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Sunday, October 4, 2009
Video: Intel's four-screen laptop prototype hands-on

Intel unveils Light Peak 10Gbps optical interconnect for mobile devices



Entelligence: The Muddled MID market

Consumer-class lifestyle devices
Runs a 'lightweight" OS with quick startup like Linux
Optimized for things like media playback and web surfing
In 2009 (or so) Moorestown-based devices will be classed as MIDs only And Intel is aggressive about MIDs -- the company was showing off so many of UMID's devices at IDF last week you would have thought they were among Intel's most strategic and largest customers. But it's clear that the definition has changed over time, as the MIDs at IDF didn't match the specs Mr. Monahan talked about in 2008. These devices all ran Windows and were really scaled down models of netbooks. And although they were impressively tiny, let's be honest -- I'm really skeptical about the future of this class of device, Intel's aspirations aside.
For one thing, this class of devices -- often called 'tweeners -- have never done well historically. For years folks have attempted to bridge the laptop and the phone with something in the middle and it just hasn't worked. I'm not seeing anything in any of these MIDs that might change that.Second, there's a limit to the number of device consumers will carry. For most consumers, it's two, and the max three. A MID therefore must dispalce something else in a user's hierarchy of functionality. If MIDs are just one more thing a user has to carry, they're not going to carry it. New generations of MIDs running Windows might look like they're designed to replace your laptop, but unless they can actually replace it, they're going to fail.Let's not forget price is also huge issue. Dynamism sells the UMID mbook M1 for $599. That's for an Atom processor, 512MB of RAM, and 16GB of storage for a machine that doesn't run Windows at high levels of performance or usability. Other versions are going to sell for close to $900. Seriously, who's going to buy one of these things, except a gadget enthusiast? And not very many of them.
Consumers don't want a device that is too big for the pocket, provides less functionality than a netbook, and is priced like a laptop.In the US, we don't pay a premium for small things with fewer features because the device is smaller. As a culture, we pay a premium for bigger stuff. (Japan is generally the opposite, to be fair -- that's partly how Sony can bring an 11" OLED TV to market with a price tag of $2,500). One of my long-standing laws of consumer electronics is that there's a worldwide market for 50,000 of anything when it comes to gadgets. In the case of MIDs, however, it doesn't even appear that there's a for even that many. DigiTimes recently reported sales of just 30,000 MIDs worldwide compared to the 150,000 - 200,000 units Intel had estimated. Intel claims that the weak sales were due to the global economic downturn but I agree with Thomas Ricker's opinion: consumers don't want a device that is too big for the pocket, provides less functionality than a netbook, and is priced like a laptop. Adding telephony to the mix, as Intel announced with Moblin 2.1. won't change that at all.Of course, a lot depends on how you define a MID. I think there's actually millions of MIDs out there, but it depends on whether you count devices that essentially are MIDs in terms of functionality (pocketable, connected, designed for web, email, media and other apps) as opposed to being branded as MID or running an Atom processor. What am I referring to? It should be obvious. The most popular MID on the market isn't called a MID.It's called an iPod Touch.
Revolutionary digital cameras to see in gigapixels
Working with the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, David Brady is designing and building a camera that could achieve resolutions 1,000 or even 1 million times greater than the technology on the market today.
And Brady has said that his goal to reach giga or terapixels is currently being held back by the difficulty of designing a spherical lens that will not distort small areas of a scene.
He not only wants to modify the shape of the camera lens, making it aspherical, but to link together thousands of microcameras behind the main lens too.
Each of these cameras would have its own lens optimised for a small portion of the field of view.
"Now, when you use a camera, you're looking through a narrow soda straw. These new cameras will be able to capture the full view of human vision," said Brady.
And his three-year project would result in a device about the size of a breadbox.
However, Brady is hoping to scale the technology down to create a single-lens reflex camera with a resolution of 50 gigapixels.
Brady presented his innovative technology at the Optical Society's (OSA) Annual Meeting, Frontiers in Optics (FiO) in San Jose, Calif.
HTC Hero voted Gadget of the Year
The device has a five-megapixel camera and a 3.2in screen.
It uses the Android operating system that allows users to access emails, the internet and texts easily, reports The Independent.
Fraser Macdonald, one of the judges at the 2009 Stuff Gadget Awards, said: "With the HTC Hero, we've finally got a phone that fully exploits the potential of the Android OS to be as clever and as sexy as the iPhone."
Apple's iPhone 3GS picked up awards for Phone of the Year and Readers' Gadget of the Year.
The award for Audio Gadget of the Year went to the Spotify website. The site allows users to access any song they want legally and for free.
The Sony KDL-40WE5 television was crowned Eco Gadget of the Year, thanks to its energy-saving features.
Now, a lamp that uses 'human blood' to create light
Mike Thompson's lamp contains a chemical called luminol that reacts with the iron in blood, and creates a bright blue glow.
To use the lamp, according to Thompson, one has to first mix in an activating powder, break the glass, cut oneself, and drip blood into the opening.
He conceived this idea, recently reported by New Scientist magazine, a few years ago while he was studying for his masters at the Design Academy Eindhoven in the Netherlands.
While researching chemical energy for a project, he came across luminol-the same chemical that forensic scientists use to check for traces of blood at a crime scene.
"It kind of triggered this thought in my mind, that if energy somehow came at a cost to us, then maybe it would make us think differently about the way we use it," LiveScience quoted him as saying.
Thompson said that his lamp was intended to "challenge people's preconceived notions about where our energy comes from."
He said that it would force the user "to rethink how wasteful they are with energy, and how precious it is."
He described his invention as a single-use light.
"You have to really decide when to use this lamp because it's only going to work once. So it makes it kind of a poignant moment," Thompson said.
Thompson designed and produced the lamp in 2007, and made a video of his project this year.
Female hormone drives male aggression in mice
The study, conducted by University of California San Francisco (UCSF), suggests a pivotal role for oestrogen -- as well as the enzyme aromatase that is responsible for oestrogen synthesis -- in male territorial behaviour.
