Microsoft Introduces Updated Windows Live Services

Microsoft has announced the next generation of Windows Live, an integrated set of online services.The new generation of Windows Live includes updated experiences for photo sharing, e-mail, instant messaging, as well as integration with multiple third-party sites. The release also includes Windows Live Essentials, free downloadable software that enhances consumers' Windows experience by helping them simplify and enjoy digital content scattered across their PC, phone and on Web sites.

To help make it simple for the more than 460 million Windows Live customers to keep their friends up to date, Microsoft is collaborating with companies including Flickr, LinkedIn Corp., Pandora Media Inc., Photobucket Inc., Twitter, WordPress and Yelp Inc. to integrate activities on third-party sites into Windows Live through a new profile and What's New feed.

The new Windows Live also gives consumers the added convenience of having a central place to organize and manage information. As Windows Live customers share photos, update their profiles and write reviews, these activities will automatically publish to their Windows Live network.

"Microsoft's Windows Live is an exciting new platform that enables new experiences for both Photobucket and Microsoft users that would not otherwise be possible," said Alex Welch, president of Photobucket. "Online photo sharing is an important part of people's everyday lives and, as the leading stand-alone photo and video-sharing Web site, Photobucket is thrilled to be teaming up with Windows Live to make this experience even easier for users."

In addition to partnering with leading Web companies, Microsoft announced alliances with HP and China Telecom Corporation Ltd. to deliver Windows Live services to more people across the globe. HP will distribute Windows Live Photo Gallery with its consumer printers, including Photosmart and Deskjet lines, starting next year. The combined offer provides HP customers with Windows Live Photo Gallery, an end-to-end photo management and printing solution.

Microsoft has increased online storage from 5 GB to 25 GB. Also IM includes a "what's new" feed with updates from contacts across the Web, drag-and-drop photo sharing in the conversation window, a favorites list to designate the most important contacts, and group IM to chat simultaneously with up to 20 people at the same time.

Windows Live Hotmail is now much faster and has 80 percent more effective spam filtering compared with previous versions of Hotmail. Upcoming changes include the ability to bring multiple e-mail accounts together, the ability to put multiple e-mail addresses onto almost any device, increased storage, and a revamped calendar that makes it easier to share calendars with others, subscribe to multiple calendars and use your calendar with Microsoft Outlook.

Windows Live Groups, a place for groups to collaborate online, includes a shared calendar, shared storage, a shared e-mail address, and shared instant messaging.

All of these services work with Windows Live Essentials, a suite of applications for communication and sharing that also works with leading e-mail, photo and blogging services worldwide.

This next generation of Windows Live, available at http://www.windowslive.com, will begin rolling out to customers in the U.S. over the coming weeks and will be made available globally in 54 countries and in 48 languages by early 2009.

Tip for people who use notepad to write down any info on a day to day basis...

In Notepad

* Open a notepad and type '.LOG' (CASE SENSITIVE) as the first line of the file.

* Save and close the file .

* Double-click the file to open it and notice that Notepad appends the current date and time to the end of the file and places the cursor on the next line.

* Type your notes and then save and close the file.

Each time you open the file, Notepad repeats the process, appending the time and date to the end of the file and placing the cursor below it.
It simply serves as a virtual diary !

Try this !!!.......Amazing

Did you know that the flight number of the plane that had hit WTC ....on 9th September was Q33N ....Open your MS Word in ur computer and type flight number ie Q33N n increase font size to 72 , change font to Wingdings. U will be amazed.

FIFA 09

The game is a massive 6GB installation on the PC, after which I had to please the EA DRM gods, first by entering the license key and then in the form of online activation. After successfully installing and activating the game, getting it to start was anything but easy, and it took several tries before the game authenticated and validated the installation online. All this happened without any messages or visual cues on the screen; the only way to get the game running was to repeatedly hit the FIFA 09 icon till the game actually ran – not the best way to start.

Having played FIFA 09 on the PS3 and well as the Xbox360, I was expecting something similar on the PC, if not better. However, as soon as I fired up the PC version, I was bitterly surprised to see that the game interface and controls are like the PS2 port of this year. This means no custom formation or team tactics at the team management screen. In my experience, the only way to use custom formations was to first create one at the main screen and then use it at the team management screen. The similarities with the PS2 port further extended to the actual matches, as I discovered the controls are also significantly different, which all but nullified my past experience and familiarity with the game on the current generation of consoles.

Speed up the Start Menu

The default speed of the Start Menu is pretty slow, but you can fix that by editing a Registry Key. Fire up the Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ MenuShowDelay

By default, the value is 400. Change this to a smaller value, such as 0, to speed it up.

Speed up the Start Menu (Part two)

If your confounded by the slow speed of the Start Menu, even after using the tip above, then you might try the following: Navigate to Display Properties then Appearance then Advanced and turn off the option titled Show menu shadow . You will get much better overall performance.

Add album art to any music folder

One of the coolest new features in Windows XP is its album thumbnail generator, which automatically places the appropriate album cover art on the folder to which you are copying music (generally in WMA format). But what about those people that have already copied their CDs to the hard drive using MP3 format? You can download album cover art from sites such as cdnow.com or amguide.com, and then use the new Windows XP folder customize feature to display the proper image for each folder. But this takes time--you have to manually edit the folder properties for every single folder--and you will lose customizations if you have to reinstall the OS. There's an excellent fix, however.

When you download the album cover art from the Web, just save the images as folder.jpg each time and place them in the appropriate folder. Then, Windows XP will automatically use that image as the thumbnail for that folder and, best of all, will use that image in Windows Media Player for Windows XP (MPXP) if you choose to display album cover art instead of a visualization. And the folder customization is automatic, so it survives an OS reinstallation as well. Your music folders never looked so good!


