Archive for the 'Computer' Category
October 8th, 2009 by arun
Competing against digital cameras from Nikon and Canon is Fuji Film’s latest, the FinePix F200EXR. With its 12MP sensor and 5x optical zoom, it scores over others in this segment. And the highlight is the super CCD sensor, with which one obtains better colors, enhanced dynamic range and low noise images. The double image stabilizer performs well too.
Adding strength to the imaging capabilities is the company’s own technology, developed specially for point-and-shoot cameras. The F200 is the first one to feature the EXR technology, and has four shooting modes. For amateur shooters the “EXR Auto” works the best as the camera automatically adjusts the settings for the scene to be captured. The “Dynamic Range Priority” produces the best details in highlight as well as the shadow areas but can be used only at 6 mega pixels and below. However the Resolution Priority for capturing images at the highest resolution and “High ISO, Low noise” mode for getting an image with less noise at a high ISO setting didn’t quite match up the company’s claims.
October 6th, 2009 by arun
Today, more and more people are using their computers for everything from communication to online banking and investing to shopping.
As we do these things on a more regular basis, we open ourselves up to potential hackers, attackers and crackers. While some may be looking to phish your personal information and identity for resale, others simply just want to use your computer as a platform from which to attack other unknowing targets.Below are a few easy, cost-effective steps you can take to make your computer more
secure to begin with:
1. Always make backups of important info rmation and store in a safe place separate from your computer.
2. Update and patch your operating system, web browser and
software frequently. If you have a Windows operating system, start by
going to www.windowsupdate.microsoft.com and running the update wizard. This program will help you find the latest patches for your Windows computer. Also go to www.officeupdate.microsoft.com
and locate possible patches for your Office programs.
3. Install a firewall.
Without a good firewall, viruses, worms, Trojans,
malware and adware can all easily access your computer from the Internet.
October 5th, 2009 by arun
Number 1: Do what you can to avoid having your email address out on the net. There are products called “spam spiders” that search the Internet for email addresses to send email to. If you are interested, do a search on “spam spider” and you will be amazed at what you get back. Interestingly, there is a site, WebPoison.org, which is an open source project geared to fight Internet”spambots” and “spam spider”, by giving them bogus HTML web pages, which contain bogus email addresses.
A couple suggestions for you:
A) Use form emails, which can hide addresses or also
B) Use addresses like sales@company.com instead of your full address to help battle the problem.
C) There are also programs that encode your email, like jsGuard, which
encodes your email address on web pages so that while spam spiders find it difficult or impossible to read your email address .
October 4th, 2009 by arun
Spyware and Adware are not only an ever-increasing nuisance for computer users everywhere, but also a booming industry.
According to Webroot Software, Inc., the distribution of online advertisements through spyware and adware has become a whopping $2 billion industry.
The aggressive advertising and spying tactics demonstrated by some of these programs, require an equally aggressive response from a seasoned eradicator. Sunbelt Software is such a company. A leader in Anti-Spyware, Anti-Spam, Network Security and System
Management tools, they gave consistently remained on the cutting-edge of anti-spyware programming since 1994.
Where Does It Come From?
Typically, spyware originates in three ways. The first and most common way is when the user installs it. In this scenario, spyware is embedded, attached, or bundled with a freeware or shareware program without the user’s knowledge. The user downloads the program to their computer. Once downloaded, the spyware program goes to work collecting data for the spyware author’s personal use or to sell to a third-party. Beware of many P2P file-sharing programs. They are notorious for downloads that posses spyware programs.
October 3rd, 2009 by arun
Spyware programs can accomplish a multitude of malicious tasks. Some of their deeds are simply annoying for the user; others can become downright aggressive in nature.
Spyware can:
- Monitor your keystrokes for reporting purposes.
- Scan files located on your hard drive.
- Snoop through applications on our desktop.
- Install other spyware programs into your computer.
- Read your cookies.
- Steal credit card numbers, passwords, and other personal information.
- Change the default settings on your home page web browser.
- Mutate into a second generation of spyware thus making it more difficult to eradicate.
- Cause your computer to run slower.
- Deliver annoying pop up advertisements.
- Add advertising links to web pages for which the author does not get paid.
- Instead, payment is directed to the spyware programmer that changed the original affiliate’s settings.
- Provide the user with no uninstall option and places itself in unexpected or hidden places within your computer making it difficult to remove.
October 2nd, 2009 by arun
A keylogger is a program that runs in your computer’s background
secretly recording all your keystrokes. Once your keystrokes are logged, they are hidden away for later retrieval by the attacker. The attacker then carefully reviews the information in hopes of finding passwords or other information that would prove useful to them.