Oestrogen's role in the mating behaviours of these mice, however, was less clear, which indicates that territorial and sexual behaviours are likely influenced by distinct and separate connections in the brain, according to Nirao Shah, assistant professor of anatomy at the UCSF and senior study author.
'This really changes the way we view male and female behaviours,' said Shah, who also is affiliated with the UCSF programs in neuroscience.
'What we previously looked upon as a single unit of gender-related behaviour, we now see as a collection of separate behaviours controlled at least in part by distinct neural pathways.'
Males and females across all sexually reproducing species display gender-specific behaviour in many areas, including mating, territorial marking, aggression and parental care, Shah explained.
Collections of cells form circuits in the brain, referred to as neural pathways, that control these and other behaviours. Shah said that both oestrogen and the male hormone testosterone are known to be essential in developing these circuits and in sex-specific behaviour.
But the precise role of these hormones and how they may interact genetically to control these behaviours has been unclear, says an UCSF release.
The current study fills in at least one piece of the puzzle, he said. The study suggests that the conversion of testosterone in the brain to oestrogen by the enzyme aromatase is critical to developing and activating brain circuits that control male territorial behaviour.
These findings were published in the journal Cell.
Computer model of brain can help victims of anxiety disorder
Most neurological fear studies have been rooted in fear-conditioning experiments. Now, University of Missouri (U-M) researchers are using computational models to study the brain's connections.
Guoshi Li, U-M electrical and computer engineering doctoral student, has discovered new evidence on how the brain reacts to fear, including important findings that could help victims of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD, an anxiety disorder associated with serious traumatic events).
'Computational models make it much easier to study the brain because they can effectively integrate different types of information related to a problem into a computational framework and analyse possible neural (bearing on nerve cells) mechanisms from a systems perspective,' Li said.
From previous experiments, scientists have found that fear can subside when overcome with fear extinction memory, but it is not permanently lost.
Fear extinction is a process in which a conditioned response to a stimulant that produces fear gradually diminishes over time as subjects, such as rats in auditory fear experiments, learn to disassociate a response from a stimulus.
One theory has concluded that fear extinction memory deletes fear memory, and another concluded that fear memory is not lost, but is inhibited by extinction memory as fear can recover with the passage of time after extinction, says an U-M release.
For PTSD victims, the fear circuit is disrupted and they cannot retrieve the fear extinction memory. However, the fear extinction memory exists, so the fear memory dominates every time victims get a fear cue.
Scientists detect chink in virulent stomach bug's armour
They identified a group of substances that block a key chemical pathway that the bacteria need for survival. Their study could lead to new, more effective antibiotics to fight these hard-to-treat microbes.
Javier Sancho, biologist at the University of Zaragoza, Spain, and colleagues note in the new study that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacteria infect the stomach lining.
Treatment with broad-spectrum antibiotics can cure H. pylori infections. However, an estimated one billion people remain infected worldwide because of the cost of existing antibiotics and the emergence of antibiotic resistant strains of the bacteria, the researchers say.
The scientists know from past research that blocking flavodoxin, a key protein that H. pylori needs for survival, could be the key to developing narrow-spectrum antibiotics that specifically target H. pylori.
Sancho's team screened 10,000 chemicals for their ability to block flavodoxin and identified four that showed promise. They then showed that three of the four substances killed H. pylori in cell cultures and did not have any apparent toxic effects in lab animals.
'These new inhibitors constitute promising candidates to develop new specific antibiotics against H. pylori,' the study states, according to a Zaragoza release.
These findings are slated for publication in the Oct 16 issue of American Chemical Society's (ACS) Biology.
Software for better data on immunisation
'The outcome of immunisation drives is not satisfactory. I asked my officers how they arrive at these figures and the reply was not very convincing. I have told them to have a new software which will help us in getting the authentic figures,' Azad said.
'These software will be provided to all blocks under the National Rural Health Mission as they already have computers and a person to man it. The data will be collected at that level.
'All the kids will have their name, father's name and telephone number (in the database). If someone does not have a telephone number then his neighbour's telephone number will be there. This will help monitoring the immunisation drive better,' he said at a diabetes conference organised by the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital.
'By the end of this year, you may see this happening.'
He said his ministry spends a lot on surveys and he would like to 'do away with them'. 'I have respect for NGOs. But what the so many people in government cannot do, how can three-four people (of a NGO) do?'
India has been carrying out several immunisation drives - some universal and others targeted. However, at least half of the children do not get vaccinated for various diseases.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Correlation In Forex Trading and Profiting
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Forex Fundamentals: Knowledge You Can Profit From
Forex Fundamentals: Knowledge You Can Profit From
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Forex2u Forex Strategy On Successful Forex Trading
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
New Windows Live Writer Adds Easy Image Editing
Windows Live Writer, your favorite blog editing software, just got better.You can now crop pictures and screenshot images right inside Windows Live Writer without requiring external software. There’s a new tilt feature that lets you rotate pictures by a custom angle.
The new version also adds some new visual effects for your photos including Reflection and Rounded Corners. They are simple things but definitely help in making your blog entries more appealing.
With the new Windows Live Writer, you can also upload videos directly to MSN soapbox though we would like to see support for YouTube as well.
Available at Writer Zone. It’s a technical preview but pretty stable. I also find this release a bit faster than the previous version.
More Efficient Blogging with Windows Live Writer

The software is available for Windows Vista and XP only but you may run Writer on a Mac as well via VMWare Fusion. Not sure about Linux support though.
Now if you are a Windows Live Writer fan already, let’s explore some simple
hacks and tools that will make you even more efficient with Windows Writer.1. Insert Screenshot Images
You don’t need a third-party screen capture program to insert regular screenshots in your blog articles. Minimize Windows Live Writer, press Print-Screen and then paste that image from Clipboard into WLW using Ctrl+V. You can also crop and scale the screenshot in Writer itself before publishing.
2. Backup Windows Live Writer Settings & Drafts
If you are moving data across computers and like to make a copy of all your Live Writer settings and draft posts, get this Live Writer Backup utility. You can also move drafts manually.
3. Improve the speed of Live Preview
The live preview feature in WLW provides a good idea about how your stuff will look once it gets published online. The problem is that Writer downloads your blog homepage for creating a local preview template and thus you always see more than one post in the preview tab.
