tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34101763844289638362024-03-05T11:01:23.528+03:00Johnsagnet ICTHUBA blog about offering transparent business solutions using enhanced ICT techniques that help users to be ahead in their business. This blog also offers various tutorials in web design and development, programming, database development and computer networkingBlogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comBlogger80125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-79495828396226830982016-08-10T15:21:00.003+03:002016-08-10T15:21:45.395+03:0010 Fast and Free Security Enhancements <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYEomzhPM_4f8RO4lk6riYrn7bClyHurDZzanuQ1l62B2aBl__rhahYN7Yt3PwGlpiilrrjHE60q-n-M8LwhSwm1D0h0SuJM5aW58RAjgXLWRWtwaYZ1o55EQz3bLDVAf-dfxqfOuNSM/s1600/windows.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitYEomzhPM_4f8RO4lk6riYrn7bClyHurDZzanuQ1l62B2aBl__rhahYN7Yt3PwGlpiilrrjHE60q-n-M8LwhSwm1D0h0SuJM5aW58RAjgXLWRWtwaYZ1o55EQz3bLDVAf-dfxqfOuNSM/s400/windows.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
Before you spend a dime on security, there are many precautions you can take that will protect you against the most common threats.<br /><br />1. Check Windows Update and Office Update regularly (_http://office.microsoft.co/productupdates); have your Office CD ready. Windows 7, 8, and 10 users can configure automatic updates. Click on the Automatic Updates tab in the System control panel and choose the appropriate options.<br /><br />2. Install a personal firewall. Both SyGate (<a href="http://www.sygate.com/">www.sygate.com</a>) and ZoneAlarm (<a href="http://www.zonelabs.com/">www.zonelabs.com</a>) offer free versions.<br /><br /><br />3. Install a free spyware blocker. Our Editors' Choice ("Spyware," April 22) was SpyBot Search & Destroy (<a href="http://security.kolla.de/">http://security.kolla.de</a>). SpyBot is also paranoid and ruthless in hunting out tracking cookies.<br /><br />4. Block pop-up spam messages in Windows 7, 8, and 10 by disabling the Windows Messenger service (this is unrelated to the instant messaging program). Open Control Panel | Administrative Tools | Services and you'll see Messenger. Right-click and go to Properties. Set Start-up Type to Disabled and press the Stop button. Bye-bye, spam pop-ups! Any good firewall will also stop them.<br /><br />5. Use strong passwords and change them periodically. Passwords should have at least seven characters; use letters and numbers and have at least one symbol. A decent example would be f8izKro@l. This will make it much harder for anyone to gain access to your accounts.<br /><br />6. If you're using Outlook or Outlook Express, use the current version or one with the Outlook Security Update installed. The update and current versions patch numerous vulnerabilities.<br /><br />7. Buy antivirus software and keep it up to date. If you're not willing to pay, try Grisoft AVG Free Edition (Grisoft Inc., www.grisoft.com). And doublecheck your AV with the free, online-only scanners available at <span id="goog_1013315505"></span>www.pandasoftware.com/activescan <span id="goog_1013315506"></span>and <a href="http://housecall.trendmicro.com/">http://housecall.trendmicro.com</a>.<br /><br />8. If you have a wireless network, turn on the security features: Use MAC filtering, turn off SSID broadcast, and even use WEP with the biggest key you can get. For more, check out our wireless section or see the expanded coverage in Your Unwired World in our next issue.<br /><br />9. Join a respectable e-mail security list, such as the one found at our own Security Supersite at <a href="http://security.ziffdavis.com/">http://security.ziffdavis.com</a>, so that you learn about emerging threats quickly and can take proper precautions.<br /><br />10. Be skeptical of things on the Internet. Don't assume that e-mail "From:" a particular person is actually from that person until you have further reason to believe it's that person. Don't assume that an attachment is what it says it is. Don't give out your password to anyone, even if that person claims to be from "support." <br /><br />Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-52912808592711555152016-08-10T14:26:00.002+03:002016-08-10T14:26:54.094+03:0010 reasons why PCs crash U must KnowFatal error: the system has become unstable or is busy," it says. "Enter to return to Windows or press Control-Alt-Delete to restart your computer. If you do this you will lose any unsaved information in all open applications."<br /><br />You have just been struck by the Blue Screen of Death. Anyone who uses Mcft Windows will be familiar with this. What can you do? More importantly, how can you prevent it happening?<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>1 Hardware conflict</b></h3>
The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.<br /><br />For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.<br /><br />If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:<br /><br /><b>* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager.</b><br /><br />Often if a device has a problem a yellow '!' appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.<br /><br />Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as 'IRQ holder for PCI steering'. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.<br /><br />Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a soundcard, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).<br /><br />When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.<br /><br />To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>2 Bad Ram</b></h3>
<br />Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.<br /><br />But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.<br /><br />One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.<br /><br />Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.<br /><br />EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>3 BIOS settings</b></h3>
<br />Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.<br /><br />Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.<br /><br />A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer's display.<br /><br />Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to 'yes' to allow Windows to do this.).<br /><br />
<b></b><h3>
<b>4 Hard disk drives</b></h3>
<br />After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-Disk Defragmenter</b><br /><br />This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.<br /><br />The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).<br /><br />Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System Icon-Performance-File System-Hard Disk.</b><br /><br />Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.<br /><br />Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Programs-Accessories-System Tools-ScanDisk</b><br /><br />Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.<br /><b><br /></b><br />
<h3>
<b>5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors</b></h3>
Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.<br /><br />These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Display-Settings</b><br /><br />Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.<br /><br />If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Device Manager</b><br /><br />Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.<br /><br />If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.<br /><br />The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.<br /><br />Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Settings-Control Panel-System-Performance-Graphics</b><br /><br />Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).<br /><br />Look up your video card's manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>6 Viruses</b></h3>
Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to<br /><br /><b>* Start-Settings-Control Panel-Add/Remove Programs</b><br /><br />Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.<br /><br />A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.<br /><br />An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>7 Printers</b></h3>
The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.<br /><br />Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer's performance.<br /><br />If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognised, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer's default settings and you may be able to carry on.<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>8 Software</b></h3>
A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the programme in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.<br /><br />The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.<br /><br />Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don't do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org<br /><br />Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message "Starting Windows" press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.<br /><br />Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.<br /><br />Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn't work.<br /><br />Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.<br />
<h3>
<b>9 Overheating</b></h3>
Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.<br /><br />One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from <a href="http://www.computernerd.com/">www.computernerd.com</a> or <a href="http://www.coolit.com/">www.coolit.com</a><br /><br />CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.<br /><br />
<h3>
<b>10 Power supply problems</b></h3>
With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.<br /><br />If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.<br /><br />It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.<br />Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-65267744088602911632016-08-10T11:51:00.000+03:002016-08-10T11:51:13.796+03:00PHP Navigations<?php<br />if($_SERVER['QUERY_STRING'] == "SoD")<br /> print "owns you!";<br />else<br /> print "don't front!";<br />?><br /><br />Description: Instead of calling files like ( index.php?str=blah ) , you could do ( index.php?SoD ) and it would print out "owns you!". You can add more strings in there, this is just an example.<br /><br /><br /> $vars = explode(",", urldecode(getenv('QUERY_STRING')));<br /> $v1 = array_shift($vars);<br /> $v2 = array_shift($vars);<br /> $v3 = array_shift($vars);<br /><br /> switch ($v1) {<br /> case 'first.1': {<br /> print("This is v1, first string case 'file.php?first.1'.");<br /> break;<br /> }<br /> case 'first.2': {<br /> switch ($v2) {<br /> case 'second': {<br /> switch($v3) {<br /> case 'third': {<br /> print("This is v3, the last case 'file.php?first.2,second,third'.");<br /> break;<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /> }<br /><br />Description: This basically does what the 1st one does but with more strings and a different seperator rather than '&'. I don't really want to go into too much detail on the thread so if people are confused or need explaining, reply or PM me.<br /><br />That's it for the navigation as I am not going to do the other due to they're everywhere else and I wanted to be different and show everyone this method.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-46608284828083164692014-04-23T18:54:00.000+03:002014-04-23T19:02:10.827+03:00The Most Powerful IT Security Companies in the world<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDilApaockiIoFqBiyecKy6loqQr8TzGfPUHpUhQRJE_JtYpOzpER4l3RrC4dh-PlsDh6HzkxX2Zy0cXogbtQw1-zdYuqzyD0WPhyEvJRDFAikwTZ6DVcQiXsUx5eamiz0SO-H5QWt42I/s1600/symant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDilApaockiIoFqBiyecKy6loqQr8TzGfPUHpUhQRJE_JtYpOzpER4l3RrC4dh-PlsDh6HzkxX2Zy0cXogbtQw1-zdYuqzyD0WPhyEvJRDFAikwTZ6DVcQiXsUx5eamiz0SO-H5QWt42I/s1600/symant.jpg" /></a>It’s not just revenues and size; influence counts, such as when a company makes widely-used software that gives them control over the security architecture of vendors and users; and certainly, excellence matters--some security vendors just keep getting high marks from independent test organizations and analysts year and year.<br />
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<b>1. Symantec</b><br />
Symantec is the top vendor in terms of worldwide IT security-product
revenues, dominating in endpoint security and messaging, according to
research firm IDC. Steve Bennett was named CEO of Symantec in 2012.<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>2. Cisco</b><br />
Cisco is the top vendor in network-security gear, especially firewall and web security, says IDC. With the acquisition of Sourcefire last year, Source fire founder Martin Roesch took on the leadership role at Cisco of president and chief architect of Cisco’s Security Business Group<br />
<br />
<b>3. Intel</b><br />
Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor manufacturer, acquired security firm McAfee (the second-largest vendor in terms of IT security products) three years ago, and is now re-branding all things “McAfee” into “Intel Security” as it continues to pursue Intel’s “hardware-assisted security”” strategy. Brian Krzanich was named CEO of Intel last year.<br />
<br />
<b>4. IBM</b><br />
According to IDC, IBM has pushed into third place in worldwide enterprise security revenue, dominating in identity and access management as well as security and vulnerability management. IBM is considered to be in third place in “server security” and “network intrusion detection and prevention.” Brendan Hannigan is general manager of the IBM Security Systems Division<br />
<br />
<b>5. Apple</b><br />
Influence counts: Apple’s design of the iOS platform with its app-checking requirement subjects apps to a security review, though not everyone likes this closed-source model. But most acknowledge it has held down the problem of malicious apps and code. Apple’s interest in mobile payments processing could take it yet further into security.<br />
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<b>6. VMware</b><br />
VMware’s success in enterprise virtualization means that when it comes up with security plans related to its virtual-machine software, it has a huge impact on what other security vendors do on the VMware platform—whether they like it or not. VMware’s latest integrated security strategy is NSX, directed by Martin Casado, CTO for networking and security at VMware.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>7.Microsoft</b><br />
Both admired and scorned over the years for its security efforts, Microsoft started the once-a-month tradition of “Patch Tuesday” in 2003 for releases of software updates for its products, an event that doesn’t go unnoticed due to Microsoft’s market share. Microsoft, ranked among the top 15 IT security vendors in terms of revenues by IDC, has grown savvier over time, working more closely with security researchers, and is now known for its aggressive effort to take down crime botnets operated worldwide that have seized control of vulnerable computers.<br />
<br />
<b>8. Oracle</b><br />
Oracle's acquisition of Sun in 2010 gave it control over the Java framework and all the good, bad and the ugly of Java patch updates and security advisories.<br />
<br />
<b>9. Kaspersky Lab</b><br />
Though it did give its customers some heartburn last year with a notoriously bad anti-malware update release, Kaspersky Lab consistently receives top marks year after year in independent anti-malware test evaluations for the effectiveness of its security software. Eugene Kaspersky, the CEO and chairman of the privately-held company he founded in Moscow, is a globe trotter who speaks his mind on issues ranging from botnet crime to cyber-espionage.<br />
<br />
<b>10. Gartner</b><br />
Gartner is the IT consultancy whose “thumb’s-up, thumb’s down” verdicts on IT products and services can make the biggest security vendors enraged or exultant, depending on each Gartner “Magic Quadrant” report. Gartner’s security analysts, including Neil MacDonald, Greg Young, Avivah Litan, Paul Proctor and Lawrence Orans, are among those influencing vendor product and service development and enterprise adoption.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-24338468311607690692014-04-23T18:32:00.002+03:002014-04-23T18:38:48.317+03:00Make money on FacebookYou can make some money while on facebook. You just need a facebook account and click on these link <a href="http://paid-to-like.org/ref/53137">Follow these instructions carefully</a><br />
Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-19428266784783881462014-04-16T17:17:00.001+03:002014-04-23T18:26:10.570+03:00FilExile program deletes files or folders that Explorer won’t touch<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiOnNoh0qVWo-O5rxi0H6hi1FHuyF5WdpW6LKITg-8N7dnbEbwJUeYYSjiasJPqcm8LN7YXmCn3mM5n2EJN487LJAKNmE_LDh-6mJyQPuQvbD2ecuvwVXH0mt2_MDhFhO0FtTlq5vZmjQ/s1600/Filexi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiOnNoh0qVWo-O5rxi0H6hi1FHuyF5WdpW6LKITg-8N7dnbEbwJUeYYSjiasJPqcm8LN7YXmCn3mM5n2EJN487LJAKNmE_LDh-6mJyQPuQvbD2ecuvwVXH0mt2_MDhFhO0FtTlq5vZmjQ/s1600/Filexi.jpg" height="121" width="320" /></a> <a href="http://paid-to-like.org/ref/53137">More on Facebook</a><br />
<br />
Deleting files from Windows Explorer is usually very easy. Select your target, tap "Del", click the "Yes, I really mean it" button and the object disappears forever. (Or is sent to the Recycle Bin, anyway.)<br />
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Sometimes you’ll get an "in use" error, though, usually because the file is locked by Windows or the system. It’s best to find out why -- the file could be important -- but if all else fails, a specialist tool like <a href="http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/4476-unlocker_192_">Unlocker</a> can help you to delete it anyway.<br />
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You might alternatively be warned that there’s a problem with the file name: it’s too long, "invalid", or something similar. This kind of issue will defeat even Unlocker-type programs, but fortunately <a href="http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/32207-filexile">FilExile</a> is here to help.<br />
<br />
The program downloads and installs quickly, and presents the user with a very basic interface. There’s a "Browse" button to select the offending file/ folder, or a "Target" box where you can specify it manually. Either way, click "Delete" when you’re done and the file should disappear forever.<br />
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This worked well in our first tests, correctly removing files with invalid names. It can’t delete locked files, however, so you’ll still need a copy of Unlocker.<br />
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Explore the menus and you’ll find one or two extras, particularly in the Options dialog. For instance, it can add an extension to Explorer, allowing you to delete files or folders from the right-click menu (Settings > Options > Advanced). There’s also a multi-threading option to speed up the deletion process.<br />
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The program even supports a command line interface for automated wiping, and this can additionally delete all the folders and files specified in a "job" file.<br />
<br />
While more flexibility is always a good thing, we’re not quite sure how valuable these features will really be. If you regularly need this kind of batch delete option then you should probably investigate why your system is producing all these invalid files in the first place.<br />
<br />
FilExile is an easy-to-use tool which can help you get rid of stubborn files and folders, though, and you should probably keep a copy around for emergency use.
Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-76442296800964278812014-04-15T18:24:00.001+03:002014-04-15T18:26:48.969+03:00An insight on the exit of Windows XP<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It may be hard to believe but there was a time when people looked forward to new versions of operating systems. Before Windows XP many PC operating systems were not very good. The developers of applications had to code around problems. Companies wanted their business applications to be more reliable. Over the years operating systems improved.<br />
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Before Windows XP Microsoft had two PC operating systems. One was the descendant of Windows 95 the other of Window NT. In the years that preceded Windows XP Microsoft incrementally improved the user interface on the<br />
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Windows 95 side and the reliability and performance on the NT side. Windows XP was the convergence of the best of both. Before XP Microsoft released a new version of its operating system almost every year. It would be almost 6 years until a successor to XP -- Windows Vista -- hit the market (with a thud). Six years was an impressive accomplishment, but still XP lived on. Windows Vista was not the market success Microsoft expected. Vista introduced too many changes. The market chose to stay with XP. It would be another two years before a true successor to XP emerged in Windows 7.<br />
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Why didn’t everyone upgrade to Windows 7? They didn’t need to. Since applications provide the real value, Windows XP users had everything they needed. The applications did everything they needed and the operating system was solid. There was very little value in upgrading.<br />
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XP is now 12 years old. This week Microsoft officially ended support for XP. Now what’s a loyal XP user to do? Just remember it is the applications that provide the value.<br />
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I think Microsoft hasn’t been especially smart about the way it's ended support for XP. It could go on for years more making good money . Not all support is gone -- did you know that? Microsoft still has to support the Government of Canada’s use of Windows XP. Governments can do things like that. And since Microsoft already has to provide this paid support to Canada, why not sell it to anyone else who wants to pay?<br />
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Here are my suggestions to Microsoft:<br />
<ol>
<li>Support will be provided only to legitimately licensed workstations. Only those paying for support will get the updates, etc.</li>
<li>All supported workstations must have good security software, running all the time.</li>
<li>There will be no end-user support. Microsoft’s support will be limited to keeping XP secure. Only serious problems will be fixed. The security software will be expected to deal with most of the minor problems.</li>
<li>Microsoft should agree to provide continuing paid support for three years. When it is clear the support subscriptions will no longer provide enough revenue to sustain the operation, Microsoft should give a one year notice for the termination of the service.</li>
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I’ve heard 90 percent of the critical vulnerabilities found in Windows XP could be mitigated by removing administrator rights. There are a few applications that require administrator rights to work properly, the most significant of which is Apple’s iTunes. All popular Windows XP applications should be able to operate with only simple user rights. If this is not the case the application owner should fix the application. If iTunes is a problem for XP then Apple should fix it.<br />
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The market has changed and the needs of Microsoft customers have changed, too. Upgrades need to be easier and cheaper. We can expect people to keep their workstations for five to 10 years. By the same token future operating systems should run fine on five-year-old hardware. You should be able to plan on your operating systems lasting from five to 10 years, too. Maybe we don’t need a new version every 2 or 3 years.<br />
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Microsoft should make the cost of upgrades cheaper. Given the size of the customer base and its reluctance to upgrade, I think there is more money to be made by lowering prices and increasing demand. It is truing that in the extreme with Windows Phone.<br />
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Microsoft made mistakes with Windows Vista and Windows 8. It needs to learn from those mistakes, but alas it probably won’t or there wouldn’t have even been a Windows Vista or Windows 8.<br />
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The Windows interface is the product of over 25 years of evolution. People understand it. They are comfortable with it. Imagine buying a car and finding out all the controls had been moved. That is what Microsoft did with Windows 8. Mobile devices and workstations are very different things. It may not be practical to have the same interface on both. Microsoft would be smart to get better tuned into the needs of its users and the market.<br />
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Historically the IT industry has been at its best when there is vigorous competition. The Linux community needs to do a better job of tuning into the needs of PC users. There are reasons the Linux desktop operating systems have not enjoyed the same level of success as has Windows. There are still rough spots and applications that are not available. The sooner there are solutions to these problems, the better.<br />
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Then we can stop reminiscing about the Good Old Days of Windows XP.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-65364229386102700812014-04-15T17:33:00.001+03:002014-04-15T17:49:54.738+03:00Security Updates is a must for Windows 8.1<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgidNgnwPkrDyw481rMoQRCb_6BgZysYaBB3stUfiSp6VnLOdFvhIp95O94kphIZeoh2LZW-LCBe94frr1IlxuNMd95H3ISLqa7gzsET2j-hFaHQNequ3h1ynw5Uakd1mt61zlWUynPVwU/s1600/windows8.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgidNgnwPkrDyw481rMoQRCb_6BgZysYaBB3stUfiSp6VnLOdFvhIp95O94kphIZeoh2LZW-LCBe94frr1IlxuNMd95H3ISLqa7gzsET2j-hFaHQNequ3h1ynw5Uakd1mt61zlWUynPVwU/s1600/windows8.jpg" height="198" width="320" /></a>Microsoft has trouble convincing Windows users to upgrade to newer versions of the operating system, even when the update is free of charge. Windows 8 still has a larger market share than Windows 8.1, according to the latest NetMarketShare data, even though the latter is better and can be installed without paying a dime.<br />
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So that Windows 8.1 Update does not follow the same path, Microsoft has announced it will no longer make security patches compatible with Windows 8.1 installations which do not have Update applied. It is the new Microsoft, everyone.<br />
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This is a bold move, but one Microsoft has to make to get Windows 8.1 users to install Update more quickly. Supporting multiple iterations of the same Windows version (Windows 8.1 and Windows 8.1 Update, in this case) means Microsoft has to allocate significantly more resources than it would have to in order to support just the latest one.<br />
"Since Microsoft wants to ensure that customers benefit from the best support and servicing experience and to coordinate and simplify servicing across both Windows Server 2012 R2, Windows 8.1 RT and Windows 8.1, this update will be considered a new servicing/support baseline", says Microsoft in a TechNet blog post. "What this means is those users who have elected to install updates manually will have 30 days to install Windows 8.1 Update on Windows 8.1 devices; after this 30-day window -- and beginning with the May Patch Tuesday, Windows 8.1 user's devices without the update installed will no longer receive security updates".<br />
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"This means that Windows 8.1 users -- starting patch Tuesday in May 2014 and beyond -- will require this update to be installed. If the Windows 8.1 Update is not installed, those newer updates will be considered 'not applicable'", explains Microsoft.<br />
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The our-way-or-the-highway approach that Microsoft takes is a welcome change, as Windows users are not willing to move quickly to something better, even when it is free (which must be pissing Microsoft off). However, the company must be careful with how it manages the Update rollout and installation issues that Windows 8.1 users are reporting.<br />
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If Microsoft forces them to apply Update by next month's Patch Tuesday it will have to solve all their problems quickly, or else it may have to back pedal, and not for the first time, on what is deemed to be the right way to go.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-50661264234132852722014-04-12T12:43:00.000+03:002014-04-12T12:43:05.890+03:00Terrific things you can do with the Galaxy S5 but not the iPhone 5s<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZrLgmjcObwqUEaT6vp9Ra4mGVbaAKrNUvZdJhqL9ycq8kRnAQCFaRhnhd0L2eZYxMA0zuXaYG2QeqIjMcqUnCt3YacRnr-g8JS7omcnN-O1VvIwheHsSuk2fwuXZ1OIyWxQaief17MI/s1600/galaxy-samsung2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_ZrLgmjcObwqUEaT6vp9Ra4mGVbaAKrNUvZdJhqL9ycq8kRnAQCFaRhnhd0L2eZYxMA0zuXaYG2QeqIjMcqUnCt3YacRnr-g8JS7omcnN-O1VvIwheHsSuk2fwuXZ1OIyWxQaief17MI/s1600/galaxy-samsung2.jpg" height="182" width="320" /></a></div>
In the past, Samsung has had problems with what we here at BGR often refer to as “feature spam.” As was most painfully apparent in last year’s Galaxy S4, the company developed the habit of stuffing as many gimmicky new features as possible into its phones, thinking that all this clutter might appeal to a wider range of users. Samsung clearly recognized the problem beginning with last year’s Galaxy Note 3, however, and it has since shifted its focus to refinement and the addition of a few new features to each device that are actually useful.<br />
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With the Galaxy S5, Samsung continues that trend. In fact, many of the features the company added to the Galaxy S5 aren’t just useful, they’re awesome. Many are also unique, and what better way to illustrate that than by comparing the S5 to the most popular smartphone on the planet, Apple’s iPhone 5s.<br /><br />Each of these great flagship phones has advantages over the other, but there’s no denying that Samsung’s new smartphone packs a few nifty features that the iPhone just doesn’t have. Here are 10 of our favorites:<br />
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<b>TV and component remote </b>— Apple’s iPhone can be used as a remote to control certain devices like the Apple TV. Third parties have also built apps that can be used to control various devices like televisions and Blu-ray players over Wi-Fi. But the Galaxy S5 has a built-in infrared blaster that can control just about any media device on the planet that uses a standard IR remote.<br /><br /><b>Watch full 1080p HD video </b>— Though the device itself is among the most comfortable to use, the iPhone’s tiny screen isn’t terribly good for watching videos. At least not compared to smartphones with larger displays.<br />
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The Retina display is still a beauty but no matter how you slice it, you’ll never be able to watch 1,920 x 1,080-pixel videos at full quality on the iPhone’s 1,136 x 640-pixel screen.<br /><br /><b>Expand the memory</b> — As cheap as microSD cards are these days, it’s more annoying now than it has ever been before when gadget makers force consumers to cough up an extra $100 or $200 for a smartphone with more storage.<br /><br />Apple charges a $200 premium for an extra 48GB of storage on the iPhone, bumping space up to 64GB from 16GB. Meanwhile, a brand-name microSD card with 64GB of storage costs less than $50.<br /><br />Thankfully, Samsung’s Galaxy S5 includes a microSD slot and microSDXC support, so it will work with cards up to 128GB in size.<br />
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<b>Swap the battery</b> — The iPhone 5s has pretty good battery life compared to some phones, but there’s still no way it will last through a full day of very heavy use. The Galaxy S5 might not make it through a crazy day either, but at least S5 users have the option of carrying a spare battery to pop in when their main battery gets too low.<br /><br />A portable battery charger accomplishes the same thing of course, but with added bulk.<br /><br /><b>Survive being submerged in water</b> — The Galaxy S5 can survive a spill or a dunk with no problem. In fact, it’s certified to be water-resistant for 30 minutes at a depth of up to three feet, so you can even take pictures underwater if you want.<br /><br />If you drop your iPhone 5s in three feet of water, prepare to buy a new iPhone 5s.<br /><b><br />Make secure payments with your fingerprint</b> — The iPhone 5s has a fingerprint scanner, but its utility is severely limited by the fact that, well, Apple doesn’t let anyone do anything interesting with it. Touch ID can unlock the phone and authenticate App Store purchases, but that’s it.<br /><br />Samsung’s fingerprint scanner technology might not be as smooth as Apple’s, but a deal with PayPal means you can actually use it to pay for goods. What’s more, upcoming deals will further expand the scanner’s utility since Samsung is open to working with partners.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-11507568453654594112014-04-11T10:51:00.002+03:002014-04-11T11:25:39.606+03:00Android or Windows Phone: What's best on a mobile phone?
