Top 25 days in computing history

The path to modern-day computing is longer than many suspect, and strewn with interesting nuggets of information. These include:
- the inventor of e-mail can't remember when he got it working- Pac-Man was modelled on a pizza and called Puck-Man until vandals forced a name change- the first hard drive had a 5MB capacity and could only be moved by a fork-lift truck- in 1980, The Times reported with wonder that a word processor could be bought for £3,500- Deep Blue's chess victory over Garry Kasparov was described as a 'psychological triumph'.
For full details of these milestones, and other gems from the Times Archive, read on...

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A hands-on preview of Windows 7

Microsoft has released an early preview copy of its new operating system, Windows 7.
The release follows in the wake of Vista, which has been subject to fierce criticism from a number of users.
When Vista launched in January 2007, many complained that it ran slowly and failed to work at all with some programs and devices.
Corporate customers have been slow to switch from Windows XP to Vista, although Microsoft said that the operating system had an unfair press, and that it enjoyed record sales.
Despite this Microsoft has extended the life of Windows XP so PC makers can continue selling it to those that do not want to upgrade.

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Thousands hit in broad Web hack

Hackers have launched a massive Web hacking campaign, putting malicious links on as many as 10,000 servers, security vendor Kaspersky Lab warned Friday.
"We’re estimating that in the last two days alone, between 2,000 and 10,000 servers, mainly Western European and American ones, have been hacked," Kaspersky wrote on its Web site Friday, "It’s not yet clear who’s doing this."
The attackers are most likely using compromised accounts on the Web sites or launching what's known as a SQL injection attack, where hackers trick the Web site's software into inadvertently running malicious

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White House Computer Systems Attacked by Hackers

Authorities revealed that recently, computer systems at the White House have been hacked into, the police stating they believed the computer servers had been compromised by Chinese hackers, who thus came into the possession of several e-mails between government officials. The electronic correspondence did not contain any classified information, authorities added.
The hackers only breached the servers for short periods of time, just enough to steal the e-mails, ceasing each attack before United States computer experts could manage to patch the vulnerabilities in the systems.
U.S. government cyber intelligence professionals reckon that the hacking was sponsored by China’s government, reasoning that the targeted nature of the attacks had made them to reach that conclusion. Nevertheless, they have admitted of the fact that it was almost impossible to trace the electronic information theft back to the source.
The Chinese intelligence is known for its particular method of taking hold of bulks of info, only to afterwards search for the pieces it needs through the whole amount, which lends weight to police officials’ belief that the attacks have been requested by the Chinese government.
This summer, a similar incident was reported with regards to Barack Obama’s and John McCain’s campaign computer networks, when U.S. government cyber experts informed that hackers had downloaded information that offered insight into the candidates’ political views.
At that time, cyber investigators found that the aforementioned attacks had also originated in China, but they were not able to track down the organisation behind the hackings.

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Microsoft to unveil test version of Windows 7

The next version of Microsoft Windows, the software that defines the computing experience for most people, will nag users much less than its much-maligned predecessor, Vista. PC users will be able to test the new edition early next year.

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Windows Mobile OS Running on an iPhone

We're not quite sure why anyone would want to do this, but a Norwegian programmer claims to have created an application that allows you to run the Windows Mobile operating system on your iPhone. The programmer, Erik Kristiansen, showed off his app in action at the recent myPhone2008 convention in Las Vegas.
Kristiansen's application operates similar to Apple's Bootcamp in that it allows you to load either the iPhone OS or the Windows Mobile OS when the iPhone boots up. Running Windows Mobile, the iPhone appears to have full functionality as a Windows smartphone, including (of course) making phone calls. Kristiansen's program is currently in beta, but he says it should be available as an open source application in January.

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Intelligent Computers Put To The Test

Researchers are planning to conduct an experiment at the University of Reading to see if humans can be fooled into thinking they are talking with another human, when in fact they will be talking with a machine. The experiment is a homage to mathematician, logician and cryptographer Alan Turning, who originally proposed the Turing Test, in which a human judge engages in a natural language conversation with one human and one machine, each of which try to appear human; if the judge cannot reliably tell which is which, then the machine is said to pass the test."Can machines think? That was the question posed by the great mathematician Alan Turing. Half a century later six computers are about to converse with human interrogators in an experiment that will attempt to prove that the answer is yes.In the 'Turing test' a machine seeks to fool judges into believing that it could be human. The test is performed by conducting a text-based conversation on any subject. If the computer's responses are indistinguishable from those of a human, it has passed the Turing test and can be said to be 'thinking'.No machine has yet passed the test devised by Turing, who helped to crack German military codes during the Second World War. But at 9am next Sunday, six computer programs - 'artificial conversational entities' - will answer questions posed by human volunteers at the University of Reading in a bid to become the first recognized 'thinking' machine."If you ask me, these guys are about two decades late. After all, Creative Labs unleashed Dr. Sbaitso on the world with the original Sound Blaster was back in 1992. Dr. Sbaitso could not only converse, he was a doctor for darn sake. Although I hear he wasn't a very good one...
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7 Really Awesome Things About Google Chrome

1. Blazing fast
Chrome actually uses WebKit for rendering Web pages, the same rendering engine as Safari, which is known to be very fast. Put that in a simple, well optimized, stripped down shell and you get the fastest Web browser around. It loads fast, it displays pages fast, and we’re talking noticeable differences here, which really makes it a joy to use. Don’t just take my word for it, check out some early benchmarks

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Are You Allergic to Wireless Internet?

Electromagnetic Hypersensitivity Syndrome (EHS) is a condition in which people are highly sensitive to electromagnetic fields. In an area such as a wireless hotspot, they experience pain or other symptoms.
People with EHS experience a variety of symptoms including headache, fatigue, nausea, burning and itchy skin, and muscle aches. These symptoms are subjective and vary between individuals, which makes the condition difficult to study, and has left experts divided about the validity of such claims.
More than 30 studies have been conducted to determine what link the condition has to exposure to electromagnetic fields from sources such as radar dishes, mobile phone signals and, Wi-Fi hotspots
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Windows 7 multi-touch LCD demonstrated

Multi-touch is one of the big technology trends these days: Bill Gates recently demonstrated a display integrating multi-touch at the recent D6 conference and unfortunately received little more than lukewarm feedback. Albatron is one of the first companies demonstrating what appears to be a production ready multi-touch device: Having played with the LCD at Computex, we have to say that we are impressed.

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New Image-recognition Software Could Let Computers 'See' Like Humans Do

It takes surprisingly few pixels of information to be able to identify the subject of an image, a team led by an MIT researcher has found. The discovery could lead to great advances in the automated identification of online images and, ultimately, provide a basis for computers to see like humans do.

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Flickr Image Search Tool

Compfight allows users to easily find a host of images on Flickr. Just type in a keyword or several keywords and Compfight will display numerous images on one page without the miscellaneous information. With the right keywords, the likelihood of you going past page 1 is slim to none. For images with a blue bar at the bottom of an image, hovering your mouse over the image will conveniently give you the dimensions. The only downside is that this enhancement is only available for original images found on Flickr.
http://compfight.com
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Windows 7 Features, Screenshots, Demo

Windows 7 Features, Screenshots, Demo

Uninstall and Remove Vista Loader 2.1.3 (Activator 2008) Activation Crack

Hacker has managed to come out with a new-perfect yet easy to use for novice level of computer user crack to activate Windos Vista. The latest Windows Vista activation crack is Vista Loader 2.1.3, which emulate a BIOS with OEM public key and SLP marker to perform instant OEM style activation, and no longer has any abnormal string or text during boot loading screen.VistaLoader V2.1.3 comes in the form of auto installer executable named Microsoft Windows Vista Activator 2008, which does not provide an easy mean to uninstall or remove the crack.
For any reason, such as you have purchased a genuine license and product key for Windows Vista, or receive a legitimate product key as a gift, in such cases, Vista Loader or any other activation crack is no longer useful. And in fact, leaving any activation crack on the system still enable may conflict or interfere with genuine Microsoft product activation algorithm and function.
To uninstall or remove Vista Loader 2.1.3, download the following command script, and run the .cmd script as administrator with elevated privileges.
Download UninstallVistaLoader.rar.
If your system depends on Vista Loader to activate successfully, you have to activate the system again after removing Vista Loader.
Uninstallation and removal script above can be used to uninstall most Vista Loader versions too, from V2.0 onward, and including various activators or Vista cracks which based on VistaLoader for activation.
User can also manually remove and delete the related components of Vista Loader on hard disk by following procedures as below.
1) Open an elevated command prompt as administrator.
Confirm and enter administrator password on UAC elevation approval request to continue.
2) Type and execute the following commands by hitting Enter key: attrib c:\grldr -r -h -s
Change the C to your boot system drive letter, if applicable. The command remove special attributes on grldr boot loader file.
3) Type and execute the following commands by hitting Enter key: del d:\grldr
Delete the Linux Grub boot loader (Grub4Dos).
4) Type and execute the following commands by hitting Enter key: bootrest /nt60 c:
where C is the drive letter of the Windows Vista installed drive.
The command reset the boot loader so that it’s back handled by Windows Vista boot loader.