The fix is simple – change your blog default settings to show just one post on the main page. Then refresh the theme in Windows Live Writer and once that’s done, switch to the original setting of ‘n’ posts on the main page.
4. Quickly Spread the Word
If you want FeedBurner and Blog Search engines to pick articles as soon as you hit publish, go to Tools –> Options –> Ping Servers and copy-paste this list of URLs:http://ping.feedburner.google.com/
http://rpc.pingomatic.com/
http://blogsearch.google.com/ping/RPC2
http://www.bloglines.com/ping
5. Search Your Windows Live Writer Drafts
You were writing an article on productivity last week but had to abandon it half-way because something urgent turned up. Now you want to resume that story but where’s the draft?
Luckily you can add the wpost filter to Windows Desktop search and finding drafts becomes as simple as searching a text document.
6. Windows Live Writer Dictionary
While terms like Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, FriendFeed, etc. are common jargon, most word processing software (Writer included) are not smart enough yet to recognize them correctly.
If you like to avoid seeing that red line under such common terms, simply open your Live Writer dictionary and copy the words in bulk.
7. Autolinking in Windows Live Writer
If you frequently link to certain web pages from your blog articles, always use autolinks as you’ll save lot of time. So the moment you type Live Writer in your blog article, that phrase will automatically link to the homepage of Live Writer.
8. Upload files to Amazon S3
If you are hosting images on Amazon S3, the S3 Explorer plugin may come handy. It’s an S3 uploading tool with a visual GUI that is invoked from within Live Writer but you may use it to upload any binary file including documents, executables, MP3s or images.
9. Variables in Windows Live Writer
This is for geeks. Using Dymanic Templates, you can do lot of cool stuff in Live Writer like insert the current date in your article with a click, let user input data, convert text selection into HTML and more.
10. Favorite Windows Live Writer Plugins
The old list of Live Writer plugins is slightly outdated as lot of functionality is now built-in plus so here’s a fresh list of favorites.
a. Zemanta – This lets you find images related to content that you are currently composing in Live Writer. (see Zemanta review)
b. Twitter – Notify your twitter followers as soon as you publish a new blog post.
c. TinyMCE – This a more powerful HTML editor for Windows Live Writer with a WYSIWYG interface.
d. Source Code – This plugin lets you insert source code with syntax highlighting.
Symantec: Posted code enables VoIP spying
A Symantec security blog on Thursday disclosed a new Trojan horse, Tojan.Peskyspy "that records VoIP communications, specifically targeting Skype." The posting, based on analysis from Symantec's Karthik Selvaraj, pointed out that "its existence isn't due to any problems with Skype itself" but that Skype may have been targeted "simply because it has such a large install base."
Gerry Egan, Symantec's director of security response, says the Trojan is capable of "hooking...through some Windows APIs into some audio streams" that "can be intercepted, turned into MP3 files, and then sent over a remote channel to a remote electronic eavesdropper."
A PC can be infected through the usual channels for malware, including an executable file in an e-mail you click on and a "drive by download" that's automatically triggered when you visit an infected Web site. The most recent trend, Egan said, "is a shift toward socially engineered attacks like a fake video site."
The code has been published on the Web by a Swiss researcher, Egan said, adding that "we've not seen any indications of it being used maliciously, but the published code opens up endless possibilities in the mind of a hacker."
The code would affect Skype or any other VoIP software on a Windows PC that uses an audio stream, Egan said.
Unlike most malware, Symantec does not anticipate the code being used to launch widespread attacks.
"To do this en masse really isn't practical," Egan said. Even if a "piece of malware gets on the machine of someone who is using (VoIP), and they are talking about interesting things, finding those interesting things among the many hundreds of thousands of hours of phone calls would be like trying to find a needle in a haystack." He said it might be more valuable in a targeted attack against a specific individual.
Eavesdropping is a risk, when it comes to industrial espionage, prying spouses or significant others, and political campaigns, as well as political dissidents. U.S. law requires a court order before a phone or a computer can be legally tapped by government or law enforcement officials.
The best way to avoid being infected with this or any other malware is to use good up-to-date security software and to be sure that your operating system and browser are updated. It's also a good idea to avoid clicking on e-mail attachments and consider using security software that warns you when you're about to visit a potentially malicious Web site.
INTEL PROCESSORS
Based on Intel's revolutionary Intel® Core™ microarchitecture, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processors were designed from the ground up delivering the best system level overall performance per watt. To meet the needs of the embedded platforms, there are multiple processors in offering: the new Intel® Core™2 Duo processor T9400, the Intel® Core™2 Duo SL9400, SL9380, SP9300, SU9300 and the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E8400, E7400 based on industry-leading 45nm process technology, as well as the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E6400, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor E4300, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processors T7500 and T7400, the Intel® Core™2 Duo processors L7500 and L7400, and the Intel® Core™2 Duo processor U7500. These processors utilize the Intel® Core™ microarchitecture along with the following key features:
Intel® Wide Dynamic Execution enabling delivery of more instructions per clock cycle to improve execution time and energy efficiency.
Intel® Intelligent Power Capability designed to deliver more energy-efficient performance. The 45nm process technology delivers a new super shuffle engine, which improves existing SSE instructions while enabling significant gains on the latest SSE4 instruction set. As a result, SSE4-optimized applications such as video editing and encoding in high-definition resolution will see additional performance improvements.
Intel® Smart Memory Access improves system performance by optimizing the use of the available memory data bandwidth.
Intel® Advanced Digital Media Boost accelerates a broad range of applications, including video, speech and image, photo processing and encryption.
Intel® Advanced Smart Cache Provides a higher-performance, more efficient cache subsystemIntel® Xeon® Processor 5000/3000 Sequence
Breakthrough performance, energy efficiency, extended lifecycle support and common socket Intel Xeon processor-based systems make them the ideal choice for compute-intensive embedded, storage and communications applications.
