Jinaa's Blog

Latin Thaana Converter 2.0

2009-05-04T11:43:00.003+05:00

Latin Thaana Converter is a small, simple software for Microsoft Windows that performs transliteration on latinized (i.e. romanized) Thaana to convert it back into the Thaana script. This is a tool I originally released in 2003 under the name "Latin Dhivehi Converter"/"Lat2Dhiv". This new release carries a new name (which I think is a more technically correct name for what it does) and sports a few aesthetic changes but is functionally almost exactly the same as the original - it is basically a recompile of my old code within the .Net framework.

Automated transliteration of Latin Thaana is not an entirely easy task. Look up table based algorithms are simple to implement but are unable to correctly handle cases of sukun, present issues with most other fili and generally have a host of other problems as well. Latin Thaana Converter utilizes a finite state machine and its transliteration mappings are based on a more extensive scheme extracted from an analysis of a body of Latin Thaana-to-Thaana sample data. It maybe worth mentioning that the analysis had revealed that upto 4 characters were being used (and needed) for some Thaana transliterations. However, it must be said that the quality of transliteration from this is limited by the accuracy and diversity of the sample data I had used and hence is by no means perfect.

Since writing this program in 2003, I have experimented with probabilistic FSMs and also put machine learning techniques to the task with better results. I plan to write more extensively on Thaana transliteration algorithms at a later time...

Usage
1. Copy-paste or type the Latin Thaana text into the "Text in Latin Thaana" box.
2. Click "Convert".
3. The converted text appears in the "Text in Thaana" box.

Download
- Latin Thaana Converter 2.0 Installer (126KB, MS Windows)
- Latin Thaana Converter 2.0 Executable only (22.8KB, MS Windows)

by - Jaa

HELP ITC show 28-04-09

2009-04-29T16:18:00.002+05:00

Recover Accidently Closed Windows

2009-04-28T12:46:00.003+05:00

Usually when working on a computer we all have to come to pass that error window closed a Word, PowerPoint, a program and a browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera, etc) that was filling a form or had something important and for any reason which we close.

This can be retrieved with a completely free and not using computer resources and does its job quite well, the most indispensable program that everyone should use. The best part is that it weighs not much by which occupies installed.

To retrieve a single window must click on the icon or right click and select the window you want to retrieve or two clicks to get all the windows.

PD: Only have 60 seconds to retrieve the sale, but this can be changed. Specifies that only works with windows.

DOWNLOAD

Disable Annoying Restart Notification After Windows Update

2009-04-26T14:23:00.004+05:00

It’s always annoying to get a restart notification every few minutes when Windows has installed the Windows updates. The problem with me was that whenever I was typing, that popup would come up automatically and I would press some key that would automatically say yes to that screen ……………………. and the computer restarts. That’s more than annoying if you’re doing some serious type of work.

Here are two methods by which this automatic updates restart reminder nag can be disabled permanently.

1- Through Run Command (temporary)

Go to Start –> Run and type in the following and press OK.

net stop wuauserv

or alternatively type in the following:

net stop “windows updates”

This will temporarily stop the automatic updates service which will automatically start upon next restart.

2- Through Group Policy (permanent)

Go to Start –> Run –> gpedit.msc to run the group policy editor

Now go to Computer Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Windows Components –> Windows Update

In the right hand pane, enable the following:

No auto-restart with logged on users for scheduled automatic updates installations

HELP show 21-04-09

2009-04-23T17:12:00.002+05:00

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter

2009-04-23T14:55:00.001+05:00

How to edit PDF files without purchasing an expensive PDF editor? How to extract text/images from PDF files? What you need is a PDF to Word Converter.

Free PDF to Word Doc Converter is such a desktop document conversion tool to convert Adobe PDF file to Mcirosoft Word Doc file - and it's totally for FREE!

The program can extract text, images, shapes from PDF file to Word Doc file and preserve the layout. It can convert all the pages, or any pages range of the PDF file.

And it is a standalone program - you can convert PDF to Word Doc without Adobe Acrobat Reader or Microsoft Word installed!

Key Features:

Convert PDF to Word and preserve the original layout of your PDF in an editable Word Document.
Extract text labels, graphics, shapes from PDF file into Word Doc file.
Convert all the pages, or partial pages of PDF file to Word file.
Support Adobe PDF 1.0 - 1.6 formats.
Can automatically open the output Doc file when the conversion is done.
Several PDF to Word conversion options are available for a better result.
Convert in a high speed.
Easy to use software.
Totally for Free!

Word Viewer 2003

2009-04-23T14:36:00.003+05:00

Brief Description

View, print and copy Word documents, even if you don't have Word installed. This download is a replacement for Word 97 Viewer and all previous Word Viewer versions.

Download its free

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/thankyou.aspx?familyId=95e24c87-8732-48d5-8689-ab826e7b8fdf&displayLang=en

Overview

NOTICE: This download will no longer be available after December 31, 2009. The newest version of the Word Viewer is available here.

Word Viewer 2003 lets you open Word 2003 documents and documents created with all previous versions of Microsoft Word for Windows® and Microsoft Word for Macintosh. In addition to Word document files (.doc), you can also open files saved in the following formats:

With Word Viewer 2003, you can view, print, and copy document contents to another program. However, you cannot edit an open document, save a document, or create a new document. This download is a replacement for Word 97 Viewer and all previous Word Viewer versions.

NOTE: So long as you comply with the other license terms for the Microsoft Office Word 2003 Viewer, you may distribute such viewer without a document created by Microsoft Office.

System Requirements

Supported Operating Systems: Windows 2000 Service Pack 4; Windows Server 2003; Windows XP

This download applies to the following Office applications:
- Microsoft Office Word 2003
- Microsoft Word 2002
- Microsoft Word 2000
- Microsoft Word 97

Instructions

To install this download:

Download the file by clicking the Download button (above) and saving the file to your hard disk.
Double-click the wdviewer.exe program file on your hard disk to start the Setup program.
Follow the instructions on the screen to complete the installation.

Instructions for use:

After you install this download, open a file in Word Viewer 2003:

On the File menu, click Open.
In the Look in list, click the drive, folder, or Internet location that contains the file you want to open.
In the folder list, locate the file, or locate and open the folder that contains the file.
Click the file, and then click Open.

Note: To preview the contents of the file before you click Open, on the Views menu click Preview.

To remove this download:

To remove the download file, delete the file wdviewer.exe.

On the Start menu, point to Settings and then click Control Panel.
Double-click Add/Remove Programs.
In the list of currently installed programs, select Microsoft Office Word Viewer 2003 and then click Remove or Add/Remove. If a dialog box appears, follow the instructions to remove the program.
Click Yes or OK to confirm that you want to remove the program.

New Solar-Powered Florida City in the Works

2009-04-23T11:13:00.002+05:00

In Florida, a master-planned city is currently in the works northeast of Fort Myers. The new city that will span 17,000 acres is developed by Kitson & Partners. Like many of those planned cities and communities of the future, this one called Bobcock Ranch aims to rely on renewable energy as a power source.
Florida Power & Light will be operating the city's solar power plant which, when finished, would be the largest on earth. It will be an impressive 75-megawatt solar generator that will produce more energy per day than what the city will use within 24 hours, which is likely since the commercial buildings to be erected would have to be certified as energy-efficient. If that's the case though, I'm a bit confused why the source claims the city will have to rely on the grid when the sun sets if the solar facility can supply more power than needed at daytime, but then again, energy from the grid might just supplement what the collected solar energy can power at night.
Bobcock Ranch's solar power plant will sit on 350 acres of the land and will cost an estimated $300 million dollars to erect. Residents of the city will also be able to monitor their energy consumption through an integrated energy smart grid. It is the developer's aim for the city to provide as much as 20,000 permanent job and thousands more temp jobs during its construction which could begin as early as this year.

What if Google was founded in the 1960s?

2009-04-22T09:30:00.001+05:00

HELP show Ncomputing

2009-04-20T08:52:00.002+05:00

Dhitv Help show Apple Week7-04-09

2009-04-10T01:30:00.003+05:00

How to remove Windows Live Messenger virus, phishes, malware (i noticed this in some of our online users)

2009-04-08T02:03:00.006+05:00

Ever flood by Windows Live Messenger infected message with virus links, phishing links or malware links where once you click on the link, you will get infected and become one of the virus, phishes, malware spreading host?

Live messenger security has been a huge threat, causing lotsa problems to users. So how would you improve your security as well?

******************************************************************************
The messages are like:

come chck my yahoo flicker account... uploaded some pics :) http://www.summer-picz.com

===========================================
You Have One (1) Crush Waiting for you to open: http://chit-chatz.com/someone.php ===========================================

honey... lots of hot girls to meet here! http://www.XXX-WEBCAMZ.COM/dategirls.php

login & check out my latest photo album here!!! http://jessica.cjy.pictureroid.com/

How much do you want to give a chick a... http://VeryyCOOL.com/orgasm.php ?!?!

etc ... Everyday different messages !
******************************************************************************

How to solve it?

So far i know 2 ways:

1. Google for MSN virus removal tool, one of them would be http://www.msnvirusremoval.com/download.php , before you use this tool to clean your machine, make sure you scan the application. Once you have removed the virus, run a full scan on your machine.

2. I learnt this from my sister: Change your Windows Live Messenger password, which means you have to log into Windows Live account and change your password to something stronger than current password. Alternatively, you can ask for a 72 days password renewal as well.

World’s Fastest Broadband at $20 Per Home

2009-04-05T02:10:00.000+05:00

If you get excited about the prospect of really, really fast broadband Internet service, here’s a statistic that will make heart race. Or your blood boil. Or both.

Pretty much the fastest consumer broadband in the world is the 160-megabit-per-second service offered by J:Com, the largest cable company in Japan. Here’s how much the company had to invest to upgrade its network to provide that speed: $20 per home passed.

The cable modem needed for that speed costs about $60, compared with about $30 for the current generation.

By contrast, Verizon is spending an average of $817 per home passed to wire neighborhoods for its FiOS fiber optic network and another $716 for equipment and labor in each home that subscribes, according to Sanford C. Bernstein & Company.

Those numbers from Japan came from Michael T. Fries, the chief executive of Liberty Global, the American company that operates J:Com.

His larger point: “To me, this just isn’t an expensive capital investment,” he said.

The experience in Japan suggests that the major cable systems in the United States might be able to increase the speed of their broadband service by five to 10 times right away. They might not need to charge much more for it than they do now and they’d still make as much money.

The cable industry here uses the same technology as J:Com. And several vendors said that while the prices Mr. Fries quoted were on the low side, most systems can be upgraded for no more than about $100 per home, including a new modem. Moreover, the monthly cost of bandwidth to connect a home to the Internet is minimal, executives say.

So what’s wrong with this picture in the United States? The cable companies, like Comcast and Cablevision, that are moving quickly to install the fast broadband technology, called Docsis 3, are charging as much as $140 a month for 50 Mbps service. Meanwhile other companies, like Time Warner Cable, are moving much more slowly to upgrade.

Competition, or the lack of it, goes a long way to explaining why the fees are higher in the United States. There is less competition in the United States than in many other countries. Broadband already has the highest profit margins of any product cable companies offer. Like any profit-maximizing business would do, they set prices in relation to other providers and market demand rather than based on costs.

Pricing at Liberty varies widely by market. In Japan, its 160 Mbps service costs 6,000 yen ($60) per month. That’s only $5 a month more than the price of its basic 30 Mbps service. In the Netherlands, meanwhile, it charges 80 euros ($107) for 120 Mbps service and 60 euros ($81) for 60 Mbps. Mr. Fries said that he expected these prices would fall over time.

“Our margins go up,” he said. “But we are delivering more value.”

Cable executives have given several reasons for why many cable systems in the United States are going very slowly in upgrading to Docsis 3. There’s little competition in areas not served by Verizon’s FiOS system, which soon will offer 50 Mbps service. And some argue there isn’t that much demand for super-high speed.

Mr. Fries added another: Fear. Other cable operators, he said, are concerned that not only will prices fall, but that the super-fast service will encourage customers to watch video on the Web and drop their cable service.

The industry is worried that by offering 100 Mbps, they are opening Pandora’s box, he said. Everyone will be able to get video on the Internet, and then competition will bring the price for the broadband down from $80 to $60 to $40.

Aren’t you worried that the prices will fall too? I asked.

“Maybe,” he said very slowly. “We’ll see how it happens. We want to keep it up there for now. It is a premium service.”

Blight - Thinking of carbon neautral project

2009-04-04T00:36:00.008+05:00

The sun provides us with energy every day. How can we use it directly for indoor applications? Blight is an optimal indoor lighting solution that is able to replace current lamps without any need of electric supply. With Blight we have not produced a new object; we have just created the design of an everlasting product: the Venetian blind. We use all the current functions of this object and add a little technology to give it a new function - to catch solar energy and convert it into electricity.

This solar blind creates a link between indoor and outdoor, taking the daylight during the day and giving it back at night. The advantage of the Venetian blind is to have a large surface exposed to sunlight in a small, cumbersome object. With the revolving blades we can follow the course of the sun in order to catch a maximum of energy. Moreover we can adjust the position of the lamp to obtain various lighting effects. The produced energy can be used to supply a computer or other devices, by means of an inverter.

The object will combine two newly-discovered technologies: Flexible solar cells, and electroluminescent foil which requires little energy. Blight is durable and ecological because power cables are not needed and solar power is clean. This improved Venetian blind could be used in the household as well as in office applications.

HELP show 31-03-09

2009-04-03T22:30:00.004+05:00

2009-03-27T23:43:00.002+05:00

Will Conficker.C Blow up on us April 1?

2009-03-26T00:46:00.000+05:00

Conficker has gotten more than its share of coverage as probably the most important malware in the last year, but this next week will see a whole lot more. The latest variant of the worm, Conficker.C, is programmed to do something on April 1. Exactly what it's going to do and how big a deal it will be for all of us, nobody can really say for sure.

