How to become a world class computer Engineer - Seven Steps

I read the post by Abhishek Desai and found it very helpful so I am sharing it here. I bet it will be very helpful to Indian Computer Engineering Students.

Seven Steps to become a world class computer Engineer

 

Reasons for writing this post:

• I feel I have not done enough to become a good computer engineer. May be I did not have someone who could guide me properly. We were only the second batch of Computer Engineering at Nirma Institute of Technology, Ahmedabad, so we had no mentors in the industry.

• Second reason, may be we were not mature enough.

• Third reason, 3 Idiots was not released at that time.

• So this post is dedicated to all the fellow computer engineering students (especially in India) who are still having a good time by bunking the classes but not doing good enough to become a world class computer engineer otherwise.
  

But what can I do?

1. Have the right infrastructure

• Get yourself a decent laptop. (I prefer Mac but any decent Dell laptop is also ok)
• Get yourself a nice internet connection with highest speed available. (Take a cut from your pocket money if you have to but this is a must)
• Get yourself an iPhone (I know it is expensive in India but you will have to use world class gadgets to become world class engineer)
• Make your home or hostel room WiFi enabled. (This is not expensive. You will get a decent router in 2-3k.)
• If you are not able to do any or all of the above things, don’t worry you can still become a good computer engineer. So hang on and keep reading.

2. Learn to use Google Reader

• Google reader will become the best companion of yours for lifetime if you use it properly.
• It is nothing but a cool RSS reader from Google using which you can subscribe to blogs to get latest updates and posts. So if you have a gmail account you are ready to go. What? You do not have a gmail account yet!! Go get one right now. Stop reading. Open a gmail account now and come back. I am waiting.
• I am still waiting.
• Ok great, so you have a gmail account now, good. Watch this video . It explains in plain english how to use google reader.
• Software, Web Search Strategies, Wikis, Social Bookmarking, Social Networking, Blogs, Pod casting and Cloud computing on http://www.commoncraft.com/ (Now you understand why I told you get the fastest internet connection available?). You don’t have to see them all at once but do check them all and understand.
• Done? Ok so you are ready to become a world class computer engineer now.
• Now you understand Google Reader, so it’s time to subscribe to interesting blogs. Subscribe to following blogs.

1. Techcrunch.com (King of Technology Blogs)
2. Gigaom.com (Michale Arrington of Techcrunch considers Om as his Guru)
3. ReadWriteWeb.com
4. Pluggd.in (Indian Techcrunch)
5. JoelOnSoftware.com (a must read for programmers)
6. CodingHorror.com (another must read for programmers)

• There are many such blogs but to start with these are ok. You will keep finding other interesting blogs as and when you will come across some.
• Getting used to read on computer takes time and patience so just keep reading it.
• So I guess we are done with Google Reader part here. This means you have to open up Google Reader as soon you bunk the classes or as soon as you get the time to check your mails.

Seven Steps to become a world class computer Engineer

3. Academic Earth

• Do you want to see how professors teach in Harvard and Stanford? Do you want to see how their lectures are conducted? You can now, we were not able to do that in our time.
• Go to www.academicearth.org and you will see videos of actual lectures and courses of Harvard, Yale, Stanford. Now you know whose lectures to watch after bunking the classes or after getting back to home.
• You do not want to miss the chance of studying in these universities without going to US to giving them millions in fees right? and guess what? Attendance is not compulsory here :)
• Learn any web language quickly and start building
• I would suggest PHP or Ruby. ASP.NET C# is also fine if you already know something about it.
• And start building something on it. It can be anything. But start programming on web now. Most of you are never going to write a program C, C++ or COBOL in your lifetime. I would not advise against learning them though.
• After you know something about web programming, read “Getting Real” from 37Signals.
• Now again build something using whatever you learned from the above book.

5. Assume you are in Sillicon Valley

• I know this sounds little weird but that’s the way it is.
• The best of the minds in the world are there and you do not want to miss out on that right?
• Thousands of things happen everyday in Sillicon Valley and you can remain updated by reading above blogs I mentioned.
• So start feeling the air.

