Technical chat

The NIIT tachnical chat conducted today was very informative. If you are an NIIT student you can log on to www.niitstudent.com for participation instructions.www.facebook.com/

Is some one trying to secore something hire

Steven Job is his Biograph  mentioned  that Google' Android OS is thier iOS stolen idea. If he still alive his plan was to destroy Android, but in this industry such things does happens all the time and no one needs to be blame for that, I reckon. I wonder why then Apple wanted all Samsung smart phone tobe remove from shelvse in Australia and other  surrounding countries. I gues the reason why Google bought HTC and Motorola in past days is because they wanted to secure their OS since smartphones from these two companies uses Android. I think all these suing onather things is just a wast of time.

What with WiLan?

It looks likes WiLa,n for the past five year their specialising on suing other IT companies. Past weeks it has been reported that they are suing Apple over wireless patent. Looks like wiLan only care obout licencing not how innovative the other companies can be. Microsoft, Google, HP were some of companies which has been in hot water with WiLan in the past years.

More chat application

It looks like more companies are releasing messaging and chat application just after BBM fro Blackberry then WhatApps which works in multiple platforms, now I heard that Samsung is releasing it chat application called ChatOn. This application which come preinstalled on the samsung phone and some smart phones running its Badda and Google Android and this will be effective from October onward.

SQl ingection

I am not trying to promote hacking hire but to whether you vulnerable or not. This touches the most those who uses website that have database like SQL server. When someone has an intention of accessing your website using your admin password he/she just do that by using SQL injection which is very easy methods to use.

Steps to use SQL injection
log to any website that has database on use forms.
In the place for administrator type Admin.
In the place for password type x' or 'a'='a
or
In the place for password type x' or 1=1--

After this you migth gain access to website database or you might be required to try more trick and I guess the good hacker won't stop till he/she able to logs in.

Way of protecting your website
The administrator of those website vulnerable to this kinds of hacking can escape fro this by using MySQL escape sting or MySQL real escape string.

Real name policy

In social network the majority use alias names to identify them selves to others as security majors as they afraid of unknown attack from strangers they meet from these site. What if someone write something that is aggressive to others and worth reporting to the police, is it possible to report it using these alias name? I guess not.The real name policy introduced by Google got many people talking and some angry.

 The reason some were angry is that Google has deleted all those who do not follow this policy from using Google+. This policy is for Google+ and it state that the users must use their real First Names and Last Names or else they loose their Google+ account. Though I have not seen the strategy that Google will use to make sure that the name and surname you entered is your real one or not, I think other social site should follow this trend too.

McAfee cyber report was very shoking

A report by McAfee cybersecurity expert couple of day back was very shocking. They reported that they discovered a five year cyber campaign. What shocked the the most is that since 2007, attacker has an access to the UN secretary's computer but nobody ever noticed that which again bring many question about the security of important data at United Nation (UN) computers. I very worried about what they been doing to the information they have been receiving from this computer.

Obvious the number one suspect was China yet no body has proved it. Though I know that there many organisation on the list of these attack but their full access to UN secretary computer leave question for me and I we are pointing fingers to wrong country yet the suspect is out there laughing at us.

How to see if you have been the victim.

If you are receiving a lot of spam emails, the chance ar,e someone else is holding your actaul account and  you are just holding a copy of it. I migth be wrong somehow but you need to double check. Email account hacking is not something you can just ignore because some possess our crucial information. Most victims to this kind of hacking are just responsible for it.

This is how.

1. Some of us use public computers to access the internet where they leave their account open when they leave the place thus the next person who come to use the very computer definately will have full access to your account.

2. Those who forget their account most of the time and keep renewing their password, some hackers can embed their cades within any website therefore when you try to renew your password by providing your username to the pop up they take the real password and give you the copy. Do not respond to any pop that you see from the webpage.

3. tools that generate password can also be used to access you account without you knowing it so watch out.

I think hacking should be made legal.

