A blog about All kind information.

Low nicotine cigarettes may not curb smoking.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:42:00 +0000

Simply reducing the nicotine content of cigarettes may not be enough to make smokers kick the habit, shows new research.

“We do not know that very low nicotine cigarettes will not work to reduce nicotine dependence and enhance quitting,

but progressively reducing nicotine content of cigarettes in the way we did, without other means of supporting smokers, did not produce the desired results,” said lead study author Neal Benowitz from University of California San Francisco in the US.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is supporting research into how very low nicotine content (VLNC) cigarettes might function as a regulatory measure to make cigarettes non-addictive, reduce smoke exposure, and improve public health, even among people who do not want to quit smoking.

However, the new research published in the scientific journal Addiction showed that progressively reducing nicotine content in cigarettes may not eliminate smoking dependence.

In this two-year study involving 135 smokers, those in the test group smoked five levels of progressively lower nicotine content cigarettes over the course of one year, the lowest nicotine-content cigarette being smoked for seven months.

Participants in the control group smoked their usual brand of cigarettes for 12 months. All participants were then followed for another 12 months after returning to their own cigarettes or quitting.

During the 12-month follow-up, the lower levels of nicotine (a nicotine derivative found in plasma that provides an accurate record of the nicotine intake from smoking in recent days) in test group participants returned to levels similar to smokers in the control group, suggesting that they had returned to their former levels of smoking.

Quitting remained low: at 24 months the percent of smokers in the test group who quit smoking was not significantly higher than that of the control group.

Foldable,waterproof Google Glass soon.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:38:00 +0000

If you still have a dream to own the eye-wearable device Google Glass, wait for its smarter version that is fold able and more durable, media reported.

The “Enterprise Edition” of Google Glass 2.0 will be water-resistant with a more rugged design, 9to5 Google.com reported on Wednesday.

The new rugged design is “built to withstand normal drops and bumps” and will also have “fewer openings and tighter buttons to close off areas where liquid could otherwise seep into the device”.

Expected to be ideal for the workplace, Google has tweaked the eye wearable device’s visual aesthetic to better fit in a factory or a hospital than on a runway. It is practical and industrial with a focus on function over fashion.

“The Enterprise Edition includes a larger prism display for a better viewing experience, an Intel Atom processor that brings better performance, moderately improved battery life and better heat management,” the report added.

The ‘Explorer Edition” of Google Glass was launched as a beta product in 2013. The company invited a select group of “Explorers” to purchase Glass for $1,500.

Google discontinued the eye wearable device earlier this year.

7 things security experts do to keep safe online.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:31:00 +0000

Cyber security experts aren’t like you or I, and now we have the evidence to prove it. Researchers at Google interviewed more than 200 experts to find out what security practices they actually carry out online, and then spoke to almost 300 non-experts to find out how they differ.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the security experts practice what they preach – or, at least, they tell Google they do. They’re more likely to use two-factor authentication, to install software updates, and avoid visiting shady websites. Even for practices that are subject to healthy debate within the security community, actions speak louder than words: the experts are more likely to run anti-virus software and to use password managers than non-experts.

So what do the experts do? And, perhaps more importantly, what are the modern-day superstitions we can all stop doing to save time? The Guardian has sought the answers of these questions.

1) Yes, you do want to install updates

“Update all the software and firmware to fix any possible vulnerability.” “Patch, patch, patch.” The experts are clear: never turn down a security update. The researchers found that not only was installing updates the most commonly cited practice that experts do to keep safe online, it was also the largest difference between experts and non-experts: 35% of the former mentioned it, while only 2% of the latter. And a further 2% of experts also mentioned turning on automatic updates as one of the top three things they do, something no non-expert mentioned.

Non-experts, however, were worried that the updates could themselves lead to an infection: “Automatic software updates are not safe in my opinion, since it can be abused to update malicious content,” said one. And they were also worried that the updates would lead to new problems, with one saying that “there are often bugs in these updates initially”.

Software updates are usually the only way to combat actual security vulnerabilities – those bugs in software that let malicious attackers do things they shouldn’t. For instance, the recent Adobe flash vulnerabilities opened a user’s computer up to hacking if they continued using the software: until patches were issued, there was little option but to simply stop using Flash to stay safe online.