Controlling Virtual Reality with the Eyes

People who have lost the ability to move have been using “gaze technology” to communicate by computer for years, but the technology has been too slow to operate in virtual worlds, until now. A team led by Stephen Vickers of De Montfort University, Leicester, UK has developed new software that allows the eyes to select functions and temporarily turn off tracking just by the movement of the gaze.
“Even though a user in, say, Second Life might look as if they are able-bodied, if they can’t operate and communicate as fast as everyone else, they could be perceived as having a disability,” he told New Scientist, adding that there is a privacy issue for players who may prefer not to reveal their disability in the virtual world.
The developments are “hugely important”, according to Mick Donegan, who works with severely disabled children and adults at Oxford-based charity and COGAIN partner, SpecialEffect.
“Enabling someone to express themselves and engage with people in ways that they can’t do in real life – because they are restricted to a wheelchair or a bed – can have a really positive effect on their self-esteem and motivation,” says Donegan.
Controlling Virtual Reality with the Eyes Movie

Half A Million Microsoft-Powered Sites Hit With SQL Injection

A new SQL injection attack aimed at Microsoft IIS web servers has hit some 500,000 websites, including the United Nations, UK Government sites and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While the attack is not Microsoft's fault, it is unique to the company's IIS server.
The automated attack takes advantage to the fact that Microsoft’s IIS servers allow generic commands that don’t require specific table-level arguments. However, the vulnerability is the result of poor data handling by the sites’ creators, rather than a specific Microsoft flaw.
In other words, there’s no patch that’s going to fix the issue, the problem is with the developers who failed follow well-established security practices for handling database input.
The attack itself injects some malicious JavaScript code into every text field in your database, the Javascript then loads an external script that can compromise a user’s PC.
Most of the larger sites affected have already long since repaired themselves and claim that the underlying problems in their code have been fixed. However, if you don’t want to take the chance there’s a simple way to avoid the problem — use Firefox with NoScript. Since the attack loads a script from a different domain, NoScript will stop it from running.
If your site has been affected you’re going to need to restore your database from a clean backup copy and start reviewing your code to make sure all input is properly sanitized, otherwise you’ll just get hit again. Should you not have a clean backup of you database hackademix.net has a workaround for rerunning the attack, but changing a couple lines to remove the injected JavaScript.
If you’ve been hit by the attack, you should, as Bill Sisk, Microsoft’s Trustworthy Computing, Response Communications Manager, suggests on his blog, report the attack

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Secret Pre-Release Details On Windows XP Service Pack 3

We were the first to break the news on the release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 and the final RTM schedule of Windows XP Service Pack 3. Now, we will be the first to release the full details on Microsoft's Windows XP Service Pack 3, which as we know will be available for manual update on April 29, 2008. That's just a few days away!

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Microsoft unveils its web vision

Microsoft has lifted the lid on a new web service called Live Mesh, designed to connect a multiplicity of devices and applications online.

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Microsoft Predicted to Back Away from Vista

When it comes to technology debacles, every major company has a few (remember the Newton?), but right now one of the top spots has to go to Windows Vista, Microsoft’s clunky operating system that has IT shops and consumers desperately clutching at XP for as long as they can.

Jason Hiner over at Tech Republic thinks there may be a light at the end of the Vista tunnel; he predicts IT shops and consumers will have a chance within the next year to upgrade to a cleaner, more modular version of Windows Vista under the Windows 7 moniker. It won’t be a completely new OS but rather a more streamlined version of Vista. He also suggests the pricing for consumers will be lower in an effort to win back those who are turning to Macs.

This could be another step by Microsoft toward shedding cumbersome release cycles and creating software that can be updated every year or so via a subscription model. Hiner lays out a nice case, and as a consumer who once was stuck with a laptop running Windows ME, I have to hope that before the third strike (Vista being the second), Microsoft can score a hit

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20+ Windows Vista Features and Services Harvest User Data for Microsoft

Are you using Windows Vista? Then you might as well know that the licensed operating system installed on your machine is harvesting a healthy volume of information for Microsoft. In this context, a program such as the Windows Genuine Advantage is the last of your concerns. In fact, in excess of 20 Windows Vista features and services are hard at work collecting and transmitting your personal data to the Redmond company.

Microsoft makes no secret about the fact that Windows Vista is gathering information. End users have little to say, and no real choice in the matter. The company does provide both a Windows Vista Privacy Statement and references within the End User License Agreement for the operating system. Combined, the resources paint the big picture over the extent of Microsoft's end user data harvest via Vista.

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Users Fighting for Windows XP

Microsoft Corp.'s operating systems run most personal computers around the globe and are a cash cow for the world's largest software maker. But you'd never confuse a Windows user with the passionate fans of Mac OS X or even the free Linux operating system. Unless it's someone running Windows XP, a version Microsoft wants to retire.

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Buffalo's Petite LinkStation Mini NAS Has 1TB Storage, a DLNA Server

Fitting a 1TB into a box measuring 5.31 x 3.22 x 1.57 inches isn't all that easy (most NAS boxes we've seen would crush a squirrel easily) but Buffalo seems to have not only accomplished this but shoved in a whole bunch of other features as well. The Mini's got a Gigabit Ethernet port, support for RAID 0 and 1, Active Directory Support, UPS support (to shut down in case of power failure), and best of all, runs an on-board TwonkyVision DLNA server.



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Microsoft will extend life of Windows XP--again

Microsoft said on Thursday that it will continue to allow Windows XP Home edition to be sold for a class of computers it calls "ultra-low-cost PCs." It's a category that covers machines with slower processors, smaller screens, and in many cases flash memory for storage, rather than a traditional hard drive.
Microsoft will give PC makers the option of using Windows XP or Vista on ULCPC devices, said Michael Dix, general manager of Windows client marketing.
Still, the minimal hardware used in ULCPC systems might make Vista ill-suited to such a task. The decision to discontinue Windows XP might have driven even more device makers into the hands of Linux, hence the extension.

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Trim Down Windows to the Bare Essentials

When you're installing Windows in a virtual machine or on old, slow hardware, you want the leanest, meanest and fastest-running configuration possible. Most of the time, you want the best from your operating system, including all the bells and whistles. Other times, you don't want the default, bloated Windows installation, with every single built-in feature slowing you down. Luckily, whether you want to put Windows on a diet in a virtual machine or you want to get Windows up and running all snappy-like on older hardware, you've got a handful of excellent and free options at your disposal. Let's take a look at a few ways to trim down your Windows installation so that it takes up less space on your hard drive and eats less RAM while it's running.

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4 Ways to Carry your PC on iPod or USB Thumbdrive

Do you want to take your favorite programs along with all of your bookmarks, settings, email and more wherever you go and use them on pretty much any computer ? If so here are four free tools that can help you with that. These are portable software packs that can be installed on any USB device. Download the pack, install it on your portable device and done. Use it at work, a friend’s PC, college lab, anywhere.

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Microsoft releasing XP SP3 this week?