Album cover art makes music folder thumbnails look better than ever!

Samsung's 8MP Camera Phone Now Official

Samsung’s newest 8MP camera phone that we spoke of just a few days ago has now been officially launched as the Pixon.

According to the reports and a press release the handset is the world’s slimmest full-touch 8-megapixel camera phone.

The Pixon has a 3.2-inch WQVGA touch screen display and features that include x16 digital zoom, auto-focus, fast-shutter, face detection and geo-tagging since it comes with internal GPS. Other features include a media player that supports Samsung's DNSe for audio, an FM radio, Bluetooth with A2DP and microSD card support for external memory.

The handset also has a dedicated website called - The Photographic Adventures of Nick Turpin.

"Now everyone will be able to ‘get their pics on’ so much more quickly and easily. For the first time you will have a camera on your phone capable of delivering the quality of image of a regular camera. The big benefit is not just the ease with which people will now be able to capture and share camera-phone shots, but the quality of those shots when taken," said Geesung Choi, President of the Samsung Telecommunications Business.

The Samsung Pixon will be available first in France in mid-October and soon in most European and Asian countries.

Why iPhone is costlier in India than US?

Apple iPhone costs just $199 in the US but if you want an iphone in India you'll have to pay at least Rs 31,000 so the big question is why is there a price disparity in this Apple device.

According to Sanjay Kapoor, President Mobility, Airtel, this is due to the fact the device in the US comes bundled with a 3-year lock in period, which is not the case in India.

This essentially means a consumer in the US buys the iPhone for $199 which is just the cost of hardware. He then pays $150 to activate the handset and then subsequently a part of the tariff plan he chooses goes to Apple.

Whereas in India the cost is upfront Rs 31,000 which represents not just the cost of owning but also using it. It is interesting that telecom giants Airtel and Vodafone are making no margins on this high end device.

When Steve Jobs launched the new 3G iPhone from Apple's stable in June, the trendier new version created buzz because of the price almost half of the earlier version. But when the same iPhone came to India the price was a party pooper.

The much-awaited multimedia rich mobile phone will finally be available in India on Friday. Airtel and Vodafone will give a network locked 8GB iPhone for Rs 31,000 and a 16 GB version for Rs 36,000.

But another big question is that what advantage does iPhone provides to Indian telecos. It is believed that the service will keep them ahead of competition who do not have the iPhone advantage at least not as yet.

But equally important is will the 200,000 iPhone aspirants who have pre registered with Airtel for the iPhone really turn into a purchase or will the big cost fizzle out the iPhone mania, stay connected to find out anymore.

Vodafone may launch instalment scheme for iPhone 3G

Vodafone, one of the two license holders for the latest Apple iPhone that went on sale on Thursday in India, is looking at easy finance schemes to help sell the product in the country, a person familiar with the development said.

"Vodafone is talking to Barclays and ICICI Bank for introducing two monthly schemes for six and 12 months," the person requesting anonymity told IANS Friday.

Bharti Airtel, the other license holder in India, declined to make any comment, but it is believed it too is talking to several banks.

The Apple iPhone 3G (third generation) was launched in Singapore and the Philippines apart from India Thursday. While it costs around Rs 8,000 in the US where Apple is headquartered, it costs around Rs 9,840 in Singapore.

In India, the iPhone is priced at Rs 31,000 for 8GB and Rs 36,100 for 16GB of memory space.

Now, to push sales, Vodafone is trying to increase iPhone sales by arranging for financing schemes for its products.

"We expect to sell anywhere between 50 to 100 phones a day," the source said. "However it is too early to predict how the sales will shape up."

Airtel gave a similar response.

Said Sanjay Gupta, Airtel's chief marketing officer: "We will only be able to figure out the trend only after a week or so. The response has been overwhelming but it's still not clear how many of the pre-bookings will actually convert to sales."

Airtel received over 200,000 pre-bookings for the phone, the process was started about two months ago.

They grey market, which has been raking in the moolah on iphones for more than a year were despondent. Dealers at Delhi's Gaffar Market - centre for electronics goods sale - were of the opinion that with the phone being sold by authorized dealers their share in the pie would be reduced to nil.

"We were selling the 3G version till a few days ago for anything between Rs 40,000 to Rs 55,000. There will always be people who will spend anything. The [older] 2G version sold for around Rs 24,000-25,000. Now, we will have to undercut," said a dealer in Gaffar Market.

The iPhone is being sold in Hyderabad and Bangalore besides the four metropolitan cities and will be later introduced in 65 cities.

The phone comes locked to the service provider, which means a user cannot switch his or her operator while using an iPhone.

However, the availability of a number of software in the market for hacking the iPhone has not gone unnoticed by telecom operatoRs

"We are aware of the hacking software that are available and are used to unlock the iPhone, but customers who will stay with Airtel will be able to enjoy iPhone's full benefits including the data plans," Sanjay Kapoor, Airtel's president (mobility) said.

The phone, which won Time magazine's coveted 'Invention of the Year 2007' honour, and marked the Cupertino-based computer giant's foray into the mobile phone arena, debuted in June last year.

"More than 30,000 iPhone's (2G) are running on the Airtel network alone," Sanjay Kapoor said.

Is Windows 7 Coming Sooner Than Later?

Several websites reported in April that Bill Gates dropped Hints during a speech in Miami about the next Windows OS, codenamed Windows 7, saying , "sometimes in the next year or so we will have a new version." Gates stated. "I'm super-enthused about what  it will do in lots of ways." What's not know is if Gates was referring to a development release Vs full release. What is know is 32- bit and 64-bit versions will be available.