2) Use antivirus software – but don’t bank on it

Antivirus packages have a bad rap. For years, the software had a reputation for slowing down computers with added cruft, foisting pricy support packages on desperate users, and not really doing much to actually protect the computers in the first place. But despite all that, a majority of experts said they use the software.

However, antivirus software was vastly more favored by non-experts than experts, and barely 60% of the experts actually used it. Users in the know said that “AV is simple to use, but less effective than installing updates,” and that the software “is good at detecting everyday/common malware. But nothing that’s slightly sophisticated”. In contrast, 70% of non-experts thought the advice to use AV software was likely to be “very effective”, and more than 80% of them had it installed.

So, while you shouldn’t uninstall your AV software, don’t get lulled into a false sense of security about it. Oh, and like everything else, always install the updates.

3) Keep your passwords unique

Password security online is frequently summed up as “strong, unique passwords” – but it turns out one part of that might be more important than the other. Non-experts tend to focus on the strong part, with 30% of them picking that as one of their top three tips against 18% of the experts; conversely, 25% of the experts pick “unique”, against 15% of the normal users.

It’s easy to see why. Using a strong password (that is, one that uses a good mixture of case, letters, numbers and symbols, as well as steering clear of dictionary words) requires a one-off feat of memory, and can feel very much like the sort of security procedure one should carry out, while avoiding password reuse is an ongoing hassle, requiring a new password for every site.

But in practice, most people are unlikely to face a brute-force attempt to break into their account by simply guessing their password, and even if they do, it doesn’t take much to render such an attack unsuccessful. But most people are likely to be the user of at least one service which gets hacked, as Adobe, Play station and Ashley Madison users have all learned to their disadvantage. Having a unique password can prevent that misfortune compounding.

4) Use a password manager

How do you remember all those unique passwords? Password managers, such as 1 Password, Last pass and Keep-ass solve that problem. They are used by more than three times as many experts than non-experts, and experts are four times more likely to name them as one of the most important things they do online. The researchers cite one expert as saying that “’password managers change the whole calculus, because they make it possible to have both strong and unique passwords”.

Yet only 18% of non-experts thought the advice to use a password manager was “very effective”, and some even explicitly said they don’t trust them. Their reasoning is that password managers can be hacked, and that if other software has bugs and flaws, who can guarantee the same problems won’t apply to managers? In those worries, the users are backed-up by a team from Microsoft, who reported in 2014 that users should rely on easily-memorized passwords rather than managers.

But the security experts are clear: despite their concerns, using password managers is better than not. In fact, some of them even recommend writing the most valuable passwords down on paper. As one says, “malware can’t read a piece of paper”. But the number of experts actually writing down passwords was still lower than the number of non-experts.

As a rule of thumb, if you can remember all your passwords, you’re doing it wrong. Over half the non-experts claimed to remember every password, while just 17% of the experts said the same.

5) Use two-factor authentication

Perhaps because of companies such as Google or Twitter being increasingly pushy about trying to encourage users to switch to two-factor authentication (2FA) – where a password is backed up by a code linked to a specific mobile phone – almost two-thirds of non-experts say they use the security system on their accounts. Those rates still lag behind the experts, but the high numbers suggest that the message is getting through.

At the same time, the non-experts over-state the benefit of 2FA, especially when compared to the less flashy practice of using a password manager. More than four in five non-experts said they thought it was effective, compared to just 32% for password managers.

6) Visit secure websites, even if you don’t recognize them

Non-experts tend to claim that they keep safe by only visiting websites they already know about: “Visiting websites you’ve heard of doesn’t mean they are completely safe, but there is a higher chance of this,” explains one. But they might be exaggerating slightly: while 21% of non-experts said that not visiting unknown websites was an important safety practice, only 7% of them claimed to never visit unknown websites.

Even though 32% of experts said they “rarely” visit unknown websites, the more important piece of advice – and the one where the experts differed from the non-experts – was to check for HTTPS, the secure connection protocol, when visiting an untrusted website. In fact, it was the third most mentioned security practice among st experts.

7) Do as I say, not as I do

But not everything security experts do is something to be followed. Despite recommending that users not click links on emails from unknown sources – a way to avoid phishing emails as well as targeted malware – the researchers themselves admit to doing so. “I do all the time,” one said, laughing, “but I tell my mother not to.” Another admitted that the advice is given more for simplicity’s sake than because it’s the best thing to do: “I never really found a way of giving more precise advice for people who are not technical on what is really safe and what is not.”