The A and especially B variants of this worm (also known as Downadup) built a botnet in the several million system range, almost exclusively through exploitation of the MS08-067 vulnerability in Windows. Conficker added some innovative techniques to update itself though a large number of domains, the names of which were algorithmically generated by the program. Because the names were deterministic, it was possible for the DNS authorities (VeriSign, et al) to block the names and, with few exceptions, the worm has been unable to spread since that point several weeks ago.

Then C came along. It adds a number of defensive measures designed to protect itself from detection and removal and it ratchets up the number of domains it can check for updates. As this very large and thorough analysis of Conficker.C from SRI International says, "...Conficker C increases the number of daily domain names generated, from 250 to 50,000 potential Internet rendezvous points. Of these 50,000 domains, only 500 are queried, and unlike previous versions, they are queried only once per day." Thus C should generate less traffic than the earlier versions, especially in as much as it filters the IP addresses for these domains to make them work better and avoid detection.

Avoiding detection is a major theme with Conficker.C. It's not the first malware to try to defend itself in-memory against security software and diagnostic tools, but C does a lot of this. For instance, it disables Windows Automatic Updates and the Windows Security Center. My impression from talking to anti-malware vendors is that they can still detect it and I'm inclined to believe them; after all, there is just a few variants of Conficker and they're well-understood.

Some security experts such as Eset are urging you to back up in advance of April 1 and to make sure that your security software is working properly. Of course (and they say this too) these are things you should do in any event. But make sure that the update mechanisms for Windows and your anti-malware are actually occurring because Conficker can turn them off.

But the big news with C is that the code is scheduled to come alive on April 1 and start contacting the 50,000 domains and download something. What will they download? What will it make the bots do? Honestly, nobody knows. This is the great mystery.

Another question you might ask is if the DNS powers that be stopped the propagation mechanism for Conficker A and B, how did C spread? Perhaps it's not that widespread after all? I asked Richard Wang, Manager SophosLabs, US about this. He stresses that it's hard to know for sure how much Conficker C is out there because they're laying low until April 1. Among their customers C is 6% of the Conficker population, but it's not clear if that's representative of the world overall. It is possible for C to spread in part because there is a direct push mechanism in B, allowing an outside system to contact it and provide a domain name from which it should download an update, presumably C.

Conficker is really sophisticated as malware goes. It's clear that its authors are smart people and perhaps that's what's got security people worried. But the only rational way to approach this is to do the things you know you need to do anyway and then not get hung up on it. Remember, there's a very good chance that on April 1 nothing much will happen.

Telstra's Turbo 21 HSPA modem reviewed: not 21Mbps but still the world's fastest

2009-03-24T17:00:00.002+05:00

Telstra loves to brag about being the "world's fastest national mobile broadband network." And they should after a recent 21Mbps (theoretical) upgrade to its Next G network in Australia's major cities. Of course real-world performance won't come close to that but the PC-only, Telstra Turbo 21 USB modem likely smokes any over the air setup you've been using. ZDNET tested the Turbo 21 in Sydney and found performance landing on "the right side of excellent." Performance peaked at about 6Mbps but this was variable at best. Still it was the fastest modem that ZDNET's seen in their testing. Yours, or more likely your company's, for AU$499 or AU$299 when bundled with a data pack.

Techshow Jinaa.com 17-03-09

2009-03-22T11:56:00.003+05:00

Microsoft's IE8 Catches Most 'Social Malware'

2009-03-21T01:23:00.001+05:00

A study by NSS Labs of 6 major web browsers shows a large difference in their ability to block "socially engineered malware."

NSS Labs is an independent entity with business in many areas unrelated to this, but it's important to note that the study was funded by Microsoft.

That said, and even though the study shows IE8 and it's new SmartScreen filter head and shoulders above all other browsers, the funding does not make the study illegitimate. "Socially engineered malware," as they put it, is arguably the most important form of malware these days. We've reported on it many times in the last year, with recent examples here , here and here . The basic idea is that the user is enticed into visiting a web site and downloading malware believing it to be something else.

The recent generation of web browsers has approached this problem with reputation services, just as they have with phishing. Just as phishing sites are often initially blocked by browsers ("...this is a reported phishing web site") based partly on blacklists of domains and IP addresses, so are malware sites being blocked.

NSS Labs' tests came up with these results overall:

Browser	Malware Catch Rate
IE8 (RC1)	69%
Firefox 3.07	30%
Safari v3	24%
Chrome 1.0.154	16%
Opera 9.84	5%
IE7	4%

You don't have to think ill of NSS Labs to realize that it's hard to take the results completely seriously until they are confirmed by a source not funded by Microsoft. They didn't publish the exact sample URLs so an exact replica can't be performed, and in any event such sites are highly transient. But replicating the basic idea of the test is an excellent idea for anyone with access to enough malware and a decent lab.

The other important take-away from this is that even the best numbers from IE8 are low. Protection such as this is a good defense-in-depth measure, but it's no substitute for a good anti-malware program and other protections, such as least-privileged access.

Browser Showdown: IE 8 vs. Firefox

2009-03-21T01:13:00.000+05:00

Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 is here at last--the newest entry into the ongoing browser wars. Microsoft packed a healthy number of new features into IE 8, and made security a top priority in its newest version of this venerable Web browser.

But just as important as all that is browsing speed--that is, how quickly can IE 8 render your favorite Web sites? To get an idea of how IE 8 compares, we put it to the test.

Our Speed-Test Methodology

Artwork: Chip Taylor

In our browser speed comparison, we pitted a near-final build of Internet Explorer 8 against Firefox 3.0.7, the current non-beta version of Mozilla's browser. We used a set of nine popular Web sites in our testing: Amazon, MySpace, Yahoo, PC World, YouTube, Microsoft, Apple, eBay, and Wikipedia. To ensure we could gather as accurate page-loading times as possible, we recorded our testing sessions for review later on.

We loaded each site ten times in each of the browsers and repeated the process the following day to rule out any network traffic or server issues. Prior to each test run, we cleared the browsers' caches as well. We also repeated the load tests to ensure that we had sufficient data to identify loading speed trends. To ensure consistent results, we performed testing on a fresh Windows Vista installation, and we reinstalled the operating system before each round of testing. Additionally, we removed the two best and two worst scores for each page load test to produce more consistent results.

Browser testing can be tricky, as different browsers measure page loading progress differently, so getting a read of page load times strictly by the browser's progress bar could result in inaccurate or inconsistent results. Have all the images appeared? Are there elements of the page that have yet to load even though the browser's status indicator suggests otherwise? These are questions we take into account when testing browsers. Given this, we took into account visual indications of a page's loading progress, rather than relying on what the browser's progress bars told us.

The Speed-Test Results

By and large, we found that Internet Explorer 8 performed well, and beat out Firefox 3.0.7 in the majority of our time trials.

However, IE 8's performance advantage is relatively negligible. In most of our testing, IE 8's advantage was half a second or less. One notable exception, however, was in loading the English-language Wikipedia home page, where IE 8 beat out Firefox by an average of one second (IE 8 took about 2.2 seconds to load the page on average, while Firefox 3 took about 3.3 seconds). Also of note: on average, IE 8 loaded Apple's home page nearly twice as quickly as Firefox.

IE 8 is Faster, But Will You Notice?

In practical, everyday use, you likely won't notice much of a difference between IE 8 and Firefox 3. Due to the fact that broadband connections are so commonplace today, and the fact that browsers in general can load pages faster than they could even a couple years ago, the page load time differences between the two are relatively moot. If you use Firefox and are happy with it, you may as well stick with it. That said, it is encouraging to see browser vendors compete with each other, and aim to ship the fastest Web browsers they possibly can.

Iomega Adds BitTorrent Support to NAS

2009-03-20T02:15:00.000+05:00

On Tuesday, EMC's Iomega division announced a series of free upgrades to its StorCenter ix2 NAS appliance, adding PC-less BitTorrent downloads, remote access, and improved Mac support.

Iomega introduced the StorCenter ix2 last October, pledging that the NAS would be a platform as well as a storage unit, part of a way to differentiate the StorCenter from the dozens of rival products in the market. The new features will ship as part of the existing 1- and 2- terabyte StorCenter ix2s, but can be upgraded to by existing owners via an Iomega update.

The update adds five new features. Of the most interest to enthusiasts will be the native support for the BitTorrent protocol, which means that users can download torrent files without the need for a PC. This was a hot feature a couple of years ago, with Orb Networks, Netgear, and Asus and some lower-profile NAS products. It's not quite clear whether support will be built in for white- and black-listing IP addresses to prevent third-party snooping.

Remote-access capabilities will be free for the first year and $9.95 annually thereafter. With remote access, users can apply for a special Web address and use it as a Web-based FTP protocol for uploading and downloading files remotely. Users will be able to purchase custom URLs for an additional charge, Iomega said.

The last three enhancements are a bit more prosaic: folder quotas, to prevent Junior's movie collection from hogging the entire storage space; jumbo frames, a technology to help improve the speed of large file transfers; and Apple File Protocol support, for improved interaction with Apple OS X machines.

DLNA, uPNP, and Bluetooth support are already built in.

"With the simplest set-up process in the industry, the ix2 not only provides home and small business network storage users with such important features as media serving, Bluetooth and video surveillance capabilities, now we've added remote access so users can connect to their files from anywhere in the world, as well as the new standard in peer-to-peer file sharing and much more," said Jonathan Huberman, president of Iomega and the Consumer and Small Business Products Division of EMC, in a statement. "That's the power of network computing with Iomega and EMC."

The 1TB StorCenter ix2 Network Storage appliance is available worldwide for $299.95; the 2TB model is available for $479.95.

Techshow Jinaa.com 10-03-09

2009-03-20T01:56:00.002+05:00

Let The Hands Do The Talking

2009-03-03T21:16:00.001+05:00

Your hands are gesturing but I do not understand! Is it me or are your hands telling me something?

Comprehending sign language is not an easy task, but should that be a hindrance for communication between you and a vocally challenged person?
I guessed not, hence this Sign Language Translator will be the apt solution for you to transcend borders of gesture-based communication.

The device is neat and easy; a no-fuss pendant with a sensory camera that captures the hand motions. Translating the gestures into voice modulations, it makes it possible for an impaired person to communicate effectively. A choice or pre-recorded voices adds a bit of funk to the device.

To operate the Sign Language Translator one has to click the bottom part to expose the speakers.
To increase the volume, just open the speaker wider.
To turn it off, just click it back and shut it.
Simple, straightforward…so let’s TALK!

Back up - Preventing your data from Disaster

2009-03-03T11:14:00.002+05:00

The consequences of not backing up data need no explanation. Just imagine this: You turn on your computer and nothing happens. The hard drive is gone, all the
data on it is gone, and there’s nothing you can do to get that data back. If that thought doesn’t make you want to put down this magazine and back up everything on your computer immediately, then nothing will.
Unfortunately, backing up data is a chore. In fact, according to a survey undertaken by PC Pitstop (www.pcpitstop.com), 26.5% of the 4,084 respondents never back up their data at all. Many backup programs are readily available, but they are packed with enough features to confuse anyone. Furthermore, selecting the wrong type of backup when using these types of programs can
actually do more harm than good, depending on how you want to store your data.
The articles in the following section will tell you everything you need to know about specific backup media, applications, and services and how best to use them; but before reading those, you need to understand the basics of backup.

Full Backups
When most people think of backups, they think of full backups, which
copy everything on the hard drive. The most thorough method of performing a full backup is called drive cloning, which copies everything, including Windows files that are needed if you want to restore your computer to working order after a complete hard drive failure. Less thorough full backups simply copy all user files on the system and leave Windows system files alone. Full backups that are not modified (such as those stored on recordable DVDs) are called archives, because the files within the backup never change. Full backups are very inefficient in terms of the time it takes to create the backup and also in terms of storage space required because so much data is copied. In general, you make a full backup once and then use the following more efficient backup methods to keep it updated day-to-day.

Incremental & Differential Backups
A major feature to look for when buying backup software is its ability to perform incremental and/or differential backups. These maintain backups of the latest versions of your files in two different ways. Incremental backups copy only the data that has been changed since a file was last backed up, meaning incremental backup jobs complete very quickly and don’t require a lot of storage space. The downside is that restoring files from an incremental backup can be a lengthy process because the backup software has to stitch multiple backups together to create the whole file. Differential backups create a completely new copy of a file that has been
changed. It takes longer to perform a differential backup because more data is copied relative to an incremental backup, but restoring data is much faster relative to an incremental backup because complete copies of backed up files are instantly available. Some software also lets you configure differential backups so that older copies of backed-up files are retained when the new copy is backed up. This is called versioning, as it lets you maintain an archive of different versions of the same file so you can easily revert to an earlier revision of a file whenever you wish.

SunCat Prototype Batteries recharge in the sun

2009-03-01T15:44:00.002+05:00

Have you ever had one of those moments where you saw an invention and thought, “Why didn’t I think of that?” Well - when it comes to these SunCat prototype batteries created by designer Knut Karlsen, you will.

The SunCat is such a simple, yet brilliant concept. Named after a cat basking in the sun, Karlsen took standard rechargeable C-sized NiMH batteries and applied a flexible solar cell to the outside using a silver pen and flat wire he salvaged from a Canon lens. What he created was a rechargeable battery that could be placed on a sunny window sill when it was time for a recharge.

Unfortunately, the first prototype only provided a weak trickle charge to the battery proving not to be very effective. Karlsen, however, is looking to improve his design by adding a capacitor for more efficient charging and a display to let owners know when the batteries are fully charged.

Admittedly Karlsen says the size of the battery would need to be reduced in order to facilitate the extra electronics. But if all I had to do was place my spent batteries in the window on a sunny day in order to have them recharge, I wouldn’t mind the smaller battery size at all.

Will Laptops Ever Replace Desktops? This is a recurring question and it seems that everyone has let me share mine .

2009-03-01T11:32:00.001+05:00

There is no doubt that for the common user who just wants a computer for running office-like applications and accessing the Internet laptops are a terrific substitute for desktops. The benefits from this migration are obvious: less space required on the desk, ability to carry the computer anywhere and less power consumption.