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Should you choose a Windows Phone or an Android smartphone?</div>
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<b> </b></h3>
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<b>Android or Windows Phone: what's great about Android</b></h3>
As the most popular mobile OS on the planet, Android offers an unprecedented range of handsets at a variety of price points. There's an Android to suit every wallet.<br />
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As a consequence support for Android from software developers and media owners is second only to one: iOS. You can find every app you could possibly desire in Google Play, and you can purchase music and movies from a variety of sources.<br />
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Android offers a level of customisation to both end user and hardware manufacturer. Not all Androids are the same, far from it. But the sheer popularity of Android devices means that there are lots of compatible third-party devices and accessories for Android.<br />
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Most importantly, after all this time the Android experience is now good. Like all major mobile OSes Android is good-looking and intuitive, at least in the more recent flavours.<br />
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<h3>
Android or Windows Phone: what's bad about Android</h3>
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That sheer variety of handsets is not always a good thing. You can find a product at every price, but you may not wish to purchase and use the cheapest Android phones, and you are not guaranteed value at a higher price. The range of phones from different manufacturers also means that accessories and cases may not be compatible.<br />
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And it's not just hardware. Because Android is open hardware makers aren't forced - or even incentive's - to keep their handsets up to date with the latest version. As a consequence phones are available with a bewildering variety of operating systems on them. Throw in the fact that manufacturers such as Samsung and HTC write their own versions of Android to give their handsets a unique flavour.<br />
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This leads to a variety of quality of experience - Android is far from a curated end-to-end experience. It means not all apps work on all phones, far from it. And not all Android phones even offer access to Google Play.<br />
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Not that this is always a bad thing. Some Android apps are terrible. And the choice of media outlets can be confusing. Choice and variety aren't always to be desired, and hardware makers will often push you in the direction of their own media- and apps stores. They may not have your best interests at heart. <br />
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And even if you are an experienced Android user, you may not have used the version of Android you are getting. There is no unified experience. Finally, there is a perceived security risk with Android. Access to Google Play is relatively unfettered for Android developers, so you can't always be sure that the app you are downloading is legitimate.<br />
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<a href="http://paid-to-like.org/ref/53137"><img src="http://paid-to-like.org/static/banner.png" border="0" /></a>Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-10812450919379949292013-10-25T11:28:00.001+03:002014-04-03T09:02:29.168+03:00Places to Never Take Internet Privacy for GrantedWe all know the basic rules of Internet privacy. However, we’re very comfortable with our own usage at work or at home. It’s easy to just adopt those same rules wherever we access the Internet, but that’s where the danger lies. All Internet access points are not created equal. The following is a list of places to be sure to not take your Internet privacy for granted, as there is possible danger lurking and waiting.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">1. Fast Food Joints</span></h3>
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How many times do you stop in McDonald’s more for the Wifi than the sandwich? It has great allure to go in for a quick bite to eat and get caught up on Facebook and Twitter while maybe also doing a little bit of work that you just couldn’t leave at the office. But it may not be a wise place to be using the Wifi. These places, along with Starbucks and similar outfits, don’t use proper security, leaving you, the customer, vulnerable to hackers.</div>
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<span style="color: #660000;">2. Hotels</span></h3>
Hotels make it so easy to access their High-speed Internet access. Sometimes it’s just available automatically throughout the building, and at other times they give you a passcode. However, if it’s that easy for you to access the Internet, it’s also that easy for others to access your information.<br />
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While using a hotel’s Internet access, you never want to share any private information. The hotel’s network places a cookie that allows you the access. The cookie isn’t on your system, but on theirs, so there isn’t any way to erase their connection to you.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">3. In-flight Wifi</span></h3>
In-flight Wifi used to be an anomaly, but now it seems to be the norm more often than not. It can be expensive considering you’re getting that access for only a few hours, yet it’s so handy to be able to do work while flying, taking advantage of that time. However, most airlines use the Gogo service, and they offer no encryption, making it easy for hackers to help themselves to your login information to sites. Additionally, some devices will keep searching for the Gogo network even after you have left the airplane.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">4. Neighbors</span></h3>
While you may be thinking, “If my neighbor chooses to not make his Wifi private, that’s his problem,” you’re right that it’s his problem, but if you go ahead and use his access, it becomes your problem as well. If he’s not locking down his Wifi and has no concern for Internet privacy, then he has just made his Internet use available to everyone, including hackers. If you go ahead and use it as well, you become just as vulnerable.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">5. Friends</span></h3>
They may be a truly great friend and may be very giving to the point they don’t mind letting you use their Wifi all the time, but every time you leave personal information on a friend’s computer, you are putting complete trust in your friends.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwejKiR1fxnmDMu2r_YjuqWlRY5ousatsAdP9lhsk9XqJ_UpGxbr6C7dcCscEkM_KLX8Cw9lE7nYv6lSBG6ycw0P6-0G63bKnwmYrW1hGYJmFj3nBxuYjg4feKHwMedieDUjho-lQW3hg/s1600/johnz.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwejKiR1fxnmDMu2r_YjuqWlRY5ousatsAdP9lhsk9XqJ_UpGxbr6C7dcCscEkM_KLX8Cw9lE7nYv6lSBG6ycw0P6-0G63bKnwmYrW1hGYJmFj3nBxuYjg4feKHwMedieDUjho-lQW3hg/s320/johnz.jpg" height="240" width="320" /></a></div>
It’s not that we shouldn’t trust our friends, but if there is something you don’t want your friends to know, don’t share it on their computers, as you never know when or how they might be able to access it.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">6. Library</span></h3>
Most libraries now offer free Internet access for those people who don’t have Internet access at home. While it sounds good in theory, as libraries have always been thought of as safe, they aren’t as safe as they appear to be, at least while on the Internet.<br />
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You can read books anonymously, but many times can’t touch a computer at the library so anonymously, as you’re forced to present a library card or leave some type of identifying information. That information only needs to be matched up to your time on the computer in order to access any personal information you may have left behind.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">7. School</span></h3>
Just as library usage has changed over the years, so has education. More and more students are being required to have iPads. Sometimes they are even given to a student to use throughout the school year. Some assignments are required to be completed online. Since not every student has Internet access, that means the schools need to make it accessible to the students.<br />
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But is it safe? You would think it should be if students are using it. Yet that’s not necessarily so. When my kids were younger I was required to sign something saying it was okay for them to access the Internet, just in case they ran into something my parenting didn’t approve of. I no longer have to sign such things. It seems as if it’s too widespread and too expected. Each school has their own network, so it’s hard to say if it’s safe or not. But being that these are our children, it’s best not to take the chance and to just advise them to not leave personal information on the school computers.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">Conclusion</span></h3>
All of this means it’s really best not to leave any personal information on any computer other than your own. Your computer system is the only one you can trust to deal with your personal information. When news circulates that cell phone companies are making our private cell phone date available to the NSA, that becomes enough of a reason to know that in addition to being careful on our cell phones, we should also be careful when using public Wifi.<br />
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Just remember this rule of thumb regarding Internet Privacy and public Wifi and Internet access: Everyone who uses that computer or network has possible access to everything you have just shared. Share wisely.<br />
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34301a8af3bff192df66ee8f5be4d5bd10d739aa34fad932c2 Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-4684676995015243442013-10-25T10:55:00.002+03:002013-10-25T10:55:42.980+03:003 Ways to Protect Your Document in Microsoft Word 2013While creating your Word document, some of you might want to secure it and prevent others from viewing or making changes to it. There are some security features in Microsoft Word 2013 that allow you to protect and secure your documents. Let’s check it out.<br />
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<b>1. Make your documents read-only</b></h3>
Microsoft Word 2013 allows the user to make documents read-only so that no one else will be able to edit the document. This is very similar to converting the document to PDF format so that it becomes the final copy without editable content. This feature is called marking the document as final. Follow the steps below to mark the document as final and make it read-only.<br /><br />1. Go to File -> Info<br /><br />2. Click on the “Protect Document” drop down button.<br /><br />3. Select “Mark as Final”<br />
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4. Word will ask for a confirmation stating that the document will be marked as final and then saved. You will have to press the OK button.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDRr7FVJECBbuVonj5v5X-l-uZmoOcr0eHNiog7W-qRLDfUPrxSMlxxqtu8TwEkLRWFWSJ9gSfxvxWzN3TV2THzanA0RKtvH0YbXTs3d2oGZS6d4K57sRHKM2e1K_LUjHc1jy3wefGgY/s1600/confirmation-dialog.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="104" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvDRr7FVJECBbuVonj5v5X-l-uZmoOcr0eHNiog7W-qRLDfUPrxSMlxxqtu8TwEkLRWFWSJ9gSfxvxWzN3TV2THzanA0RKtvH0YbXTs3d2oGZS6d4K57sRHKM2e1K_LUjHc1jy3wefGgY/s320/confirmation-dialog.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div>
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5. You will get an information box stating the following:<br /><br /><i><span style="color: #f6b26b;">"<span style="color: #6aa84f;">This document has been marked as final to indicate that the editing is complete and that this is the final version of the document.When a document is marked as final, the status property is set to “Final” and typing, editing commands and proofing marks are turned off. You can recognize that a document has been marked as Final when the Mark As Final icon displays in the status bar."</span></span></i></div>
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You can edit the document again by clicking on the “Edit Anyway” button displayed with a yellow strip at the top.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXYcgqJTupOESXYx4Iq444LI0DgkAYJGIb1k8OzaLvYu5eLHtH8FLZIUHJ6SRpEjSNSDTFe3SkvE6aR7E5eed1SdtXywTNnfM6H6QHo8hkhdjlZsaj_zdLoSlhynM_KiKOM4NM82Y4W0E/s1600/marked-as-final3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXYcgqJTupOESXYx4Iq444LI0DgkAYJGIb1k8OzaLvYu5eLHtH8FLZIUHJ6SRpEjSNSDTFe3SkvE6aR7E5eed1SdtXywTNnfM6H6QHo8hkhdjlZsaj_zdLoSlhynM_KiKOM4NM82Y4W0E/s400/marked-as-final3.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">2. Password protect your documents</span></h3>
Password protection has been around since Word 2007. In Word 2013, you can password protect your documents with the steps below:<br /><br />1. Go to File -> Info<br /><br />2. Click on the “Protect Document” drop down button<br /><br />3. Encrypt with Password<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0oqOXIa54zk0ZOV8zGQ4yg424LBVQhLD-vLLGIj1-4DsQ2ALCZIw6N51AI3tMLTqb7KLIsmHwtLLaCfoTHr3CYY2YbnGN1sjPELKOMJnFG6dcCW4TtyWQcJ18E-JbaEExAU6etzBUoQ/s1600/password-protect-document.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjd0oqOXIa54zk0ZOV8zGQ4yg424LBVQhLD-vLLGIj1-4DsQ2ALCZIw6N51AI3tMLTqb7KLIsmHwtLLaCfoTHr3CYY2YbnGN1sjPELKOMJnFG6dcCW4TtyWQcJ18E-JbaEExAU6etzBUoQ/s320/password-protect-document.jpg" width="320" /> </a></div>
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4. A new dialog window will open asking to enter the encryption password. Enter the password and press OK. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghaB1iGfg5uGoS5t88LNByQ55dLKLVD51SFKL3rl8yIuqhpI0rBRQmh6U0BisdxQXae_zXEDUCSHwoSz7rRtR1BYFnIgqsAvG9e9p9KQIipLJ4hJ1n-HrKnCmt92XJtzyCBeFUcP-PPDM/s1600/password-enter.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEghaB1iGfg5uGoS5t88LNByQ55dLKLVD51SFKL3rl8yIuqhpI0rBRQmh6U0BisdxQXae_zXEDUCSHwoSz7rRtR1BYFnIgqsAvG9e9p9KQIipLJ4hJ1n-HrKnCmt92XJtzyCBeFUcP-PPDM/s1600/password-enter.jpg" /></a></div>
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5. You will need to re-enter the password and press OK again.<br /><br />Whenever you want to open the document again, Word will ask you for the password.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5cULR95DDJZn-phA4NFPiYQf4rd9chU0B-ZuyLwTY7_a4fac7SEGJ2Rbz613G3apLfQgQsecKb4fqCAEt2dol2p-SAak5Gi9YE0g_96KWRHc7LR-bIkfGUzU68XD3jCPSRI5YPcRLUg/s1600/password-ask.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="216" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhK5cULR95DDJZn-phA4NFPiYQf4rd9chU0B-ZuyLwTY7_a4fac7SEGJ2Rbz613G3apLfQgQsecKb4fqCAEt2dol2p-SAak5Gi9YE0g_96KWRHc7LR-bIkfGUzU68XD3jCPSRI5YPcRLUg/s320/password-ask.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Please note that if you forget the encryption password, Microsoft Word does not give any way to recover the document. You will probably need to use third-party password cracking utilities which are either expensive or don’t always work.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">3. Creating forms in Word with editable fields</span></h3>
There are times when you want to add a form to your document. Word 2013 allows you to create forms with editable fields. You will need to enable the Developer ribbon tab which can be done by following the steps below:<br /><br />1. Go to File -> Options -> Customize Ribbon.<br /><br />2. Select the “Developer” checkbox which is unchecked by default. You will see a new tab labeled Developer on the Word 2013 Ribbon.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWas8R_c9RF9aFm8BN4JMipNnX4YtGzzo4B2jSSNANxbKbLc6DVAcp5c-l6ql8amChhXMo3WhopElApISwAOk1XWB-H9kAjRBIIUD51CuF5Q6-xU8zM2HVn4Uub4geu5e9rrIdc3oxB5M/s1600/enable-developer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWas8R_c9RF9aFm8BN4JMipNnX4YtGzzo4B2jSSNANxbKbLc6DVAcp5c-l6ql8amChhXMo3WhopElApISwAOk1XWB-H9kAjRBIIUD51CuF5Q6-xU8zM2HVn4Uub4geu5e9rrIdc3oxB5M/s320/enable-developer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After creating the form, you can follow the steps below in order to make only the form fields active for editing. All other text will not be editable.<br /><br />1. Open the document with the form fields<br /><br />2. Go to File -> Info<br /><br />3. Click on the Protect Document dropdown menu and select Restrict Editing<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLNzRCSgnzAjyjn_eygF5H1xnk4CL7U4oEjkIPGNHyKp7Yb3ihQOv4Ftm7_cRiI8uAmN_WAfLK3FsmwXWCTpXwI0jINWM-_Nz5yiYgkAHgGHgUCTb2Dczqg0U764LVBmwZpgTD13red8/s1600/restrict-editing-option.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEitLNzRCSgnzAjyjn_eygF5H1xnk4CL7U4oEjkIPGNHyKp7Yb3ihQOv4Ftm7_cRiI8uAmN_WAfLK3FsmwXWCTpXwI0jINWM-_Nz5yiYgkAHgGHgUCTb2Dczqg0U764LVBmwZpgTD13red8/s320/restrict-editing-option.jpg" width="303" /></a></div>
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4. This will open a sidebar with different options. You have to select “Filling in Forms” in Editing Restrictions. Also select the checkbox “Allow only this type of editing in the document”<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_HiNslLYXuAvTnt59cc1968Bl8a68IJRiL4JEroMCEApgES0bfUXf0u5GTvKCIr20eNaAlzNVi3_IEfWNmK5VS0AK5uO-HMRKuh8Ct2-WYdzXQvbAvDI7Pk67qDcKeIDW31rotLN8azE/s1600/form-config.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_HiNslLYXuAvTnt59cc1968Bl8a68IJRiL4JEroMCEApgES0bfUXf0u5GTvKCIr20eNaAlzNVi3_IEfWNmK5VS0AK5uO-HMRKuh8Ct2-WYdzXQvbAvDI7Pk67qDcKeIDW31rotLN8azE/s400/form-config.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