6. Start asking why?

• When you are attending a lecture or reading anything, have a habit of asking why?
• For e.g. Why we have to study “Strength of Materials” when most of us are going to write web applications in PHP or ASP.NET?
• When you ask why often, you start understanding the logic, the reason behind doing anything.
• Same as they have said in 3 Idiots, don’t learn to get marks but learn to know something, to achieve the excellence. When you start asking why, you start on the right path.

7. Understand computer hardware

• Most people thinks this is boring and unnecessary.
• May be it is, but it will certainly make you better programmer, even if you will never touch the inside of the computer again.
• Basic understanding of hardware is necessary to understand how computer works.
• You have to understand following 100% without any doubt in your mind.

1. How your high level programming code becomes 0s and 1s and execute?
2. The text which you are reading now is also consisting of 0s and 1s only then how come you are reading the alphabets here?
3. FYI I am still not 100% clear on this. But I will be one day. Till then I am not a good computer engineer.

I guess I have get you started here.

By following any or all of the above steps you are destined to become world class computer engineer. By no means I am asking you to stop whatever you are doing right now in your college.
These are additional things you have to do. It takes hard work to become world class right?

You are always on your own to achieve the path of excellence. Friends and Tutors can only guide you, they can not make you one.

I would request my fellow classmates to add points in this post. I believe our batch 99CE in Nirma Institue of Technology had one of the best and brightest minds in the world. Do you have any doubt? Well this guy is one of them. 99CE people are in MIT, Google, Apple, Barclays, Bank of America to name a few. They are spread across the world and are on their way to become future leaders.

I would also request people who have read this post and feel they can add something here to help students of computer engineering. My aim is to have great people coming out of Indian Engineering Colleges.

Last words, by no means above list is exhaustive and complete. There are “n” number of ways to achieve excellence. These are my personal views and I have learned them long and hard way. I hope to make your journey little easier by this post.

The post was written by abhishek desai. Link to this post is :
Abhishek Desai

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Five Easy Steps to Create Super Strong Passwords

Passwords are your first and last line of defense. Most people do not seem to understand the importance of this tool. It’s only when their account is hacked, password is stolen or some security is compromised with, that they bother to exercise due care in dealing with passwords. Creating an ultra-strong password and not sharing it with world is all it takes to be safe on the web.
Here’s a guide that will help you create an easy-to-remember but strong password.

Essentials of a good password

1. Password should at least be 8-10 characters long.
2. Passwords should be a combination of numbers and letters.
3. Letters should be both capital and small.
4. At least one symbol or special character should be present.

Steps to create a strong password

Step 1. Select A Sentence: First step is to select an 8-10 words sentence. The important thing to keep in mind here is that the sentence should not be obvious or guessable. Any random sentence is good enough. Do not take guessable and/or short sentences like “I first name is XYZ“, etc. For the purpose of explaining, we will take the first line of this post as the sentence.

“Passwords are your first and last line of defense”.

Step 2. Trimming the words into characters: Reduce the words to their first letters. For example, “Passwords” can be reduced to “p“. Also, words like “are” can be changed to “r“, So our sentence gets reduced in the following manner:

Passwords [p] are [r] your [y] first [f] and[a] last[l] line[l] of[o] defense[d]

Now, the password looks like this: pryfallod
*
Step 3. Insert Numbers: As said before, a good password has both, numbers & alphabets. So to get numbers, we can do two things. Firstly, the word in Step 1 can be represented by numbers. In our example, “first” in the sentence can be represented by “1” instead of “f“. Secondly, letters in Step 2 can be converted into numbers which look similar. In the present case, the second last letter “o” can be changed to “0[zero]. Similarly you can substitute ” l” for “1“.

After this step, our password turns into: pry1all0d

Step 4. Capital & Small Cap Letters: Some of the letters in the password have to be capitalized. Now we arrive at the question, which ones? The first and last letter can be selected. Or, perhaps, those letters can be selected which are more prominent or more important. In our case, “passwords” and “defence” happen to be the most prominent words in the sentence. These words need not be at the end or start of the sentence.

