if (Indians || Endians) {...

As part of my research project have been working on some network code in C++. Ran into a couple of issues, which were tracked down to incorrect endian orientation, i.e. big-endian vs. little-endian. While testing a couple of theories, came up with a demo app which may be useful to someone.

#include
#include

#include // printf
#include // atoi

using std::cout;
using std::endl;
using std::string;

/**
 * Declare an integer and check if the high order byte is used or not
 * If the high order byte is used then it's little endian based machine
 * else its using big endian. The function isBigEndian is
 * define as a macro for inline substitution at compile time.
 */
const int ENDIAN = 1;
#define isBigEndian() ((*(char*)&ENDIAN) == 0)

// function prototypes
int reverseInt( int );
void usage();
/**
 * main entry point into the endian demo application. The application accepts
 * an integer from the command-line arguments and displays it as an int, as a
 * hex value and then finally the raw bytes. If the machine is a little-endian
 * based processor then details of the int is also displayed.
 *
 * @param argc - int specifying the number of command line
 *               arguments
 * @param argv - char ** containing the actual command line
 *               arguments
 * @return int - 0 on success, else non-zero value
 */
int main( int argc, char **argv ) {
  // check command line arguments
  if ( argc != 2 ) {
    usage();
    return -1;
  }

  // parse and process command line arguments
  int x = atoi( argv[1] );                  // get the int
  unsigned char *ptr = (unsigned char *)&x; // byte array pointer to int

  int y = 0;                                // variable to hold the reverse int

  // display the int size
  cout << "sizeof(int) = " << sizeof(int) << endl << endl;

  // display info on the int
  printf("dec: %d\n", x);
  printf("hex: 0x%x\n", x);
  printf("bytes: ");
  for (int i=0; i < sizeof(int); i++) {
    printf("0x%x ", ptr[i] ); // using cout is too anoying for formatting!!
  }
  cout << endl;
  string str(( const char * ) ptr );
  cout << "str: " << str << endl;

  // determine endian orientation of machine
  if ( isBigEndian() ) {
    cout << "Big Endian Machine!!!" << endl;
  } else {
    cout << "Little Endian Machine!!!" << endl;
    y = reverseInt(x); // reverse the int

    printf("dec: %d\n", y);
    printf("hex: 0x%x\n", y);
    printf("bytes: ");
    ptr = (unsigned char *)&y;
    for (int i=0; i < sizeof(int); i++) {
      printf("0x%x ", ptr[i] ); // using cout is too anoying for formatting!!
    }
    cout << endl;
    str = (const char *)ptr;
    cout << "str: " << str << endl;
  }

  return 0;
}

/**
 * Should only be called on little endian processers. Reverses the int byte
 * order for little endian machines.
 *
 * @param iNum - int to reverse
 * @param int - the reversed int
 */
int reverseInt( int iNum ) {

  unsigned char *rev = new unsigned char[sizeof(int)];
  for ( int i = 0; i < sizeof(int); i++ ) {
    rev[i] = (iNum >> (8*i)) & 255;
  }

  int ret = 0;
  for ( int i = 0; i < sizeof(int); i++ ) {
    ret += (int)rev[i] << ((sizeof(int) - (i+1)) * 8);
  }

  return ret;
}

/**
 * usage displays the demo program usage information. The usage
 * information is output to stdout.
 */
void usage() {
  cout << "Usage: endian INT" << endl;
  cout << "Endian demo application to check and manipulate int for endian use";
  cout << endl << endl;
  cout << "  INT\t- int value";
  cout << endl << endl;

  cout << "Example:" << endl;
  cout << "  endian 65535" << endl;
}

Google yourself - Self-googling as a tool for privacy protection

Due to the growth of recent social networking web application such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. its not un-common to unknowingly disclose personal details into the public domain. The use of seach engines such as Google is a popular way to find out if you have increased the potential vulnerability of identity theft. 


Whilst "self‐googling, can be the theory of narcissism,"2 its also a good way to investigate personal, and related information about oneself. The consequences of having an unwanted Internet presence can be quite serious, not only from an information security perspective, but also from a social one. Once you have identified the appropriate information you need to remove them, this is the hard part. Google Webmaster tools provide several guidelines for this.


Digital presence create cyber footprint which are not always so easy to get rid off, and can follow the unsuspecting cyber citizen home!!! So perhaps Googling yourself every once in a while is a healthy thing and no so bad after all. 


References:

1. http://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/removals
2. http://www.citeulike.org/user/thiemehennis/article/6895338
3. http://www.stopcyberbullying.org/take_action/google_yourself.html
4. http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1893965,00.html
5. http://www.wikihow.com/Ungoogle-Yourself