Laptops also provide some disadvantages over desktops, and are based on these disadvantages – some of them are nothing but myths – that many users refrain from giving up desktops and using only laptops. Let’s see:

• You can’t upgrade components from a laptop: This is partially a myth. Usually you can add more memory or replace the hard disk drive. Plus some models offer expansion slots like Express Card. But there is something funny about this claim. Average users, apart from installing more memory, replacing the hard disk and replacing or adding a video card, are not upgrading PCs like they use to do a few years ago. This means that the average user (who doesn’t want to learn technical details on how to replace parts and is willing to pay someone to do this for him or her) will simply buy a new computer instead of trying to upgrade the CPU or motherboard. The problem is that we usually base your rationale on ourselves – heavy technical users. So the only area that this statement holds true is regarding the video card, which traditionally can’t be added or replace on a laptop. But, hey, you can eBay your old laptop and buy a new one with a better gaming performance. Of course if you are the kind of user that likes to open your PC and play with its internal parts then a laptop is simply not for you (at least as a primary computer)!

• You can’t play games on a laptop: Well, you can play games on an entry-level desktop either, so what are you complaining about? The problem is that on an entry-level PC you can add a good graphics card and you will have a decent gaming machine, what is not possible to do with a laptop. So the difference is that if you want to play games on a laptop you have to keep this in mind before deciding on a model that is right for you. The market has changed quite a bit in the past year and you can now have a laptop that has gaming performance similar to desktops – or even better, depending to what desktop you are comparing to. But you will have to pay more for it, of course.

• Laptops have lower performance: Myth. If you have a laptop with a high-end configuration and compare it to an entry-level desktop, the laptop will be faster! So everything depends on the configuration you pick. The only area where laptops are traditionally deficient is gaming performance, but this is changing.

• The laptop screen is too small: This is a myth. There are models with really large screens around. The only kind of user that laptops are not really addressing out of the box today is the one that wants more than one display (even though we’ve seen prototypes of monitors with two displays). You can solve this, however, installing an external LCD monitor and configuring your laptop to use the second monitor as an extension of your Windows desktop. It works just like on desktops with two monitors.

• The laptop keyboard is too small: Pure myth. You can simply buy a regular USB or Bluetooth (if your laptop supports this technology) keyboard to solve this issue. Using a laptop with an external keyboard you will still be using far less space than a desktop computer.

• Laptops are more expensive than desktops: Laptop prices dropped a lot in the past few years and in fact there are good entry-level laptops that are cheaper than entry-level desktops. On the high-end arena gaming laptops tend to be more expensive than their desktop counterparts, but the price difference isn’t so huge as it used to be some years ago.

So what is really holding more people to change from desktops to laptops in my opinion is to them to realize that the market has changed a lot in the past few years and their opinion about portable computers can be based on myths created on a time that they could really be true.

Semiconductor Tech Diagnoses Eye Disease Over the Internet

2009-03-01T11:28:00.001+05:00

An imaging analysis technique developed to find defects in semiconductors is being used to diagnose the eye problems associated with diabetes over the internet.

Pictures of diabetic patients' retinas, the inner surface of the eye, are uploaded to a server that compares them to a database of thousands of other images of healthy and diseased eyes. Algorithms can assign a disease level to the new eye image by looking at the same factors, mainly damage to blood vessels, that an eye doctor would.

Right now, ophthalmologist Edward Chaum of the University of Tennessee double checks the system's work, but he expects the algorithms to be diagnosing patients on its own within three months.

"At that point, the system becomes completely automated with just oversight from me," Chaum said. "That's unique. There isn't anything like that going on anywhere in the world."

Chaum's work goes beyond telemedicine, in which physicians connect to patients through data networks, to automated medicine. There are huge advantages to the system: Chaum is expensive, while a bit of computer processing power is cheap. Also, like other telemedicine systems, it moves images over the internet, instead of patients through a health care network, which is easier for everyone involved. Patients get faster, cheaper care and doctors can spend their time treating patients that computers have already spotted as needing help. Increasing acceptance of these types of technologies could mean better medical care for people in areas of the country and world in which access to doctors is limited.

"We don't want to manage the patients, we want to manage the images [of their eyes] and leverage the power of the connectivity of the internet and image analysis methods," Chaum said. "We collect large numbers of images and manage that data and do the screening through data processing."

More than 25 million Americans suffer from diabetes, which, if left untreated, can cause blindness, among other physical problems. The huge numbers of people who need to be screened for diabetes-linked eye problems have created a problem that our health care system, and its relatively small number of ophthalmologists, is not well-structured to solve. Because of the time and expense involved, only half the people who should be getting screened so they won't go blind actually go in for tests. But new technology could help, reducing the cost and increasing the availability of screening for the eye problems that impair the vision of thousands of patients each year.

In the rural, poor areas of the Mississippi Delta where the special internet-linked retinal cameras are being installed, preventative care could be transformed for a population in which diabetes affects up to 20 percent of the population.

"Basically, we're putting these cameras in communities in which there are no eye doctors," Chaum said. "Certainly, there are no retina specialists who can diagnose and refer those patients in a way that makes sense to get them in for the care that they need at the time that they need it."

The project spun out of a chance visit by Chaum to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee. He listened to Ken Tobin, an engineer at the lab, who'd developed the image-processing ideas for the semiconductor industry. In that world, they'd used huge databases filled with images of defective products to help engineers spot similar types of failures.

As Tobin described his work looking for defects in the wafers to the visiting Tennessee faculty, Chaum realized the same image-recognition system could be geared to find diseased eyes by using his huge database of retinal pictures (like those at the top of this story).

"As he was describing his methodology to me, it became very clear that what he was doing was exactly what I do as a physician when I'm examining a patient with diabetic retinopathy," Chaum said. "I look for specific features that are present in that retina and I go into my own [mental] library — thousands and thousands of patients I've seen over the eyars — to say, 'This is diabetic retinopathy of a certain level.'"

After several years of collaboration, Chaum has successfully transferred that knowledge from his brain into the server that does the calculations.

"The computer is a reflection of my perspective," Chaum said.

Now, Tobin claims that the system correctly identifies between 90 and 98 percent of the diabetic patients, tagging patients on a scale from healthy to severe versions of the disease.

"We're looking for lesions. They are like the defects on a semiconductor device. White spots or dark spots," Tobin said. "By finding those and knowing how many there are, and certain combinations of bright and dark lesions, we can tell not just whether they have the disease but how bad it is."

The retinal images are particularly well-suited for analysis by computers. Tobin describes them as nearly two-dimensional with well-defined areas of light and dark. Other areas of the body are tougher. Mammograms and lung X-rays, for example, look at areas with more depth and less well-defined disease indicators.

"In a chest x-ray, you are looking for things that are sort of cloud-shaped amongst other cloud-shaped objects," Tobin said. "It's not really something where it's at a point where it could replace an oncologist or radiologist."

That's why automated diagnosis faces an uphill battle for widespread acceptance in the health care industry. The presence of a doctor just seems necessary — and institutions are loathe to take chances with a computer misdiagnosis when doctors do a generally adequate job.

It doesn't help automated diagnosis that, as described in a review article on the use of computers in diagnosis, early missteps led many medical practitioners to write off the technique based on outdated technology from the previous decades. One doctor wrote, "We do not see much promise in the development of computer programs to simulate the decision-making of a physician."

The other big hurdle is that insurance companies require a doctor's sign-off for reimbursement. Practically, that's a deal-breaker for most clinics.

Chaum and Tobin's automated system could be groundbreaking in providing the first in-the-field test of an automated diagnostic system that the pair are confident will work. That could turn some heads in the medical field and get more doctors thinking about how to treat more patients for less money by using technology.

"What we're trying to show is that at least in a screening environment, we can take the ophthalmologist out of the loop," Tobin said.

Cars to become wireless nodes with DSRC radio tech

2009-03-01T11:23:00.002+05:00

A new radio system developed in Australia is transforming the vehicles on the street into nodes on a network. The technology, designed by scientists at the University of Southern Australia's Institute for Telecommunications Research, is an application called "Dedicated Short Range Communications" (DSRC). Using a combination of GPS and Wi-Fi, cars can communicate their location data to a central office, but it also enables them to communicate with each other.

The system was developed by Cohda Wireless, a company formed by several of university's scientists in 2004. Cohda claims their system "dramatically outperforms all radios available in the world today." They've designed the system to work in harsh radio environments - like cities, for example - where signals can easily be lost among the buildings and tunnels. With Cohda's technology, vehicles can maintain links not just in urban canyons, but also at speeds in excess of 200 mph - although we hope no drivers around us ever put that to the test.

With the DSRC system in place, cars can become nodes on Muni-Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi hotspots, and home Wi-Fi networks. The possibilities are nearly limitless for what that could mean. Dealerships can diagnose vehicles cable-free, cars can receive real-time downloads of maps and traffic conditions, they could communicate wirelessly with toll stations, and the vehicles could even automatically download music from home PCs. (Or maybe iTunes Wi-Fi store? We don't see why not.)

In addition the numerous applications that would make a connected car both useful and fun, there's a public safety element to the system as well. Vehicles could alert their drivers of congestion and accidents, could help drivers safely perform maneuvers like lane changes, could help prevent collisions, and much more. As you traveled, the data about what lies on the road ahead could be relayed from car to car so there is no lag between when the tractor trailer overturned and when you, the driver five miles back, is informed of this. "This technology essentially equips vehicles with the ability to see around corners and predict and avoid dangerous situations,"

Lest you think the connected vehicle is just a pipe dream that won't be realized until sometime in the distant future, listen to this: Cohda Wireless has already completed over than 700 DSRC trials, for 15 distinct DSRC use-case scenarios, in the U.S., Italy and Australia. These trials covered over 10,000 km during which 100GB of random data was transmitted. The results of the trials proved how Cohda Wireless' technology excelled over other in-vehicle Wi-Fi chipsets. The company is now saying the technology will be in wide release by 2012. That's not too distant at all.

Samsung’s Green Blue Earth Phone

2009-03-01T11:16:00.001+05:00

Samsung really pulled out the stops this year In terms of innovation, and one of the most unusual handsets in its lineup is the Blue Earth, which the company bills as "the first solar-powered full-touch phone." It has a solar panel on the back and comes with a couple of eco-conscious applications, including an eco-walk calculator that uses a built-in pedometer to figure out how many steps you've taken--and then calculates how much CO2 emission you've saved by walking instead of driving.

Even the packaging for the phone is eco-friendly (made from recycled paper), and its charger (for when there's not enough sun to power the device) is rated 5-star energy efficient and uses less than .03W of standby power.

The Blue Earth is made from recycled PCM plastic, extracted from water bottles, and (according to Samsung) is "free from harmful substances such as Brominated Flame Retardant, Beryllium and Phthalate." Kind of makes you wonder whether the rest of the phones we use typically have this evil-sounding stuff in them.

show 24-02-09 www.jinaa.com

2009-02-25T14:13:00.002+05:00

17-2-09 dhitv tech show "HELP" - jinaa.com

2009-02-20T13:59:00.002+05:00

Why Linux will crush Windows 7 ?

2009-02-20T12:58:00.002+05:00

I've been toying with Windows 7 for a few days now. I'm not ready yet to talk about it in detail yet, but I can say that it's better than Vista SP1. Of course, saying 7 is better than Vista isn't saying much. However, I recently read an internet article, which claims that Windows 7 will crush Linux. Yeah, and this is always a hard topic in my show with all my viewer defending windows all the time.

Desktop Linux is moving forward. All the major computer vendors are now selling at least one PC, laptop or netbook with Linux. Many, if not most, PCs and netbooks will have SplashTop Linux soldiered right on their motherboard in 2009. Netbooks, the new hot computer model, often have Linux running on them. And, oh yeah, some company named Google seems to be making some interesting moves with Android Linux on netbooks. Oh, and have I mentioned that Windows' market share has actually dropped below 90% of the desktop market.

Windows 7 also isn't going to make friends with today's XP users. True, lots of people seem to really like Windows 7 at this early stage. I think what we're really seeing though is just Windows users who are thrilled that 7 hasn't proved to be a total waste of bytes the way Vista was.

Just because Windows 7 doesn't suck dead groundhogs through doesn't mean it's good however. I meet people who love new gadgets all time and ask me hows windows 7: and i have to say; "Windows 7 looks like Vista, and it runs like Vista. Welcome to Windows Vista R2!."

Desktop Linux, as the powerhouse trio of Fedora, openSUSE and Ubuntu shows, is continuing to increase performance and add new valuable features with every six-month or so step forward. And, of course, Linux remains far more secure and stable than any version of Windows ever has been or will be.

So, how exactly is Windows 7 going to 'crush' Linux? First, the author makes broad claims that, "Windows 7 installs easier, has simpler configuration of user settings, greater availability of software, support (you could argue that all support is awful, which is probably true) Windows support is easier to get when you need help. Gaming, MP3's… I could go on and on."

Ah... what is he talking about? I install operating systems all the time, and Linux and its software has become almost mindlessly simple to install. If you want absolute and complete control of an operating system, it's Linux and the BSD Unixes by a country mile over Windows. As for software choice, come on! Linux has, if anything, too many programs to choose from. Office suites, IM clients, media players, you name it; you have half-a-dozen decent choices in Linux. Windows? You can pick between Microsoft's product and maybe one or two others. That's it.

I'm also unclear on this 'support' stuff. I find it as easy to get support for Linux as I do for Windows. The one difference is that I usually get the right answers for my Linux problems. MP3s? What about them? All my Linux media players can play them. There are some that can't? The sole point where he is right is that Linux doesn't have as many flashy games as Windows. Personally, however, I'll take a PlayStation 3 or other game console over any PC for top-flight gaming.

Moving to the specific, the author seems to think that it's 1999 when he says that since 7 will have a decent command shell, PowerShell, Linux users won't have that to hold against Windows anymore. Pardon? PowerShell has been around for a long time, and it's great that Microsoft finally figured out that a shell is darn handy for system administrators, but that's old news. Besides, the interface debates in Linux circles have long been about GUIs-GNOME vs. KDE 3.5.x vs. KDE 4.x etc...

