We ask our family to stand by a local structure and then take a picture of them in front of the object. We get home, put them up on our homepage, and we all see the same photos that everyone else has taken.

Our digital cameras enable us to take many photos without us requiring a new film roll after only 36 photos, so why not make better use of your camera?

WPanorama is a tool that will enable you to create a 360 degree panorama image from your digital photos. For instance, if you’re standing in a middle of a room, use your digital camera to take shots of each section of the internal room and then use WPanorama to stitch these photos together to create one panoramic image.

Once you’re happy with your panorama, you can choose to export as an AVI movie, which you could place on your homepage and enable friends and family to be part of your holiday experience.

Download From here: business.pcauthority.com.au/download/wpanorama-921.aspx

Source:business.pcauthority.com.au/download/wpanorama-921.aspx

We ask our family to stand by a local structure and then take a picture of them in front of the object. We get home, put them up on our homepage, and we all see the same photos that everyone else has taken.

Our digital cameras enable us to take many photos without us requiring a new film roll after only 36 photos, so why not make better use of your camera?

WPanorama is a tool that will enable you to create a 360 degree panorama image from your digital photos. For instance, if you’re standing in a middle of a room, use your digital camera to take shots of each section of the internal room and then use WPanorama to stitch these photos together to create one panoramic image.

Once you’re happy with your panorama, you can choose to export as an AVI movie, which you could place on your homepage and enable friends and family to be part of your holiday experience.

Download From here: business.pcauthority.com.au/download/wpanorama-921.aspx

Source:business.pcauthority.com.au/

However, we now have available the first screenshot of the upcoming Firefox Mobile which we are told is running on a Windows Mobile Professional touch-screen mobile phone.

These screens should give up a good impression of what to expect in the final version of Fennec, in other words Firefox Mobile, but the most important thing is that apparently developers ran an Axid3 test which scored 88/100 which is quiet impressive for a mobile browser.

Firefox Mobile still isn’t available yet, but the word is it will hopefully hit the net come the year’s end.

Source – phonesreview.co.uk

Microsoft stopped retail sales and regular licensing of XP on June 30. But it maintained the downgrade option, which lets PC vendors install XP Professional and give users copies of Vista for possible future use.

XP may be available long past next July if vendors stockpile it. “Downgrade rights do not expire,” a Microsoft spokeswoman said.

Source:computerworld.com

1. Understand the basics.

For the active person, a player that uses flash memory to store music has distinct advantages over a player that uses a hard disk. Simply put, flash memory players have no moving parts, meaning that you can take them jogging and your music won’t skip.

2. Make sure you’re getting all the goodies.

Many portable music players can do more than just play music. Some players have a built-in voice recorder, FM recorder, or stopwatch. And some come with extra accessories like high-quality headphones, a belt clip, or an armband. Because most of these features are included at no additional cost, make sure the device you choose is filled with these fun extras.

3. You’ll want a display.

When you have hundreds of songs on your player, you really need an easy way to select your music by artist, album, or genre. This is critical if you want to find that one song or artist you really want to hear. A display also comes in handy when you’re looking for your favorite radio station.

4. Let a professional make your next playlist.

Having an FM radio lets you put your player on autopilot as you mountain bike, cycle, or rollerblade. And when you’re sweating it out on the stationary bike at your health club, you can listen to the program airing on the club’s TV. You want to have something that is fun, lightweight, and flexible. And FM radio is a key feature that many players offer at no extra cost, even for less than $100.

5. Pick the right size for you.

The price of a player will depend on its storage capacity—the more megabytes (MB) of storage it has, the more music it can hold and the more it will cost. If you’re ripping your own CDs, using a player with Windows Media Audio (WMA) support as well as MP3 Player support gives you the most music per megabyte. Here are some quick rules of thumb for how much music per megabyte you get, depending on the quality of the compression:

6. Don’t get locked into one online store.

Have you ever been on the hunt for a particular song? Some obscure indie rock tune or rare jazz performance you heard on the radio? You might have to shop at more than one store before you find the song you’re looking for. Having the flexibility to choose from over 1 million tracks of music from multiple online music stores such as MSN Music, Napster, MusicMatch, and Wal-Mart can be the key to getting the music you want. Several stores even offer subscription services so you can download all the songs you want for about the cost of a CD each month.

From your computer to a portable device that fits in your hand, MP3 players download, store and play back digital music.

Before you begin…

Unlike a portable CD player, an MP3 player requires communication with a PC to operate. That means any viruses or spyware lurking in your PC can affect the installation of your MP3 player. Scanning your computer before installing your MP3 player reduces the risk of problems.

Troubleshooting Tips

Give these helpful tips a try if you’re having problems with your MP3 player:

1. Scan for viruses and spyware
Scan your PC using the free virus and spyware scans available at http://www.iyogi.net prior to installation and routinely for the best results.

• Virus scans check for virus vulnerability and other security threats.
• Spyware scans look for hidden spyware infections and computer corruption.

2. Refer to manufacturer’s provided setup instructions prior to installation
Install software disc first, then plug in your device and follow instructions.

3. Keep software and firmware up to date
Both software and firmware relate to programming. Manufacturers frequently have updates for your MP3 player. Make sure to check their Web site and download any firmware or software to maintain the best performance of your MP3 player.