WhatsApp

I have come accross many people lately telling me about BlackBerry Messaging (BBM) feature of their BlackBerry cellphones. Not that I am against BBMs but I had a feeling thst these people are still far behind when it come to innovations (techonology particular). competing with BBM is WhatsApp which is messenger application that is not limited as blackberry's BBMs

WhatsApp is a cross-platform mobile messaging application that allow users to axchange messages without having to pay for SMSs. It can run on cellphones such as Nokia, BlackBerry, iPhone, and Android cellphones unlike BBM which strictly for Blackberry users. A useres can even send image, videos, and audios using WhatsApp.

Download whatsApp

A hiden impact Human cause in the IPv4 shortage

 Thing that have been talked and dealt with, the shortage of IPv4 hence IPv6 have been introduced and tested. It has been said that IPv4 ran out because of the number of users acquiring IP addresses. I think it should be also made clear that some network owner constitute to this shortage. I don't know whether they do this deliberately or unaware because of ignorance. The fixed lenght sudnet mask (FLSM) do further this shortage because the number of host is also fixed.

 For example, a class B network using 255.255.240.0 as a subnet mask can approximately accommodate 8000 host per subnet but in real life a class B network usually require much lesser number of host. If a network will only have 2000 host that mean the rest 6000 IP addresses a being wasted because no other network can be assign to.

JavaScript and web browser conflict

.
Many Windows based system users are experiencing a problem when trying to run codes written in JavaScript on their web browsers particularly Internet explorer. Many scripting are disabled by default in most web browsers for security reasons therefore I would suggest any one who want to run a particular script to enable it first and then disable  it after using it. Many malicious script can run at browser without you knowing or noticing it that why some are disabled by default.

To enable java script you need to do the following

Open Internet explorer.
Click on tools.
Click on Internet option.
Click security tab.
Click custom tab.
Scroll down to JavaScript and enable it then click apply.

IPv6 test day

On 08 June 2011 the Internet Society (ISOC) has choosen this day as the IPv6 test day to test the ability of IPv6. The test as some of the website participated reported went very well though there were some slowdawn at some point (such as web page take too long as usual to open). Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Akamai, Cisco, and W3C were some of the website participated in this test. I have heard that before the end of this year(2011) IPv4 migh just run out of addressing space. IPv6 is currently running parallel to IPv4 and if this test show a positive result to all sebsites tested  then we should put our hopes to IPv6.

Microsoft Windows 8

Where ever I go people keep on saying that they can't wait to see what new in Microsoft Windows 8 though M Microsoft has shown videos of what to expect in Windows 8. I would be happy if Windows 8 could be less complicated than Windows 7. May user who are not computer literacy found windows 7 very complicated more especially the start menu where every things starts.Windows 8 is said to be released sometime next year(2012) . Let wait and see.

Are we told the truth hire?

The cracked(hacked) of the International Minerity Fund system posed many question. Though I have never been at those offices but I would reckon that nobody get in or out as he/she please due to the importance of data possess at the system vithin the offices. We were told that crackers installed the software to one of the computers at the IMF offices but one would wonder how did it happened ( though to IT skilled person this would be as easy as ABC). Though again  I am not sure whether that software was installed physically of remotely but who ever did it should very skilled.

Tools such as Keylogers that are used to crack lost password and monitor what is happening in your computer, I just think were used in this cracking. I know that the developers of this tool(keyloger) always make it clear that the intentions of it is not for wrong doing such as cracking but I am sure that crackers may find it useful in the cracking purpose.The IMF was system cracked sometimes later but were only told a weeks ago just after one it superiors has left the office. I think this also raise more question as to why now.As always China is always a number one suspect in such situations and Google also suspect China as the top USA leaders email account were cracked also. Before we point the fingers to china I think IMF should search it self first.

Was it fare?

When I heard that the conflict which was between Microsoft and Linux is over last week I asked my self a lot of question. The first one was whether there was a need to compare these two . The conflict was based on operating systems. Linux is an open source software whereas Microsoft is cormmecial one, so I do not see the point of comparing these two. According to what I personaly know Microsoft server provide more features than Linux. Features such as active directory, remote access virtual private network and terminal servers are some of the feature that make microsoft windows operating system more advance than Linux.

The great thing on Linux is that it provide users flexibility to modify operating system according to His/Her requirement. Some features of Linux are these, you can use Linux machine as web server, can be used to dial out and connect to internet and it support Samba servers.