He also thinks that since Windows users have finally figured out that open-source software is useful that will somehow lead to Linux being crushed. I just don't see the connection there at all. If anything, it's another reason for why the Linux desktop will gain in popularity. If all you do at work can be done with Firefox and OpenOffice, why would you want to pay for Windows 7 when any Linux PC can give you the same programs? we are going to a new era in licensing softwares within 3years times which will be 7 million $ estimated for license fees for this small population while spending all our income from tourism back to them again. why not go for open source we the youths have to take and be in more action for this now i guess.

Last, and least, he gives a laundry list of features. I didn't see a one that's also not available on Linux. Well, that's not quite true. He actually likes UAC (User Account Control). He's the only person I've ever even heard of who likes UAC. It is, I will say, better in 7 than it is in Vista. To me, that means it's only three, four generations behind Linux's use of file and program permissions and sudo for managing how much control any one user has over a PC.

Windows 7 is just warmed over Vista. It's great that with 7 Vista may actually be usable now, but it's Linux, not Windows, that's leading the way to the future of the desktop. Linux won't crush Windows anytime soon. There are just too many people who are married to Windows. But, the slow crush of Windows by both Mac OS and Linux has begun. And i'm kicked all the time with linux and mac even in last weeks episode :)

Comparison with Windows and Linux

2009-02-20T03:08:00.001+05:00

Windows:

1. ease of use
2. very popular
3. good looking interface (even classic style)
3. lots of documentation
4. lots of tech support when you need it
5. its been around for a long time so its had years of experience to get good
6. very very supported by software and hardware
7. not much knowledge of computers is needed to use
8...more to come cant think right now, im tired

Linux:

1. powerful
2. very expandable (open source)
3. nice interface (if tweaked through the options to look nice, stock interface is ugly)
4. defaults with 4 working desktops that can easily be switched through
5. comes with many programs that do things you would have to pay for on windows (office style programs)
6. loaded with server tools and applications to run right out of the box. (better than that IIS crap)
7. comes with tools for developmental environments (programming and such)
8. its free and easy to install
9. Don't need to be an administrator to be able to use the OS's good features that are common in use (downloading, and such)
10. lots of help for it, very large user group.
11. lots of tools out there to port windows programs
12. built in pop-up blocker with the OS

Why go from Xp to Win7 ?

2009-02-20T02:43:00.003+05:00

The average user will be buying new PCs with Windows 7 in Home Premium or Ultimate form as Vista is sold on the shelves now. Selecting between the two will not be that difficult…

For all you people savvy enough to perform upgrades, buy new OS’s, and install them. I think you can figure out the extra one or two other products. Also, the main reasons why IT professionals chose to move away from Vista was compatability issues. I have seen no driver compatability issues with my installations of Windows 7, even in Beta form. Also, from a security standpoint, Vista and Windows 7 are waaaaay more secure than XP. (Conflicker Worm, recent XP and Windows 2003 worm, does not affect Vista and 7 as much for example.) So now that we have an OS that does not have driver issues, manages memory and CPU better, I feel the IT community will be ready for something new and its about time.

As for Windows 7 itself. I recently tested XP, Vista, and Windows 7 beta on my Pentium4 3ghz 786 mb of ram 5 year old PC brought from one of our resorts. Of course XP runs well, Vista was very slow and took alot of resources, but Windows 7 runs almost as well as XP on the old bugger. Performance alone for me would be enough to upgrade from Vista to Windows 7 and the additional security would be enough for me to upgrade from XP. Also, I upgraded my production computer to Windows 7. This is the most enhanced version of Windows yet. My productivity of finding windows and doing regular tasks (I do graphic design, and IT work)
has been increased. Of course we will have to see how it is taken, I believe alot of it will be the marketing effort behind it. But as far as technology goes, this is a much better step from Vista(ME)

IT in Fisheries

2009-02-19T17:33:00.002+05:00

Go for Freeware :-

2009-02-19T09:59:00.003+05:00

Web Browsing

Mozilla Firefox

The premier free, open-source browser. Tabs, pop-up blocking, themes, and extensions. Considered by many to be the world's best browser.
Download Page

Video Player / Video Podcasting

Miro

Beautiful interface. Plays any video type (much more than windows media player). Subscribe to video RSS, download, and watch all in one. Torrent support. Search and download from YouTube and others.
Download Page

IM - Instant Messaging

Pidgin

Connect to multiple IM accounts simultaneously in a single app, including: AOL IM, MSN, and Jabber.
Download Page

E-mail

Mozilla Thunderbird

Powerful spam filtering, solid interface, and all the features you need.
Download Page

RSS

RSSOwl

Solid cross-platform RSS client.
Download Page

Peer-to-Peer Filesharing

Cabos

A simple, easy to use filesharing program. Gnutella network.
Download Page

Gnucleus

A very good Gnutella search and download filesharing program.
Download Page

Azureus

A powerful, but complicated BitTorrent client. So many features you'll lose your mind.
Download Page

Video Playback

VLC

Plays more video files than most players: Quicktime, AVI, DIVX, OGG, and more. Pretty good interface.
Download Page

MPlayer

Similar to VLC-- plays loads of video formats.
Download Page

Media Player Classic

Compact, but powerful media player. Plays anything under the sun. No install necessary.
Download Page

DVD Ripping / Video Conversion

Media Coder

Great tool for ripping CDs, DVDs, etc and converting between tons of video formats.
Download Page

Word Processing / Office Suites

OpenOffice.org

Big, full featured suite of tools for word processing and spreadsheets. Compatible with and a free replacement for Microsoft Word documents. Also supports OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

AbiWord

A word processor. Leaner and quicker than OpenOffice. Compatible with Microsoft Word documents and OpenDocument Format.
Download Page

Podcasting

Juice

Solid podcasting client.
Download Page

DVD Ripping

Handbrake

DVD to MPEG-4 ripper/converter.
Download Page

Sound Recording

Audacity

Simple sound recording tool.
Download Page

Graphics / Photo Editing

GIMP

Photo editing application that rivals Photoshop in features.
Download Page

Paint.NET

Graphics editor with a very nice interface.
Download Page

Inkscape

Vector graphics application.
Download Page

FTP / SFTP

Filezilla

Excellent FTP program.
Download Page

IRC

X-Chat 2

IRC client.
Download Page

Archiving

PeaZip

Fantastic archiving utility to extract and pack archives of an extensive amount of formats. PeaZip also features password protecting archives, keyfile support, system integration, a lovely interface, and much more.
Download Page

Note Taking

Freemind

An innovative application for note taking and outlining. Takes time to get used to, but some people swear by it.
Download Page

Jarnal

Open Source note taking application written in Java
Download Page

Keynote

Open Source note taking application, very good. I use this myself extensively
Download Page

Personal Finance

TurboCASH

Simple, easy to use application for managing personal finances.
Download Page

Quasar

Easy to use Accounting package
Download Page

Chat Clients

aMSN

MSN Messenger client written in TCL/TK aMSN Messenger

X-Chat

IRC Client X-Chat

More Web Browsing

K-Meleon

Fast, nice web browser.
Download Page

Amaya Browser for Windows

W3C developed web browser and editor for multiple platforms
Download Page

Screensaver

Electric Sheep

Immersive, trippy screensaver.
Download Page

More Filesharing

Frostwire

GNUTella client based on the Limewire codebase.
Download Page

Also see: Poisoned - Azureus

3D Graphics and Modeling

Blender

Powerful 3D Modeling software.
Download Page

Also see: Kerkythea (illumination engine) - Persistence of Vision Raytracer - Quesa

Stars and Outer Space

Celestia

Open-source 3D planetarium software. Akin to traveling through space (outer space).
Download Page

Stellarium

"Renders realistic skys in realtime." See what you would see if your city wasn't so light-polluted. Used in real planetariums.
Download Page

Also see: macORSA - Orbit Reconstruction, Simulation, and Analysis

Games

Marathon: Aleph One

Engine for Bungie's free FPS series Marathon. Play online, solo play with rich original story, many total conversions and thousands of maps.
Download Page

Zombies

3D zombie strategy game.
Download Page

Armagetron Advanced

3D Tron game.
Download Page

BZFlag

First-person tank game.
Download Page

Battle for Wesnoth

Fantasy / Strategy Game
Download Page

Also see: Snes9X (SNES emulator), Frozen Bubble

Free File Hosting

CC Publisher

Host Creative Commons video or audio files for free on archive.org with this easy uploader.
Download Page

Security Tools

NMap

Easy to use port scanner for Windows
Download Page

Wireshark

Network Protocol Analyzer, formerly called Ethereal
Download Page

TrueCrypt

Creates encrypted virtual hard drives for extra security
Download Page

ClamWin

Open Source Anti-Virus. Very good at detecting viruses. Can be plugged into hMailServer for e-mail protection LIMITATION: Real Time scanning not implemented yet
Download Page

Eraser

Delete files securely off your hard drive utilizing DoD standards
Download Page

MP3 and Audio Tools

MP3 Gain

Easy to use MP3 manipulation tool for Windows. adjusts sound levels on MP3's so they are all the same
Download Page

MP3 Book Helper

This program provides rapid Mp3 (ID3v1, ID3v2) and Ogg/Speex/Flac Vorbis tags editing and file renaming functions. Mass Tag editing is done using special variables and Regular Expressions.
Download Page

musikCube

Open Source MP3 Player, ripper and organizer written using the .NET Framework
Download Page

Utilities

Cobian Backup

Backup software.
Download Page

7-Zip

File archiver.
Download Page

Developer tools

XEmacs

The classic, super customizable editor, for Windows.
Download Page

KompoZer

Easy to use, open source WYSIWYG html editor
Download Page

SharpDevelop

Open Source IDE for the .NET Framework. Utilizes the multiple programming languages and Windows forms
Download Page

Notepad ++

Open Source programmers notepad for Windows
Download Page

SciTE

Source code Editor for Windows and X
Download Page

Web Developer Server Suite

Very good WAMP Stack (Windows, Apache, MySQL, PHP) Very thouroughly tested on Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000 Server (preliminary testing on Longhorn Server underway). Highly Recommended.
Download Page

Mapping Tools

Nasa World Wind

Mapping tool similar to Google Earth for Windows. Must have the .NET Framework installed.
Download Page

Downadup Worm Affects More Than 10 million PCs Worldwide, Biggest Botnet Ever?

2009-02-16T10:42:00.005+05:00

My suggestion :
I would urgently advise you to download Microsoft's new malicious software removal tool (available here) to check whether there is any malware on your computer. also here's the removal tool which is developed by bitdefender removal tool and its Free :)

To remove Win32.Worm.Downadup follow these steps:
1. disable System Restore
2. download and install MS08-067 vulnerability patch from here
3. download the removal tool by microsoft from here

3. unplug your network cable or disable your network device

4. run the removal tool developed by BitDefender Labs.

About Win32.worm.Downadup :
Win32.Worm.Downadup, a worm which spreads by
exploiting a vulnerability in the Windows RPC Server Service, has been
detected by BitDefender . The Downloadup (also called Conficker or
Kido) worm itself is nothing new. It made its first appearance late
November 2008, exploiting the MS08-067 vulnerability to spread
unhindered in local area networks. Its purpose was to install rogue
security software on infected computers.

In late December, BitDefender Labs uncovered a new version of the worm
called Win32.Worm.Downadup.B. The malware comes with a list of new
features, aside from the present spreading routine, which has shown
signs of improvement.

The worm now uses USB sticks to spread. By copying itself in a random
folder created inside the RECYCLER directory, used by the Recycle Bin
to store deleted files, and creating an autorun.inf file in the root
folder of the drive, the worm automatically executes if the Autorun
feature is enabled.

The worm also patched certain TCP functions to block access to
security- related websites by filtering every address that contains
certain strings. This makes it harder to remove since information about
it is nearly impossible to gather from an infected computer.
Additionally, it removes all access rights of the user, except execute
and directory usage, to protect its files.

The worm is also built to avoid antivirus detection by working with
rarely used APIs in order to avoid virtualization technologies. It
disables Windows updates and certain network traffic, optimizing
Vistafeatures to ease its spreading.

Win32.Worm.Downadup.B comes with a domain name generation algorithm
similar to the one found in botnets like Rustock. It composes 250
domains every day and checks for updates or other files to download and
install.

What is the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows?

2009-02-09T11:01:00.003+05:00

UBCD4Win is a bootable recovery CD that contains software used for repairing, restoring, or diagnosing almost any computer problem. Our goal is to be the most complete and easy to use free computer diagnostic tool. Almost all software included in UBCD4Win are freeware utilities for Windows®. Some of the tools inlcuded are "free for personal use" copies so users need to respect these licenses. A few of the tools included in UBCD4Win are paid for and licensed software owned by UBCD4win. On occasion we work with software companies/authors for permission to include their software in our download or have requested their software better support PE. Users can freely share copies of UBCD4Win with friends but selling UBCD4Win for a profit is not acceptable. We have worked hard for many years helping people for free with this project, others should not make money from our hard work. If you are a dialup user having a hard time downloading UBCD4Win, please visit our ordering page. UBCD4Win is based on Bart's PE©. Bart's PE© builds a Windows® "pre-install" environment CD, basically a simple Windows® XP booted from CD. UBCD4Win includes network support and allows you the ability to modify NTFS volumes, recover deleted files, create new NTFS volumes, scan hard drives for viruses, etc. Our download includes almost everything you need to repair your system problems. This project has been put together to be the ultimate recovery cd and not a replacement OS (Operating System). Please visit the "List of Tools" page for a complete list of what is included in the latest version of UBCD4Win.

There are requirements for building this CD which can and may make it difficult for everyone to build the project. Please understand that these requirements and restrictions are due to copyright laws, etc. When starting this project I wanted it to be as easy as possible. I wanted it to be a simple ISO file download just like the original Ultimate Boot CD. I had to weigh the ease of build and functionality very carefully. After much thought and research I decided that Bart's PE© was the best way to accomplish this task. That decision required a different type of build and more steps for the end user. Yes more complicated, but I prefer to think of these additional steps in a positive way.