Lower thermal design power (TDP) and higher Tcase temperature Intel Xeon processor options are ideal options for low power consumption and/or compliance with the AdvancedTCA* form factor and NEBS level-3 thermal specifications*.Intel Pentium M Processor
The Intel® Pentium® M processor utilizes a new microarchitecture to meet the current and future demands of high-performance, low-power embedded computing, making it ideal for medium-to-large enterprise communications applications, transaction terminal, interactive client, and industrial automation applications. While incorporating advanced processor technology, it remains software-compatible with previous members of the Intel® microprocessor family.Intel® Pentium® Dual-Core Processor E2160The Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor delivers great performance, low power enhancements, and multitasking for embedded computing. The Intel® Pentium® dual-core processor E2160Δ with a thermal design power of 65 watts delivers energy-efficient dual-core performance for cost-sensitive embedded designs. Intel® 65nm process technology makes it possible to integrate two complete execution cores in one physical package, providing advancements in simultaneous computing for multi-threaded applications and multi-tasking environments.
This dual-core processor is well suited for a wide range of performance-intensive, low-power embedded applications in smaller form factors such as interactive clients (i.e., point-of-sale terminals and ATMs), gaming platforms, industrial control and automation, and print imaging. While incorporating advanced processor technology, these processors remain software-compatible with previous IA-32 processors.
The Intel Pentium dual-core processor E2160 is validated with the Intel® Q35 Express Chipset and Intel® Q965 Express Chipset. The Intel Q35 Express Chipset platform brings a new level of power reduction in idle and maximum power, making it an ideal choice for embedded applications meeting high-performance, low-thermal specifications.Intel® Xeon® Processors LV and ULVThe Intel® Xeon® processor LV and Intel® Xeon® processor ULV are members of Intel’s growing product line of multi-core processors. Each dual-core processor combines the benefits of two high-performance execution cores with intelligent power management features to deliver significantly greater performance-per-watt over previous single-core Intel Xeon processor-based platforms. The dual-core/dual-processor capabilities are ideal for a wide range of low-power communications and embedded applications.Features
Transform complex and visually intensive data into actionable information enabled by up to eight computational cores of pure performance.
Enjoy optimized visualization by balancing processing, memory and bandwidth resources to deliver rich visual experiences.
Do more in less time with up to 6X the throughput¹ so you can mega-task your way through parallel workflows
MICROSOFT .NET FRAMEWORK
Connected .NET Framework empowers developers to build applications that require robust messaging systems or flexible workflows.
CompellingWith the .NET Framework, developers and designers can collaborate to create rich user experiences.
Ubiquitous and ProductiveThe .NET Framework, including improvements like LINQ, provides a single platform to quickly build mobile desktop and server-based applications.What's New for 3.5?The .NET Framework 3.5 provides the foundation for building connected and appealing applications, productively, on a wide variety of systems from the device to the data center.Microsoft continues to support developers using the .NET Framework platform by providing support for applications built in previous versions to the 3.5 release, so existing applications built for .NET Framework 2.0 or .NET Framework 3.0 will continue to work.The .NET Framework 3.5 adds new features in several major technology areas:
Deep integration of Language Integrated Query (LINQ) and data awareness.
Support for Web 2.0 AJAX-style applications and services in ASP.NET and WCF.
Full tooling support for WF, Windows Communication Foundation (WCF), and Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF), including the new workflow-enabled services technology.
New classes in the base class library (BCL) for the .NET Framework 3.5 address the most common customer requests..NET Framework 3.5 will ship with Visual Studio 2008 and will be available for separate download from MSDN. Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 contains many new features building incrementally upon .NET Framework 2.0 and 3.0, and includes .NET Framework 2.0 service pack 1 and .NET Framework 3.0 service pack 1....NET vs. Java and Java EEThe CLI and C# have many similarities to Sun's JVM and Java. They are strong competitors. Both are based on a virtual machine model that hides the details of the computer hardware on which their programs run. Both use their own intermediate byte-code, Microsoft calling theirs Common Intermediate Language (CIL; formerly MSIL) and Sun Java bytecode. On .NET the byte-code is always compiled before execution, either Just In Time (JIT) or in advance of execution using the ngen.exe utility.With Java the byte-code is either interpreted, compiled in advance, or compiled JIT. Both provide extensive class libraries that address many common programming requirements and address many security issues that are present in other approaches. The namespaces provided in the .NET Framework closely resemble the platform packages in the Java EE API Specification in style and invocation..NET in its complete form (Microsoft's implementation) is only available on Windows platforms and partially available on Linux and Macintosh, whereas Java is fully available on many platforms. From its beginning .NET has supported multiple programming languages and at its core remains platform agnostic and standardized so that other vendors can implement it on other platforms (although Microsoft's implementation only targets Windows, Windows CE, and Xbox platforms). The Java platform was initially built to support only the Java language on many operating system platforms under the slogan "Write once, run anywhere." Other programming languages have been implemented on the Java Virtual Machine but are not widely used.Sun's reference implementation of Java (including the class library, the compiler, the virtual machine, and the various tools associated with the Java Platform) is becoming open source under the GNU GPL license with Classpath exception. source code for the .NET framework base class library is available under the Microsoft Reference License, which is a closed-source license.The third-party Mono Project, sponsored by Novell, has been developing an open source implementation of the ECMA standards that define the .NET Framework, as well as most of the other non-ECMA standardized libraries in Microsoft's .NET. The Mono implementation is meant to run on Linux, Solaris, Mac OS X, BSD, HP-UX, and Windows platforms. Mono includes the CLR, the class libraries, and compilers for C# and VB.NET.The current version supports nearly all the APIs in version 1.1 of Microsoft's .NET and almost 96% of the APIs in version 2.0 of Microsoft's .NET. Support for the additional libraries in .NET 3.0 and 3.5 is in the early stages of development, as is support for C# 3.0 and LINQ.
TOP COMPUTER THREATS
Here are the Top Twelve Threats No Computer User Should Ignore:
1. Viruses - A computer program that copies itself. They often disrupt your computer system or damage your data. Viruses are usually received by email attachments so be careful opening anything from a dubious source. They can affect anyone, for example, the destructive Mydoom worm affected one out of three small and mid-sized businesses.