5. Click on the “Yes, Start Enforcing Protection” button under “3. Start enforcement”.<br /><br />6. You will be asked to password protect the document. You can enter the password two times to do so.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIqru16cywvhr6KtWhCWHv_d7eb33K7HOlHs7QxsKt8vEkssGoaGiy-dS3bdAUsW4Q0AcauwL4_DIxR0KMlawMoWdmkJ0-FM4tTebYeL6TOwyt1uVgsfgtHRbOhHR6emSiFUBkRkD8dE/s1600/password-protection.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="237" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieIqru16cywvhr6KtWhCWHv_d7eb33K7HOlHs7QxsKt8vEkssGoaGiy-dS3bdAUsW4Q0AcauwL4_DIxR0KMlawMoWdmkJ0-FM4tTebYeL6TOwyt1uVgsfgtHRbOhHR6emSiFUBkRkD8dE/s320/password-protection.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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You can give this document with the form to anyone who will be able to enter the form fields and save the document. Nothing else will be editable. To make it editable again, you will have to enter the password which you created while restricting the document.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>Conclusion</b></span></h3>
While there are plenty of office suite around, none of them are as features rich as Microsoft Word. With the security features mentioned above, you will be able to create and protect your documents with little effort. I always prefer to use Microsoft Word for writing and securing my documents. What about you? Which Microsoft Word security features do you like and use the most?Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-58004547071279275482013-10-25T10:21:00.000+03:002013-10-25T10:21:27.299+03:00Useful Tools That Should Be In Every Tech Wizard’s ArsenalIf you’re into repairing computers and laptops, there’s a big chance you have all the tech tools you need already. There are a few you might not have heard of, but that’s not the point of this piece. The point I’m trying to make is that you need a grocery list that includes every item you need to take with you when you go out on the field to repair someone else’s rig.<br />
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I don’t know about you, but while I’m out, I usually forget something and have to waste time to go home and get it. It’s embarrassing and gives the impression that you’re not a guy people can count on. So, without further ado, I present to you a list of tools you should put on that grocery list:<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">1: Your Screwdrivers</span></h3>
This one’s so obvious, I’m not really going to explain it in detail. I suggest, however, getting a single screwdriver with interchangeable heads.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiarzQ_14wuRq-oprMF_y9p5KzA1akM32UVt1yebq4ICTaxRyrtbCEKWke4uKcsGGOjXIQH9OcVASX0sux40qq5abLRCxxDI7i8-Rw6dikdtJTQoEtKWPjA61OSJOhdHQfcPjhZd-d2kPo/s1600/screwdriver1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiarzQ_14wuRq-oprMF_y9p5KzA1akM32UVt1yebq4ICTaxRyrtbCEKWke4uKcsGGOjXIQH9OcVASX0sux40qq5abLRCxxDI7i8-Rw6dikdtJTQoEtKWPjA61OSJOhdHQfcPjhZd-d2kPo/s320/screwdriver1.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
This screwdriver will save a ton of space in your toolbox, which you can now use to fill with other things on this list.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">2: Spare SATA & IDE HDD + Cables</span></h3>
You should always have extra hard drives in case you’re going to be doing some recovery work. The hard drive should ideally have an operating system already installed, such as Linux. If you don’t know what “PATA” means, it’s basically the new name for ATA/ATAPI.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">3: A Laptop Motherboard Tester</span></h3>
This one’s definitely a big item that should be on everyone’s tech tools list! I can’t stress it enough: if you don’t have a laptop motherboard tester, you’re going to bang your head against the wall for a long time until you realize what’s wrong. I’m surprised to know that not a lot of my techie friends know about this kind of device. Let’s show a picture:<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytmi5q8IHLKdooDTTj23J_7xhjYzOeySVkXWbbflrCXNZRdXdMjpvlK_B_LG-7-RmMQmb0Shnyek4Lq8ig0lgD4KvPUM9Y8O8nrW9xfGayQsd0drZUPbSlUy2ztdtClBU61unJamBqJ4/s1600/laptop-mb-tester.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjytmi5q8IHLKdooDTTj23J_7xhjYzOeySVkXWbbflrCXNZRdXdMjpvlK_B_LG-7-RmMQmb0Shnyek4Lq8ig0lgD4KvPUM9Y8O8nrW9xfGayQsd0drZUPbSlUy2ztdtClBU61unJamBqJ4/s320/laptop-mb-tester.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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You will plug this thing into the laptop’s PCI slot or whatever the instruction manual tells you, and it will give you a code that you’ll interpret according to the manual. These things are very precious!<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">4: Diagnostic Software</span></h3>
Take everything you can with you. Here’s a simple list of software you should have:<br />
<ul>
<li> CPU-Z</li>
<li> RealTemp (for testing the CPU temperature)</li>
<li> memtest</li>
<li> Process Explorer</li>
<li> Process Monitor</li>
<li> CCleaner</li>
</ul>
You should also have helper software (like “Everything,” a very fast file search utility) with you so that you can perform tasks more productively, especially on a troublesome system.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">5: IDE/SATA-To-USB Interface Cable</span></h3>
Oh, this one’s a real treat to have around! If you need to quickly connect a hard drive to a system, you can just plug it in through a USB cable instead of messing around with the insides of the PC. Want to see what one looks like?<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsBHR-fx0k7kzCpk47VdFKSgKh0K-bwDDRAw32-pqdb8LKerco2ekqIWItdcLTqXhx_gLrTnVuu6sBk7esg2AjCwGtzEy60GP2jVgAWroaWf-lktXAkJvnY0IJz7F3Oh05fTaB6hRifyM/s1600/sata-to-usb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="215" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsBHR-fx0k7kzCpk47VdFKSgKh0K-bwDDRAw32-pqdb8LKerco2ekqIWItdcLTqXhx_gLrTnVuu6sBk7esg2AjCwGtzEy60GP2jVgAWroaWf-lktXAkJvnY0IJz7F3Oh05fTaB6hRifyM/s320/sata-to-usb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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It’s unbelievably simple to set up. However, if you’re looking to protect the spare hardware you bring along, stick it in an enclosure or run this USB setup from within an anti-static bag.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">Anything to Add?</span></h3>
We’re always forgetting something, and I’m no exception to this rule! Please comment below to add any tech tools suggestions you have to expand this so that no tech whiz shall ever go again without his/her tools to the field.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-34125296888073276552013-10-24T12:22:00.001+03:002013-10-24T12:22:00.857+03:0020 Best Free Computer Software For Your Daily Use<i>Making tech easier, Good things in life do not necessarily cost you a bomb</i>.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Office Suite</span></h3>
<ol>
<li><b><a href="http://openoffice.org/">OpenOffice.org</a> </b>– OpenOffice.org is a viable alternative to Microsoft Office – even for professional use. It can do just about anything Office can.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.abisource.com/"><b>AbiWord</b></a> – A lightweight version of Microsoft Office. Simple, straightforward interface; easy to use.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.jarte.com/"><b>Jarte</b></a> – A word processor based on the Microsoft WordPad. It can be run directly from a USB flash drive.</li>
<li><a href="http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm"><b>Notepad++</b></a> – A free source code editor and Notepad replacement, which supports several programming languages, running under the MS Windows environment.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.editpadpro.com/"><b>EditPad Lite</b></a> – A general-purpose text editor, designed to be small and compact, yet offer all the functionality you expect from a basic text editor.</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Security</span></h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.avast.com/eng/avast_4_home.html">avast! 4 Home Edition</a> – A complete antivirus solution that is able to find computer viruses, create and check the integrity of programs installed, test executed programs and opened documents, to test and check email and other functions.</li>
<li><a href="http://free.grisoft.com/doc/download-free-anti-virus/us/frt/0">AVG Anti-Virus</a> – A free security solution that is easy to use, has low system resources, automatic update functionality and ability to protect as files are opened and programs are run.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.personalfirewall.comodo.com/">Comodo Firewall </a>– A free firewall that constantly monitors and defends your PC from internet attacks. It is a fully functional product that comes with continual updates that are free forever!</li>
<li><a href="http://www.siteadvisor.com/">McAfee SiteAdvisor</a> – A plugin for Firefox and IE browser that shows safety rating as you browse the Web.</li>
<li><a href="http://download.cnet.com/SpyCatcher-Express/3000-8022_4-10436704.html">SpyCatcher Express</a> – A free anti-spyware program that allows novice PC users to remove aggressive spyware, stops next-generation, mutating spyware, blocks reinstallation of aggressive spyware and removes spyware safely and automatically.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.windowsstartup.com/startupmonitor.php">StartupMonitor </a>– A small monitoring program that keeps a constant eye on your system’s startup entries. When ever a change is made, you will be notified and given a choice to either allow the change or not to change.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.thegreatpuzzle.com/superstorm.php">SuperStorm Freeware</a> – This software allows you to hide your confidential files and folders in a wide variety of media files such as pictures, audio, video, executable programs among many other file types.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/athome/security/spyware/software/default.mspx">Windows Defender</a> – A free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.trendsecure.com/portal/en-US/tools/security_tools/hijackthis">HijackThis</a> – A malware remove tool that makes a detailed log of what’s going on in your Registry and gives you the opportunity to remove things that might be suspect.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.zonealarm.com/store/content/catalog/products/sku_list_za.jsp">Zone Alarm</a> – This software lets you block uninitiated and unwanted traffic, even while your PC is unattended or while you’re not using your connection.</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Desktop management</span></h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://desktop.google.com/">Google desktop</a> – A desktop search application that gives you easy access to information on your computer and from the web.</li>
<li><a href="http://yahoo-desktop-search.en.softonic.com/">Yahoo Desktop </a>– Yahoo Desktop enables you to search and instantly find information, preview it in its native format, and take action on it immediately.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx">TweakUI</a> – This software reduces the Windows annoyance without having to meddle with the registry. It gives you access to system settings that are not exposed in the Windows XP default user interface, including mouse settings, Explorer settings, taskbar settings, and more.</li>
<li><a href="http://delphistep.cis.si/prettyrun.htm">Pretty run </a>– A small program that can search your start menu, desktop or any other folder for shortcuts.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.roboform.com/">RoboForm</a> – RoboForm memorizes and securely stores each user name and password the first time you log into a site, then automatically supplies them when you return.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.autohotkey.com/">AutoHotkey </a>- This open-source utility can automate almost anything by sending keystrokes and mouse clicks. You can write macros by hand or use the macro recorder. You can also create hotkeys for keyboard, mouse, joystick, and handheld remote controls.</li>
<li><a href="http://keepass.info/">Keepass safe</a> – A password manager which helps you to manage your passwords in a secure way. You can put all your passwords in one database, which is locked with one master key or a key-disk.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.mlin.net/Clipomatic.shtml">Clipomatic </a>– A clipboard cache program that remembers what was copied to the clipboard and allows you to retrieve it, even after you’ve copied something else to the clipboard.</li>
</ol>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Browser</span></h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.mozilla.com/firefox/">Firefox </a>– Firefox includes tons of useful features such as tabbed browsing, built-in and customizable search bars, a built-in RSS reader and a huge library of extensions developed by thousand of developers.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.opera.com/">Opera</a> – Opera introduces Speed Dial which vastly improves navigation to your favorite sites. In addition, there’s Fraud protection, an anti-phishing detection keeps browsing safe and secure.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.crazybrowser.com/">Crazy browser</a> – A browser that allows users to collect tabs into groups and then load an entire group at once. This feature is very useful for research, as you can summon a set of related sites as needed, without manually opening each one.</li>
</ol>
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<span style="color: #660000;">Fun and Games</span></h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.hanovsolutions.com/?prod=alarm">Banshee Screamer Alarm </a>– A snoozeable alarm clock designed to wake you up. Play MP3s, execute programs, or shut down your computer at the time you set.</li>
<li><a href="http://bzflag.org/">BZFlag</a> – An online multiplayer cross-platform open source 3D tank battle game. It runs on Irix, Linux, BSD, Windows, Mac OS X, and many other platforms. It’s one of the most popular games ever on Silicon Graphics machines.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.conware-pro.com/products/index.php">ConWare IconArt</a> – An easy-to-use icon & cursor editor that allows your to design your own, edit previous icons, create cursors, capture icons from programs and DLL files or import an image for your icon.</li>
<li><a href="http://earth.google.com/">Google Earth</a> – Google Earth combines the power of Google Search with satellite imagery, maps, terrain and 3D buildings to put the world’s geographic information at your fingertips.</li>
<li><a href="http://tuxracer.sourceforge.net/index.html">Tux Racer </a>– Getting bored and sick of the Windows game? Tux Racer lets you take on the role of Tux the Linux Penguin as he races down steep, snow-covered mountains. Enter cups and compete to win the title!</li>
<li><a href="http://www.zsnes.com/">ZSNES </a>– A Nintendo emulator on your desktop. ZSNES is built to run on Windows, DOS, Linux and FreeBSD Unix and it is by far the best SNES emulator available.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.stargazing.net/astropc/">Cartes du Ciel </a>– A sky map that allows you to find out what constellations and planets are visible tonight.</li>
</ol>
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Graphics Editing</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://www.gimp.org/">GIMP</a> – A complete image editing software with capabilities not found in any other free software product. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert-quality photo-retouching program, a mass production image renderer, or an image-format converter.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.getpaint.net/">Paint.net </a>– A free image and photo editing software that features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.</li>
<li><a href="http://sketchup.google.com/">Google sketchup</a> – A powerful yet easy-to-learn 3D software tool that combines a simple, yet robust tool-set with an intelligent drawing system that streamlines and simplifies 3D design.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.irfanview.com/">IrfanView </a>– A fast and compact image viewer/converter that is simple for beginners and powerful for professionals.</li>
</ol>
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Video and Audio</h3>
<ol>
<li><a href="http://audacity.sourceforge.net/">Audacity</a> – A complete recording and sound editing software that is available for Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows, GNU/Linux, and other operating systems.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.mediamonkey.com/">Media Monkey</a> – A music manager and jukebox for serious music collectors and iPod users. It offers an intelligent tag editor which looks up missing Album Art and track information via Freedb and the Web.</li>
<li><a href="http://cdexos.sourceforge.net/">CDex</a> – An application that records audio tracks from CDs and saves them to a disk as regular WAV files or as encoded sound files.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.apple.com/itunes/">iTunes</a> – One of the highest downloaded digital-jukebox software. Comes with the iTunes Music Store that offers music at 99-cents-per-song.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.winamp.com/">Winamp</a> – A multimedia player that supports numerous audio and video formats. It also plays streamed video and audio content, both live and recorded, authored worldwide.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.videolan.org/vlc/">VLC </a>– A highly portable multimedia player for various audio and video formats (MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-4, DivX, mp3, ogg, …) as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols.</li>
<li><a href="http://www.codecguide.com/">QuickTime Alternative </a>– This application let you play QuickTime or Real videos without Apple or Real’s bloated, in-your-face proprietary players.</li>
</ol>
Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-53556129482153735572013-10-24T10:41:00.000+03:002013-10-24T10:53:11.530+03:00Top 5 Free Screen Recording Softwares For WindowsScreen recording can be useful when you need to record a how-to video to help someone learn how to use a program, record a game walk through, or prepare for a presentation. Record here means you can create a video of whatever you are doing on your desktop, save the recording as a video file and send it to a friend or upload it on YouTube.<br />
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Free programs at times come with drawbacks or limitations, and watermarks are common in many free screen recording softwares. However, the following list of programs has been tested to not have any watermarks and can export to a file format recognizable to most video editing softwares.<br /><br />