XP may not EOL until this June, but that doesn't mean it's not in need of the same kind of tender lovin' update packs as OSes of every variety occasionally receive. And according to CRN, the long awaited XP SP3 could be due out as early as tomorrow, or possibly later this week. We'll keep an eye out -- we know it's hard to let XP go.
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Windows Vista SP1 Shipping Out Today

Boston (dbTechno) - On Tuesday, Microsoft released Windows Vista SP1 via its official download site. Today is the day that the new Service Pack 1 will actually begin to ship to consumers and retail stores, adding many new features, upgrading performance, and fixing security bugs in the popular Microsoft operating system.
This is the first service pack to be released for Windows Vista, which has been slammed by many users for its several bugs, incompatibility issues, and performance since launch.
Microsoft has come out with the first service pack though in hopes of changing the views many people have about the operating system.
There may not be too many features added here, but Vista SP1 will give a significant performance boost, improve compatibility with programs, and also fix many security bugs.
The download is over 450MB meaning it is actually quite a big download.
Those who have been keeping up with incremental updates over the past few weeks from Microsoft will have a much smaller download though.
Either way, Windows Vista SP1 is finally here, and it appears that it was worth the wait.

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Installing IE8

When you install Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1 there are a few important things to do before you start. First, I recommend you review the system requirements to make sure IE8 is supported on your computer. Second, take a look at the IE8 Release notes to find known issues and workarounds, so you’ll know what to expect during installation. Third, if the installation fails, we have a knowledge base article on Troubleshooting IE8 installation that guides you through a few workarounds.

Here is some additional information that you might find useful when installing IE8.
Which platforms can I install IE8 on?
IE8 is supported on the following operating systems:

Windows Vista
Windows Vista SP1 (final version only - Currently available to MSDN and TechNet Plus subscribers and Volume License customers)
Windows XP SP2
Windows XP SP3 (RC2 candidate - Build 3311 or higher)
Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
Windows Server 2003 SP2
Windows Server 2008 (final version only)
IE8 is not supported on pre-release versions of Vista SP1 and XP SP3.
When installing on earlier builds of Vista SP1, IE8 just won’t install and you will see this error “The installation does not support your operating system’s current Service Pack version.” When installing on earlier builds of XP SP3, the wizard will proceed but your system will be missing KB946501 which is required for IE8, and hence, your installation will be terminated.
What Operating System languages can IE8 be installed on?
The IE8 beta is currently available in English only. You can install it on any supported localized operating system. For example, if you are running German Windows Vista, you can install IE8. When you switch between languages in the Windows Vista UI, IE8 will continue to appear in English.
How can I tell if I successfully installed IE8?
After IE8 installation is complete, the final screen of the Install Wizard indicates that Internet Explorer installation completed successfully.
After you restart your computer and launch Internet Explorer, you can open the Help->About Internet Explorer dialog to see the version number 8.0.6001.17184
How do I uninstall IE8?
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Trend Micro Website Hacked

Nothing is so humorous as when the web site of a security vendor gets hacked. OK, OK, it was hilarious when the RIAA site was hacked, too. And I'll admit: it's probably not as funny if it's your security vendor.A Trend Micro spokesman confirmed that the company's site had been hacked Thursday, saying that the attack took place earlier in the week. "A portion of our site -- some pages were attacked," said Mike Sweeny, a Trend Micro spokesman. "We took the pages down overnight Tuesday night -- and took corrective action."On Thursday security vendor McAfee reported that more than 20,000 Web pages have been affected by the attack. The pages are infected with malicious code that tries to install password-stealing software on the PCs of people who visit the sites.
At least Trend Micro isn't alone among embarrassed security firms. In recent months a small security firm in India was serving up viruses from its site, and CA was also hit recently.

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Microsoft finally confirms Windows 7 for 2010 launch

It's all a silly misunderstanding, we tell you. Microsoft has been holding fast to its "three years" development time frame for Windows 7 since forever, the problem is that it's never been clear when that three year period started. Well wonder no longer, Microsoft has finally officially confirmed that the three years started at Windows Vista's general availability release, which was January 30th, 2007. Obviously that doesn't mean will have Windows 7 on midnight of January 30th, 2010, but it does mean we can look forward to sometime within that year for a release. Microsoft plans to give an exact release date only once Windows 7 "meets its quality bar for release." Sounds like a good metric to go by, if you ask us.

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Play Windows games on Linux with PlayOnLinux

If you are an avid gamer, you probably dual-boot your favorite Linux distribution with Windows, because that's where you find most new cutting-edge games. But what if you could run your Windows games on Linux? PlayOnLinux is an open source Python-scripted front end that helps you install and play tons of Windows-only games -- and then some!

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12 Future Apps For Your iPhone

With the new iPhone SDK, it's just a matter of time before we see a wave of new applications. We expect a lot of popular web 2.0 apps to offer an iPhone version. Native Twitter, Facebook and Flickr clients for iPhone will run faster than their in-browser versions and will take advantage of the impressive Apple UI libraries. But there is an entirely new breed of applications also coming to iPhone. These apps simply would not be possible without a device like iPhone.
The major theme of this new wave of apps will be blending of the physical and digital worlds, using iPhone as the bridge. In this post we take a look at what's coming.

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Exploding Macs are back

Yes, you heard right. A good friend of mine, and part time contributor to Appletell, James Bayliss, is the latest victim of an exploding laptop. James wasn’t hurt or anything other than a small burn on his hand, but both his MacBook Pro and desk have seen better days.
James was sitting at his desk yesterday, reading Digg, when all of a sudden he heard a loud “POP”. Immediately after this pop, sparks and flames started shooting out from his MacBook Pro, lighting his desk on fire and giving him a slight burn as he tried to put out the flames. He finally got the fire out, unplugged his MacBook Pro and pulled out the battery and gave Apple Europe a call.

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Speed Up Windows XP

Despite Microsoft's best marketing efforts, you haven't yet upgraded to Vista. You still prefer your trusty old copy of Windows XP. And, despite your diligence in protecting your beloved XP machine from viruses and sneaky trojan horses, Windows is noticeably slower than when you first installed it. Don't panic -- there are a number of things you can do to get your XP system running faster.
Keep in mind though, that, while these tips listed below can help you speed up Windows and recover hard drive space, you aren't going to see the sort of speed boost you'd get from upgrading your key hardware components. If you're unhappy, for instance, with the write speed of your hard drive, a few of these tips may help, but not nearly as much as upgrading to an ultra-fast Serial ATA (SATA) drive capable of 10,000 RPM. Also, adding more RAM almost always brings life to an older, slower system.

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Hackers Crack Open iPhone 2.0

The iPhone Dev Team have already cracked the beta version of the iPhone 2.0 software. Available as part of the SDK download released by Apple a week ago, the 2.0 operating system won't go public until the summer, but that hasn't slowed down the hackers, who managed to grab a copy of the actual firmware (the official download only contains an emulator).
Apparently, this time it's final. Previous hacks have been tied to a specific version of the iPhone OS, meaning that the hackers were playing a cat-and-mouse game with Apple: the cracks, jailbreaks and unlocks were broken with each new update.
This latest crack actually bypasses the iPhone bootloader (the software which loads the OS when a computer is switched on) and allows unsigned code to be written to and run on the iPhone. Think of it as like finding the keys to a house, and the owner can't change the locks.
This is great news. It means that while iPhone owners will get all the sweet goodness of the new, official applications, they can continue to run any other software they like.
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Chinese hackers: No site is safe

ZHOUSHAN, China (CNN) -- They operate from a bare apartment on a Chinese island. They are intelligent 20-somethings who seem harmless. But they are hard-core hackers who claim to have gained access to the world's most sensitive sites, including the Pentagon.
In fact, they say they are sometimes paid secretly by the Chinese government -- a claim the Beijing government denies.
"No Web site is one hundred percent safe. There are Web sites with high-level security, but there is always a weakness," says Xiao Chen, the leader of this group.
"Xiao Chen" is his online name. Along with his two colleagues, he does not want to reveal his true identity. The three belong to what some Western experts say is a civilian cyber militia in China, launching attacks on government and private Web sites around the world.

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Gaps found in Microsoft Exchange API documentation

Software companies that provide alternatives to Microsoft Exchange, cautiously welcomed at CeBIT last week the recent publication of application programming interfaces for Microsoft volume server products, but have found gaps already in what has been released.