Previously, a 2010 release at earlier was generally believed based upon past Microsoft estimates.

Coincidentally, Microsoft also extended Windows XP death sentence (on low-cost laptops atleast) untill June 30,2010,or a year following Windows 7 release,whichever occurs first.

Making Firefox 150% Faster

Tips & Tricks that can help you to double the speed of Firefox.

1. Type about:config in the address bar and then press Enter.

2. In the filter search bar type network.http.pipelining. Be sure the value field is set true,if not double-click to set true. HTTP is the application-layer protocol that most web pages are transferred with. In HTTP 1.1, multiple requests can be sent before any responses are received. This is known as pipelining. Pipelining reduces page loading times, but not all servers support it.

3. Go back to the filter search bar and type network.http.pipelining.maxrequests. Double-click this option and set its value to 8.

4. In the filter search bar and type network.http.proxy.pipelining. Once opened doubleclick on it and set it to true.

5. In IPv6-capable DNS servers, an IPv4 address may be returned when an IPv6 address is requested. It is possible for Mozilla to recover from this misinformation, but a significant delay is introduced.
Type network.dns.disableIPv6 in the filter search bar and set this option to true by double clicking on it.

6. CONTENT INTERRUPT PARSING
This preference controls if the application will interrupt parsing a page to respond to UI events. It does not exist by default. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu. Then:
A. Enter content.interrupt.parsing in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK
B. When prompted to choose the value for the new boolean, select true and click OK.

7. Rather than wait until a page has completely downloaded to display it to the user, Mozilla applications will regularly render what has been received to that point. This option controls the maximum amount of time the application will be unresponsive while rendering pages. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter content.max.tokenizing.time in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 2333333 and click OK.

8. CONTENT NOTIFY INTERVAL
This option sets the minimum amount of time to wait between reflows. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window, select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Type content.notify.interval in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 849999 and click OK.

9. CONTENT NOTIFY ONTIMER
A. This option sets if to reflow pages at an interval any higher than that specified by content.notify.interval. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Boolean from the pop-up menu.
B. Type content.notify.ontimer in the New boolean value pop-up window and click OK.
C. You will be prompted to choose the value for the new boolean. Select true and click OK.

10. Notify Backoffcount
This option controls the maximum number of times the content will do timer-based reflows. After this number has been reached, the page will only reflow once it is finished downloading. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter content.notify.backoffcount in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 5 and click OK.

11. CONTENT SWITCH THRESHOLD
You can interact with a loading page when content.interrupt.parsing is set to true. When a page is loading, the application has two modes: a high frequency interrupt mode and a low frequency interrupt mode. The first one interrupts the parser more frequently to allow for greater UI responsiveness during page load.
The low frequency interrupt mode interrupts the parser less frequently to allow for quicker page load. The application enters high frequency interrupt mode when you move the mouse or type on the keyboard and switch back to low frequency mode when you had no activity for a certain amount of time. This preference controls that amount of time. Right-click (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter content.switch.threshold in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 849999 and click OK.

12. NGLAYOUT INITIALPAINT DELAY
Mozilla applications render web pages incrementally, they display what’s been received
of a page before the entire page has been downloaded. Since the start of a web page
normally doesn’t have much useful information to display, Mozilla applications will wait
a short interval before first rendering a page. This preference controls that interval. Rightclick (Apple users ctrl-click) anywhere in the about:config window and select New and then Integer from the pop-up menu.
A. Enter nglayout.initialpaint.delay in the New integer value pop-up window and click OK.
B. You will be prompted to enter a value. Enter 0 and click OK.

How to use Windows Update Properly

If you want to save your files to your hard drive, so after a format you dont have to download them all again, here's How:

- Logon to Windows Update

- Choose Windows Update Catalogue (left hand pane)

- Choose Find updates for Microsoft Windows operating systems (right hand pane)

- Choose your version and language then Search

- Choose one the following:

- Critical Updates and Service Packs
- Service Packs and Recommended Downloads
- Multi-Language Features (0)


- Once chosen simply click on what you want to download and then back at the top click Review Download Basket

- You are taken to the next page where at the top you can specify where the downloads are to be saved.

- Click Download now. Each patch will make a directory under the root of the folder you saved them to.
Once finished you need to go to where you saved the file (s) to and then simply install all your patches.

Table of Contents

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Caught By a Virus?

If you've let your guard down--or even if you haven't--it can be hard to tell if your PC is infected. Here's what to do if you suspect the worst.

Heard this one before? You must run antivirus software and keep it up to date or else your PC will get infected, you'll lose all your data, and you'll incur the wrath of every e-mail buddy you unknowingly infect because of your carelessness.

You know they're right. Yet for one reason or another, you're not running antivirus software, or you are but it's not up to date. Maybe you turned off your virus scanner because it conflicted with another program. Maybe you got tired of upgrading after you bought Norton Antivirus 2001, 2002, and 2003. Or maybe your annual subscription of virus definitions recently expired, and you've put off renewing.

It happens. It's nothing to be ashamed of. But chances are, either you're infected right now, as we speak, or you will be very soon.

For a few days in late January, the Netsky.p worm was infecting about 2,500 PCs a day. Meanwhile the MySQL bot infected approximately 100 systems a minute (albeit not necessarily desktop PCs). As David Perry, global director of education for security software provider Trend Micro, puts it, "an unprotected [Windows] computer will become owned by a bot within 14 minutes."