Just download and extract the 3files and burn the .iso image file using nero or any other software and just boot it you are free like a bird.

UBCD4WinBuilder.part1.rar

UBCD4WinBuilder.part2.rar

UBCD4WinBuilder.part3.rar

Screenshots : -

show 3 - photography

2009-02-09T09:05:00.002+05:00

FreeUndelete - Freeware

2009-02-08T10:57:00.004+05:00

FreeUndelete restores deleted files, including those removed from Windows Recycle Bin. In case of accidental removal of files on a NTFS (default for Windows Vista, XP, 2000 and NT), FAT32 or FAT16 file systems this is the utility to help.

Supported file systems:
NTFS, FAT32 and FAT16

The recovered files are saved into a new location to prevent overwriting the deleted files on the original media.

Features

File systems supported: NTFS 1.0, NTFS 2.0, FAT32, FAT16
Operating systems supported: Windows XP, 2000, NT 4 (SP2 or higher required), Windows 2003 Server
Easy to use, no special user skills required
Full install/uninstall support

Limitations

Does not support Windows 98, Windows 98SE and Windows ME

System Requirements

Operating system: Windows 2000, XP, Vista or 2003 Server
RAM: 128 MB
Hard Disk: minimum 10 MB of free space required for installation
Display: 640 x 480 or higher resolution, 256 colors

FreeUndelete

Product Home
Product Information

Download

Get a fully functional copy of FreeUndelete.
freeundelete.exe

Firefox eats away at IE market share

2009-02-05T11:38:00.002+05:00

Microsoft Internet Explorer has maintained some overwhelming market share against alternative browsers, but it seems that the browser is slowly losing some of that market share every month. According to Net Applications, Microsoft Internet Explorer’s market share has shrunk from 74.8% in March 2008 to 67.55% in January 2009. In contrast Firefox, Safari, and Chrome have seen small gains since that time.

The clear leader of the alternative browsers is Firefox whose market share rose from 17.83% in March 2008 to 21.53% in 2009. Safari’s market share rose from 5.82% to 8.29%; while Chrome has seen a steady climb from 0.78% to 1.12% during the same time period. Opera on the other hand went up and down almost every month during the period ending their market share in January 2009 at a mere 0.7%.

I hope this sends a message to Microsoft. Clearly, Internet Explorer’s market share isn’t as insurmountable as Windows. It seems to me that Microsoft is paying dearly for its original decision to only upgrade Internet Explorer with its Windows operating system. Firefox took full advantage of that poor decision and now the Firefox browser is closing in on being on a quarter of all web browsing computers.

CoolFlick: Flickr Embedding Cooliris Style . now thats awesome

2009-01-26T09:16:00.001+05:00

Cooliris is one of the best ways to flip through photos, enabling you to scroll through hundreds of photos effortlessly. Flickr is one of the best sites to search for photos. Combine the two and you've got CoolFlick, a service that lays Cooliris' thumbnail scrolling on top of Flickr - all from within the browser window.

Here at ReadWriteWeb we're big fans of visualizing data and content. When it comes to photos, Cooliris is one of our favorites. We've got it plugged into Firefox and on our iPhones. But, sometimes, it would be nice to have quick access to the Cooliris scrolling without having to install a browser plugin or having to jump out of the browser environment.

That's where CoolFlick comes in handy.

To begin searching for photos with CoolFlick, you can either go directly to the CoolFlick site to enter your query or you can string it into a URL like http://www.coolflick.org/index.php?q=jinaa.com. That's it. Using the search terms, CoolFlick loads up a series of matching photos. Then you can begin panning side-to-side and zooming in for more detail just like you would with Cooliris.

But here's something even better: You can take that view with you and share it with your friends. CoolFlick provides an embed code that allows you to add Cooliris viewing functionality to any site you'd like.

History of Mac: 25 Years in Pictures

2009-01-26T09:07:00.001+05:00

On January 24, two days after Ridley Scott's now legendary 1984 commercial went to air during Super Bowl XVIII, Steve Jobs stepped onto the stage at De Anza College in Cupertino CA, and pulled a beige box out of a canvas bag. As the lights dimmed and the opening notes to Vangelis' Chariots of Fire filled the room, the excited audience got its first glimpse of the Macintosh (video embedded below).

Macs are known for the intuitive software that makes them great for non-geeks, and Apple has always been consistent in pioneering new technology, but the ability to bundle it all into one super sleek package has given Apple an edge over the rest. Today, as the Mac turned 25, we thought we'd take a look at how its changed over the years. Please enjoy

1984: Macintosh 128K $2495

Inspired by Lisa and originally called the Macintosh, it was renamed after a new version was released to differentiate it. This original Macintosh came with a keyboard, mouse and 3.5" floppy drive.

Technical Specifications

1987: Macintosh II $3898

This first modular model (all previous models were all-in-one) came with a color video card and expansion slots.

Technical Specifications

1989: Macintosh Portable $6500

The Macintosh portable was Apple's first attempt to make a battery-powered equivalent of the desktop Macintosh. Clunky now, in its day it was quite the prize.

Technical Specifications

1991: Quadra 700 $6000

The Quadra 700 was of the first Macs to use the Motorola 68040 processor and had built-in Ethernet networking capabilities.

Technical Specifications

1991: PowerBook 100 $2500

The PowerBook 100 was the low-end model of the first three simultaneously released PowerBooks and the first to really start resembling the notebooks of today.

Technical Specifications

1993: Macintosh Color Classic $1390

The Color Classic was the first color compact Mac and the last of the classic beige box Macs.

Technical Specifications

1998: iMac G3 $1299

The iMac G3 was the first model of the iMac line made by Apple Inc. and was an all-in-one computer originally released in a striking blue. With the return of Steve Jobs, Apple suddenly got sleeker.

Technical Specifications

1999: Power Macintosh G3 $1599

Power Mac was the first to use the PowerPC G3 (PPC750) microprocessor, replacing a number of earlier Power Macintosh models.

Technical Specifications

1999: iBook $1599

The 'iMac to go' was aimed at the consumer and education markets and was originally known to have a 'clamshell' design.

Technical Specifications

2001: PowerBook G4 $2599

Saying goodbye to the old plastic casing, the G4 had a sleek titanium body and black translucent keyboard.

Technical Specifications

2002: iMac G4 $1299

In yet another design update, the G4 replaced the bulky CRT screen with a flat panel.

Technical Specifications

2003: Power Mac G5 $1999

When it was introduced, Apple claimed the G5 was the fastest computer ever built. Today it is known as the Mac Pro, still sleek, still super fast.

Technical Specifications

2008: MacBook Air $1999

"Thinnovation" Apple calls it; the worlds thinnest notebook.

Technical Specifications

Steve Jobs Introduces the Mac

Video: thanks Dave Winer

My first "IT" show

2009-01-22T21:36:00.002+05:00

Becareful friends.

2009-01-13T14:03:00.001+05:00

by technize

Jinaa Ibraheem

2008-11-04T11:01:00.001+05:00

Jinaa Ibraheem, originally uploaded by Jinaa.com.

Voting for a change.

2008-10-30T11:22:00.001+05:00

The Maldives has a rich history of systematic repression and election rigging, and it is no surprise that the hopes of thousands of Maldivians hinge on the freeness and fairness of the presidential election of 2008. As this will be the first multi-party election in the Maldives, one is hopeful of a freer and fairer election.

Reciprocity

2008-10-12T10:23:00.000+05:00

Reciprocity is the rule that states that if, beginning with the correct shutter/aperture combination to yield a perfect exposure, the shutter speed is adjusted in one direction (faster, for example) and the aperture is adjusted correspondingly in the opposite direction (opened up, for this example), the exposure will be the same.
Let’s say a correct exposure for an image is 1/125 at f8. Charting all equivalent shutter speed/f-stop combinations would look like this:
1/15 1/30 1/60 1/125 1/250 1/500 1/1000 f22 f16 f11 f8 f5.6 f4 f2.8
Each combination would yield the same correct exposure. What would change would be the amount of blur in a moving subject (or moving photographer) as the shutter speeds got longer, or the amount of depth of fi eld in the image as the aperture became progressively smaller.
Note that this is a constant rule only when the light source itself is constant. Sunlight and most available light is “constant” in that it doesn’t change over the course of the exposure. Fluorescent lights are not considered “constant” because they fl icker on and off 60 times per second. Studio strobes and on camera fl ash units are not constant sources of light because they fi re and expire somewhere between the time the shutter actually opens and closes, so the amount of light they produce may be fi gured into the equation (like fi ll fl ash) and used to advantage to either supplement existing light or overpower it.
Back in the days of fi lm, most of us were trained to think in terms of whole stops and half-stops. In other words, I might have told my assistant to “get me 11 and a half” if I wanted a little more light. Canon’s EF Series of lenses, designed for the EOS camera family, easily work in thirds of stops, much more accurate for the touchy digital environment. Similarly, digital cameras have added additional shutter speeds to refl ect the additional aperture settings. An expanded version of the reciprocity scale looks like this:
Shutter speed 1/15 1/20 1/25 1/30 1/40 1/50 1/60 1/80 1/100 Aperture f22 f20 f18 f16 f14 f13 f11 f10 f9
Shutter speed 1/125 1/160 1/200 1/250 1/320 1/400 1/500 1/640 1/800 1/1000 Aperture f8 f7.1 f6.3 f5.6 f5 f4.5 f4 f3.5 f3.2 f2.8
Should you decide to set your camera to work in half-stop increments, here’s how the reciprocity scale would work for the same 1/125 at f8 exposure:
Shutter speed 1/15 1/20 1/30 1/45 1/60 1/90 1/125 1/180 1/250 1/350 1/500 1/750 1/1000 Aperture f22 f19 f16 f13 f11 f9.5 f8 f6.7 f5.6 f4.5 f4 f3.5 f2.8
These are not complete scales, of course. There are lenses with a maximum aperture greater than f2.8 and there are lenses that stop down below f22, but the principle remains the same and can easily be charted for whatever lenses you may own.

Aperture and Depth of Field

2008-10-12T10:21:00.001+05:00

When we refer to the “aperture” of a lens, we are speaking on an iris, similar to that in the pupil of an eye, that opens or closes, allowing light to enter and strike the optic nerve,
sending impulses to the brain. A lens aperture works much the same, except it will allow as much light to enter as we tell it to allow. While our brains can automatically compensate for light or dark (a human with good vision is capable of seeing light as dim as a trillionth of a watt), should we tell the aperture to allow too much light for the ISO we’ve set the chip to record, the result will be an overexposure that the camera cannot compensate for.
A camera’s aperture is composed of thin metal blades that, when the shutter is actuated (and at any f-stop other than its widest), move together in less than a blink of an eye to form a circle corresponding to the chosen f-stop. After the chosen shutter speed has expired, and the shutter has been closed, they move back to their zero position to wait for the next actuation.

Unlike older irises, which were assembled by hand, Canon’s are created and assembled robotically, in a super-clean, in-house environment, assuring a quality of design, construction, and control.
Throughout this book, you’ll see references to “opening up” or “stopping down” your lens. When a lens is opened up, the iris is enlarged, allowing more light to strike the sensor. But, as with so many mysteries of life, things work in reverse; opening up a lens means changing its value to a smaller number. Lenses are rated at their maximum, or fastest, f-stop, thus a lens with a maximum aperture of f1.2 is faster (will gather more light at its maximum aperture) than a lens with a maximum aperture of f2.8. When we shoot “wide open” it means we’re shooting at the lens’ maximum aperture.
When we stop down a lens, the result is that less light will strike the sensor, because we change the f-stop to a smaller number. f22, for example, allows less light to reach the sensor than f16 because the circle is smaller.
Mathematically, when the aperture is “opened up” one full stop, the amount of light reaching the chip is doubled. For example, changing the aperture from f11 to f8 will double the amount of light falling on the chip and result in a one stop overexposure, assuming that f11 would provide a correct exposure.
When the aperture is “stopped down” one full stop the amount of light reaching the chip is cut in half. For example, changing the aperture from f11 to f16, assuming that f11 would provide a correct exposure, will result in an image underexposed by one stop

Asus Eee PC 1000H Netbook

2008-10-04T11:21:00.002+05:00

It has been almost exactly one year since we saw the Asus Eee line of notebooks hit store shelves and it has been quite a year for this little side project from Asus. The original Asus Eee PC lineup, even with its flaws, turned out to be a massive surprise hit, as Asus hit a price and form factor that the market was finally ready to adopt for an ultra-mobile notebook. The Eee PC, while not truly the first of its kind, cemented the "netbook' product category, which has encouraged potential buyers to accept this genre of products. Since its release, we've seen nearly every major OEM produce a similar product to compete with the Eee, although Asus's six month lead in this arena has helped them flesh out their product lineup even before their competitors got their first notebooks out.

In the last six months, Asus decided to explode their Eee lineup with a wide range of models, sizes, and feature sets. Depending on how you look at the situation, this can be seen as a positive or a negative growth for the Eee name. It's still the most commonly thought of brand name when considering an ultra-mobile PC, however, with so many models now out on the market, buyers have to read a grid, more or less, to find which model works for them. One trend is quite clear, even without reading model numbers, however, and that is "netbooks" are getting bigger. Not only in popularity, but in size and features, in order to accommodate the needs of a wider scope of potential consumers.


The Asus Eee PC 1000H Atom Netbook, Google Chrome loaded up on Hot Hardware.

First generation "netbooks" were equipped with 7-8 inch screens, which were sufficient given what people were demanding of the form factors of that time. However, if you want to do any actual work on one of these things, bigger (higher-resolution) screens and larger keyboards become necessary. Also, while cheap (and often-times, slow) solid state flash disks were used as storage and any type of real business or power-user would feel limited with only 8 or 16 GB of storage space. While not as sleek as a solid state hard drive, a standard 2.5" hard drive with a larger capacity would be needed. Business types won't buy brightly colored laptops, either, so the original Eee colors would have to be toned down, color-wise, in order to appeal to the worker-bee.