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Firefox 3.0 Beta 4 released, this time for real

Firefox 3 Beta 4 is a developer preview release of Mozilla's next generation Firefox browser and is being made available for testing purposes only. These beta releases are targeted to Web developers and our testing community to gain feedback before advancing to the next stage in the release process. The final version of Firefox 3 will be released when we qualify the product as fully ready for our users.

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GITEX 2007 takes new directions

The organisation behind Dubai-based trade show GITEX has unveiled a new format for the 2007 edition of the region's largest technology exhibition.
This year's show, dubbed GITEX Technology Week, consists of three elements: GITEX Business Solutions, GULFCOMMS, and Consumer Electronics.
The Consumer Electronics section is new while the GULFCOMMS section ran for the first time last year.
GITEX Business Solutions, the IT component, will address enterprise and small and medium-size businesses and span halls one to eight of Dubai International Convention and Exhibition Centre.
It will have separate areas for network and security, office technology and supplies, and IT solutions, organiser Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) said.Story continues below ↓ advertisement
GITEX Business Solutions will be complemented by GULFCOMMS, which will address the mobile, fixed, IP and satellite markets; and Consumer Electronics, which as well as consumer electronics will cover IT systems, components and peripherals.
"The region's IT industry is making major strides in terms of the scale of the projects being undertaken and the heightened sophistication of the solutions required. Given the increasingly specific demands of today's CIOs, DWTC has worked hard to create an environment where trade visitors can meet quickly and efficiently with a targeted community of potential suppliers," Helal Saeed Al Marri, director general of DWTC, commented on the new format of the show.
The timing of this year's show, the 27th edition of the exhibition, has also been shifted forward to the earlier date of September 8-12 in contrast to last year's event, which took place in November.
A spokesperson for the public relations agency representing DWTC explained this was because of a major government initiative in the fall, without giving more specific details.

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UAE unaffected by fourth internet cable break

UAE telecoms Etisalat and Du said on Monday they have not been affected by the second undersea cable damaged off the UAE coast that caused massive disruption to internet services in Qatar over the weekend.
Qatar Telecom (Qtel) said on Sunday a cable was damaged between the Qatari island of Haloul and the UAE island of Das on Friday, the fourth reported in the Middle East in less than a week.
RELATED: Internet problems continue with fourth cable break
The damage caused major problems for internet users in the Gulf Arab state, but Qtel's loss of capacity has been kept below 40% thanks to what the telecom said was a large number of alternative routes for transmission.
"Etisalat is not affected by the most recent cut," a spokesperson told ArabianBusiness.com.
"We has not been affected by this at all," a Du spokesperson added.
The cause of damage is not yet known, but ArabianBusiness.com has been told unofficially the problem is power related and not the result of a ship's anchor cutting the cable, as is thought to be the case in the other three incidents.
It is expected to take at least "a few days" to fix, according to one person with knowledge of the situation.
It had been feared the damaged cable would further disrupt UAE internet services.
Parts of the Gulf Arab region were plunged into a virtual internet blackout on Wednesday when two undersea cables were cut near Alexandria, on Egypt’s north coast.
The initial breaches were in segments of two intercontinental cables known as Sea-ME-We-4 and Flag Europe-Asia.
The situation was made worse on Friday when Flag, part of India's Reliance Communications, revealed a third cable, Falcon, had also been damaged off the UAE coast.
Etisalat said it does not use the Falcon cable and is therefore unaffected, but Du had warned the damage could hamper its efforts to restore normal service to customers.
Du said on Monday that its internet and telephone services were now largely back to normal.
"Our internet access is almost back to normal... and data services are 100% restored," Mahesh Jaishankar, executive director for business development and marketing, told reporters.

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Tiny huge 1 terrabyte optical disk

It is called the TeraDisk and it is really small, like a ordinary CD/DVD. But it’s really huge in terms of space. 1 TB (1000 GB). How can this be done? The process is easy (or not). All existing optical media record data on semitransparent layers. A regular CD has 1 layer and a Blu-Ray disk has up to 8. The reason nobody can add more layers on a regular CD/DVD/Blu-Ray disk is because when the light passes through these layers it becomes distorted and by the time it reaches the final layers it becomes almost impossible to read/write on the disk.
TeraDisk achieved the 1TB limit by using 200 layers, each storing 5GB of data. So basically the data support stay the same (TeraDisk will be made out of the same plexiglas like material used in other disks) but the write/read laser technology is completely new. They say it’s going to be cheap and it will be available for the public in 2010.
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Hide Unread Email Messages Notification on XP Logon Welcome Screen

After Windows XP boots up to Welcome Screen or Logon Screen for user to log on to Windows desktop, there may be a message on the Logon Welcome page that user have certain number of unread mail messages, together with the email address of the account. For example, “1 unread email messages”. The unread email messages count also appear when system is locked, and user is required to enter the password to enter the desktop again.

Modify the registry directly to get rid of the unread email messages count on Logon Welcome Screen. To do so, run Registry Editor (regedit.exe), and the navigate to the one of the following registry keys:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\UnreadMail

On the right pane, find a value data named MessageExpiryDays. If it’s not found, create a new DWORD key named MessageExpiryDays. Set the value of “MessegaExpiryDays” to 0, and save the setting.
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Pentagon attack last June stole an "amazing amount" of data

On June 22, 2007, Defense Secretary Robert Gates acknowledged that the Pentagon's network had been successfully attacked the previous Wednesday, and that this attack was responsible for a disruption in email service to some 1,500 Pentagon employees. At the time, Gates downplayed the attack, saying that it affected only the OSD's (Office of the Secretary of Defense) non-classified e-mail service and that there was "no anticipated adverse impact on ongoing operations." It seems that the adverse impact of the June attack may have been much greater than Gates' early guidance implied. According to a top DoD technology official quoted at GovernmentExecutive.com, the thieves behind that attack seized an "amazing amount" of data.

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Microsoft Helps Connect Apple iPhone Users to Microsoft’s Exchange Server

Terry Myerson, corporate vice president for Exchange, talks to PressPass about the importance of the new agreement between Microsoft and Apple to offer built-in support for Exchange on the iPhone, and the increasing popularity of Microsoft Exchange Server 2007 among mobile professionals.

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Install Internet Explorer 8 Beta 1

Install and try the IE8 Beta 1
Internet Explorer 8 can be installed on Microsoft Windows Vista® Service Pack 1 (SP1), Windows Vista, Windows XP® Service Pack 2 (SP2), Windows Server® 2008 and Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 2 (SP2). Downloads are available from the following locations

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How to Open, View or Create XPS Documents in Windows XP and Windows 2003

XPS (XML Paper Specification) which previously codenamed “Metro”, is a document storage and viewing specification developed by Microsoft which defined formats and rules for distributing, archiving, rendering, and processing XPS documents. XPS format intends to compete with Adobe PDF format as both is displaying paginated, fixed-layout format electronic paper documents in page-by-page view of the document’s content as it would be printed. Windows Vista has built-in integrated Microsoft XPS Document Writer and XPS Document Writer, and if you’re using Microsoft Office 2007, there is Save as XPS plugin that allows users to create XPS files within Office application. However, if you’re using Windows XP or Windows 2003, you to download and install the free XPS Viewer and XPS Writer.
In Windows XP and Windows 2003, to add in the capability to open to view and create XPS documents, you can either download Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0 or Microsoft XPS Essentials Pack. XPS document viewing and generation capabilities are included in Microsoft .NET Framework 3.0. With .NET Framework 3.0, the XPS files will open within Internet Explorer 6.0 or higher.
Meanwhile Microsoft XPS Essentials Pack contains the XML Paper Specification (XPS) Viewer to read and index XPS Documents, and the Microsoft XPS Document Writer to output files to the XPS Document format, plus providers to enable the iPreview and iFilter capabilities found in many Windows applications. Windows shell handlers are also included to enable thumbnail views and file properties for XPS Documents. When you select this Essentials Pack option, XPS documents will open in standalone viewer.
Microsoft XPS Document Writer is a print-to-file converter that allows you to create or generate a XPS documents from virtually any Windows applications by printing a file, page, webpage, documents, text and etc to the XPS Document Writer as how you print to a printer. It comes by default with both download package.
Other than Windows XP and Windows 2003 with latest service pack, Windows 2000 with latest service pack is also supported by Microsoft XPS Essential Pack 1.0 to enable the viewing and creation ability of XPS documents. Beside, Microsoft XPS Document Writer requires Microsoft Core XML Services 6.0 (if you download .NET 3.0 Framework, this is not needed) to be installed on your system and Windows Media Photo support in the Microsoft Essentials Viewer requires that the Windows Imaging Codecs update package be installed on your system, which is part of .NET Framework 3.0.
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Samsung First to Ship 500GB Laptop Hard Drive