4. Ensure your battery is charged

5. For brand-specific help, check out the troubleshooting sections at the Web sites below:

• Apple - www.apple.com/support/ipod
• Samsung - www.samsung.com
• SanDisk - www.sandisk.com
• Creative Labs - www.creativelabs.com
• Sony - www.sony.com
• Insignia® - www.insignia-products.com

7. For more helpful tips…

• Call our MP3 technical support hotline at 1-800-237-3901

Source: bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=pcmcat136000050005&type=category&DCMP=rdr0000195

There can be a variety of reasons to Windows loading slow during start up. Go to Run, type msconfig and hit enter. Under the ‘Start Up’ tab, uncheck the unwanted programs and press OK. Things should be a bit fine the next time Windows boots.

Another program worth mentioning here is StartUp Delayer which will help in setting after how much time programs should be loaded after Windows boots. For instance, you could set your instant messenger program to load 50 seconds after Windows starts up.

Slow Loading Start Menu

If the Start Menu items are loading slowly, you can open the Registry Editor by typing in the Run menu ‘regedit.exe’ and pressing Enter. Go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop. Look for MenuShowDelay, and double click to edit the value. The lower the number specified, the faster the Start Menu will load.

Slow Right Click Context Menu

Probably the Windows Right Click menu on your computer is loading slow because too many programs added unwanted entries there. Just download this program called Mmm, install it and then modify your context menu to remove unwanted items to speed it up.

Slow Send To Menu

If the Send To menu loads slowly, you can type ’sendto’ in the Run Dialog, and remove unwanted items in the Explorer Window that appears. This should add some speed to it.

Slow Defragmentation

The Windows Defragmenter can’t get any slower. You need to have an alternative to the Windows Defragmenter, and Defraggler is just one of the best ones available in the market. It’s free, and works like a charm and can speed up defragmentation manifold. For some alternatives, see Five Free Programs to Defragment your PC.

Slow loading My Computer Window

If the My Computer Window loads slowly, in the Explorer Window, go to Tools >> Folder Options >> View and uncheck ‘Automatically search for network folders and printers”

Slow loading Add or Remove Programs Applet

This is one of the most annoying piece of programs present in Windows, it takes ages to load if you have a considerable number of programs installed on your computer. You can either use the all-in-one CCleaner for this purpose, or get MyUninstaller that comes as a speedy replacement for Add or Remove Programs.

Slow Ending of Unresponsive Programs

If you’ve clicked on ‘End Task’ if any program is running unresponsive, you might have noticed that the program is not terminated immediately. You can alter this by going to Run >> regedit.exe >> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\System\CurrentControlSet\Control\ and change this value to 1000.

Disable Animations and Appearance Overhauls to maximize performance

If you’re a serious performance junkie, you probably won’t bother about eyecandy. Go to System Properties in the Control Panel. Click ‘Advanced’, then ‘Performance’ and click ‘Adjust for best performance’. This might boost your PC’s performance up a bit.

Additional Tips:

- Always keep your computer clean. Remove Junk and Unnecessary registry entries. Use CCleaner for this purpose, one excellent tool that just does what it says.

- Don’t keep installing software. Install a program only if it really serves you a purpose.

- Keep as less programs as possible running on the System Tray. This essentially means reducing the number of programs that start during Windows start up.

Related Story:

Tips How to Make Your Computer Run Faster?

I don’t want to explain further or start a debate here, but I’ll just let this all time list of 12 most devastating viruses and worms do the talking.

1. ILOVEYOU

The ILOVEYOU worm (a.k.a. VBS/Loveletter and Love Bug worm), a computer worm written in VBScript, is considered by many as the most damaging worm ever. It started in the Philippines on May 4, 2000, and spread across the world in one day (traveling from Hong-Kong to Europe to the United States), infecting 10 percent of all computers connected to the Internet and causing about $5.5 billion in damage. Most of the “damage” was the labor of getting rid of the virus. The worm arrived in e-mail boxes with the simple subject of “ILOVEYOU” and an attachment “LOVE-LETTER-FOR-YOU.TXT.vbs”. The Pentagon, CIA, and the British Parliament had to shut down their e-mail systems to get rid of the worm, as did most large corporations.

The worm overwrote important files, as well as music, multimedia and more, with a copy of itself. It also sent the worm to everyone on a user’s contact list. This particular worm only affected computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. While any computer accessing e-mail could receive an “ILOVEYOU” e-mail, only Microsoft Windows systems would be infected. The worm propagates by sending out copies of itself to all entries in the Microsoft Outlook address book. It also has an additional component, in which it will download and execute an infected program called variously “WIN-BUGSFIX.EXE” or “Microsoftv25.exe”. This is a password-stealing program which will e-mail cached passwords.

2. Mydoom

Mydoom, also known as W32.MyDoom@mm, Novarg, Mimail.R and Shimgapi, is a computer virus affecting Microsoft Windows. It was first sighted on January 26, 2004 and became the fastest-spreading e-mail worm ever, exceeding previous records set by the Sobig worm.

