*Show the selected folder in Explorer's left pane
The first time I realized Windows 7's version of Explorer wasn't showing the active folder in the left pane, I thought I discovered a bug. In fact, Microsoft disabled automatic folder tracking by default in Windows 7. To see the selected folder in Explorer's left pane, click Tools, Folder options, and check "Automatically expand to current folder" under "Navigation pane" on the General tab.
Set Windows 7 to reopen folder windows to their previous size and location
Another unpleasant change in Windows 7 is the inability to open folder windows at the same dimensions and location they were when you closed them. Each folder window you open in Windows 7 adopts the size and placement of the last folder window you closed. The free ShellFolderFix utility remedies the situation.
After you download and install the program, double-click its icon in the notification area to activate it. Windows 7 will then remember where your folder windows were when you closed them and will reopen them in the same size and location. The utility's other options let you create a "work space" consisting of specific folder views that you can open by right-clicking the ShellFolderFix icon and choosing the work space on the resulting context menu.
Free text editor outshines the venerable Notepad
Windows 7's built-in text editor looks a lot like Vista's default text editor...and XP's text editor...and Windows Me's...and Windows 98's. You could say, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it," but when it comes to basic text processing, you can do much better without having to pay for the privilege.
My favorite Notepad replacement is EditPad Lite, which is fast and compact but surprisingly powerful. The program features a tabbed interface and a simple set of icons for common operations, such as cut, copy, paste, open, close, save, and save all. You can undo or redo the last several operations, jump to a specific line number, choose one of five fonts, and wrap text at the right window border or at one of five preset character lengths
Supersize your icons--and everything else on your screen
The views available when you click the "Change your view" icon in Windows 7's version of Explorer include Content, Tiles, Details, List, and three sizes of icons: small, medium, and large. If large isn't large enough, choose the down-arrow button and choose Extra Large Icons. (The options are also available on the View menu; if it's not visible, click Alt-F.)
Another way to resize your icons is by pressing Ctrl and scrolling the mouse wheel. But that's just the beginning of your big-picture options. To go really large, press the Windows key, type magnify, and press Enter. The Magnify utility opens at the default 200 percent view. Move the cursor to the edge of the screen to move the view left, right, up, or down. To revert to the regular view, click the magnifying-glass icon to bring the small Magnify control back into view and close the program.
Put all your apps away with a single click
By the time my workday ends, I often have a dozen or more application and folder windows open. Taking the time to close them one by one can make me late for dinner.
I get a jump on the evening rush-hour traffic by using the free Close All Windows utility from Ntwind Software. As an added bonus, the program doesn't have to be installed on your system to work. Simply download and extract the ZIP file, right-click the CloseAll.exe file, and select Send To, Desktop (create shortcut). When you're ready to pack it in for the day, just click the shortcut. If any of your files haven't been saved, you'll be prompted to do so before they close.
You can also run the program from the command line and set it to exclude specific programs. Personally, I wish I could set the program to turn out the lights, lock up the office, and automate some of my other end-of-the-workday tasks. Maybe someday.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Gmail, Skype now in Indian governments list
After temporarily setting aside its BlackBerry ultimatum, the Indian government has shifted its focus to Gmail and Skype, according to the AFP.
India is apparently taking issue with any communication service that doesn't give it easy access to data. It has a problem with Google-owned Gmail's heavy encryption and with the inability to listen in on conversations over VoIP with Skype.
"If a company is providing telecom services in Indian, then all communications must be available to Indian security services," a government representative told AFP. "If Google or Skype have a component that is not accessible, that will not be possible."
As of this writing, India had not sent notices to comply with its tight data-availability regulations, but the AFP reports that Google and Skype may receive notices as early as Tuesday. The notes will likely require that both companies provide the Indian government with a way to access e-mails in Gmail and conversations in Skype.
The Indian government made waves recently by targeting Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices over data accessibility. The government contends that by safeguarding e-mail, instant messaging, and Web browsing, RIM is preventing India from monitoring communications as part of national security.
Last week, RIM stood firm in opposition to India, indicating that it wouldn't submit to the government's September 1 deadline. India has now given RIM two months to furnish access to its data or face a ban of its service.
India is apparently taking issue with any communication service that doesn't give it easy access to data. It has a problem with Google-owned Gmail's heavy encryption and with the inability to listen in on conversations over VoIP with Skype.