Samsung Electronics is the first hard drive manufacturer to ship a 500GB 2.5-inch drive. Samsung announced its drive was shipping in volume to OEMs and PC makers today.
The 500GB drive marks a significant milestone in portable storage: On notebooks that support dual-hard drive configurations, a 500GB drive means you can have a whopping 1TB of storage in a laptop computer.
Competition to MarketHitachi was the first company to announce a 500GB 2.5-inch hard drive, before the start of the 2008 International Consumer Electronics Show. Samsung was the second to announce, also at the show; Fujitsu also recently announced its intention to offer a 500GB drive.
However, both Hitachi and Fujitsu are taking a different approach to 500GB than Samsung. All three drive makers use three disk platters, but Hitachi and Fujitsu reach 500GB by expanding the height of the drive from 9.5mm--the common standard for most notebooks--to 12.5mm, a height that's increasingly accommodated on larger, desktop-replacement laptop designs, but not necessarily on more general-use laptops.
Samsung's Spinpoint M6 drive spins at 5,400 rpm (revolutions per minute). Hitachi's drive carries the same rating, but Fujitsu slowed its drive to 4200 rpm.
Hitachi's drive was supposed to ship in February, but is now expected to ship later this month. Fujitsu says its drive will ship in May.


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Etisalat launches Indian software subsidiary

UAE telecom Etisalat said on Tuesday that it has set up a software company in India, which will deliver solutions and mobile applications for the communications sector.
Etisalat said the subsidiary, Etisalat Software Solutions, would be based out of Bangalore and operate under the Technologia brand name.
It said the company would develop software products and mobile applications for telecoms, focusing on products, custom development and consultancy.
Technologia will provide services to Etisalat, its subsidiaries and other companies in the region, it added.
The subsidiary will initially employ 50 software engineers, with plans to expand to 250 employees in the coming yearsStory continues "A key objective for Technologia is to form a hub of innovation excellence, to support our growing international portfolio of operators and telecommunications related subsidiaries," Etisalat CEO Mohammad Khalfan Al Qamzi said in a statement.
Ali Al Sharhan, chairman of Technologia added: "We see a great future ahead of us. With the talent pool we have on board, as well as the creative independence placed for Technologia, we are aiming to succeed."

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Microsoft Workspace opens to broader availability

Microsoft Office Live Workspace, which remains in beta, lets users access and share Office documents online. It first became available in December when Microsoft opened a limited beta version of the service.
With the broad availability of Workspace, Microsoft has also rolled out some updates, which became available late last week. Workspace now features an activity panel that shows users a stream of activity on the page, including noting files that have been added or deleted.
Users are now able to upload multiple files at a time. The update also includes a bit of polish on the sharing experience, said Eric Gilmore, a senior product manager at Microsoft.
For now Workspace is only available in the English languages, but additional languages will be supported in the future, he said. Despite competition from Google's Docs and Spreadsheets online offering, Microsoft has ambitious goals for how many people might use Workspace, as well as the potential for businesses to use the online service.
According to research from Compete, as of October last year, Google Docs and Spreadsheets had an average of just over 1.4 million unique visits per month.
"We think 1.4 million is very small," Gilmore said. Microsoft hopes that most Office users will also use Workspace, meaning it will be used by many millions of people. Workspace is one iteration of Microsoft's software-plus-services strategy, which aims to combine its software products with online services.
Workspace is designed for professionals and consumers who want to access documents remotely or collaborate with multiple people. It is a simpler version of SharePoint, the managed software platform from Microsoft for enterprises, but the two could converge in the future.
For example, if enterprises ask for the capability, Microsoft could enable workers to share SharePoint sites within Workspace, Gilmore said. If that happened, Microsoft could also alleviate enterprise security concerns by bringing together the Active Directory authentication and authorization tool used in SharePoint with its Live ID online services sign-on process. SharePoint uses Active Directory and Workspace uses Live ID.
"The fundamental pieces are in place that, over time, could bridge the gap between Active Directory and Windows Live ID," Gilmore said.

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IBM launches "Microsoft-free" PC initiative

IBM is teaming up with partners in Austria and Poland to offer Microsoft-free PCs for the eastern European market. IBM says it is offering the Linux-based PCs together with Red Hat software distributor VDEL of Austria and Polish distributor and services firm LX Polska, in response to demand from Russian IT chiefs.
The PCs will include IBM's Lotus Symphony software based on the Open Document Format, a rival format to Microsoft's Office Open XML, which the latter is trying ADVERTISEMENT to get adopted as an ISO internationally approved standard.
IBM, which has sold its PC business to China's Lenovo, says the hardware will be made by partners of VDEL and LX Polska.
Russia, where many large corporations and public-service bodies are building large computer systems for the first time, is emerging as a key battleground between Microsoft and rivals offering open-source alternatives.
Microsoft is active in IT education campaigns in Russia and last month signed a deal with MTS, Russia's largest mobile operator, to offer services and cut-price laptops installed with its Vista operating system for small businesses.
IBM says the Linux PC line, called Open Referent, will cut desktop computing costs by up to half.
It says chief information officers from Russian organisations including the Ministry of Defence, airline Aeroflot and private bank Alfa Bank have been among those who requesting open-source PCs.

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Enterprise Companies Embrace Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007

Find out how and why companies such as General Mills, Del Monte Foods, and easyJet are using Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 for collaboration, workflow and search.

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Intel's Silverthorn becomes the Atom, Menlow the Centrino Atom

Another brain-shattering announcement that you've all been waiting for is here. Intel has officially dubbed the Silverthorn and Diamondville chips "Atom," and the Menlow platform has become the "Centrino Atom." We know, it's hard to believe the day has come, but it's finally happened. Obviously, the 45nm Atom chips, and Centrino Atom technology will be targeted for MIDs, UMPCs, and all manner of small, internet-centric devices. Undoubtedly an unending vista of total awesomeness awaits us now that they've got some fancy new names.
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12-year-old "Magneto Man" breaks every computer he touches

Confirming our belief that some people are just "bad with computers," a boy named Joe Falciatano III from Pulaski, New York, seems to have simply the worst luck ever -- and some think it could be do to an overly magnetized touch. While using PCs at this elementary school, Joe -- who dubbed himself "Magneto Man" -- found that every system he laid his hands on went totally haywire. Only after a teacher suggested he use a grounded, anti-static wrist strap did the systems experience relief from his Geek Squad-inducing grasp. Apparently, the boy has also disrupted slide show presentations and caused his Xbox to freeze repeatedly. Though tests have been run on Joe, there's still no conclusive evidence about the source of the problem, though at least one electricity expert said the cause could be his over-insulated shoes. Maybe, but we won't be surprised when he forms an army of mutant super-villains and tries to take control of the White House. Check the video after the break for the whole report

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Vista Gets an Anti-"Activation Hack" Update

Microsoft's made no secret of the fact that a patch for Vista - sans the SP1 update - will disable the OEM BIOS Hack and Grace Time Hack some use to get around activation. Naturally, SP1 will do so as well, but if you try to get around it, you can only avoid it if you disable / hide the update.
The release of Windows Vista Service Pack 1 not only heralded a long-awaited update of the operating system, it also meant the end of two common Windows Vista anti-activation exploits - the Grace Timer exploit and the Paradox OEM BIOS activation crack. But those who think they can escape by not updating to Service Pack 1 would be sadly mistaken.
That's because Microsoft has surreptitiously released an anti-hack detection update via Windows Update. Those who chose to have Windows Vista install updates automatically would have this update installed and running by now. If you chose to manually select updates to be installed, you should find this update listed.It's not like you should even be using this hacks anyway right? Microsoft originally stated the update would only detect, not remove the hacks, but some users are reporting differently

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Vista prices officially go down, but will consumer interest go up?