Mydoom is primarily transmitted via e-mail, appearing as a transmission error, with subject lines including “Error”, “Mail Delivery System”, “Test” or “Mail Transaction Failed” in different languages, including English and French. The mail contains an attachment that, if executed, resends the worm to e-mail addresses found in local files such as a user’s address book. It also copies itself to the “shared folder” of peer-to-peer file-sharing application KaZaA in an attempt to spread that way.

Mydoom appears to have been commissioned by e-mail spammers so as to send junk e-mail through infected computers. The worm contains the text message “andy; I’m just doing my job, nothing personal, sorry,” leading many to believe that the worm’s creator was paid to do so. Early on, several security firms published their belief that the worm originated from a professional underground programmer in Russia. The actual author of the worm is unknown.

3. Blaster

The Blaster Worm (also known as Lovsan or Lovesan) was a computer worm that spread on computers running the Microsoft operating systems, Windows XP and Windows 2000. The worm was first noticed and started spreading on August 11, 2003. The rate that it spread increased until the number of infections peaked on August 13, 2003. Filtering by ISPs and widespread publicity about the worm curbed the spread of Blaster.

The worm was programmed to start a SYN flood on August 15, 2003 against port 80 of windowsupdate.com, thereby creating a distributed denial of service attack (DDoS) against the site. The damage to Microsoft was minimal as the site targeted was windowsupdate.com instead of windowsupdate.microsoft.com to which it was redirected. Microsoft temporarily shut down the targeted site to minimize potential effects from the worm. Although the worm can only spread on systems running Windows 2000 or Windows XP (32 bit) it can cause instability in the RPC service on systems running Windows NT, Windows XP (64 bit), and Windows Server 2003. If the worm detects a connection to the Internet (regardless of dial-up or broadband), this can even lead to the system becoming so unstable that it displays the following message and then restarts (usually after 60 seconds).

The worm contains two messages hidden in strings. The first:

I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!

This is why the worm is sometimes called the Lovesan worm. The second:

billy gates why do you make this possible ? Stop making money and fix your software!!

It is a message to Bill Gates, Microsoft co-founder.

4. Sobig Worm

The Sobig Worm was a computer worm that infected millions of Internet-connected, Microsoft Windows computers in August 2003. It was written using the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, and subsequently compressed using a data compression program called tElock. There are plenty of variants of the Sobig worm, but the most destructive and widespread of all is called Sobig.F.

Sobig is a computer worm in the sense that it replicates by itself, but also a Trojan horse in that it masquerades as something other than malware. The Sobig worm will appear as an electronic mail and will contain the text: “See the attached file for details” or “Please see the attached file for details.”

The Sobig.F worm deactivated itself on September 10, 2003. On November 5 the same year, Microsoft announced that they will pay $250,000 for information leading to the arrest of the creator of the Sobig worm. To date, the perpetrator has not been caught.

5. Code Red

The Code Red worm was a computer worm observed on the Internet on July 13, 2001. It attacked computers running Microsoft’s IIS web server. The most in-depth research on the worm was performed by the programmers at eEye Digital Security. They also gave the worm the phrase “Hacked By Chinese!” with which the worm defaced websites. Although the worm had been released on July 13, the largest group of infected computers was seen on July 19, 2001. On this day, the number of infected hosts reached 359,000.

Effects of Code Red:

* It defaced the affected web site to display:

HELLO! Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!

(The last sentence became a cliché to indicate an online defeat)
* It tried to spread itself by looking for more IIS servers on the Internet.
* It waited 20-27 days after it was installed to launch denial of service attacks on several fixed IP addresses. The IP address of the White House web server was among those.

eEye believed that the worm originated in Makati City, Philippines (the same origin as the VBS/Loveletter (aka “ILOVEYOU”) worm)

6. CIH

CIH, also known as Chernobyl or Spacefiller, is a computer virus written by Chen Ing Hau of Taiwan. It is considered to be one of the most harmful widely circulated viruses, overwriting critical information on infected system drives, and more importantly, in some cases corrupting the system BIOS.

The name “Chernobyl Virus” was coined some time after the virus was already well-known as CIH, and refers to the complete coincidence of the payload trigger date in some variants of the virus (actually the virus writer’s birthday) and the Chernobyl accident, which happened in Ukraine on April 26, 1986. Today, CIH is not as widespread as it once was, due to awareness of the threat and the fact it only affects older Windows 9x (95, 98, Me) operating systems.

The virus made another comeback in 2001 when a variant of the Loveletter Worm in a VBS file that contained a dropper routine for the CIH virus was circulated around the internet, under the guise of a nude picture of Jennifer Lopez.

7. Klez

Klez is a computer worm that propagates via e-mail. It first appeared in the end of 2001. A number of variants of the worm exist. Klez infects Microsoft Windows systems, exploiting vulnerability in Internet Explorer’s Trident layout engine, used by both Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express to render HTML mail.

The e-mail through which the worm spreads always includes a text portion and one or more attachments. The text portion consists of either an HTML internal frame tag which causes buggy e-mail clients to automatically execute the worm, or a few lines of text that attempt to induce the recipient to execute the worm by opening the attachment (sometimes by claiming that the attachment is a patch from Microsoft; sometimes by claiming that the attachment is an antidote for the Klez worm). The first attachment is always the worm, whose internals vary.

