learners_get_in

PATH problem in java read for Solution; javac is not recognized as an internal or externa..

2011-08-07T10:48:00.000-07:00

The following are the general programming errors, which I think every beginning java programmer come across. Here is a solution on how to solve the problems when running on a Microsoft Windows Machine.

‘javac’ is not recognized as an internal or external command u get when u try to run java programe using command promt via 'javac'.

When you get this error, you should conclude that your operating system cannot find the compiler (javac).i assume u have installed JDK kit. To solve this error you need to set the PATH variable.

How to set the PATH Variable?

Firstly the PATH variable is set so that we can compile and execute programs from any directory without having to type the full path of the command. To set the PATH of jdk on your system (Windows XP), add the full path of the jdk\bin directory to the PATH variable. Set the PATH as follows on a Windows machine:

a. Click Start > Right Click “My Computer” and click on “Properties”

b. Click Advanced > Environment Variables.

c. Add the location of bin folder of JDK installation for PATH in User Variables and System Variables.Variable should have 'path' and vale as shown below. A typical value for PATH is:

C:\jdk\bin (jdk is nothing but the name of directory where jdk is installed ) or the path may be

'C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.6.0_26\bin\'

If there are already some entries in the PATH variable then you must add a semicolon and then add the above value (Version being replaced with the version of JDK). The new path takes effect in each new command prompt window you open after setting the PATH variable.

Indraprastha University MCA Information center

2011-07-19T02:41:00.001-07:00

All details and documents (PDF's) related to counselling

Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University (IP University) established by Government of NCT,Delhi conduct MCA program have various colleges some government and more private there are about 1,040 seats, entrance exam CET is conducted every year with objective type question paper and based on the Rank and Category in entrance students get colleges in Counselling which take place at the end of July or august as it get delayed every year. For Information about all top centralized universities conducting MCA check this link.

There is 1st and 2nd counseling where cut-off in 1st counselling remain low except for reservation category, in second counselling when almost all general seats get filled reserved category counseling continue with some seats may get converted to general or any other if no one of that category show up but that happen in 2nd counselling only and colleges get stated by second counselling. For more information people can get there quires answered at the MCA counselling forum.

Other then counselling all private colleges have 10% seats sectioned for management quota where only money can get you a seat and some colleges take registration for managements seats before counselling.

I have some data of past year which will be help MCA aspirations to understand admission process and cutoff of previous year will help them understand which college they could get this time and prepare there preference list to get the best they deserve.I will upload more information if requested by readers.

Through this is a technical blog but need of many aspirants force me to put these information, and MCA is very technical considering its subjects now days.

Check out the links bellow to see the past years data.

The history and origin of Java

2010-06-03T03:14:00.000-07:00

It begins in Back in 1990, a gentleman by the name of James Gosling was given the task of creating programs to control consumer electronics. Gosling and his team of people at Sun Microsystems started designing their software using C++, the language that most programmers were praising as the next big thing because of its object-oriented nature. Gosling, however, quickly found that C++ was not suitable for the projects he and his team had in mind. They ran into trouble with complicated aspects of C++ such as multiple inheritance of classes and with program bugs such as memory leaks. Gosling soon decided that he was going to have to come up with his own, simplified computer language that would avoid all the problems he had with C++.

Although Gosling didn't care for the complexity of languages such as C++, he did like the basic syntax and object-oriented features of the language. So when he sat down to design his new language, he used C++ as its model, stripping away all the features of C++ that made that language difficult to use with his consumer-electronics projects. When Gosling completed his language-design project, he had a new programming language that he named Oak. (The story goes that the name Oak came to Gosling as he gazed out his office window at an oak tree.)

Oak was first used in something called the Green project, wherein the development team attempted to design a control system for use in the home. This control system would enable the user to manipulate a list of devices, including TVs, VCRs, lights, and telephones, all from a hand-held computer called *7 (Star Seven). The *7 system featured a touch-sensitive screen that the owner used to select and control the devices supported by the control.

The next step for Oak was the video-on-demand (VOD) project, in which the language was used as the basis for software that controlled an interactive television system. Although neither *7 nor the VOD project led to actual products, they gave Oak a chance to develop and mature. By the time Sun discovered that the name "Oak" was already claimed and they changed the name to Java, they had a powerful, yet simple, language on their hands.

What is distributed computing ?

2010-02-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

The word distributed originally referred to computer networks where individual computers were physically distributed within some geographical area.

Definition

"Parts of an application run on multiple computers simultaneously.”

What is distributed computing?

Distributed computing refers to the means by which a single computer program runs in more than one computer at the same time.It utilizes a network of many computers, each accomplishing a portion of an overall task, to achieve a computational result much more quickly than with a single computer. So the goal of distributed computing is to make such a network work as a single computer.

Distributed computing is not actually used to lighten the load of an individual computer's processor. It is in fact done to be able to process or run complex and resource-hungry programs with greater speed and efficiency. There's at least one dedicated distributed computing management server that coordinates the efforts across the whole processing.

Myths about Distributed computing:

Distributed computing is peer-to-peer computing. (although it’s not since individual computers do not actually directly communicate with each other.)

Distributed computing is also called (although it is similar to) parallel computing and grid computing.

Parallel vs distributed computing:

In parallel computing, all processors have access to a shared memory. Shared memory can be used to exchange information between processors.
In case of distributed computing, each processor has its own private memory (distributed memory). Information is exchanged by passing messages between the processors.

Distributed systems offer many benefits over centralized systems, including the following: Scalability (The system can easily be expanded by adding more machines as needed.),Redundancy (Several machines can provide the same services, so if one is unavailable, work does not stop.) and many more. Now lets have a look at the Advantages and disadvantages that this technology offers.

Advantages:

Scalability
Openness
Heterogeneity
Resource sharing
Fault-tolerance
Improved performance
Improved reliability and availability
Potential cost reductions

Disadvantages:

Network reliance
Complexities
Security
Multiple point of failure and etc.

Download YouTube Video without any software

2010-01-20T03:39:00.000-08:00

We find our self busy watching videos from online video sharing site like Youtube for educational, entertaining or for movies related videos you fing it useful and want to download but how to downloaded without any software like Download acclerater plus(DAP),internet download manager(IDM) witch offer download with a click of button.

Use this simple trick to download Youtube videos.

Play or go to the Youtube video you want to download-now

1 Place the mouse cursor before Youtube.com and after http://www. in the address bar.(See the screenshot above).

2 now type 'pwn' without quotes there and hit enter.

Thats it u will be directed to a new page there u can download in the format you want.

So was it son easy to download no cut,copy past required.

There are other way out also like downloader9 whitch is alwas over loaded by user.

GDrive the online Free storage drive

2010-01-19T11:28:00.000-08:00

Are you locking for free online storage space and want to save your heavy bugs?
Witch is easy to use like drag and drop data transfer.
and security to that data with https secured, so it must have some big brands related to it and it is Gmail service of google.

GDrive is the solution to all your problem.

That’s the service that would give consumers a virtual hard drive on the Internet, letting them store all their stuff remotely. Although Google has never formally announced such a service but its working fine for people.

GDrive provides reliable storage for all of your files, including photos, music and documents. GDrive allows you to access your files from anywhere, anytime, and from any device - be it from your desktop, web browser or cellular phone.

So Online storage companies beware: Google will offer an online storage cloud for all your data, and now that fable is becoming a reality.The increase in Gmail storage for some users today was actually a precursor to the launch of Google shared storage.

So trust me Google GDrive is not a rumor.

Download Gdrive v1.5 or try this link .

To Find Rapidshare For Valid Files - Save TIME

2010-01-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

Tired of trying to download file from Rapidshare when in the end you found out that the file has been deleted for inactivity?

Now we can search Rapidshare for valid files in real time.

Crawlrapidshare.com is a service that help rapidshare users to search file that is still available for downloading, thus saving our time from attempting to download deleted/invalid files.

Faster Shutdown for XP

2009-10-15T12:24:00.000-07:00

How you can make sure that your system shuts down faster. If shutting down XP takes what seems to be an inordinate amount of time, here are a couple of steps you can take to speed up the shutdown process:

Don’t have XP clear your paging file at shutdown. For security reasons, you can have XP clear your paging file (pagefile.sys) of its contents whenever you shut down. Your paging file is used to store temporary files and data, but when your system shuts down, information stays in the file. Some people prefer to have the paging file cleared at shutdown because sensitive information such as unencrypted passwords sometimes ends up in the file. However, clearing the paging file can slow shutdown times significantly, so if extreme security isn’t a high priority, you might not want to clear it. To shut down XP without clearing your paging file, run the Registry Editor (click Start > Run, then type 'regedit' in the Run box) and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management

Change the value of ClearPageFileAtShutdown to 0. Close the Registry, and restart your computer. Whenever you turn off XP from now on, the paging file won’t be cleared, and you should be able to shut down more quickly.

Note: Please be careful when editing the Registry; you can do a lot of damage here. Don’t change or delete anything unless you know exactly what it is.

The Origen of Google

2009-09-15T08:11:00.000-07:00

key milestones in Google's development:

1996

Larry and Sergey, now Stanford computer science grad students, begin collaborating on a search engine called BackRub. ( Larry Page and Sergey Brin called their initial search engine "BackRub," now known as Google, named for its analysis of the web's"back links.")
BackRub operates on Stanford servers for more than a year --eventually taking up too much bandwidth to suit the university so they where asked to take data base out side university and free university bandwirth.
BackRub is a research project of the Digital Library Project in the Computer Science Department at Stanford University.BackRub was written in Java and Python and runs on several Sun Ultras and Intel Pentiums running Linux. The primary database is kept on an Sun Ultra II with 28GB of disk.

1997

(This is from unoffical source-

-->Sean and Larry were in their office, using the whiteboard,trying to think up a good name - something that related to the indexing of an immense amount of data. Sean verbally suggested the word "googolplex," and Larry responded verbally with the shortened form, "googol" (both words refer to specific large numbers). Sean was seated at his computer terminal, so he executed a search of the Internet domain name registry database to see if the newly suggested name was still available for registration and use. Sean is not an infallible speller, and he made the mistake of searching for the name spelled as "google.com," which he found to be available .

-->This is the doctorate thesis of Sergey Brin and Lawrence Page (the founders of Google.) In it they state:We chose our system name, Google, because it is a common spelling of googol, or 10100 and fits well with our goal of building very large-scale search engines.)

•Larry and Sergey decide that the BackRub search engine needs a new name. After some brainstorming, they go with Google -- a play on the word "googol," a mathematical term for the number represented by the numeral 1 followed by 100 zeros. The use of the term reflects their mission to organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web.

1998-August

•Sun co-founder Andy Bechtolsheim writes a check for $100,000 to an entity that doesn't exist yet: a company called Google Inc.Larry and Sergey open a bank account in the newly-established company's name and deposit Andy Bechtolsheim's check and that happen when Bechtolsheim wrote a check in favor of Larry and Sergey and they Saied sir we dont have a bank account so Mr.Bechtolsheim Saied then go and make one and that was the first time he did something like that after seeing there demo of Search engine and its comparison with other SE.

And today Google have taken over and own Youtube, Blogger, Gmail, Google maps, Google News, Google image and viedo search, Picaso any many other.Google is home page of many browser at home and office, in fact it have lancuched its own browser called Google Chrome and compay will lanuched Google operating system in 2010 to run Windows OS out of business may be? Google get millions of hits a day which in turns can be calculated in lacks of $$$$/day.

When to Use FAT or FAT32 File System?

2009-09-12T06:07:00.000-07:00

If you're running more than one operating system on a single computer (see Dual booting in Guides), you will definitely need to format some of your volumes as FAT. Any programs or data that need to be accessed by more than one operating system on that computer should be stored on a FAT16 or possibly FAT32 volume. But keep in mind that you have no security for data on a FAT16 or FAT32 volume—any one with access to the computer can read, change, or even delete any file that is stored on a FAT16 or FAT32 partition. In many cases, this is even possible over a network. So do not store sensitive files on drives or partitions formatted with FAT(File allocation table)file systems.

What is FAT32 File System?