What's that? You didn't take the risk and upgrade your PC to some crappy Intel-based machine Microsoft may or may not have known wouldn't run Vista as promised? Well, at least now you can get in on the latest version of Windows a little cheaper than yesterday: Ultimate full looks to be officially headed down to $320 from $400, and the upgrade is down to $220 from $260; Home Premium is now at $130 from $160. Will the dip be enough to entice plenty of new OS upgraders? Perhaps, but we think most of those that haven't already upgraded will probably just wait until their next PC so they can get Vista "free". But if you're looking to buy it boxed though, give it a bit for the new prices to propagate through the retail network -- not even Microsoft's site reflects the new Vista price points.

Intel's Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale gets tested

If you'll recall, we already witnessed a pre-production Wolfdale CPU outpace its competition back in August of last year, but the real deal has finally arrived. Over at Hot Hardware, the folks were able to crack open a retail Core 2 Duo E8500 processor, which comes in at 3.16GHz and features 6MB of L2 cache, a 1,333MHz FSB speed and is built on 45-nanometer technology. When put to the test, reviewers found this luscious piece of silicon to be quite the performer, noting that it was probably a better choice for gamers than a low-end quad-core chip. Still, with an expected price of just under three bills, it wasn't exactly seen as the greatest of values, but if you've got the coin and happen to fit the market, the "Recommended" badge tells you everything you need to know.

'The Big Switch': Welcome to the Worldwide Computer

A quiet revolution in computing is taking place as you read this.
It'll change the way we work, socialize and function as people, communities and nations. It will have an impact on how we make war and peace. Some say it's the biggest thing since electricity became a utility -- yet most of us won't see it coming.
According to Nicholas Carr, author of The Big Switch and former executive editor of the Harvard Business Review, the revolution that's coming is based on the idea that the Internet, a network of computers, is becoming a gigantic computer itself. Not only will users be able to write programs to run on this "World Wide Computer," as Carr calls it, but sooner or later, this system will gain a level of artificial intelligence .

Economies of Scale
Carr takes us back 100 years, to the time when Thomas Edison and Samuel Insull built a network of wires and power-generation facilities, and transformed electricity from a specialized novelty into a broadly available utility.
Carr draws parallels between then and now. At one point, big manufacturers produced all their electricity on site, just as many corporations have on-site servers and information-technology departments today. However, electricity production, as do IT and computing, benefits from economies of scale. Like electricity, IT and computing usage follows similar peak load and capacity patterns. Unused capacity -- think of your home PC while you're at work or the corporate server when the business day is over -- can be minimized by analyzing and matching the usage patterns of many types of customers.
Like electricity, IT can function as a utility, Carr says. Corporations, instead of building, maintaining and supplying internal servers and applications, can buy these services over the Internet from companies specializing in IT -- at a lower cost than running an in-house system. As an example, Carr points to Salesforce.com (NYSE: CRM) , a company started by Marc Benioff, a veteran Oracle (Nasdaq: ORCL) employee. The company provides customer relationship management (CRM) services over the Internet to corporations that would otherwise buy and staff their own in-house CRM systems. The company's sales in 2007 topped US$500 million.
Salesforce.com isn't alone. "Employease offers a service for managing personnel. LeanLogistics has one for scheduling transportation. Oco provides a 'business intelligence' service, allowing executives to analyze corporate information and create planning reports. Digital Insight supplies a range of services to banks."
Further Into the Future
Carr spends the first half of Big Switch explaining the corporate and individual switch from computing as a box sitting in front of the user to being a utility like electricity. In the second half, Carr veers away from talk of business and utilities and steers toward territory that science-fiction fans might find appealing.
Carr warns the reader that just as electricity was heralded as a cure-all for modern society that didn't fulfill utopian promises, we should be careful making similar proclamations for utility computing.
Carr is neither a utopian nor a Luddite. In one chapter, he writes about "the unbounded possibilities that tomorrow's computing opens up for making our lives better." In another, he reveals the chilling Information Operation Roadmap put out by the Department of Defense and the Joint Chiefs of Staff in 2003. He finds it "disconcerting to read military planners calmly laying out a doomsday scenario in which American forces act to 'disrupt or destroy the full spectrum of globally emerging communications systems, sensors and weapons systems dependent on electromagnetic spectrum.' "
Carr is excited about where this is all going, although his optimism is tinged with restraint. With technological advances, he says, come setbacks, not to mention mismatches between the power of new tools and the knowledge of how best to use them.
Those looking to The Big Switch for advice on how to harness the power of the computing revolution will be disappointed. Carr's book is a glance at where computing has come from and where it could go in the future, with a warning about what the future can bring.

Rising cost of living hits Gulf IT workers

Over half of all IT workers in the GCC are planning on changing jobs within the next two years, according to the 2008 Arabianbusiness.com Salary Survey. The survey found that 55.4% of IT workers aim to move job in two years, with 71.8% of all respondents saying they are more likely to change jobs now than they were last year.
The biggest concern of IT personnel in the region, in line with most other sectors, is the growing burden of inflation in the region and the associated rising cost of living. 71.6% of respondents felt that they were underpaid, and 61.4% said they did not expect their salary to keep up with inflation.
Of those workers who said they were planning to change jobs within two years, 30.4% said it was because of the rising cost of living, and 21.9% cited lack of pay rise. 13.4% of would be job-seekers also saw an increasing number of opportunities in other markets. Opportunities for promotion (33.3%) and pay (32.8%) were the most important factors in any new job, while share options and training are considered the least important factors.
Nearly 9,000 respondents completed the Arabianbusiness.com Salary Survey online, with over 1,300 respondents working in the GCC in IT roles, or employed in the IT sector. A wide range of roles were represented in the survey, including CIOs, database, website and network administrators, consultants, engineers, IT managers, systems analysts and programmers, project managers and sale roles. All sectors were represented, including banking and finance, communications, construction, education, government, energy, real estate, healthcare, hospitality and FMCG.
In terms of ethnicity, Indian nationals made up 37% of Gulf IT respondents, with Gulf nationals making up 13.5%. Arab nationals from outside of the Gulf accounted for 20% of jobs, and Pakistanis for 9%. The majority of survey respondents were based in the UAE and Saudi Arabia.Story continues below ↓ advertisement
Average basic pay for the IT industry was lower than overall average for all sectors that were surveyed, with almost half (49.9%) of respondents paid less than $35,000 per year, compared to 39.4% for all industries, with 22.8% of Gulf IT respondents paid $20,000 or less. For the wider Middle East region, (Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Yemen and Palestine) 49% of respondents were paid less than $20,000.
The IT industry also failed to rate in the top ten best paid industries, and no IT roles outside of top level management featured in best paid positions. Just 8.7% of IT respondents said they have a basic salary of more than $100,000.
The best paid IT roles, outside of general management, were CIOs, with 40.7% of CIOs reporting basic pay of over $100,000, and sales managers, with 17% claiming the same. Among the worst paid roles, those getting less than $20,000 per year, were computer operators (53.3%), webmasters (46.4%) and database administrators (42.8%).
Qatar reported the highest percentage of top earners, with 16% of respondents paid more than $100,000 per year, while Bahrain had the highest proportion of lowest earners, with 35% earning under $20,000.
IT pay in the Gulf is somewhat behind the US, although as the survey did not measure actual salaries a true comparison is not possible. The overall average US IT salary was $74,500 according to a January 2008 survey from US IT careers website Dice, compared to only 15% of Gulf survey respondents who said they were paid more than $80,000 per year.
Project managers in the US earned on average $101,000 with only 5.56% of Gulf respondents reporting a similar or higher level of pay; for top level IT executives, levels are closer to their US counterparts, with 41.9% of Gulf respondents earning over $100,000 against a US average of $107,000.
For more on the survey, and to see where your salary fits with the industry average, see the report here.

Was Windows XP Microsoft's Last Good OS?"