Today's viruses, worms, and so-called bots--which turn your PC into a zombie that does the hacker's bidding (such as mass-mailing spam)--aren't going to announce their presence. Real viruses aren't like the ones in Hollywood movies that melt down whole networks in seconds and destroy alien spacecraft. They operate in the background, quietly altering data, stealing private operations, or using your PC for their own illegal ends. This makes them hard to spot if you're not well protected.

Is Your PC "Owned?"

I should start by saying that not every system oddity is due to a virus, worm, or bot. Is your system slowing down? Is your hard drive filling up rapidly? Are programs crashing without warning? These symptoms are more likely caused by Windows, or badly written legitimate programs, rather than malware. After all, people who write malware want to hide their program's presence. People who write commercial software put icons all over your desktop. Who's going to work harder to go unnoticed?

Other indicators that may, in fact, indicate that there's nothing that you need to worry about, include:

* An automated e-mail telling you that you're sending out infected mail. E-mail viruses and worms typically come from faked addresses.

* A frantic note from a friend saying they've been infected, and therefore so have you. This is likely a hoax. It's especially suspicious if the note tells you the virus can't be detected but you can get rid of it by deleting one simple file. Don't be fooled--and don't delete that file.

I'm not saying that you should ignore such warnings. Copy the subject line or a snippet from the body of the e-mail and plug it into your favorite search engine to see if other people have received the same note. A security site may have already pegged it as a hoax.

Sniffing Out an Infection

There are signs that indicate that your PC is actually infected. A lot of network activity coming from your system (when you're not actually using Internet) can be a good indicator that something is amiss. A good software firewall, such as ZoneAlarm, will ask your permission before letting anything leave your PC, and will give you enough information to help you judge if the outgoing data is legitimate. By the way, the firewall that comes with Windows, even the improved version in XP Service Pack 2, lacks this capability.

To put a network status light in your system tray, follow these steps: In Windows XP, choose Start, Control Panel, Network Connections, right-click the network connection you want to monitor, choose Properties, check "Show icon in notification area when connected," and click OK.

If you're interested in being a PC detective, you can sniff around further for malware. By hitting Ctrl-Alt-Delete in Windows, you'll bring up the Task Manager, which will show you the various processes your system is running. Most, if not all, are legit, but if you see a file name that looks suspicious, type it into a search engine and find out what it is.

Want another place to look? In Windows XP, click Start, Run, type "services.msc" in the box, and press Enter. You'll see detailed descriptions of the services Windows is running. Something look weird? Check with your search engine.

Finally, you can do more detective work by selecting Start, Run, and typing "msconfig" in the box. With this tool you not only see the services running, but also the programs that your system is launching at startup. Again, check for anything weird.

If any of these tools won't run--or if your security software won't run--that in itself is a good sign your computer is infected. Some viruses intentionally disable such programs as a way to protect themselves.

What to Do Next

Once you're fairly sure your system is infected, don't panic. There are steps you can take to assess the damage, depending on your current level of protection.

* If you don't have any antivirus software on your system (shame on you), or if the software has stopped working, stay online and go for a free scan at one of several Web sites. There's McAfee FreeScan, Symantec Security Check, and Trend Micro's HouseCall. If one doesn't find anything, try two. In fact, running a free online virus scan is a good way to double-check the work of your own local antivirus program. When you're done, buy or download a real antivirus program.

* If you have antivirus software, but it isn't active, get offline, unplug wires-- whatever it takes to stop your computer from communicating via the Internet. Then, promptly perform a scan with the installed software.

* If nothing seems to be working, do more research on the Web. There are several online virus libraries where you can find out about known viruses. These sites often provide instructions for removing viruses--if manual removal is possible--or a free removal tool if it isn't. Check out GriSOFT's Virus Encyclopedia, Eset's Virus Descriptions, McAffee's Virus Glossary, Symantec's Virus Encyclopedia, or Trend Micro's Virus Encyclopedia.

A Microgram of Prevention

Assuming your system is now clean, you need to make sure it stays that way. Preventing a breach of your computer's security is far more effective than cleaning up the mess afterwards. Start with a good security program, such Trend Micro's PC-Cillin, which you can buy for $50.

Don't want to shell out any money? You can cobble together security through free downloads, such as AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition, ZoneAlarm (a personal firewall), and Ad-Aware SE (an antispyware tool).

Just make sure you keep all security software up to date. The bad guys constantly try out new ways to fool security programs. Any security tool without regular, easy (if not automatic) updates isn't worth your money or your time.

Speaking of updating, the same goes for Windows. Use Windows Update (it's right there on your Start Menu) to make sure you're getting all of the high priority updates. If you run Windows XP, make sure to get the Service Pack 2 update. To find out if you already have it, right-click My Computer, and select Properties. Under the General tab, under System, it should say "Service Pack 2."

Here are a few more pointers for a virus-free life:

* Be careful with e-mail. Set your e-mail software security settings to high. Don't open messages with generic-sounding subjects that don't apply specifically to you from people you don't know. Don't open an attachment unless you're expecting it.

* If you have broadband Internet access, such as DSL or cable, get a router, even if you only have one PC. A router adds an extra layer of protection because your PC is not connecting directly with the Internet.

* Check your Internet ports. These doorways between your computer and the Internet can be open, in which case your PC is very vulnerable; closed, but still somewhat vulnerable; or stealthed (or hidden), which is safest. Visit Gibson Research's Web site and run the free ShieldsUP test to see your ports' status. If some ports show up as closed--or worse yet, open--check your router's documentation to find out how to hide them.

3 Wierd facts about Microsoft Windows

Here is some facts about windows which are pretty wierd...