2009-09-12T06:04:00.000-07:00

The FAT32 file system, originally introduced in Windows 95 Service Pack 2, is really just an extension of the original FAT16 file system that provides for a much larger number of clusters per partition. As such, it greatly improves the overall disk utilization when compared to a FAT16 file system. However, FAT32 shares all of the other limitations of FAT16, and adds an important additional limitation—many operating systems that can recognize FAT16 will not work with FAT32—most notably Windows NT, but also Linux and UNIX as well. Now this isn't a problem if you're running FAT32 on a Windows XP computer and sharing your drive out to other computers on your network—they don't need to know (and generally don't really care) what your underlying file system is.

What and Why is FAT16 File system

2009-09-12T06:01:00.000-07:00

The FAT16 file system was introduced way back with MS–DOS in 1981, and it's showing its age. It was designed originally to handle files on a floppy drive, and has had minor modifications over the years so it can handle hard disks, and even file names longer than the original limitation of 8.3 characters, but it's still the lowest common denominator. The biggest advantage of FAT16 is that it is compatible across a wide variety of operating systems, including Windows 95/98/Me, OS/2, Linux, and some versions of UNIX. The biggest problem of FAT16 is that it has a fixed maximum number of clusters per partition, so as hard disks get bigger and bigger, the size of each cluster has to get larger. In a 2–GB partition, each cluster is 32 kilobytes, meaning that even the smallest file on the partition will take up 32 KB of space. FAT16 also doesn't support compression, encryption, or advanced security using access control lists.So now we have moved to advanced file system like FAT32 and NTFS.

What is Autorun.inf ? Find out here

2009-09-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Autorun.inf is the primary instruction file associated with the Autorun function. Autorun.inf itself is a simple text-based configuration file that tells the operating system which executable to start, which icon to use, and which additional menu commands to make available. In other words, autorun.inf tells Windows how to deal open the presentation and treat the contents of the CD.

The entire sequence is initiated when the "disk change notifcation" polling discovers a new disk in the CD or DVD ROM drive. Then, if the "Auto insert notification" feature is enabled (it is by default), Windows checks in the new disk's root directory for the existence of an "autorun.inf" file. If found, Windows then reads and follows the specific instructions this file defines. If no autorun.inf file is found, then Windows refers to the new disk by its serial number and executes the default actions associated with the (data or audio) content on the disk.

What Is SEO?

2009-07-17T21:32:00.000-07:00

Introduction to Search Engine Optimization

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is often considered the more technical part of Web marketing. This is true because SEO does help in the promotion of sites and at the same time it requires some technical knowledge – at least familiarity with basic HTML. SEO is sometimes also called SEO copyrighting because most of the techniques that are used to promote sites in search engines deal with text. Generally, SEO can be defined as the activity of optimizing Web pages or whole sites in order to make them more search engine-friendly, thus getting higher positions in search results.

One of the basic truths in SEO is that even if you do all the things that are necessary to do, this does not automatically guarantee you top ratings but if you neglect basic rules, this certainly will not go unnoticed. Also, if you set realistic goals – i.e to get into the top 30 results in Google for a particular keyword, rather than be the number one for 10 keywords in 5 search engines, you will feel happier and more satisfied with your results.

Although SEO helps to increase the traffic to one's site, SEO is not advertising. Of course, you can be included in paid search results for given keywords but basically the idea behind the SEO techniques is to get top placement because your site is relevant to a particular search term, not because you pay.

SEO can be a 30-minute job or a permanent activity. Sometimes it is enough to do some generic SEO in order to get high in search engines – for instance, if you are a leader for rare keywords, then you do not have a lot to do in order to get decent placement. But in most cases, if you really want to be at the top, you need to pay special attention to SEO and devote significant amounts of time and effort to it. Even if you plan to do some basic SEO, it is essential that you understand how search engines work and which items are most important in SEO.

Faster browser with features that speeds you up

2009-07-17T08:49:00.000-07:00

Opera Turbo

The staggering demand for mobile Internet access and connectivity for a range of Web-enabled devices creates numerous opportunities for operators and OEMs (and drives the innovation that keeps consumers satisfied), but fully realizing the opportunities requires innovative solutions.

As the demand is met, more competition for limited bandwidth resources grows. Building on the strength of Opera Mini data compression technology, the Opera Turbo browser was developed to help optimize these resources.

Opera Turbo is a cross-platform solution, available for desktop computers, mobile phones, and other Internet-enabled devices. By compressing network traffic by up to 80%, Opera Turbo helps to enable the sustainability and scalability of networks in order to meet traffic demands and ensure a superior browsing experience.

Operators, OEMs and consumers all reap the benefits of Opera Turbo's data compression and savings technology.

Operators can:

Reduce network traffic and save on data transmissions
Improve the Internet experience by increasing Web page download speeds and performance
Extend the longevity of mobile network investments
Stay ahead of the competition by deploying quickly
Increase user satisfaction and retention
Control or restrict certain content
Gain insights into consumer behavior

OEMs can:

Improve the Internet experience by increasing Web-page download speeds and performance
Maximize hardware capabilities by processing server-side
Achieve and maintain time to market
Enhance usability/user satisfaction
Deploy across platforms and chipsets and with both low- and high-end hardware
Enable a full browsing experience on low-end hardware by reducing memory and CPU usage.

Lets Google .....

2009-07-16T10:44:00.001-07:00

If you see GOOGLE which can be Go and Ogle

Go means Leave ,go away ,go off,set off
Ogle means Look at, gaze at, observe.

As we all know Google is a web search engine and the company's most popular internet service.Now lets know a tille more about it.

Google Inc. is an American public corporation, earning revenue from advertising related to its Internet search, e-mail, online mapping, office productivity, social networking, and video sharing services as well as selling advertising-free versions of the same technologies. Google has also developed an open source web browser and a mobile operating system. The Google headquarters, the Googleplex, is located in Mountain View, California.

Google was founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin while they were students at Stanford University and the company was first incorporated as a privately held company on September 4, 1998. The initial public offering took place on August 19, 2004 and they unexpectedle rise huge fund on which experts where saying this approach of hitting IPO is putting end to you business.

Here is a small extract from the book, "the google story." I have done some editing though.

"...Google began as a research project in January 1996 by Larry Page, a Ph.D. student at Stanford. Larry was soon joined in his research project by Sergey Brin a fellow Stanford Ph.D. student and close friend. Larry Page hypothesized that a search engine that analyzed the relationships between websites would produce better results than existing techniques (existing search engines at the time essentially ranked results according to how many times the search term appeared on a page). It was originally nicknamed, "BackRub", because the system checked backlinks to estimate a site's importance.

A small search engine called RankDex was already exploring a similar strategy.Convinced that the pages with the most links to them from other highly relevant Web pages must be the most relevant pages associated with the search, Page and Brin tested their thesis as part of their studies, and laid the foundation for their search engine. Originally the search engine used the Stanford website with the domain googol.stanford.edu. However when they got their first pay cheque soon after commercialising the idea, the banker made a cheque in the name of Google instead of Googol. Hence the name "google" originated. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997. They formally incorporated their company, Google Inc., on September 7, 1998 at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California...".

Here i give some statistics..

Google is the most used search engine on the web as we all know, with a 53.6% market share, ahead of Yahoo! (19.9%) and Live Search (12.9%).[68] Google indexes billions of Web pages, so that users can search for the information they desire, through the use of keywords and operators, although at any given time it will only return a maximum of 1,000 results for any specific search query. Google has also employed the Web Search technology into other search services, including Image Search, Google News, the price comparison site Google Product Search, the interactive Usenet archive Google Groups, Google Maps, and more.

In 2004, Google launched its own free web-based e-mail service, known as Gmail (or Google Mail in some jurisdictions) with the beta version which, recently Google have removed the beta tag from Gmail finally after a short time of "5 years"!

Resently Google announced the project to develop Google Chrome OS after the success of Chrome an open source Web browser.

Change The Default Location For Installing Applications.

2009-07-11T07:35:00.000-07:00

As the Hard sizes are increasing we are using Partition system in our Operating system.As when we install any program in our computer it automatically assigns "C:\Program Files" directory for installation. This causes a lots space problem in our HDD.

XP uses the C:\Program Files directory as the default base directory into which new programs are installed. However, you can change the default installation drive and/ or directory by using a Registry hack.

Go to :-

- Start > Run

- Type “regedit” (without “” NOOBS!)

- Go to this directory…

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion

- Look for the value named ProgramFilesDir. by default,this value will be C:\Program Files. Edit the value to any valid drive or folder and now XP will use that new location as the default installation directory for new programs.

You can search for 'ProgramFilesDir' if u are not able to locate your self.Go to Edit then hit Find and type the string u are looking for.

happy installiation...

How to AUTO DELETE TEMPORARY Folder

2009-07-11T07:27:00.000-07:00

Well what i prefer is %temp% " without quotes.. at Start -> Run..

this opens ur temp folder n den u cal erase it neatly all unwanted files ,some times virus find this place suitable so keep a watch.

ok there is other way also try dis one..

First go into gpedit.msc

Next select -> Computer Configuration/Administrative Templates/Windows Components/Terminal Services/Temporary Folder

Then right click "Do Not Delete Temp Folder Upon Exit"

Go to properties and hit disable.

Now next time Windows puts a temp file in that folder it will automatically delete it when its done! Remember, GPEDIT (Group Policy Editor) is only available in XP Pro. edition

Enable ClearType for better text display

2009-07-09T04:11:00.000-07:00

XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat.What it basically does is make the font smoother and easier to read. Turning it on is simple.

To enable ClearType:

Right click on the desktop

select Properties> Appearance>Effects> select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection.

Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, navigate to following and set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.

(To open registry entry type regedit in Run)

i have told how to make changes in registry entry in my earlier posts.

How to directly delete a file from system without recycle bin

2009-07-09T03:55:00.000-07:00

You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first.

Go to the Start menu

Run... and type 'gpedit.msc';

then select User Configuration,

Administrative Templates,

Windows Components,

Windows Explorer

now find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).

How to Ensure XP is using DMA MODE:-

2009-07-08T08:08:00.000-07:00

XP enables DMA for Hard-Drives and CD-Roms by default on most ATA or ATAPI (IDE) devices. However, sometimes computers switch to PIO mode which is slower for data transfer - a typical reason is because of a virus. To ensure that your machine is using DMA:

1. Open ‘Device Manager’

(Go to My computer right click there select properties then go to hardware tab there you get Device Manager click on it.)

2. Double-click ‘IDE ATA/ATAPI Controllers’

3. Right-click ‘Primary Channel’ and select ‘Properties’ and then ‘Advanced Settings’

4. In the ‘Current Transfer Mode’ drop-down box, select ‘DMA if Available’ if the current setting is ‘PIO Only’

DMA (Direct memory access) allow a direct data transfer between memory(RAM) and peripheral which drastically improve speed .If DMA operation is put off then data will processed in normal way involving CPU etc and hence will be little slow.

Some times virus force to switch to PIO mode which is a show data transfer mode as i told in my blog .

What are Recycled and Recycler folder?

2009-07-02T11:08:00.000-07:00

What’s the difference between Recycled and Recycler folder? If you’re using Windows, you will have have either folder at the root of your drive. What determines whether you have Recycled or Recycler is the filesystem of your drive. If it is FAT32, you will get Recycled and if you have NTFS, you’ll have Recycler. Some people might have both of the folders because they converted their drive from FAT32 to NTFS.

OK, when you delete a file in Windows Explorer or My Computer, the file immediately appears in the Recycle Bin. This is what you see but actually there is something going on in background. The complete path and file name is stored in a hidden file called INFO2 in the Recycled or Recycler folder. The INFO2 file is VERY important because once it is corrupted or removed while you still have files in Recycle Bin, your files filename is all gone!

Now you can read gmail offline

2009-07-02T08:08:00.001-07:00

If you are a Gmail user then it is great for you because you can use Gmail offline also now,as you hear this your reaction may be "what!" so answer is
yes now you can read,write and send E-mail from your Gmail account when you are offline. For work offline you need dowanlaod Google product google gear.Gmail uses Gearstodownload a local cache of your mail and as you lose your connection,Gmail automatically switches to offline mode and use the data stored on your computer's hard drive instead of the information sent across the network. if send any message in offline mode it will be placed in your outbox and automatically sent the next time when you connect again.
To download Google Gears use this link

How Does SSL Work?

2009-07-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) uses a cryptographic system that encrypts data with two keys.