Now our password looks like: Pry1all0D

Step 5. Special Characters or Symbols: Symbols lend and extra level of security to the password and make it nearly impossible to crack. One can randomly add a special character to the password or follow the same method that one did in Step 3 with numbers.

For instance, “l” can be replaced with “!” or “a” can be replaced with “@“. Or randomly substitute letters with symbols like changing “y” with “$“.

Final password: Pry1al!!d

key chain accessNow, this password is really difficult to crack. Looking at it, one may think that it would be really hard to memorize such a password. However, it isn’t that hard to remember it. In fact, by the time I complete writing the article, I myself have memorized the password. Moreover, even if you forget the password, you’ll always have the original sentence to help you recall the password.

Now that you have a good password, here are a couple of things you should take care of;

* You should never share password with somebody else, not even your best buddy or spouse.
* You should never write down your password anywhere, neither on a paper nor in notepad or document file.

Often, the best passwords lose their importance if any of the two tips above isn’t followed.

Take care and secure yourself.

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Tata Launches On-Demand Computing & Storage Service

Tata Communications has launched two different services in the cloud space to deliver self-service and pay-as-you-use IT application plus data centre infrastructure services which are easily accessible via the internet. The first one is an on-demand computing and storage service called InstaCompute and the second being an online collaboration and web-based office tool software called InstaOffice. Both these services are primarily meant for Indian businesses.

InstaCompute runs on compute and storage infrastructure from Dell and aims at providing a secure and elastic on-demand computing and storage resources to businesses over the network on a “go-as-you-need” basis. Computing and storage is based in India and can be paid for in Rupees or global currencies.

InstaOffice is powered by Google Apps and includes email, calendar, instant messaging, voice and video chat, as well as office document applications. InstaOffice joins the club of other InstaApps that Tata Communications already offers in India – InstaCC for contact centres, InstaCRM – a customer relationship management software and InstaECM for content storage and management.

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Super WiFi – No Mobile Phone Bills? Free WiFi?

Free Internet access and mobile telephony is on the way. It’s all thanks to old-fashioned analogue TV, or, more precisely, the amount of the electromagnetic spectrum released by the switch from analogue to digital TV. What was once a geeky pipe dream is now a likelihood. So what exactly is it?

With the replacement of analogue TV by digital, much more has changed than mere picture and sound quality, or the ability to deliver 3D pictures. Even though there are many more digital channels than there ever were analogue ones, they need only about half the amount of the spectrum previously used by analogue TV. The reason digital bands need much less “space” is because channels don’t “bleed” like analogue ones. Due to the possibility of interference between one analogue channel and another, the amount of bandwidth allocated to each had to be wider than was strictly necessary. It’s a bit like the hard shoulder on each side of a highway. Vehicles don’t need it most of the time, but it’s there just in case. In analogue TV terminology, the equivalent of the hard shoulder is called the guard band. The total amount of guard band freed-up by the switchover is referred to as white space. As much as 70% of the spectrum used by analogue TV was made up of white space. Digital TV doesn’t have any significant bleed problem, so it doesn’t need this extra bandwidth.

The amount of spectrum released is enormous. Not surprisingly, the TV operators wanted to hold onto it for their own future uses. Recently, however, in the US the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) decided that most of the white space would be made freely available to everyone. Any operator could apply to use it without having to pay a huge sum for a license. The FCC holds no sway over the rest of the world, but since much technological innovation is kick-started in the US, the decision will profoundly impact most of the developed world.

It’s still uncertain what all the freed-up spectrum will be used for. One proposal gaining traction is what’s termed Super WiFi. Unlike the area of the spectrum used by current WiFi, which limits coverage to a few hundred meters, signals using some of the freed white space frequencies can travel kilometers. In theory, a single mast could provide coverage to an entire town or city suburb. This has huge implications not just for current WiFi, but more significantly, for mobile telephony. If an entire town is effectively a free high-speed wireless hotspot, then with a suitable phone, anyone in town can make free calls through services like Skype and Google talk. No one within the hotspot would want or need a traditional cell phone. Fixed line phones would be amusing curiosities.

