You may be wondering why Nokia, the world's mobile phone leader, is finally entering the personal computer market. Well, as Kai Oistamo, Nokia's executive vice president for devices, summed it up, "A growing number of people want the computing power of a PC with the full benefits of mobility ... and the Nokia Booklet 3G is a natural evolution for us."
After more than 25 years as a pioneer and leader in the mobile industry, Nokia now is rocking the PC world with the new, Windows-based Nokia Booklet 3G.
So is it a netbook or laptop? The 10.1-inch screen and Atom processor put it clearly in the netbook market, but, according to Wired, it also comes with some extras you won't find elsewhere - the kind of extras you'd expect from a cell phone manufacturer: "Nokia doesn't make phones. It makes portable devices. And it appears the Finnish company also doesn't make netbooks. Instead it makes "mini-laptops . "
"You could call it a fancy netbook," another site, Engadget, writes, "but that screen is higher res than your average Eee, and it also sports integrated 3G wireless and a hot-swappable SIM card, so it's definitely trying to define its own niche."
There is an Intel Atom Z530 running at 1.6 GHz, 1 GB of memory and a 120 GB hard drive. The Booklet 3G promises to deliver longer operating time with up to 12 hours of battery life. A full-function PC, the new mini-laptop weighs 1.25 kilograms, with a thickness of slightly more than 2 centimeters. It also offers a broad range of connectivity options, including 3G/ HSPA and Wi-Fi.
Its talents don't end there. The mini-laptop also comes with an HDMI port for HD video out, a front-facing camera, integrated Bluetooth and an SD card reader. Other features include the 10-inch glass HD-ready display and integrated A-GPS which work with the Ovi Maps gadget. The Nokia Booklet 3G also can access and play back millions of tracks through the Nokia Music Store, or using Ovi Suite to sync seamlessly from your Nokia smartphone to your mini-laptop.
Fortunately, I had the opportunity to get hands-on with the ultra-portable device at Nokia World 2009 (Sept. 2-3) in Stuttgart, Germany. I had the impression that it really looks like a notebook, rather than a common netbook. It even deserves its premium positioning. Its unibody aluminum chassis feels as slick as an Apple's MacBook Pro. Its soft keyboard with well-spaced buttons made me enjoying typing. The trackpad also is large.
Why does the ultra-portable use Windows 7? Instead of, let's say, Maemo software as implemented on the new-launched N900? (The N900 is Nokia's latest generation of Internet Tablets using the new Linux-based Maemo 5 software.)
In a group interview during the Nokia World, Jonas Geust, vice president of Explore, said it's a pragmatic way for Nokia to enter the laptop market by using Microsoft's latest operating system. Moreover, "Maemo itself, and also Symbian, so far, couldn't be used for a larger screen like a notebook," he said.
The Nokia Booklet 3G netbook will cost 575 euros (US$816) before subsidies and taxes, but according to Nokia executive vice president Anssi Vanjoki, the company expects the device to be cheaper when it reaches consumers as a result of subsidies by network operators.
However, getting some operators to subsidize the netbook may be difficult, according to Geoff Blaber, analyst at CCS Insight. As PC World reports, Nokia's plan to push a suite of its own online services with the Booklet 3G will not sit well with carriers offering competing services.
Jonas admitted that the Booklet 3G is not designed as a cheapest notebook. "It's a stylish notebook with robust connectivity and longer operating time," he said. "We expect everybody will love the pocketable notebook we offer."
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Microsoft, Yahoo, Amazon to fight Google book deal
Three of Google's largest rivals are joining a coalition to oppose a legal settlement that would give the Internet search leader digital rights to millions of copyrighted books.
Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon.com are all part of a group being called the Open Book Alliance. It's being put together by the Internet Archive, a longtime critic of Google's digital book crusade.
Peter Brantley, an Internet Archive executive, disclosed the plans to forge the alliance in a Thursday interview.
Google contends its rivals' objections are rooted in a fear of more competition in the digital book market.
The class-action settlement that would expand Google's digital library is scheduled to be reviewed in an Oct. 7 court hearing.
Microsoft, Yahoo and Amazon.com are all part of a group being called the Open Book Alliance. It's being put together by the Internet Archive, a longtime critic of Google's digital book crusade.
Peter Brantley, an Internet Archive executive, disclosed the plans to forge the alliance in a Thursday interview.
Google contends its rivals' objections are rooted in a fear of more competition in the digital book market.
The class-action settlement that would expand Google's digital library is scheduled to be reviewed in an Oct. 7 court hearing.
Yahoo sees $150M windfall from Alibaba.com sale
Yahoo has cashed out of its investment in China's leading e-commerce site, Alibaba.com.
The sale announced Monday is expected to generate a pretax windfall of about $150 million for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo. The Internet company had owned a 1 percent stake in Alibaba.com.