When a SSL Digital Certificate is installed on a web site, users can see a padlock icon at the bottom area of the navigator. When an Extended Validation Certificates is installed on a web site, users with the latest versions of Firefox, Internet Explorer or Opera will see the green address bar at the URL area of the navigator.

THE LOCK ICON IS NOT JUST A PICTURE! Click (or double-click) on it to see details of the site's security. This is important to know because some fraudulent web sites are built with a bar at the bottom of the web page to imitate the lock icon of your browser! Therefore it is necessary to test the functionality built into this lock icon. Furthermore, it is very important to KNOW YOUR BROWSER! Check your browser's help file or contact the makers of your browser software if you are unsure how to use this functionality.

What is HTTPS?

2009-07-01T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is a secure version of the Hyper Text Transfer Protocol (http). HTTPS allows secure ecommerce transactions, such as online banking.

Web browsers such as Internet Explorer and Firefox display a padlock icon to indicate that the website is secure, as it also displays https:// in the address bar.

When a user connects to a website via HTTPS, the website encrypts the session with a digital certificate. A user can tell if they are connected to a secure website if the website URL begins with https:// instead of http:/ .

Anytime a web page asks you for sensitive information, you need to be able to identify if the page is secure or not. The ability to recognize a secure web connection is extremely important as online fraud cases have increased substantially from year to year.

ALL WEB PAGES ASKING YOU FOR SENSITIVE INFORMATION SHOULD BE SECURED USING SSL!!!

Change Text Size in Browser

2009-07-01T10:41:00.000-07:00

To alter the Size Of Text displayed in firefox , Internet Explorer, Google Chrome , Just hold ctrl and scroll your mouse wheel !

Scroll UP : To Reduce Text Size

Scroll Down : To Increase Text Size

To switch between Tabs in Chrome press Ctrl+any number (the tab you want to view ).

Example if you are in the first tab and want to switch to 4^th then press Ctrl+4.

Same way if you want to search a word then press Ctrl+F key , a pop-up will open and type the string or word you want to search in the web page.

Google Chrome is actually a faster way to browse I suggest my readers to download and use that instead of IE 8 or any other version of Internet Explorer .

To download just go to google home page there you get the download link.

How to Hibernate Your XP

2009-06-29T12:22:00.000-07:00

Hibernate Your XP !

Hey your Windows XP has a very good but hidden feature !

Trick Advantage :

You can leave your work in between and shutdown the PC and resume it next time as it is !

Even I switched off my PC while writing this article and when I reopened it I resumed my article from where i left !

When you want to stop your work and shutdown(Keeping your programs open)

Do The Following :

1. Click start>Turn Off Computer

2. As the Turn Off menu comes up press 'Shift' and 'Stand By' changes to 'Hibernate'

3. Click Hibernate (Shift Kept Pressed)

Your xp will save the work and shutdown !

Now, when you switch it on again it will resume it again !

No loading of windows will take place and you will be resumed to your work as if you had just switched your monitor off and now on again !

To anable hibernate go to contrple panel

then power option then open the hibernate tab(the 3rd one) and ckick in enable hibernate.thats it done click apply.

Microsost bugs

2009-06-29T12:19:00.000-07:00

Microsoft magics-Try this one you will be amazied!

MAGIC 1

An Indian discovered that nobody can create a FOLDER anywhere on the computer which can be named as "CON". This is something pretty cool...and unbelievable... At Microsoft the whole Team, couldn't answer why this happened!

TRY IT NOW ,IT WILL NOT CREATE " CON " FOLDER

MAGIC 2

For those of you using Windows, do the following:

1.) Open an empty notepad file

2.) Type "Bush hid the facts" (without the quotes)

3.) Save it as whatever you want.

4.) Close it, and re-open it.

is it just a really weird bug? :-??

MAGIC 3

microsoft crazy facts

This is something pretty cool and neat...and unbelievable...

At Microsoft the whole Team, including Bill Gates, couldn't answer why this happened!

It was discovered by a Brazilian. Try it out yourself...

Open Microsoft Word and type

=rand (200, 99)

And then press ENTER

then see the magic....

for more such stuff ntricks.blogspot.com(source for the above article)

how to create a strong Password

2009-06-29T12:11:00.000-07:00

Tips to create a Strong Password easily

How to create a Strong Password.This lead me to explain the method I follow to set a password - A Strong Password indeed by all standards.You must follow the following criteria while creating a Strong Password:

* The password must be a minimum of 8+ characters.

* The password must have 1 number , 1 special character, 1

Upper Case character.

A very simple example that I use to explain my friends and colleages is : P@ssw0rd. It fullfills all the criteria's. The 'a' is replaced by a special character @. The 'P' is of upper case. The 'o' is replaced by the numeral 0.Well, you can now convert your regular password into a Strong Password by following a few changes like the example I have mentioned above for the simple password - P@ssw0rd.

Make the first character Upper Case.
Change all 'a' in the password to the special character @.
Change all 's' in the password to the special character $.*
Change all 'l' in the password to the special character !.
Change all 'o' in the password to the numerical 0.
Change all 'i' in the password to the numerical 1.

Block the site you want

2009-06-29T12:06:00.000-07:00

Many people want to Block some websites that are harmfull to our PC or/and our life.You may need a costly (or even free) software to block such websites.Why to spend money and time and why give HDD space to such useless softwares.Just do this and block those sites

Steps:

1] Browse C:\WINDOWS\system32\drivers\etc

2] Find the file named "HOSTS"

3] Open it in notepad

4] Under "127.0.0.1 localhost" Add 127.0.0.2

www.thesitenamethatyouwantblock.com , and that site will no longer be accessable.

5] Done!

do read the instructions in that(HOST) file for more details.

now

ex:

127.0.0.1 localhost

127.0.0.2 www.blocke_d_site_u_want.com

Note : www.blocke_d_site_u_want.com is now unaccessable

For every site after that you want to add, just add "1" to the last number in the internal ip (127.0.0.2) and then the addy like before.

IE: 127.0.0.3 www.somesite.com

127.0.0.4 www.some_site.com

127.0.0.5 www.etcetcetc.com

Learn to Add Google Search to Right Click Context Menu in IE

2009-06-25T01:34:00.000-07:00

This happens most of the time that while surfing the net we come across certain terms that we wish to search it on the Google but wouldn’t it be great if you just highlight the text and right click on it to search it with just one click?

Here is how to add Google Search option to the context menu in Internet Explorer.

1. For IE7 and above

Install a plug-in called Google Search Provider and set it as default search provider. This will add an option in the right click menu reading “Search with Google”.

2. For other/any IE versions

• Download a zipped file google.zip and extract it to some folder.

• Place the google.htm file to the following location C:\Windows\Web folder.

• Then double-click google.reg file

• The “Search with Google” option will come up when you right click on a highlighted text in IE.

• The other reg file in the folder will undo the changes.

How Turn Monitor Off with One Keyboard Click

2009-06-25T01:14:00.000-07:00

Whether your computer monitor is bit far or the turn off button is jammed, you can still turn off your Computer monitor screen with just a single click on Keyboard.The application is very helpful if you want to save some power by turning the monitor off without being turning again and again to the Monitor.

This task is accomplished by an application called 'PushMonitOff'. After downloading the tool you just need to press the default combination of Shift + F1 (customizable) keys and your screen will get turned off. Amazing isn’t it?

Features:

1. Requires no installation.

2. Free and small in size.

Download PushMonitOff

Access Blocked Sites like Orkut, Facebook

2009-06-25T00:38:00.000-07:00

Many of us can not use the social networking sites like Orkut, Facebook and Myspace at our office, school or college. The people with the admin rights usually block these sites in the backend but thanks to many online sites that enables us to use these sites without their notice.

There are many ways to access the blocked sites like Orkut but here are few popular online sites that allow us to bypass restricted sites at work, school or college, including unblocking sites like Orkut, MySpace, Bebo and Facebook.

List of Online Sites to access Blocked Orkut:

1. The easiest one is to visit images.orkut.com instead of usual www.orkut.com. So now when you access orkut all the links will have images instead of www in the beginning.

2. The most famous alternative to Orkut is Power.com (previously known as Powerscrap.com).

But since this is quite famous, the chances are it is also blocked but surely worth a try.

3. Kproxy:(http://www.kproxy.com/) another great site to access blocked sites like Orkut

4. Proxut:(http://proxut.com/) Proxy site designed especially for the Orkut. It will surely help you.

5. TcP6:(http://www.tcp6.com/) unblock Myspace, Bebo, Orkut, Youtube with this anonymous

web proxy

6. Pagemod: another great site

It may be possible that some of these are blocked but the chances are always there that one of these will help you.

Download exe files blocked by the server

2009-06-25T00:34:00.000-07:00

This happens most of the times that we wish to download certain file like a .zip file or an .exe

file from the internet at our college, school or office but the downloading is blocked from the server.So here is the way how you can download any file from the net even if it is blocked.

Solution:

The best possible solution can be to download the file in some encrypted format whose extension is unknown to the server and later rename the extension after the downloading. This is the principle used by an online tool “Download at Work” that enables us to download any type of file from the internet even if it is blocked at the server.

How it works:

• We have to enter the URL of the file that we need to download.

• Then choose the extension that we want our file to get encrypted into like .doc, .pdf etc.

• We can also choose the extension to be .aaa which would be unrecognized by the server.

• After the downloading we just need to rename the file in the original format.

But let me remind you that this method will only work until your administrator comes to know about it.

Same thing can be down to upload a file or attach in mail....

How to Enable the Registry Editor, Task Manager and Folder Options Disabled by Virus

2009-06-25T00:24:00.000-07:00

Virus attack is common these days and we often come across the problems like Disabled Folder Options or like Task Manager and Regedit disable

d by Administrator. These problems are nothing but virus activities. The virus has infected our system and stopping us from accessing these options.

Pressing keys Ctrl+Alt+Del opens up a dialog saying that “Task Manager has been disabled by your Administrator” whereas you are the Administrator yourself. It becomes very annoying when you think that you can fix this problem by going into the Registry Editor but it doesn’t show up. Even the Folder Options gets disabled.

This problem is generally caused by a virus named “Brontok” but don’t worry just use RRT (Remove Restrictions Tool) that can easily solve this problem. RRT is free and can successfully enable:

1. Folder Options

2. Regedit (Registry Editor)

3. Task Manager

4. Show Hidden Files option

The tool will come more useful if you use it in Safe Mode.

Download RRT

Update:

If you still can’t restore then use this script developed that may solve your issue. It can restore Task Manager, Folder Options, Registry Editor and the changing value of Show hidden files and folders option all at once.

Just download this script which is called

“restore_all” and extract. Double click on it to add to your registry.

Reboot may be required.

For some more such tips log on to techsalsa.

How to make Super Hidden Files and Folders

2009-06-25T00:19:00.000-07:00

We often face several occasions when we want to keep our few important files private and in secret especially on the system that is shared by many users. The files may be important documents, files storing private data like passwords or some content that we do not want to share. This can be done in XP with ease and even without using any software.

In order to do this we would make the files possess system attributes and these files will not be shown even if you tick the “Show Hidden Files and Folders” option.

1. Go to Folder options then under the view tab untick the option of “Hide protected Operating System Files”.

2. Open any drive and copy the “System Volume Information” folder to the location where you want to store the files.

3. Empty this folder and copy your important files in it.

The files will become super hidden and will not be displayed even with show hidden folder option.

To Clear Thumbnail Cache in Windows

2009-06-25T00:13:00.000-07:00

When you store a picture inside a folder and view the folder as a thumbnail then you will be able to see few of the images inside the folder. But sometimes it happen that the same pic that you have deleted from the folder continue to show up in the thumbnail view of the folder.

This can be irritating or even pose problems if that image was a confidential one. Then what can you do to clear the thumbnail cache?

Steps:

1. We need to delete the Thumbnail Database file that contains the cache of all the images in the folder.

2. In Windows XP, the cache is stored inside each image folder while in Vista, the cache is

stored globally at %LocalAppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Explorer

For XP:

1. Open the image folder; go to Tools -> Folder Options -> View tab.

2. Uncheck the option reading “Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)” and also make sure that your “Show Hidden files and folders” option is checked.

3. Now you will see a file named “Thumbs.db” inside the folder, just delete it and click OK.

4. That’s it the thumbnail view of the folder will be refreshed.

Change Ctrl + Enter Function in IE

2009-06-24T22:49:00.000-07:00

Change Ctrl + Enter Function to something else in IE

Internet Explorer along with other browsers have one thing in common for sure that if we only give the URL of the site and press Ctrl + Enter, http://www and .com will be added before and after the text in the address bar respectively.