Fake iPhone factory busted in China.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:23:00 +0000

Police in China's capital city of Beijing busted a factory that produced over 41,000 fake Apple iPhone, the media reported on Tuesday.

The factory was discovered on May 14 and was revealed in a social media posting by Beijing's public security bureau, China.org reported.

The group, headed by a 43-year-old man sur named Yu, and his 40-year-old wife, sur named Xie, both from the southern hardware manufacturing city of Shenzhen, allegedly set up the Beijing factory with six assembly lines in January.

They hired hundreds of workers to repackage second hand smartphone components as iPhones for export.

Police seized 1,400 handsets and a large quantity of accessories during the May 14 raid. Nine people including Yu and Xie have been arrested.

The discovery of the factory comes four years after fake Apple stores were found in Kunming city.

Tech leaders warn over 'killer robots'.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:21:00 +0000

A group of top tech leaders, including British scientist Stephen Hawking and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, on Tuesday issued a stern warning against the development of so-called killer robots.

Autonomous weapons, which use artificial intelligence to select targets without human intervention, have been described as "the third revolution in warfare, after gunpowder and nuclear arms," wrote around 1,000 technology chiefs in an open letter.

"The key question for humanity today is whether to start a global AI (artificial intelligence) arms race or to prevent it from starting," they wrote.
"If any major military power pushes ahead with AI weapon development, a global arms race is virtually inevitable," the letter continued.

The idea of an automated killing machine -- made famous by Arnold Schwarzenegger's "Terminator" -- is moving swiftly from science fiction to reality, according to the scientists.

"The deployment of such systems is -- practically if not legally -- feasible within years, not decades," the letter said.

The scientists painted the Doomsday scenario of autonomous weapons falling into the hands of terrorists, dictators or warlords hoping to carry out ethnic cleansing.

"There are many ways in which AI can make battlefields safer for humans, especially civilians, without creating new tools for killing people," the letter concluded.

The letter was presented at the opening of the 2015 International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires.

Elon Musk, the billionaire co-founder of PayPal and head of SpaceX, a private space-travel technology venture, also urged the public to sign up to the campaign.

"If you're against a military AI arms race, please sign this open letter," tweeted the tech boss.

Ebola vaccine shows 'promising' results: WHO.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 08:06:00 +0000

Preliminary results of tests on an Ebola vaccine to be published in British science magazine The Lancet later Friday have shown "promising" results, World Health Organisation Director-General Margaret Chan said.

"Early results of the vaccine are exciting and promising," Chan said, adding: "If they are confirmed it will change the management of the Ebola outbreak."

More than 11,200 people have died in an Ebola epidemic in west Africa that began in late 2013 in Guinea and then spread to Liberia and Sierra Leone, infecting 27,700 people in the worst outbreak on record.

More than 99 percent of fatalities were in the three worst-affected west African countries, severely undermining healthcare facilities and ravaging their economies.

UNICEF said earlier Friday that more than 70,000 Liberian babies had been born without being registered as the outbreak raged.

Sucking carbon from the sky may not slow climate change.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:49:00 +0000

As US President Barack Obama finalizes plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions today, climate researchers are wondering whether even more extreme measures will be needed—such as using machines to suck carbon dioxide from the environment. Now, a new study of these so-called carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies finds that the strategy would have only a minimal impact, says Science magazine.

"You hear CDR mentioned as an option to maybe avoid dangerous climate change, but when we did the simulations you see the effect of this technique is quite small," says lead author Sabine Metathesis, a climate modeler at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany.

CDR technologies belong to a class of climate change–fighting techniques known as geoengineering. They include enhancing forests to make them absorb more CO2, building chemical plants that filter the air directly, and burning bio fuels and storing the emitted carbon dioxide underground. These may sound far-fetched, but the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change concluded last year that reaching a key emissions goal—roughly equivalent to limiting warming to 2°C by 2100—would rely on the deployment of one or several CDR technologies. Deploying them could cost more than a trillion dollars, one expert estimates.