"If a company is providing telecom services in Indian, then all communications must be available to Indian security services," a government representative told AFP. "If Google or Skype have a component that is not accessible, that will not be possible."
As of this writing, India had not sent notices to comply with its tight data-availability regulations, but the AFP reports that Google and Skype may receive notices as early as Tuesday. The notes will likely require that both companies provide the Indian government with a way to access e-mails in Gmail and conversations in Skype.
The Indian government made waves recently by targeting Research In Motion's BlackBerry devices over data accessibility. The government contends that by safeguarding e-mail, instant messaging, and Web browsing, RIM is preventing India from monitoring communications as part of national security.
Last week, RIM stood firm in opposition to India, indicating that it wouldn't submit to the government's September 1 deadline. India has now given RIM two months to furnish access to its data or face a ban of its service.
Monday, August 30, 2010
10 things netbooks can do better than a ipad
I really hate the ipad and its just a bigger ipod touch,... whats the use of that .... totally useless... I have put 10 things netbooks which are less than half the ipads price do better than the Ipad
Video chat
Most Netbooks, even low-end ones, now have webcams enabling basic video chat over Skype or any other program. The iPad, however, does not. We wish the iPad had a camera and iChat, especially since it would make the tablet a unique communications device to rival the iPhone. Perhaps cost was a factor, even though most Netbooks manage the feat in a package under $500
Run Flash
While Steve Jobs called the iPad "the best web experience you've ever had," there is a big missing piece right now, and that's the whole web. Browser-based apps and Flash-driven content are a huge element of cloud computing and of many websites. While HTML5 is rapidly gaining ground to offer alternative streaming video solutions for the iPad, and sites like Netflix and CBS are crossing over to provide iPad video solutions, the selection of content right now doesn't come close to matching what's available via Flash. While Atom Netbooks can be slow and stuttery when playing web video, at least they can
Program
Most people aren't programmers, or anything close to it, but most Netbooks do run on a full Windows 7 OS that can be used for programming or modification. Linux-based Netbooks are even more hack-friendly. You can even install Mac OS on a Netbook, should so you so wish. For the friendly hackers out there, that's a dealbreaker on the iPad.
Upload photos or video from a camera
No USB ports on the iPad mean no connecting cameras or other peripherals without a $29 camera attachment dongle, and even then, you can't simply drag files to the desktop like you can on a Netbook. It could be a drag if the iPad is meant as a portable computing replacement for bloggers. Netbooks have at least 2 USB ports standard.
Store more than 64GB of data
We expected a little more memory on the iPad. Even the most basic Netbook has a 160GB hard drive. Cloud storage can assist with data, but it's still no replacement for onboard capacity.
Play Facebook games
Without the aforementioned Flash, browser games aren't really possible on the iPad. Those looking to play Farmville will have to wait for the App or just flock to a Netbook.
Swap batteries
Sure, the iPad is slim, attractive and very showy, and boasts a significant battery life. But its battery is fixed, while a Netbook can not only swap its battery, but upgrade from a three to a six-cell or more.
Install CD media (or any media other than from an App Store)
With the addition of a simple USB DVD/CD-ROM drive, disc-based software can be installed on a Netbook even without an optical drive built in. Netbooks can also install files off USB drives, or via any other input method. The iPad wasn't designed with this flexibility in mind, but it's still nice to be able to do
Type on your lap
Yes, the iPad has a virtual keyboard, and even a cool keyboard dock that turns the tablet into a quasi-desktop device. But the dock can't be used for lap typing, and the iPad lays awkwardly flat on a table unless you're using an elevated case. For long-term writing on the go, a physical Netbook keyboard with an attached angled screen still wins.
Upgrade
Netbooks can upgrade their RAM--albeit slightly--and with a little effort that hard drive can be swapped too. The iPad is a fixed entity, so there's no going back once you've picked 16, 32 or 64GB.