Back up

The little things we take for granted with computers are the one we see their importance when they are in actual need. Not all of computer a Users take into consideration to create back up of their Operating System, boot files and data. Let say your OS and data are saved in one location which is C: drive and for any reason your computer crashes. In this situation you can not start your computer and the sad part you can not access you important files. In nowadays OS you can automate the back up so there are no excuses not to do it.

There different kind of back up you can choose from ranging from normal, copy, differential, incremental and daily back up.You just need to choose the one that suit your requirements. I can advice Users to use external hard drive as the back up media. Though you can use media such as USBs and CDs but I would personally recommend hard drive as you can back up as many things as you like due to it high capacity. My disadvantage of CDs and USBs is that you may end up having many copies which may lead to you forgeting the one with back up you need to restore or you may loose them.

Program not responding

This is the Windows' way of telling the User that is or might having a problem. Many computer Users when encounters the phrase " program is not responding" they don't understand it in return they end up doing what they not suppose to do. Operating System, software program and drivers might stop respoding or sometimes cause other programs to to stop responding.

Causes to this may be any of the followings

1 Conflict of software or hardware resources between two programs.
2 Lack of systems' resources..
3 Programming Errors
4 Scattered data in the hard disk.
5 Software design Error
6 Viruses and spywares

Solutions
You can kill the particular program not responding via task manager( press CTRL+SHIFT+ESC). You do this if you can not wait, sometimes other programs take time to respond to the Users request due to CPU intensive calculations which when complited, program may start responding again. As viruses may cause this, therefore you need to make sure that the anti-virus is running and up to date. Make sure that Windows and hardware drivers are up to date.

In most cases this may be a minor issue yet sometime it lead to the deeper issue.

Making use of our IT skills

The innitiative by one of the American hotel to place a secret alarm chip in all their equipment will paved the way to the decrease of thefs within the hotel. This was due to the increase number of their equipment being stollen in the hotel.Things such as towel and duvets were most stollen property. After reading this story I have realise the importance of technology in ourlives. Before the chip was place about 4000 things were stollen each month but this decrease to 750 after.

 This shows that if we can think out of box there is so much we can do with technology. I have just realised one way where technology can come on board. Our technology migth assist us in decreasing the hijacking of cars by programming each and every car to sense it owner and be driven by the only owner too. In this way hijackers can not hijack a car because after all they can not drive it.Though this might reduce the hijacking of car drivers but their kidnaping might goes up but less car would be hijacked.

The power of information

On my last artictle I wrote about search engines (which are tools we use to search for information). These tools can range from search engines, meta-search engines and subject directories. The problem I have realised is many of us can not use these tools properly thus we end up getting irrelevent information in our searches. Having information lead to having knowledge which as IT Professionals is what we require the most. The society of today is knowledge productivity as compared to the previous one which I think was material productivity.

Every second the new innovation take place in an arround the World therefore as IT Professionals we need to be information sensitive to prevent being outdated. Newspapes, Magazines, Jaurnals and Internet are all sort of media we need to be in touch with.When searching on the Internet you need to be specific to avoid redudent information you don't need. You also need to be ideal with the engine to use so that you for instance you won't find your self using search engine where you were suppose to use meta-search engine or subject directory. When using search engine you need to specify your search within qoutation marks and on meta-search you need to capitise the first letter.

Search Engines

Since 1993 when the first search engine started there have been an increase numbers of search engines launched ever since. W3C Catalog was the first search engine though there were tools such as Archie (Archive) developed by three student at MacGill University and Gopher created in 1991 by Mark McCahill. My aim is not to dig history but I thought it would be the good idea to reveal it so that we will be in the same page.

Today there are about more than hundred searching engines in which some  have expired domains but do we really need all these numbers. In 2010 the top ten searching engines were Google, Yahoo search, Bing, Ask.com and AOL search. Though one search according to His or Her requirements, I think Google meet all those needs and is eighty percent used globally ( though I have heard that they in the hot water with Chinise Government due to tax issue of companies believed to owned by them).So can't we have these top five rather than these high numbers. Most these engine also act as commercial and that where the argument will begin. 