This is a great feature since it prevents us from typing the www and .com in the site URLs. But if you wish to change it for your purposes, then it is very easy as well.

Steps:

1. Open the Registry editor and navigate to the following key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar.

2. Create a key there under toolbar key named QuickComplete (as shown)

3. In the right side of this key, create a String Value with the name QuickComplete with the value http://www.%s.net

4. %s signifies that whatever be the address, it will be inserted in between the www and .net

5. Similarly you can change to any extension instead of .net

6. Example: if you put the value http://www.%s.abc then on hitting Ctrl + Enter the extension abc would be produced.

what is 404 Error in IE

2009-06-20T05:29:00.000-07:00

We've all received an error like the one shown above:

File not found - requested URL not found on this server.

It's annoying, especially when you've searched for something and found what looks like the perfect site. At least the description exactly matches your needs. You click and boom, a 404 error appears. Whoops. What happened to that perfect site?

There are several reasons why this error occurs. I guess the thing that you need to remember is the internet is very fluid. In fact, it changes constantly. Sometimes a site is changing while you are looking at it. I can remember several times I was examining a site and returned to a page that I had seen only moments before and found it to be different! That can be very unnerving, to say the least.

So what sometimes happens is a webmaster changes his site around and obsoletes links. If he's a rank amateur, he'll break links within his own site. This does happen sometimes, but any webmaster worth his salt is constantly checking and rechecking his site to be sure it works and works well. After all, the only way to test something is to use it. And the only way to see if a site really works is to surf it.

More often, someone has linked to a site and that site changes. Since it can be difficult if not impossible to determine who has linked to a site, links break.

Now, really good webmasters never ever delete a page on their site. What they do is create redirect pages. Thus, if I have a page called "barbi.htm" and I want to delete it, I will modify the page to tell the visitor it no longer exists and redirect him to another page in my site. This way I will not lose traffic simply because I've deleted or renamed a page.

This constant checking of one's own web site will also catch another common error: misspelling a hyperlink. When I create a hyperlink, I either browse to the target using my web editor, or I cut and paste the link directly out of Internet Explorer. I never type the hyperlink in myself, which reduces the possibility of error greatly!

Also common is the webmaster who does not understand that many servers are case sensitive. This means that "Richard" is not the same as "richard". You will see this sometimes if a webmaster moves a site from a server which is not case sensitive (VAX/OpenVMS) to one that is (Unix).

Sometimes a site simply moves to another host. This frequently happens when a site outgrows it's host. I know of one site that had to move several times because it's bandwidth demands became huge! According to the webmaster this site was getting tens of thousands of visitors every day, and all of them were downloading tremendous amounts of pictures. He was booted off one server with no notice and no backup and had to rebuild his site from scratch! This kind of event will certainly cause 404 errors!

More rarely, a webmaster has been in the process of uploading his site when his upload software crashed. This may leave broken links for a short time until the problem is fixed.

Generally an ISP will provide, at least for a short time, a redirect page to a new site. You will see this as a "My site has moved. If you are not transported in 10 seconds click here" message.

And of course some sites simply shut down. This is actually getting more rare as it's often more expensive for an ISP to delete old data than it is simply to prevent updates.

Search engines are notorious for their broken links. You have to remember that most search engines only examine web sites every month or so (sometimes the delay is as long as six months). Because of this, all of the above problems can occur, leaving broken links.

Windows_XP secret Welcome music

2009-06-19T11:56:00.000-07:00

Go to My Computer
open root directory
open Windows
open system32
open the folder named “oobe”
open images folder
search for the file named “title”

( C:\WINDOWS\system32\oobe\images\title.wma )

THAT’S IT…. its the secret Window Welcome Music !! enjoy it !!!

A Faster Start Menu in Windows

2009-06-19T11:47:00.001-07:00

I don’t see any reason for there to be a delay when i click on the Start Menu. The default speed can be adjusted with a quick registry entry.The default value is 400. Set it to 0 and the delay is gone, but it will be nearly impossible to move the mouse fast enough not to activate [All Programs] if you mouse over it in route to your final selection. It’s easy to train yourself to move the pointer to the right after clicking Start to avoid activating All Programs. Pick a number that suits your style and make the change, then test it until you find a good compromise between speed and usability.

Okay here’s the method:

1 Click Start, Run and type in Regedit and hit enter.

2 Registry Key: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
Look fo the key named MenuShowDelay
3 Setting for Value Data: (Default = 400 / Adjust to Preference Preferably 0)

Exit Registry and Reboot the system.

Note :Try this at your own risk as you are playeing with Windows registery.

Password thief Trap

2009-06-18T11:01:00.000-07:00

This is for those who tend to ask, What the heck goes wrong if my digital life gets Hacked (rather Cracked).

Dangers in the inevitable online life

Precautions that can be taken to have a safe online life

But now,I am going to tell about a very common technique used by the password thieves.They are using social networking sites like orkut and facebook.

The Attack:

The Password thief creates an orkut profile just like any other orkutter and sends you a scrap saying the below possible things:

Click on the link below to see some Actress Pictures

Click here to send you friend a Greeting card

See my nude pics on this link

The curious orkut user clicks on the links provided by a strange profile.

The link redirects to a page which looks like this as shown:

It's not the Orkut Login Page!!

Look closely !!! It does look like an orkut login page but it is NOT.Look at the address bar(or URL).

What does it say ?? it’s not the Orkut Login page ..it’s the TRAP.

The user thinking that he/she has logged out by some inexplicable cyber-mistake,tries to relogin by giving the username and the password in the trap set by the password thief.And hence the gmail or orkut password is compromised.

After that the user might be able to login to the real orkut site only until the thief has not changed the password.The danger is if the user has given the gmail id as the contact email for his banking and other online services.His or Her online life is gone forever.

Fake login pages a way of password stealing

2009-06-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Using fake login pages is the easiest way to hack passwords. Identifying a fake login page is very easy but many people neglect to do some small checks before entering the login details and fall in the trap.

This post is an attempt to show what a hacker does to hack your password using fake login pages and how to protect yourself from those fake logins.

So What goes on behind when you enter your login details in login form??

When you enter your login details in any login form and hit enter they are submitted to another page which reads these login details and checks the database if you entered the correct username and passowrd, if yes then you will be taken to your account else you will get an error page.

What an hacker does??

A hacker creates a fake page which looks exactly same as the original page and some how tricks you to enter your login details in that page. These login details are then submitted to a file.At this stage the hacker has two optionsHe can either store the login details on his server or he can directly get them mailed to his email id. All the above said things happen behind the scenes, you will have no clue of it. When you enter you login details for the first time your details are submitted to the hacker and you will be directed to a error page ( this is the original error page). When you enter your login details again you will be logged in to your account. It’s quite common for us to enter the login details wrongly sometimes so you will not become suspicious when you get the error page.

How to identify fake login page traps ??

Never enter you login details in unknown sites.

Always type the address directly in to the browser.

Do not follows the links you get in mails and chatting even if they are from your friends

Always have a keen look in the address bar and verify if the address is correct. Check the screen shot below. Some people buy doamins which look simliar to the original site example: 0rkut for orkut, pay-pal for paypal,yahooo for yahoo. Some times you may over look these small differences and fall in trap.

Please do report to the hosting site or the original site owner when you find a fake login page.

If you feel like you entered your details in a fake login page change your password immediatley.

Now let’s go on with the trick..

You have to upload the fake login page on some server with php support. There are many free web hosting services available on the net, first sign up for anyone of them.Google for some free webhosting services,you will find many. Upload the files in the zipped folder on to your server and give the link of the fake login page to the person whose password you want to know. When the person enters his email id and password in to the fake login page they will be stored in a HTML file named “passwd.htm” on your server in the same directory where you uploaded the login page. Check that text file to get the passwords you wanted.

Please do not try this trick if you are not an advanced user of internet because u get cought by ISP or by one else.(use it for constructive purpose)

Warning: I strongly advice you not to try this on anyone it may spoil your relation with the person on whom you are trying it and you may even end up behind the bars.

Kinds Of internet Connections

2009-06-15T05:30:00.000-07:00

ISPs (internet service provider)provide different kinds of connections which allow you toaccess the Internet, each of which has advantages and drawbacks.

a) Dialup accounts:

This is the slowest kind of connection currently available. Also,your telephone line stays in use until you terminate the connection,implying that if your telephone bill is calculated according to the time of use, you’re going to have one hefty bill coming at you at the end of the month.

Dialup means you won’t really be able to do audio/video downloads unless you have the patience of Sisyphus. Even images can take a lot of time to be downloaded (remember that Web pages are getting prettier and more image-heavy).Today, a dialup service is the resort of a desperate customer,who has by and large no other means of connecting to the Web.

b) Broadband: includes several transmission technologies, such as

Digital Subscriber Line (DSL)
Cable
Wireless
Satellite

1. Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) is a technology that provides a dedicated digital circuit between a residence and a telephone company’s central office, allowing high-speed data transport over existing telephone lines.

Typically, there is a modem on either end;one modem is located at the central office, and the other at the customer’s site. There are several types of DSL including ADSL,HDSL, IDSL, SDSL, and VDSL, but of these, the most common, at least in the UK and India is ADSL.ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) is designed to deliver more bandwidth downstream (from the central office to the customer site) than upstream (that’s why the word“asymmetric”).SDSL, common in Europe, is the Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line, a technology that allows the same data rates for upstream as well as downstream traffic, over existing copper telephone lines. However, it doesn’t allow simultaneously voice connections on the same wires.

2. Cable:

As millions of homes already have cable TV connections, cable TV service providers simply equip the customer with a cable modem and provide access to the Internet over cable TV lines.The coaxial cable allows for much greater bandwidth than telephone lines, so a cable modem is considerably faster than DSL (about 3 Mbps).

3. Wireless Internet Access:

Wireless communication is nothing but the transferring of data over a particular distance without using the long, irritating, tubular things called wires. Certain ISPs offer access to the Internet without your first having to plug in a wire to a jack. Such services may use different types of

Wireless technologies:

GSM: Global System for Mobile communication, which compresses information and then transfers it over a single channel.

CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access transfers data by distributing it among different available radio channels.

Wi-Fi: A common wireless network, broadcasting radio waves that can be caught by Wi-Fi receivers in individual computers.The Wi-Fi service operates by setting up Wireless “access points” that connect a group of wireless devices.

WAP: (Wireless Access Protocol) is a standard that allows cellular /wireless devices to access the Internet. The main application of this standard is to allow cellular phones or PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants) or Notebook computers to get access to the Internet, again, without having to plug a wire in.

4. Satellite Internet Service is ideal for those who live in rural areas where high speed is not yet available. Quite akin to the way in which we use DTH to receive television content today, it needs individual satellite dishes to be set up which send and receive signals via satellite.

What is dot-com bubble?

2009-06-15T05:08:00.001-07:00

The dot-com bubble burst, numerically, on march 10 2000.

It all started during the mid 1990’s. The Stock Market soared on technology and Internet stocks, IPOs were all the rage, and the sky was the limit for stock prices. The masses believed there was a new world upon us, and the internet was to become the future of business.

The period was marked by the founding (and, in many cases, spectacular failure) of a group of new Internet-based companies commonly referred to as dot-coms. Companies were seeing their stock prices shoot up if they simply added an "e-" prefix to their name and/or a ".com" to the end, which one author called "prefix investing".

The venture capitalists saw record-setting rises in stock valuations of dot-com companies, and therefore moved faster and with less caution than usual, choosing to mitigate the risk by starting many contenders and letting the market decide which would succeed. The low interest rates in 1998–99 helped increase the start-up capital amounts. Although a number of these new entrepreneurs had realistic plans and administrative ability, many more of them lacked these characteristics but were able to sell their ideas to investors because of the novelty of the dot-com concept.

Then reality set in when the hype didn’t live up to it’s promises, and the stock market crashed. If you take all of this for only its face value, all you see is what happens when a stock market gets overvalued and crashes, but if you look deeper you can find plenty of timeless lessons that every investor and internet company should learn.