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1. <a href="http://www.ezvid.com/">Ezvid</a></h3>
Ezvid is a screen recorder program that comes with an in-built video editor where you can split your recordings and add text in between two clips, creating a slideshow effect. There is no way to export the video you recorded. However, you can upload the video to YouTube through the program itself.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhrG9qC3HEPXHOSB2tVCmknZEHI-Jsh5_iA9cGJbYR5dwv8aqI8qwg6e0HzrAfM1qOFmSmXMMevOUBuXX6GAJio-cmTPOj8IMd32AEnyWIoS1l9iBvDUBhZN5JO24TlQiyDID8ZzjesYM/s1600/ezvid.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhrG9qC3HEPXHOSB2tVCmknZEHI-Jsh5_iA9cGJbYR5dwv8aqI8qwg6e0HzrAfM1qOFmSmXMMevOUBuXX6GAJio-cmTPOj8IMd32AEnyWIoS1l9iBvDUBhZN5JO24TlQiyDID8ZzjesYM/s320/ezvid.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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For gamers, there’s an option to enable ‘Gaming mode’ where it records the windowed mode of your game. The program comes with a few music clips.<br />
However if you decide to have no music, it will be replaced with a ‘Silent machine’ which sounds like a small fan from a computer. You can add in other pictures and video clips, as well as add in your voice after you’re done editing your clip.<br />
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2. <a href="http://www.bbsoftware.co.uk/BBFlashBack_FreePlayer.aspx">BlueBerry FlashBack Express Recorder</a></h3>
BB (short for BlueBerry) FlashBack Express Recorder lets you use your webcam to record yourself while recording the activities that are happening on your desktop. After you have stopped recording, it creates an FBR file which can be edited with its packaged video editor.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzP9Xzu2PIWZest1mSp0veXfITEoJArfYxEKybC8sa2vh7ELQRz1KhuV8D_B2mR1aXaBEO-x_TaFyXG1nSXQEodyIlAvJZ_c08z4oHETE_sxPqFB6FBqHMjRoS94PlxXLTjzYQvtJXXbs/s1600/windows-bb.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzP9Xzu2PIWZest1mSp0veXfITEoJArfYxEKybC8sa2vh7ELQRz1KhuV8D_B2mR1aXaBEO-x_TaFyXG1nSXQEodyIlAvJZ_c08z4oHETE_sxPqFB6FBqHMjRoS94PlxXLTjzYQvtJXXbs/s320/windows-bb.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
If you did not enable your webcam, you can skip the video editor program and export it to the AVI file format right away.<br />
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Otherwise, you can use the software to position and re-size your webcam box before exporting it.<br />
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Although it requires you to register (for a free account) after 30 days of usage, it still provides you with all of its functions before you register.<br />
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<b>3. <a href="http://www.screenr.com/">Screenr</a></b></h3>
Screenr is an interesting way to share a screencast (recording of your screen) online without installing a program on your computer; it requires Java to work. You select an area on your screen which you want to record (max: 5 minutes). All recordings are saved into your account.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dRiuxP78EGr4Q6smZmbfp840cFWoMBvJTuBMUWt5fCY3ndMO88nZ0Qtx8gLt-qn_6sYEKlBDC8FTYvbrJxW-8HEHnWDu26OsQgPeJRwrqQOvolAMuWEMU9PU9hGBn6XYbytFaDr8Qzw/s1600/screenr.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6dRiuxP78EGr4Q6smZmbfp840cFWoMBvJTuBMUWt5fCY3ndMO88nZ0Qtx8gLt-qn_6sYEKlBDC8FTYvbrJxW-8HEHnWDu26OsQgPeJRwrqQOvolAMuWEMU9PU9hGBn6XYbytFaDr8Qzw/s320/screenr.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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After recording you’ll be given a link which you can share. You can also export your video to MP4 or upload it on YouTube.<br />
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Screenr also provides a bookmarklet so you can record without going to the website. Register with your Facebook, Twitter, Google, LinkedIn, Yahoo or Windows Live account in order to use Screenr for free.<br />
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4. Rylstim Screen Recorder</h3>
Rylstim just records your screen after you hit the ‘Start Record’ button. This will be useful for people who do not want to configure anything and just want a basic recorder. This program does not record sound from input devices like a microphone.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0BJgIGOO9cUHNFawidMb_7B-qGvWCqPV1ZiVtxc6dhgsDFzNhwCwiZ3YTdj2RG0RnjfIfSQerxysEA5c0d596RyBZQsgDIkD5UUXPI7K3MkCxVCxgkyhtQtiBtqh77l6z9eVEcu7acVc/s1600/rylstm.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0BJgIGOO9cUHNFawidMb_7B-qGvWCqPV1ZiVtxc6dhgsDFzNhwCwiZ3YTdj2RG0RnjfIfSQerxysEA5c0d596RyBZQsgDIkD5UUXPI7K3MkCxVCxgkyhtQtiBtqh77l6z9eVEcu7acVc/s320/rylstm.jpg" width="295" /></a></div>
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The only options available determine if you want to show your left or right mouse button clicks in the video.<br />
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If you enable the mouse click options, a red ripple will appear at your cursor when you left click and a green ripple appears for right clicks. This mouse click ripple effect will only be visible when you view your recording.<br />
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5.<a href="http://camstudio.org/"> CamStudio</a></h3>
CamStudio comes equipped with many options to tweak the way it records. There are options to enable or disable your mouse cursor, record sounds from programs or a microphone (or have no sound at all) and the option to enable custom screen annotations.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXoqxy30biqBYe4EqRt26AjrqAFtHyHvwApRHs1LoZJJ_nxCl9aK0q2Kr3zeAaW1LghANJLvkNd24le676bXtPyi-Lc44B0iA99Xogc4dNY_vSteklmDV-HrG7WD36OYSV1sZ9IXj31ZU/s1600/camstudio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXoqxy30biqBYe4EqRt26AjrqAFtHyHvwApRHs1LoZJJ_nxCl9aK0q2Kr3zeAaW1LghANJLvkNd24le676bXtPyi-Lc44B0iA99Xogc4dNY_vSteklmDV-HrG7WD36OYSV1sZ9IXj31ZU/s320/camstudio.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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You can also choose to record a particular area on your screen or a program window so that the rest of your desktop isn’t showing on the recording. It can record at different frame rate speeds; for example 1 FPS (frames per second)to create a time lapse video effect, or 30 FPS for a smooth video.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-1043729529457501242013-10-23T12:18:00.002+03:002013-10-24T10:46:53.885+03:00Be warned, someone is tracking you onlineI thought it would be fun to give a brief example of how a complete stranger could track someone down using the seemingly innocuous data we all regularly leave behind online. I’m not suggesting that anyone should actually do this; it would be pretty darn creepy and stalker-like. The point here is not to create paranoia, but to instead spread awareness. Most people don’t realize how easy it is phish out pieces of information online and connect the dots. Consider the following hypothetical scenario:<br />
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You’ve been chatting online with someone via MySpace for a couple of weeks now. You decide you want to find out more about them. Without asking them any personal questions, you take the following steps:<br />
<ol>
<li>You type their exact MySpace username/alias into Google. Google returns a variety of results including a series of posts on a discussion board forum. The discussion board has a user profile page that displays basic information on the user including the user’s email address.</li>
<li>You could now Google the email address, but instead you decide to run it though the Flickr Friends search tool. This tool will tell you if a Flickr account has been opened using a specific email address. Flickr is a popular photo sharing site. Lo and behold, an account exists that matches the email address.</li>
<li>You visit the user’s Flickr page which has various photo galleries of people at social gatherings. After awhile you find a photo tagged with captions from a first-person perspective. The caption clearly indicates which person in the photo owns the gallery, whom also happens to be the target you’re tracking down. Now you know what they look like. Hmmmm…. interesting.</li>
<li> You create a free Gmail account with a username similar to one of the aliases found on either your target’s MySpace friends list or their Flickr contacts list. You craft a well written email to the target claiming to be the person whose alias you stole. The goal is to get the target to reply to your email. This email also contains an HTML embedded photo that you placed in a very obscure place on your public web server. You placed it in an obscure place so that no body else would accidentally find it.</li>
<li>Your target checks the email and believes that you probably are who you claim to be, so they happily reply. The email they send back to you has a “From:” header that includes their full name. In the process of checking the email they also opened/accessed the random embedded photo housed on your web server. You check your web server logs to see what IP address accessed the photo. (Note: You may also be able to get their IP address from the full headers in the reply email.)</li>
<li>You take their IP address and plug it into the WhatIsMyIP IP Lookup tool which returns the geographic location and city where their IP address originates</li>
</ol>
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So let’s recap… You started off knowing only a person’s online alias, but now you know their full name, city and location, email address, and you have their photo. Finding their physical street address at this point is a cakewalk. One could make the argument that not everyone is quite this easy to track down online. But you do have to wonder, how people actually are? I bet there are thousands of them… and I’m also pretty confident that you know a least a few of them personally. <br />
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Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-6060540187210232582013-10-23T12:11:00.001+03:002013-10-23T12:11:19.933+03:006 Digitally Traceable Tracks We Unconsciously Leave BehindWe live in a world of constant connection where the products of our existence interrelate in such a way that we rarely leave a clean slate behind us. Many people fail to see the correlation between technological convenience and disruption of privacy. Even when nobody is watching, it is quite plausible that a computer somewhere is. The data tracks we leave behind are traceable, and when the dots are connected, the trail leads right back to us.<br />
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I have compiled a list of 6 digitally traceable tracks we unconsciously leave behind as we trek through our daily routines. I have also included a hypothetical example of how easy it can be to track someone down online by tracing their online affiliations and dabbling with the information that is found.<br />
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<b>1. Username or Alias</b> – While passwords are always private, usernames are generally available to the public. Many people use the same username on every single digital account they access. Likewise, many usernames also double as online aliases used for identity on various searchable social media sites, discussion forums, etc. <br />
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This means that you can Google someone’s username, discover other websites where they’ve used it, and see if any of these other sites publicly associate an email address with the username. The email address can then be Google’d in an effort to uncover the real name of the individual who owns it. Another option would be to send the person a well crafted email in hopes that that they will reply from an email client that includes their real name in the headers.<br />
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<b>2. IP Address </b>- When you connect to the Internet you are assigned a unique Internet Protocol (IP) address that allows your computer to communicate with others. Unless you use an anonymizing service such as Tor, or a free anonymous web proxy, your IP address is fairly easy to trace. Your IP address is logged by every web server you visit and associated with every email you send. There are numerous websites that offer free IP lookup services capable of telling someone the city, state and Internet service provider for any given IP address.<br />
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<b>3. Mobile Phone Transmission </b>- As you drive around town chatting on your mobile phone your signal is being handed off from one mobile phone tower to the next. Most urban areas have several towers serving the vicinity. If you are near at least three towers your exact whereabouts can be pinpointed to within a few hundred feet via a measurement process called triangulation. <br />
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Your location can usually be measured within a mile or so even in rural areas lacking three available towers. Many large service providers make these capabilities widely known. Sprint/Nextel calls it “Mobile Locator“. Newer phones that include GPS capabilities can make the tracking process even easier.<br />
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<b>4. Vehicle Telematics and GPS Monitoring</b> – These systems are used for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to, stolen vehicle tracking, emergency collision notification, mechanical diagnostics reporting, and driver navigation assistance. General Motors’ OnStar service is one of the more mainstream examples of a vehicle telematics system. OnStar can instantly transmit detailed vehicle data back to their support center, including information about the mechanical condition and exact location of the vehicle.<br />
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Advocates say vehicle telematics systems provide an essential driver security service. Critics say it’s a major privacy concern, comparing it to that of “Big Brother” tracking your every move. One thing is for sure, with vehicle telematics you’re leaving digital tracks everywhere you go.<br />
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<b>5. Public Transit Cards </b>- Most urban areas with public transit systems now rely on some form of passenger payment card to keep track of passenger fares. Each card is equipped with a data strip and serial number unique to that specific card. The transit computer systems use the serial number and data strip to keep track of the prepaid fare balance on each card. <br />
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Frequent passengers typically recharge the dollar balance on their transit cards automatically via a credit card, thus tying the passenger’s full name and credit info to the unique serial number on their card. When a passenger swipes their transit card to board a public transportation vehicle the location and time stamp are recorded in the transit system’s computer database. Although access to these records is restricted, police often use them to tie criminals to the time and place of a crime.<br />
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<b>6. Malware </b>- Malware (also called spyware or adware) is a generalized term describing computer software programs that automatically download and install themselves onto your computer without your permission or knowledge. Much like a Trojan horse, malware can be hidden on malicious web pages or within other computer programs. A user is infected when they use the web page or infected application. The most common kind of malware will keep track of the websites you visit in order to target relevant pop-up ads to display on your computer as you browse the web. <br />
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Many of these same malware applications will also send your web browsing habits back to the creators for statistical evaluation purposes. There are also more ruthless malware Trojans that record your keystrokes, steal your passwords, and even allow your computer to be remotely controlled by a computer cracker’s botnet. If you’re not using a decent anti-malware suite your computer could be silently spilling your every move to the bad guys.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-60239818795306124842013-10-23T11:38:00.001+03:002014-04-11T11:32:14.992+03:0010 ways in which ICT can help you work betterHere are some examples of how ICT could help you achieve your goals:<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">1. Better service delivery</span></h3>
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<li>Make it easier for people to communicate with your organisation, using email, telephone, your website and text messaging.</li>
<li>Reduce missed appointments by using text messaging to confirm times and remind clients</li>
<li>Use remote monitoring systems to ensure the safety of tenants or residents.</li>
<li> Take laptops and other mobile equipment to community centres to provide computer and internet access to support community activities.</li>
<li>Use text messaging to create an anonymous sexual health service for teenagers.</li>
<li>Provide internet access at your community centre for those people who don’t have it at home</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;">2. Better access to information for managers</span></h3>
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<li> Collect, manage and report performance information to help run your organisation better</li>
<li> Prepare information for monitoring and report to funders.</li>
<li>Identify trends, problems and possible solutions</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;">3. Better financial management</span></h3>
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<li>Accounting software records income and expenditure and helps take care of VAT, tax and PAYE and the requirements of the Charity Commission</li>
<li>Use spreadsheets to manage project budgets and produce reports for trustees, managers and funders</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;">4. Better client records</span></h3>
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<li>Keep client contact information in a database on your network to support shared work inside the organisation as well as with partners, funders and other outside bodies</li>