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Run Windows, Mac, and Linux Side by Side and Pain-Free with VirtualBox
Now you might need to work on multiple Os for many reasons. I needed to work on Xp cause turbo C doesn't work good with win & or vista. Normally people would suggest Dual-boot but you can eliminate that with using Virtual box
I'll show you how to easily install new operating systems (including Mac OS X and Linux) and optimize your installation with shared folders and software to help your virtual machines communicate with your main OS. We'll also do a little extra work to get the newest release of Snow Leopard to play nice, even though it's not fully supported yet. Although we're using Windows 7 64-bit as our base OS, VirtualBox runs on nearly any OS, and these tips and tricks are applicable to any serious VirtualBox setup.
Why Virtualize?
Using virtualized operating systems presents all sorts of opportunities. You don't have to leave your primary and favored operating system to use tools found only in another operating system; you can run a copy of your current operating system to try out new tweaks, tricks, and software to ensure everything works well; you can test new software or browse in an entirely sandboxed OS. One of the great perks of running multiple operating systems in virtualization come with multiple monitors, you can spread out almost as though you had separate computers hooked up to the same keyboard and mouse.
What You'll Need?
You're most likely using a machine right now that would easily support at least one other operating system in virtualization, but likely more. . It has an Intel quadcore processor, 8GB of RAM, and a basic graphics card with 256MB of RAM. The parts weren't cutting edge when we bought them—all of them were selected because they were on sale—and they're certainly not cutting edge now. With those specs, the machine easily runs Ubuntu, OS X Snow Leopard, and Windows 7 32-bit simultaneously—powered by a core OS of Windows 7-64 bit—without any problems. If you've got a reasonably new system with a good amount of RAM, you should be just fine.
so go ahead and try it and download virtual box today
Stay Safe from Online threats
Computer users today face a new round of attacks that pose new challenges to both consumers and businesses. These new attack vectors often sidestep traditional security defenses. Hackers, supported by international crime gangs with deep pockets, are accosting consumers and office workers with sophisticated technology.
The threat landscape is changing. Hackers are more determined than ever to steal valuable data, credit card and banking account credentials and much more. Computer hackers, much like the gold diggers of the Wild West of yester-year, are determined to hit the mother lode of sellable business and personal information.
Hackers do not stop trying when they confront more solid computer and network security. Instead of turning back, they develop better methods to trick users into letting them inside network perimeters and computer defenses.
The latest security research shows that the attackers are no longer just going after the low-hanging fruit of organizations. The bad guys are not just picking from places they find with no security solutions in place.
"They are looking at the advanced security solutions that organizations use and are finding ways to get around them as well," Ashar Aziz, CEO of FireEye, told.
Doing Their Homework
Hackers are modifying their attack vectors. They are much more sophisticated now and show a lot more advanced knowledge of corporate networks they target.
One way hackers achieve this goal is learning what holes exist is popular software that the good guys haven't found or patched yet. This is forcing security pros to constantly figure out new defenses.
The predominant theme is highly sophisticated and targeted attacks using novel and previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in commonly deployed applications and vendors such as Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE), Flash, Web browsers and infrastructure, Aziz explained.
"We are seeing folks launch attacks showing an advanced knowledge of the target's network," Steve Shillingford, CEO Solera Networks, told.
Shut Up and Wait
A new key attack tactic is evasion. Hackers do not leave being discovered up to chance. They build in secrecy.
"We are also seeing more instances where attackers are trying to be more evasive. We've been able to reverse engineer some of the attack codes we've discovered. We see that the attack actually goes quiet if it is detected. It stays dormant until the coast is clear," Bradley Anstis, vice president of technical strategy at M86, told .
A related tactic: The bad guys launch these attacks using what they call attack kits. These attack kits look like normal software applications and mimic many of their behaviors as a way of concealing their presence, he added.
Hide and Seek
Coming into a network in stealth mode helps the hackers recognize all the assets stored there. They have a view of the network landscape and can go after anything they want, Aziz added.
"The persistent thing about these new attacks is their ability to remain undiscovered and continue spying on the network," he said.
Criminal programmers are showing more use of dormant worms and botnets that get a foot in the door and then quietly wait for instructions, according to Shillingford. The Conifker Worm is a good example.
"It is still resident on countless computers and people are still trying to figure out what is is trying to do," he said.
Making End Runs
One of the most surprising changes researches found at the British security firm M86 is an emergence of attacks to get around the newest defensive technologies that organizations are using. These combined attacks split to go after the various elements designed into a Web page.
"If you look at the individual attack elements, they look benign. There is nothing there to suggest anything malignant," said Anstis.