Yahoo invested about $100 million in Alibaba.com as part of an initial public offering completed in November 2007. The shares have soared since then, and Yahoo decided it was time to capitalize on the run-up.
Yahoo still holds a roughly 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com's owner, the Alibaba Group.
In a statement, Yahoo indicated it intended to hold on to its inv
The sale announced Monday is expected to generate a pretax windfall of about $150 million for Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo. The Internet company had owned a 1 percent stake in Alibaba.com.
Yahoo invested about $100 million in Alibaba.com as part of an initial public offering completed in November 2007. The shares have soared since then, and Yahoo decided it was time to capitalize on the run-up.
Yahoo still holds a roughly 40 percent stake in Alibaba.com's owner, the Alibaba Group.
In a statement, Yahoo indicated it intended to hold on to its inv
Particle collider: Black hole or crucial machine?
In this file photo dated Sept. 10, 2008, European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) scientists control computer screens showing traces on Atlas experiment of the first protons injected in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) during its switch on operation in CERN's control room, near Geneva, Switzerland. AP/Fabrice Coffrini
When launched to great fanfare nearly a year ago, some feared the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck in the world. It turns out the Hadron may be the black hole.
The world's largest scientific machine has cost $10 billion, has worked only nine days and has yet to smash an atom. The unique equipment in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel with cathedral-sized detectors deep beneath the Swiss-French border has been assembled by specialists in many countries, with 8,970 physicists eagerly awaiting the startup.
But despite the expense, thousands of physicists around the world, many of whom hope to conduct experiments here, insist that it will work and that it is crucial to mankind's understanding of the universe.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, said Friday it would restart the collider in November at half power under pressure from scientists eager to conduct experiments to unlock secrets of the universe.
But spokesman James Gillies told The Associated Press they would have to shut down yet again next year to finish repairs so that the Large Hadron Collider can operate at full energy of 7 trillion electron volts - seven times higher than any other machine in the world.
CERN has been working since late last year to repair the damage caused by a faulty electrical joint. The breakdown occurred nine days after the spectacular start up of the $10 billion machine last Sept. 10 when beams of subatomic particles were sent around the accelerator in opposite directions.
Fifty-three massive electrical magnets had to be cleaned and repaired after the failure. Tons of supercold liquid helium spilled out of the system, and a sooty residue had to be cleared from the tubes that are meant to be pristine, holding a vacuum in which subatomic particles can whiz around the tunnel at near the speed of light at temperatures colder than outer space.
Michio Kaku, a physics professor at City University of New York who is an outspoken critic of waste in big science projects, defends the CERN collider as a crucial investment.
"The Europeans and the Americans are not throwing $10 billion down this gigantic tube for nothing," Kaku said. "We're exploring the very forefront of physics and cosmology with the Large Hadron Collider because we want to have a window on creation, we want to recreate a tiny piece of Genesis to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe."
He said the biggest cause of the "bad accident" last year was "probably due to human error caused by rushing the project."
"But I view it as a temporary black eye. We'll get it up and running," Kaku said.
CERN expects repairs and additional safety systems to cost about 40 million Swiss francs ($37 million) over the course of several years, covered by the 20-nation organization's budget.
The collider emerged as the world's largest after the U.S. canceled the Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas in 1993. Congress pulled the plug after costs soared, and questions were raised about the value of the science it could produce.
Gillies says all 20 of CERN's member nations have remained supportive and that four other countries - Cyprus, Israel, Serbia and Turkey - have asked to join. A fifth country - Slovenia - has expressed interest.
Japan, India, Russia and the U.S. are observer countries that have made sizable contributions to the CERN project.
CERN is now aiming to restart the machine in November with beams of subatomic particles initially running at 3.5 trillion electron volts, or TeV. That's only half the level the machine was designed for, but it's still 3 1/2 times higher than the second most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago. During last year's brief startup phase, the CERN collider only operated at half the Fermilab level.
Even as the machine is being calibrated this winter, scientists will be able to conduct experiments, collecting data on the collisions of protons and lead ions in the accelerator.
They hope the higher energy will enable them to see particles so far undetected, such as the elusive Higgs boson, which in theory gives mass to other particles - and objects and creatures - in the universe.
Physicists have used smaller, room-temperature colliders for decades to study the atom. They once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom's nucleus, but the colliders showed that they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles. And they still have other questions about antimatter, dark matter and particle mass they want to answer with CERN's new collider.
They hope the fragments that come off the collisions will show on a tiny scale what happened one-trillionth of a second after the so-called Big Bang, which many scientists theorize was the massive explosion that formed the universe. The theory holds that the universe was rapidly cooling at that stage and matter was changing quickly.
Some skeptics have expressed fears the high-energy collision of protons could imperil the Earth by creating micro black holes - subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.
CERN and leading physicists dismiss the fears and maintain the project is safe.