Keyboard shortcut

Have you ever been in a situation where one of your hardware components malfunction or is not working at all? These components I am talking about can be a mouse or keyboard. I reckon that about seventy percent of people can work on computers on User levels but only twenty percent can keep on working if any of these components is not working. When the keyboard is not working you can keep on working with your computer by using onscreen keyboard. Again if mouse is malfunctioning you can use keyboards shortcut instead of a mouse.

Below are examples of these shortcuts 

Keyboard shortcut                     Description
CTRL+ S                                       : Save
CTRL+P                                        : Print
CTRL+Y                                        : For Redo
CTRL+Z                                        : For Undo
CTRL+F                                        : Find command
CTRL+G                                        : Find and replace dialog box
CTRL+HOME                               :Top of the document
CTRL+END                                   : Down the document
CTRL+C                                        : Copy
CTRL+A                                        : Select all
F1                                                   : Help
ARROWS                                      : Control the cursor


These were some of the examples of keyboard shortcuts but the list is endless. Notice that most of the shortcut use control key (CTRL).
                                                                            

Network Setup

Initially network was ideal for for corporates though there are still business that has not yet implemented network  due to some reasons or maybe not understanding it importance. In nowadays you find homes where TV, sound system, nodes and telephones are connected and controlled in a single location. This is an examples of a network though some people only associate network with nodes(computers) , in fact network is formed when two devices are connected together to share resources. Two cellular phones connected via wireless personal area network (Bluetoooth) forms a network. Network range form local area network (LAN), metropolitan area network( MAN) and wide area network(WAN). The main benefits of network are central data management, resource sharing and lastly but not list security.

Thing that one need to consider want to setup a local area network (LAN)

Transmission media
This can be cables you use to connect your network component and these component can be computers, printer and scanner.

Media connector
Media connect can be a device that you use to connect to cables, for example BNC  and RJ45

Network Interface Cards(NIC)
Luckily all computers to come with NIC embeded within them already and this device allow computers in a network to communicate with one another

Protocols and Software
Most widely used protocol is TCP/IP

Depending to the size of your network you might also needs more hardware devices such as Hubs, Bridge and Router. With all the above requirements you can successfully start your own network.

Computer backups and bottlenecks

It is unfortunate that when you buy a computer you don't get a manual of to manage it in some stores. I can not blame them because I think they reckon you can not buy something you can not use, yet in fact we normally do. Just imagine you are the CEO  and you suppose to do the report to the board of the company about the progress in terms of finances and productivity of the company. You neatly compile your report presentation in your PC making sure everything is there, then you wait for the big day.Sadly just before the presentation your OS crashes and all the work was in there. That where the backup come on board because if you were taking backup of your operating system and files you now can relax and recover your file from where you took the backup of your files. I think it is now clear how important it is to take the backups of your files regularly.

You need to learn more on features of your computer and use Internet if required. Make use of search engines like Google, many Programmers and Researchers use search engines to find solutions to some problems. Some of the computer bottlenecks are some of the things that people can solve themselves but end up paying because of ignorance.

If you find any issue with your computer you can contact me via e-mail or call and if your problem is more deep I can refer you to many Technicians, all this for free. You can also ask me via comment line and leave me you e-mail to respond.

My E-mail is : morris.cele@yahoo.com
No               : 078 3358 566

Windows 7

Though Windows 7 start menu is more organised it's also seems to be more complicated than that of Windows XP. In fact to some it is not user friendly as that of XP. Not only start menu, there are other Faetures of of Windows 7 that has change location or now seems to be complicated to access. For example the administrative tools such as Performance monitor.

 Though Windows 7 has these complications but also has more advanced programs and features. With Windows 7 you can rate your computer performance. The task manager has an extra tab called services. There are many other features in Windows 7 which can enhances your use of computer

Computer bottlenecks

When the computer function abnormal, its does not respond to command, its takes too much time to boot or start and its work very slowly many of us just conclude that the problem is with RAM or CPU. When you start analysing your RAM you find that you have enough  and the Hard Disk has enough space. This is a point where many of us think that the whole system has a problem but this is not true in all cases.