It is only when these elements are combined on an actual Web page the way a browser does that the actual attack raises its head. Methods like these are very hard to block and have security people scurrying, he said.
"This is the first time we've seen the bot attack specifically designed to get around the existing real-time system defenses," said Anstis.
Criss-Cross Connectivity
Mobile devices today, more than every before, are causing havoc with security. The mobility space is drastically changed in the last year. Secure methods such as dial-in and secured VPN nearly guaranteed limited log-in options.
"Mobility is now a game-changer. Dial-in access is replaced with from-anywhere connectivity. Access is now more important to users than remote security. Attackers exploit all of this," Martin Hack, executive vice president of NCP Engineering, told .
Clearly, quite a bit of complacency surrounds remote access. Research has shown that VPN played a major role in high-profile attacks in the last few years, according to Hack.
"It was directly involved even if not the primary connection method. We initially thought VPN was incidental," he said.
Tunneling Through
VPN is still the best method to connect to the Internet. But it has to be properly set up and constantly monitored, said Hack.
"Not managing it properly is the fault in these hacking instances. It must be configured properly. You just can't set it up and forget about it," he offered.
A major risk comes from hosted VPN services that are not properly configured. Hackers can get at data in one tunnel by breaking into another. This is a major concern when more than one customer has tunnels, Hack explained.
More Safety in Obscurity?
When it comes to computer security, the weakest link is indeed the software. And it does not make much difference what the computing platform is. Software will always have vulnerability. It doesn't matter whether or not it is Windows software.
"Windows is more targeted but no less insecure. No operating system is completely attack-proof," Phil Lin, director of marketing for FireEye, told .
Attacks are now cross-platform. Other OSes are still vulnerable. The Mac OS and the Linux OS are not bug-free. It is just the prevalence of Windows that motivates the attacks to focus on that target-rich environment, said Lin.
"We haven't figured out how to program without bugs. It is these software errors or vulnerabilities that allow attackers to run arbitrary code," he said.
Cross-Platform Causes
There is a degree of benefit from being below the radar in using Mac or Linux. But if the payoff is there, an attack will follow, noted Lin.
"If there is a high-value target on another platform, they will figure out a way to get at it," he said.
One example of software vulnerability and cross-platform weakness is the Web browser.
The threat landscape is changing. Hackers are more determined than ever to steal valuable data, credit card and banking account credentials and much more. Computer hackers, much like the gold diggers of the Wild West of yester-year, are determined to hit the mother lode of sellable business and personal information.
Hackers do not stop trying when they confront more solid computer and network security. Instead of turning back, they develop better methods to trick users into letting them inside network perimeters and computer defenses.
The latest security research shows that the attackers are no longer just going after the low-hanging fruit of organizations. The bad guys are not just picking from places they find with no security solutions in place.
"They are looking at the advanced security solutions that organizations use and are finding ways to get around them as well," Ashar Aziz, CEO of FireEye, told.
Doing Their Homework
Hackers are modifying their attack vectors. They are much more sophisticated now and show a lot more advanced knowledge of corporate networks they target.
One way hackers achieve this goal is learning what holes exist is popular software that the good guys haven't found or patched yet. This is forcing security pros to constantly figure out new defenses.
The predominant theme is highly sophisticated and targeted attacks using novel and previously undisclosed vulnerabilities in commonly deployed applications and vendors such as Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE), Flash, Web browsers and infrastructure, Aziz explained.
"We are seeing folks launch attacks showing an advanced knowledge of the target's network," Steve Shillingford, CEO Solera Networks, told.
Shut Up and Wait
A new key attack tactic is evasion. Hackers do not leave being discovered up to chance. They build in secrecy.
"We are also seeing more instances where attackers are trying to be more evasive. We've been able to reverse engineer some of the attack codes we've discovered. We see that the attack actually goes quiet if it is detected. It stays dormant until the coast is clear," Bradley Anstis, vice president of technical strategy at M86, told .
A related tactic: The bad guys launch these attacks using what they call attack kits. These attack kits look like normal software applications and mimic many of their behaviors as a way of concealing their presence, he added.
Hide and Seek
Coming into a network in stealth mode helps the hackers recognize all the assets stored there. They have a view of the network landscape and can go after anything they want, Aziz added.