8. Melissa

The Melissa worm, also known as “Mailissa”, “Simpsons”, “Kwyjibo”, or “Kwejeebo”, is a mass-mailing macro virus, hence leading some to classify it as a computer worm. First found on March 26, 1999, Melissa shut down Internet mail systems that got clogged with infected e-mails propagating from the worm. Melissa was not originally designed for harm, but it overflowed servers and caused unplanned problems.

Melissa can spread on word processors Microsoft Word 97 and Word 2000. It can mass-mail itself from e-mail client Microsoft Outlook 97 or Outlook 98. The worm does not work on any other versions of Word, including Word 95, Microsoft Office Word 2003, Word 2004 (Mac), and Microsoft Office Word 2007, nor can it mass-mail itself via any other e-mail client, even Outlook Express or Windows Mail (Outlook Express version in Windows Vista).

Melissa was first distributed in the Usenet discussion group alt.sex. The virus was inside a file called “List.DOC”, which contained passwords that allow access into 80 pornographic websites. The worm’s original form was sent via e-mail to many people.

9. Sasser

Sasser (sometimes known as the Big One) is a computer worm that affects computers running vulnerable versions of the Microsoft operating systems Windows XP and Windows 2000. Some machines running Windows 98 were infected. Like other worms, Sasser spreads by exploiting the system through a vulnerable network port. Thus it is particularly potent in that it can spread without user intervention, but it is also easily stopped by a properly configured firewall or by downloading system updates from Windows Update. Sasser was first noticed and started spreading on April 30, 2004. This worm was named Sasser because it spreads by exploiting a buffer overflow in the component known as LSASS (Local Security Authority Subsystem Service) on the affected operating systems.

The effects of Sasser include the news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) having all its satellite communications blocked for hours and the U.S. flight company Delta Air Lines having to cancel several trans-atlantic flights because its computer systems had been swamped by the worm. The Nordic insurance company If and their Finnish owners Sampo Bank came to a complete halt and had to close their 130 offices in Finland. The British Coastguard had its electronic mapping service disabled for a few hours, and Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Post, and the European Commission also all had issues with the worm. The X-ray department at Lund University Hospital had all their four layer X-ray machines disabled for several hours and had to redirect emergency X-ray patients to a nearby hospital.

Sasser was at first believed to have been authored in Russia by the same person(s) who created another worm usually referred to as Lovsan, MSBlast or Blaster (due to the media), a connection indicated by code similarities between the two, but on May 7, 2004, 18-year old German computer science student Sven Jaschan from Rotenburg, Lower Saxony was arrested for writing the worm.

10. Bagle

Bagle (also known as Beagle) is a mass-mailing computer worm written in pure assembly and affecting all versions of Microsoft Windows. The first strain, Bagle.A, did not propagate widely. A second variation, Bagle.B is considerably more virulent. Bagle uses its own SMTP engine to mass-mail itself as an attachment to recipients gathered from the victim computer.

The second strain, Bagle.B, was first sighted on February 17, 2004. It was much more widespread and appeared in large quantities; Network Associates rated it a “medium” threat. It is designed to stop spreading after February 25, 2004.

Subsequent variants have later been discovered. Although they have not all been successful, a number remain notable threats. Since 2004, the threat risk from these variants has been changed to “low” due to decreased prevalence.

11. Win32/Simile

Win32/Simile (also known as Etap) is a metamorphic computer virus written in assembly language for Microsoft Windows. The virus was released in the most recent version in early March 2002. It was written by the virus writer Mental Driller. Some of his previous viruses, such as Win95/Drill (which used the Tuareg polymorphic engine), have proved very challenging to detect.

When the virus is first executed, it checks the current date. If the host file (the file that is infected with the virus) imports the file User32.dll, then on the 17th of March, June, September, or December, a message is displayed. Depending on the version of the virus the case of each letter in the text is altered randomly. On May 14 (the anniversary of Israeli Independence Day), a message saying “Free Palestine!” will be displayed if the system locale is set to Hebrew.

The virus then rebuilds itself. This metamorphic process is very complex and accounts for around 90% of the virus’ code. After the rebuild, the virus searches for executable files in folders on all fixed and remote drives. Files will not be infected if they are located in a subfolder more than three levels deep, or if the folder name begins with the letter W. For each file that is found, there is a 50 percent chance that it will be ignored. Files will not be infected if they begin with F, PA, SC, DR, NO, or if the letter V appears anywhere in the file name. Due to the way in which the name matching is done, file names that contain certain other characters are also not infected, although this part is not deliberate. The virus contains checks to avoid infecting “goat” or “bait” files (files that are created by anti-virus programs). The infection process uses the structure of the host, as well as random factors, to control the placement of the virus body and the decryptor.

12. Nimda

Nimda is a computer worm, isolated in September 2001. It is also a file infector. It quickly spread, eclipsing the economic damage caused by past outbreaks such as Code Red. Multiple propagation vectors allowed Nimda to become the Internet’s most widespread virus/worm within 22 minutes. Due to the release date, some media quickly began speculating a link between the virus and Al Qaeda, though this relationship ended up being untrue. Nimda affected both user workstations (clients) running Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, or 2000 and servers running Windows NT and 2000. The worm’s name spelled backwards is “admin”.