I think you are wondering what really the issue then, well the next line may wonder you more. When you start your computer there programs that run automatically at the background of your computer and though you can not see these programs but thy are there. You can view these programs at the notification area of your taskbar which is located at the right corner of the taskbar. By the use of the utility called MSCONFIG.EXE you can see all these programs and believe me they take too much of you RAM sometimes. Due to these programs you can end up adding RAM unnecesary or taking your PC to Technician. The good thing is that you can end or disable these programs. Before ending any of these programs please double check the importance of each program because some are there for a purpose you might not know.

Terms and conditions apply

"Term and conditions apply" infect in every formal and informal documents you encounter this phrase yet many people don't take it importance into consideration. Many spywares and viruses we find in our computers are there because of our ignorants. Whenever you download any software from Internet there are always T&Cs you need to accept or agree upon. The mistake we normally does is that we accept without properly reading what  we are accepting. This is how PUPs (potentially unwanted programs) get into our computers and some ending up crashing the OS.

Even the clothing stores they are now have linked servers. That why you open account at store A and you receive a call from store B telling you about offers they have. If you ever wondered how this happen now you know so be careful of what you sign or agree upon before reading the documents properly. 

Preinstalled Applications

A week ago I read about Italian organisation that was suing Microsoft with regard there some of their preinstalled applications on computers. This conflict between this organisation and Microsoft kept me thinking since then. Who really to blame in there situations? The application manufacture or the computer manufacture and vendors.Range of antivirus, Skypes and Window lives are some the most preinstalled applications.

I think also what some of the people to not approved of these applications is that they come as trial version and this last thirty days after that you need to buy commercial version. What I don't understand is whether computer stores charge their customers based on these preinstalled application or not. If so then what if one don't need that particular application.Can they uninstall it and refund the customer? I just don't think so. What do say or if you have ever been in such situation what was your solution? 

A US searching software

The recent bomb to Russian airport seems to taught other countries to take into consideration the importance of tight security at there airport premises. The US Government has invented a software that search every one entering the airport.

This software will be able to search each passenger without physical contact and this will be a good news to those been complaining about security officers who were searching even in private parts. What is also good about this software is that it will also hide a person's private parts.

A repair tool

I am not trying to market this application but I believe that if something has good things to ffer we need to show our grace to it, but we turn not to show our apreciation. Many of us with computers find ourselves strandend whenever we loose data on our PCs or SO crashes.

 I have just heard about tool that scan,diognises and repair damage  to operating system (OS) just in two minute. This tool or program is called Reimage and as  I am not trying to market it, therefore I can advice any one to check it on http://www.reimage.com/.

Collaboration of IT companies

The collaboration of Microsoft and HP seem  to start giving huge contribution to Infomation Technology sector though there many other companies did this before but this one according to me will lieve a mark. These two companies announced a three year alliance on Information Tenchnology infrastructure project some times last year and this project will cost about $250 million. This means a lot of Microsoft software product will appear on HP computers and those software includes Microsoft enterprise software.

Already there are two appliances born from this collaboration and those are HP Business Decision Appliance and HP Enterprise Data Warehouse Applience

Unnecesary Social network password links

Some of the thing we hire every day are shocking and some are just unbelievable. I am say saying this because of the rumours that just spread in the United Kingdom that there some people who can crackle other people's Facebook password and read all the personal information of that somebody. Many people use Internet cafes to access Facebook and other social networks because they can not afford to pay for Internet bills themselves. There is one mistake they do when their session is over and that they do not sign out from that social network therefore when the next person come to use that very computer to access the social network you were in, the computer will give your login information because you  did not sign out.

The advice  I can give to those who access their Emails and social network from Internet cafes is that they should sign out when they see that their time is about to end to avoid unnecessary link of information.

Viruses can hide in some of the downloads.

When new release come out everyone want to be the fist to downloads, yet many people are not aware of threat comes with that state of being too forward. Though movie and music are not executable file (.xe extention) but some virus somehow can hide within them and when you try  download the file you then download both virus and music or movie.

My advice is not to download something from untrusted source and not to be the first one to download things on the internet.