When this happens, it will be game-changing. It’s easy to see why the mobile phone networks among others are not happy. They spent billions for their licenses and in the not too distant future, many of their customers may start to disappear. Their concern is understandable. It’s a bit like owning a chain of bookshops, then, one day, a free library opens beside each one of them. Maybe it’s not fair, but there’s a valid argument that says mobile phone companies have over-charged users for years and have easily recouped their investments. One thing is sure: few users will shed tears for them.

Some experts predict that within five years WiFi, as we now know it, will be replaced by Super WiFi. Some even predict that the only mobile telephone operators around will be those offering versions of VOIP telephony. Google’s development of the Android system seems inspired. It’s not inconceivable that in a few years, Google could be one of the major new global mobile phone operators.

Many technological giants have flung their hats into this ring. Microsoft, Google, Dell, HP, Intel, Philips and others have all set up what’s called The White Space Coalition. Even though they compete in many areas, they all share the ambition that the white space should be harnessed to deliver high-speed broadband Internet access.

Of course, politics will intervene. Governments’ compulsion to interfere and control will lead to “national interest” obstacles. Nevertheless, the FCC’s decision in the US has global significance. It means that the tide has turned. There will be great opportunities for clever entrepreneurs. The best thing they can do is find those opportunities and lead the revolution. No doubt, the smart ones are already doing just that.
[via Source]

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Unlock Idea Net setter Huawei EG162G MODEM or Other MODEMS

If you facing Problem to use different Network In Idea Net setter Huawei EG162G MODEM or Other MODEM, Get Unlock Code . Just Share Our Website

GET UNLOCK CODE

Following dongles can be unlocked using this.

Huawei Modems Huawei E156 Huawei E156C Huawei E155 Huawei E155X Huawei E156G Huawei E160 Huawei E160E Huawei E160G Huawei E161 Huawei E166 Huawei E166G Huawei E169 HuaweiE169G Huawei E219 Huawei E226 Huawei E230 Huawei E270 Huawei E271 Huawei E272 Huawei E510 Huawei E612 Huawei E618 Huawei E620 Huawei E630 Huawei E660 Huawei E800 Huawei E170 Huawei E170G Huawei E172 Huawei E172G Huawei E176 Huawei E180 Huawei E180S Huawei E180G Huawei E181 Huawei E182 Huawei E182E Huawei E196 HuaweiE216 Huawei E870 Huawei E880 Huawei EG162 Huawei EG162G Huawei EG602 Huawei EG602G Huawei E1550 Huawei E1551 Huawei E1552 Huawei E1553 Huawei E1609 Huawei E1612 Huawei E1615 Huawei E1616 Huawei E1630 Huawei E1632 Huawei E1690 Huawei E1692 Huawei E1803 Huawei E1820 Huawei S4011 Huawei K3517 Huawei K3520 Huawei K3710 Huawei UMG181 Huawei EM770 ——————————————————————————————————————

V O D A F O N E Modems 1. – Vodafone K2540 2. – Vodafone K3250 3. – Vodafone K3512 4. – Vodafone K3515 5. – Vodafone K3520 6. – Vodafone K3565 7. – Vodafone K3715

Type this URL in your browser’s window “ http://www.bb5.at/huawei.php?imei=****************” and replace **************** with your Dongle’s IMEI Number.

Then you will get the unlock as follows

GPRS SETTINGS FOR OTHER OPERATORS

Reliance
APN: rcomnet
Access Number: *99#

Aircel
APN: aircelgprs
Access Number: *99***1#

Idea
APN: internet
Access Number: *99#

Docomo
APN: TATA.DOCOMO.INTERNET
Access Number: *99#

Airtel
APN: airtelgprs.com
Access Number: *99#

BSNL 3G
APN: bsnlnet
Access Number: *99#

MTNL 3G
Postpaid: APN: mtnl3g
Prepaid APN: pps3g

If You Happy to Unlock Your Idea Net Setter and You want to get More Services like this, Share our Website..

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Watch XIX CWG 2010 Closing Ceremony, Delhi Online

Common Wealth Games 2010 had a splendid opening ceremony, if you missed out on watching it, you can catch up on CWG 2010 Delhi Opening Ceremony video highlights. Sadly, the event will be coming to an end today October 14, 2010.

