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Showing posts from August, 2010

Who Broke the News (or the Embargo) First?

L et’s say a company is about to launch a new product and, as is the standard practice, they have pre-briefed a select group of media outlets and bloggers about the news under an embargo. The launch date is close and writers have already prepared their news stories so that they can push them as soon as embargo is lifted. And then something strange happens – one media outlet publishes the story ahead of time thus breaking the embargo – intentionally or unintentionally. Find Who Broke the News Embargo? Broken embargoes can be frustrating for journalists and bloggers as the limelight (and page views) often shifts to the news publication who did not honor the embargo. If a news embargo gets broken, here’s a simple way that may help you determine the name of the publication that broke it in the first place. Step 1. Go to google.com/realtime and type a few words from the story headline. Step 2. In the timeline, click an area where you have minimal number of tweets around that story. That’s

Poster Compares the Samsung Galaxy S Phones

T he Samsung Galaxy S series of Android mobile phones have been a huge success in the U.S. as well as various international markets. Compare Samsung Galaxy S Phones The Galaxy S phones are available though all major carriers in the U.S. though with a slightly different set of features and under different names – you get them as Epic 4G on Sprint, Samsung Vibrant on T-Mobile, Samsung Fascinate on Verizon and Captivate on AT&T. If you are based in the U.S. and are planning to go for a Galaxy S, the following poster from BillShrink should help you narrow down your choices. The poster compares the common features and technical specifications of the various Galaxy S phones as well as the contract plans. Samsung Galaxy S – What’s Common Samsung Galaxy S – What’s Different

How to Check the Health of your Hard Drive

H ard disk failure is possibly the worst thing that can happen to your computer and it often occurs without giving any warning signs. Test Your Hard Drive for Impending Problems You may however run certain tests on your computer beforehand to get an idea about the current condition of your hard disk. This should in turn help you decide whether a replacement drive is necessary or not. Step 1: Check your hard disk for errors All recent versions of Windows include a utility called Chkdsk.exe that can check your hard disk for any bad sectors. You may either run Chkdsk from the command line ( see details ) or launch Windows Explorer, right click the drive that you wish to examine and choose Properties. Switch to the Tools tab and click the “Check Now” button under Error checking. Select “Scan for and attempt recovery of bad sectors” to perform a thorough disk check. Step 2: Understand the sounds of your disk Do you sometimes hear strange sounds coming out of the CPU box? Well, if the hard d

The Debug Log Stores your BlackBerry Call History

T his may surprise some BlackBerry users. Do you know that your BlackBerry has a log file where it keeps a detailed record of every single action that you perform on the device including your incoming and outgoing phone calls? To view the log file of your own BlackBerry, go to the home screen, hold the ALT key and press LGLG. If you are using a BlackBerry Storm, display the keyboard in portrait view, hold the number key for while to lock the number keyboard and then type ,5,5 to display the phone log. Your BlackBerry Call History is in the Debug Logs These debug logs may sometimes help you troubleshoot issues with your BlackBerry but there’s one related issue that you should be aware of. Even if you remove the SIM card from your BlackBerry and manually clear all the phone call logs, one can easily read your dialed and incoming phone numbers list from the debug log. This won’t be an issue for most BlackBerry users but if you ever plan to giveaway or sell your old phone, remember to clea

Top 10 Most Important Features for Enterprise Smartphone Management Solutions

A new report from Forrester confirms a trend we've been reporting: enterprises are turning away from "one size fits all" organization-owned smart phone phone strategies in favor of multi-device, employee owned smart phone strategies. Of the firms polled by Forrester, approximately half are already embracing a multiplatform strategy, and nearly 60% support personally owned smartphones. Many enterprises are considering solutions to augment or replace their Blackberry Enterprise Servers. Forrester has identified the ten most important features for smart phone device management solutions, and ten vendors that offer all ten features. Challenges for the enterprise According to Forrester, IT is struggling with a two-fold challenge: mobile device management and security. To solve this problem, enterprises are increasingly investing in device-agnostic solutions. In the firm's report on mobile application development, Forrester recommends creating Web applications, instead of

History of the Internet – Timeline

T he Internet was created in the United States by the "United States Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency" (known as ARPA ). It was then known as ARPANET and went online in 1969. The World Wide Web was created at CERN in Switzerland in 1989 by Tim Berners-Lee. See the Internet Timeline .

