then click “OK”. You’ll see something like this:

Hope it’s all successful! Then click “OK”. To restore the previous configuration of your applications, choose “Restore”, then tick the ones you would like to restore, and click “OK”. Note that applications that you’ve configured to use Your Freedom will only work properly if the Your Freedom connection to the server is up and running. Also, don’t forget to restore all your settings before de-installing the Your Freedom client!

To manually configure your applications, have a look at the Ports tab first:

This tells you that your local PC is now acting as a SOCKS4/5 proxy on port 1080 and as a Web Proxy on port 8080. To change these values, untick the service, then modify the port, then re-activate (this can be done on-the-fly!). “Relay for others” will only work with some packages.

If for some reason you cannot configure your applications from within the Your Freedom client, you need to manually configure them to use web proxy “localhost” on port “8080” or SOCKS proxy “localhost” on port “1080” (if you’ve got the choice, use SOCKS version 5).

Where are I find more details?

Visit the Docs & FAQ’s section at http://www.your-freedom.net/index.php?id=doc

Stay tuned to this blog to know more about You Freedom and similar software’s. Do not forget to Subscribe to my RSS Feeds and follow me on Twitter.

If you have any queries please comment below.

Happy Valentines Day

// February 14th, 2010 // View Comments // My Zone

Happy Valentines Day!!

Or for some of you, not so happy valentines day.

For me? Oh well, it doesn’t effect me all that much. Its just another day

Valentines day for some people is a day of love, joy, unity, and happiness . But for others its a day for pressure, tears, and heartbreak. Sometimes we’re all so quick to jump and forget about those that really don’t have anyone. And for that, I tell you all Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Shivratri

// February 12th, 2010 // View Comments // My Zone

About Maha Shivratri :
Maha Shivratri or Maha Sivaratri or Shivaratri or Sivaratri (Night of Shiva or “Great Night of Shiva”) is a festival celebrated every year on the 13th night/14th day in the Krishna Paksha (waning moon) of the month of Maagha (as per Shalivahana or Gujarati Vikrama) or Phalguna (as per Vikrama) in the Hindu Calendar (that is, the night before and day of the new moon). The festival is principally celebrated by offerings of Bael (Bilva) leaves to the Lord Shiva, all day fasting and an all night long vigil.

Per scriptural and discipleship traditions, the penances are performed in order to gain boons in the practice of Yoga and meditation, in order to reach the goal more swiftly and avoid rebirth.

Mayank Sharma – Brain Behind SMStweet.in

// February 6th, 2010 // View Comments // Interviews

As I have stated in my earlier post SMStweet – Tweet using SMS in India, I’m finally here with the interview of Mayank Sharma, the brain behind SMStweet. It took me quite a few days to get the information from Mayank Sharma, due to his busy schedules. Living it asides here we go with my interaction with Mayank Sharma.

* Let know more about you.

I have started a company called ezeecoupons. We intend to provide discount and offers over mobile phone as a simple SMS. People will be able to search for discount vouchers in stores that they are interested in. We have launched a prototype version of it in a Bangalore locality called Jayanagar. I like to read a lot love trekking. But these days most of my time is taken up by my daughter Raina, so don’t have time for other things.

* How and when did you get idea of starting smstweet?

Twitter was initially intended to be used on mobile phone originally. The simplicity of twitter made it so addictive that people started using on the internet as well. And it is on the internet that it found its adoption. If you start tweeting, you realize that it is so addictive that you want to keep on doing it even when you are not in front of your computer. Hence the need for it had always been. And then sometime in October I got introduced to a friend who told me about smsgupshups API’s. The moment I heard about it, I immediately grabbed an account there, and SMSTweet was born. Call it by bad luck or what, but the day I was testing out my application I heard the big news about Airtel providing Twitter access on mobile phone at 1 rupee.

* How did you get started?

As I said, I just got a demo account with smsgupshup and in couple of days implemented a basic version of SMSTweet. Thereafter just fixed bugs and made it more robust.

* How is smstweet built?

SMSTweet runs on Google Appengine. I used python to code the entire application. SMSTweet uses SMSGupshup’s SMS gateway to receive messages. I map the phone number from which the message is received to the correct Twitter user and post it on their behalf using Twitter’s open API.