The collider's teething problems are typical of complicated accelerators, but it has been especially frustrating to physicists from around the world, who already have been waiting for years to conduct their experiments on the machine.
"But the LHC is an example of an enormously complicated machine that is pushing the edge of accelerator technology, and it is not surprising that it has had some unanticipated problems," Neal Lane, former President Bill Clinton's science adviser and former director of the National Science Foundation.
If the collider can be started soon, it will produce valuable results, said Lane, now a a physicist and public policy professor at Rice University.
But, he added, "If there are many more surprises, further delays, failure to meet design specifications over the next few years, then the field of experimental particle physics, worldwide, could be set back for a decade or more. The stakes are very high!"
Gillies told the AP that CERN management decided at the beginning of the year that it would not try to repair all parts of the collider this year.
"Otherwise, we would never have had a beam before halfway through next year," he said.
Gillies said CERN experts have examined every one of the 1,600 superconducting magnets and each of the 10,000 electrical splices as well as copper protection to carry away any spillover current to prevent damage to the magnets if they heat up as happened Sept. 19.
They decided some of the splices need to be repaired before the collider goes to full power, but that they can operate safely up to 5 TeV without further repairs now.
That has been set as the highest energy for the collider before its next shutdown for maintenance, probably in November 2010. Then the further repairs will be made so that the energy level can be ramped up.
Rolf Heuer, who has taken over as CERN's director-general since the failure, said the collider has been studied very carefully and is much better understood than a year ago.
"We can look forward with confidence and excitement to a good run through the winter and into next year," Heuer said.
When launched to great fanfare nearly a year ago, some feared the Large Hadron Collider would create a black hole that would suck in the world. It turns out the Hadron may be the black hole.
The world's largest scientific machine has cost $10 billion, has worked only nine days and has yet to smash an atom. The unique equipment in a 17-mile (27-kilometer) circular tunnel with cathedral-sized detectors deep beneath the Swiss-French border has been assembled by specialists in many countries, with 8,970 physicists eagerly awaiting the startup.
But despite the expense, thousands of physicists around the world, many of whom hope to conduct experiments here, insist that it will work and that it is crucial to mankind's understanding of the universe.
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, said Friday it would restart the collider in November at half power under pressure from scientists eager to conduct experiments to unlock secrets of the universe.
But spokesman James Gillies told The Associated Press they would have to shut down yet again next year to finish repairs so that the Large Hadron Collider can operate at full energy of 7 trillion electron volts - seven times higher than any other machine in the world.
CERN has been working since late last year to repair the damage caused by a faulty electrical joint. The breakdown occurred nine days after the spectacular start up of the $10 billion machine last Sept. 10 when beams of subatomic particles were sent around the accelerator in opposite directions.
Fifty-three massive electrical magnets had to be cleaned and repaired after the failure. Tons of supercold liquid helium spilled out of the system, and a sooty residue had to be cleared from the tubes that are meant to be pristine, holding a vacuum in which subatomic particles can whiz around the tunnel at near the speed of light at temperatures colder than outer space.
Michio Kaku, a physics professor at City University of New York who is an outspoken critic of waste in big science projects, defends the CERN collider as a crucial investment.
"The Europeans and the Americans are not throwing $10 billion down this gigantic tube for nothing," Kaku said. "We're exploring the very forefront of physics and cosmology with the Large Hadron Collider because we want to have a window on creation, we want to recreate a tiny piece of Genesis to unlock some of the greatest secrets of the universe."
He said the biggest cause of the "bad accident" last year was "probably due to human error caused by rushing the project."
"But I view it as a temporary black eye. We'll get it up and running," Kaku said.
CERN expects repairs and additional safety systems to cost about 40 million Swiss francs ($37 million) over the course of several years, covered by the 20-nation organization's budget.
The collider emerged as the world's largest after the U.S. canceled the Superconducting Super Collider being built in Texas in 1993. Congress pulled the plug after costs soared, and questions were raised about the value of the science it could produce.
Gillies says all 20 of CERN's member nations have remained supportive and that four other countries - Cyprus, Israel, Serbia and Turkey - have asked to join. A fifth country - Slovenia - has expressed interest.
Japan, India, Russia and the U.S. are observer countries that have made sizable contributions to the CERN project.
CERN is now aiming to restart the machine in November with beams of subatomic particles initially running at 3.5 trillion electron volts, or TeV. That's only half the level the machine was designed for, but it's still 3 1/2 times higher than the second most powerful accelerator, the Tevatron at Fermilab outside Chicago. During last year's brief startup phase, the CERN collider only operated at half the Fermilab level.
Even as the machine is being calibrated this winter, scientists will be able to conduct experiments, collecting data on the collisions of protons and lead ions in the accelerator.
They hope the higher energy will enable them to see particles so far undetected, such as the elusive Higgs boson, which in theory gives mass to other particles - and objects and creatures - in the universe.