The new study puts the concept of CDR to the test—without getting into the specifics of which technology to use. The authors used computer simulations to figure out what would happen if engineers removed a whopping 5 gigatons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere each year. Achieving that goal, equivalent to removing roughly half the amount of CO2 that is now emitted from man made sources, would require a gargantuan global effort. (To visualise the scale, imagine 5000 new facilities each roughly the size of a sports stadium.)

Yet the scientists found the environmental benefits of such a massive technological campaign were surprisingly small, especially in terms of protecting the ocean from the impacts of climate change. One key impact of rising CO2 levels is seen in the pH of ocean waters—the global sea surface has been acidified by roughly 0.1 units and impacts on marine shells are beginning to show. But the experiment demonstrated that the CDR campaign had only limited effect to reverse that trend: Without the CDR the surface pH was reduced by 0.75 units by 2200; with CDR the acidification was reduced 0.7 units, the team reports online today in Nature Climate Change.

In another experiment, the scientists examined how removing an even more whopping 25 gigatons each year would work—an effort to "go negative" and remove more CO2 from the atmosphere than humanity was dumping. That approach restored ocean pH, but only by 2300. "I expected CDR would have a bigger effect," Mathesius says.

The main reason: CDR removes CO2 from the sky, but it cannot act on the carbon locked in the deep ocean, which takes thousands of years to return to the surface. Simulations in the paper show that massive and immediate cuts to carbon emissions—say, by ramping up efforts along the lines of the Obama regulations—would have a more potent impact, limiting acidification to only 0.2 units by 2100.

Co-author Ken Caldeira warns that relying on CDR to the detriment of cutting emissions immediately could put humanity in a big hole. "If we emit CO2 today, and then pull it back out of the atmosphere sometime in the future, we will have a deep ocean that is hotter, more acidic, and with less oxygen than it would have been otherwise," says the geochemist, who works at the Carnegie Institute for Science in Palo Alto, California. "Our paper shows that emitting CO2 today and taking it out sometime later is not the same as never emitting it at all."

Commentators on the paper writing in Nature say the work "demonstrates that proposed technological solutions, like CDR, to the problems of global warming and ocean acidification are no substitute for reducing carbon emissions."

The study could discourage investment in CDR technologies, such as carbon-sucking machines under development by Carbon Engineering in Calgary, Canada. There scientists are following an approach known as direct air capture (DAC). The firm's Geoff Holmes says CDR has a role despite the study’s findings. "Where other options are cheaper and quicker than DAC to mitigate emissions, let’s use them," he says, mentioning technologies that would make buildings or vehicles more energy efficient as one example. "But as we tackle economy-wide emissions and try to drive them to zero, there are likely to be many types of emissions where using DAC is preferable to applying a fix at each source." These could include emissions from automobiles, where collecting CO2 pollution from each car is in feasible.

Smartphone battery could be spying on you?

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:33:00 +0000

Phone batteries are sending out information that could be used to identify their owners and track them around the internet, even if they have taken very careful privacy precautions, according to a paper by security researchers, says The Independent.

A piece of software in HTML5 — the technology used to let people read sites on the web — tells websites how much battery is left in a users’ phone, and is intended to allow websites to help preserve battery if phones are running low. But that same information can be used to identify phones as they move around the internet, allowing people to be tracked.

Websites and the scripts that run on them don’t have to ask users’ permission to see how much charge is left, so phones will respond to the request to say how much charge they have and how long it will take them to power back up. That information can then be used as a way of identifying the phones themselves, without their users ever knowing.

A website could put those two numbers together and watch for a phone with an identical or similar profile appearing on other pages, for instance. Malicious people could then put those two events together and work out that the same phone had accessed both websites, which can usually be hidden.

Technology like VPNs (which are used to route internet traffic through another place, to anonymise it) and private browsing (which stops websites from reading tracking cookies that have previously been saved) are normally enough to keep people from following a user around the internet. But the security problems in the battery software could be used to get around those precautions.

The researchers writer in their paper, ‘The leaking battery: A privacy analysis of the HTML5 Battery Status API’, that user should at the very least be able to make sites ask permission before they see the battery information. The researchers — Lukasz Olejnik, Gunes Acar, Claude Castelluccia and Claudia Diaz — also suggest that users should be given more information about how the battery status software is used.

Pollution raises risk of dementia.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:26:00 +0000

Swedish researchers have uncovered a direct link between polluted air and dementia.