* How was response of people initially?

Initial response was quite disheartening. Apparently no one in my circle of friends was as twitadict as I was and hence no one was actually using it. Almost a month later couple of people found out about it and they started using it. Most of them blogged about that helped SMSTweet reach out to a wide audience. In one sense it grew virally from that point onwards.

* Who are the key people/supporters behind?

From technical point of view, there is no one supporting me. It’s a fairly small piece of software so I don’t think I require any help from that perspective. Rohit helped me out with the design of website. He also reviews my code and keeps me honest with the code that I write. Other than that a large part of credit goes to all the bloggers who blogged about it. Seriously if not for those bloggers, hardly a handful of people would have know about SMSTweet.

* Why have not you provided local numbers beyond Mumbai and Bangalore?

These local numbers actually do not belong to me. They belong to SMSGupshup and I am just sharing it with them. It is upto SMSgupshup to add more cities so that a lot more people can use it as local SMS. I have contacted SMSGupshup and they said they will tell me if they decide to add more cities. But I don’t think lack of local numbers is a hindrance. Most of the mobile operators provide free local/STD sms plans for negligible account. So if you have one, you can virtually use SMSTweet for Free.

* What are your future plans?

I will keep on adding features as and when I have time. The usability of SMSTweet is quite restricted as the application does not initiate a SMS to a user. It only listens to SMS from users and responds to it. I have made this conscious decision because from the day one, I had decided I’ll not spend money on this tool. Google Appengine is free for me. SMSGupshup charges nominal amount to keep the account alive. And I don’t send out any outgoing SMS’es from my account. In this restrictive environment it is quite hard to innovate. But let’s see if we get some good ideas, I will implement them.

* Anything else you would like share with our readers

I would really like to thank everyone who has promoted SMSTweet either through blog or on  twitter. Without any marketing budget that is the only way to reach out to your audience. So I hope people keep on using it, send me feedback and if some one gets a wacko idea, share it with me so I can see if I can implement it.

This was my first experience of taking someone’s interview(anyways had experience of being interviewed !). This was an essential step to keep by blog unique. The interview series will continue in the coming days, letting you aware of unknown personalities. Your feedback and suggestions are welcome. Do not forget to Subscribe to my RSS Feeds and follow me on Twitter.

Top Ten Interview Tips

// February 4th, 2010 // View Comments // Educational

Great interviews arise from careful groundwork. You can ace your next interview if you:

1.    Enter into a state of relaxed concentration. This is the state from which great basketball players or Olympic skaters operate. You’ll need to quiet the negative self chatter in your head through meditation or visualization prior to sitting down in the meeting. You’ll focus on the present moment and will be less apt to experience lapses in concentration, nervousness, self-doubt and self-condemnation.

2.    Act spontaneous, but be well prepared. Be your authentic self, professional yet real. Engage in true conversation with your interviewer, resting on the preparation you did prior to coming to the meeting. Conduct several trial runs with another person simulating the interview before it actually occurs. It’s the same as anticipating the questions you’ll be asked on a final exam.

3.    Set goals for the interview. It is your job to leave the meeting feeling secure that the interviewer knows as much as he or she possibly can about your skills, abilities, experience and achievements. If you sense there are misconceptions, clear them up before leaving. If the interviewer doesn’t get around to asking you important questions, pose them yourself (diplomatically) and answer them. Don’t leave the meeting without getting your own questions answered so that you have a clear idea of what you would be getting yourself into. If possible, try to get further interviews, especially with other key players.

4.    Know the question behind the question. Ultimately, every question boils down to, “Why should we hire you?” Be sure you answer that completely. If there is a question about your meeting deadlines, consider whether the interviewer is probing delicately about your personal life, careful not to ask you whether your family responsibilities will interfere with your work. Find away to address fears if you sense they are present.

5.    Follow up with an effective “thank you” letter. Don’t write this letter lightly. It is another opportunity to market yourself. Find some areas discussed in the meeting and expand upon them in your letter. Writing a letter after a meeting is a very minimum. Standing out among the other candidates will occur if you thoughtfully consider this follow up letter as an additional interview in which you get to do all the talking. Propose useful ideas that demonstrate your added value to the team.