Nimda was so effective partially because it—unlike other famous malware like the Morris worm or Code Red—uses five different infection vectors:
-via email
- via open network shares
- via browsing of compromised web sites
- exploitation of various Microsoft IIS 4.0 / 5.0 directory traversal vulnerabilities. (Both Code Red, and Nimda were hugely successful exploiting well known and long solved vulnerabilities in the Microsoft IIS server.)
- via back doors left behind by the “Code Red II” and “sadmind/IIS” worms.

Source:e-linux.it

1.You do not need to leave your home or office. Remote tech support enables anyone with access to the internet to have professional support in the comfort of his own home or office. No need to unplug your PC and drive all the way to a trusted computer repair shop.

2.You get to save time. To most people, time is something limited and therefore, needs to be saved. While doing your work it would be very inconvenient if you suddenly have the need to stop simply to have your PC repaired. Travel time going to the PC shop is also erased from the situation.

3.You get to save money. Bringing your PC for repair to an offline shop opens the risk for a technician to give you a price that is not fixed. If you do not have the time to scout around from shop to shop, then you might not get your money´s worth and simply settle for the nearest repair shop.

4.No need to wait in line. With online computer repair services, you need not fall in line in the busy mall repair shop.

5.No need to wait for days or weeks to have your PC problem solved. Most times, when we bring your CPU or laptop to an offline shop, they usually tell you that you need to wait a few days to have your PC repaired. With an online tech support and repair service, you get one-on-one quality service from qualified technicians.

6.Remote tech support is available 24 hours and seven days a week. You can avail of technical service anytime of the day, without having to worry about weekend breaks.

7.Qualified and expert technicians are at your beck and call. This means that the people who help you out with each of your PC problem have professional credentials and a wide experience.

8.Online technicians are oriented to provide excellent customer care. Each problem, however big or small, can be expected to receive the same amount of attention and expertise.

9.Online tutorials for PC repair services and processes are made available. Although the technician solves the problem for you, you also get access to step-by-step guidelines on what to do and how to fix problems. This is very educational for every computer user.

10. It all spells convenience. Lastly, computer repair online is one convenient and effective way to solve any PC problem.

Source:americanchronicle.com/articles/76350

The test used 100 pieces of malware collected from active samples and put them up against a number of major security suites for Windows Server 2008.

Only 16 of the 24 products pitted against the test passed, while eight fell short owing to missed malware samples or false positive returns.

Most of the major vendors, including McAfee, Symantec, Microsoft and Sophos, were able to pass the test. However, several others, including F-Secure, Kaspersky and Computer Associates, fell short of the certification.

Other firms failing the test included Redstone, Avira, Microworld, Quick Heal and ArcaBit, whose ArcaVir product missed 93 samples and returned three falsitives.

In order to pass the test and receive VB100 certification, a product must be able to identify all 100 pieces of malware without returning any false positives for uninfected files.

CA’s eTrust software missed one item from the malware list, while F-Secure and Kaspersky each returned one false positive.

Conspicuously absent from the latest VB100 test was Trend Micro. The company pulled out of the tests following a failure in April.

Critics of the test suggest that the system is antiquated and relies too heavily on signature-based testing, which checks for known malware samples, rather than more recently-developed heuristic, or behaviour-based, methods that can catch new or unknown malware.

Source:vnunet.com

Ans: You’re wise to try to fix this problem yourself, for free. There are a few things you can do to make your computer feel more like the brilliant multitasking machine you want it to be and less like the wheezer it’s turned into.

Let’s start by setting aside one thing that a lot of people try but we won’t recommend here. It’s called overclocking, and it involves tweaking your PC’s hardware settings to make the central processor or system memory run faster than their manufacturers officially intended. It can get tricky.

Besides, unless you’re running nuclear simulations or are a huge video game player, your standard home PC probably should be fast enough for what you need. The problem isn’t in the hardware. It’s in all the software that’s gotten larded onto it.

So here are some simple things to do to gain more control.

• Reduce the programs that automatically launch at startup. Windows offers a few ways to do this; one easy way is to click icons for programs on the taskbar, which most people have on the bottom of the screen. If you select the icons for instant-messaging programs like AOL’s AIM service, look for a chance to adjust “options” or “settings.” Find the box that tells the program to automatically begin running at startup, and unclick it. And next time you download a new piece of software, check the default installation choices carefully, and make sure you really want something to begin running at startup.
• Cut down on add-ons. You don’t have to run every aspect of a useful program. For example, Google Desktop is great at indexing and finding the contents of your computer, but it also likes to display a sidebar full of “applets” with news headlines or stock quotes. If you use this and the computer goes into slo-mo, see what happens if you turn off the sidebar. Click on the swirly Google Desktop icon and instead of “sidebar,” “deskbar” or “floating deskbar” select “none.”
• Change your Web browser or the way you use it. Browsers can get balky if you have too many tabs or windows open at once, especially if some of the sites you’re visiting have interactive content like video or dynamically updating sports scores. Tests by The Associated Press have shown that people can do better if they switch away from Microsoft Corp.’s Internet Explorer 7. The open-source Firefox browser is a good alternative, as is Google Chrome and the next version of Internet Explorer, IE 8, although technically the latter two are still in “beta” test mode and not all sites work well with them yet. If you use Firefox, be sure to activate a program that blocks Flash video from running on Web sites you have open but are not currently viewing. To get this performance enhancement, go to addons.mozilla.org and search for “Flashblock.”
• Post your photos or videos at moments when you can leave the computer and do something else. Internet access providers generally let you download data much faster than you can upload it. Attaching your photo to an e-mail or sending it to an image-sharing Web site eats up a lot of time and computer resources that get in the way of trying to do other, basic tasks.
• Try Windows PCs’ built-in performance-assistance tools. One involves defragmenting your hard drive. “Defragging” cleans up stray bits of data that have found their way into various places on the hard disk and can’t be accessed in the most efficient way. Go into “Programs” or “All Programs” in the Start menu, then click open “Accessories,” followed by “System Tools,” and then select “Disk Defragmenter.” It can’t hurt, though we’ve found the performance improvements from defragging to be barely noticeable. You might get better results from another option in the same “System Tools” menu: “Disk Cleanup.” This deletes temporary Internet files and other junk you don’t really need.