2. Spyware - Sends information about you and your computer to somebody else. Spyware may send the addresses of sites you have visited or worse still, transmit personal information. With today's concerns about identify theft this is a real worry. For example, CoolWebSearch may hijack web searches, home page, and other Internet Explorer settings. Spyware is normally received as part of shareware freeware downloaded from the web.
3. IP Spoofing - A technique to gain unauthorized access to computers, whereby the intruder sends messages to a computer with an address indicating that the message is coming from a trusted host.
4. Trojans - An apparently legitimate computer program that is really intended to disrupt and damage computer activity by sending information, perhaps even passwords onto a third party without you knowing. As an example, recent emails entitled "Osama Bin Laden Captured" attempted to download the "Trj/Small.B." Trojan if the embedded URL was clicked. This trojan attempts to hijack the PC.
5. Spam - Unsolicited mail often promoting products of a dubious financial or sexual nature. Don't leave your email address on websites and internet bulletin boards as they are harvested by spammers.
6. Adware - puts advertisements on your screen. These take many forms including popups, popunders and advertisements that appear later, even if your browser is closed. Some are sent using the Windows Messenger service which allows a spammer to direct an advertisement straight to your computer by sequentially sending messages to IP addresses. Always irritating, they are also often of a pornographic nature.
7. Dialers - for those of us still with dial up modems, dialer programs redirect calls to a very expensive number. You won't know until you get the bill.
8. Hijackers - Hijackers take control of your web browser and may reset your home page, search bar and search pages. They can redirect you to undesirable sites or stop you going to particular sites.
9. Hackers - With so much personal data available online to anyone with a password you must be sure your password is secure. If you are using your mother's maiden name, your cat's name or your birthday then your password is at risk. Here are two tips for making a secure password. Method One - pick two random unrelated three letter words and two digits. Mix them up and what do you have? A secure password such as "red19cat" or "hotpin73". Method Two - pick a short sequence of words such as Now Is The Winter Of Our Discontent Made Glorious' and you have a password of "nitwoodmg". You could even change the I's and O's to digits.
10. Phishing - Emails purporting to come from reliable sources such as Paypal, Ebay or your bank. Often wanting you to verify your account details, they can look very realistic but are generally scams to harvest usernames and passwords. Always open a new browser winder and type the address there, rather than clicking on the link provided.
11. Hoaxes - Chain letters, scams, false alarms. At best they take up time and bandwidth but at worst vulnerable can be victims of fraud. Pass it on!12. Stranger-danger - For those of us with children - do you know what they actually do when they are online? Are they working on homework tasks, downloading illegal music or pornography? Or are they chatting to strangers in chat rooms? You should consider blocking access to undesirable sites and logging their activity with a surveillance tool. Oh, and don't forget that where children are concerned, computers should always be kept in a family room and never in their bedroom.Three Step Action PlanThere are three essential steps that should be taken to ensure your PC is kept threat-free.
Firstly, be sensible when opening attachments or following email instructions from apparently reputable sites.
Secondly, make sure you are using the latest service pack of Windows as Microsoft is continually closing loopholes to tighten up security.
Finally, there's a range of low cost tools such as firewalls, antivirus, spam blockers and spyware killers available. Like everything else they vary in quality and you tend to get what you pay for so always do your research first and perhaps try a free trial before getting your credit card out.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
How to Find a Good Web Hosting Provider?
The world today is a global village and people today have a very powerful tool in hand called the internet. Goods and services are sold and bought on the web and innumerable transactions take place daily. A concept which was not dreamed of by our ancestors is a virtual reality today.
Businesses and individuals establish their presence on the internet through Web Hosting and Video Hosting and even Shared Web Hosting. Entities can set-up short term and long term hubs in the virtual world by buying the space from a web hosting company. Once a name has been decided upon the website is ready to begin operation. But it is imperative to choose a good and reliable website hosting provider. There are many players in the market, but who can cater to your needs is the vital question.
It is important to know what is you ultimate goal. What goals do you expect to achieve though the website? Once you have the answer to this question, then it is easier to determine the key features the website should have. The website hosting company can be briefed accordingly.
Once that is decided, then it is easy to know which option to pick. Individuals can use both a dedicated or shared platform. For businesses, it is recommended to go with the dedicated website which could have content, videos or both.
An in-depth market research is must. Choose a service provider who has good references and is decently priced. However, quality should not be compromised on any grounds. A service provider who gives you a really low quote may also cut on quality and services.
Ensure that the web service provide good consumer services, email account, possibility to upgrade services when the need arises, has no hidden costs, has an effective web security system in place and a bandwidth capacity that suits your current and future needs.
If designing is not your forte, then select a provider who gives you design templates or WYSIWYG design software.
Do your homework before availing the services of a web hosting provider. But in case you are not very tech-savvy then find a company that provides you with a shopping cart and has software that enables you to offer value added service to your target audience.
If you are hosting a video website, then make sure that you get the bandwidth and appropriate storage software that allows you to create back ups and provides smooth, good quality video streaming.
Also ensure that your service provider gives you a FTP access and cpanel hosting. This will allow you to transfer your content on the website. The protocol basically allows file transfer from one computer to another and is extensively used by webmasters to publish their pages.
Before you sign with the web hosting provider ensure that you get value for your money. Choosing the apt service provider saves costs. A conscious and wise decision helps to accomplish your ultimate goal. A wrong decision costs you both money and valuable time. Shifting from one service provider to another in between setting up a virtual shop is a mammoth task.
Bluehost is a Premier Web Hosting Provider
Bluehost will help one in getting your beginning on the internet if you haven'tyour own website address otherwise identified as a domain nameand will give you with a free of charge domainname, a website promotion hosting plan, a free forum and blogand you should receive excellent 24/7 customer service.
Bluehost website Hosting Promo - $3.95 per month
If you already have a domainnameand web site, Blue host can help you setup your website to operate on Blue host servers and will give you with a complimentarye-Commerce/shopping cart, a free blog and forum and their highly dependable support that is at your service around the clock, all week long.