Internet Security

2009-06-15T04:45:00.001-07:00

Internet security has become a serious issue for anyone connected to the net. Even if you don't think you have anything worth protecting on your computer, it's still important that you keep it locked down.

Your files are not the only thing at stake here. If someone gains access to your computer, it can be used as a "zombie" for hacking into other computer, hiding the trail of the person who is actually doing it.

How would you like to get a call from your local police telling you that there's been a virus attack that has been traced back to your computer? No, even if your computer isn't used for anything critical you need to run security software such as an antivirus and a firewall.

These programs will keep your computer "hidden" from prying eyes over the internet, as well as protected from viruses and other malware that can be spread through email or other methods.

So installing a antivirus will not make u secure as none of the commercial antivirus provide 100% security although they clame provide.nor do installing 2 or 3 antivirus help as in that case they will come in one another way and make system slow and unprotected to.

To fight these malicious programs having a little knowledge will make u smart in dealing with these things.

Here i tell you about some essential terms associated with security.

1 Phishing

This refers to the practice of making a user part with sensitive financial and other personal details by posing as an authorised agent. Usually, this takes the form of an e-mail asking the user to update details at a bank or company Web page, the link to which is provided.

The Web page looks just like the original, and a gullible user might enter the requested details, like username and password, to log into his account. These details are routed to the scammer who then misuses it at the real site, sometimes at the same time.

2 Rootkits

This type of application burst into the public consciousness after it was found that Sony had been using this technique to hide its anti-piracy applications from showing up. Rootkits are applications that can hide other applications from showing up in any of the system’s monitors. By inserting rootkits, it is possible for malware to avoid detection even by anti-virus applications.

3 Browser Hijackers

These are mostly of nuisance value. Browsers that have been hijacked always open a certain Web page by default on start, or change the home page of the browser, or do not allow certain sites to be visited—usually anti-virus or anti-spyware sites. Trying to uninstall or delete the responsible file proves futile, since some part of the malware is loaded into memory when the system boots.

4 Spyware

This refers to a class of applications that gains entry into a system and monitors the user without his knowledge. Spyware report back to a remote server and can result in the leaking out of confidential details like usernames and passwords.

5 Keylogging

This refers to the use of software to record the sequence of keys pressed by the user. Usually, a report of the keystrokes are passed on to the spyware controller on the Internet. Keystrokes of special interest are passwords and usernames, or online banking details.

6 Viruses

Computer viruses are small software programs that are designed to spread from one computer to another and to interfere with computer operation.These virus programs are placed into a commonly used program so that program will run the attached virus program as it boots, therefore, it is said that the virus "infects" the executable file or program. A virus is inactive until you execute an infected program or application.Viruses are most easily spread by attachments.

7 Trojans

These are applications that gain entry into the user’s system by posing as something else, often as free screensavers. After gaining entry into the system and being installed or run by the user, they can manipulate user data. Trojans have different behaviour once they gain access into the system. For example, some allow unauthorised access to a remote user into the user PC by opening up ports, some can act as keyloggers, and some can prevent applications

from running—especially anti-virus applications.

8 Worms

These are applications that autonomously transfer themselves through a network. They do not need an associated file to spread themselves. Worms can cause harm just by overloading any network by moving from one node to another in huge numbers, thus causing legitimate traffic to be delayed or disrupted—though they can also carry malicious code.

9 Data Sniffers / Packet Sniffers

These are applications that try to detect the contents of a message you’ve sent. Any data that is transferred—e-mail, pictures, files—are split into data packets and then sent over the Internet. Any server through which the data packets pass can install a sniffer to detect the contents of the packet. Files that contain binary data like pictures or video can also be deciphered, but e-mail messages and other textual content show up as text in the sniffing application, making them easier to decipher. The encrypting of messages is the only way to prevent this from happening.

Download manager

2009-06-14T12:00:00.000-07:00

A download manager is a computer program dedicated to the task of downloading (and sometimes uploading) possibly unrelated stand-alone files from (and sometimes to) the Internet for storage.

Download managers are useful for very active Internet users. For dial-up users, they can automatically dial the Internet Service Provider at night, when rates or tariffs are usually much lower, download the specified files, and hang-up. They can record which links the user clicks on during the day, and queue these files for later download.

Download managers commonly include one or more of the following features:

Pausing the downloading of large files.
Resuming broken or paused downloads .
Downloading files on poor connections.
Scheduled downloads (including, automatic hang-up and shutdown).
Pre-defined save locations for different file types.
Pausing of downloads.
Queuing of files.
Preview of downloaded media files.

There are plenty of download managers available, each providing more or less the same features, below are a list of the most popular download managers in use.

Internet Download Manager (Windows) [you can donload youtube videos]
Download Accelerator Plus (DAP) (Windows) [you can donload youtube videos with a click]
FlashGet (freeware) (Windows)
Free Download Manager (Windows)
GetRight (shareware) (Windows)
FlashGet (freeware) (Windows)
Free Download Manager (Windows)

Below are links to download some of these download managers

for IDM "http://www.internetdownloadmanager.com/download.htm l"

for DAP "www.speedbit.com/downloads/ "

for Free Download Manager "http://downloads.sourceforge.net/freedownload/fdminst.exe"

Some of these download manager allow to download videos from youtube or from facebook etc.

The Domain Name System

2009-06-14T02:09:00.001-07:00

DNS : Most of us would find it considerably difficult to remember hundreds of strings of numbers of all the sites we visit. So, for humans, the address is in letters (the URL). The domain name is the root identifier of a Web site on the Internet.When you want to contact a location on the Internet—say a Web site—you’d type in an address like www.yahoo.com. IP uses (a) the Internet address information and (b) the Domain Name System to understand and deliver your mail or request from one computer to another: the letters www.yahoo.com are translated into an IP address, which is, in this case, 87.248.113.14. In fact, if you typed in http://87.248.113.14, your screen would show you the Yahoo! site, and you would make the job a microsecond faster and a trifle easier for the computers. This translation is accomplished by the DNS server. So this is what DNS is.

What are Protocols and there Types

2009-06-14T02:06:00.000-07:00

A protocol is a set of rules that enables the exchange of information between two computers, regardless of whether they run on different operating systems. These rules strictly state the format and procedure to be followed while transmitting data between two computers or two networks. A protocol basically gives the “grammar” to their “speech.” Certain key protocols you should know about are:

TCP: Transmission Control Protocol, used for the reliable transmission of data over a network.

IP: The Internet protocol is the set of rules that dictates how exactly packets of data should be transmitted over the Internet.IP standardises the way machines over the Internet (or any IP network) forward or route their packets based on their IP addresses.

HTTP: Hypertext Transfer Protocol, used for transmitting and displaying information in the form of Web pages on browsers. This is the language used when your Web browser talks to the Web server.

FTP: File Transfer Protocol, used for file transfer (uploading and downloading) over the Internet. Both FTP and HTTP are based on TCP/IP. FTP is still often used as a means of downloading large files.

SMTP: Simple Mail Transfer Protocol, used for e-mail.

Ethernet: Used for data transmission over a LAN (Local Area Network).

Wi-Fi: The wireless version of Ethernet. Of all these protocols, in order to understand how the Internet works, what we really need to know is the IP and the TCP.

What are Router

2009-06-14T02:02:00.000-07:00

A router (the “rou” in “router” rhymes with “cow”) is an electronic device which comes in a little box, and which connects one network with another (for example, a Local Area Network with a Wide Area Network). Routers do most of the task of directing traffic on the Internet by sending the request from your network to another while simultaneously preventing other unauthorised users to access your network (this latter task is done with the help of a firewall, a software program that intercepts and filters unwanted packets of data that are either trying to enter your network or access the resources of your network). A router examines each packet of data that travels across the Internet, figures out where it is headed, and “routes” it towards its destination in the most efficient way possible. Usually, the packet of data goes to another router and another, and another—until it reaches the destination. Each router that a packet of data passes through to reach its destination is considered a “hop.” A router must depend, however, on gateways.

What Is An ISP?

2009-06-14T01:47:00.001-07:00

ISPs are sometimes also referred to as Internet Access Providers

(IAP). An Internet Service Provider is an organisation that provides

access to the Internet and related services.

An ISP might provide dial-up access, a cable connection, an

ADSL connection, or other type of Internet access. In India, there

are more than 150 ISPs (including Icenet, BSNL, Airtel, 24Online,

and You Telecom).

Social networking

2009-06-14T01:17:00.000-07:00

Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will. Although social networking is possible in person, especially in universities, high schools or in the workplace, it is most popular online. This is because unlike most high schools, colleges, or workplaces, the internet is filled with millions of individuals who are looking to meet other internet users, to gather first hand information or experiences about a medical condition, develop friendships, find vacation spots or to start a professional relationship.

When it comes to online social networking, websites are commonly used. These websites are known as social sites. Social networking websites function like an online community of internet users. Depending on the website in question, many of these online community members share a common interest such as hobbies, religion, or politics. Once you are granted access to a social networking website you can begin to socialize. This socialization may include reading the profile pages of other members and possibly even contacting them.

Social networking site is to enable peopleTo link up. Since most of us use the Internet extensively wehave come to rely on such sites mainly to keep in touch with old friends and discover new ones, which would be infeasible if we Went about it in the old way, owing to our hectic schedules.

Now I give name of some of the top social networking site to find Friends

www.myspace.com
www.orkut.com
www.facebook.com
www.spaces.live.com
www.batchmates.com
www.yaari.com
www.minglebox.com
www.ning.com
www.meetup.com
www.bebo.com
www.fropper.com
www.bigadda.com

Networking with Mobile:

Social Web sites are foraying into new frontiers of social networking to your mobile phone. Yes, that little gadget you are carrying in your hand or pocket right now is capable of Connecting you to all your friends on the move.

Some of the mobile networking site named below :

Tezaa (www.tezaa.com/)
Wadja (http://in.wadja.com)
Frenzo (www.frenzo.in/)
Yahoo! Mobile (http://in.wap.yahoo.com)
Social Voice Chat (http://socialight.com)
SociaLight (http://socialight.com)
MocoSpace (http://mocospace.com/wap2)
Mob5 (http://mob5.com)
Twitter (http://m.twitter.com)
MobLeo (http://mobile.mobleo.net/)

speedup internet

2009-06-14T00:45:00.000-07:00

How to speedup internet ?

If you have Windows XP.You should be logged as Administrator (not even accounts with administrator privileges).

Follow these steps:

1. Start - Run - type gpedit.msc.

2. Expand the Local Computer Policy / Administrative Templates / Network Branch.

3. Highlight the QoS Packet Scheduler in left panel.

4. In right panel double click the Limit reservable bandwidth setting.5. On setting tab check the Enabled item.

6. Where it says Bandwidth limit 20% change it to read 0(zero).

The problem is XP seems to want to reserve 20% of the bandwidth for itself.

If possible please reboot.

(This tip is only recommended if you have 256MB RAM or higher.)

How does proxy server work?

2009-06-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

When browsing the internet from a home PC, there are several elements that make the whole process possible.First of all, on one end, we have our home PC. This PC is connected via its modem to the ISP’s server, which in turn is interconnected to servers around the world that host the specific web sites that we are requesting.From a web browser, we send a request to access a specific website by typing the site’s address,for example, www.google.com .

When we hit “Enter”, this request is sent to our ISP’s server, which identifies the request. If the ISP has a proxy server with cached requests, when retrieving our request it will look up the information in its cache to determine if the proxy can comply or not. This means that the proxy server saves all requests made from users to its cache, so that the next time another user makes the same request, it does not have to retrieve that same information from the original server. The proxy server responds by sending the information to our PC from its cache to improve request response time.

There are also additional features can be implemented on proxy servers, such as filter to check and warn you on phishing, spyware or other unsecured websites.

In a corporate network, even more elements form part of the process. Apart from the possibility of having its own proxy server to improve performance, the proxy can also act as a filter from the employees’ terminal, blocking attempts to access specific content from their web browsers. Additionally, companies have mail servers that store and distribute emails over its local network and WAN. All potential viruses are filtered at this stage before it can reach an employee’s PC. Servers also provide additional security through firewalls either from the proxy itself or from a firewall server dedicated to such purpose.

So why should you use a proxy?

You can use a proxy server if you have a child and wish to restrict the sites they are viewing, you will need to make sure you get the correct type of proxy because not all proxies filter sites. You can use it to protect yourself, it can be used to hide your IP which is useful because it means hackers can not get info about you when using it. They will only get the proxy servers IP. Proxy servers are not hard to set up, no hardware or software is needed, you just need to configure your browser to connect through it.