Now you can see what's hidden1. Nobody can create a folder named "Con".
Try to create anywhere on your hard disk a folder called "Con" (without the quotes). Go to a location on your hard disk, right click, choose "New" and then select "Folder" from the menu that appears. Name the folder "Con" (without quotes) and hit Enter. You’ll see that the folder won’t be named "Con". It will be "New folder"

2. A text file made with Notepad, with the following content : "Bush hid the facts" (without quotes) won’t display the actual text.
Go to Start -> Programs -> Accessories -> Notepad . Write in Notepad the following text : "Bush hid the facts" (without quotes) then Save the file and exit Notepad. Now go to the text file you created and open it. You’ll see that the text you just wrote and save won’t show.

3. Write in Word this : "=rand(200,99)" (without the quotes) and witness the magic
Open Microsoft Word and on the first line write : "=rand(200,99)" (without the quotes) and hit Enter key. See the magic.

Dell Set To Board Ultra-Portable Train

The ultra-portable laptop train continues to gain steam, and details surrounding two upcoming Dell Latitude models suggest that the PC maker sees plenty of opportunity for the market segment, par- ticularly in the consumer space.

Expected to be released around September, the Latitude E4200 and E4300 will take the Latitude to an area not typically seen in the series, as early, leaked images show unique styling that’s geared more toward consumers, rather than the business-heavy styling of previous Latitude models. The images hint that the ultra-porta- bles will be available in an array of colors, including blue and different shades of red.

The 2.2-pound E4200 will include a 12.1-inch, backlit WXGA (Wide Extended Graphics Array) monitor with a resolution of 1,280 x 800. The laptop will use the fifth generation of Intel’s Centrino platform, which is code-named Montevina and set tobe released this summer. The plat- form supports the use of ULV (ultra- low voltage) processors, which will help the ultra portables extend their battery life. This model is expected to use 800MHz DDR3 (double-date-rate 3) memory (with a maximum ca- pacity of 5GB), but the most intriguing feature will be on the storage front, where the E4200 will include either a 32GB or 64GB SSD (solid-state drive). The E4200 will be packed with other useful features, as well, including UWB (Ultra Wideband), DisplayPort, Bluetooth 2.1, integrated 802.11n wireless, SD (Secure Digital) card/ MMC (MultiMedia Card) reader, two USB 2.0 ports, Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire, and more.

For users who aren’t quite as concerned with energy and weight but are interested in a bigger display and other more powerful options, Dell’s upcoming E4300 might be a better fit. This 3-pound model features a 13.3-inch LED (light-emitting diode) backlit WXGA display and supports standard-voltage CPUs, as well as standard hard drives (up to 250GB at 5,400rpm or up to 200GB at 7,200rpm), although SSDs also will be supported. The E4300 also differs from the E4200 in that it will have an inte- grated DVD burner or Blu-ray Disc drive, whereas the E4200 has no internal media bay. Also, the E4200 will include only a touchpad, while the E4300 will have both a touch- pad and a pointing stick.

Prices for these sleek systems were not yet available at press time.

Download Files With Firefox 3’s Download Manager

Web browsers download data all the time—
each page you view is a downloaded copy of code stored on that Web site’s server. Down- loading other files is a little more complicated, but it’s getting simpler all the time. Mozilla Firefox 3, available in beta as of this writing, adds a few small improvements to the downloading process that makes saving files from the Internet easier than ever. A refined Download Manager provides ready access to files, quickly locates downloads, and even keeps track of downloads gone wrong. If downloading files sometimes seems a little mysterious, get to know the Firefox Downloads window.

Click & Receive

Most of the time, starting a download is a simple business: Just click the link. A file intended to be downloaded is likely coded into the Web page in such a way that merely clicking the link
in the standard fashion causes those bytes to start flowing. Sometimes, you must right-click a file link, choose Save Link As, and then choose a location on your hard drive to save the file. Although getting the download started is usu- ally easy, one frequent frustration is losing track of the file after it arrives on your hard drive. Browsers might be set to save downloads into particular, obscure folders, or you might accidentally tell the browser to save to some random folder. You’re not alone if you’ve ever downloaded a file a second time just because you
gave up trying to locate the first copy. The Firefox Download Manager dispenses with that particular problem. Before spending time hunting for a downloaded file, just open the Downloads window from the Tools menu or by pressing CTRL-J. The Downloads window should display all recent downloads by file name. Right-click the file in question. Choose Open Containing Folder, and the folder where the file resides will open on your screen. You can also simply double-click a
file name right inside the Downloads window to open it. If you’ve downloaded so many files that you don’t immediately see the one you want, try the Downloads window’s Search function. Type the file’s name or the name of the site where you found the file. Downloads that do not match your search disappear as you type until the correct file remains.

Custom Features

To alter options relating to Download Manager, click Tools and Options. On the Main tab, you’ll see a section called Downloads. From there, you can choose whether the Download Manager appears automatically when you begin to download a file and whether it closes on its own as soon as a download is complete.You can also choose the default location for dumping downloaded files. The default is your Desktop folder. If you can’t stand even temporary Desktop clutter, you can change the download destination to any other folder you like. You can also click the option to always have Firefox ask you where the downloaded file should be saved each time you begin a download. One more download-related setting to keep in mind is on the Privacy tab. Here, you can choose whether Firefox remembers your downloads at all. Deselect the Remember What I’ve Downloaded checkbox, and files will no longer appear in the Downloads window. If you don’t want to go that far, you can always delete individual items from the list by right-clicking a download in the Downloads window and choosing Remove From List.