There are severalwebsite hosting providersin the marketplaceand many are excited to be selected in the top ten or twenty within their web hosting categories, but Bluehost won't cease progressing and has won several popular awards making it the number one website hosting provider on the planet! Bluehost was chosen the "MostDependableWeb Hosting Provider in 2009" by many website hosting companies and was chosen as 2009's Top Linux Hosting in addition, just to name a few. Bluehost continues to set the industry's standards in dependability, value and top-notch customer service.
Being one of the first and most knowledgeable providers in the website hosting trade, Bluehost has created a reputation on behalf of delivering excellent website hosting packages that customers desire. In addition to the24/7 customer service structure in place, you will have access to a self-help center with several tutorials accessible at your disposal that talks about different website hosting subjects.
Customer service is everything, and Bluehost boasts of having a great track recordfrom manycustomers. Bluehost reviews are accessible on the web site for you to divulge and grasp what the consumers have to say. After all, there is no better avenue to find out the real deal about a company or service than from usersthemselves, so Bluehost has that information available to you so you can be the judge.
Bluehost supports its consumers with unlimited disk space and bandwidthlevels in the marketplace, allowing you ample roomto host a standard website and to allow itto grow. Unlimited Web Hosting is truly one of the impressive features from Blue host. The suite of web authoring toolsare at your findertipsso you can quickly design and get your web site thriving, such as a free website builder and blog tutorials. To make your web site interesting to your visitors, you can quickly and easily add supplementary functions such as a forum or guestbook.
Each and every BlueHost web hosting account comes with a cPanel-the largely much-admired and widely used web hosting control panel. This allows one to certainly administer your website by inspecting your stats, tallying email accounts and the site's functionality. With Bluehost, you easily cannot go wrong. It is simply the finest of the best once it comes to website hosting providers. With every signup, customers receive a 30 day money back guarantee.
Discounted Web Hosting
A website is an album comprising many web pages, including audio and visual files, which is made accessible through a web server. Website is generally a collection of HTML files, graphic files or PHP files. Every website encloses a homepage, which the users mostly visit to take a general idea of what the site contains. The web site is managed either by a personage or an organization.
With ever growing network of commerce in today's world, there arises an inevitable need for the services of hosting. The facility of using World Wide Web that enables the folks and individuals to make their website reachable is termed as web hosting.
To sight a site it is a prerequisite that the website is linked up with the browser of World Wide Web. Web hosting is an array which facilitates the organization to host their website on their web server at a nominal fee. To host a website, is not a pricey affair as discounted web hosting facility is easily available to people.
Web hosting companies offer room to their clients on their own server, in combination with the connectivity of the internet. Web hosting services are provided by copious companies as it is a genuine world of hosting commerce, the basic aim is to spotlight on all the facet of the honored client. Web hosting services endeavor at providing discounted hosting but at the same time assures steadfast services.
With the growth of commerce world and globalization the need for making your place in this global market is the major fret with the upcoming business houses. Discounted web hosting has given many diminutive business houses a standing in the market as through the host server the websites of these companies are easily accessible to respective individuals according to their needs.
Marketing has been made trouble-free and widespread with the use of discounted hosting. But one ought to be watchful before selecting the web host provider as the triumph of the business house depends on selection of the web host.
Certain features to be taken in consideration before selecting the discounted hosting are technical support services, their rank among the google page and the use of Cpanel. If the server is Cpanel website hosting friendly it will attract the clients as they can get the feedback as to how their website is doing. It also lets you assess is the discounted web hosting actually aiding the business to grow or not.
The discounted website hosting is possible owing to the great competition in the market. This compels the providers to provide the best services at reasonable prices as they know the competitors to make significant space in the market will not mind charging less than them.
ff Wednesday, August 12, 2009 How to Recognise a Professional Web Hosting Company
One of the big problems is that when you are looking for a professional web hosting company, you are often at a loss to what you have to look out for to be able to identify a good professional company. Because there are so many companies out there, you might be overwhelmed by the sheer amount of information out there. So this article is really a checklist on some of the things that you might want to look out for when you are choosing one of these companies, and keep this list close to your mind as you go through the list.
One of the more important things to look out for is the range of services that they have, and they should give you an option of having a shared server option, a virtual server and a dedicated server option. Those tiers should also be split into two main categories of consumer and professional level web hosting solutions. There should be as much options as possible when considering what to choose and how you can level them out to fit your own needs online. This is something that is quite important as well.
Another thing you need to think about is the level of hardware that you are getting. One of the things that most good and professional web hosting companies often offer is a range of hardware options that you can choose from. Some might be lower level servers to high level servers, depending on your needs of course. One thing that gets most people is that they are often stuck with limited choice, and no matter how intensive their online operations might be, they are often limited by the hardware of the companies that they have chosen and this is something that needs to be addressed from the start.
Another thing is the security features that are on the web hosting company's plan. One thing that you need to know is that the most important feature on your web site is the sort of security that you need to be able to promise to your customers. For one thing, you need to be able to know that you need to protect against and that list can include Trojans, worms, malware, spyware and hackers. Also, since the financial transaction is also one of the more important things when thinking about the Ecommerce side of web hosting is that you also need to be able to give your customers the peace of mind that their financial information is safe and sound.
These are some of the things that you need to know when you are looking for a professional web hosting company. You need to be able to get a checklist of this whenever you are appraising one company from another, and see the features and services that they are trying to offer to you. It is important that you need to get a good web hosting company that is professional and can give you the level of reliability that you need.
How to Find a Good Free Web Hosting Provider
There is no one service which will please everyone. You can find free web hosts services by searches on Google and other search engines for "free web hosting".
How to choose a choose web hosting provider
Choosing a free web host can be tough, especially since they are many who claim to be the best free hosts around. There are some that are great, some that are average, and some that are really bad. They might offer nice features, but with ads on your site. They wont put advertisements on your site, but have really bad features and/or support. Choosing a good free host is usually a hit or a miss, and can be frustrating at times. Remember that you don't get any guarantees with free hosting, so if your site isn't there when you wake up next morning, you can't complain about it because its free!