<li>Use remote access services to enable staff to access up-to-date information when visiting clients</li>
<li>Monitoring data can be collected from the client record system rather than collated manually</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;">5. Better information for your community</span></h3>
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<li> Computers and the internet can help to collect, manage and publish useful information to support telephone, online or face-to-face advice services.</li>
<li> Information can be provided 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.</li>
<li>Online information can support community campaigns, such as accessing government statistics to back your case or tracking the voting record of your local MP on a key issue.</li>
<li>Using an interactive website means members of your community can check information and update it when they see mistakes.</li>
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<span style="color: #660000;">6. Better staff development</span></h3>
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<li>Encourage staff and volunteers to use the internet to keep up to date with key issues in your field.</li>
<li>Encourage staff and volunteers to share ICT skills and ‘top tips’ to help the organisation run more smoothly.</li>
<li>Online learning courses can be a flexible, low cost way of improving capabilities and knowledge within your networks.</li>
<li> Share knowledge with peers informally through email and online forums</li>
<li>Subscribe to specialist online information resources such as magazines, or news from professional bodies </li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;">7. Better fundraising</span></h3>
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<li>Use the web and email to identify potential funders and research your bids.</li>
<li>Set up a payments system on your website to make it easier for people to donate money.</li>
<li>Use free checklists and professional advice from fundraising sites to improve your fundraising skills.</li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;"> 8. Better external communications</span></h3>
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<li> Use desktop publishing to design and print leaflets, flyers, stationery, newsletters, annual reports, posters, t-shirts and postcards.</li>
<li>Set up and run websites, email lists or online discussion forums to promote your cause or make links with potential partners.</li>
<li>Deliver high-quality presentations using a laptop, digital projector and PowerPoint.</li>
<li>Run campaigns and mobilise support using print, email and the web.</li>
<li>Use video to overcome literacy barriers</li>
<li>Run a local radio station through a website</li>
<li>Tell local stories and raise awareness of local concerns through a community website, using podcasts, bulletin boards or photo-sharing </li>
</ul>
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<span style="color: #660000;"> 9. Better internal communications</span></h3>
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<li>Share information and work files with colleagues on a server</li>
<li>Use remote access, email, internet telephone services and video conferencing so that staff and volunteers can be flexible and work on multiple sites.</li>
<li>Make sure induction packs, internal policies and other key documents can be found easily using an intranet.</li>
<li>Help trustees, volunteers, partners, funders and other stakeholders feel part of your decision-making process by using email, bulletin boards, etc</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">10. Better administration</span></h3>
<ul>
<li> Manage your information in a more methodical way and spend less time finding things by using a shared file server</li>
<li>Use mail merge to save time when sending out large numbers of documents – whether in the post or by email.</li>
<li>Use shared calendars and email to schedule meetings.</li>
<li>Save time and money by sharing resources such as printers, rather than transferring information from PC to PC.</li>
<li>A web-based timesheet system enables remote staff to log time spent on projects </li>
</ul>
<a href="http://paid-to-like.org/ref/53137"><img src="http://paid-to-like.org/static/banner.png" border="0" /></a>Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-50881081953837678582013-10-22T16:55:00.002+03:002013-10-22T16:55:55.737+03:0010 Places To Educate Yourself Online For FreeAll education is self-education. Period. It doesn’t matter if you’re sitting in a college classroom or a coffee shop. We don’t learn anything we don’t want to learn.<br /><br />Those people who take the time and initiative to pursue knowledge on their own are the only ones who earn a real education in this world. Take a look at any widely acclaimed scholar, entrepreneur or historical figure you can think of. Formal education or not, you’ll find that he or she is a product of continuous self-education.<br /><br />If you’re interested in learning something new, this article is for you. Broken down by subject and/or category, here are several top-notch self-education resources I have bookmarked online over the past few years.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Computer Science and Engineering </span></h3>
<a href="http://videolectures.net/Top/Computer_Science/">VideoLectures.NET (Computer Science)</a> – A free and open access educational video lectures repository. The lectures are given by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science.<br />
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<a href="http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Computer_Science">Wikiversity School of Computer Science and Technology </a>– Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.<br />
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<a href="http://libguides.library.albany.edu/csci">New York State University (US), Computer Science</a> – Hundreds of lectures, tutorials and links to educational material.<br />
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<a href="http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/">Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies </a>– A massive collection of bibliographies of scientific literature in computer science, updated weekly from original locations, more than 3 millions of references (mostly to journal articles, conference papers and technical reports), clustered in about 2000 bibliographies.<br />
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<a href="http://w3schools.com/">W3Schools</a> – Web-building tutorials, from basic HTML and XHTML to advanced XML, SQL, Database, Multimedia and WAP.<br />
<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Science and Health</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/index.htm">MIT OpenCourseWare</a> – MIT OpenCourseWare is a free web-based publication of MIT course materials that reflects almost all the undergraduate and graduate subjects taught at MIT.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ocw.tufts.edu/">Tufts OpenCourseWare</a> – Tufts OpenCourseWare is part of a new educational movement initiated by MIT that provides free access to course content for everyone online. Tufts’ course offerings demonstrate the University’s strength in the life sciences in addition to its multidisciplinary approach, international perspective and underlying ethic of service to its local, national and international communities.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://science.howstuffworks.com/">HowStuffWorks Science </a>– More scientific lessons and explanations than you could sort through in an entire year.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://mycourses.med.harvard.edu/public/">Harvard Medical School Open Courseware </a>– The mission of the Harvard Medical School Open Courseware Initiative is to exchange knowledge from the Harvard community of scholars to other academic institutions, prospective students, and the general public.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Business and Money</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/sloan-school-of-management/">MIT Sloan School of Management</a> – MIT Sloan is a world-class business school long renowned for thought leadership and the ability to successfully partner theory and practice. This is a subsection of the larger MIT OpenCourseWare site.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.investopedia.com/university/">Investopedia Financial Investing Tutorials</a> – A plethora of detailed lessons on money management and investing.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.sba.gov/tools/sba-learning-center">U.S. Small Business Administration Training Network</a> – The Small Business Administration has one of the best selections of business courses on the web. Topics include everything from starting a business and business management to government contracting and international trade. Most courses take only 30 minutes to complete.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://videolectures.net/Top/Business/">VideoLectures.NET (Business)</a> – A free and open access educational video lectures repository. The lectures are given by distinguished scholars and scientists at the most important and prominent events like conferences, summer schools, workshops and science promotional events from many fields of Science.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.myownbusiness.org/course_sba.html">My Own Business, Inc. </a>– Offers a free online business administration course that would be beneficial to new managers and to anyone who is interested in starting a business. This comprehensive course is split up into 16 sessions covering topics like business plans, accounting, marketing, insurance, e-commerce and international trade.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">History and World Culture</span></h3>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.outreach.washington.edu/openuw/">University of Washington’s OpenUW </a>– Explore a variety of learning in several free history-centric online courses from the University of Washington.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li> <a href="http://ocw.nd.edu/">Notre Dame OpenCourseWare</a> – Notre Dame OCW is a free and open educational resource for faculty, students, and self-learners throughout the world.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://ocw.uci.edu/courses/?cat=7">UC Irvine OpenCourseWare (Social Science)</a> – Rapidly with the addition of nearly 10 new courses every month. Many of our OCW offerings are directed at working adults seeking continuing education, with the option to enroll in instructor-led, for-credit courses, related to the OCW content.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://en.wikiversity.org/wiki/Portal:Social_Sciences">Wikiversity School of Social Sciences</a> – Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project devoted to learning resources, learning projects, and research for use in all levels, types, and styles of education from pre-school to university, including professional training and informal learning.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.fsmitha.com/">MacroHistory and World Report</a> – Tell without illusions or ideological restraints the story of our ancestors, our parents and us.</li>
</ul>
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Law</span></h3>
<a href="http://www.law.duke.edu/cspd/lectures/">Duke Law Center for the Public Domain </a>– Duke University is counted amongst the best schools in the South. If you’re interested in law, Duke’s open courseware in that subject area can go a long way towards helping you learn more about the justice system.<br />
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<a href="http://www.intute.ac.uk/law/">Intute Law </a>– Provides free access to high quality resources on the Internet. Each resource has been evaluated and categorised by subject specialists based at UK universities.<br />
<a href="http://frontrow.bc.edu/programs/?category=15"><br /></a>
<a href="http://frontrow.bc.edu/programs/?category=15">Boston College Front Row (Law)</a> – Boston College Front Row is a Web site that offers free access through streaming media to tapes of cultural and scholarly events at Boston College.<br />
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<a href="http://www.wcl.american.edu/podcasts/">American University </a>– Offers a selection of podcasts on a number of different law-related subjects. There is even a very interesting podcast on debt relief and the law.<br />
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<a href="http://www.law.harvard.edu/news/multimedia/index.html">Harvard Law School </a>– Provides a number of Web casts of law lectures, symposia, panels and conferences. A great collection of relevant information and insights on how the law interacts with current events. <br />
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<a href="http://itunes.stanford.edu/">Stanford Law</a> – Provides open courseware via iTunes on a variety of law subjects, including the theory of justice, mobile content distribution, gay marriage, judicial review and privacy protection. The tracks are available for free, but you’ll need iTunes. Put the lectures on your iPod or iPhone and listen them anywhere.<br />
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<a href="http://www.moneyinstructor.com/businesslaw.asp">MoneyInstructor Business Law</a> – From MoneyInstructor.com provides a look at a number of basics in business law. Learn how to define crimes under business law. Worksheets and curriculums are available for teachers. Ordinary folks will find them useful as well.<br />
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<a href="http://faculty.ncwc.edu/mstevens/410/default.htm">Wesleyan College Constitutional Law</a> – From North Carolina Wesleyan College offers an overview of the U.S. Constitution and the laws springing from it. Online lectures and class notes are included, which can help you develop a strong understanding of the Constitution and how it forms the basis of our laws.<br />
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<br />Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-71856635794510371172013-10-22T15:15:00.001+03:002013-10-22T15:15:21.730+03:00Helpful Books Everyone Should Read Before Their 30th BirthdayThe Web is grand. With its fame for hosting informative, easy-to-skim textual snippets and collaborative written works, people are spending more and more time reading online. Nevertheless, the Web cannot replace the authoritative transmissions from certain classic books that have delivered (or will deliver) profound ideas around the globe for generations.<br /><br />The books listed here are of unparalleled prose, packed with wisdom capable of igniting a new understanding of the world. Everyone should read these books before their 30th birthday.<br />
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<a href="http://tinyurl.com/os6zps3">1. Siddhartha</a> by Hermann Hesse – A powerful story about the importance of life experiences as they relate to approaching an understanding of reality and attaining enlightenment.<br />
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2. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/knje7a7">1984</a> by George Orwell – 1984 still holds chief significance nearly 60 years after it was written in 1949. It is widely acclaimed for its haunting vision of an all-knowing government which uses pervasive, 24/7 surveillance tactics to manipulate all citizens of the populace.<br />
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3. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/mdueate">To Kill a Mockingbird</a> by Harper Lee – The story surveys the controversial issues of race and economic class in the 1930’s Deep South via a court case of a black man charged with the rape and abuse of a young white girl. It’s a moving tale that delivers a profound message about fighting for justice and against prejudice.<br />
<br />4.<a href="http://tinyurl.com/mj52c53">A Clockwork Orange</a> by Anthony Burgess – A nightmarish vision of insane youth culture that depicts heart wrenching insight into the life of a disturbed adolescent. This novel will blow you away… leaving you breathless, livid, thrilled, and concerned.<br />
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5. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/6ojofe">For Whom the Bell Tolls</a> by Ernest Hemingway – A short, powerful contemplation on death, ideology and the incredible brutality of war.<br />
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6. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/jwkcpvp">War and Peace </a>by Leo Tolstoy – This masterpiece is so enormous even Tolstoy said it couldn’t be described as a standard novel. The storyline takes place in Russian society during the Napoleonic Era, following the characters of Andrei, Pierre and Natasha… and the tragic and unanticipated way in which their lives interconnect.<br /><br />7. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/pepehcp">The Rights of Man</a> by Tom Paine – Written during the era of the French Revolution, this book was one of the first to introduce the concept of human rights from the standpoint of democracy.<br />
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8. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/q3lcgmx">The Social Contract</a> by Jean-Jacques Rousseau – A famous quote from the book states that “Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.” This accurately summarizes the book’s prime position on the importance of individual human rights within society. <br />
<br />9. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/pg3wceu">One Hundred Years of Solitude</a> by Gabriel García Márquez – This novel does not have a plot in the conventional sense, but instead uses various narratives to portray a clear message about the general importance of remembering our cultural history.<br />
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10. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/pf8fcj6">The Origin of Species </a>by Charles Darwin – Few books have had as significant an impact on the way society views the natural world and the genesis of humankind.<br />
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11. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/p7ppm4o">The Wisdom of the Desert </a>by Thomas Merton – A collection of thoughts, meditations and reflections that give insight into what life is like to live simply and purely, dedicated to a greater power than ourselves.<br />