Do Over

Firefox also supports resumable downloading. That means if a long download is cut off halfway through because of a computer crash, network problems, or browser freeze, you’ll be able to pick up where you left off once the problem is fixed. You can also pause the download by opening the Download Manager and clicking the Pause button next to the download you want to continue later. Resumable downloading didn’t always work in our tests. Sometimes a paused file would generate an error message when we tried to resume the download. However, the Downloads window will continue to list the file so that the file is not left be- hind. A handy Retry button next
to the file name restarts the download from the beginning. Downloading files doesn’t really get any easier.

Wireless Cameras

Built-in Wi-Fi has proven to be handy in consumer electronics such as laptops, smartphones, and PDAs (personal digital assistants).Manufacturers such as Nikon and Sony have now applied built-in Wi-Fi support to digital compact cameras so that you have more flexibility over where, when, and how you transfer and share photos. The Kodak EasyShare-One was the first to adopt wireless capabilities (it has since been discontinued), and others followed suit. Nikon offers the Coolpix S51c ($279.95; www.nikon usa.com), and Sony has the Cybershot DSC-G1 ($299.99; www.sony style.com), which both include wireless support. Also, Panasonic has recently announced plans to add wireless capabilities to its Lumix line.

A New Way To Share
Some wireless-enabled cameras give you the ability to email pictures to your friends and family, quickly upload pictures onto your computer from Wi-Fi hotspots, or let you wirelessly connect to other compatible cameras and devices to instantly share your photos.

The Sony DSC-G1 lets you wirelessly share photos between four linked DSC-G1 cameras or through wireless peer-to-peer communication with compatible cameras. The DSCG1 also lets you view photos through wireless transmission to DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance)-compatible devices, including televisions and computers. DLNA is an industry standard for many electronic devices. Because consumers often find that their digital devices aren’t always compatible with each other, DLNA was created by some of the world’stop manufacturers to ensure that digital devices could work together. To determine if your computer or any other device is DLNA-certified, look for the DLNA logo, check with the device’s manufacturer, or go the DLNA Web site (www.dlna.org/products) for a list of DLNA-certified products.

DLNA-compatible devices can connect over Ethernet or Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g), so you should be able to send files from your camera to your computer over your wireless network. In the case of the DSC-G1, the camera can send files to a computer, but it cannot receive files from the computer. You can use the Nikon Coolpix S51c with your home wireless network or a T-Mobile HotSpot (after you sign up for a T-Mobile HotSpot account). A T-Mobile HotSpot account gives you access to Wi-Fi in over 8,000 U.S. locations, such as hotels, airports, and coffee shops. At press time, Nikon and T-Mobile were offering six months of free service, which automatically begins the first time you connect to a Hot-Spot with your Coolpix S51c. To learn more about T-Mobile HotSpot services and locations, go to the T-Mobile HotSpot Web site
(www.hotspot.t-mobile.com).

Get the most out of your wireless digital camera by pairing it with a wireless digital photo frame. For example, Digital Spectrum offers the MF-8104 Premium MemoryFrame ($349.99; www.dsicentral.com), a 10.4-inch frame with 256MB of internal memory. You can share your pictures via Bluetooth (USB Bluetooth dongle not included), the Web, or any 802.11b/g wireless connection.You can also share pictures among multiple frames.

High-End Servers

What are Sun's High-End Servers? - Enterprise class servers that provide 24/7 mission critical services

Ideal for - Large or medium-sized companies needing complex, multi-tiered environments, virtualization and consolidation, back office, OLTP and BIDW databases, high floating point applications, compute-intensive scientific/engineering application serving, and more

Advantages - Advanced built-in virtualization, diagonal scaling, domain partitioning granularity down to one processor chip with Solaris containers, guaranteed binary compatibility prevents IT obsolescence

x64 Servers

What are Sun's x64 Servers? - AMD or Intel based servers, also known as x86-64 bit based systems running a choice of operating system, Solaris, Windows, Linux and more

Ideal for - Large, small or medium-sized companies needing grid computing, web infrastructure, security and network services, application development, virtualization and consolidation, Security, DNS, caching, firewall and more

Advantages - combination of performance, density, scalability and energy efficiency while lowering costs and complexity.

Mid-Range Servers

What are Sun's Mid-Range Servers? - Enterprise class servers that provide 24/7 mission critical services at an affordable entry point

Ideal for - Small, medium or large-sized companies needing affordable virtualization to provide the performance, flexibility, scalability, manageability and security features needed for the consolidation of mission-critical complex applications

Advantages -- Advanced built-in virtualization, Diagonal scaling, domain partitioning granularity down to one processor, designed to lower TCO. Guaranteed binary compatibility prevents IT obsolescence

SPARC Enterprise Servers

What are SPARC Enterprise Servers? - The fastest SPARC/Solaris OS servers, bringing mainframe-class availability and partitioning to the open systems market

Ideal for - Small, medium or large-sized companies needing affordable virtualization and consolidating, web tier environments, smaller databases and large-scale enterprise applications alike

Advantages - Unique, built-in, mainframe-class virtualization capabilities enable you to run up to 24 hardware partitions on a single server, with more granularity than ever before, for complete isolation and control. Diagonal scaling, designed to lower TCO. Guaranteed binary compatibility prevents IT obsolescence

Netra Carrier-Grade Systems

What are Sun's Netra Carrier Grade Systems? - Ruggedized, NEBS-certified servers platforms designed for the Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) and Service Providers (SPs)

Ideal for - Telcos and government needing telecommunications Services, VoIP, IPTV and multimedia streaming, defense/military intelligence, security processing

Advantages - Mix and match processors, UltraSPARC, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon and operating systems, Solaris 10 OS, carrier-grade Linux, or Windows. Extreme Reliability designed for six nines reliability, ruggedized design and enclosure deliver near-continuous system operation in rough environmental conditions

Blade Servers

What are Sun's Blade Servers? - Self-contained infrastructures, designed to save time, power and money..