"The persistent thing about these new attacks is their ability to remain undiscovered and continue spying on the network," he said.
Criminal programmers are showing more use of dormant worms and botnets that get a foot in the door and then quietly wait for instructions, according to Shillingford. The Conifker Worm is a good example.
"It is still resident on countless computers and people are still trying to figure out what is is trying to do," he said.
Making End Runs
One of the most surprising changes researches found at the British security firm M86 is an emergence of attacks to get around the newest defensive technologies that organizations are using. These combined attacks split to go after the various elements designed into a Web page.
"If you look at the individual attack elements, they look benign. There is nothing there to suggest anything malignant," said Anstis.
It is only when these elements are combined on an actual Web page the way a browser does that the actual attack raises its head. Methods like these are very hard to block and have security people scurrying, he said.
"This is the first time we've seen the bot attack specifically designed to get around the existing real-time system defenses," said Anstis.
Criss-Cross Connectivity
Mobile devices today, more than every before, are causing havoc with security. The mobility space is drastically changed in the last year. Secure methods such as dial-in and secured VPN nearly guaranteed limited log-in options.
"Mobility is now a game-changer. Dial-in access is replaced with from-anywhere connectivity. Access is now more important to users than remote security. Attackers exploit all of this," Martin Hack, executive vice president of NCP Engineering, told .
Clearly, quite a bit of complacency surrounds remote access. Research has shown that VPN played a major role in high-profile attacks in the last few years, according to Hack.
"It was directly involved even if not the primary connection method. We initially thought VPN was incidental," he said.
Tunneling Through
VPN is still the best method to connect to the Internet. But it has to be properly set up and constantly monitored, said Hack.
"Not managing it properly is the fault in these hacking instances. It must be configured properly. You just can't set it up and forget about it," he offered.
A major risk comes from hosted VPN services that are not properly configured. Hackers can get at data in one tunnel by breaking into another. This is a major concern when more than one customer has tunnels, Hack explained.
More Safety in Obscurity?
When it comes to computer security, the weakest link is indeed the software. And it does not make much difference what the computing platform is. Software will always have vulnerability. It doesn't matter whether or not it is Windows software.
"Windows is more targeted but no less insecure. No operating system is completely attack-proof," Phil Lin, director of marketing for FireEye, told .
Attacks are now cross-platform. Other OSes are still vulnerable. The Mac OS and the Linux OS are not bug-free. It is just the prevalence of Windows that motivates the attacks to focus on that target-rich environment, said Lin.
"We haven't figured out how to program without bugs. It is these software errors or vulnerabilities that allow attackers to run arbitrary code," he said.
Cross-Platform Causes
There is a degree of benefit from being below the radar in using Mac or Linux. But if the payoff is there, an attack will follow, noted Lin.
"If there is a high-value target on another platform, they will figure out a way to get at it," he said.
One example of software vulnerability and cross-platform weakness is the Web browser.
12 new netbook processors
Intel (Nasdaq: INTC) on Monday announced that 12 new netbooks based on its dual-core mobile Intel Atom processors, code-named "Pine Trail," are now available.
These are available from eight vendors, including Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. Other vendors will announce their new netbooks running the N550 soon, Intel said.
Netbooks built around the Atom N550 are aimed at heavy online use and at gamers.
Two Cores Are Better than One
The netbooks released Monday are built around the Intel Atom N550 CPU. This is a 150 GHz processor that runs on two physical cores with two threads each. Each core has 512 KB of L2 cache. Memory support is a single-channel DDRS running at 557 MHz up to 2 GB.
The N550 incorporates Nvidia's (Nasdaq: NVDA) ION graphics processing unit, which uses Nvidia's Optimus technology. "Optimus gives the ability to automatically switch between an integrated processor and a discrete processor," Nvidia spokesperson Brian Burke told
"A dual core processor will provide more performance than a single-core but at nearly the same power draw," Leslie Fiering, lead Intel analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT), told
More, Better, Faster
Several mainstream applications, including Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker, are multithreaded, and hence run faster on dual-core processors than on single-core ones, Intel spokesperson Suzy Ramirez said. Windows 7 users will also see better performance.
"Windows 7 focuses on how multithreaded applications are run, providing benefits in energy reduction, scalability and performance,"
Users will also see better performance when they have multiple applications open at the same time, Ramirez added.