People who live in homes exposed more heavily to pollution run a 40 percent greater risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and vascular dementia than those who live in areas with cleaner air, a study at Umea University says.

“In total, about 16 percent of all the cases of dementia in the study might have been caused by exposure to pollution,” researcher Bertil Forsberg said describing the results as “sensational.”

The study, published in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, studied nearly 2,000 people over a 15-year span while simultaneously tracking traffic patterns in the northern Swedish city of Umea, Xinhua news agency reported.

All participants were 55 or older and free of any disease symptoms when the study began.

The researchers established the elevated risk having controlled for factors such as age, education level, lifestyle and body fat.

While previous research linked air pollution to cancer, asthma and respiratory diseases, academics have in recent years begun to probe how air quality affects the brain.

“We know that very small particles can enter the brain through the olfactory nerve and cause direct damage,” Forsberg said.

New selfie app for a natural look.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:19:00 +0000

A new selfie app that has been launched will help capture the perfect self-portrait by enhancing one’s natural looks.

The app, called Bestie, offers 22 mood filters for self-portraits, The Next Web reported.

The app’s main feature, targeted at women, offers a one-tap filter with 26 mood variations or personalities, each named for a different woman.

An auto noise reduction function for the night mode lets you snap selfies in low-light environments. Effects like vignette and blur highlight an image’s focus.

You can shoot a picture on the spot with the app or pull up a picture from your gallery.

A slider bar gives you full control over features like skin smoothness, acne control, face slimming, eye enlargement, nose slimming and other popular controls.

A little feature point lets you pinpoint exactly where you want a specific skin correction.

Bestie is free and is available for both iOS and Android platforms.

ISRO to launch nine American satellites.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:16:00 +0000

Antrix Corporation, the commercial arm of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has signed deals to put nine American nano/micro satellites into orbit by the end of 2016, an official said on Thursday.These include a couple of nano/micro US satellites which are likely to be launched by the ISRO this year as piggyback luggage on its own satellite, the official said.

Generally, nano satellites are ones that weigh between 1-10 kg while micro satellites weigh from 10-100 kg."The Astrosat satellite is slated for launch in September. It will be launched using the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket. Some of the micro/nano satellites of the US may also go in that rocket as piggyback luggage," the ISRO official told IANS, preferring anonymity.According to him, the ISRO will be sending up the US satellites on different PSLV rockets."The contract is to launch all the satellites by the end of 2016," he added.India has successfully completed several multiple satellite launch missions in the past.Meanwhile, ISRO officials are gearing up for the August 27 launch of communication satellite GSAT-6 through its heavier rocket Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) Mark-II."The GSLV-GSAT-6 launch is tentatively fixed for August 27 and work is progressing towards that," the ISRO official said.On the other hand the first developmental flight of GSLV-Mark III rocket with a capacity to launch four ton satellites is expected to happen towards the end of 2016.The rocket will be powered by an indigenous cryogenic engine which is currently under development.The government has allocated Rs.470 crore for the development of the GSLV Mark-III rocket in the Twelfth Five Year Plan.

Most used expression on Facebook.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:11:00 +0000

Most people express happiness with "ha ha" followed by emojis, "he he" and "LOL (laughing out loud)", says a recent Facebook research on e-laughing.
The vast majority of people are "haha-ers" (51.4 percent), then emoji lovers (33.7 percent), the "hehe-ers" (12.7 percent) and finally, the "lol-ers" (1.9 percent).

For those people who e-laughed, the Facebook team also analysed how many times they actually did."Nearly 46 percent of the people posted only a single laugh during the week while 85 percent posted fewer than five laughs," the team wrote on Facebook's official research blog.About 52 percent of people used a single type of laugh and roughly 20 percent used two different types.The researchers identified posts and comments posted on Facebook in the last week of May this year with at least one string of characters matching laughter.They did the matching with regular expressions which automatically identified laughter in the text, including variants of "haha" "hehe" "emoji", and "lol".Age, gender and geographic-location play a key role in laughter type and length on the social networking site."Young people and women prefer emoji whereas men prefer longer 'hehes'," the team said.Both men and women like "hahas" and emoji followed by "hehes" and "lols".The team found that across all age groups (13 to 70), the most common laughs are still "haha", "hahaha", "hahahaha", and only then followed by "hehe".The most common are the four letter "hahas" and "hehes".The six letter "hahaha" is also very common, and in general, the "haha-ers" use longer laughter."The 'haha-ers' are also slightly more open than the 'hehe-ers' to using odd number of letters, and we do see the occasional 'hahaas' and 'hhhhaaahhhaas'," the researchers said.The "lol" almost always stands by itself though some rare specimens of "lolz" and "loll" were also found.