Source:ap.google.com

The ThinkPad X200 Tablet weighs in at only 3.5 pounds, and is Lenovo’s first widescreen tablet PC. At up to 10 hours, battery life is exceptional, and the unit is powered by a low-voltage version of the small form factor Intel Centrino 2 with vPro technology. Select models will feature up to 128GB in solid-state drive storage, LED backlit displays, GPS, and mobile broadband. Lenovo also provides for security options like fingerprint readers and full disk encryption. The ThinkPad X200 Tablet also features a full-size keyboard, a dual swivel screen, improved multimedia features, and touch sensitivity for pen or finger interactivity. Both ThinkPad X models feature WiFi connectivity, but look for WiMAX models later in the year. Prices of the ThinkPad X200s Notebook will start out at $2,242, while the ThinkPad X200 Tablet is a bit higher at $2,323.

Source:sysopt.com

While Microsoft execs and those who’ve managed to get their hands on early builds of Windows 7 have focused largely on user-interface tweaks in Windows 7, there will be some under-the-covers changes, too. Microsoft officials have said on the record that deep-level changes between Windows Vista and Windows 7 will be kept to a minimum, in order to insure application and driver compatibility. Yet Microsoft officials acknowledge that Win32, the core of Windows, is not suited for asynchronous, concurrent computing.

Microsoft is taking the first steps toward remedying this limitation with Windows 7 and its joined-at-the-hip sibling, Windows 7 Server (the product currently known as Windows Server 2008 R2). In the longer term, as I’ve blogged previously, the game plan is to find a way to exorcise Win32 from Windows and replace it with managed code — preferably a set of programming interfaces that are better tailored to handle parallel-processing tasks across many processors. (That’s where the incubation projects codenamed RedHawk, MinSafe and Midori all come in. But don’t expect to see the fruits of any of these projects appear in Windows until Windows 8, at the earliest.)

“Parallelism requires adjustments at every level of the stack,” Mundie acknowledged. It involves “the repartioning of different tasks to different layers….So look for a rebalancing of roles and runtimes. We need to formalize that in the operating system. Expect thei first pieces in the next generation of Windows.”As one example of one Windows feature that needs this kind of rebalancing, Mundie cited the user-mode scheduling model. The existing Windows scheduler has “too much overhead,” Mundie said. He noted that Microsoft has introduced a new trial model as part of its Robotics Development Kit runtime. Microsoft’s robotics toolkit includes new concurrency and coordination (CCR) and decentralized software services (DSS) runtimes that are optimized for distributed/multicore computing.

While Windows today can handle machines with a few cores, it’s not designed to exploit machines with 8, 16 or 32+ cores. I’m doubtful Microsoft will make too many tweaks to the lower-level operating system layers with Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2 in order to keep user disruption to a minimum. But the early seeds designed to make Windows a better parallel/asynchronous-processing platform are being sown, starting in 2009.Any guesses on what Microsoft might do in the Windows 7/Windows Server 2008 R2 timeframe to improve Windows’ parallel-processing abilities?

Source:zdnet

“The Yahoo imap server’s used by the Yahoo Desktop don’t support SSL and the password was being transmitted in plain text,” Karau wrote in a blog post on Friday.

“What does this mean for you? If you use Zimbra to access your Yahoo mail, you almost certainly need to change your password and stop using Zimbra immediately (especially if you’ve ever done so over wireless),” he writes.

Not surprisingly, his hack didn’t place in the competition. “In retrospect it probably wasn’t the best forum to bring up the security defects, but it was the most convenient,” Karau says.

He notified Yahoo about the problem during his presentation, but no one seemed concerned, he wrote in a post on Zimbra Forums.

A Zimbra representative wrote in a different post in that forum thread: “This problem has already been addressed in code, and fix is in the next release.”

Source:CNET

• 1. Try the Xbox Experience web-based taster here. Then imagine it running on your proper big television.

• 2. Organise your saves. It’s needed doing for quite a while, hasn’t it? There’s no need to have the space used up by Perfect Dark Zero used up by Perfect Dark Zero any more.