Physicists have used smaller, room-temperature colliders for decades to study the atom. They once thought protons and neutrons were the smallest components of the atom's nucleus, but the colliders showed that they are made of quarks and gluons and that there are other forces and particles. And they still have other questions about antimatter, dark matter and particle mass they want to answer with CERN's new collider.
They hope the fragments that come off the collisions will show on a tiny scale what happened one-trillionth of a second after the so-called Big Bang, which many scientists theorize was the massive explosion that formed the universe. The theory holds that the universe was rapidly cooling at that stage and matter was changing quickly.
Some skeptics have expressed fears the high-energy collision of protons could imperil the Earth by creating micro black holes - subatomic versions of collapsed stars whose gravity is so strong they can suck in planets and other stars.
CERN and leading physicists dismiss the fears and maintain the project is safe.
The collider's teething problems are typical of complicated accelerators, but it has been especially frustrating to physicists from around the world, who already have been waiting for years to conduct their experiments on the machine.
"But the LHC is an example of an enormously complicated machine that is pushing the edge of accelerator technology, and it is not surprising that it has had some unanticipated problems," Neal Lane, former President Bill Clinton's science adviser and former director of the National Science Foundation.
If the collider can be started soon, it will produce valuable results, said Lane, now a a physicist and public policy professor at Rice University.
But, he added, "If there are many more surprises, further delays, failure to meet design specifications over the next few years, then the field of experimental particle physics, worldwide, could be set back for a decade or more. The stakes are very high!"
Gillies told the AP that CERN management decided at the beginning of the year that it would not try to repair all parts of the collider this year.
"Otherwise, we would never have had a beam before halfway through next year," he said.
Gillies said CERN experts have examined every one of the 1,600 superconducting magnets and each of the 10,000 electrical splices as well as copper protection to carry away any spillover current to prevent damage to the magnets if they heat up as happened Sept. 19.
They decided some of the splices need to be repaired before the collider goes to full power, but that they can operate safely up to 5 TeV without further repairs now.
That has been set as the highest energy for the collider before its next shutdown for maintenance, probably in November 2010. Then the further repairs will be made so that the energy level can be ramped up.
Rolf Heuer, who has taken over as CERN's director-general since the failure, said the collider has been studied very carefully and is much better understood than a year ago.
"We can look forward with confidence and excitement to a good run through the winter and into next year," Heuer said.
Stay safe in a virus-ridden world
Today, who dares work and go online without the protection of a set of security tools?
You can do it of course — if you don’t use a computer at all in your work. But the moment you climb into the Internet, there is no choice. A strong security application is just as essential to using a computer as its operating system.
Of course, those who use operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS may not need an anti-virus as badly as those who run Microsoft Windows. That is because the majority of the personal computers in the world run Windows, and it gives the mentally deranged virus makers a strong incentive to be creative in the totally wrong way.
There are a lot of ways viruses, Trojans and worms — Kaspersky chooses to call them collectively “malware” — can wreak havoc on our computers. Most common nowadays are those that come through email, hidden programs on websites and exchanges of USB drives.
There are a number of great anti-virus programs out there. They include AVG, McAfee and Norton. Most of them are available in bootlegged CDs or DVDs and we can get these media in almost every shopping center in Jakarta.
One thing that we are all aware of is that new viruses are created all the time and the pirated security programs will have to be updated continually. And if you do get a pirated version, remember they are usually out of date and will not protect you from the latest threats; as it isn’t a licensed copy, you cannot get the latest updates from the Web.
My daughter recently got a new HP Compaq notebook because her course required her to take her assignments wherever her teacher wanted to hold their class meeting. The new Compaq came with different Internet security software, but I wanted to use the notebook to try out Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, which the company distributed to the media for review purposes. My daughter also needs strong security protection because her friends may use the notebook with different USB drives.
Erwin Yovitanto, Kaspersky product manager at Astrindo Starvision, one of the main distributors of Kaspersky products in Indonesia, told me that I had to uninstall any security software already on the system before I could install Kaspersky. That was easy. The Compaq notebook had Windows Vista, so all I had to do was go to the Control Panel, click on the Programs and Features icon, select the existing security package and remove it completely. The installation of the full package was very quick.
Once installed, Kaspersky checked to find out whether its data files were current. To make them current, all I did was click on the Update Now button.
At a glance, the Kaspersky main window reminded me a lot of McAfee’s, although the green corporate color was obvious. Erwin explained that underneath the interface are a lot of improvements in the features that the previous version already had.
For example, Parental Control now allows us to limit the time a child can use the computer or browse the Internet per week. We can even specify from what hour to what hour a child can use the computer on which day. Of course, if necessary, we can block access to websites that contain pornography, gambling or any other unwanted materials.
Safe Run is one of the most important improvements in Kaspersky Internet Security 2010. It serves as a sandbox, much like the one that DENSUS 88, the Indonesian police’s antiterrorism detachment, uses when detonating a bomb. So, if you really need to run a downloaded program that Kaspersky considers dangerous, it will be run in quarantine. If the bomb explodes, the damage will be contained.