For example, a keylogger can easily obtain confidential emails and reveal them to any interested outside party willing to pay for the information. Keyloggers can be either software or hardware based
.Software-based keyloggers are easy to distribute and infect, but at the same time are more easily detectable.
Hardware-based keyloggers are more complex and harder to detect. For all that you know, your keyboard could have a keylogger chip attached and anything being typed is recorded into a flash memory sitting inside your keyboard. Keyloggers have become one of the most powerful applications used for gathering information in a world where encrypted traffic is becoming more and more common.
October 1st, 2009 by arun
Below are a few of the open source intrusion detection systems:
AIDE(http://sourceforge.net/projects/aide) – Self-described as “AIDE (Advanced Intrusion Detection Environment) is a free replacement for Tripwire. It does the same things as the semi-free Tripwire and more. There are other free replacements available so why build a new one? All the other replacements do not achieve the level of Tripwire. And I wanted a program that would exceed the limitations of Tripwire.”
File System Saint(http://sourceforge.net/projects/fs) – Self-described as, “File System Saint is a lightweight host-based intrusion detection system withprimary focus on speed and ease of use.”
Snort(www.snort.org) – Self-described as “Snort® is an open source network intrusion prevention and detection system utilizing a rule-driven language, which combines the benefits of signature, protocol and anomaly based inspection methods. With millions of downloads to date, Snort is the most widely deployed intrusion detection and prevention technology worldwide and has become the de facto standard for the industry.”
September 21st, 2009 by arun
Gaming laptops are those which are designed and manufactured for handling high graphics applications. Normally desktops were used for the gaming purpose because they had no over heating problems. But nowadays the trend has changed laptops have substituted those desktop systems that were used only for the gaming purpose. One such is the DELL’S XPS series. XPS stands for Xtra Performance Systems. They all come with a graphics card which can handle very high graphics applications like games and Photoshop’s. DELL XPS 1530 and DELL XPS 1330 are the two main systems of this category. The former comes with a 15.4 inch screen and the later one with a 13.1 inches screen. Other than this minor difference they don’t differ much. The heat sink of these two systems are made in such a way that users can run high graphic applications for hours together without over heating issues. The other special feature that is present in this series is the HD screen provided. HD stands for High Density that is it can provide very high resolutions and can support a very high frame rate so that the videos and pictures can be viewed in very high clarity and definition.
September 18th, 2009 by arun
When it comes to high-end audio, there’s popular choice and there’s audiophile arrogance. And there’s crossover folk like the people at boom ‘a’ rang binging audio buff stuff to popular imagination. In 1992, Boom ‘a’ rang launched its first audio lounge in Mumbai with a few classic brands and unconventional idea of conjuring your own audio/home theatre system. They had a demo room and an assorted range of world-class brands in speakers, woofers, amplifiers, and audio cables. You could listen at leisure and select a system that matched your pre4cise sense of sound. The concept worked. Six years and two additional showrooms later, Boom ‘a’ rang packs powerful eclectic punch in the audio market with its fine repertoire of the brands from across Europe and the US. From the Danish Dali to the namesake Vienna Acoustics to the British Quad, the demo rooms of Boom ‘a’ rang offer a splendid spectrum of speakers and assorted audio equipment. Fittingly, the people running the place are audio enthusiasts with expert technical know-how. So when you want buy a system, they don’t just tell you the strengths and limitations of each system, they also consider the size of the room it is meant for, optimal placement. Wiring set-up, the kind of music you listen to, and more minutiae that matter. You’d enjoy the debate.
September 15th, 2009 by arun
IPod nano is the latest apple product with new features. It is available in nine attractive colors. It is curved, full aluminum with stylish look. It will create a playlist of its own depending on the song you listen to. Shake the iPod to shuffle your songs automatically. Tilt or turn your IPOD to have various ways to see video, play games, view photos etc. It is very easy to surf songs in this. You can view your album art in cover flow. It can store thousands of photos. It has a 320 by 240 resolution display. Turn your screen on its side to have a landscape display of the picture and upright to have a portrait display.
Its rate is 149USD. Its height is 3.6 inches; width is 1.5 inches and weighs about 36.8 grams. Display is 2 inch diagonal liquid crystal display with blue –white LED backlight. Its capacity is 8GB or 16GB flash drive. It can hold 2000 or 4000 songs in 128kbps AAC format. This IPod holds up to 7000 or 14000 iPod viewable photos. It stores all files using USB flash drives. It has a built in lithium ion battery with playback time of 24hrs for songs when fully charged and 4hrs for video. It just takes 3 hours to charge to full battery.