Everybody's talking today about "Drivergate" — internal Microsoft e-mails that show senior Microsoft executives personally struggling to use hardware products sporting the "Windows Vista Capable" sticker. The e-mails also show that Microsoft lowered its standard for some hardware compatibility, apparently to help Intel impress Wall Street.This revelation is simply the latest in a long series that add up to one inescapable conclusion: Windows Vista sucks.Windows Mobile, Microsoft's operating system for cell phones, suffers from a similar problem. The Windows Mobile OS isn't horrible per se, it's just that it's completely wrong for cell phones and other small screen devices.The biggest problem isn't that the company's newest products are unusable, but that Microsoft may have actually LOST THE ABILITY to make good operating systems.

All about Windows Networking

Online resource for Microsoft Windows Networking

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How to Make an Invisible Folder on Your Desktop or Laptop

Do any of you have certain “secretive” files that you would like kept personal but within reach? Would you enjoy playing a quick magic trick on your folks by dropping documents into an invisible folder? The how to video below quickly demonstrates an easy way to create an invisible folder on your desktop.
By having an invisible folder, you are able to have confidential files, documents, folders, movies, mp3, and more visually erased from viewers eyes. The folder is concrete and functional, but it is simply transparent.
If you are not interested watching the video, the directions are simple:

1) Create a folder on your desktop
2) Select to rename it, delete the default “new folder” title [do not hit “enter”]
3) Press and hold “alt” then “0160″, release the alt key and then press “enter”. This names the folder as a “space”. [Note: Desktops must use the number keys on the right of the keyboard and not above the letters. Laptops cannot use the regular number keys, they must use the ‘function’ numbers within the keyboard (the corresponding letters are: “m-j-o-m”= “0-1-6-0. With laptops, “numlock” must be selected. Also, you must use the “Fn” key when selecting the numbers and may also need so to turn the numlock on.]
4) Select and right click the folder. Scroll down to select “properties”, then “customize”, and then “change icon”.
5) If you scroll through the provided icons, you will see a certain area that seems a few icons are simply missing. Select one of those empty spaces, or in other words, invisible folders.
6) Hit “OK”, then “Apply”, then “OK”.

You now have an invisible folder on your desktop to place any files you want to make transparent. Please remember that this is not a secured file, just invisible to the eyes.

An All Encompassing Future by Nokia Morph

What would you like your cellphone to do? Try to come up with different ideas, solutions, and features then combine them into one cellphone concept, and you may agree with Nokia’s vision.
The Morph cellphone of Nokia is not in production yet, but the ideas were put into an animated video. Basically, they envision a device using nanotechnology that enables a phone to morph for increased productivity and convenience.

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Everex gPC Mini Desktop

The Everex gPC Mini was spotted last month, but they have only made the official presentation in the recent days.
The box shaped desktop computer boasts a T2130 processor running at 1.83GHz, plus 512MB of RAM memory, and an Intel GMA950 for the graphics. One of the strange details is the inclusion of their own operative system, also known as gOS.
In the connectivity options, the gPC Mini comes with Ethernet, Firewire, a few USB ports, and DVI / S-Video outputs. Extra stuff includes a 4-in-1 memory card reader, and a DVD writer.
Expect the gPC Mini to hit the shelves on the 1st of March.

Trojan targets Windows Mobile

McAfee has unearthed a Windows Mobile PocketPC Trojan that disables security, installs via a memory card, can’t be uninstalled and makes itself your home page.
According McAfee’s Avert Labs blog, the Trojan has been discovered in China. Here’s how it works according to researcher Jimmy Shah:
WinCE/InfoJack sends the infected device’s serial number, operating system and other information to the author of the Trojan. It also leaves the infected mobile device vulnerable by allowing silent installation of malware. The Trojan modifies the infected device’s security setting to allow unsigned applications to be installed without a warning.
The Trojan was packed inside a number of legitimate installation files and distributed widely. It has been distributed with Google Maps, applications for stock trading, and a collection of games.
Considering the penetration of mobile devices in Asia this malware could raise quite a ruckus.
Shah reckons that WinCE/InfoJack was created by a web site that may have hired a hacker to create the malware and then distribute it. The Trojan installs as an autorun program on the memory card, installs itself when that memory card is inserted and can’t be deleted. It also becomes your home page.
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Private IE 8 beta 1 test build coming soon

A number of Microsoft enthusiasts this week received invitations to a “limited technical beta program” for Internet Explorer (IE) 8 Beta 1.
According to the invitation, Microsoft is planning to make IE 8 Beta 1 available to the general public, as well. But before that happens, an invitation-only tet program will be conducted. The invitation describes IE 8 Beta 1 being focused on developers.
(ActiveWin is running the full text of the note Microsoft sent to some IE 8 beta invitees this past week.)
Microsoft officials have said they plan to show off IE 8 at Microsoft’s Mix ‘08 conference in early March in Las Vegas. Officials also have said they are planning to add a developer-selectable “super-standards” mode to IE 8 that would enable the browser to qualify as more standards-compliant.
Microsoft still has not offered a final-delivery target date for IE 8. Microsoft released IE 7 in 2006. Microsoft officials have said they are shooting to deliver more frequent, regular builds of IE

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Take your software, settings and data with you on ANY device, and run on ANY PC

MojoPac is a technology that transforms your iPod or USB Hard Drive or Flash drive into a portable and private PC. Just install MojoPac on any USB 2.0 compliant storage device, upload your applications and files, modify your user settings and environment preferences, and take it with you everywhere.
Every time you plug your MojoPac-enabled device into any Windows XP PC , MojoPac automatically launches your environment on the host PC. Your communications, music, games, applications, and files are all local and accessible. And when you unplug the MojoPac device, no trace is left behind – your information is not cached on the host PC.

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Middle East IT managers wants greater mail server reliability

A survey recently performed by NetApp asking Middle Eastern IT managers and Exchange administrators what they wanted from Microsoft’s Exchange software has shown the number one concern in the region to be reliability.
86 such managers were involved in the survey, 26% of which felt more detailed backup and recovery options should have top priority, while 22% wanted the ability to scale on the fly.
But it was greater reliability that took first place, with improvement desired by 46% of those surveyed.
"Exchange is a critical business application in Middle Eastern companies –Exchange downtime is simply unacceptable in today's 24/7 world," said Marty Molnar, Regional Area Director of Middle East and North Africa at NetApp. "As a result, we are seeing an increased demand for technologies that improve the uptime levels and management of Exchange data. With migration to Exchange 2007 being a top priority for many companies in the next two years, the issues of reliability and manageability will become even more important."
NetApp understand that only 1% of managers are currently using Exchange 2007. However, they believe over 85% are planning migrations to future iterations of the server software over the next two years.
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VMware signs deal to embed software in HP servers

VMware and Hewlett-Packard said on Tuesday they have signed an agreement to integrate VMware's virtualization software into 10 models of HP's computer servers. The companies said the joint offering will help customers adopt virtualization with greater speed and simplicity.
Virtualization technology allows a single server to perform the work of 10 or more machines by creating multiple virtual computers that run simultaneously on the machine. The technology helps cut costs for equipment, electricity, and labor. The Financial Times reported on Tuesday that the VMware had also struck similar preinstallation deals with Dell, IBM, and Fujitsu Siemens.
©2007 CNET Networks, Inc. All rights reserved. CNET , CNET.com , and the CNET logo are registered trademarks of CNET Networks, Inc. Used by permission.

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Portals in a Web 2.0 World

Web 2.0 refers primarily to two major paradigm shifts in the way people use the Web: thin client computing and user-generated content. The portal plays a pivotal role in both areas. In thin client computing, data and applications are stored on Web servers, and a user has access from any computer via a Web browser, thus turning the Web into a gigantic application server -- a penultimate manifestation of Web 2.0.