سنا ہے لوگ اسے آنکھ بھر کے دیکھتے ہیں

سنا ہے لوگ اسے آنکھ بھر کے دیکھتے ہیں تو اس کے شہر میں‌کچھ دن ٹھہر کے دیکھتےہیں سنا ہے ربط ہے اس کو خراب حالوں سے سو اپنے آپ کو برباد کرکے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے درد کی گاہک ہے چشمِ ناز اس کی سو ہم بھی اس کی گلی سے گزر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے اس کو بھی ہے شعر و شاعری سے شغف تو ہم بھی معجزے اپنے ہنر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے بولےتو باتوں سے پھول جھڑتے ہیں یہ بات ہے تو چلو بات کر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے رات اسے چاند تکتا رہتا ہے ستارے بام فلک سے اتر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے دن کو اسے تتلیاں ستاتی ہیں سنا ہے رات کو جگنو ٹھہر کے دیکھتےہیں سنا ہے حشر ہیں‌اس کی غزال سی آنکھیں سنا ہے اس کو ہرن دشت بھر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے رات سے بڑھ کر ہیں‌کاکلیں اس کی سنا ہے شام کو سائے گزر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے اس کی سیاہ چشمگی قیامت ہے سو اس کو سرمہ فروش آہ بھر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہےجب سے ہمائل ہے اس کی گردن میں مزاج اور ہی لعل و گوہر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے اس کے بدن کی تراش ایسی ہے کہ پھول اپنی قبائیں کتر کے دیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے اس کے لبوں سے گلاب جلتے ہیں سو ہم بہار پہ الزام دھر کےدیکھتے ہیں سنا ہے آئینہ تمثال ہے جبیں اس کی جو سادہ

Dell Launches $100 Smartphone In US On AT&T

D ell has launched its first smartphone in the US, the Android-based Dell Aero, for $299.99 without a contract or $99.99 with a two-year AT&T contract. This product image released by Dell Inc. on Tuesday, Aug. 24, 2010, shows the Dell Aero smart phone with accessories. Photo: Dell Dell has launched the U.S. version of the Aero, an Android-based smartphone that’s selling for $100 with a two-year service contract from AT&T. The company has been selling similar phones in China and Brazil since late last year and has been promising a U.S. version since January. The Dell Aero is now available on the AT&T network, Dell announced Aug. 24. The smartphone, which Dell is calling its first in the United States uses an older version of Google Inc.’s Android operating system than many competing phones on the market today. It runs version 1.5 of Google’s Android mobile operating system, also known as “Cupcake,” while most phones now use version 1.6 or higher. Dell says it has done a sign

Free iPad Scam Hits Facebook and Twitter [WARNING]

H ave you seen a message on Facebook or Twitter offering a free iPad? If you have, it’s likely some of your friends have fallen victim to the latest scam, which spreads through hacked accounts. Twitter’s security-related account @safety recently posted the following message: “If you’ve received a message promising you a new ipad, not only is there no ipad, but also your friends have been hacked.” Twitter also said it will be “sending out password resets to hacked individuals.” The scam is also present on Facebook but it has affected a relatively small number of users. The message “offering” the free iPad is similar to this one: “ u have to check out this website its glitchin right now and sending out ipads to everyone for free! ” The messages usually contains a link, sending you to a website that tries to extract personal information from unsuspecting users. If messages similar to the one above have been sent from your account, you should change the password immediately. Furthermore