Ideal for - Medium or large-sized companies, needing eco solutions, virtualization and consolidation, web infrastructure, high performance, computing, back office (CRM, ERP, DIDW)

Advantages - Radically efficient in terms of space, power and cooling. Operationally efficient and productive. Highly serviceable and upgradeable. Multi-processor and OS support. An industry first, UltraSPARC, AMD Opteron, Intel Xeon processors running together in a single chassis

Transparent Data Encryption in SQL Server 2008

As a Database Administrator, security is one of the most important areas to consider when it comes to protecting the databases that you support. We use various mechanisms and technologies to secure our data and databases such as firewalls, certificates, and data encryption. Having said that although we have secured our environment, questions will always be raisesd regarding database security. Although we have protected our databases, what would happen if someone steals the mdf file or if someone steals the backup file. Although there are few ways to control this senario using third-party solutions up until SQL Server 2008 there has been no native way to handle this problem. SQL Server 2008 introduces a new feature that protects the database called Transparent Data Encryption - TDE which provides protection to the entire database. I recently tested TDE with SQL Server 2008 February CTP, and the result of the testing made me write this article. This article contains:



*What is Transparent Data Encryption?
*Implementation of TDE
*Is my database secure now, as it says?
*What needs to be considered before enabling TDE?
*What is the impact when TDE is enabled?
*What is Transparent Data Encryption?

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 introduces another level of encryption, Transparent Data Encryption. TDE is full database level encryption that is not limited to columns and rows but protects both the data files and log files. The implementation of TDE on a database is comparatively very simple and transparent to the applications that connects to the selected database. It does not requires any changes to the existing applications. The protection is applied on the data files and log files as well as the backup files. Once TDE is enabled on a database, the restoring of a backup to another SQL Server instance or attaching data files to another SQL Server instance will not be permitted until the certificate that was used to secure the database encryption key (DEK) is available.

The encryption feature of TDE is applied at the page level. Once enabled, pages are encrypted before they are written to the disk and decrypted before they are read into the memory. It is important to remember that the communication channel between SQL Server and the client application will not be secured and encrypted via TDE.

Transparent Data Encryption uses a Database Encryption Key (DEK) for encrypting the database that is stored in the database boot record. The DEK is secured by a certificate that is stored in the master database. Optionally, the DEK can be secured by an asymmetric key that resides in a Hardware Security Module (HSM) with the support of Extensible Key Management (EKM). The private key of the certificate is encrypted with the database master key that is a symmetric key, that is usually protected with a strong password. Note that although the certificate can be secured by a password, TDE requires that the certificate is secured by the database master key. The database master key is protected by the service master key that is protected by the Data Protection API.

Cluster Systems Management (CSM)

Cluster Systems Management (CSM) for AIX® and Linux® is designed for simple, low-cost management of distributed and clustered IBM System p™ and System x™ servers in technical and commercial computing environments. CSM, included with the IBM System Cluster 1600 and IBM System Cluster 1350, dramatically simplifies administration of a cluster by providing management from a single point-of-control. CSM is available for managing homogeneous clusters of IBM System x servers running Linux or IBM System p servers running AIX, or heterogeneous clusters which include both.

CSM reduces the cost and complexity of systems management

CSM is a comprehensive systems management tool designed to reduce the cost and complexity of system deployment and maintenance by enabling a small number of administrators to manage large environments efficiently:

CSM improves administrator efficiency by controlling multiple, heterogeneous machines from a single point, enabling fast responses and consistent policies, updates and monitoring by a small staff.

CSM provides monitoring with automated responses and notification to ensure problems are recognized and addressed quickly with minimal distraction.

CSM simplifies management with pre-defined functions for common tasks and pre-defined monitors for key system metrics. Complex functions and monitors can be defined for easy, single-command or point-and-click use.

Management by group eliminates both the need to address each machine individually and the risk of accidental oversight/omission. CSM can even build groups automatically based on machine characteristics.
CSM improves security and efficiency by giving administrators access to the commands they need without having to give every administrator high authorization. Security configuration is performed automatically.

In addition to providing all the key functions for administration and maintenance of typical distributed systems, CSM is designed to deliver the parallel execution required to manage clustered computing environments effectively. The managed nodes in the cluster may be IBM System p or IBM System i™ machines running AIX or Linux, IBM System x machines running Linux or a combination of these platforms and operating systems. CSM provides the following system management capabilities:
Installation and setup commands to create and configure the cluster easily.
Security configuration across the cluster is performed automatically, eliminating the need to manually distribute encryption keys etc.

Create node groups within the cluster and manage machines by group. Node groups can be defined manually or dynamically (for example, if dynamic node groups are defined for Linux nodes and AIX nodes, new nodes added to the cluster will automatically be placed in the appropriate group and configured/managed accordingly).
Remote command execution across multiple nodes (or node groups) in the cluster; CSM tracks and displays the status of each command on each machine.
A configuration file manager to distribute and synchronize files across nodes or node groups in the cluster.
Comprehensive monitoring of system parameters and status with event display and automated responses (for example, a file system filling up can send an event to the CSM console and automatically notify an administrator and trigger a script to remove all temporary files).