Another important feature is called Urgent Detection System, or UDS, although this is also available in the competing security packages. It allows participating users to send the results of their scans to Kaspersky servers to be analyzed.
In addition, Kaspersky will intelligently monitor and evaluate suspicious software on our computer until it is considered safe. This feature makes use of the data sent by around 10 million Kaspersky users who willingly participate. The good thing is that these users remain anonymous.
What I like about the latest and complete version is that, while it has more features, it runs lighter even on Vista. By the way, according to Erwin, its compatibility with Windows 7 has also been perfected. Let us see the truth when Windows 7 is launched next month.
How crucial is it to have security protection on your computer? In this country, it is exceedingly important. Indonesia has quite a bunch of virus makers who are very productive in creating security risks that put careless users in misery.
Apparently, Indonesia is so important that Eugene Kaspersky, the co-founder and CEO of the security company, will be visiting Indonesia from Oct. 7 to 11.
Regardless of which of the competing Internet security products you choose, one thing is extremely clear: You must invest in a good one and renew your subscription every year to get the latest updates.
You can do it of course — if you don’t use a computer at all in your work. But the moment you climb into the Internet, there is no choice. A strong security application is just as essential to using a computer as its operating system.
Of course, those who use operating systems such as Linux and Mac OS may not need an anti-virus as badly as those who run Microsoft Windows. That is because the majority of the personal computers in the world run Windows, and it gives the mentally deranged virus makers a strong incentive to be creative in the totally wrong way.
There are a lot of ways viruses, Trojans and worms — Kaspersky chooses to call them collectively “malware” — can wreak havoc on our computers. Most common nowadays are those that come through email, hidden programs on websites and exchanges of USB drives.
There are a number of great anti-virus programs out there. They include AVG, McAfee and Norton. Most of them are available in bootlegged CDs or DVDs and we can get these media in almost every shopping center in Jakarta.
One thing that we are all aware of is that new viruses are created all the time and the pirated security programs will have to be updated continually. And if you do get a pirated version, remember they are usually out of date and will not protect you from the latest threats; as it isn’t a licensed copy, you cannot get the latest updates from the Web.
My daughter recently got a new HP Compaq notebook because her course required her to take her assignments wherever her teacher wanted to hold their class meeting. The new Compaq came with different Internet security software, but I wanted to use the notebook to try out Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, which the company distributed to the media for review purposes. My daughter also needs strong security protection because her friends may use the notebook with different USB drives.
Erwin Yovitanto, Kaspersky product manager at Astrindo Starvision, one of the main distributors of Kaspersky products in Indonesia, told me that I had to uninstall any security software already on the system before I could install Kaspersky. That was easy. The Compaq notebook had Windows Vista, so all I had to do was go to the Control Panel, click on the Programs and Features icon, select the existing security package and remove it completely. The installation of the full package was very quick.
Once installed, Kaspersky checked to find out whether its data files were current. To make them current, all I did was click on the Update Now button.
At a glance, the Kaspersky main window reminded me a lot of McAfee’s, although the green corporate color was obvious. Erwin explained that underneath the interface are a lot of improvements in the features that the previous version already had.
For example, Parental Control now allows us to limit the time a child can use the computer or browse the Internet per week. We can even specify from what hour to what hour a child can use the computer on which day. Of course, if necessary, we can block access to websites that contain pornography, gambling or any other unwanted materials.
Safe Run is one of the most important improvements in Kaspersky Internet Security 2010. It serves as a sandbox, much like the one that DENSUS 88, the Indonesian police’s antiterrorism detachment, uses when detonating a bomb. So, if you really need to run a downloaded program that Kaspersky considers dangerous, it will be run in quarantine. If the bomb explodes, the damage will be contained.
Another important feature is called Urgent Detection System, or UDS, although this is also available in the competing security packages. It allows participating users to send the results of their scans to Kaspersky servers to be analyzed.
In addition, Kaspersky will intelligently monitor and evaluate suspicious software on our computer until it is considered safe. This feature makes use of the data sent by around 10 million Kaspersky users who willingly participate. The good thing is that these users remain anonymous.
What I like about the latest and complete version is that, while it has more features, it runs lighter even on Vista. By the way, according to Erwin, its compatibility with Windows 7 has also been perfected. Let us see the truth when Windows 7 is launched next month.
How crucial is it to have security protection on your computer? In this country, it is exceedingly important. Indonesia has quite a bunch of virus makers who are very productive in creating security risks that put careless users in misery.
Apparently, Indonesia is so important that Eugene Kaspersky, the co-founder and CEO of the security company, will be visiting Indonesia from Oct. 7 to 11.
Regardless of which of the competing Internet security products you choose, one thing is extremely clear: You must invest in a good one and renew your subscription every year to get the latest updates.