Some ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) make all their users use a proxy server, for example in the United Arab Emirates, the main ISP makes all users use a proxy server which blocks sites with unsuitable material. It does this using the meta tags in the HTML code used to make the web page. Some ISP’s may give you a choice so you can use one or not. If you want to use a proxy server there are many around with different functions, you just have to get the one that suits your needs best

What is Proxy server

2009-06-14T00:17:00.000-07:00

A server that sits between a client application, such as a Web browser, and a real server. It intercepts all requests to the real server to see if it can fulfill the requests itself. If not, it forwards the request to the real server.

Proxy servers have two main purposes:

Improve Performance: Proxy servers can dramatically improve performance for groups of users. This is because it saves the results of all requests for a certain amount of time.

The major online services such as America Online, MSN and Yahoo, for example, employ an array of proxy servers.

Filter Requests: Proxy servers can also be used to filter requests.

For example, a company might use a proxy server to prevent its employees from

accessing a specific set of Web sites.

What is TCP/IP?

2009-06-14T00:02:00.000-07:00

TCP/IP is very popular protocol suite, which is used in Ethernet home network, wireless network and Internet. This communication protocol for communication between computers on the Internet.TCP/IP stands for Transmission Control Protocol / Internet Protocol.TCP/IP defines how electronic devices (like computers) should be connected to the Internet, and how data should be transmitted between them.

The TCP/IP protocol suite contains 4 layers, and each layer works with specific functions and protocols.Data transmission between the source and destination machine go through all these Layers.

Layer 4 Application Layer – This is the highest layer of TCP/IP protocol suite. This is the layer that closest to the end users, which it deals with applications that we use daily and also talks to the Transport layer. Those applications could be Web browser (HTTP, HTTPS) , email program (SMTP, ESMTP, POP3, IMAP) , telnet, SSH, BitTorrent and other networking applications.

Layer 3 Transport Layer - The Transport layer is mainly in charge of how to send the data to the destination after receiving the request from Application layer. TCP and UDP are 2 main protocols in this layer which can provide connection oriented or connectionless methods to transfer the data.

Layer 2 Internet Layer - IP (IPv4, IPv6) is the main protocol in Internet layer. This layer will read the source and destination IP address of packet, and then route to destination computer. Other protocols that belong to this layer are ARP, RIP, BGP, IPsec, ICMP, IGMP and RSVP.

Layer 1 Network Access Layer - Lowest layer of TCP/IP protocol suite and is the physical layer that do the actual data transmission using raw bits (0, 1). The popular implementations are different types of Ethernet or wireless network, PPP, DSL, xDSL and ISDN.

Inside TCP/IP

Inside the TCP/IP standard there are several protocols for handling data communication:

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) communication between applications
UDP (User Datagram Protocol) simple communication between applications
IP (Internet Protocol) communication between computers
ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) for errors and statistics
DHCP (Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) for dynamic addressing

How do TCP and IP do togather to achive communication?

TCP/IP is TCP and IP working together.

TCP takes care of the communication between your application software (i.e. your browser) and your network software.TCP is responsible for breaking data down into IP packets(fragment them) before they are sent, and for assembling the packets when they arrive.

IP takes care of the communication with other computers and is responsible for sending the packets to the correct destination

SG TCP Optimizer for Improve Internet Speed

2009-06-13T23:41:00.000-07:00

Optimizing your Internet Speed

Not happy with your Internet speed? Is it too slow?

use SG TCP Optimizer to improve Internet speed!

SG TCP Optimizer is a useful program to tweak TCP and IP related parameters in Windows Registry to speed up Internet speed.

No matter what type of Internet connection you have, whether it’s cable modem connection, DSL connection or dial up connection (28.8/56k), this program will improve your connection performance after the tweaking.

It takes into account all related RFCs, the Microsoft TCP/IP implementation oddities, verifies all Registry locations for the same TCP/IP parameters (ICS Sharing, AOL protocol MTU, etc) and only adds the necessary Registry parameters during tweaking.

You can download this from http://www.speedguide.net/files/TCPOptimizer.exe or try this link http://download.cnet.com/SG-TCP-Optimizer/3000-2155_4-10415840.html or http://www.softpedia.com/get/Tweak/Network-Tweak/TCP-Optimizer.shtml. It does support Windows 9x, ME, 2000, XP, XP SP2 and 2003 and Version 2.0.3 is a bug fixing release..

Once you downloaded the program, just run the program without the need to install it, and this makes it very handy to use. Basically there are two tuning options for you, you can either let the program to decide optimized registry settings for you by providing some info (optimal settings), or do customized tuning (custom settings) if you are adventurous enough.Now make the required changes and you will see the difference.

Computer Science Fundamentals

2009-06-13T13:22:00.001-07:00

1 Algorithm

A set of instructions that are defined to perform a specific computing task. This can be something as simple as performing addition or something more complex like modifying an image in an image editor. Programmers spend a majority of their time creating algorithms that are then debugged to ensure that they work properly and efficiently. The primary goal is to create efficient algorithms that use computing resources like RAM and CPU time with the maximum efficiency. Obviously, when an algorithm is badly written, it will be a drag on performance.

2 Analogue

Anything that is read or accessed as a continuous stream is experienced as analogue. Humans perceive everything in analogue—as a continuous stream of data and information to our senses. Similarly, the grooves in a record player or the magnetic data stored on an audio or video tape is typically a representation of analogue data. In comparison, digital is an approximation of the audio or video signal. This means that analogue data is more accurate than digital data, but due to some inherent advantages with the digital format, analogue is being slowly eliminated.

3 Bespoke

In technology circles, a bespoke solution or system is something that is custom-developed to meet the requirements of a specific need. This can refer to both hardware and software. Typically an organisation would go for bespoke software if there is no off-theshelf software package that can meet their needs. Software developers will then build a customised system to meet the requirements.

Typically, bespoke solutions are expensive, and with the increase in commoditisation in the software market, more and more solutions are coming out-of-the-box with customisation features rather than being 100 per cent bespoke. The cases where only a bespoke solution will fit are rapidly shrinking from the general marketplace and are getting focused into niche segments.

4 Database

A system used to organise and store structured information for easy retrieval and manipulation. A database contains tables made up of rows and columns, and are used to store structured and hierarchical data like product details, employee information, etc. Databases today go beyond just storing textual information and

can now store sound clips, pictures, and video too.

5 Digital

Information stored as a series of ones and zeroes is called digital information. Humans perceive information in analogue; digital devices estimate this information using ones and zeroes. This estimation,known as sampling, is the process of storing the information in a tiny slice of time. This could be several times per second, and while it is imperceptible to the human ear or eye, there is a tiny gap between two segments of information. A typical audio CD would be sampled at 44.1 KHz (44,100 samples per second) with a bit depth of 16 bits. This is a high-quality estimation of the audio signal, and provides a level of audio quality that sounds good to the ear. The major advantage with digital data is that it is much easier to copy, edit, and move without loss in quality.

7 End-user

The person who actually uses a software program. Among software developers, careful attention is paid to the wants and needs of the end-user when designing the program, as this person will either drive the adoption of the program or cause its downfall.

8 GUI (Graphical User Interface)

The graphical interface that we use with almost all computer systems these days. Before the GUI was invented, the way to interact with computer systems was through cryptic commands that were difficult for the ordinary user to remember or even understand. A GUI made life much easier, enabling people to use features like the dragging and dropping of objects with a mouse rather than enter

text commands.

Top 10 Antivirus Software

2009-06-13T13:13:00.000-07:00

1 BitDefender Standard 9

2 McAfee VirusScan 2006 10.0 (Full Product)
3 Kaspersky Lab Anti-Virus Personal 5.0 (Full Product)
4 F-Secure Anti-Virus 2005 (Full Product)
5 Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2006 (Full Product)
6 Panda Software PANDA SOFTWARE Titanium AntiVirus 2005 ( Windows )
7 AntiVir AntiVir Personal Edition 6.32
8 Alwil Avast! Home Edition 4.6
9 Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2006 Home Security Pack Single User
10 Grisoft AVG Free Edition 7.1

Source : www.pcworld.com

Why do people write viruses

2009-06-13T13:01:00.000-07:00

It is difficult to know why people write them. Everyone has their own reasons. Some general reasons are to experiment how to write viruses or to test their programming talent. Some people just like to see how the virus spreads and gets famous around the World. The following is a list from news group postings alt.comp.virus and tries to explain why people write and spread viruses.

they don't understand or prefer not to think about the consequences for other people
they simply don't care
they don't consider it to be their problem if someone else is inconvenienced
they draw a false distinction between creating/publishing viruses and distributing them
they consider it to be the responsibility of someone else to protect systems from their creations
they get a buzz, acknowledged or otherwise, from vandalism
they consider they're fighting authority
they like 'matching wits' with anti virus vendors
it's a way of getting attention, getting recognition from their peers and their names (or at least that of their virus) in the papers and the Wild List
they're keeping the anti virus vendors in a job

How viruses activate

2009-06-13T13:00:00.000-07:00

We are always afraid that viruses do something harmful to files when they get active, but not all the viruses activate. Some viruses just spread out, but when viruses activate they do very different things. Might play a part of melody or play music in the background, show a picture or animated picture, show text, format hard disk or do changes to files.

As an example, in one unnamed company: over a long period of time, the files in a server were corrupted just a bit. So backup copies were taken from the corrupted files. And after they noticed that something was wrong, it was too late to get back the data from the backups. That kind of event is the worst that can happen for the uses.

There is also talk that viruses have done something to hardware like hard disk or monitor. Viruses can not do any harm to hardware but they can do harm to programs and for example to BIOS so that computer does not start after that. Usually you can start the computer from a boot diskette if the computer does not start otherwise.

What are the signs of viruses

2009-06-13T12:58:00.000-07:00

Almost anything odd a computer may do, can blamed on a computer "virus," especially if no other explanation can readily be found. Many operating systems and programs also do strange things, therefore there is no reason to immediately blame a virus. In most cases, when an anti-virus program is then run, no virus can be found.

A computer virus can cause unusual screen displays, or messages - but most don't do that. A virus may slow the operation of the computer - but many times that doesn't happen. Even longer disk activity, or strange hardware behavior can be caused by legitimate software, harmless "prank" programs, or by hardware faults. A virus may cause a drive to be accessed unexpectedly and the drive light to go on but legitimate programs can do that also.

One usually reliable indicator of a virus infection is a change in the length of executable (*.com/*.exe) files, a change in their content, or a change in their file date/time in the Directory listing. But some viruses don't infect files, and some of those which do can avoid showing changes they've made to files, especially if they're active in RAM.

Another common indication of a virus infection is a change to the reassignment of system resources. Unaccounted use of memory or a reduction in the amount normally shown for the system may be significant.

In short, observing "something funny" and blaming it on a computer virus is less productive than scanning regularly for potential viruses, and not scanning, because "everything is running OK" is equally inadvisable

Types of Computer Viruses

2009-06-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

There are Different Types of Computer Viruses could be classified in (origin, techniques, types of files they infect, where they hide, the kind of damage they cause, the type of operating system or platform they attack) etc.

Computer Virus is a kind of malicious software written intentionally to enter a computer without the user’s permission or knowledge, with an ability to replicate itself, thus continuing to spread. Some viruses do little but replicate others can cause severe harm or adversely effect program and performance of the system. A virus should never be assumed harmless and left on a system. Most common types of viruses are mentioned below:

Resident Viruses
This type of virus is a permanent which dwells in the RAM memory. From there it can overcome and interrupt all of the operations executed by the system: corrupting files and programs that are opened, closed, copied, renamed etc.

Examples include: Randex, CMJ, Meve, and MrKlunky.

Direct Action Viruses
The main purpose of this virus is to replicate and take action when it is executed. When a specific condition is met, the virus will go into action and infect files in the directory or folder that it is in and in directories that are specified in the AUTOEXEC.BAT file PATH. This batch file is always located in the root directory of the hard disk and carries out certain operations when the computer is booted.

Overwrite Viruses
Virus of this kind is characterized by the fact that it deletes the information contained in the files that it infects, rendering them partially or totally useless once they have been infected.