Make sure you have these features when choosing a free host:
- More than 100Mb disk space
- More than 1Gb bandwidth
- At least 1 FTP account
- Free subdomain (i.e yourname.freewebhostprovider.com)
- Allowed to host your own domain
- No ads on your sites
Some good free hosts may offer:
- cPanel Control Panel or DirectAdmin Control Panel
- MySQL Databases, PHP, CGI
- Email Accounts
- Allowed to put up your own ads
- Reliability (this is hard to determine)
- Automatic software installer (Install a blog in minutes!)
- Community Forum, to discuss your website(s)
You can’t really expect too much from a free host, since they are providing the service for free.
Dual-core Processor Wars: AMD X2 Vs Intel Pentium D
There's a war going on and the latest battle continues to offer the promise of good prices to consumers looking for the best stuff for their computer.
Since the inception of dual-core processors a little while back the race has been on to see who can get the better chip with this dual-core processor technology.
During the final days of the single-core battles, there was a stalemate between AMD and Intel. Intel's clocked higher but were unable to match the speeds that the AMD managed at lower clock speeds.
The oldest difference between them has been their suitability for specific tasks. AMD have had the gaming sector in the bag, especially in terms of the value for money possible with their lower clocked chips, which could be overclocked to the same speeds as their top models. Intel has the crown for general performance. When it comes to office related tasks, Intel processors are able to outperform AMD chips in these areas.
As the ability to clock the chips any higher became more and more difficult technically, the next step was to just add another core, theoretically allowing twice as much number crunching in a dual-core processor. This is not exactly how it works however.
Modern operating systems and programs have not been designed with multiple-core or dual-core processors in mind. They were designed to make use of one core on one processor. The major expense that went with multiple processor computers was the circuitry needed to split tasks up amongst the processors and sharing cache.
Dual-core processors simply act like two places for tasks to go. Instead of single tasks getting split up and performed in two different places, as is the case with traditional single core processors, single threads get split up amongst the cores. This essentially means that each program gets assigned to a core.
Because of this there is absolutely no increase in speed for gaming from dual-core processor chips. Only once the games themselves have been programmed to take advantage of dual-core processors will there be a difference.
This is due to the intensive nature of games and the number crunching needed for intense graphics, which for now cannot be split over multiple cores in dual-core processors.
So back to the battlefield.
AMD were the first to introduce their dual-core processor solution to a desktop computer. This gave them a slight lead over Intel. Despite this, AMD gave people a bit of a surprise with their new offering.
Always having been renowned for giving far more than expected for the price, these new dual-core processors were very expensive. Part of what managed to give AMD a hold in a market previously dominated by Intel was their good pricing. This shock did not go down well with consumers.
To add insult to injury, Intel's dual-core processor offerings came in at remarkably good value. Both of their initial dual-core processors cost less than AMD's lowest priced model. That's right, AMD's cheapest dual-core processor cost more than Intel's most expensive. This definitely put the ball in Intel's court and was downright disappointing for AMD fans.
AMD did manage to introduce a cheaper model to compete better with the Intel offerings. Despite this, Intel was still the forerunner in this area.
Performance remains an area that is sketchy.
With the relatively new technology involved it is hard to draw a clear conclusion on who is faster. With operating systems only recently oriented towards fully utilizing dual-core processor technology, it is still new territory. Both offer increased performance, but as to who will rule the roost, we'll have to see.
For the meantime it would probably be advisable to just watch. Being a cautious buyer I prefer to buy into a sure thing, once things have settled down, prices will balance out and all the related technology will be in place. Then we will be able to get a true opinion on where to put your hard earned cash.
The Best Way To Learn Forex Trading | Forex Courses
There are many aspects involved while learning how to trade Forex, which is the business of purchasing and selling foreign currencies for profit. If you are careful to follow all of the guidelines laid out by the experts, you will likely find yourself in a favorable position within the least amount of time possible. On the opposite end of this principle is a strong recommendation against rushing into Forex trading without being well prepared.
First of all, Forex should be regarded as a personal business venture as opposed to a game or gamble. Your competition in the foreign exchange industry includes international banks, leading corporations, and reputable investors among the several thousand experienced home based traders. When entering such a highly competitive trade, it is advised you consistently maintain a business like attitude when making any decisions.
One huge mistake people make when trading Forex is blaming the markets for big losses. The uncertainty involved in this business is what makes it so lucrative and worthwhile, so it is up to you to be fully responsible for the outcome of your trades. This way, you will always feel you have control over fixing your mistakes rather than rendering yourself a helpless victim of a bad market.
It is also critical for Forex traders to be extremely organized. Don't do anything without documenting it and furthermore don't make any moves that you aren't fully prepared to make. Figure out a system and stick with it.
Regardless of whether or not you are a technical or fundamental trader, documenting your trades is essential to maintaining and increasing your rate of success as a Forex trader. It is all too common for new traders to begin working without keeping track of their results, which is exactly what you shouldn't do if you want to surpass the guessing games into informed trading decisions.
You may think that, with all of the scams and false information out there, it is impossible to learn to trade Forex any way but by self conducted research. While there is some merit to this belief, it could be extremely time consuming sifting through all of the available resources and eliminating that which is false, usually by way of trial and error.
There is so much literature and information regarding Forex available that it is not necessary to take the challenging route of learning everything on your own. In addition to the infinite resources available, you should also be weary of the increasing amount of Forex misinformation that circulates. Most of this false information revolves around Forex being a huge money maker requiring little to no effort. The very opposite is true. If you want the most relevant knowledge possible, your best option is hands on training by a professional trader.
It is always a good idea to keep track of how much you are putting into your Forex business compared to the profits you're making. Often, new traders spend hundreds and hundreds on software and other products and services and are thrilled to make a successful trade as a result, but what they have yet to realize is they are still in the negative! The safest investment to make in Forex (meaning it is most likely to increase your trading success rate) would be those made into your own personal knowledge.
Online FOREX Trading-earning Made Easier!
Earning has come to just a click away with the advent of online forex trading. The internet has already proved its worth in the trading system online, be it any business and when trading in forex market is talked about it has scored again.
It is a lot easier for the online trader to make investments online thus increasing his returns. The forex trading software has made the entire process further effortless. The software makes the trader task pretty uncomplicated by making and closing deals on its own thus leaving the trader tension-free, even where decision making process is concerned.