Getting your password right
Last week I talked about how someone hacked into my Facebook account. They did that by guessing my password.
I was weak, and so was the password. I guess I'd not thought my Facebook account worth cracking into. But that was poor thinking. Anything with a password is worth hacking into. Even if it's only to dig around for more things worth hacking into.
Say someone hacks into your email. They'll then get access to all the emails you've saved - which may include bank account numbers, other passwords - all sorts of stuff.
So, rule number one of passwords is: It should always be a good one.
Rule number two: No two passwords should be the same.
This is the bit where you all groan. How can we possibly have different passwords for all the dozens of services we're asked to think up passwords to?
Well, it's not hard. You just need a system. Several systems, actually, but let's keep it simple for now.
Firstly, what makes a good password?
For starters it shouldn't be a word. A word can be guessed. Or attacked - the hacker will first throw a dictionary - actually, just a long list of thousands of words - at your password, and try all those.
So if your password is a word, then it's easy pickings. Probably just a couple of seconds.
So if it's not a word, what can it be?
A phrase is a good one. Boardwalk, for example, is a word. Guessed in a second. Undertheboardwalk is a phrase. A dictionary attack is going to have a bit more trouble with that, because it's three words, and that makes it many times harder.
But still not impossible.
So how about putting some extra characters in there? Say, some underscores: under_the_boardwalk. Not bad. Adding characters that aren't letters is always good. Though still a little predictable.
How about putting something other than underscores? Exclamation marks, say?
All good. Now let's add some numbers.
The usual trick is to replace letters with numbers that look similar: 3 for e, for example. Or 0 for o. Not bad, but still a little predictable. That's when you need to get a little inventive.
One option, for example, might be to replace any letter on the top row of your QWERTY keyboard with the number or symbol above it (or above and to the right, say).
So r, for example, becomes 5. That would make our password und45!6h4!b0a5d3alk.
(Check it out on your keyboard to make sure I've not made any mistakes. And beware of non-standard keyboards - sometimes the layout is not identical, especially if they're non-English.)
But there we have an excellent password. Nineteen characters long - too long, you may find, for some systems, but nothing wrong with going long if you're allowed. The longer the password, the harder it is to hack.
Now I can hear the grumbles. This is way too complicated for me! How am I going to remember all these rules, even if I can remember the original password (or passphrase)?
Good questions. But if you do the same thing for all your passwords - replacing spaces with exclamation marks, lifting the top layer of letters up a row - then you'll find you remember the system for each one, even if you couldn't recite the passphrase off in your head. Once you're at the keyboard, you'll be able to navigate your way.
Now, of course, this is just one passphrase. You'll have to come up with a dozen or so more. Which is where your memories come in. Things you can remember easily, but a bad guy has no way of finding out.
Your kids' names are not good. Neither, surprisingly, is your birthday.
But the first song you kissed someone to? Or your top 10 favorite movies? A poem you were forced to learn at school to remember the Latin prepositions? A silly jingle for acne cream that hasn't been broadcast in 20 years but still rolls around your head?
These are all good sources of passwords.
The longer the better. If they're more than eight words, just use the first letter of each and you've got an eight letter password that won't make sense to anyone but yourself. Try to get four. When you've gathered, say, four of these, jumbled them up with some rules you've designed as above, then you're ready to deploy.
The next tricky bit is remembering which password you used with what website or service.
Here's a suggestion how. Time again to dig into your past. If say, one of your passwords is based on the song you were listening to when you first kissed, chances are you'll remember how old you were. So plot that age on a timeline of your life from birth to now - was it a third of the way through, or half way through? A quarter?
Now look at the website address or service you need to come up with a passphrase for.
Let's say it's Facebook. The first letter, f, is quite near the front of the alphabet, so let's try to find one of the passwords we've got which we can easily connect it to. In the case above, I'd connect it to the first quarter of my life until now (because f is so close to the beginning) so I'd choose my Latin rhyme, as I was about 10 when I learned it.
Whatever system you use for this, it needs to be a logical system - one that doesn't take much brain wracking to recall.
There's one more step. You've only got four passwords, and you've got more than four passwords you need. So you need to add some extra sauce.
In this case, from the service itself.
So, say it's Facebook. You could add some letters from the Facebook name to your password. Once again, it doesn't matter, what, so long as you do the same each time. You could preface your password with F, and suffix it with K.
Or that might be too obvious for you. How about the third and the fifth letters? Doesn't matter, so long as you do the same for each password you conjure up for each service.
You're nearly done.
I can still hear you grumbling. This is too hard! How am I going to remember this? Well, that's the good thing about these passwords. You don't need to; you can write them down.
Well, not the exact password, of course. But something that would trigger it.
For the Facebook password, if you had chosen the song you first kissed to, prefaced by the first and third letter of the service, you could write down somewhere: 13kiss.