The only way to clean a file infected by an overwrite virus is to delete the file completely, thus losing the original content.

Examples of this virus include: Way, Trj.Reboot, Trivial.88.D.

Boot Virus
This type of virus affects the boot sector of a floppy or hard disk. This is a crucial part of a disk, in which information on the disk itself is stored together with a program that makes it possible to boot (start) the computer from the disk.

The best way of avoiding boot viruses is to ensure that floppy disks are write-protected and never start your computer with an unknown floppy disk in the disk drive.

Examples of boot viruses include: Polyboot.B, AntiEXE.

Macro Virus
Macro viruses infect files that are created using certain applications or programs that contain macros. These mini-programs make it possible to automate series of operations so that they are performed as a single action, thereby saving the user from having to carry them out one by one.

Examples of macro viruses: Relax, Melissa.A, Bablas, O97M/Y2K.

Directory Virus
Directory viruses change the paths that indicate the location of a file. By executing a program (file with the extension .EXE or .COM) which has been infected by a virus, you are unknowingly running the virus program, while the original file and program have been previously moved by the virus.

Once infected it becomes impossible to locate the original files.

Polymorphic Virus
Polymorphic viruses encrypt or encode themselves in a different way (using different algorithms and encryption keys) every time they infect a system.

This makes it impossible for anti-viruses to find them using string or signature searches (because they are different in each encryption) and also enables them to create a large number of copies of themselves.

Examples include: Elkern, Marburg, Satan Bug, and Tuareg.

File Infectors
This type of virus infects programs or executable files (files with an .EXE or .COM extension). When one of these programs is run, directly or indirectly, the virus is activated, producing the damaging effects it is programmed to carry out. The majority of existing viruses belong to this category, and can be classified depending on the actions that they carry out.

Companion Viruses
Companion viruses can be considered file infector viruses like resident or direct action types. They are known as companion viruses because once they get into the system they "accompany" the other files that already exist. In other words, in order to carry out their infection routines, companion viruses can wait in memory until a program is run (resident viruses) or act immediately by making copies of themselves (direct action viruses).

Some examples include: Stator, Asimov.1539, and Terrax.1069

FAT Virus
The file allocation table or FAT is the part of a disk used to connect information and is a vital part of the normal functioning of the computer.
This type of virus attack can be especially dangerous, by preventing access to certain sections of the disk where important files are stored. Damage caused can result in information losses from individual files or even entire directories.

Worms
A worm is a program very similar to a virus; it has the ability to self-replicate, and can lead to negative effects on your system and most importantly they are detected and eliminated by antiviruses.

Examples of worms include: PSWBugbear.B, Lovgate.F, Trile.C, Sobig.D, Mapson.

Trojans or Trojan Horses
Another unsavory breed of malicious code are Trojans or Trojan horses, which unlike viruses do not reproduce by infecting other files, nor do they self-replicate like worms.

Logic Bombs
They are not considered viruses because they do not replicate. They are not even programs in their own right but rather camouflaged segments of other programs.

Their objective is to destroy data on the computer once certain conditions have been met. Logic bombs go undetected until launched, and the results can be destructive.

interview questions-Tell Me about Yourself

2009-06-13T12:07:00.000-07:00

“Tell Me about Yourself” interview questions and answers

1. A brief summary of your personal details: Your have to give your name, where you are from, your family members and a brief review of your resume. You may also provide any other personal detail that you would feel like providing.

2. Education: You should tell the interviewee about your educational qualifications and any relevant miscellaneous educational qualifications that you might have accumulated.

3. Professional experience: Regular questions during a job interview are “tell me about your professional experience”. Depending on whether you are a fresher or an experienced professional, you should share your previous job experiences. If you are a fresher, then, you could tell anything that you think would be relevant for the job. You may provide a scope of your educational capabilities and strengths or any of your hobbies, etc.

4. Your weaknesses and strengths: One of the tricky interview questions that you might be asked is “tell me about your weaknesses and/or strengths”. Therefore, you should make a preparation to such questions. A common mistake is to take strength and present it as a weakness. You should be honest. You may share one-two of your weaknesses and the way you have correct or handled (successfully) these weaknesses. On the other hand, do not boast your strengths. Tell about some of your strengths as positive impacts to your professional capabilities.

5 tips for “Tell Me about Yourself” interview answers

Try to be as much clear, precise and frank. When interviewing and answering “tell me about yourself” questions, you should avoid common mistakes and stick to the facts as follows:

1. Keep the information crisp and relevant: One of the first things to remember is to keep the information crisp and relevant. Try to speak in short sentences and further, try to give them as much of information in as less a timeframe. Here is a brief idea of what you would be saying:

2. Do not repeat information from the CV: You should ensure that none of the information that you provide about yourself is repeated or duplicate as compared to your curriculum vitae. Therefore, even your curriculum vitae should have only the necessary and relevant information, while all other miscellaneous information should be disclosed during the ‘tell me about yourself’ answers.

3. Fabricated or fake information: Another important thing that you should remember is that you should not give any fabricated or fake information while answering the Tell Me about Yourself Interview question. Background checks today have become very important and strict. Companies are known to sack people even after years of working, simply on the basis of some false information provided to them during the initial interview.

4. Irrelevant and unnecessary information: It is very important that no irrelevant and unnecessary information is given out during the question. The question seems to be quite simple, but it is actually one of those make or break questions, from which an interviewee can never recover and therefore loses the job opportunity.

5. Facts and figures: While telling about yourself, be prepared to be asked further questions about any facts and figures that you have provided. For example, if you have said that you have a Bachelor’s degree, make sure that you carry a copy of the same. Any information given without the relevant proof for it is deemed as suspicious and ambiguous.

6. Do Not Tell them about: You should not disclose too much information for the interviewer. You might tell that your hobby is fishing, but telling about your last fishing trip in which you missed a big fish would be too much information, unless the interviewer is a big fishing fan and actually goads you into telling the details. Also, you should not give them too much information about your family members. Of course, you would have to inform them about the number of family members that you have, and whether they work or not, and if yes, where, those kinds of details, but telling them anything apart from that is not suggested.

These are just some of the aspects to the much important – “tell me about yourself” interview questions.

What is Web 2.0?

2009-06-13T11:54:00.000-07:00

Web 2.0 is a buzzword that exploded in popularity sometime in 2005. In 2004, software guru Tim O'Reilly founded the Web 2.0 Conference, held annually in San Francisco. It has since expanded from a conference into a way of thinking, a new approach to doing business on the Internet. There is no standard definition for web 2.0, as it is a cluster of ideas rather than anything clear-cut. However, O'Reilly's comments on the topic are seen as having special authority, and rank among the top Google search results for the term.

The first premise of web 2.0 is leveraging the power of the user. For example, fluid user tagging of content would be used instead of a centralized taxonomy. Web 2.0 entrepreneurs often consider the Long Tail, which is basically an observation that the vast majority of the attention market is based on niche content. Web 2.0 is radically decentralized, as in the case of BitTorrent, a collaborative downloading co-op that consumes a serious portion of all Internet traffic.

Blogs are considered web 2.0. Instead of centralized "personal home pages", blogs let people easily post as much or as little as they want as rarely or as frequently as they want. Feed aggregators ensure that people only need to visit a single site to see all the feeds they subscribe to. Comments are enabled everywhere, allowing people to participate rather than passively consume content.

The web page Digg is an example of web 2.0. Unlike traditional news pages for which editors choose the top stories, Digg's front page content is determined by the voting of many thousands of users. The more votes a story gets, the more likely it is to be featured on the front page.

Web 2.0 marketing is supposed to be viral - that is, happy users encouraging their friends to use a product, rather than massive advertising brainwashing people into doing so. This ties in with the idea of "permission marketing" - marketing that actually gets the permission of its targets rather than shoving an ad in someone's face against their will. Some people call web 2.0 just another bubble like the first. Only time will tell whether these companies are truly profitable or "merely" trendy and useful.

25 Most Common Mistakes in Email Security

2009-06-13T11:41:00.001-07:00

Properly managing your email accounts

1. Using just one email account.

Individuals new to email often think about their email account like they do their home address, you only have one home address, so you should only have one email. Instead, you should think about your email address like you do your keys; while it may be OK to use the same key for your front and your back door, having a single key open everything is both impractical and unsafe.

A good rule of thumb for the average email user is to keep a minimum of three email accounts. Your work account should be used exclusively for work-related conversations. Your second email account should be used for personal conversations and contacts, and your third email account should be used as a general catch-all for all hazardous behavior. That means that you should always sign up for newsletters and contests only through your third email account. Similarly, if you have to post your email account online, such as for your personal blog, you should only use your third email account (and post a web friendly form of it at that).

While your first and second email accounts can be paid or freebie, your third 'catch-all' account should always be a freebie account such as those offered by Gmail or Yahoo!. You should plan on having to dump and change out this account every six months, as the catch-all account will eventually become spammed when a newsletter manager decides to sell your name or a spammer steals your email address off a Web site.

2. Holding onto spammed-out accounts too long.

It is simply a fact of life that email accounts will accumulate spam over time. This is especially true of the account you use to sign up for newsletters and that you post online (which as stated above should not be your main email account). When this happens, it is best to simply dump the email account and start afresh. Unfortunately, however, many new email users get very attached to their email accounts and instead just wade through dozens of pieces of spam every day. To avoid the problem, prepare yourself mentally ahead of time for the idea that you will have to dump your 'catch all' account every six months.

3. Not closing the browser after logging out.

When you are checking your email at a library or cybercafé you not only need to log out of your email when you are done, but you also need to make sure to close the browser window completely. Some email services display your username (but not your password) even after you have logged out. While the service does this for your convenience, it compromises your email security.

4. Forgetting to delete browser cache, history and passwords.

After using a public terminal, it is important that you remember to delete the browser cache, history, and passwords. Most browsers automatically keep track of all the web pages that you have visited, and some keep track of any passwords and personal information that you enter in order to help you fill out similar forms in the future.

If this information falls into the wrong hands, it can lead to identity theft and stolen bank and email information. Because the stakes are so high, it is important that new internet users be aware of how to clear a public computers browser cache so that they can delete private information before lurking hackers can get a hold of it.

For those of you using Mozilla'sFirefox, simply press Ctrl+Shift+Del. Opera users need go to Tools>>Delete Private Data. And users of Microsoft's Internet Explorer need to go to Tools>>Internet Options then click the 'Clear History', 'Delete Cookies', and 'Delete Files' buttons.

5. Using unsecure email accounts to send and receive sensitive corporate information.

Large corporations invest huge amounts of money to ensure that their computer networks and email remain secure. Despite their efforts, careless employees using personal email accounts to conduct company business and pass along sensitive data can undermine the security measures in place. So make sure that you don't risk your company's security, and your job, by transmitting sensitive company data via your own personal computer or email address.

6. Forgetting the telephone option

One of the most important lessons about email security is that no matter how many steps you take to secure your email, it will never be foolproof. This is never truer than when using a public computer. So unless you need a written record of something or are communicating across the globe, consider whether a simple phone call rather than an email is a better option. While a phone conversation may require a few extra minutes, when compared with accessing email through a public computer, a phone call is a far more secure option and it does not leave a paper trail.

Emailing the right people

7. Not using the Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) option.

When you put a person's email addresses in the BCC: rather than the CC: window, none of the recipients can see the addresses of the other email recipients.

New email users often rely too much on the TO: because it is the default way of sending emails. That is fine as long as you are writing to just one person or a few family members. But if you are sending mail out to a diverse group of people, confusing BCC: and CC: raises some serious privacy and security concerns. It takes just one spammer to get a hold of the email and immediately everyone on your email list gets spammed.

Even if the honesty of the group isn't in question, many email programs are setup to automatically add to the address books any incoming email addresses. That means that some people in the group will inadvertently have added the entire list to their address book, and as a result, if one of their computers is infected with "Zombie" malware and silently sends out spam emails, you will have just caused the entire list to get spammed.

8. Being trigger happy with the "Reply All" button.

Sometimes the mistake isn't in deciding between CC: and BCC: but between hitting Reply All instead of Reply. When you hit Reply All, your email message is sent to everyone included on the original email, and if you didn't intend to include them, the information can be disastrous from both a security and personal humiliation perspective:

Example 1: "A very successful salesman at our networking company had a large email address book filled with his best customers, including some very important and conservative government contacts. With a single click, he accidentally sent a file chock-full of his favorite pornographic cartoons and jokes to everyone on his special customer list. His subject line: 'Special deals for my best customers!' Needless to say, he's cutting deals for another company these days."