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12. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/nq6xlbd">The Tipping Point</a> by Malcolm Gladwell – Gladwell looks at how a small idea, or product concept, can spread like a virus and spark global sociological changes. Specifically, he analyzes “the levels at which the momentum for change becomes unstoppable.” <br />
<br />13. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/poucj8e">The Wind in the Willows </a>by Kenneth Graham – Arguably one of the best children’s books ever written; this short novel will help you appreciate the simple pleasures in life. It’s most notable for its playful mixture of mysticism, adventure, morality, and camaraderie.<br />
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14. <a href="http://tinyurl.com/nbuboej">The Art of War</a> by Sun Tzu – One of the oldest books on military strategy in the world. It’s easily the most successful written work on the mechanics of general strategy and business tactics.<br />
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15.<a href="http://tinyurl.com/q3s25em">The Lord of the Rings </a>by J.R.R. Tolkien – One of the greatest fictional stories ever told, and by far one of the most popular and influential written works in 20th-century literature. Once you pick up the first book, you’ll read them all.<br />
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Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-8325977714234577792013-10-16T12:46:00.002+03:002013-10-16T12:46:27.858+03:0010 Data Center Management Mistakes You Might Be MakingFor those who think (falsely) that they have the perfect data center, read on for some enlightenment. Those who work in the data centers of their dreams might beg to differ with your fantasy. Though you may not achieve desired perfection affordably, you can come close by changing the way you handle certain aspects of your data center management. Managing a collection of computer systems is no easy task. But, through better management and proper planning that task might involve popping fewer pain pills. Here are the 10 major data center mistakes to avoid.<br />
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<b>1. Inadequate Virtualization</b>: If you operate a data center and haven’t caught on that virtualization saves money, you’re way behind the curve. Virtualization saves valuable rack space. It saves additional money<br />on cooling, power and service contracts for those non-existent systems.<br />
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<b>2. Untapped Cloud Computing</b>: Similar to virtualization, cloud computing requires that you obtain a clue about its capability for your company or your customers. Amazon.com offers flexible and scalable<br />plans that fit into an on-demand capacity scenario. Using Canonical’s Ubuntu Linux Server Edition, for example, you can create your own private cloud or leverage Amazon.com’s Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) dynamically.<br />
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<b>3. Design Flaws:</b> Design flaws of a standing data center are difficult to overcome, but a redesign is less expensive than a fresh build. A 20-year-old data center still looks good, but it doesn’t perform up to today’s greener standards. You’ll also have to retrofit your electrical apparatus to handle blade systems. You’ll probably need to toss that old cooling system as well, since contemporary servers run cooler<br />and more efficiently than their predecessors did.<br />
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<b>4. Limited Expandability:</b> “640K of RAM ought to be enough for anybody.” How many times have you heard that quote that’s attributed to Bill Gates, circa 1981? Whether he said it is of little importance now. The lesson to learn is that when you build anything, pretend you’re converting a Celsius temperature<br />to Fahrenheit: Double the amount you think you need and add 32.<br />Using the Celsius-to-Fahrenheit equation will allow for some expandability in your data center. Two thousand square feet of floor space isn’t enough? Try 4,032 feet instead. Poor planning is no reason to run out of floor space or any other capacity.<br />
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<b>5. Relaxed Security:</b> Enter any data center and you’ll see card readers, retina scanners, circle locks, weight scales or other high technology security systems in place. But, next to those extreme security measures, you’ll see a key entry access door for security bypass. Physical security requires no bypass. If there’s a bypass in place, consider your security compromised.<br />
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<b>6. Haphazard Server Management: </b>To manage your server systems, do you need physical access or can you manage them remotely? Every contemporary server system comes with a maintenance connection with which to manage that system remotely. Use it. Enable it. For each person who enters a data center, you can expect some amount of system failure.<br />Incorrectly labeled systems, incorrect locations, a misread system name — the list goes on. Do yourself a favor: Enable those remote access consoles when you provision your physical systems.<br />
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<b>7. Ill-fated Consolidation Efforts:</b> One order of data center management business is to minimize the number of systems on the floor or in the racks. Server consolidation is the method by which this effort is carried out. Consider a consolidation ratio of 2-to-1 or 3-to-1 unacceptable. Physical systems that<br />operate in the 5 percent to 20 percent utilized range can easily consolidate onto a system with five, six or more of its peers. Underutilized systems waste rack space, power and money in the form of service contracts.<br />
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<b>8. Overcooled/Undercooled Space</b>: What temperature is your data center? You should find out. If your data center operates below 70 degrees Fahrenheit, you’re wasting money. Servers need air flow more than they need arctic temperatures. Take a stroll through your data center. If it’s comfortable for you, it’s<br />comfortable for your servers. There’s no need to freeze your data center employees or make them sweat.<br />
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<b>9. Underpowered Facility: </b>How many times have you heard that a particular data center has floor space but no more power? You hear it more than you should, if you hear it at all. An underpowered facility is a victim of poor planning. (See No. 4 above.) Virtualization can help give you back some power. Server consolidation can also assist. But those are short-term fixes for the greater problem of an underpowered facility.<br />
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<b>10. Rack Overcrowding:</b> If you’ve ever attempted to work in a fully populated rack, you probably wished you had miniature hands or extra long fingers. It might seem inefficient to leave a bit of space between systems, but those who have the job of plugging and unplugging components for those systems will thank you. Poor planning leads to rack overcrowding, and it’s unnecessary. Virtualization, consolidation and a more efficient arrangement will ease the problem.<br />
<br />Experiencing an outage because of accidentally unplugging a server might convince you to leave a bit of<br />space between systems.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-37048195159025237052013-10-16T12:22:00.001+03:002013-10-16T12:22:21.002+03:0024 Hours in the Life of IT Professionals<i>5:30 AM: Dragged to consciousness by alarm clock. Pulled out of wonderful dream where Vista desktop upgrade went without a hitch. 3:30 PM: VP of Sales stops in office to show off new iPhone. Wants IT to support it.</i><br />
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IT professionals only wish they could nicely wrap up all their project work and the fires they must extinguish within a 24-hour period. As in “24,” technology can greatly enhance our ability to resolve difficult tasks quickly. However, technology can also wreak havoc because of security intrusions, viruses, poorly trained personnel and overworked, tired IT workers trying to accomplish too much in too little time. <br />
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Despite all this technology at your finger tips, do you ever feel like there are simply not enough hours in the day to get to even half of the tasks on your daily to-do list? Well, join the club. Today’s IT worker is truly stretched to squeeze every valuable minute out of every hour that races by each day. With short-handed technical staffs working in a global environment, the stress levels of IT workers are being pushed to extremes.<br />
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I thought the best way to illustrate this was to walk through a typical day of an IT manager. This may or may not resonate with other IT professionals, but hopefully it will illustrate how 24 hours can rocket past anyone working in IT.<br />
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<b> 05:30 </b>– Dragged to consciousness by alarm clock. Pulled out of wonderful dream where Vista desktop upgrade went without a hitch. Back to reality and off to the office.<br /><br /><b>06:00 </b>– Check the Blackberry while waiting for the traffic report to see if any system status alerts went out overnight and if the offshore development team in an opposite time zone has sent in their deliverables. Good news: no traffic issues. Bad news: a slew of system alerts and no deliverables in the inbox. <br />
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<b>06:30 </b>– Can’t find seat on subway. Balanced between the masses and manage to send an email to offshore counterpart to see what the hold up is. While waiting for response, dig into backpack (no respectable IT professional carries a brief case any more, do they?) and pull out latest IT trade rag. <br />
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<b>08:30 </b>– Roll into the office later than usual thanks to a subway snag. Receive email from offshore manager explaining that build didn’t work. Now testers in US office will get to surf the Web all day. Must quickly prepare for 09:00 staff meeting. Shouldn’t have read the trade rag on the subway. <br />
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<b>09:00</b> – Start staff meeting with bad news. Budget cuts have killed a pending software purchase that would have saved the team many hours in predicting and troubleshooting network issues. This means more after-hour support calls from irate users complaining about slow applications. End meeting on a positive note by announcing retirement of our biggest pain in the rear end-user. Everyone agrees that this helps offset the software budget loss. <br />
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<b>10:30 </b>– Meet with CIO to discuss business intelligence initiative. Selected vendor was recently purchased by Oracle after team just finished migration of all databases to Microsoft SQL Server. CIO asks if the contract can be voided and wants an answer by end of day. Time to call in the lawyers. Had plans to meet a friend for lunch. Plans cancelled. Having lunch with lawyers instead.<br />
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<b>12:30 </b>– Review contracts with lawyers over lunch in office. Determine contract cannot be voided. <br />
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<b>13:30 </b>– VP of Sales stops in office to show off new iPhone. Wants IT to support it. While explaining reasons for standardizing on Blackberry, VP of Sales downloads a new ringtone and then states he appreciates the support team making an exception for him. He nonchalantly strolls out of the office blaring his new ringtone.<br />
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<b>14:00 </b>– Deliver annual review to underperforming employee who pulls out a salary survey to show how underpaid she is.<br /><br /><b>14:45</b> - Lunch of cardboard-like pizza plus dizzying lawyer speak, and a soured annual review leads to every IT person’s favorite afternoon snack: Tums. <br />
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<b>15:00</b> – Do research on BI alternatives on the Web just in case lawyers change mind. Web access sure seems slow. Network monitoring software sure would have been nice.<br /><br /><b>15:30</b> – Person on-call goes home with flu. Ask for volunteer to cover tonight. No takers. Assign on-call to team member who feels underpaid. Just because.<br /><b><br />17:00</b> – Finally have time to check email. About 125 new emails since morning, not to mention five new voice mails. Cherry pick messages to respond to and pray nothing important was missed. (Helps that the CIO’s emails are highlighted in red) <br />
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<b>18:00</b> – On way out of office, “jokingly” called a slacker by one of my colleagues. After amazingly settling into a seat on the subway, pull out laptop to work on weekly status report for the CIO. Had to put away laptop after a few minutes to give up seat to pregnant lady. (I wanted to show IT people have a heart too!)<br /><b><br />20:00</b> – Home in time to have wife hand cranky baby over with a “She is all yours.” Turn on noise machine (the lovely sound of artificial rain falling helps baby – and sometimes adults – stay asleep). After finally rocking her to sleep, a deep, very loud buzzing sound comes through the noise machine. Baby starts crying. Darn Blackberry GSM noise interference!<br /><br /><b>21:00</b> – Woof down frozen burritos. Conclude microwave is better invention than Blackberry. <br />
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<b>22:00</b> – Conference call with offshore team to figure out what happened with the build. Some typhoon has hit the offshore office. Realize disaster recovery plan didn’t have contingencies for that team. Another day of Web surfing for the testers tomorrow.<br /><br /><b>01:00 </b>- Head hits the pillow! But before blissful sleep can end the day, a realization flashes across the strained brain that the weekly status report is not finished thanks to being nice to the pregnant lady. Start to rationalize it can be done on the subway, but no guarantee of a seat. So back down stairs, open the laptop and crank out the status report.<br /><b><br />02:00</b> – Sweet dreams. Unless of course the dreams are about tomorrow. Or maybe dream about being an intrepid IT manager and saving the day? Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-71803990907487350652013-10-16T11:51:00.002+03:002013-10-16T11:51:31.563+03:0010 Traits of a Successful Systems AdministratorI was recently asked by my students of the Institute of Advanced Technology how one can become a good Systems Administrator. I answered with the normal story of my life and moved on. However, it got me thinking about what has actually led me to where I am. A colleague of mine had recently mentioned how people love top x lists and best x lists so I sat down and came up with my list of top 10 traits of a Systems Administrator.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="color: #660000;"><b>0. Be passionate and Never Stop Learning</b></span></h4>
This I consider to be one of the most important traits of a successful Systems Administrator (or anyone for that matter). Be passionate about what you do. When you love your work its not hard to get out of bed in the morning, its not hard to stay up writing until 2:56am. Its not hard to constantly be on top of emerging technologies. Just because they are new and should not be implemented does not mean you should not follow the progress. Work can begin now on a project that may not come to fruition for years, but when the time comes you will be familiar and will not have to spend months getting a basic understanding of a system only to deploy and have no idea how to deal with the inevitable failure of a system. Read, Listen, Watch, Talk to people who know more than you.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="color: #660000;">1. Be Lazy</span></h4>
Thats right, “Be Lazy”. Good sysadmins are lazy sysadmins. They want to sit and not be bothered by fires. Good sysadmins go to great lengths to be lazy. They write scripts to automate their jobs in the never ending quest of automating themselves out of a job.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">2. Work Hard</span></h4>
Have a great work ethic. Be there when the job needs done. Spend the extra time to get things working as best you can. In the long run it will help you with the next trait on my list.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">3. Be discrete</span></h4>
You are entrusted with sensitive information. As a sys admin you may have access to everything from payroll to, hiring and firing, to passwords, and even other general personal and company data that needs to remain private. Do not break this trust. As Uncle Ben said, “With great power comes great responsibility.“<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">4. Share information</span></h4>
Sharing information is important. It allows everyone to be on the same page. If it is not company secret (like the fact that you have slave pidgin labor) or your root password then share it. Share it with your co-workers, share it with the community. Good information is hard to find, help someone get home before 2am and post how to rebuild a software raid. <br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">5. Be cordial</span></h4>
Be kind to your users. They are the reason you have a job, can afford to drive to work (or own the fancy bicycle to save the trees). Yes that means don’t immediately say NO when a user asks if they can have a sticky note on their screen with their password on it. Explain why it’s not a good idea, offer to help them come up with a secure AND memorable password. Ask them if they understand why you have asked them to do something a certain way. This makes them feel happy about you being around, makes you (or should) feel happy about helping, and ultimately makes your job easier in the long run. Your users will be more willing to accept change even if it scares them because they know your there to back them up and their past experience should prove that it’s for the best.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">6. Be open minded</span></h4>