The result of all these demands for a business-class Eee PC model have led us to Asus 1000H, one of the latest members of the Eee family. In comparison to the original Eee, almost everything has changed, however, the core ultra-mobile Eee feeling remains more or less in-tact, even for those who require a larger screen. Has Asus hit a sweet spot with usability, size, and price, or have they just made the Eee PC into a big, bloated monster? Let's find out!

Asus Eee PC 1000H

Specifications and Features

"This Eee PC 1000H offers even more options to users for unique user experiences. Users will be able to enjoy stable and reliable computing on-the-go; 7 hours* of battery life, high speed 802.11n connectivity and exclusive 10GB Eee Storage makes it the ideal traveling companion for outdoor activities. The large 10" display provides comfortable viewing, and a keyboard that´s 92% sized of generic notebooks make for easier typing and relaxing usage. It is also available in 6 custom colored designs to fit your unique personality." - Asus

Intel Atom N270 Processor @ 1.6 GHz

1 GB of DDR2-533 Memory

Intel 945GME / ICH7 Chipset

Seagate Momentus 5400.3 80GB SATA-II Hard Drive

802.11 B/G/N and Bluetooth Wireless Networking

10/100 PCI Express Ethernet

Realtek High Definition Audio

1.3 Megapixel Integrated Bezel Camera and Microphone

Integrated Memory Card Reader (MMC/SD/SDHC)

10.47" x 7.53" x 1.12-1.50" (W x H x D)

3.2 Pounds (w/ Battery Pack Attached)

6-Cell Lithium Ion Battery (up to 7.5 Hours Stated)

10.0" Widescreen Display, 1024 x 600 Resolution

Windows XP Home Edition (32-bit w/ SP3) Pre-Installed

Available in Red, Green, Pearl White, Fine Ebony / Black

The retail box is extremely small and matches the expectations of a notebook which is largely targeting the budget market. The EeePC is nicely packed in a form fitting box - the accessories all sit in a separate area below the notebook unit. Don't expect much in terms of extras - as you receive the notebook itself, an A/C power charger, a thin (but surprisingly nice) carrying case, and some install CD's and manuals. It's actually refreshing to not have tons of added extras which you may or may not ever use, so long as the essential components and peripherals are still there.

Asus 1000H Shipping Box Front...

The overall aesthetic of the Eee PC 1000H is clean, simple, and works very well. With the black shell and shiny outsides, it actually looks slightly bigger than it is in real-life, and the unit is amazingly easy to fit into small bags or storage areas in cars. It is quite portable, but yet, pretty rugged too. However, given the unit's 2.5" standard hard disk, we wouldn't consider it to be quite as rugged as the Eee PC models with solid state hard disks, which have no moving parts. Regardless, it's a notebook hard drive so it's no more sensitive to shock and vibration than any other standard notebook. Also, the Eee PC 1000H is shiny -- very shiny. Perhaps a bit too shiny.

Shiny Top Cover w/ Eee Logo

While Asus has improved the look of their Eee PC's by toning down the logos and keeping things simple, the company still suffers from OEM-itis, where we see a load of stickers on the bottom of the keyboard. Removing these stickers typically leaves the unit somewhat sticky, and it's always just an eyesore to look at. Especially Asus's huge sticker on the bottom right with their technical support number. That seems like something which could have easily gone on the bottom of the unit out of day to day view. We do, however, like the unit's four clean, small, integrated LED status lights for power, battery, data access, and wireless connectivity.

The Keyboard. Nearly Full-Size!

The customizable hot keys are the only really unique things we see when we open up the notebook. The keyboard is impressively spaced considering this is a netbook, and is close enough to the size of a full-sized keyboard that it makes typing quite easy to pick up on. The one compromise we wish they wouldn't have made with the keyboard is the removal of the right side shift key, which is commonly used. Without this right side shift key, we have to rely on our left finger to find the shift key, this is not a common movement, therefore, it slows down typing by a significant margin, almost to the point where it frustrated us. It's a shame, too, since every other layout option on the keyboard seemed to work quite well.

Customizable Hot-Keys

The unit's trackpad is square in the center of the model, and it supports two button controls via some nice brushed aluminum buttons. You do not have any scrolling abilities with this trackpad, which can become time consuming if you're a heavy user of scrollbars. The trackpad feels a little dull and flat, but is accurate and responsive after a few minutes of use.

Looking around the unit, there are four ports to consider. On the left side, you have a security lock on the left side next to the RJ-45 network connector. You've also got a single USB 2.0 port (one of three) along with audio in/out ports. The audio ports are connected to a modern HD audio CODEC, and can pump out decent sounding audio through its headphones - although the integrated speakers of the Eee PC leave much to be desired. Between the USB 2.0 port and audio ports, you can see cooling channels which exhaust internally created heat. The heat exhaust is only slightly warm at times, as this notebook runs fairly cool inside.

Ethernet, USB, Audio Connectors

On the right side, you have a memory card reader (MMC/SD/SDHC), good for digital camera users or those who want to expand the Eee PC's storage capabilities on the cheap. On this side, you have another two USB 2.0 ports, a 15-pin VGA analog video output port, and the power connector port. There are no connectors on the front or back of the unit.

Battery Life and Power Consumption -
The unit weighs 3.2 pounds, about half of that weight coming from the unit's six-cell lithium ion battery pack, which snaps onto the back of the unit (and is replaceable quite easily). Asus claims that the unit can last a full-day's worth of work on battery (7.5 hours). While great in theory, even with the most aggressive power-saving modes enabled, we were only able to average about 4.5 hours of battery life work standard browsing / work loads. This is certainly quite good for a notebook with a screen size as this and a large hard disk, but it's not a quantum leap longer in terms of battery life compared to what's out there currently. When plugged into the A/C outlet, we can see that the Eee PC 1000H consumes about 44W of power at its peak load, whereas most of the time when it's sitting at the Windows desktop, it can consume as little as 18W, which is pretty terrific for a fully functioning notebook.

1000H with bundled battery pack and A/C adapter.

Most Windows desktops consume at least 100-200 watts with towers and monitors. For those who only need very basic computing abilities, having an Eee PC instead of a tower and a monitor, could actually save quite a bit in terms of power bills. Especially if you are the type who leaves your computer on 24/7, as more people are doing lately due to the ubiquity of broad-band Internet connections and the need to be connected at all times.

We could see the Eee PC also being used as a portable, low-end server, as the hardware is cheap and it still has enough power for a lot of low-level server tasks, and it has a hard drive of usable size. The unit also starts up much quicker than a normal PC, as an average power-touch on to fully working desktop time is about 30 seconds. Starts up and shut down is much faster compared to most desktop PC's, and, you've got a one-touch button on the left side of the keyboard to turn the LCD display off - useful for both server environments or for presentations and/or meetings.

Conclusion


Great Value (Under $500) 10" Widescreen Display 80 GB SATA-II Storage 802.11N / Bluetooth Connectivity	Lackluster CPU Power (in Multimedia Areas) Missing Right Shift Key No Wi-Fi On/Off Switch Virtually No Graphics Power

What is UDP?

2008-09-28T10:17:00.000+05:00

User Datagram Protocol or UDP is part of the Internet Protocol suite, using which, programs running on different computers on a network can send short messages known as Datagrams to one another. UDP can be used in networks where TCP is traditionally used, but unlike TCP, it does not guarantee reliability or the right sequencing of data. Datagrams may go missing without notice, or arrive in a different order from the one in which they were sent.

Though these factors might seem to suggest that UDP is not a useful protocol, it still finds good use in particular areas where speed, more than reliability, is of utmost importance. Since UDP does not have the overhead of checking whether the data has reached the destination every time it is sent, it makes the protocol that much faster and more efficient. UDP is often used for time-sensitive applications where missing data is preferred to late-arriving data.

UDP is a stateless protocol which is useful for servers engaged in answering short queries from a large number of clients. While TCP is mainly used for communication between a server and a single client, UDP is used for packet broadcast or multicasting whereby the data is sent to all the clients in the network.

Since UDP lacks any kind of mechanism to control or avoid network congestion, other forms of network-based control mechanisms need to be implemented to ensure smooth flow of traffic in a UDP network. One of the solutions being designed to tackle this problem is DCCP or Datagram Congestion Control Protocol which is aimed at monitoring and controlling traffic congestion in a UDP network.

A typical IP network consists of five layers:

1. The Physical Layer consisting of the actual channel for data flow like coaxial, twisted pair or fiber optic cables
2. The Data Link Layer implementing Wi-Fi, ISDN, GPRS etc
3. The Network / Internet Layer
4. Transport Layer implementing TCP, UDP etc
5. Application Layer running DNS, FTP, HTTP, POP3, SMTP, Telnet etc

As shown above, UDP belongs to the fourth layer. Although the entire amount of UDP traffic in a network is a small fraction of the whole, a number of key application in the fifth layer like DNS and SNMP or simple network management protocol use UDP.

What is TCP?

2008-09-28T10:13:00.000+05:00

TCP (Transmission Control Protocol) is the main transport protocol utilized in IP networks.

The TCP protocol exists on the Transport Layer of the OSI Model.

The TCP protocol is a connection-oriented protocol which provides end-to-end reliability.

By connection-oriented, we mean that before two network nodes can communicate using TCP, they must first complete a handshaking protocol to create a connection.

When we say that TCP provides end-to-end reliability, we mean that TCP includes mechanisms for error detection and error correction between the source and the destination.

These properties of TCP are in contrast to UDP, which is connectionless and unreliable.

Higher layer protocols which utilize TCP include HTTP, SMTP, NNTP, FTP, telnet, SSH, and LDAP.

Diagram of the TCP Header

                        TCP Header Format
                       -----------------

0                   1                   2                   3
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|          Source Port          |       Destination Port        |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                        Sequence Number                        |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                    Acknowledgment Number                      |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|  Data |           |U|A|P|R|S|F|                               |
| Offset| Reserved  |R|C|S|S|Y|I|            Window             |
|       |           |G|K|H|T|N|N|                               |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|           Checksum            |         Urgent Pointer        |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                    Options                    |    Padding    |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+
|                             data                              |
+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Additional Reading on TCP

The TCP protocol is defined in RFC 793: Transmission Control Protocol.

What is the OSI model?

2008-09-28T09:59:00.000+05:00

The OSI model is a reference model which most IT professionals use to describe networks and network applications.

The OSI model was originally intended to describe a complete set of production network protocols, but the cost and complexity of the government processes involved in defining the OSI network made the project unviable. In the time that the OSI designers spent arguing over who would be responsible for what, TCP/IP conquered the world.

The Seven Layers of the OSI Model

The seven layers of the OSI model are:

Layer Name

7 Application

6 Presentation

5 Session

4 Transport

3 Network

2 Data Link

1 Physical

Layer	Name
7	Application
6	Presentation
5	Session
4	Transport
3	Network
2	Data Link
1	Physical

The easiest way to remember the layers of the OSI model is to use the handy mnemonic "All People Seem To Need Data Processing":

Layer Name Mnemonic

7 Application All

6 Presentation People

5 Session Seem

4 Transport To

3 Network Need

2 Data Link Data

1 Physical Processing

Layer	Name	Mnemonic
7	Application	All
6	Presentation	People
5	Session	Seem
4	Transport	To
3	Network	Need
2	Data Link	Data
1	Physical	Processing

The functions of the seven layers of the OSI model are:

Layer Seven of the OSI Model

The Application Layer of the OSI model is responsible for providing end-user services, such as file transfers, electronic messaging, e-mail, virtual terminal access, and network management. This is the layer with which the user interacts.

Layer Six of the OSI Model

The Presentation Layer of the OSI model is responsible for defining the syntax which two network hosts use to communicate. Encryption and compression should be Presentation Layer functions.

Layer Five of the OSI Model

The Session Layer of the OSI model is responsible for establishing process-to-process commnunications between networked hosts.

Layer Four of the OSI Model

The Transport Layer of the OSI model is responsible for delivering messages between networked hosts. The Transport Layer should be responsible for fragmentation and reassembly.

Layer Three of the OSI Model

The Network Layer of the OSI model is responsible for establishing paths for data transfer through the network. Routers operate at the Network Layer.

Layer Two of the OSI Model

The Data Link Layer of the OSI model is responsible for communications between adjacent network nodes. Hubs and switches operate at the Data Link Layer.

Layer One of the OSI Model

The Physical Layer of the OSI model is responsible for bit-level transmission between network nodes. The Physical Layer defines items such as: connector types, cable types, voltages, and pin-outs.

The OSI Model vs. The Real World

The most major difficulty with the OSI model is that is does not map well to the real world!

The OSI was created after many of todays protocols were already in production use. These existing protocols, such as TCP/IP, were designed and built around the needs of real users with real problems to solve. The OSI model was created by academicians for academic purposes.

The OSI model is a very poor standard, but it's the only well-recognized standard we have which describes networked applications.

The easiest way to deal with the OSI model is to map the real-world protocols to the model, as well as they can be mapped.

Layer Name Common Protocols

7 Application SSH, telnet, FTP

6 Presentation HTTP, SMTP, SNMP

5 Session RPC, Named Pipes, NETBIOS

4 Transport TCP, UDP

3 Network IP

2 Data Link Ethernet

1 Physical Cat-5

Layer	Name	Common Protocols
7	Application	SSH, telnet, FTP
6	Presentation	HTTP, SMTP, SNMP
5	Session	RPC, Named Pipes, NETBIOS
4	Transport	TCP, UDP
3	Network	IP
2	Data Link	Ethernet
1	Physical	Cat-5

The difficulty with this approach is that there is no general agreement as to which layer of the OSI model to map any specific protocol. You could argue forever about what OSI model layer SSH maps to.

A much more accurate model of real-world networking is the TCP/IP model:

TCP/IP Model

Application Layer

Transport Layer

Internet Layer

Network Interface Layer

TCP/IP Model
Application Layer
Transport Layer
Internet Layer
Network Interface Layer

The most significant downside with the TCP/IP model is that if you reference it, fewer people will know what you are talking about!