Example 2: "A woman was in torment over a busted romance. She wrote a lengthy, detailed message to a girlfriend, adding that her ex-boyfriend preferred men to women. But instead of hitting Reply to a previous message from her girlfriend, she hit Reply All. Her secret was sent to dozens of people she didn't even know (including me), plus the aforementioned ex and his new boyfriend. As if that weren't bad enough, she did this two more times in quick succession!

9. Spamming as a result of forwarding email.

Forwarding emails can be a great way to quickly bring someone up to speed on a subject without having to write up a summary email, but if you aren't careful, forwarding emails can create a significant security threat for yourself and the earlier recipients of the email. As an email is forwarded, the recipients of the mail (until that point in time) are automatically listed in the body of the email. As the chain keeps moving forward, more and more recipient ids are placed on the list.

Unfortunately, if a spammer or someone just looking to make a quick buck gets a hold of the email, they can then sell the entire list of email ids and then everyone will start to get spammed. It only takes a few seconds to delete all the previous recipient ids before forwarding a piece of mail, and it can avoid the terrible situation of you being the cause of all your friends or coworkers getting spammed.

Making backups and keeping records

10. Failing to back up emails.

Emails are not just for idle chatting, but can also be used to make legally binding contracts, major financial decisions, and conduct professional meetings. Just as you would keep a hard copy of other important business and personal documents, it is important that you regularly back up your email to preserve a record if your email client crashes and loses data (It happened to Gmail as recently as December 2006).

Thankfully, most email providers make it rather simple to back up your email by allowing you to export emails to a particular folder and then just creating a copy of the folder and storing it onto a writeable CD, DVD, removable disk, or any other type of media. If that simple exporting process sounds too complicated, you can just buy automated backup software that will take care of the whole thing for you. Whether you purchase the software or decide to back up manually, it is important that you make and follow a regular backup schedule, as this is the sort of thing that new email users tend to just put off. The frequency of backups necessary for you will of course depend on your email usage, but under no circumstances should it be done less frequently than every 3 months.

11. Mobile access: Presuming a backup exists.

Mobile email access, such as through BlackBrey, has revolutionized the way we think about email; no longer is it tied to a PC, but rather it can be checked on-the-go anywhere. Most new BlackBerry users simply assume that a copy of the emails they check and delete off the BlackBerry will still be available on their home or office computer.

It is important to keep in mind, however, that some email servers and client software download emails to the Blackberry device and then delete them from the server. Thus, for some mobile email access devices, if you delete it from the device, you have deleted it from your Inbox.

Just be aware of the default settings of your email client and make sure that if you want a copy of the email retained, you have adjusted the email client's settings to make it happen. And preferably make sure of this before you decide to delete that important email.

12. Thinking that an erased email is gone forever.

We've all sent an embarrassing or unfortunate email and sighed relief when it was finally deleted, thinking the whole episode was behind us. Think again. Just because you delete an email message from your inbox and the sender deletes it from their 'Sent' inbox, does not mean that the email is lost forever. In fact, messages that are deleted often still exist in backup folders on remote servers for years, and can be retrieved by skilled professionals.

So start to think of what you write in an email as a permanent document. Be careful about what you put into writing, because it can come back to haunt you many years after you assumed it was gone forever.

Avoiding fraudulent email

13. Believing you won the lottery … and other scam titles.

Spammers use a wide variety of clever titles to get you to open emails which they fill with all sorts of bad things. New email users often make the mistake of opening these emails. So in an effort to bring you up to speed, let me tell you quickly:

You have not won the Irish Lotto, the Yahoo Lottery, or any other big cash prize.
There is no actual Nigerian King or Prince trying to send you $10 million.
Your Bank Account Details do not need to be reconfirmed immediately.
You do not have an unclaimed inheritance.
You never actually sent that "Returned Mail".
The News Headline email is not just someone informing you about the daily news.
You have not won an iPod Nano.

14. Not recognizing phishing attacks in email content.

While never opening a phishing email is the best way to secure your computer, even the most experienced email user will occasionally accidentally open up a phishing email. At this point, the key to limiting your damage is recognizing the phishing email for what it is.

Phishing is a type of online fraud wherein the sender of the email tries to trick you into giving out personal passwords or banking information. The sender will typically steal the logo from a well-known bank or PayPal and try to format the email to look like it comes from the bank. Usually the phishing email asks for you to click on a link in order to confirm your banking information or password, but it may just ask you to reply to the email with your personal information.

Whatever form the phishing attempt takes, the goal is to fool you into entering your information into something which appears to be safe and secure, but in fact is just a dummy site set up by the scammer. If you provide the phisher with personal information, he will use that information to try to steal your identity and your money.

Signs of phishing include:

A logo that looks distorted or stretched.
Email that refers to you as "Dear Customer" or "Dear User" rather than including your actual name.
Email that warns you that an account of yours will be shut down unless you reconfirm your billing information immediately.
An email threatening legal action.
Email which comes from an account similar, but different from, the one the company usually uses.
An email that claims 'Security Compromises' or 'Security Threats' and requires immediate action.

If you suspect that an email is a phishing attempt, the best defense is to never open the email in the first place. But assuming you have already opened it, do not reply or click on the link in the email. If you want to verify the message, manually type in the URL of the company into your browser instead of clicking on the embedded link.

15. Sending personal and financial information via email.

Banks and online stores provide, almost without exception, a secured section on their website where you can input your personal and financial information. They do this precisely because email, no matter how well protected, is more easily hacked than well secured sites. Consequently, you should avoid writing to your bank via email and consider any online store that requests that you send them private information via email suspect.

This same rule of avoiding placing financial information in emails to online businesses also holds true for personal emails. If, for example, you need to give your credit card information to your college student child, it is far more secure to do so over the phone than via email.

16. Unsubscribing to newsletters you never subscribed to.

A common technique used by spammers is to send out thousands of fake newsletters from organizations with an "unsubscribe" link on the bottom of the newsletter. Email users who then enter their email into the supposed "unsubscribe" list are then sent loads of spam. So if you don't specifically remember subscribing to the newsletter, you are better off just blacklisting the email address, rather than following the link and possibly picking up a Trojan horse or unknowingly signing yourself up for yet more spam.

Avoiding malware

17. Trusting your friends email.

Most new internet users are very careful when it comes to emails from senders they don't recognize. But when a friend sends an email, all caution goes out the window as they just assume it is safe because they know that the sender wouldn't intend to hurt them. The truth is, an email from a friend's ID is just as likely to contain a virus or malware as a stranger's. The reason is that most malware is circulated by people who have no idea they are sending it, because hackers are using their computer as a zombie.

It is important to maintain and keep updated email scanning and Anti-virus software, and to use it to scan ALL incoming emails.

18. Deleting spam instead of blacklisting it.

An email blacklist is a user created list of email accounts that are labeled as spammers. When you 'blacklist' an email sender, you tell your email client to stop trusting emails from this particular sender and to start assuming that they are spam.

Unfortunately, new internet users are often timid to use the blacklist feature on their email client, and instead just delete spam emails. While not every piece of spam is from repeat senders, a surprising amount of it is. So by training yourself to hit the blacklist button instead of the delete button when confronted with spam, you can, in the course of a few months, drastically limit the amount of spam that reaches your Inbox.

19. Disabling the email spam filter.

New email users typically do not start out with a lot of spam in their email account and thus do not value the help that an email spam filter can provide at the beginning of their email usage. Because no spam filter is perfect, initially the hassle of having to look through one's spam box looking for wrongly blocked emails leads many new email users to instead just disable their email spam filter altogether.

However, as an email account gets older it tends to pick up more spam, and without the spam filter an email account can quickly become unwieldy. So instead of disabling their filter early on, new internet users should take the time to whitelist emails from friends that get caught up in the spam filter. Then, when the levels of spam start to pick up, the email account will remain useful and fewer and fewer friends will get caught up in the filter.

20. Failing to scan all email attachments.

Nine out of every ten viruses that infect a computer reach it through an email attachment. Yet despite this ratio, many people still do not scan all incoming email attachments. Maybe it is our experience with snail mail, but often when we see an email with an attachment from someone we know, we just assume that the mail and its attachment are safe. Of course that assumption is wrong, as most email viruses are sent by 'Zombies' which have infected a computer and caused it to send out viruses without the owner even knowing.

What makes this oversight even more scandalous is the fact that a number of free email clients provide an email attachment scanner built-in. For example, if you use Gmail or Yahoo! for your email, every email and attachment you send or receive is automatically scanned. So if you do not want to invest in a third-party scanner and your email provider does not provide attachment scanning built-in, you should access your attachments through an email provider that offers free virus scanning by first forwarding your attachments to that account before opening them.

Keeping hackers at bay

21. Sharing your account information with others.

We've all done it – we need an urgent mail checked, and we call up our spouse or friend and request them to check our email on our behalf. Of course, we trust these people, but once the password is known to anybody other than you, your account is no longer as secure as it was.

The real problem is that your friend might not use the same security measures that you do. Your friend might be accessing his email through an unsecured wireless account, he may not keep his anti-virus software up to date, or he might be infected with a keyogger virus that automatically steals your password once he enters it. So ensure that you are the only person that knows your personal access information, and if you write it down, make sure to do so in a way that outsiders won't be able to understand easily what they are looking at if they happen to find your records.

22. Using simple and easy-to-guess passwords.

Hackers use computer programs that scroll through common names to compile possible user names, and then send spam emails to those usernames. When you open that spam email, a little hidden piece of code in the email sends a message back to the hacker letting him know that the account is valid, at which point they turn to the task of trying to guess your password.

Hackers often create programs which cycle through common English words and number combinations in order to try to guess a password. As a consequence, passwords that consist of a single word, a name, or a date are frequently "guessed" by hackers. So when creating a password use uncommon number and letter combinations which do not form a word found in a dictionary. A strong password should have a minimum of eight characters, be as meaningless as possible, as well as use both upper and lowercase letters. Creating a tough password means that the hacker's computer program will have to scroll through tens of thousands of options before guessing your password, and in that time most hackers simply give up.

23. Failing to encrypt your important emails.

No matter how many steps you take to minimize the chance that your email is being monitored by hackers, you should always assume that someone else is watching whatever comes in and out of your computer. Given this assumption, it is important to encrypt your emails to make sure that if someone is monitoring your account, at least they can't understand what you're saying.

While there are some top-of-the-line email encryption services for those with a big budget, if you are new to email and just want a simple and cheap but effective solution, you can follow these step-by-step 20 minute instructions to install PGP, the most common email encryption standard. Encrypting all your email may be unrealistic, but some mail is too sensitive to send in the clear, and for those emails, PGP is an important email security step.

24. Not encrypting your wireless connection.

While encrypting your important emails makes it hard for hackers who have access to your email to understand what they say, it is even better to keep hackers from getting access to your emails in the first place.

One of the most vulnerable points in an emails trip from you to the email recipient is the point between your laptop and the wireless router that you use to connect to the internet. Consequently, it is important that you encrypt your wifi network with the WPA2 encryption standard. The upgrade process is relatively simple and straightforward, even for the newest internet user, and the fifteen minutes it takes are well worth the step up in email security.

25. Failing to use digital signatures.

The law now recognizes email as an important form of communication for major undertakings such as signing a contract or entering into a financial agreement. While the ability to enter into these contracts online has made all of our lives easier, it has also created the added concern of someone forging your emails and entering into agreements on your behalf without your consent.

One way to combat email forgery is to use a digital signature whenever you sign an important email. A digital signature will help prove who and from what computer an email comes from, and that the email has not been altered in transit. By establishing the habit of using an email signature whenever you sign important emails, you will not only make it harder for the other party to those agreements to try to modify the email when they want to get out of it, but it will also give you extra credibility when someone tries to claim that you have agreed to a contract via email that you never did.

For a quick primer on digital signatures, you can read YoudZone and Wikipedia's articles on the subject.

This article is intended to provide you with the basic information you need to avoid many of the email security pitfalls that frequently trip up new email users. While no single article can cover even the basics of email security, avoiding the 25 common mistakes listed in this article will make a dramatic difference in improving the safety and security of your computer, your personal information, and your emails.