Frequent spicy meals linked to human longevity.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 07:02:00 +0000

People who request an extra kick to their curry could also be adding years to their life, according to a large study which linked frequent consumption of spicy food to longevity, says The Guardian.

Researchers examining the diets of almost 500,000 people in China over seven years recorded that those who ate spicy foods one or two days a week had a 10% reduced risk of death compared with those who ate such meals less than once a week. The risk was 14% lower for those who ate spicy food between three and seven days a week.

As the study, published in the BMJ on Tuesday, was observational, conclusions could not be drawn about cause and effect but the team of international authors, led by researchers at the Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences, suggested that more research could lead to dietary advice being updated. Experts warned that the study did not provide evidence to “prompt a change in diet”.

In an accompanying editorial to the research, Nita Forouhi, from the University of Cambridge, said that there had been suggestions already of many potential benefits from chilli and its bioactive compound capsaicin; these included anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer properties. Scientists had also noted the benefits for gut microbiota and anti-obesity effects from chilli. “Future research is needed to establish whether spicy food consumption has the potential to improve health and reduce mortality directly, or if it is merely a marker of other dietary and lifestyle factors.”

The study involved people aged between 35 and 79 from 10 geographically diverse areas across China. The research ran from 2004 to 2008. During a median follow-up of 7.2 years there were 20,224 deaths. Participants with a history of serious disease were excluded, and factors such as age, marital status, education, physical activity, family history and general diet, were taken into account.

The participants in the study were asked about the type of spicy foods they ate and how often they consumed them. Chilli pepper, among the most popular spicy foods eaten in China, was the most commonly used spice noted in the responses. However, the authors pointed out that the use of other types of spices generally increased with that of chilli pepper.

Further analysis showed those who consumed fresh, as opposed to dry, chilli tended to have a lower risk of death from cancer, ischaemic heart disease and diabetes.

Kevin McConway, professor of applied statistics at the Open University, warned against reading too much into the results. “Maybe this is something in the way spices are used in Chinese cooking, or [it is] related to other things people eat or drink with the spicy food. Maybe it has something to do with the sort of people, in China, who tend to eat more spicy food.

“The Chinese population that they studied is different from the population in Britain, in terms of cooking practices, social relations, health care systems, genetics, and a lot else. And it’s important to realise that the study gives very little encouragement for the stereotypical English pastime of going out for several pints of beer and a hot curry. The relationship between eating spicy food and a lower death rate was apparent really only in people who didn’t drink alcohol at all.”

Facebook to allow B2P messaging.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 06:49:00 +0000

Facebook Inc (FB.O) rolled out features Wednesday that enable businesses to privately communicate with customers through messages as part of the social networking company's push to make its Messenger app a stand-alone platform.

Businesses can now include a "send message" button in ads that appear in Newsfeed that allow Facebook users to click a button and send messages, which are private. If users post a comment on a business' Facebook page, then the business can privately message that person
The features are part of Facebook's efforts to convince more small and medium-sized businesses - especially those in emerging markets, such as India, Brazil and Indonesia - to advertise on its platform.
By giving them direct access to customers, the world's largest social network hopes to show that advertising on Facebook directly leads to increased sales.
To encourage quick responses, Facebook will award "very responsive to messages" badges on business pages that respond to 90 percent of messages and respond on average within five minutes. People will, however, still be able to block private messages from businesses.
The features will be especially valuable in southeast Asia, Facebook wrote in a blog post. About twice as many Thai and Singaporean users use Facebook messages to communicate with businesses each month and most Southeast Asia users follow some company pages.
Facebook hosts more than 40 million active small and medium business pages, it said, with more than 1 billion page visits each month.

Want more 'likes' on Facebook? Check your watch.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 06:12:00 +0000

In all probability you posted that update at the wrong time.

So when is the best time to post on Facebook? On weekdays during working hours, and then again between 7 pm and 8 pm, suggests the study, Bustle.com reported.