For a better description of why the OSI model should go the way of the dodo, disco, and DivX, read Kill the Beast: Why the Seven-Layer Model Must Die.

13 Keys to a Healthy Diet

2008-09-27T15:57:00.000+05:00

Developing healthy eating habits isn't as confusing or as restrictive as many people imagine. The first principle of a healthy diet is simply to eat a wide variety of foods. This is important because different foods make different nutritional contributions.

Secondly, fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes—foods high in complex carbohydrates, fiber, vitamins, and minerals, low in fat, and free of cholesterol—should make up the bulk of the calories you consume. The rest should come from low-fat dairy products, lean meat and poultry, and fish.

You should also try to maintain a balance between calorie intake and calorie expenditure—that is, don't eat more food than your body can utilize. Otherwise, you will gain weight. The more active you are, therefore, the more you can eat and still maintain this balance.

Following these three basic steps doesn't mean that you have to give up your favorite foods. As long as your overall diet is balanced and rich in nutrients and fiber, there is nothing wrong with an occasional cheeseburger. Just be sure to limit how frequently you eat such foods, and try to eat small portions of them.

You can also view healthy eating as an opportunity to expand your range of choices by trying foods—especially vegetables, whole grains, or fruits—that you don't normally eat. A healthy diet doesn't have to mean eating foods that are bland or unappealing.

The following basic guidelines are what you need to know to construct a healthy diet.

1 Eat plenty of high-fiber foods—that is, fruits, vegetables, beans, and whole grains. These are the "good" carbohydrates—nutritious, filling, and relatively low in calories. They should supply the 20 to 30 grams of dietary fiber you need each day, which slows the absorption of carbohydrates, so there’s less effect on insulin and blood sugar, and provides other health benefits as well. Such foods also provide important vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals (plant chemicals essential to good health).

2 Make sure to include green, orange, and yellow fruits and vegetables—such as broccoli, carrots, cantaloupe, and citrus fruits. The antioxidants and other nutrients in these foods may help protect against developing certain types of cancer and other diseases. Eat five or more servings a day.

3 Limit your intake of sugary foods, refined-grain products such as white bread, and salty snack foods. Sugar, our No.1 additive, is added to a vast array of foods. Just one daily 12-ounce can of soda (160 calories) can add up to 16 pounds over the course of a year. Many sugary foods are also high in fat, so they’re calorie-dense.

4 Cut down on animal fat. It’s rich in saturated fat, which boosts blood cholesterol levels and has other adverse health effects. Choose lean meats, skinless poultry, and nonfat or low-fat or nonfat dairy products.

5 Cut way down on trans fats, supplied by hydrogenated vegetable oils used in most processed foods in the supermarket and in many fast foods.

6 Eat more fish and nuts, which contain healthy unsaturated fats. Substitute olive or canola oil for butter or stick margarine.

7 Keep portions moderate, especially of high-calorie foods. In recent years serving sizes have ballooned, particularly in restaurants. Choose a starter instead of an entrée, split a dish with a friend, and don’t order supersized anything.

8 Keep your cholesterol intake below 300 milligrams per day. Cholesterol is found only in animal products, such as meats, poultry, dairy products, and egg yolks.

9 Eat a variety of foods. Don't try to fill your nutrient requirements by eating the same foods day in, day out. It is possible that not every essential nutrient has been identified, and so eating a wide assortment of foods helps to ensure that you will get all the necessary nutrients. In addition, this will limit your exposure to any pesticides or toxic substances that may be present in one particular food.

10 Maintain an adequate calcium intake. Calcium is essential for strong bones and teeth. Get your calcium from low-fat sources, such as skim milk and low-fat yogurt. If you can't get the optimal amount from foods, take supplements.

11 Try to get your vitamins and minerals from foods, not from supplements. Supplements cannot substitute for a healthy diet, which supplies nutrients and other compounds besides vitamins and minerals. Foods also provide the "synergy" that many nutrients require to be efficiently used in the body.

12 Maintain a desirable weight. Balance energy (calorie) intake with energy output. Exercise and other physical activity are essential.

13 If you drink alcohol, do so in moderation. That is one drink a day for women, two a day for men. A drink is defined as 12 ounces of beer, 4 ounces of wine, or 1.5 ounces of 80-proof spirits. Excess alcohol consumption leads to a variety of health problems. And alcoholic beverages can add many calories to your diet without supplying nutrients.

MDP presidential Candidate Nasheed and Gaumee Ithihaad Leader DR Waheed as his running mate

2008-09-22T10:24:00.000+05:00

The Winning Combination that undecided voters are looking for, and a combination the rest of the candidates to FEAR

Today e-mails and message came to our mobiles at an unexpected time by very enthusiastic voters. Of those most are the people who belong to the swing voter’s category the undecided. Their enthusiasm and reaction from our contacts around Maldives indicated that we have found the winning combination for Maldives voters.

It seems that people still undecided, about who to vote for, Nasheed has given them a reason, formed a lure, a chemistry that they cannot refuse by making Dr Waheed his running mate.

Anni with his brand new clean slogan, with a total remake over of MDP so far has been seen as a lone candidate, but many with his special make over of the party and himself has started believing that MDP had struck a code with ethics and yet somewhat are still not hundred percent convinced. However with DR Waheed who left MDP according to many due to MDP’s then revolutionary methods of pressure, has come back to MDP. This subtle man, with his peace loving strong morals coming back to MDP and accepting Nasheed is the last conviction that voter need that MDP is for real and they indeed has reformed.

More than that with Waheed supporting Nasheed every step of the way the party will stick with its new found love for peace and harmony. In addition with Dr Waheed’s experience in internal and external relations, his back ground in the education sector of Maldives and the world, foreign affairs experience, MDP can put Maldives on an economic and political course that can make the country a success story. His legacies and CV as a local and international dealings, with the extreme support Anni has both domestically and from other democracies of the world the combination of these two characters will turn the face of this campaign

It is extremely likely that the election campaign will have a completely new twist within the next few days itself and that Nasheed, DR Waheed and MDP will rise against all odds of the past। Particularly it is likely that the choice for all the undecided voters which still is a majority, will choose MDP. Therefore combined with support from die hard fans of MDP which still exist in every corner of Maldives, with the support, the popularity, solidarity and leadership of Dr Waheed brings on, combined with his party supporters they have the power to over take, not only, DR Hassan Saeed, Gasim Ibrahim, but also DRP candidate HE Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Waheed /Nasheed combination is a huge challenge that unless some extensive, new strategy is adopted and extensive campaign of a combative nature not started by DRP and the rest in the race, with absolute conviction we can forecast that our next President will be Mr, Mohamed Nasheed, DR Waheed the vice President and MDP the ruling party.

by allaboutmaldives

pregnancy

2008-09-16T14:13:00.001+05:00

nammi and mishi, originally uploaded by Jinaa.com.

Scientists Test World's Fastest Wireless Network

2008-09-15T09:18:00.000+05:00

Scientists in Pisa, Italy claim to have set a new world record for the fastest wireless data transmission. They report that during an uninterrupted 12-hour experiment, they were able to achieve throughput speeds above 1.2 Terabits per second; which they say beats the previous wireless data transmission speed record of 160 Gigabits per second by Korean scientists. The researchers claim that speeds of this magnitude can typically only be achieved using fiber optics.

The technology that the Pisa scientists utilized to achieve such high bandwidth, actually shares a significant similarity with fiber optics: Both technologies use optical communications. Unlike Wi-Fi or microwave communications, which use radio-based transmissions, the Pisa scientists used a Technology called free-space optical communications, which transmits data using light. The Harvard Broadband Communication Laboratory provides this explanation of Free-Space Optical Communications:

"Free space optical communications is a line-of-sight (LOS) technology that transmits a modulated beam of visible or infrared light through the atmosphere for broadband communications। In a manner similar to fiber optical communications, free space optics uses a light emitting diode (LED) or laser (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) point source for data transmission. However, in free space optics, an energy beam is collimated and transmitted through space rather than being guided through an optical cable. These beams of light, operating in the TeraHertz portion of the spectrum, are focused on a receiving lens connected to a high sensitivity receiver through an optical fiber."

The Pisa researchers.
(Credit: Corriere Della Sera.it)

Free space optical communications has often been considered as means for "inter-satellite communications" of spacecraft, as "it is possible to transmit tens of megabits per second or more over many thousands of kilometers, using moderate laser average powers of the order of a few watts" in the vacuum of space. On Earth, however, there are a number of challenges that currently limit the range of free space optical communications to only a few kilometers.

The Harvard Broadband Communication Laboratory states, "although relatively unaffected by rain and snow, free space optical communication systems can be severely affected by fog and atmospheric turbulence." Fog is a problem because the size of water droplets in fog "can modify light characteristics or completely hinder the passage of light through a combination of absorption, scattering, and reflection." One atmospheric problem is "scintillation," which is essentially air pockets with different densities that act as lenses that impact the "temporal and spatial variation in light intensity." Another atmospheric issue is "beam wander," which is "when turbulent wind current (eddies) larger than the diameter of the transmitted optical beam cause a slow, but significant, displacement of the transmitted beam."

One of the biggest challenges that free space optical communications faces--whether in space or on Earth--is that communications are limited to line-of-site. Unlike some radio communications, free space optical communications requires that no obstacles interfere with the beam, and it cannot bend around objects.

The Pisa team is made up of scientists from the Sant'Anna School of Advanced Studies of Pisa, Waseda University in Tokyo, and the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Tokyo. The team is led by Ernesto Ciaramella, who is an Associate Professor in Telecommunication at Sant'Anna. Ciaramella proposes that one way to get around a number of these limitations would be to develop a communications technology that uses a combination of "photonics and radio." While Ciaramella did not elaborate on how such a scenario would be implemented, it is possible to envision a system where free space optical communications is used for back-end communications, and radio-based communications (such as Wi-Fi or WiMAX) are used for the last hundred feet or "last mile."

Mosquitoe

2008-09-09T12:29:00.001+05:00

Mosquitoe, originally uploaded by Jinaa.com.

Mosquitoes are insects which make up the family Culicidae. They have a pair of scaled wings, a pair of halteres, a slender body, and long legs. The females of most mosquito species suck blood (hematophagy) from other animals, which has made them the most deadly disease vectors known to man, killing millions of people over thousands of years and continuing to kill millions per year by the spread of diseases.

Red Hat, Fedora Servers Face Hack Attack

2008-09-08T09:59:00.000+05:00

A rare Linux security breach occurred when Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora project servers were compromised by an illegal intrusion. Red Hat advised Red Hat Enterprise Linux and Fedora customers on how to determine if they had been affected. Red Hat security specialists say the Fedora package signing key was not breached.

Last week, Red Hat security specialists had a problem on their hands when they detected an illegal intrusion on the company's computer systems. The attack affected both the Red Hat Enterprise Linux servers and the servers of the Fedora Project, a Linux-based operating system supported by Red Hat.

Servers were instantly taken offline. Red Hat issued an advisory to its customers, telling them how to check to see if they had been compromised and offering an updated version of the affected packages, including Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.

"Security specialists and administrators have been working since [they discovered the attack] to analyze the intrusion and the extent of the compromise, as well as reinstall Fedora systems," said Paul W. Fields, Fedora's project leader. "We are using the requisite outages as an opportunity to do other upgrades for the sake of functionality as well as security."

Affected Systems

A system used for signing Fedora packages was compromised, according to Fields. He also said he believes the intruder did not steal the pass phrase used to secure the Fedora package signing key, but had not yet confirmed that.

"While there is no definitive evidence that the Fedora key has been compromised, because Fedora packages are distributed via multiple third-party mirrors and repositories, we have decided to convert to a new Fedora signing key," Fields said.

Red Hat has built a custom hardware solution to prevent having to disclose private keys to developers. "Assuming that [this was done correctly], there was no risk of their key being compromised," said Justin Cappos, a post-doc student at the University of Washington who has studied and written papers on the subject. "Someone was able to get a token, but was not actually able to get the key."

Packages obtained by Red Hat Enterprise Linux subscribers via the Red Hat Network were not at risk, according to the company.

Fields also pleaded with users to come forward and contact Red Hat's legal team if they have any information about the intrusion.

Vulnerabilities Exposed

A group of techies at the University of Arizona wanted to prove how easy it is for a malicious person to obtain a mirror (a Web site that is an exact copy of another Web site, often used for downloads). So the group of post-doc, undergraduate students and their associate professor ran an experiment where they created a fake company name, leased a server from a provider, and created a fake administrator.

"We were able to get our mirror listed on every distribution we tried," wrote the group in a paper about their experiment.

The experiment included Fedora along with Debian, Ubuntu and openSUSE. Mirrors set up by the group were contacted by thousands of clients, including military and government computers.

Cappos, who worked on the project while a student at the University of Arizona, said the problems that exist in this area are not unique to Fedora or Red Hat. They are prevalent across a wide variety of distributions.

"Distributions have done a great job at looking at code created by developers. What receives a lot less attention is how they package the code and get it to the users," Cappos said.

Another problem, according to Cappos, is how developers get the code into main depositories. "This is an area that I don't think distributions have paid just as close attention to. There is a lot of work that they need to do in this area."

How To Handle the Tampering

Red Hat has provided a shell script that lists the affected OpenSSH packages (Linux 4, i386 and x86_64 architectures only; and Linux 5 x86_64 architecture only) and can verify that none of them are installed on a system. Users are being asked to go to the Red Hat Web site, where they will find scripts to run to test their systems.

'Sexercise' will keep you healthy and young

2008-09-07T00:42:00.000+05:00

According to British health experts if you want to get fit forget the gym, jogging round the park and doing sit ups, a workout between the sheets is a more effective and enjoyable way of keeping healthy.

The British National Health Service is recommending that for those too busy to fit regular exercise into their schedule, sex will not only lower the risk of heart attacks but will help people live longer.

According to the NHS during "sexercise" endorphins released at orgasm stimulate immune system cells, which also helps target illnesses like cancer, as well as wrinkles.