Software diagnostic tools minimize down time by systematically analyzing software components and servers to find the root cause of problems quickly.
Scalable, remote hardware control and console access allows administrators to manage systems from a remote location. This enables centralized management of systems in different locations, increasing administrative efficiency.
Fully scriptable command line interface supports user-defined commands to automate complex tasks.
Administrators can be authorized to perform specific tasks that exceed their overall authorization level, enabling them to do their jobs effectively without compromising security.
Web-based interface provides control and management of a CSM cluster including:

*Updating and removal of nodes from the cluster
*Creation and deletion of node groups
*Distributed command execution including user-defined commands
*Visual monitoring capabilities
*Hardware control capabilities

CSM is flexible and fully customizable to fit into and augment your existing administrative processes. Users can add their own power methods, console methods, MAC methods, post-install scripts, CFM pre/post scripts, sensors, conditions, responses and probes.

CSM is automatically installed with AIX and a 60-day trial license for CSM is included. To continue using CSM after that period, the client must purchase a full license.

Cell/B.E. technology-based software

The QS22, based on the new IBM PowerXCell™ 8i multi-core processor offers extraordinary single precision and double precision floating point computing power to accelerate key algorithms such as 3D rendering, compression, encryption, financial algorithms, and seismic processing.

To enable you to take full advantage of the Cell/B.E. architecture and the PowerXCell 8i processor, IBM has developed a software development kit designed to accelerate production-ready, multi-core programming.

The IBM Software Development Kit (SDK) for Multicore Acceleration Version 3.0 provides the libraries, tools and resources that businesses need to develop and tune applications for Cell/B.E. technology allowing you to easily:

*Port and optimize applications and algorithms quickly
*Increase ease of programming and developer productivity
*Obtain a reliable development tool kit with warranty and support
*Plug in third-party ISV libraries to integrate and build your software ecosystem

IBM BladeCenter QS22

For high performance computing (HPC) applications requiring massive amounts of computing power, the new IBM® BladeCenter® QS22 blade server provides extreme performance for accelerating compute-intensive workloads efficiently.

For years, organizations relied on performance gains from increasing clock speeds of "traditional" microprocessor architectures. However, this approach has lead to issues in power consumption, heat dissipation and memory latencies–resulting in diminishing returns on performance.

Based on the innovative multi-core IBM PowerXCell™ 8i processor, a new generation processor based on the Cell Broadband Engine (Cell/B.E.) Architecture, the QS22 blade server offers extraordinary double precision floating point processing power for high performance computing applications such as digital content creation, electronic design automation, image and signal processing, financial algorithms, scientific research and seismic processing.

Part of the BladeCenter family of products, the QS22 high-performance blade server extends and deepens the IBM HPC solution portfolio by providing a new level of parallelism and performance to targeted workloads. It allows companies to create and run applications that require extreme stream computation and bandwidth, providing information faster and helping to facilitate important business decisions to organizations in:
* Aerospace and defense
* Health care and life sciences
* Petroleum exploration
* Financial markets
* Digital media
* Electronics
* Government

Implementing a Generic Data Access Layer in ADO.NET Part 1

A Data Access Layer (DAL) is an integral part in the design of any application. There are plenty of articles that discuss how we an implement a DAL using ADO.NET. Most of these have constraints in the sense that they are not generic in nature. In other words, they are not provider independent. This series of articles will discuss the implementation of a generic, i.e., a provider independent Data Access Layer in ADO.NET. The basic prerequisite to learning this article is a proper understanding of ADO.NET and good coding skills in C#. I will present the code examples in this article in C#. However with little effort, you can twist it over to VB.NET as well.

The Strategies InvolvedLet us first understand what the necessities are for building such a layer. I would rather start by discussing how an application designed using ADO.NET actually connects to the database and performs the CRUD (Create, Read, Update and Delete) operations.

First, you need to open the connection using a database provider. Fine, but what is a provider anyway? A provider is responsible for connecting to a specific database. Why specific? The reason is that a provider for an Oracle database cannot be used to connect to a SQL Server database and vice-versa. Next, you need a command object that can be used to execute the database commands of your choice. This is followed by the usage of a DataReader or a DataSet or a DataTable instance to retrieve data (if you are performing a Read operation) from the database table. When you use a DataSet, you need a DataAdapter as a bridge between the actual database and the DataSet instance.


Implementing the DAL FrameworkWith this in mind, let us design a provider independent Data Access Layer. Let us first understand the ADO.NET Library. The major classes that constitute the ADO.NET library are:

• Connection
• Command
• Data Reader
• Data Adapter

The corresponding interfaces that the above classes implement are stated below.

• IDBConnection
• IDataReader
• IDBCommand
• IDBDataAdapter

The Data Providers that make up the library are specific to a particular database that they would connect to. These are the Data Providers that are available in ADO.NET.

• SQL Server Data Provider
• Oracle Data Provider
• ODBC Data Provider
• OleDB Data Provider

Now we are all set to implement our DAL. The major components that constitute our DAL block are:

• ProviderType (Enum)
• DatabaseConnectionState (Enum)
• StoredProcedureParameterDirection (Enum)
• DBManager (Class)
• DBHelper (Class)

Slowly Changing Dimensions in SQL Server 2005

IntroductionSlowly changing dimensions (SCD) are very useful in data warehouses. Even though they are useful, it is very difficult to implement slowly changing dimensions with most of ETL tools. In case of SQL Server 2000 it was difficult to implement SCD's as there was no direct way of implimenting them. As you are aware there were numerous changes in SQL Server 2005 including the introduction of a SCD data flow task. This article explores the options available in the SQL Server 2005 for SCD's.RequirementsYou need to have installed SQL Server 2005 with Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS). It will also be beneficial if you know how to create simple SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages. However, as usual I will elaborate on how to develop them when and where ever possible. What is SCD?The "Slowly Changing Dimension" problem is a common one particular to data warehousing. In a nutshell, this applies to cases where the attribute for a record varies over time. Let us take this hypothetical example. Let us say that we have a fact table that contains customersk.