6.    Consider the interviewer’s agenda. Much is on the shoulders of the interviewer. He or she has the responsibility of hiring the right candidate. Your ability to do the job will need to be justified. “Are there additional pluses here?” “Will this person fit the culture of this organization?” These as well as other questions will be heavily on the interviewer’s mind. Find ways to demonstrate your qualities above and beyond just doing the job.
7.    Expect to answer the question, “Tell me about yourself.” This is a pet question of prepared and even unprepared interviewers. Everything you include should answer the question, “Why should we hire you?” Carefully prepare your answer to include examples of achievements from your work life that closely match the elements of the job before you. Obviously, you’ll want to know as much about the job description as you can before you respond to the question.

8.    Watch those nonverbal clues. Experts estimate that words express only 30% to 35% of what people actually communicate; facial expressions and body movements and actions convey the rest. Make and keep eye contact. Walk and sit with a confident air. Lean toward an interviewer to show interest and enthusiasm. Speak with a well-modulated voice that supports appropriate excitement for the opportunity before you.

9.    Be smart about money questions. Don’t fall into the trap of telling the interviewer your financial expectations. You may be asking for too little or too much money and in each case ruin your chances of being offered the job. Instead, ask what salary range the job falls in. Attempt to postpone a money discussion until you have a better understanding of the scope of responsibilities of the job.

10.    Don’t hang out your dirty laundry. Be careful not to bare your soul and tell tales that are inappropriate or beyond the scope of the interview. State your previous experience in the most positive terms. Even if you disagreed with a former employer, express your enthusiasm for earlier situations as much as you can. Whenever you speak negatively about another person or situation in which you were directly involved, you run the risk (early in the relationship) of appearing like a troubled person who may have difficulty working with others.

Happy Republic Day

// January 26th, 2010 // View Comments // My Zone

On this great day, I wish every Indian a VERY HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY. Let us all make India a strong nation to respect our heroes of freedom fighting struggle of over 150 years.

[Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/satpalravi/3226181572/ ]

Today, Republic of India has turned 61, very young country, but amazing. Its people are shining India and building a strong nation. We have done very well in last six decades, come very far in short time. Now, we are a nuclear power, we build our own planes, ships, satellite, etc. India is shining like no one in the region. In spite of being a fast merging super power, India has pursued and advocated peace in the region.

[Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vineeth_pulari/368664789/ ]

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HAPPY REPUBLIC DAY
Jai Hind

Happy Sankranti

// January 14th, 2010 // View Comments // My Zone

Happy Sankranti to everyone

Sankranti or Sat Kranti which means ‘good movement’ is the transimigration of sun from one zodiac to another. Most of us celebrate this as a harvest festival too.Whoever celebrates it  as the harvest festival  should thank Earth for blessing us with fertile land so that we can sustain ourselves.

Makar Sankranti is one of the most auspicious occasions for the Hindus, and is celebrated in almost all parts of the country in myriad cultural forms, with great devotion, fervour & gaiety. It is a harvest festival. Makar Sankranti is perhaps the only Indian festival whose date always falls on the same day every year i.e. the 14th of January.

Makar Sankranti is the day when the glorious Sun-God begins its ascendancy and entry into the Northern Hemisphere and thus it signifies an event wherein the Sun-God seems to remind their children that ‘Tamaso Ma Jyotir Gamaya’, may you go higher & higher, to more & more Light and never to Darkness.

To Hindus, the Sun stands for knowledge, spiritual light and wisdom. Makar Sankranti signifies that we should turn away from the darkness of delusion in which we live, and begin to enjoy a new life with bright light within us to shine brighter and brighter. We should gradually begin to grow in purity, wisdom, and knowledge, even as the Sun does from the Day of Makar Sankranti.

The festival of Makar Sankranti is highly regarded by the Hindus from North to down South. The day is known by various names and a variety of traditions are witnessed as one explores the festival in different states.

Makar Sankranti is observed and celebrated throughout India by all communities but with slight variations in the festivities.

Uttar Pradesh: In Uttar Pradesh, Sankranti is called ‘Khichiri’. It is an important bathing date during the famous Magh Mela and Kumbh Mela at Sangam (Prayag) in Allahabad.