The online trading system with the help of software helps the trader and the broker to witness market changes right in front of them on the computer screen and that too in no time! Currency trading online can be learnt in no time with the help of the software. The process can be initiated on demo accounts and with virtual money which later on is easily applicable on real account and actual money. Practicing on virtual money spares the trader the risk of spending and loosing actual money.
Forex trading can be started at any point of time with gaining knowledge from the various courses available on the internet. These also are demo accounts available wherein the trader can actually learn trading in simpler ways. The learning process can go on slowly as the trader learns all the nuances of the forex market.
The courses and demo accounts and other e-books make it very easy for the trader to know all that he needs to enter the forex market and start investing on real money.
To enhance the learning procedure, there also is currency trading software which gives an overall knowledge of the trading business and helps not only the new trader but also the experienced trader in investing online. The software provides all the required information and tips on investing so the decision making becomes easier for the trader.
To know which the appropriate software and how to use it, the trader can also take help from forex software review which tell him about the software usage, its performance and outcome. Reviews prove of a real help while buying software for trading online, as they might be given be users or experts. No matter how much experience the trader might have in the trade, he would need to update his knowledge every now and then in order to be successful.
For that required earning through forex trade, whether online or otherwise, the forex trading strategies remain the same and a knowledgeable and experienced trader and broker would use them just the right way to generate maximum profits.
AMD vs INTEL-CPU war
If you are in the market to purchase a computer there are many options in existence. You can purchase a Hewlett Packard, Gateway, IBM, or a custom built system. But there is one thing that all of these computers will utilize and that is a CPU (central processing unit). The CPU is responsible for interpreting and executing instructions for the motherboard. CPU's are key to the functioning of your new computer. CPU's from Intel and AMD power virtually every personal computer that you can purchase today.
The argument over an AMD CPU versus an Intel CPU and which has a higher functionality is currently raging. Simply two years ago this was not even a question. Anyone would tell you that the Intel CPU won the speed and complex algorithm war with AMD CPU's without question. Fast-forward to today and Intel is now playing catch-up to the latest in AMD technologies.
Intel played marketing games with their CPU's pricing them high and touting the functionality that they posses as cutting edge. AMD started out as the cheap alternative CPU manufacturer for computer brands such as e-Machines and low-end Compaqs. From the beginning, AMD CPU's were fighting an uphill battle to catch up with the technology in the Intel CPU. As the years have progressed, AMD has progressed.
AMD now clearly leads in the consumer pricing wars. AMD CPU equipped machines with similar performance specifications will cost you hundreds of dollars less than equivalent Intel CPU based machines. This cost differential is now enough to push many Intel CPU customers to the upstart AMD CPU equipped machines.
If performance is the main concern over price, the AMD CPU line was the first to include 64 bit technology. In 2003 AMD pushed the first 64 bit CPU to market. It was unstable and unreliable at first. But the underlying architecture was sound. The AMD 64 bit CPU was soon running stable and fast. The performance of this AMD CPU caught the Intel CPU team off guard.
Intel had to rush to market their EMT64 CPU to compete with this upstart challenge from AMD. The next item on the board was dual CPU power. Again, AMD one-upped the Intel CPU rule.
AMD CPU's have the information transfer on a dual chip machine flowing through the chips. The Intel dual CPU has a bridge to the motherboard where the information that is being processed by the dual CPU's flows for splitting.
The internal data flow in the AMD CPU's allows them to function with lower heat generation than the dual core Intel CPU's. As a consumer this lower heat generation allows the AMD CPU to last longer than the Intel CPU.
If you are energy conscious, then the AMD CPU will be for you as well. The AMD CPU equipped motherboard will function with approximately 275 watts of power. Compare that to a similarly equipped Intel processor at 400 watts of power, and you have major energy savings by going to the AMD CPU.
So where do the Intel CPU's win out over the AMD CPU's? The Intel CPU's are able to function faster with single programs. So, if you are going to play one game and only that game on your machine, the Intel CPU equipped machine can pull and analyze the data faster. However add in chat and e-mail running in the background and the AMD CPU machine catches up.
All in all, the CPU processor war that is currently waging between AMD and Intel is great for the consumer. Each company is in the middle of a CPU processor one-upmanship and both are looking to gain market share.
A Few Essentials To Note For online trading in forex
This is the news that has been spreading around the world of investing and there is something to be said about a market that has such a wide potential to payout to so many people all over the world. For one thing the market is truly resilient, even in these times of crisis and its complete system has had very little changes affected on it, even when the whole economic storm swept through. Forex trading has become more popular these days despite the uncertain economic times.
One thing you need to know is that this is one of the most liquid markets in the world, which is quite important when you consider that you need to be able to pull in and pull out of the market when you see disasters of points of profit that you want to capitalise on. In fact, it can be easily said that the Forex market ranks as the top few markets whole liquidity makes it a precious commodity within its system itself.
Also, the market is a zero sum game, something that has been introduced many times before. When looking at this factor, it must be understood that the market favours those who work to make the money and read the market.
There is plenty of work to be done, especially when market saturation of retail investors is quite high. There are people joining the market on a daily basis, and more and much more are to come. When you understand the sheer numbers of this and have a look at the turnover of the market (which estimates at about a few trillion dollars a day), then you will truly understand how large the market is and just how global it is.
Sure, the more popular currency pairs are restricted to the US and Europe markets, and since the consolidation of the European currency, this has become more of a fact. In fact, it has changed the entire game of the paper trade, and trend following took a new shape after the fundamental shift towards concentric currencies.
Now, the Forex market has been making investors millions of dollars on a monthly basis. If you want to get into the game, you must understand that just diving in will not ensure that you profit from the market. You need to understand what the market is all about and get all the information necessary for you to make headway into the game and anchor yourself onto a good place. What you need to do is to speak to as many investors as you can and truly understand how the market works.
There is no point just reading about the market – but that is not to say that you should ignore all the literature that is available on the Forex market in the first place. What you need to do is to get as much experiential advice as you can and supplemented that with as much learning as you can. With these elements in place, you will be able to make good money on the Forex market.