Whither lies the true "doorway" to the Web 2.0 world?
The search for this golden portal into the future Web has launched a mega-billion dollar corporate competitive scramble with no complete solution in sight -- yet.
Portals come in three basic varieties, according to a study of portal business models by the University of Washington's School of Business:
Horizontal portals like Google (Nasdaq: GOOG) , Yahoo (Nasdaq: YHOO) , MSN and AOL provide gateway access to the Internet's vast store of content and services along with a broad range of tools for locating information and Web sites, communicating with others and developing online communities of interest. They make money through advertising and transaction fees from multiple vertical solutions channels.
Vertical portals like WebFlyer and WebMD provide deep content, a place to conduct business, learn and shop, communities and community-building tools. These portals are often composed of a variety of business models, all of which generate separate revenue streams, including advertising and referral fees (if transactions are not completed online). Service fees and transaction fees may be generated if transactions are completed online, and subscription fees may also be generated for unique content.
Affinity portals like iVillage.com (women) and Realtor.com (realtors) provide deep content, commerce and community features like those found in vertical portals, but these offerings are targeted toward a specific market segment or even a specific gender. The revenue model is similar to vertical portals, with cost and asset models based on the business model adopted by the portal.
New York-based Internet specialist JupiterResearch predicts that 80 percent of U.S. households that are online will be using broadband by 2010. As a result, portals and content sites will be forced to compete for market share by experimenting with broadband-oriented technologies such as Flash-based home pages and customized RSS (really simple syndication) feeds.



Web 2.0 refers primarily to two major paradigm shifts in the way people use the Web: thin client computing and user-generated content. The portal plays a pivotal role in both areas.
In thin client computing, data and applications are stored on Web servers, and a user has access from any computer via a Web browser, thus turning the Web into a gigantic application server -- a penultimate manifestation of Web 2.0.
Google Apps is a collection of Google applications and utilities offered as a package, either free or paid for. In 2007, Google combined its e-mail, instant messaging, calendar, word processing, spreadsheet and Web authoring applications along with administration utilities into Standard and Premier Editions, which are free and paid, respectively.
By offering a paid, Web-based office suite of primary business applications with tech support, Google used the thin client computing concept to jump into the office software arena in direct competition with Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT) Office suites.
The significant difference is that Google Apps is Web-based. Users can access sufficiently functional office applications (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.) online through the Google portal at a comparatively low price. With GoogleApps, Google has created a bona fide Web 2.0-like portal that has Microsoft very concerned for its earth-bound office application software business -- another good reason for that US$44 billion bid for Yahoo.
User-generated content (UGC) involves posting digital video, blogging, podcasting, news, gossip, research, mobile phone photography and wikis on social networking sites like MySpace , Facebook and Flickr. UGC lets everyone have their say on anything and publish it to the world at large.
This is made possible through Web application services, a standardized way of integrating Web-based applications using the XML (Extensible Markup Language), SOAP, WSDL (Web Services Description Language) and UDDI (Universal Description Discovery and Integration) open standards over an Internet protocol backbone. XML is used to tag the data, SOAP is used to transfer the data, WSDL is used for describing the services available, and UDDI is used for listing what services are available.
Rich-Internet application techniques such as Ajax, Adobe (Nasdaq: ADBE) Flash, Flex, Java , and Silverlight have the potential to improve the user-experience in browser-based applications. These technologies allow a Web page to request an update for some part of its content, and to alter that part in the browser, without needing to refresh the whole page at the same time.
Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) is a group of interrelated Web development techniques used for creating interactive Web applications. A primary Ajax characteristic is the increased responsiveness and interactivity of Web pages achieved by exchanging small amounts of data with the server "behind the scenes" so that the entire Web page does not have to be reloaded each time the user performs an action. This increases the Web page's interactivity, speed, functionality and usability.
Portlets (a.k.a. "gadgets," "widgets," "Web parts," "mini-apps," etc.) are specialized content areas that occupy small windows on portal pages -- e.g., weather info, news flashes, stock tickers, etc. Java Specification Request (JSR) 168 standards enable portal developers, administrators and consumers to integrate standards-based portals and portlets across a variety of vendor solutions. As Web applications within a browser window, displayed in an effective layout, portlets are aggregated by the portal page.
User-friendly portals feature design elements that provide a usable and convenient interface to facilitate a user's primary goal: finishing the task at hand. Good page design means clear and consistent navigational aids -- page names, logos, banners, icons, background colors -- as visual clues for users to move easily through the site's menu structure, with content links and applications right on the home page or just a click away.
Modern portals embody all of the characteristics and capabilities of consumer Web 2.0 applications: dynamic usability (Ajax, drag-and-drop, in-place refresh), tagging, simpler user experiences and tools, participant-driven capabilities and experiences, says Mark Carges, executive vice president of portal vendor BEA Systems (Nasdaq: BEAS) .
"For new Web 2.0 applications -- wikis, blogs, collaborative search, mashups -- portals are a logical aggregation point," he told TechNewsWorld.
Ease of Use Paramount
As Web applications become more sophisticated, people can easily develop elaborate personal Web pages, create a blog, and upload their own opinions, audio and video. Users can augment the news by reporting hot stories, sometimes faster than and with details often overlooked or ignored by the professional news media.
"The dominant use of public portals is still aggregating news feeds," observed Omar Al Zabir, CTO of Pageflakes and author of the book Building a Web 2.0 Portal with ASP.NET 3.5.
A Portal 2.0 candidate, Pageflakes is an Ajax-based start page and social networking site similar to Netvibes, MyYahoo, iGoogle and Microsoft Live. The site is organized into tabs, each tab containing user-selected modules called "Flakes." Each Flake varies in content -- information such as RSS/Atom feeds, calendar, to-do list, Web search, weather forecast, del.icio.us bookmarks, Flickr photos, social networking tools like Facebook, YouTube , Twitter, e-mail and user-created modules -- designed for using the Web at school, work and at home.
"We have many varieties of verticals using Pageflakes as their portal," Al Zabir told TechNewsWorld. "Education is the strongest among all. Teachers and students use Pageflakes to aggregate articles and news feeds, collect research materials on their portal pages. Social groups gather on Pageflakes and collaboratively work on their portals. Family pages show family members are bringing together family photos, calendars, to-do-lists and many interesting topics. RSS junkies use Pageflakes to aggregate hundreds of RSS feeds into organized tabs."
UGC reflects the expansion of media production through new technologies that are accessible and affordable to the general public. In this New Media scenario, the traditional model of big media businesses generating content and consumers passively consuming is subsumed by a new paradigm in which the consumer has increasing control over the timing, channel and format by which content is created and absorbed.
The basic problem with this setup is that it requires time and energy to pull it off properly. Web 2.0 is really about building applications that make everyday tasks easier, according to Publishing 2.0 blogger Scott Karp. His examples of successful portals include Google (search), eBay (Nasdaq: EBAY) (sell/buy), Amazon (Nasdaq: AMZN) reviews/recommendations (shop) and Flickr (organize/share photos). Karp makes the case that the average person doesn't have much time or interest in doing a lot of voting, tagging, saving, commenting and creating media, and has patience for only a finite amount of choice. Web 2.0 media applications, according to Karp, are really just for bloggers and other people with the drive to create their own media.
"For most of us, media consumption consists of reading or viewing and then moving on to something else," he said.
Karp highlights "ease of use" as the key factor in any successful Web 2.0 portal. He gives Flickr and MySpace props as shining examples of doing things right.
"Flickr makes the task at hand (organizing/sharing pictures) easier," he contended. "What problem does MySpace solve? It's not about media consumption, and it's not even about content creation. It's about what young people in particular want to do most: socialize. MySpace makes it easier to hang out and be seen. It makes it easy to create your own space -- something that is difficult for teenagers, indie bands, etc."
Facebook also has its advocates. David Sacks, the founder and CEO of new startup Geni (and previously PayPal COO) said that Facebook has a new answer to the portal question -- the "social graph," or a person's network of relationships, will push information to that individual.
"The potential for Facebook to layer on any feature whose value increases with the participation of friends is an incredibly broad canvas for a portal," Sacks blogged on TechCrunch. "Moreover, as each new application gains acceptance, it enriches the overall value of the network and makes it incrementally more likely that the next application will be tried. Much of what we know as 'Web 2.0' will eventually be rebuilt on top of Facebook."
The Web's growing complexity has made portals essential to Internet users, Web20Portals.com's Jacques Beaudoin told TechNewsWorld.
"Due to the growing complexity of the Web, portals have become essential to the Internet users in this new Web 2.0 world. By providing a pathway to other content, portals facilitate the access to information and make the users experience more enjoyable and rewarding. This is why portals are now experiencing serious growth and in my opinion will keep on growing in the future as their usage will become more and more indispensable."

Thanks