The Best OCR Tools for Converting Images to Text

O CR software let you easily convert images, such as digital photographs, scanned documents, printed books, etc. into text. Once you perform OCR on an image, you’ll be able to copy-paste or edit the text content of that image without any retyping and it also becomes more searchable. The Best Web-based OCR Services Most scanners ship with some sort of OCR software but if you don’t have a scanner, you can simply capture a photograph of the printed text with your digital camera or even your mobile phone and then use an online OCR utility to extract text out of that image. Meet the best online OCR services that can help you convert images into text. 1. Google Docs – When you upload an image file or a scanned PDF to Google Docs, check the option that says “Convert text to Google Docs format” and Google Docs will automatically perform OCR on the file before saving it to your account. If the OCR operation is successful, all the extracted text is stored as a new document else Google Docs will

Flying along: Japanese artist opens up the seas with a boat shaped like a giant zip

W hen Moses thought of parting the sea you can bet he never thought of using a zip. Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki though has created a motorboat designed to look like a giant version of the fastening, with the wake it leaves behind in the water meant to represent its teeth. Suzuki made a scale model of his design back in 2004 but has only now unveiled the full-sized vessel. Zip, zip away: Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki has created a motorboat designed to look like a giant zip which 'opens the sea up' as it travels along Zipping along: Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki has created a motorboat designed to look like a giant zipper which 'opens the sea up' as it travels along Describing his creation, the artist said: 'This work is a boat modelled after a zipper tab. 'As the vessel glides through the water, the wake looks like a zipper coming undone, suggesting the image of the sea opening up. 'The Zipper Ship will travel to and fro between Takamatsu and Megijim

Hackers see the cloud as ripe territory

I s the cloud a hacker's paradise? A survey at last month's DefCon hacking conference paints that picture. Sponsored by security vendor Fortify Software , the survey asked 100 hackers who attended DefCon about security in the cloud. A sizable 96 percent said they believe the cloud opens up more hacking opportunities, while 89 percent said cloud vendors aren't doing enough to address cybersecurity issues. Among the hackers surveyed, 45 percent said they had already tried to exploit vulnerabilities in the cloud. Although only 12 percent admitted to hacking into cloud systems for the money, that's still a significant percentage to ponder for companies moving to the cloud, according to Fortify. A Gartner study from earlier this year found that by 2012, 20 percent of businesses will own no back-end IT assets of their own, planning instead to store everything all in the cloud. Drilling down further, 21 percent of those questioned see software as a service (SaaS) cloud syste

HOW TO: Undo “Send” in Gmail

D id you know you can undo a sent e-mail in Gmail? It’s a lesser known feature, but Google just made it even better than it was before. When it first launched, you were given a 5-second window during which you could hit “undo.” Now that’s up to 30 seconds, Google Operating System discovered . The feature is hidden from most users who don’t know where to look, so here’s a quick guide to avoiding social and workplace faux pas with the click of a button. Be aware that the feature is part of Gmail Labs, though. That means it’s still in testing and it might not always work as intended. Go to Gmail Labs Since the Undo Send feature is part of Gmail Labs, you’ll have to navigate to the Gmail Labs page to activate it. Load up Gmail and look in the top-right corner of the page. Between your e-mail address and Settings you’ll see the green Labs icon. Give it a click. Enable “Undo Send” and Save Your Changes   You’ll be presented with a list of features Google is testing in Gmail. Some are very u

Cameron Diaz Is The Most Dangerous Celebrity to Search For Online

If you’re looking for Cameron Diaz, Julia Roberts or Jessica Biel online, so be careful! Why?! Because these movie stars top the latest list of the most dangerous celebrities to search for online, according to the new research by computer-security software maker McAfee Inc. Justin Timberlake must have a thing for dangerous women. Last year, the Web’s riskiest celebrity search was the pop star’s current girlfriend starlet Jessica Biel. And this year, Timberlake’s former flame Cameron Diaz took the top spot on Internet security firm McAfee’s annual list of the most dangerous stars to search for on the Web. Look up one of these people and you almost invite computer viruses and worms to invade your computer. “It’s sort of a little bit of rivalry from the traditional world going to the cyber world,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, McAfee’s vice president of threat research. “It’s fascinating how cyber criminals can be so in tune with the popularity of various actresses and models. …They’re actuall