Just because you are an expert doesn’t mean you should not listen to others. If an idea is brought up at least consider it (even if only momentarily).<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">7. Don’t be afraid to be right</span></h4>
You are an expert. You may not be THE expert but you are an expert. There are (or should be) valid reasons for your decisions. Don’t back down for politics sake or because you (in the back of your mind are unsure).<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">8. Give credit where credit is due</span></h4>
If a colleague solved one of your problems, or had a great idea be sure to give them the credit. This is beneficial in several ways. First, it makes that person feel good. Second, they will continue to bring you solutions and ideas. Third, you won’t look like an ass for always trying to be “the man” (or woman as the case may be). Fourth, it will (or should) make you feel good to praise someones good idea after all you like your good ideas praised.<br />
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<h4>
<span style="color: #660000;">9. Don’t be afraid to be wrong</span></h4>
Learning from your mistakes is extremely important. No one can be perfect, you can strive to be, but everyone makes mistakes. Recognize your mistakes and figure out how to not repeat them.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-69408765535992164452013-10-16T11:30:00.000+03:002013-10-16T11:31:39.404+03:00Five Reasons to prove Linux is More Secure than Windows"Security through obscurity" may be a catchy phrase, but it's not the only thing that's catching among Windows users. The expression is intended to suggest that proprietary software is more secure by virtue of its closed nature.<br />
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If hackers can't see the code, then it's harder for them to create exploits for it--or so the thinking goes. Unfortunately for Windows users, that's just not true--as evidenced by the never-ending parade of patches coming out of Redmond.<br />
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In fact, one of Linux's many advantages over Windows is that it is more secure--much more. For small businesses and other organizations without a dedicated staff of security experts, that benefit can be particularly critical.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">Five key factors underlie Linux's superior security:<br /></span></h3>
<span style="color: red;"><b>1. Privileges: </b></span>Linux systems are by no means infallible, but one of their key advantages lies in the way account privileges are assigned. In Windows, users are generally given administrator access by default, which means they pretty much have access to everything on the system, even its most crucial parts. So, then, do viruses. It's like giving terrorists high-level government positions. With Linux, on the other hand, users do not usually have such "root" privileges; rather, they're typically given lower-level accounts. What that means is that even if a Linux system is compromised, the virus won't have the root access it would need to do damage system wide; more likely, just the user's local files and programs would be affected. That can make the difference between a minor annoyance and a major catastrophe in any business setting.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>2. Social Engineering: </b></span>Viruses and worms often spread by convincing computer users to do something they shouldn't, like open attachments that carry viruses and worms. This is called social engineering, and it's all too easy on Windows systems. Just send out an e-mail with a malicious attachment and a subject line like, "Check out these adorable puppies!"--or the porn equivalent--and some proportion of users is bound to click without thinking. The result? An open door for the attached malware, with potentially disastrous consequences organization wide. Thanks to the fact that most Linux users don't have root access, however, it's much harder to accomplish any real damage on a Linux system by getting them to do something foolish. Before any real damage could occur, a Linux user would have to read the e-mail, save the attachment, give it executable permissions and then run the executable. Not very likely, in other words.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>3. The Monoculture Effect:</b></span> However you want to argue the exact numbers, there's no doubt that Microsoft Windows still dominates most of the computing world. In the realm of e-mail, so too do Outlook and Outlook Express. And therein lies a problem: It's essentially a monoculture, which is no better in technology than it is in the natural world. Just as genetic diversity is a good thing in the natural world because it minimizes the deleterious effects of a deadly virus, so a diversity of computing environments helps protect users. Fortunately, a diversity of environments is yet another benefit that Linux offers. There's Ubuntu, there's Debian, there's Gentoo, and there are many other distributions. There are also many shells, many packaging systems, and many mail clients; Linux even runs on many architectures beyond just Intel. So, whereas a virus can be targeted squarely at Windows users, since they all use pretty much the same technology, reaching more than a small faction of Linux users is much more difficult. Who wouldn't want to give their company that extra layer of assurance?<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>4. Audience Size:</b></span> Hand-in-hand with this monoculture effect comes the not particularly surprising fact that the majority of viruses target Windows, and the desktops in your organization are no exception. Millions of people all using the same software make an attractive target for malicious attacks.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b> 5. How Many Eyeballs</b></span> "Linus' Law"--named for Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux--holds that, "given enough eyeballs, all bugs are shallow." What that means is that the larger the group of developers and testers working on a set of code, the more likely any flaws will be caught and fixed quickly. This, in other words, is essentially the polar opposite of the "security through obscurity" argument. With Windows, it's a limited set of paid developers who are trying to find problems in the code.<br />
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They adhere to their own set timetables, and they don't generally tell anyone about the problems until they've already created a solution, leaving the door open to exploits until that happens. Not a very comforting thought for the businesses that depend on that technology. In the Linux world, on the other hand, countless users can see the code at any time, making it more likely that someone will find a flaw sooner rather than later.<br />
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Not only that, but users can even fix problems themselves. Microsoft may tout its large team of paid developers, but it's unlikely that team can compare with a global base of Linux user-developers around the globe. Security can only benefit through all those extra "eyeballs."<br />
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Once again, none of this is to say that Linux is impervious; no operating system is. And there are definitely steps Linux users should take to make their systems as secure as possible, such as enabling a firewall, minimizing the use of root privileges, and keeping the system up to date. For extra peace of mind there are also virus scanners available for Linux, including ClamAV.<br />
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These are particularly good measures for small businesses, which likely have more at stake than individual users do. It's also worth noting that security firm Secunia recently declared that Apple products have more security vulnerabilities than any others--including Microsoft's. Either way, however, when it comes to security, there's no doubt that Linux users have a lot less to worry about.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3410176384428963836.post-68254786948107706682013-10-16T11:15:00.000+03:002013-10-16T11:15:33.619+03:00The Best Wireless PrintersYour PC is wireless—why not your printer, too? There's now a good selection of wireless printers and multifunction printers on the market. Here are the 10 best ones out there.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">HP Officejet Pro X551dw Printer</span></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEire5w5k9mfm0TVkYPl21N1nr26gS2jKs5mc7IBV8g22J_5D5bgygk5uofNz338axU9mZTTzGDdyuGd8k3kH7ZSIK9aT0Z_P4PHzIIQUaapYLUQ0cQMSGPC8kzFfAD9YnbjcTHMX6aA-Rs/s1600/hp-officejet-pro-x551dw-printer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEire5w5k9mfm0TVkYPl21N1nr26gS2jKs5mc7IBV8g22J_5D5bgygk5uofNz338axU9mZTTzGDdyuGd8k3kH7ZSIK9aT0Z_P4PHzIIQUaapYLUQ0cQMSGPC8kzFfAD9YnbjcTHMX6aA-Rs/s200/hp-officejet-pro-x551dw-printer.jpg" width="200" /></a>The X551dw is built around HP PageWide Technology, which uses a printhead that goes from edge to edge across the page (although there's a 0.17-inch non-printable margin on each side, similar to what you'll get with a laser).<br />
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This lets the printer print the entire width of the page at once, and print from top to bottom in one sweep, instead of shuttling the printhead back and forth to print each line. <br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Pros</b></span><br />
Fast. Low running cost. Ample paper capacity. Touch-screen controls. Prints from USB key. Ethernet and Wi-Fi.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Cons </b></span><br />
Although output quality is otherwise excellent, black text is a touch grayish, and color graphics are a touch dulled down.<br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Bottom Line</span></b><br />
The HP Officejet Pro X551dw Printer beats the competition in its price range on speed, output quality, paper handling, and cost per page.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">HP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP</span></h3>
As you might expect for a top-of-the-line model, the X576dw offers just about every office-oriented MFP function you can think of. It can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC, including over a network; work as a standalone copier, fax machine, and email sender; and both scan to and print from a USB memory key.<br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiexroCI6ZysaZeP9w5Tu_CdjX_32rYONaiCRhZ7aUipF-BwjSC8F5bfLx-28FZ83AmiJ6wBFoEb54x9JYxY7jDGVM3JPdVFqxeQ7D316S8Cxap_cL1YEXSsoGOweQfL4U7WzFCgK6Re9c/s1600/hp-officejet-pro-x576dw-multifunction-printer.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiexroCI6ZysaZeP9w5Tu_CdjX_32rYONaiCRhZ7aUipF-BwjSC8F5bfLx-28FZ83AmiJ6wBFoEb54x9JYxY7jDGVM3JPdVFqxeQ7D316S8Cxap_cL1YEXSsoGOweQfL4U7WzFCgK6Re9c/s200/hp-officejet-pro-x576dw-multifunction-printer.jpg" width="200" /></a><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Pros</b></span><br />Fast. Low running cost. Ample paper capacity. Touch-screen controls. Prints, scans, copies, faxes, and emails. Ethernet and Wi-Fi.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Cons </b></span><br />
Although output quality is otherwise excellent, black text is a touch grayish, and color graphics are a touch dulled down<br /><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b> Bottom Line</b></span><br />The HP Officejet Pro X576dw MFP matches or beats more expensive lasers on nearly every key aspect, from speed to MFP features to running cost. The bonus: Edge-to-edge printing.<br />
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<span style="color: #660000;">Brother MFC-8950DW</span></h3>
Clearly aimed at a micro or small office or workgroup with heavy-duty needs, the MFC-8950DW can print, scan, and fax, including over a network. It can also serve as a standalone copier and fax machine, with the touch screen helping to make it unusually easy to use in those roles.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdwthVj6w-DnmBclsEXMqfPvtnwulqIZbozKWUqSgKjDmkIRP_5_vOchkvipLCN0LX5aeHj7UYvKmLdHsDmb-EUFqB7KOJsPEvXLvwQHo-8BBfLufmX5PoAAkWRNv4G1NAPmFOwWIKjY/s1600/brother-mfc-8950dw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="181" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGdwthVj6w-DnmBclsEXMqfPvtnwulqIZbozKWUqSgKjDmkIRP_5_vOchkvipLCN0LX5aeHj7UYvKmLdHsDmb-EUFqB7KOJsPEvXLvwQHo-8BBfLufmX5PoAAkWRNv4G1NAPmFOwWIKjY/s200/brother-mfc-8950dw.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Notable conveniences include printing from and scanning to a USB memory key, as well as support for a variety of mobile printing options, including AirPrint, Google Cloud Print, and Brother's own mobile print and scan app. In addition, it offers Wi-Fi Direct, so you can easily connect to mobile devices.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Pros</b></span><br />Prints, scans, copies, and faxes. Duplex (two-sided) printing and duplex scanning. Touch-screen controls.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Cons </b></span><br />
Output quality is no better than par across the board. Speed is similarly acceptable but unimpressive.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Bottom Line</b></span><br />The Brother MFC-8950DW can serve as a heavy-duty mono laser MFP in a micro or small office, with excellent paper handling and the convenience of touch-screen controls.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Brother MFC-J4510DW</span></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjySTrfTWfmQvXKO3xFMggr-wRWCbVoJQUSGWNpceHAxlS59BvVde12nETfYiIQpVejsDocZ7YQFpu4EGTYr1qH0FIIHVhtHaBP9nl0vzgF3iKGLZBv-3e8m4cy7LODnmfT0Sts6KNj1Dk/s1600/brother-mfc-j4510dw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="152" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjySTrfTWfmQvXKO3xFMggr-wRWCbVoJQUSGWNpceHAxlS59BvVde12nETfYiIQpVejsDocZ7YQFpu4EGTYr1qH0FIIHVhtHaBP9nl0vzgF3iKGLZBv-3e8m4cy7LODnmfT0Sts6KNj1Dk/s200/brother-mfc-j4510dw.jpg" width="200" /></a>Like the HP 6700, the MFC-J4510DW offers Web-connected features and mobile printing. It will let you print from and scan to an assortment of online services, including Google Docs and Dropbox, as well as print from a smartphone or tablet with a Wi-Fi connection, using AirPrint or Brother's own print app.<br />
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It even offers Wi-Fi Direct for easy connection. Very much worth mention is the 3.7-inch touch screen on the front panel, which makes it easy to both change settings and give commands. <br />
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<b><span style="color: red;">Pros</span></b><br />Can print at up to tabloid size (11 by 17 inches) with manual feeding. Automatic document feeder. Ethernet and Wi-Fi.<br />
<b><br /><span style="color: red;">Cons</span></b><br />
Although speed and output quality are generally acceptable, neither is impressive. Sub-par graphics quality.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Bottom Line</b></span><br />The Brother MFC-J4510DW is basically a letter-size MFP that's strong on features and adds the unusual trick of printing on manually fed paper as large as 11 by 17 inches.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Canon Pixma MX922 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer</span></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZHVprWKqumpc4vK2SiNmCX-QLJg0SBmTzRCPLRdnbfFciy9CdZGvpU1iVxql3XaM3gC1sHzk9HananeG0VenLxvkZ4d2iPIugz83en35_q3Jp5aAZWX82lTbEXG3X0rlV9LNgark67E/s1600/canon-pixma-mx922-wireless-office-aio.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuZHVprWKqumpc4vK2SiNmCX-QLJg0SBmTzRCPLRdnbfFciy9CdZGvpU1iVxql3XaM3gC1sHzk9HananeG0VenLxvkZ4d2iPIugz83en35_q3Jp5aAZWX82lTbEXG3X0rlV9LNgark67E/s200/canon-pixma-mx922-wireless-office-aio.jpg" width="200" /></a>Like the Canon MX522, the MX922 can print and fax from, as well as scan to, a PC; it can work as a standalone copier and fax machine; and it can both scan to and print from a USB key, with the ability to preview images on its three-inch color LCD.<br />
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It also offers both Ethernet and Wi-Fi support, a duplexer (for two-sided printing), and both a letter size flatbed and an automatic document feeder (ADF) for scanning.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Pros</b></span><br />Prints, faxes, scans, copies. Prints on discs. Automatic document feeder. Ethernet. Wi-Fi.<br /><br />
<span style="color: red;"><b>Bottom Line</b></span><br />
The Canon Pixma MX922 Wireless Office All-In-One Printer more than makes up for its slow speed for business applications with its output quality and MFP features.<br />
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<h3>
<span style="color: #660000;">Dell 1355cnw Multifunction Color Printer</span></h3>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTGcphXjNbKmCum4MCTHnwvj9OThLHuY78YoPHPwZjrbiHz7vzUo_pbqJ_DfpYs_M3cZrpNf4M3El2DTkHSwNNRJJWUaGe9AjHTeAaashfM6O9edrgNOgCqNYNxdZwiu8jvIgJy8Xh7zs/s1600/dell-1355cnw.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTGcphXjNbKmCum4MCTHnwvj9OThLHuY78YoPHPwZjrbiHz7vzUo_pbqJ_DfpYs_M3cZrpNf4M3El2DTkHSwNNRJJWUaGe9AjHTeAaashfM6O9edrgNOgCqNYNxdZwiu8jvIgJy8Xh7zs/s200/dell-1355cnw.jpg" width="200" /></a>There aren't many color multifunction printers (MFPs) that are both laser-class and small enough to fit on a desk to use as a personal printer. Of those that are, even fewer offer the kind of speed and paper handling that would also let them serve as a shared printer for a micro office. The LED-based Dell 1355cnw Multifunction Color Printer ($419.99 direct) is one of those few. Small, fast, and highly capable.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Pros</b></span><br />Small enough to serve as a personal MFP. High quality output, particularly for graphics.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Cons </b></span><br />
No duplexer. Relatively low paper capacity for a shared printer.<br />
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<span style="color: red;"><b>Bottom Line</b></span><br />Whether you need a shared MFP in a micro, small, or home office or a personal MFP in any size office, the Dell 1355cnw Multifunction Color Printer is a prime candidate.Blogging Stuff in 2021http://www.blogger.com/profile/10666404957692395004noreply@blogger.com