Resolve the hostname in ping command

In Linux, we use the "ping" command to ping the hostname or the IP address directly. But what if you wanted to know the hostname of the system when you ping using the IP address? This would be very useful in resolving the IP to hostname while debugging in a local network.

$ ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=40.4 ms

Just use an additional '.' at the end of the IP to resolve it to hostname.

$ ping 8.8.8.8.
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8) 56(84) bytes of data.
64 bytes from google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8): icmp_seq=1 ttl=57 time=25.0 ms
64 bytes from google-public-dns-a.google.com (8.8.8.8): icmp_seq=2 ttl=57 time=36.9 ms

URL Magic - Rare IP address notations

URL (Uniform Resource Locator). We might have heard in this WWW era. Forgetting the intricate details of its implementation, an URL simply means a web address. The RFC of the URI can be found here. This post is just about its rare formats. (For details, refer to the section 7.4 in the RFC)

Rare formats
These rare formats are just for fun. This is not widely used because, it's hard for people to remember and you have to decode it everytime. Nevertheless, this is a good way to hide bookmarks or you can use it as prank with your friends.

Hexadecimal and octal notation
Get the IP address of your favorite website by pinging it. Convert each octet into different format. Paste it in the URL area of the browser. It would still work.
For instance, pinging google.com gives this IP 173.194.113.168 for me. This is the cryptic notation of the same IP. This would still work. :-)

http://0xad.0xc2.0161.168

How about this?

http://0XADC271A8
http://2915201448

The above are 32-bit representation of the IP addresses. Every octet is just represented in its hexadecimal form. In the second format the hexadecimal number is converted to an Integer.

Another notation is that the IP address is split into two parts.

http://0xad.0xC271A8

In the above, the first octet is interpreted as it is and the rest are just coalesced into one.

It's really fun to know about this. Start fooling your friends ;-)

Indian internet censorship

Very recently Reliance made a move smooching with the Department of Telecom to block access to some sites like thepiratebay.org and pastebin.com.
The block is originating from Reliance antiabuse helpdesk with a static ip: 115.248.224.100. This might vary with 115.248.x.x as they might have some other servers for this blockage.

The highlight is they've blocked vimeo.com, but not youtube.com. These ambani assholes have a team playing in the gamble(IPL). Youtube with courtesy and some shit load of money from the gamblers are broadcasting it. May be the ambani's don't want to block that and would have bribed Department of Telecom? Hey come on!, Everything in India can be negotiated. After all its money.

Reliance netconnect frequent disconnect solution

Recently I bought a Reliance netconnect+ despite the fact that it sucks. I noticed the strange behavior which made the connection to interrupt very frequently when it is idle. The only trick that came to my mind is ping.
Ok, enough of preening about my achievement. Lets make this work.

1. Press "win + r" key to open the "Run.." dialog box
2. Type "cmd" and press enter. (without the quotes). This opens up the command prompt.
3. ping -t google.com -l 1
Copy the above and paste it and press enter. This will start pinging the server so as to keep the connections always active. The above command sends a meager number of bytes, i.e., "only one". So don't worry about this eating up your bandwidth.

Though this didn't solve the problem 100%, it will atleast stop you from shouting "WTF is this?".
I'm yet to find a graceful way of doing the above, i.e., automating it with scripts. With an initial try it shooted up my cpu % to 20. I'm yet to figure out what is causing it by shouting at my windows 7 laptop, "WTF is cpu % figures?". I am quite happy that I'm not shouting about the Reliance netconnect+ anymore.

Is google+ a privacy threat?

Google is working on a feature which enables users in your circles to see what you have seen.
See the below video

Share your comments!

Google transliterate in your desktop

Easy way to type your local languages on your desktop.
1) Download this
    http://www.google.com/ime/transliteration/
2) Install it.
3) Press alt+shift to switch between languages

Pros:
Using this you can type your native language in any application. (say word, notepad++ etc)
No internet connection required
Inbuilt dictionary available

Cons:
Works only on Windows

Unfuddle with git

Some projects involve portions or full of proprietary code.
If so, wanted to share your sources and collaborate with a developer online?
You can use unfuddle.com. It is easy to create an account. You can either use SVN or git as your version control system. Both free and paid accounts are available for use. Once registered, you'll get a personalized name such as 'example.unfuddle.com'

Disclaimer: In free version, there is no SSL security. So, if you are so much concerned about the security, stop using it for your code. But you can always give a try to see how it is.