Just like the fabulous CWG opening ceremony in Delhi, the closing ceremony promises to be extravagant too. CWG 2010 closing ceremony will be graced by several prominent Bollywood stars, who will add their charm to the event.

The CWG Closing ceremony will be held at Jawaharlal Nehru stadium where there will be multiple segments with spectacular song and dance celebrations and a colorful laser show with India’s martial arts as the main part of the show. The main theme of the event is ‘Universal Love’. Around 2,500 school students will go to perform with 7,000 artists from across India.

Bollywood singers Sunidhi Chauhan, Shankar Mahadevan and Kailash Kher will be part of the ceremony. Tickets for the CWG 2010 Delhi closing ceremony is priced at Rs. 50,000, Rs. 20,000, Rs. 4,000, and Rs. 750.

If you are looking to watch the closing ceremony of CWG 2010 Delhi Online, you can visit Live Streaming for CWG Delhi 2010. You can also follow the updates and view videos of the ceremony at the official CWG Delhi site.

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Linux joins the OS advertising battle

The operating system war has been waging for a long time now, and the two big players in the field have taken on distinct identities. Windows users are stereotyped as being stiff upper lip power tie wearing formal individuals, as against Mac addicts with the casual clothes and the careless Seinfeld cut. Of course, Seinfeld switched loyalties in the recent $300 million advertising campaign for Vista that was summarily dropped.

The 1337 tree-huggers of the computer world have something to celebrate. When not trying to install codecs into their Linux systems, they can spend their time making the I-am-Linux video. The Linux Foundation, a non-profit organization hoping to spread the support for the open source operating system is planning to launch an advertising campaign made from these videos.

The brief for the video according to the official website is “in 60 seconds or less, showcase your take on I’m Linux. This should be why you love it and should inspire others to use it. The video can be an extensive production, a plain testimonial or as simple as a screen capture with a voice over. Be creative, be authentic and have fun.” The winner will be decided by a panel of judges and votes from the global nerd community. The contest will be open till March 15, and the winner gets free flight tickets to Tokyo and accommodation for the October 2009 Japan Linux Symposium.

We have a lot of questions. Are Mac or Windows machines allowed during the production of the video? Will judges prefer videos edited on Cinelerra instead of Final Cut Pro? Will the commercials actually be put to use over television networks? Whatever be the outcome, we can’t wait to get our hands on the rejects.

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Free Public WiFi is A Zombie Network

In our residential apartment building my iPod Touch usually connects to a network called "Free Public WiFi" whenever I step into the lobby. The same "Free Public WiFi" is also available below my office building and it turns out that it is available in several other places including airports and restaurants.
However, connecting to this "Free Public WiFi" does not give you access to an internet, puzzling? Well, the Free Public WiFi is not actually a internet network and is a bug which exists in an older version of Windows XP.
According to a blog post from NPR, Free Public WiFi is a bug which has been lurking around in Windows XP, where it creates an ad hoc network with the same name it previously connected to, in this case "Free Public WiFi".

When a computer running an older version of XP can’t find any of its "favorite" wireless networks, it will automatically create an ad hoc network with the same name as the last one it connected to -– in this case, "Free Public WiFi." Other computers
within range of that new ad hoc network can see it, luring other users to connect. And who can resist the word "free?"

So what happens when you connect to this network?

Free Public WiFi isn’t set up like most wireless networks people use to get to the Internet
. Instead, it’s an "ad hoc" network
— meaning when a user selects it, he or she isn’t connecting to a router or hot spot, but rather directly to someone else’s computer in the area.

The origin of "Free Public WiFi" networks is not known, however, it does exist in Windows XP. To get rid of this bug, you will need to update to Windows XP Service Pack 3.

Free Public WiFi does not cause any harm as such, but it has been spreading like wildfire considering the amount of networks you see as Free Public WiFi across the United States and other places. Connecting to this network may not cause you any harm, but it would be wise not to do it considering that it does not give you access to the internet anyways.
[Image Credit: WiFi]

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10 Tips to Avoid Getting Adware

Adware, malware, spyware and viruses can bring your system to its knees. They are detrimental, lowering the performance of your computer. You might need to replace data. You might lose unique files. Keep the nasties away from your computer using these ten simple tips.