West Bengal: It is known as Gangasagar Mela in Bengal and on the particular day people come from all over India for a ceremonial cleansing in the river Hooghly, near Kolkata.

Tamil Nadu:
In Tamil Nadu, Makar Sankranti is known by the name of ‘Pongal’. It is very popular particularly amongst farmers. Rice and pulses cooked together in ghee and milk is offered to the family deity after the ritual worship.

Andhra Pradesh:
In Andhra Pradesh, it is celebrated as a three-day harvest festival, known as Sankranthi.

Maharashtra:
In Maharashtra, on the Sankranti day, people exchange multi-colored tilguds made from til (sesame seeds) and sugar and til-laddus made from til and jaggery.

Assam:
Bhogali Bihu is celebrated on the day in Assam.

Punjab:
In Punjab where December and January are the coldest months of the year, huge bonfires are lit on the eve of Makar Sankranti and which is celebrated as “Lohri”.

In Central India, it is known as Sankranti.

In Gujarat and Rajasthan, it is known as Uttarayan and is noted for the kite flying event.

Traditionally, this period is considered an auspicious time and the veteran Bhishma of Mahabharata chose to die during this period. Bhishma fell to the arrows of Arjuna. With his boon to choose the time of his death, he waited on a bed of arrows to depart from this world only during this period. It is believed that those who die in this period have no rebirth.

For the people in the Indo Gangetic plain, the day begins with taking dips in the Ganges and offering water to the Sun-God. The dip is said to purify  the self and bestow ‘punya’. Special Puja is offered as a thanksgiving for good harvest

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Til and rice are two important ingredients of this festival. In the rice-eating belt of Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh, people have a special rice-centric meal on this day.

In Makar Sankranti, women prepare laddus or other sweets of Til & Gur and offer them to friends & relatives. It symbolizes a ‘Well-being Prayer for all’ gets manifested in action & deeds.

Blogging Goals for 2010

// January 3rd, 2010 // View Comments // My Zone

I have been into blogging almost since a year. This site sandeephegde.me is the take two of my blogging episode. With these days of blogging, it has almost become my passion. With this new starting I have decided to set some goals for this site for the year 2010. Here they go :

• Increasing posting frequency 2-3 posts a week
• Keep readers updated with regular tweets
• Increase the average comments per post to 10
• Average 2,000 daily page views (Currently at 500)
• Reach 5000 RSS Subscribers (Currently 900+)
• Enter the Alexa Top 1,00,000
• Achieve Google Pagerank above 4
• To be a widely cited  blog in the blogosphere
• Generate atleast $100 in monthly revenues
• To develop a strong and vibrant community around

Highlighting the goals for 2010, gives me extra motivation to work and help this site grow. A big thanks to all readers and supporters of this blog. If you guys have any ideas, or suggestions as to what you want me to write about in 2010, please let me know in the comment section.

Well, thanks to Karthik from DailyApps for inspiring me to list out my goals for 2010

Happy New Year 2010

// January 1st, 2010 // View Comments // My Activities, My Works, My Zone

Happy New Year to everyone. Have a great, fortune filled New Year !

[ Photo Credit : lovegrafik ]

Every New Year almost everyone makes a resolution. Whether he or she sticks to it or not, is a different thing. But most resolutions are broken in just a few days or months. Since we’re getting to that time of year when everyone starts to think about the New Year and reflect upon the changes they would like to make in their lives, I’ll confess to you my New Year’s resolution.

• New site !

This is my first resolution, which is to be completed on the 1st day of the new year. I think I’m done with it by opening up this site sandeephegde.me on 1st January 2010. This personal site is a collection of my life stream, blog posts, photo’s and more…. Checkout this cool video which says all about it :

Browse around to see my stuff and do not forget to subscribe to my feeds.

• Blog Regularly

I’m 100% confident of achieving this at least. I have been blogging regularly on PingSense.com since a year, and blogging has almost become my passion. But still it takes some time to write genuine content (its really easy to copy paste ! )  As of now I plan to make at least one post every week may it be personal, technology, or anything comes to my mind. I’m just going unleash my thoughts. Be updated by subscribing to my feeds.