HOW TO: Make Your Mobile Websites Act More Like Native Apps

A s smartphone sales continue to soar, more and more developers are focusing their efforts on building applications for mobile devices. Whether it is a native application or a mobile-optimized website, mobile innovation is taking place at a breakneck pace. Native applications still have their place, but increasingly, the number of different device types, operating systems, and screen sizes make developing optimized mobile web apps more and more enticing. Historically, there has been a trade-off between the rapid, iterative, cross-platform nature of web applications versus the more standard UI, support for gestures, and multi-touch and hardware optimizations on the native side. Fortunately, a number of different frameworks are making it easier and easier for developers to create mobile web applications that look and feel more like native apps. Here are six examples. If you don’t see your favorites on the list, add them in the comments below. 1. Sencha Touch In June, Sencha, formerly Ex

Get the New Version of Windows Live

A new version of Windows Live Essentials is now available for download on the web. While the official launch is still a couple of hours away, the folks at LiveSide.net have discovered a secret download link on Microsoft servers that takes you straight to the installer of the new version. Use this link if you would like to install only a subset of Windows Live programs or go with this link to install the entire Windows Live Essentials suite in one go. I tried using Windows Live Movie Maker, Photo Gallery and Windows Live Writer for some time and didn’t come across any new features – maybe this release is centered around bug fixes.

A Less Confusing View of World Time Zones

I f you ever need to schedule an online meeting or a conference call with multiple people who work in different time zones, a web app called Every Time Zone should come handy. Every Time Zone offers a unique view of the time zones around the world that is less confusing and you simply have to drag the green bar on either side to figure out the best time that may be suitable for all the meeting participants. This is an HTML5 based app so it should work on most browsers except for IE. And since this is pure HTML, you can even use it in offline mode.

How to Password Protect your Files and Folders

D o you have files and folders on your computer that you absolutely don’t want anyone else to see? Or do you even carry important documents on those easy-to-misplace USB drives? If the answer is yes, you should definitely download a copy of SafeHouse Explorer – it’s a free and incredibly easy-to-use file encryption utility that will hide all your private files from prying eyes in few easy steps. You may use the tool to password protect files that are residing on your computer’s internal hard disk or even on external USB drives. Tutorial: Encrypt and Password Protect your Files and Folders SafeHouse Explorer, in simple English, works something like this. It creates a hidden storage area on your disk to hold all the files that you want to protect. These files and folders are hidden from normal view and will only become visible when you enter the correct password. Here’s a more detailed tutorial on how you can protect your files with SafeHouse Explorer. Step 1: Download and install Safe

Wall Poster Made with Linux Source Code

Wish to hang your favorite book on your wall? PosterText is an interesting service where you’ll find beautiful wall posters that are made from text of famous books like Peter Pan, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, and other classics. They use the entire text of the book for the poster image and according to their site, the font sizes are big enough for someone with normal eyesight to read the text without visual aid. Other than pieces of classical literature, you’ll also find wall posters that are made from the text of constitution of America or the one above that is made using the actual source code of the Linux Kernel. Nice work of art!

The New BlackBerry Desktop Software is Sleek

A s RIM is preparing to launch BlackBerry Torch 9800 and Curve 3G phones that run on the new BlackBerry 6 OS, they have also released a brand new version of their BlackBerry desktop software that is required to keep the phone in sync with your Windows PC or Mac computer. BlackBerry Desktop Software 6 sports a very clean and easy UI and it now officially supports Microsoft Outlook 2010. This release is primarily targeted at BlackBerry Torch 9800 users but if you have an old BlackBerry phone that’s running BlackBerry OS 4.1 or later, you too can download it. One of the best features of BlackBerry 6.0 is Wi-Fi music sync – your can browse all your iTunes and Windows Media Player libraries that are on your computer from the BlackBerry itself over Wi-Fi. This however works only with devices that are running the new OS 6.0. Here are some screenshots of BlackBerry Desktop Software 6.0.