• 3. Delete a few old demos. You’re never really going to go back to a one-level sampler of Kameo to relive the barely adequate days of the Xbox 360 launch.

• 4. Delete a few old videos. How on earth did an HD version of a Natasha Bedingfield video get there? It must’ve, er, been pre-installed on the hard drive.

• 5. Have a go on the PlayStation Network at a friend’s house. It might not be as bad as everyone says!

• 6. Recharge your controllers ready for tomorrow. Or, if you’re cheap and only have wired ones, detangle them. Just try not to hang yourself from the ceiling with one of them out of boredom.

• 7. Check to see if Xbox Live has come back up yet. It can’t take that long. They’re just reinstalling Windows 2000 on the server, right?

• 8. Play Geometry Wars offline. It’ll be easier without the constant pain of seeing everyone’s much-better-than-yours scores on the screen as you ply.

• 9. Phone your local GAME. Ask the man behind the counter lots of really awkward questions and keep him on the line for ages, then imagine how angry the customers are getting as the queue grows longer and longer. Perhaps even get in a friend to phone on line 2 to bring the shop to a complete standstill.

• 10. Check to see if it’s back. It must be back by now.

Source: xboxer.tv

Activate 802.11 encryption to make data unintelligible to unauthorized users. WEP has weaknesses, making it inadequate for protecting networks containing information extremely valuable to others. There are some good hackers out there who can crack into a WEP-protected network using freely available tools. The problem is that 802.11 doesn’t support the dynamic exchange of WEP keys, leaving the same key in use for weeks, months, and years. For encryption on enterprise networks, aim higher and choose WPA, which is now part of the 802.11i standard. Just keep in mind that WPA (and WEP) only encrypts data traversing the wireless link between the client device and the access point. That may be good enough if your wired network is physically secured from hackers. If not, such as when users are accessing important information from Wi-Fi hotspots, you’ll need more protection.

Utilize IPSec-based Virtual Private Network (VPN) technology for end-to-end security. If users need access to sensitive applications from Wi-Fi hotspots, definitely utilize a VPN system to provide sufficient end-to-end encryption and access control. Some companies require VPNs for all wireless client devices, even when they’re connecting from inside the secured walls of the enterprise. A “full-throttle” VPN solution such as this offers good security, but it becomes costly and difficult to manage when there are hundreds of wireless users (mainly due to the need for VPN servers). As a result, consider implementing 802.11 encryption when users are operating inside the enterprise and VPNs for the likely fewer users who need access from hotspots.

Utilize 802.1x-based authentication to control access to your network. There are several flavors of 802.1x port-based authentication systems. Choose one that meets the security requirements for your company. For example, EAP-TLS may be a wise choice if you have Microsoft servers.

Establish the wireless network on a separate VLAN. A firewall can then help keep hackers located on the VLAN associated with the wireless network from having easy access to corporate servers located on different, more secured VLANs (i.e., not accessible from the wireless network). In this manner, the wireless network is similar to a public network, except you can apply encryption and authentication mechanisms to the wireless users.

Disable access points during non-usage periods. If possible, shut down the access points when users don’t need them. This limits the window of opportunity for a hacker to use an access point to their advantage as a weak interface to the rest of the network. To accomplish this, you can simply pull the power plug on each access point; however, you can also deploy power-over-Ethernet (PoE) equipment that provides this feature in a more practical manner via centralized operational support tools.

Assign “strong” passwords to access points. Don’t use default passwords for access points because they are also well known, making it easy for someone to change configuration parameters on the access point to their advantage. Be sure to alter these passwords periodically. Ensure passwords are encrypted before being sent over the network.

Don’t broadcast SSIDs. If this feature is available, you can avoid having user devices automatically sniff the SSID in use by the access point. Most current computer operating systems and monitoring tools will automatically sniff the 802.11 beacon frames to obtain the SSID. With SSID broadcasting turned off, the access point will not include the SSID in the beacon frame, making most SSID sniffing tools useless. This isn’t a foolproof method of hiding the SSID, however, because someone can still monitor 802.11 association frames (which always carry the SSID, even if SSID broadcasting is turned off) with a packet tracer. At least shutting off the broadcast mechanism will limit access.

Reduce propagation of radio waves outside the facility. Through the use of directional antennas, you can direct the propagation of radio waves inside the facility and reduce the “spillage” outside the perimeter. This not only optimizes coverage, it also minimizes the ability for a hacker located outside the controlled portion of the company to eavesdrop on user signal transmissions and interface with the corporate network through an access point. This also reduces the ability for someone to jam the wireless LAN - a form of denial-of-service attack - from outside the perimeter of the facility. In addition, consider setting access points near the edge of the building to lower transmit power to reduce range outside the facility. This testing should be part of the wireless site survey.

Implement personal firewalls. If a hacker is able to associate with an access point, which is extremely probable if there is no encryption or authentication configured, the hacker can easily access (via the Windows operating system) files on other users’ devices that are associated with an access point on the same wireless network. As a result, it’s crucial that all users disable file sharing for all folders and utilize personal firewalls. These firewalls are part of various operating systems, such as Windows Vista and XP, and 3rd party applications as well.

