Thursday, August 28, 2008

Virus attack on orbit

It was different time when viruses attacks only on the computers,now in today's world viruses are made so advance,that they directly attack on the PCs and laptops that are used to send and receive email from the station by relaying messages through a mission control center.NASA confirmed that a computer virus sneaked aboard the International Space Station only to be tossed into quarantine on July 25 by security software.This worm type virus was found on laptops and computers of Astronauts.The virus that is found responsible for this is reported to be malicious software that logs keystrokes in order to steal passwords or other sensitive data by sending the information to hackers via the Internet.

Due to this virus the laptop computers are not linked to any of the space station's control systems or the Internet.The NASA crew is working with teams on the ground to eradicate the virus and look for actions to prevent that from happening in the future.NASA had also declared that the virus had no adverse effect on space station operations.The space station orbits Earth once every 90 minutes at an altitude of about 350 kilometers.NASA is reportedly looking into whether the virus got into the computers by hiding in a memory drive used to store music, video or other digital files.Now the whole NASA team trying to find out from where this virus came into their laptops and computers.

Thursday, August 14, 2008

Microsoft, Google fight over Yahoo

Google and Microsoft will spar today at a congressional hearing called to examine whether Google's revenue-sharing deal with No 2 search rival Yahoo will harm competition. Google, with more than 60 per cent of the Web search market, and Yahoo, with 16.6 per cent, announced a deal on June 12 that would allow Yahoo to place Google advertisements on its site and collect the revenue.The deal, which the firms have said would garner Yahoo at least $250 million in the first year, was widely seen as an effort by Yahoo to fend off Microsoft's on-again, off-again efforts to buy all or part of Yahoo.

Microsoft's most recent offer to acquire Yahoo's search business was rejected by Yahoo. Google chief legal officer David Drummond, defending his company's deal with Yahoo in written testimony for Tuesday's hearing, took a shot at Microsoft's 90 per cent share of the personal computer operating system market."Dominance of the desktop can let one company favor its own products and services and obstruct the interoperability of competing products or services, overriding the desires of consumers," said Drummond in testimony prepared for the Senate Judiciary Committee's antitrust panel.Microsoft General Counsel Brad Smith hit back, saying Google's deal would reduce Yahoo's incentive to compete against Google, would push Yahoo's search advertising platform into a downward spiral and establish an illegal price floor."When it comes to the issues before this subcommittee, Google should not be allowed to achieve an outcome through an agreement that it would not be permitted to achieve otherwise," said Smith in his written testimony.


The revenue-sharing deal has not been implemented by Google and Yahoo while they wait for an opinion from the Justice Department's Antitrust Division. Several state attorney generals have expressed concern about the arrangement."Microsoft believes the Google/Yahoo deal harms competition in several critical ways. Advertisers and online content providers would be harmed through price coordination that will establish higher prices and limit choice," said Smith. "Consumers would be put at risk as Google expands its ability to collect the personal information of users passing through its search gateway. On an even more fundamental level, Google's monopoly power would increase its ability to shape what people get to see and experience online."

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Boost your PC speed 2

Here are the remaining tips for boost your pc speed.Hope you enjoyed the first part.For previous tips you can click on http://technopress.wordpress.com/.



Tip No.4:Biggest culprits behind slow PC performance are viruses and spyware. Both end up reducing your PC speed. Not only this they can also destroy your data and tamper files.Also, with the 24X7 online environment, it is important to have anti-virus and anti-spyware programmes installed for secure online experience.These programmes need to be frequently updated to avoid any attack on your computer.You can do a recee of the Net for popular anti-virus and anti-spyware solutions. There are also several paid options like McAfee, Norton Anti-virus and Trend Micro.




Tip No.5:Sometimes you see a lot of people that are facing very difficulty in accessing the internet.Don't worry. For Internet Explorer users, Microsoft has some rescue options for faster Web browsing.To improve your PC speed, first reduce the size of your Web page history. For this go to Internet Explorer, and on the Tools menu click on Internet Options. Then go to the History section and type in the number of days you want to keep pages in history.Preferably reduce the number of days as this will reduce the size of your Web page history.

Tip No.6:Last tip for you is that activate Automatic Microsoft updates in your computer.For Windows users, Microsoft frequently release updates which may help boost up your PC speed. For this activate automate Microsoft Update so that your computer downloads and installs all the latest updates without giving you any trouble of finding any new releases.Go to Start menu and click Control Panel. In the Automatic Updates dialog box, check the Automatic check box. If your PC finds any new updates, it will automatically download and install them. This will help you keep your computer up to date.

Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Google launches free music service

Its really a good news for all the music lovers that Google is going launch a music search service that will give users access to free downloads of licenced songs, while capturing advertising revenue for music providers in a market rife with piracy.Initially this service is going to start only in China.The main reason behind the launching of this service is the Baidu.com china's top search engine and dominates China's Internet search market, but now Baidu.com along with other Chinese search providers, faced lawsuits charging that it facilitates copyright violations through downloads of unlicensed music.
The service that Google is going to provides its users in China can search tens of thousands of Chinese songs by singer or song title on its website and download them from Top100.cn.As all we know that downloads of unlicensed music and videos are rampant in China,as China is the world's biggest Internet market by number of users. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry has estimated that more than 99 per cent of all music files distributed in China are pirated.On the launching of this service Google China President Kai-fu Lee said in a statement. "Google always believes profoundly that mutual interest, rather than monopoly, is the key to sustainable growth."