Online applications will also get a boost from the dual-core technology.
"The dual-core N550 will offer new levels of support for more media-intensive online applications," Ramirez explained.
These include games as well as Adobe Flash for access to various Web pages and multimedia sites such as YouTube and Hulu, Intel said.
One of the new netbooks based on the Atom N550 is the Asus Eee 1215PN, Nvidia's Burke said.
Aren't Netbooks the New Dodos?
Though netbooks have gained considerable attention by consumers over the last couple of years, their position in the market is being squeezed by tablet computers like the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad.
"We believe that media tablets such as the iPad are cannibalizing netbook sales, especially in the companion device mode,' Gartner's Fiering said."Unless there are specific advantages offered only by a netbook, many buyers are voting with their dollars for the media tablet category."
Workers who already have a full-featured desktop or notebook will find media tablets can do what they need for an occasional device, Fiering pointed out. However, netbooks are the better choice if "some level" of computational power and better synching with desktop and notebook documents are needed.
"Are netbooks a dying breed? Not yet," said James McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat. "Tablets right now are selling for more than [US]$400 and there's a very good distinction in the market on price points."
Netbooks are under pressure from other segments, particularly notebooks, McGregor told .
"Wal-Mart last Christmas was offering a fully featured Toshiba notebook for under $299," McGregor pointed out."However, netbooks have got a pricing advantage, and as long as they have that and they have a different channel -- the carriers -- they've got a chance," he added.
Strength in Numbers
Intel thinks the netbooks market will remain strong.
These are available from eight vendors, including Acer, Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba. Other vendors will announce their new netbooks running the N550 soon, Intel said.
Netbooks built around the Atom N550 are aimed at heavy online use and at gamers.
Two Cores Are Better than One
The netbooks released Monday are built around the Intel Atom N550 CPU. This is a 150 GHz processor that runs on two physical cores with two threads each. Each core has 512 KB of L2 cache. Memory support is a single-channel DDRS running at 557 MHz up to 2 GB.
The N550 incorporates Nvidia's (Nasdaq: NVDA) ION graphics processing unit, which uses Nvidia's Optimus technology. "Optimus gives the ability to automatically switch between an integrated processor and a discrete processor," Nvidia spokesperson Brian Burke told
"A dual core processor will provide more performance than a single-core but at nearly the same power draw," Leslie Fiering, lead Intel analyst at Gartner (NYSE: IT), told
More, Better, Faster
Several mainstream applications, including Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Photoshop and Windows Movie Maker, are multithreaded, and hence run faster on dual-core processors than on single-core ones, Intel spokesperson Suzy Ramirez said. Windows 7 users will also see better performance.
"Windows 7 focuses on how multithreaded applications are run, providing benefits in energy reduction, scalability and performance,"
Users will also see better performance when they have multiple applications open at the same time, Ramirez added.
Online applications will also get a boost from the dual-core technology.
"The dual-core N550 will offer new levels of support for more media-intensive online applications," Ramirez explained.
These include games as well as Adobe Flash for access to various Web pages and multimedia sites such as YouTube and Hulu, Intel said.
One of the new netbooks based on the Atom N550 is the Asus Eee 1215PN, Nvidia's Burke said.
Aren't Netbooks the New Dodos?
Though netbooks have gained considerable attention by consumers over the last couple of years, their position in the market is being squeezed by tablet computers like the Apple (Nasdaq: AAPL) iPad.
"We believe that media tablets such as the iPad are cannibalizing netbook sales, especially in the companion device mode,' Gartner's Fiering said."Unless there are specific advantages offered only by a netbook, many buyers are voting with their dollars for the media tablet category."
Workers who already have a full-featured desktop or notebook will find media tablets can do what they need for an occasional device, Fiering pointed out. However, netbooks are the better choice if "some level" of computational power and better synching with desktop and notebook documents are needed.
"Are netbooks a dying breed? Not yet," said James McGregor, chief technology strategist at In-Stat. "Tablets right now are selling for more than [US]$400 and there's a very good distinction in the market on price points."
Netbooks are under pressure from other segments, particularly notebooks, McGregor told .
"Wal-Mart last Christmas was offering a fully featured Toshiba notebook for under $299," McGregor pointed out."However, netbooks have got a pricing advantage, and as long as they have that and they have a different channel -- the carriers -- they've got a chance," he added.