• Get out of computer addiction

I spent WAY too much time in front of my computer — an unhealthy amount of time actually. So this year I’m resolving to break the psychological shackles of 24-7 access to technology…  Anyone else facing a similar conundrum? Any words of advice? Leave ‘em in the comments please – I need help!

• Differentiate work and personal life

My family and friends complain about it all the time. I have been spending holidays for work, instead of going home. I think I have realized I need to go home some times at least !  This may not be possible immediately since I have to manage study and work load simultaneously. With the due course of time(may be second half of this year) I aim to reclaim my (non screen – non business) life.

• Health Care

This is the most neglected thing in my life. Yet I rarely fall ill. I really don’t know the secret my health. I don’t wont to take risk by letting it just like that, especially after extracting one of my tooth few months ago. (It was supposed to be extracted from past 3 years, I neglected since it was not giving any pain) Here after I’m going to get up early morning and go for an walk. Will try to eat only healthy foods( Its really hard !) I think this should be more than enough to start with

• Better Time & Task Management

Sometime I do feel that 24 hours a day is very less. Life has been almost hectic all the time. Imagine I have built this site while my semester exams are going on ! I have been good at both time and task management , but still there is lot more to improvise. I’m already using sticky paper notes, reminders on mobile etc. I’m going to split up all my activities, assigning some time and some priority to each. I’m also trying out find better ways, like to do lists, mind map tools, use of project management tool etc. Please provide your suggestions through comments.

I think these resolutions( if implemented !) will make a lot of changes in my life. Now am curious if you have any healthy resolutions for 2010, so speak up and share them in the comments section below. No resolution is too big or too small to share. I want to hear them all.

CAT 2010

// December 16th, 2009 // View Comments // Educational

As you all know the CAT went online this year and it has been quite a ride… Below are possible changes that you can expect in 2010 as a result of this years learning’s….

1. IIM-Prometric tie up has been terminated. Applications are invited for new test partners. As of now the top contender seems to be PVR Cinemas who claims to handle more traffic in a day than the IIM does during the entire season. PVR CEO Mr Bijili in a statement said that PVR is the right choice for the CAT given their “expertise” in the Online system. The students will now be able to order pop corn as they take their CAT.

2. In case your servers crash.. Don’t panic.. The popular “Orkut” message will now be replaced with – “YES – Both Donuts and Pepsi for you”

3. Sharad Pawar has been made Managing Director of the IIMs with immediate effect. Lalit Modi will be his deputy and together they plan to make CAT 2010 a bigger success than the IPL. The CAT will now follow a standard 20-20 pattern with power plays and refreshment breaks…

4. Our very own favorite Dr Vijay Mallya has announced the start of his yet un named MBA Training institute. Katrina Kaif will be the brand ambassador for this venture and if rumors are to be believed Yana Gupta will take classes on shapes, curves and figures….

5. Mallya Sir also plans to bring back to India, all previous years CAT question papers that Prometric had stolen and planned to auction in various 3rd World countries like Azerbaijan and Bosnia and Herzegovina.

6. IIM has come out with a press statement rubbishing reports that the servers crash was due to over load or a virus attack for that matter. IIMs have a strong reason to suspect an ISI involvement in this daring attack on the future of every Indian student and there might have even been some funding by the Chinese.

7. Next years CAT might very well be conducted in Kabul under the protection of the Taliban. All those who return home are promised an IIM seat.

8. Director of one of the Symbiosis Institutes (Symbi Inst of Mis Communication SIMC) has come out telling that CAT is all rubbish and that SNAP is the most competitive exam in the country. This has infuriated the director of Lovely Professional University who claims no one can match their selection process.

9. Symbiosis Group of Institutes to be very soon renamed Symbiosis Group of Companies. Plan to buy a few more hills lakes villages and slums and turn them into – “Education Destinations”

10. Deadline for SNAP 2009 has been extended for the 8th time this year. A note on the site says (yes you know it) Too many applicants so the servers are busy. At this rate SNAP will possibly have problems of seating suring the exam. The last date is 31 Dec 2009 now. The exam will be conducted on Dec 20th.

Credits : Samarth [http://www.fakingnews.com/2009/11/cat-servers-hacked-students-asked-extremely-personal-questions/]