1. Use Firefox: Internet Explorer is the most popular browser on the market, controlling over 50% of the market share. The virus and adware creators specifically look for exploitable vulnerabilities within IE because they know that they will receive the best return on investment. Your switch to Firefox prevents some adware from infecting your machine.

2. Scan your PC once a week: Sometimes adware programmers take a sneaky approach. They will set up their programs to run quietly in the background to spy upon your activities. This once a week scan is necessary to remove any of those sneaky bugs.

3. Download from known sites: New sites for installing adware are popping up all the time. If you find something that you want to download, make sure that it is from a known site. A company like Amazon will not steer you wrong, but Bob’s House of Wares might be a little less trustable. If you are not sure whether you can trust a site, perform a quick search.

4. Install Adaware: Ad-Aware is the most popular free adware removal program on the market. It detects, quarantines and removes adware. It searches for other programs which may have been installed, highlighting them in an easy to use interface. This program does not have an anti-virus attached.

5. Do not click on unsolicited email: You are constantly receiving offers to increase this or improve that through unsolicited email. Your curiosity may be killing you, but don’t click on these emails. They accept your click as permission to install adware, spyware and malware on your PC.

6. Install Antivirus software: Installing two programs for virus and adware protection is a smart idea. It caters to the strengths of each program, increasing the overall strength of your antiadware and antiviral campaign. Some of the best antivirus software is free, providing real time protection. Programs to look at would be Avast Antivir and AVG.

7. Don’t install toolbars: Even some reputable sites install custom toolbars. They slow your system down and collect information about your surfing habits. While a toolbar might offer some perks, it may also diminish your experience by dragging your system to a halt. Toolbars from less reputable places install adware and sometimes infect your system outright.

8. Look at your task manager: If anything seems out of place with your computer, take a look at your task manager. This tells you about all of the programs and processes which are running on your computer. Examine the processes tab for anything which you don’t immediately recognize. Perform a web search for unfamiliar processes.

9. Do not click on popups: Clicking on a popup usually spells certain doom for your computer. It opens the door for the viruses and adware that want to infect your machine, telling these malicious applications to make themselves at home. Stay away from those constantly advertised screensavers and icons.

10. Trust your gut: If you don’t feel right about a site, don’t go there. If you are receiving warnings from the antivirus and antiadware programs which you’ve installed, don’t go there. If you don’t like the layout of a site, don’t go there. Trust your instincts about sites.

With proper vigilance, you can keep aggravating adware, spyware and malware from your machine. Trust your instincts. Install Ad-Aware and an antivirus program. Play it safe. The care you spend in preventing adware from infecting your machine can save money and time

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How To Folder Lock Without Any Software

Paste the code given below in notepad and 'Save' it as batch file (with extension '.bat'). Any name will do. Then you see a batch file. Double click on this batch file to create a folder locker. New folder named 'Locker' would be formed at the same location. Now bring all the files you want to hide in the 'Locker' folder. Double click on the batch file to lock the folder namely 'Locker'. If you want to unlock your files,double click the batch file again and you would be prompted for password. Enter the password and enjoy access to the folder.

if EXIST "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" goto UNLOCK
if NOT EXIST Locker goto MDLOCKER
:CONFIRM
echo Are you sure u want to Lock the folder(Y/N)
set/p "cho=>"
if %cho%==Y goto LOCK
if %cho%==y goto LOCK
if %cho%==n goto END
if %cho%==N goto END
echo Invalid choice.
goto CONFIRM
:LOCK
ren Locker "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
attrib +h +s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
echo Folder locked
goto End
:UNLOCK
echo Enter password to Unlock folder
set/p "pass=>"
if NOT %pass%==type your password here goto FAIL
attrib -h -s "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}"
ren "Control Panel.{21EC2020-3AEA-1069-A2DD-08002B30309D}" Locker
echo Folder Unlocked successfully
goto End
:FAIL
echo Invalid password
goto end
:MDLOCKER
md Locker
echo Locker created successfully
goto End:End 

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