Strength in Numbers
Intel thinks the netbooks market will remain strong.
Pentagon admits it got hacked.
A significant compromise" of U.S. military networks has been acknowledged by the Pentagon two years after the breach was reported in the press.
"In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks," Deputy Secretary of Defense William S. Lynn III wrote in an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs.
"It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East," he explained. "The flash drive's malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. Central Command.
"That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems," he continued, "establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control."
"This previously classified incident was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever, and it served as an important wake-up call," he added.
Excuse Me, We've Been Hacked
The Pentagon's official acknowledgement of the data breach at Central Command occurs nearly two years after The Los Angeles Times reported the incident in November 2008.
"It's been an open secret in Washington for a long time," James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told .
"I have no doubts about the authenticity of this account," he added.
He remembered attending a dinner with six people on the night the military discovered the breach when one of the diners from Homeland Security's National Cyber Security division excused himself from the repast after receiving a message on his BlackBerry. "DOD just had a major hack," he recalled the official saying. "I have to leave."
He added that he has heard General Keith Alexander, recently appointed to head the new U.S. Cyber Command, allude to the attack at unclassified forums at the National Security Agency in the past.
Bumbling Spies?
Although in his article Lynn attributes the 2008 attack on Central Command to a foreign intelligence agency, that has been challenged in some corners of Cyberspace.
Citing an anonymous source, Wired magazine reported that the military has never been sure who was responsible for infecting Central Command's networks.
"Some guys wanted to reach out and touch someone," the source told Wired. "But months later, we were still doing forensics. It was never clear, though. The code was used by Russian hackers before. But who knows?"
The malware originating from the infected USB drive was dubbed "Agent.btz." It's a variation of the SillyFDC worm. According to Wired, the worm's ability to compromise classified information is limited because it requires open access to the public Internet to work effectively.
"SIPRNet, the military's secret network, and JWICS, its top secret network, have only the thinnest of connections to the public Internet," Wired explained. "Without those connections, intruders would have no way of exploiting the backdoor, or indeed of even knowing that agent.btz had found its way into the CENTCOM network."
That raises the question of why foreign agents would try to infect a military network with a worm that would have very little chance of producing anything useful.
Scary Situation
Although the worm infecting Central Command's computers doesn't appear to be anything exotic, it still took military sanitizers 14 months to clean up the infection. That is frightening news to some computer security pros.
"In 2008, the U.S. Department of Defense suffered a significant compromise of its classified military computer networks," Deputy Secretary of Defense William S. Lynn III wrote in an article in the September/October issue of Foreign Affairs.
"It began when an infected flash drive was inserted into a U.S. military laptop at a base in the Middle East," he explained. "The flash drive's malicious computer code, placed there by a foreign intelligence agency, uploaded itself onto a network run by the U.S. Central Command.
"That code spread undetected on both classified and unclassified systems," he continued, "establishing what amounted to a digital beachhead, from which data could be transferred to servers under foreign control."
"This previously classified incident was the most significant breach of U.S. military computers ever, and it served as an important wake-up call," he added.
Excuse Me, We've Been Hacked
The Pentagon's official acknowledgement of the data breach at Central Command occurs nearly two years after The Los Angeles Times reported the incident in November 2008.
"It's been an open secret in Washington for a long time," James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told .
"I have no doubts about the authenticity of this account," he added.
He remembered attending a dinner with six people on the night the military discovered the breach when one of the diners from Homeland Security's National Cyber Security division excused himself from the repast after receiving a message on his BlackBerry. "DOD just had a major hack," he recalled the official saying. "I have to leave."
He added that he has heard General Keith Alexander, recently appointed to head the new U.S. Cyber Command, allude to the attack at unclassified forums at the National Security Agency in the past.
Bumbling Spies?
Although in his article Lynn attributes the 2008 attack on Central Command to a foreign intelligence agency, that has been challenged in some corners of Cyberspace.
Citing an anonymous source, Wired magazine reported that the military has never been sure who was responsible for infecting Central Command's networks.
"Some guys wanted to reach out and touch someone," the source told Wired. "But months later, we were still doing forensics. It was never clear, though. The code was used by Russian hackers before. But who knows?"