That's not going to mean much to anyone but you.
The important thing is to have a system, and to use it for all passwords. Then all you have to do is remember the system, and write down whatever will jog your memory for that specific password. And of course, you can try - indeed, should try - other systems than mine.
And remember: However unimportant you think the data is, it's valuable to someone, so you should invest a bit of time and effort in a password that's worthy of it. Let me know your suggestions for how to further improve on passwords; I'm always up for more ideas.
I was weak, and so was the password. I guess I'd not thought my Facebook account worth cracking into. But that was poor thinking. Anything with a password is worth hacking into. Even if it's only to dig around for more things worth hacking into.
Say someone hacks into your email. They'll then get access to all the emails you've saved - which may include bank account numbers, other passwords - all sorts of stuff.
So, rule number one of passwords is: It should always be a good one.
Rule number two: No two passwords should be the same.
This is the bit where you all groan. How can we possibly have different passwords for all the dozens of services we're asked to think up passwords to?
Well, it's not hard. You just need a system. Several systems, actually, but let's keep it simple for now.
Firstly, what makes a good password?
For starters it shouldn't be a word. A word can be guessed. Or attacked - the hacker will first throw a dictionary - actually, just a long list of thousands of words - at your password, and try all those.
So if your password is a word, then it's easy pickings. Probably just a couple of seconds.
So if it's not a word, what can it be?
A phrase is a good one. Boardwalk, for example, is a word. Guessed in a second. Undertheboardwalk is a phrase. A dictionary attack is going to have a bit more trouble with that, because it's three words, and that makes it many times harder.
But still not impossible.
So how about putting some extra characters in there? Say, some underscores: under_the_boardwalk. Not bad. Adding characters that aren't letters is always good. Though still a little predictable.
How about putting something other than underscores? Exclamation marks, say?
All good. Now let's add some numbers.
The usual trick is to replace letters with numbers that look similar: 3 for e, for example. Or 0 for o. Not bad, but still a little predictable. That's when you need to get a little inventive.
One option, for example, might be to replace any letter on the top row of your QWERTY keyboard with the number or symbol above it (or above and to the right, say).
So r, for example, becomes 5. That would make our password und45!6h4!b0a5d3alk.
(Check it out on your keyboard to make sure I've not made any mistakes. And beware of non-standard keyboards - sometimes the layout is not identical, especially if they're non-English.)
But there we have an excellent password. Nineteen characters long - too long, you may find, for some systems, but nothing wrong with going long if you're allowed. The longer the password, the harder it is to hack.
Now I can hear the grumbles. This is way too complicated for me! How am I going to remember all these rules, even if I can remember the original password (or passphrase)?
Good questions. But if you do the same thing for all your passwords - replacing spaces with exclamation marks, lifting the top layer of letters up a row - then you'll find you remember the system for each one, even if you couldn't recite the passphrase off in your head. Once you're at the keyboard, you'll be able to navigate your way.
Now, of course, this is just one passphrase. You'll have to come up with a dozen or so more. Which is where your memories come in. Things you can remember easily, but a bad guy has no way of finding out.
Your kids' names are not good. Neither, surprisingly, is your birthday.
But the first song you kissed someone to? Or your top 10 favorite movies? A poem you were forced to learn at school to remember the Latin prepositions? A silly jingle for acne cream that hasn't been broadcast in 20 years but still rolls around your head?
These are all good sources of passwords.
The longer the better. If they're more than eight words, just use the first letter of each and you've got an eight letter password that won't make sense to anyone but yourself. Try to get four. When you've gathered, say, four of these, jumbled them up with some rules you've designed as above, then you're ready to deploy.
The next tricky bit is remembering which password you used with what website or service.
Here's a suggestion how. Time again to dig into your past. If say, one of your passwords is based on the song you were listening to when you first kissed, chances are you'll remember how old you were. So plot that age on a timeline of your life from birth to now - was it a third of the way through, or half way through? A quarter?
Now look at the website address or service you need to come up with a passphrase for.
Let's say it's Facebook. The first letter, f, is quite near the front of the alphabet, so let's try to find one of the passwords we've got which we can easily connect it to. In the case above, I'd connect it to the first quarter of my life until now (because f is so close to the beginning) so I'd choose my Latin rhyme, as I was about 10 when I learned it.
Whatever system you use for this, it needs to be a logical system - one that doesn't take much brain wracking to recall.
There's one more step. You've only got four passwords, and you've got more than four passwords you need. So you need to add some extra sauce.
In this case, from the service itself.
So, say it's Facebook. You could add some letters from the Facebook name to your password. Once again, it doesn't matter, what, so long as you do the same each time. You could preface your password with F, and suffix it with K.
Or that might be too obvious for you. How about the third and the fifth letters? Doesn't matter, so long as you do the same for each password you conjure up for each service.
You're nearly done.
