General Aptitude -- an area of controversy

As it appears, GA is very vast field, encompassing almost every thing one can think of. So are the questions of this category.
But the point of concern is what should be the solutions of these questions.While solving GA questions, often you find yourself in the position where more than one logic works. And to make the situation even worse, the options given for the question has all those.
One similar thing happened in 2010 GATE paper.

Question was :
If 137 + 276 = 435 how much is 731 + 672 ?
a) 534 b) 1403 c) 1623 d) 1513

Solution 1:
Just by looking at the numbers one notices that all of them are less than 8. So try the base 8 and it works. 137 + 276 = 435 in base 8. So answer will be 1623 for 731 + 672.

Isnt that super easy?. But wait, some people who didnt get this tried a different approach.
Solution 2 :
137 + 276 = 435
Now, reverse each number:- 731 + 672 = 534.

Well some people may come with all other logic for other options too.

But the problem is still there, what should be the correct answer? What should one answer when he is writing the exam?

Well, people say, answer should be the one which is most general of all. But this statement is itself ambiguous. How you define the general ?
Clearly, for a student of digital logic answer 1 appears more general but to others answer 2.
On various GATE forums people are having debates over this question. All types of arguments are put forward like GA is aptitude not logic, Numbers are inherently decimal not octal.
These arguments are not limited to this question only. These are questioning the scope of this limitless area.

Send Unlimited size Free SMS via IndyaRocks

All the existing free SMS services comes with the constraint on the length of the SMS you can send. Like

• 160by2 allows only 80 characters + 80 characters of Ads(This annoys me, so I donot use it)
• Indyarocks allows 140 characters

So, here is a simple hack which will allow you to send unlimited size SMS via Indyarocks.
While going through the source page of the Indyarocks I discovered that it uses Client-side validation of the length of the SMS. So we will be exploiting this fact in this hack.

Step -1 -> Login to your Indyarocks account.
Step -2 -> Go to the Send SMS page.
Step -3 -> View the source code of the page (Ctrl + U or View->Page Source).
Step -4 -> Save it on your system with html extension(say sms.html).
Step -5 -> Open sms.html in text editor.
Step -6 -> Search for function chngcnt. It is a JS function. Look for the number in the if conditions of this function. It will be 130 or 140, change this to some high number say 9999.
Step -7 -> Search for function sendfreemsg(). Do same here too, change 140 to some high number.
Step -8 -> Copy the address from your address bar of the indyarocks page(leaving sms.php). In my case it is http://www.indyarocks.com/mvas
Step -9 -> Search for send_msgs.php in the sms.html and append http://www.indyarocks.com/mvas to it in the front, so that it becomes http://www.indyarocks.com/mvas/send_msgs.php
Step-10-> Now open sms.html in the browser and send the SMSs

In this, the javascript utilities like address from phone book doesnot work. To enable them correct the link to .js files by adding http://www.indyarocks.com to the address.
Also, this works only for the SMS to Non-members option of Indyarocks.
Now, you can use this page whenever you need to send the SMS. You will only be needed to login to your Indyarocks account in another tab. (Site doesnot uses any local session variables, another demerit of the website).
Happy SMSing in New Year

My First Hack into Netbeans

This post describes how to develop a simple macro for Netbeans to comment and uncomment the selected text. By default the purpose is done by a inbuilt template in Netbeans. To comment the selected text using this template follow :

• Select the text to be commented.
• Press Alt+Enter. A drop-down menu will come. Select Surround with /*$selection*/

This method becomes cumbersome when you keep adding your own Templates.(How to develop your own Template in another post :P ) NetBeans allows you to develop your own macros to perform such tasks.

• Go to Tools -> Options.
• In Options select the Editor -> Macros tab.
• Now Click New. A pop-up will come. Enter the macro name Comment .
  
• A new entry in the macro table is entered. Select the entry and paste the following code in the Macro Code window.

select-identifier cut-to-clipboard caret-begin-line insert-break "/*" insert-break delete-previous delete-previous paste-from-clipboard insert-break remove-line "*/" insert-break

• Set Shortcut Alt+Q (or anything you like)

Comment macro is created. Similarly create uncomment macro. Paste following code in the Macro Code window:
select-identifier last-non-white remove-line cut-to-clipboard caret-begin-line paste-from-clipboard first-non-white remove-line remove-line

• Set shortcut Shift+Alt+Q (or anything you like)
• Click Ok.

Now both the macros are created. To use them Select the text from the editor and press Alt+Q to comment and press Shift+Alt+Q to uncomment the commented code. Here is the list of elementary macro functions. You can develop your own using these link.

Enjoy NetBeans :)

Multiuser Gtalk

You can customize Gtalk to allow multiple login from a computer.
All you have to do is to goto the installed gtalk.exe or goto Start Menu right click Gtalk -> Properties
add /nomutex to the Target.

Now restart Gtalk. You can run multiple instances now.

The Cow Theories

Last nite I was watching the movie Someone Like You. It was based on the New Cow Theory as mentioned (here) and its analogy to the Humans.
So, I googled the so called Cow Theory and what I found is different but equally interesting ...
The Theory goes like this ......
Here is the hypothetical situation: Your neighbor has 3 cows, you have one cow. How do different economic systems deal with this situation?
Communism: The government takes two cows away from your neighbor and sends them into orbit to prove the communist system is better. Your neighbor is sent to Siberia for being a landowner. You are sent to Siberia for being a troublemaker. The capitalists, shocked about the orbiting cows, are spurred into action and land cows on the moon a few years later. Your economy cannot compete and dissolves into chaos.
American capitalism: The person with 3 cows becomes rich by renting one of his cows to you. Then he takes his cow back and uses the profit to buy your cow from you, leaving him with 4 cows and you with none.
European capitalism: The government discovers that cows cause global warming and you are forced sell your cow to pay for expensive emission control devices. There is no market for cows. It is considered gauche to eat beef, and killing a cow is considered a form of genocide. Your neighbor is tried in the International Criminal Court for running a cow slavery ring. The government sets limits on the number of cows it can have, then exceeds them.
Marxism: The cows revolt against exploitation and form a commune where they are all equal. Since everyone is equal, they are all managers and no one does any work. They stand in long lines to buy grass. One cow escapes to Mexico, but the other cows send an assassin after him.
Feminism: You are forced to have an equal number of cows and bulls. Instead of giving milk, your cow runs for the US Senate while your bull refuses to mate. Cows become extinct.
Democrat: You feel guilty for being successful.You vote people into office that put a tax on your cows, forcing you to sell one to raise money to pay the tax.The people you voted for then take the tax money, buy a cow and give it to your neighbor.
You feel righteous.

P.S. : The complete list can be found Ref 1 Ref 2

Firefox saved-form data

Have you ever mistyped your password in the username field and it got saved in the form data, or your form data list has become long and you had to clear all your form data just to remove these selected entries?

Then here is a simple trick to overcome this problem...
Just go to the form field and press the Down key. It will show the list of saved data. Now move to the data entry you want to remove. Select the entry and press Delete .. and its gone :)

are your friends invisible or offline?

Here is a little trick to find out if one in your friendlist is Offline or Invisible :

If you are Gmail user:

1. Open the chat window by clicking your friend’s name
2. Click on Options and select Go off the Record
3. Send some message to the user.
4. If you get the feedback from gtalk that User is offline and can’t receive messages means that the user is really offline.
5. But if you get no response that means that the user is appearing offline and in invisible mode.

If you are Gtalk User:

All the steps are same except 2. Here Click on the Down Arrow below the name in the chat window and select Go off the Record