The malware originating from the infected USB drive was dubbed "Agent.btz." It's a variation of the SillyFDC worm. According to Wired, the worm's ability to compromise classified information is limited because it requires open access to the public Internet to work effectively.
"SIPRNet, the military's secret network, and JWICS, its top secret network, have only the thinnest of connections to the public Internet," Wired explained. "Without those connections, intruders would have no way of exploiting the backdoor, or indeed of even knowing that agent.btz had found its way into the CENTCOM network."
That raises the question of why foreign agents would try to infect a military network with a worm that would have very little chance of producing anything useful.
Scary Situation
Although the worm infecting Central Command's computers doesn't appear to be anything exotic, it still took military sanitizers 14 months to clean up the infection. That is frightening news to some computer security pros.
Nokia N900 Review
Nokia N900
I had been wanting to get my hands on this device for a long time and finally when i got my
hands on it, I was Impressed. it was not like my the n97 which I am sad to say will hang if
you open a lot of apps at the same time. But I am glad to say that the N900 does not have this issue and was able to multitask just like a desktop pc well almost.
so without further delay i will give you the N900 review.
Hardware
Your personal take on the N900's look and feel depends almost entirely on how you approach it. As a phone, it can only be described as beastly -- but as a dedicated Internet device, it's one of the smaller, sexier, and more practical devices in this tween er category to come to market. Physically, anyone coming from an N810 will immediately notice what Nokia has done here -- they've essentially traded height and width for thickness, probably a fair swap now that the latest model has made the leap from a pure MID to a smartphone with MID tendencies. After all, as a phone, it has to fit in your pocket without much drama, and shaving over 17mm off the width and 12mm off the height certainly helps Nokia meet that goal.
That said, it really can't be overstated: the N900 is thick -- thick enough to put a bulge in even the loosest pocket. Carrying it around reminded us of toting our trusty N95 back in the day, and a quick look up confirmed that they're nearly the same thickness -- the N95's actually a couple millimeters beefier, believe it or not -- so if you're used to carrying something of that girth, it could actually be a pretty smooth transition. On the other hand, owners of most modern WinMo devices, iPhones, and even Nokia's own 5800 and N97 will have more of an adjustment period.
For better or worse, the N900 carries over some very uniquely Nokia-esque elements, notably the spring-loaded slider for toggling standby mode and the power button mounted dead center along the top edge. They're complemented by a volume rocker, 3.5mm headphone jack (doubling as a TV-out), two-stage camera button, and micro-USB port along the sides. Oh, and of course, there's a stylus tucked in the corner for actuating the resistive display. It's decent -- you won't find any metal bits or mind-blowing design here
Software
Hardware aside, it's really the N900's platform -- Maemo 5 -- that has people buzzing. There are plenty of reasons to believe that what we're looking at here is a very early incarnation of what will some day be Nokia's premier smartphone operating system (regardless of whether Symbian soldiers on in emerging markets and the lower end of the mainstream), so it behooves us all to pay close attention as this thing evolves both in Nokia's labs and in the open source community where Maemo was born and raised.
The first thing, and perhaps the most prominent thing, that a user sees regardless of device or operating system is the home screen. Coming from S60 5th Edition's restrictive grid-based widget placement, you might expect some limitations on the N900 -- but you'd be wrong. In fact, the N900 has one of the most extensible, customizable home screens of any mobile device we've ever used; you can drop widgets, bookmarks, and contacts exactly where you want them right down to the pixel, and you've got a total of four panels that loop around as you swipe (unlike Android, which stops in either direction). The system works well and does a great job of maximizing the handset's available screen real estate.
Internet use
the N900 is a really cool Internet device and is fun to use. you will find no lag or page stuck ups. its one mobile where you know that there is something wrong with the network provider if you get page stuck ups. the widgets were very reliable. The ovi store is fully loaded. and now i am thinking that nokia is truly letting you stay online 24X7 without any stuck ups or issues.
The Verdict.
This is a phone made for a geek and i am saying this cause if you are not a geek and you buy this phone you will think its complicated. but if you are a geek like me. just go out and buy this phone .,..its made for you.
Sorry was away
hey guys sorry was not able to post for a long time. I am back and will be posting daily again. Sorry if someone missed me . Thank you...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)