While sexual health experts agree there is evidence that sex has benefits for mental wellbeing, they say claims of a reduced risk of heart disease and cancer could not be scientifically proven.

The NHS however claims the theory is backed by science and clinical evidence.

The advice, entitled "Get more than zeds in bed", is one of several sexual health-related articles to be found on the NHS Direct website and claims sex with a little energy and imagination provides a workout worthy of an athlete.

The article also says orgasms even prevent wrinkles and frown lines from deepening.

The NHS says that sex uses every muscle group, gets the heart and lungs working hard, and burns about 300 calories an hour.

The advice suggests "regular romps this winter" could lead to a better body and a younger look, make hair shine and skin smooth.

The article also claims goes that orgasms release "painkillers" into the bloodstream, which help keep mild illnesses such as colds and aches and pains away.

Healthy bones and muscles, and a feeling of wellbeing are they say a guaranteed result of the production of extra oestrogen and testosterone hormones which sex engenders.

Sexperts, sorry I mean experts on sex say that one of the greatest benefits you can get from sexercise is a release of endorphins in the brain that act as a natural drug induced high, or a heightened sense of well being. During the act of having sex your body is releasing endorphins making you feel stimulated all over and when you have an orgasm you get a sudden hormonal rush which floods your entire system. After the orgasm you feel not only satisfied but relaxed and at ease. Sexercise might just be one of the most productive of all forms of exercise, very few other forms of exercise provide such a tremendous overall feeling of satisfaction.

It is believed sexercise has a number of health related benefits like lowering the risk of heart attack although I personally thought it might have increased that risk for some elderly guys if they had maybe just a little too much fun too often, but apparently not. The more sexercise the better if you want to live longer the sexperts say. I don’t think many people would argue with their doctor if they advised them to engage in more sexercise and less walking. Having an orgasm is supposed to increase the body’s immune system and minimize the risk of cancer. I’m not quite sure how these sexperts get all their information but I’m not one to complain.

It has also been suggested that engaging in regular sexercise can help keep the skin looking smooth and wrinkle free and the hair looking silky and vibrant. It all sounds good and I doubt many people if any would complain when it was time for a sexercise session unlike they may complain before a workout in the gym or running around the block a few times on a hot day.

Performing sexercise is healthy for both men and women. Sexercise encourages testosterone production in men and oestrogen production in women which helps keep the muscles and bones healthy and strong. So although you may have once only considered having sex for fun or making babies, now you might want to consider incorporating sexercise into your daily or weekly workout schedule. Hmmm sounds like some food for thought. specially with for me :) Guess why ???

Bold Things Women Want In Bed

2008-09-07T00:24:00.000+05:00

When it comes to sex, do you imagine that your girl thinks that doggy style is as bold as it gets? Well, if that's true, then you have a whole lot to learn about your girl. Most women, especially in this day and age, are very in touch with their bodies and their carnal desires. I love this topic since childhood

rough love

The thing is, if you plan to spend most of your life in monogamous relationships, you are going to have to try your hand, and other parts of your body, at new things. You gotta keep it interesting. The problem is, women are the ones who usually garner the sexual control in a relationship, so it's up to you to get her to open up so that you and she can realize her sexual desires.

That said, check out some things that your girl might want to do in bed but may not bring up for fear that you will judge or think less of her. If you're confident in your relationship and her loyalty, then getting it on in the following ways should be a welcome treat.

1- Having aggressive sex

Whereas S&M might be pushing it, I have yet to meet a woman who doesn't like being ravaged by a lover. Why? It's all about psychology; if you ravage a woman, she can believe that you were in control and she was the damsel in distress.

The next time you and your girl are about to have sex: Turn her around, hold her wrists behind her back with one hand, and wrap your other hand around her hair, lightly pulling it. Penetrate her, doggy style. If she moans with delight, then she's into it. After a few minutes, turn her around, place a hand over her neck and penetrate her frantically in the missionary position until you come to fruition.

2- Dominating you

Many women are more comfortable having sex in the dark. It may be due to insecurity regarding their bodies, but it's also because in the dark, she can be someone else. She can adopt a different personality, one that's completely confident and in control.

Even if you put on a simple blindfold, her sexual methods will change. She will adopt a more dominant stance, she'll ride you better, she'll make more noise, she might even start talking dirty.

The next time you and your girl are about to have sex: Blindfold her and do things to her that you wouldn't usually do. For example, if you rarely penetrate her missionary style, then kiss her and go at it. Then, take the blindfold off her eyes and place them over your own. As well, turn off all the lights. See what happens.

the nastier, the better

It's up to you and your girl to make your sex life as great as it can be. That said, let her know that it's okay if she wants to try things that are out of the ordinary and that she can feel safe doing so.

Remember; most women want to be bold and crazy in bed, and if they know for sure that you won't judge them if they become more daring, you may just end up with a few wild ones on your hands.

keep reading more to come >>>> cheers jinaa

Sony's KDL-40ZX1, a 40-inch LCD HDTV Only 9.9mm Thin

2008-09-07T00:18:00.000+05:00

Sony Japan's ZX1 series 40-inch display is only 9.9mm thick at its narrowest, and 26 pounds. The display itself has only 1 HDMI port, while a wireless box can send the 120Hz, 1080p display up to 1080i images over a 5GHz channel many suspect is WHDM. That external port box will have 3 HDMI, 2 component, s-video, VGA, and even USB, mouse, and LAN port. All menus will be driven through an XMB Playstation-style crossmedia interface. Check out our hands-on of the skinny TV at IFA. [Sony JP via Sony Insider]

Hmm regarding the price of Sony KDL-40ZX1 would be $4,500 not that BAD right

male' the capital of maldives (taken from Sony Ericsson P1i )

2008-09-07T00:08:00.001+05:00

male' the capital of maldives (taken from Sony Ericsson P1i ), originally uploaded by Jinaa.com.

Male' has always been the center of all development in the country. This has led many people from the islands to migrate to Male', resulting in an increase in the population of the island. The concept of dividing land among inheritors has also resulted in families acquiring smaller plots of land/houses. Since the government had no sound policy to manage land in Male', we are now seeing houses and rooms so small that it would be considered living in "kuda golhi" (small cell)

Leaf lamina. The leaf architecture probably arose multiple times in the plant lineage

2008-09-06T20:25:00.001+05:00

Leaf lamina. The leaf architecture probably arose multiple times in the plant lineage, originally uploaded by Jinaa.com.

Leaves are the primary photosynthetic organs of a plant. Based on their structure, they are classified into two types - microphylls, that lack complex venation patterns and megaphylls, that are large and with a complex venation. It has been proposed that these structures arose independently.Megaphylls, according to the Telome hypothesis, have evolved from plants that showed a three dimensional branching architecture, through three transformations - planation, which involved formation of a planar architecture, webbing, or formation of the outgrowths between the planar branches and fusion, where these webbed outgrowths fused to form a proper leaf lamina. Studies have revealed that these three steps happened multiple times in the evolution of today's leaves

Mikrotik Bandwidth Manager

2008-09-06T13:13:00.001+05:00

Bandwidth Control is a set of mechanisms that control data rate allocation, delay variability, timely delivery, and delivery reliability. The MikroTik RouterOS supports the following queuing disciplines:

PFIFO - Packets First-In First-Out
BFIFO - Bytes First-In First-Out
SFQ - Stochastic Fairness Queuing
RED - Random Early Detect
PCQ - Per Connection Queue
HTB - Hierarchical Token Bucket

Major features:

Best wireless performance
Improved Nstreme performance
Powerful QoS control
P2P traffic filtering
High availability with VRRP
Bonding of Interfaces
Improved interface
Smaller and Less resource-hungry
Tons of other new features
Advanced Quality of Service
Stateful firewall, tunnels
STP bridging with filtering
High speed 802.11a/b/g wireless with WEP/WPA
WDS and Virtual AP
HotSpot for Plug-and-Play access
RIP, OSPF, BGP routing
remote WinBox GUI and Web admin
telnet/mac-telnet/ssh/console admin
real-time configuration and monitoring

It can also be installed on a PC and will turn it into a router with all the necessary features - routing, firewall, bandwidth management, wireless access point, backhaul link, hotspot gateway, VPN server and more.

Speed Up Your Internet Connection with TCP Optimizer

2008-09-06T12:43:00.000+05:00

I used the old registry tweaks for speeding up your Internet connection on my Windows 2000 and Windows 98 machines. By default, the registry wasn’t optimized for high speed Internet connections. These old tweaks worked very well in speeding up my connection back then. These days under Windows XP, I was getting decent speed with my cable modem, but nothing mind-blowing. I used to think that Windows XP didn’t need any tweaking at all and was already optimized for high speed connections. It turns out that I was wrong. I came across TCP Optimizer and thought I would give it a try. To my amazement, it tripled my Internet download speed.

Greedy for more speed, I began playing with the advanced settings in the program, trying to squeeze every last byte out of my connection. It eventually got to the point where my download speeds were 5 times faster, but my computer started losing connection randomly, forcing me to restart my computer often. Luckily there was an option in the software that backed up my previous settings, so I was able to revert back to them.

Give the software a try and see what it does for you. Click here for TCP Optimizer.
There is also a guide available on how to use it if you need help.

congested Male'

2008-09-06T12:28:00.001+05:00

aerial_capital male', originally uploaded by Jinaa.com.

Male’ is one of the most congested cities in Asia, with a total population of 80,000 people in less than one square mile.

Flip Video Ultra Camcorder Review

2008-09-05T20:11:00.001+05:00

The Flip Video Ultra by Pure Digital is a pocket size digital camcorder that allows you to record up to one hour of VGA quality video that you can upload directly to YouTube or other video sharing services. With one-touch recording and instant playback and delete, plus a 2X digital zoom, the Flip has managed to capture 12% of the digital camcorder market. Much of this has to do with the Flip Video's price. At less than $150, the Flip Video Ultra is almost an impulse purchase.

To suit your taste and personality, the Flip Video Ultra is available in five different colors. We received a white one from Pure Digital and black one from another supplier. Other colors include orange, red and green.

The Flip gets its name from the flip out USB connector that is used to transfer the video from the camcorder to the computer. The USB is designed to line up most notebook computers. However, when used with our Mackbook Pro, which is only 1 inch thick, the USB connector didn't line up. We had to place a couple of magazines under the Macbook to get things aligned correctly. A USB extension cable would have been nice but that is an extra cost option.

When Will Google Do Hardware?

2008-09-05T20:02:00.000+05:00

Save Now

The world of computer technology is an ever-evolving one. The companies that stick to their guns and only do what they feel comfortable doing, well, they don't last. It's the ones that adapt to the marketplace, adjusting to the prevailing interests of the populace, that truly find continued success. Google has done a fantastic job at this.

Take Apple, for example. Twenty years ago, it was pretty obscure to find someone using a Macintosh computer. While Apple still has a long way to catch up compared to Windows-based PCs, they've certainly made a lot of headway into the mainstream by offering attractive looking computers and other products. You simply cannot deny the stunning beauty of a freshly unpackaged MacBook, and let's not even get started on the absolute dominance that the Apple iPod enjoys. In some ways, Microsoft can also be thought of in the same way, adjusting the Windows platform to better suit our emerging needs. Windows Media Center, for example, was developed by Bill Gates and the rest of the Redmond, Washington-based team realized that most people are not inundated with spreadsheets and databases, spending much more time on their comptuers listening to music, watching videos, and sorting through photographs.

It's not a new development to see companies change their focus or expand their portfolio into areas that they, up until that point, had not previously explored. Apple entered the MP3 market with the iPod having never really worked on any portable electronic devices and look at how they're doing with that today. Apple is trying to do it again with the hotly anticipated iPhone, and we have no real reason not to believe that it will be a big hit for the organization based out of Cupertino.

120GB Zune Purchased at Fry's for $250: Unboxed for Good Measure

2008-09-05T19:59:00.000+05:00

It appears that at least one lucky shopper at a Fry's in Atlanta managed to get their hands on a 120GB Zune before its official release, and there are even unboxing pics (after the break) and a receipt to prove it. If you look closely, it rang up at $250—backing up recent rumors about the price.

Best Buy iPhone 3G: Buy BS Accessory Package, Geek Squad Will Do What Apple Store Does for Free

2008-09-05T19:57:00.000+05:00

The iPhone 3G is making its Best Buy debut this Sunday, and a copy of the ad you'll see in your local paper confirms that even though Best Buy has the distinction of being the iPhone's first independent US retailer, it'll be the same old Best Buy peddling it. If you buy one of four bullshit accessory packages—going for $106 to $234, according to AppleInsider—Geek Squad will set up your phone and email for free. In other words, something they have to do anyway (activate your phone), and another that's complimentary at the Apple Store or easy enough to do yourself. Thanks, Geek Squad

New 5D to eclipse competition?

2008-09-05T19:55:00.000+05:00

Canon has just added a mysterious teaser to its US website. The page shows a silhouette of a camera with the words 'Destined Evolution.' Maybe it will be updated to include more detail in the future, we don't know. It's almost as if the company is building up to the launch of a camera to replace one of its older models. We have no specific information but it doesn't require any profound market insight to predict an EOS 5D replacement is coming.

Click here to see the US teaser

Meanwhile, Canon's European sites have started to feature banners suggesting that "the EOS story continues," and showing glimpses of a camera with a large prism bulge. Click here to see it.

Canon EOS 50D Hands-on Photos Hit the Web

2008-09-05T19:42:00.000+05:00

First we had the leaked info, then some official-looking shots, and now, at last, some proper hands-on images of Canon's upcoming EOS 50D pro-consumer DSLR have hit the intertubes over at Impress. According to the guys there the cam feels a lot like the 40D to hold, but it's a tad easier to grip. It's got a screen that's easier to read, they like the tweaked user interface, the new "creative fully automatic" CA mode, and the 6.3 fps shooting speed (there's an audio file of the cam in action here.) None of that is a surprise, given the evolution heritage of the camera. Check out the gallery, with full images over at the Impress link. Update: Dpreview also has a set of hands-on photos and review, made soon after the 50D's announcement.