Control the deployment of wireless LANs. Ensure that all employees and organizations within the company coordinate the installation of wireless LANs with the appropriate information systems group. Forbid the use of unauthorized access points. Mandate the use of approved vendor products that you’ve had a chance to verify appropriate security safeguards. Maintain a list of authorized radio NIC and access point MAC addresses that you can use as the basis for identifying rogue access points.

With these recommendations in mind, you have a basis for forming a solid security policy. When deciding on which techniques to implement, however, be sure to consider actual security needs.

Source: itmanagement.earthweb.com

With roll-to-sheet and sheet-to-sheet semi-automatic material handling, the HP Scitex TJ8500 Printer can handle a wide range of substrates including untreated materials such as offset and screen papers and uncoated synthetic materials as well as films, coated papers and synthetics, and self-adhesive vinyl.

Source: whattheythink.com

Earlier this week, Microsoft technology evangelist Mike Swanson had posted that PDC 2008 attendees will receive USB 2.0 based 160GB external HD with Windows 7 pre-beta build.

The company is also known to have added more than a dozen Windows 7-specific sessions to the PDC agenda. These include: New APIs to Find, Visualise and Organise; Integrate with the Windows 7 Desktop Taskbar and Best Practices for Developing for Windows Standard User.

In May, Microsoft publicly demoed Windows 7 at a news conference. The high point of the new OS is its “multi-touch” interface.

Other than, the touchy feely look, the demo also showed a user manipulating photos, browsing a map and playing an onscreen piano with simple one and two-finger taps and gestures.

However, the company did not confirm when it plans to ship Beta 1 of Windows 7. Microsoft plans to unveil the final version of Windows 7 around January 2010.

Source:TOI

* Old Hardware — “Studies have shown that the likelihood of physical problems with computer equipment goes up significantly after 24 to 36 months,” says Reaves. “Consider replacing computer systems every three years — considering how inexpensive computers have become, one major computer repair bill could easily cost more than purchasing an entire new system.”

* Power Protection — “Surges and power  drops can cause data loss and are always damaging to sensitive components, reducing their life span. Most people do use surge protectors, but what many don’t realize is that surge protection wears off over time. For the best protection make sure that the surge protectors for all your computer equipment are replaced every two to three years.”

* Illegal Software — “Many businesses don’t realize that they don’t “own” software; just the licenses to use it on a specific number of PC’s. Many software programs automatically report their usage via the Internet, and breach-of-license letters and audits from software manufacturers to businesses are on the rise.”

* Training — “Having to spend money training your staff might sound like a waste, but most employees understand less than 20 percent of the software packages they use. The gain in productivity far outweighs the training costs.”

Firewall and security — “The Internet is full of hackers who regularly try to access computers for nefarious purposes. If they get in (either directly, or with the help of exploits from malware or viruses) the list of problems they can cause is a major concern, including stealing files or customer records and deleting important data. It’s important to be sure that all computers in your organization are updated with the latest security patches from Microsoft or Apple, and that firewalls are installed and maintained properly.”

* Backup Data — “It sounds so obvious but most companies fail to keep 100 percent of their important data backed up 100 percent of the time — there are often gaps in what’s being backed up that are only discovered when it’s too late. The consequences of lost data can put a company out of business on the spot, and data retrieval is frighteningly expensive.”

* Spam, Viruses and Spyware — “80 percent of all Computer Troubleshooters’ service calls worldwide are from people with problems directly linked to these issues. You should consider good virus removal protection, spam filters and anti-spyware programs as mandatory if you want a trouble-free computer.”

With a small amount of common sense, weekly maintenance (much of which we can set our computers to do themselves) and some small financial outlays, we can have many more trouble-free workdays and spend far less on the IT repair man. This will allow us more “up” time to complete our work and give us the chance to explore the myriad other technology opportunities that can help us improve our businesses, or our lives. Now that’s technology in action.

Source:newsfactor.com/story.xhtml?story_id=1200044YRDOO&page=1

Traditional antivirus software is becomign increasingly ineffective due to severe vulnerabilities in their engine. The boffins observed malware – malicious software – detection rates as low as 35 per cent against the most recent threats.

The new approach, called CloudAV, moves antivirus functionality into the “network cloud” and off PCs. CloudAV analyses suspicious files using multiple antivirus and behavioural detection programmes simultaneously.

“Our CloudAV virtualises and parallelises detection using multiple antivirus engines, significantly increasing overall protection,” said Farnam Jahanian, professor of computer science at the University of Michigan.

To develop this novel approach, the researchers evaluated 12 traditional antivirus programs – Avast, AVG, BitDefender, ClamAV, CWSandbox, F-Prot , F-Secure , Kaspersky, McAfee, Norman Sandbox, Symantec and Trend Micro – against 7,220 malware samples, including viruses.

Traditional antivirus checks documents and programmes as they are accessed. Because of technological constraints, only one anti-virus detector is typically used at a time.

CloudAV, however, uses 12 different detectors together to determine the safety of any new document or programme received. It is accessible via any computer or mobile device that runs a simple software agent.

The new approach also caches analysis results, speeding up the process compared with traditional antivirus software. This could be useful for workplaces, for example, where multiple employees might access the same document.

CloudAV could also be used in cell phones and other devices that aren’t robust enough to carry powerful antivirus software, the scientists said.

Source:TOI