I can still hear you grumbling. This is too hard! How am I going to remember this? Well, that's the good thing about these passwords. You don't need to; you can write them down.
Well, not the exact password, of course. But something that would trigger it.
For the Facebook password, if you had chosen the song you first kissed to, prefaced by the first and third letter of the service, you could write down somewhere: 13kiss.
That's not going to mean much to anyone but you.
The important thing is to have a system, and to use it for all passwords. Then all you have to do is remember the system, and write down whatever will jog your memory for that specific password. And of course, you can try - indeed, should try - other systems than mine.
And remember: However unimportant you think the data is, it's valuable to someone, so you should invest a bit of time and effort in a password that's worthy of it. Let me know your suggestions for how to further improve on passwords; I'm always up for more ideas.
Friday, September 11, 2009
Set the Desktop Icon Desktop With Shock
A large icon located on the desktop can be quite disturbing display. Especially if the location icon is not arranged neatly.
By using Shock Desktop you can easily adjust the position or location icon on the desktop. There are a variety of layouts to choose from, such as circle, Ellipse, heart, star, etc..
To change the layout icon you can click the right-Shock Desktop icon located in the systray, and then click Desktop Icon Layout menu.
If you pengen trying Shock Desktop, you can download it here
Search Engine: Google No. 1, Yahoo! No. 2, and Bing No. 3
Though its market share fell 0.3 percent compared to June, from 65 percent in June to 64.7 percent, Google is still the strongest search engine on the Internet.
Citing comScore data, which took the United States sample, as the country's largest Internet user based in fact that has recorded 13.6 billion searches during the month of July in the country.
"Google is still dominating the market with the acquisition of more than 50 percent share, exactly 64.7 percent. Followed by Yahoo with 19.3 percent. Compared to June, they decreased 0.3 percent while Microsoft Bing noted increased 0.5 percent to 8.9 percent, "said comScore in a report.
Perched on the fourth and fifth rank is Ask Network (3.9 percent) and AOL LLC Network (3.1 percent), which both share has not changed at all compared to the previous month.
If reviewed based on the number of searches, ComScore presented, the total searches were recorded throughout the month of July was 13.57 billion searches, down three percent dibandinkan previous month, ie 14.06 billion.
In the same month, Google's lead further by 8.78 billion searches. While Yahoo and Microsoft continue to haunt the bottom with each record 2.62 billion and 1.2 billion. While Ask and AOL LLC followed with each recorded a 536 million searches and 424 million searches
WWW = World Wide Wait
A humorist has managed to create an extension of the usual acronyms mentioned in the IT world. Of course, each letter stands for which there is not a representation of the true meaning of the acronym.
Here are the various acronyms in circulation, and its stands.
PCMCIA - People Can `t Memorize Computer Industry Acronyms
ISDN - It Still Does Nothing
SCSI - System Can `t See It
DOS - Defective Operating System
BASIC - Bill `s Attempt to Seize Industry Control
IBM - I Blame Microsoft
DEC - Do Expect Cuts
CD-ROM - Consumer Device, Rendered Obsolete in Months
OS / 2 - Obsolete Soon, Too.
WWW - World Wide Wait
MACINTOSH - Most Applications Crash; If Not, The Operating System Hangs
PENTIUM - produces Erroneous Numbers Through Incorrect Understanding of Mathematics
COBOL - Completely Obsolete Business Oriented Language
Amiga - A Merely insignificant Game Addiction
LISP - Lots of Infuriating & Silly Parenthesis
MIPS - Meaningless Indication of Processor Speed
WINDOWS - Will Install Needless Data On Whole System
MICROSOFT - Most Intelligent Customers Realize Our Software Only Fools Teenagers
RISC - Reduced Into Silly Code
Best Year 10 Antivirus 2009
Many anti-virus circulating in the world today, but which is best? Curious, here are the answers ...
According http://anti-virus-software-review.toptenreviews.com/, Top 10 Best Antivirus 2009 are: (seen on the results of user reviews and antivirus products of capabilities and features of each of these antivirus. As for speed scan, capat in identifying viruses and worms, ease of use, effectiveness, update databases, features, ease of installation, help and support.)
1. Bitdefender Antivirus (www.bitdefender.com)
2. Kaspersky Antivirus (www.kaspersky.com)
3. Webroot Antivirus (www.webroot.com)
4. ESET NOD32 (www.eset.com)
5. F-Secure Antivirus (www.f-secure.com)
6. AVG Antivirus (www.avg.com)
7. McAfee VirusScan (www.mcafee.com)
8. G Data Antivirus (www.gdatasoftware.com)
9. Norton Antivirus (www.symantec.com)
10. Trends Micro (www.trendmicro.com)
If you want to know more in detail, can try search on google or immediately wrote to his website each antivirus is. Hopefully useful. (akudansekitar.blogspot.com)
Beberapanya can download on the site netter www.ifwdb.com
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