Let see what will happen in future.Please share your comments with us, we are waiting.

Sunday, August 10, 2008

How to Guard your PC network from hackers?

Today the major problem that the computer users faces is of their network security.Now a days the main target of the hackers are the PC's of the managers of the topmost IT companies.But now the work is going on this problem of network security,computer scientists at the National Institute of Standards and Technology led by an Indian-origin researcher have developed a new model for helping these managers safeguard valuable information most efficiently.

Generally a hacker penetrate into network using FTP server, SSH server or database server,but now with this model would act as a guide for IT managers in securing their networks by assigning a probable risk of attack. Actually Computer networks are made up of components varying from individual computers, to servers and routers. Once inside a network's firewall, for a seemingly mild-mannered purpose as posting an image to a file transfer protocol (FTP) site, a hacker can travel through the network through a variety of routes to hit the jackpot of valuable data.In fact, the hacker can also break in through software on the computers, especially file-sharing applications that have been blamed for some major data breaches recently.Now researchers at NIST evaluate each route and assign it a risk based on how challenging it is to the hacker.

The paths are determined using a technique called "attack graphs."For example in a simple system there is an attacker on a computer, a firewall, router, an FTP server and a database server. The goal for the attacker is to find the simplest path into the jackpot-the database server.Attack Graph Analysis determines three potential attack paths. For each path in the graph, the NIST researchers assign an attack probability based on the score in the NVD database.As it takes multiple steps to reach the goal, the probabilities of each component are multiplied to determine the overall risk. One path takes only three steps. The first step has an 80 per cent chance of being hacked, the second, a 90 per cent chance.The final step requires great expertise, so there is only a 10 per cent probability it can be breached. By multiplying the three probabilities together, that path is pretty secure with a less than 10 per cent chance of being hacked.

Saturday, August 9, 2008

Google and Yahoo join hands

The hottest news of this week from the field of technology is the agreement of Yahoo and Google on their advertising partnership.Currently this agreement is valid only in United States and Canada.On the other hand Microsoft Corporation have claimed that Google already controls 70 percent of the Web search ad market and that a Yahoo deal would give Google control over 90 percent of the market.Under this agreement Google would supply Yahoo with advertising services to run alongside Yahoo's own Web search system. Yahoo runs the Web's second most popular search service.
Google
and Yahoo have sought to portray the partnership as a non-exclusive arrangement in which Yahoo is effectively contracting with Google to sell ads alongside a portion of its search results.With this agreement now Yahoo can focus on other aspects of its business where it is more strongly positioned.Neither Google nor Yahoo told about the financial terms and the extent of other ties between the two.While the contract reveals details of previously disclosed plans to make Yahoo Messenger and Google Talk, the companies' instant messaging (IM) systems, work together, it redacts four of the five other points in this "other business" section.

Thursday, August 7, 2008

Beijing Olympics 2008-Countdown Begins

The Beijing Olympics opening ceremony on 8 August 2008 is now in sight. The final rehearsals are underway; the torch-relay nears its final destination; display-boards and front-pages feature clocks ticking down the hours; the stringent security-checks at the airports are in place; a few protestors who managed to get visas are protesting. The sign at Beijing airport proclaims the official message of controlled harmony as well as the Olympic slogan: “one world, one dream”.The progress in Beijing has been dramatic as China has sought to make bold statement about the progress it has made as a country economically, technologically, and even ecologically.


In anticipation of the Olympics, Beijing became a massive construction site. Its stadiums and buildings are an impressive site. A 91,000 seat stadium wrapped in tensile like steel dubbed the bird’s nest and a giant cube of plastic bubbles mimicking water molecules surrounding the Olympic swimming pool are but a couple of examples that have been applauded by the architecture and design community for their design and innovation. Architects have seen in China the chance to try anything: the chance to build the gargantuan and the outlandish, to leave an indelible impression in the history of Architecture, to build modern monuments.


As I'm a big fan of the Summer Olympics, mainly because I like watching gorgeous people with perfect musculature do bendy things, especially at high speed and with very little clothing. The women's high jump is basically heaven on earth as far as I'm concerned, and don't even ask me about the pole vault. But these games sort of seem like a bit of a corporate and political sell-out. Suck it, IOC! You seem to have screwed this up. I just hope the biggest records set in the games aren't for air quality or human rights violations, or the amount of pollutants emitted. It should not be too much to ask.

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

Shoppers rush to Amazon.com

Could it be that,thanks to rising fuel prices,people are opting to shop online and save transport costs to the market.Well with Amazon.com-the world's largest internet retailer-it certainly seems to be the case.The Seattle based company saw second quarter profit more than double,and it has further raised its sales forecast for the year.Amazon.com made $ 158 million in the quarter ending june,2008,up from $ 78 million a year ago and beating analysts forecast.Revenues climbed 41% to $ 4.1 billion while the number of active customer accounts jumped by 18% to more than 81 million.The results benefited from a $ 53 million non-cash gain from the sale of Amazon's European DVD rental business.Sales of books,CDs and DVDs climbed 31% to $ 2.41 billion in the quarter,while electronics and other general merchandise such as video games jumped 58% to $ 1.53 billion.It is assuming that the higher fuel prices may give the company a relative advantage over the other retailers.Even just driving 10 miles these days is a few dollars worth of gasoline and consumers taking all these things into account and trying to do trip consolidation.