On the weekends there's a major drop-off in reactions. Hence, if you are really feeling yourself on Friday evening, wait to post that photo on until Monday afternoon.

"The probability that an audience member reacts to a message may depend on several factors, such as his daily and weekly behaviour patterns, his location or timezone, and the volume of other messages competing for his attention," said researchers from Lithium Technologies in San Francisco, who conducted the study.

The US cities of San Francisco and New York exhibit similar shapes, where reactions peak at the beginning of work hours, the study said.

For Paris, the reactions peak in the second half of working hours, while for London most reactions are expected towards the end of working hours.

"This is important for businesses which are trying to connect with consumers in different areas, or if your new social media crush lives halfway across the globe," the researchers said.

Also, if you want immediate gratification, Twitter might be the way to go. The study found that it sees bigger peaks in usage, has twice the chance of eliciting responses, and reaction times are much faster compared to Facebook.

On Facebook it takes up to two hours for the first half of the responses to come in; on Twitter, however, most responses come within half an hour.

The researchers then took their data set, which held timestamps from a huge number of posts (144 million, to be precise) and reactions (1.1 billion) over a 120-day period, and analysed it using Klout.

Google, Samsung to issue monthly Android security fixes.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 05:41:00 +0000

The change came after security researcher Joshua Drake unveiled what he called Stage fright, hacking software that allows attackers to send a special multimedia message to an Android phone and access sensitive content even if the message is unopened.

"We've realized we need to move faster," Android security chief Adrian Ludwig said at this week's annual Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas.

Previously, Google would develop a patch and distribute it to its own Nexus phones after the discovery of security flaws.

But other manufacturers would wait until they wanted to update the software for different reasons before pushing out a fix, exposing most of the more than 1 billion Android users to potential hacks and scams until the fix.

Ludwig also said Google has made other security changes. In an interview, he told Reuters that earlier this year the team broke out incidence rates of malicious software by language. The rate of Russian-language Androids with potentially harmful programs had spiked suddenly to about 9 percent in late 2014, he said.

Google made its roughly weekly security scans of Russian phones more frequent and was able to reduce the problems to close to the global norm.

Ludwig said improvements to recent versions of Android would limit an attack's effectiveness in more than nine out of 10 phones, but Drake said an attacker could keep trying until the gambit worked. Drake said he would release code for the attack by Aug 24, putting pressure on manufacturers to get their patches out before then.

Nexus phones are being updated with protection this week and the vast majority of major Android handset makers are following suit, Ludwig said.

Samsung Vice President Rick Segal acknowledged that his company could not force the telecommunications carriers that buy its devices in bulk to install the fixes and that some might do so only for higher-end users.

"If it's your business customers, you'll push it," Segal said in an interview. Samsung is the largest maker of Android phones.

Ludwig said many Android security scares were overblown. He added that only about one in 200 Android phones Google can peer into have any potentially harmful applications installed at any point.

Drake noted that those figures exclude some products, including Fire products from Amazon, which use Android.

As with Apple's iPhone, the biggest security risk comes with apps that are not downloaded from the official online stores of the two companies.

Stolen files from Hacking Team, an Italian company selling eavesdropping tools to government agencies around the world, showed that a key avenue was to convince targets to download legitimate-seeming Android and iPhone apps from importer

websites.

Cuba, an Internet laggard, opens Wi-Fi hotspots across country.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 10 Aug 2015 05:37:00 +0000

Before the Wi-Fi signals became available on Wednesday, broadband Internet access had been limited to largely to desktops at state Internet parlours and pricey hotels.

"It was high time for Cuba to be able to connect. Everyone has the right to Internet," said Alejandro Costa, who used the Wi-Fi on Thursday.

The service was available to those who had previously established an account with state telecoms monopoly Etecsa.

Whether because of a lack of investment or concerns about the flow of information in a Communist state that monopolises the media, Cuba has lagged behind in Internet usage.

Only 3.4 percent of Cuban homes have either intranet or Internet access, according to a UN agency.

At a Havana street known as La Rampa, Cubans brought out smartphones new and old, whether purchased in state stores, on the black market, or received as gifts from friends and relatives abroad. They mainly browsed Facebook.

An Etecsa official who declined to be identified said all 35 access points started working on Monday, though service at La Rampa was delayed several hours.

"Historically, Cuba has had probably the worst Internet access in the hemisphere. Clearly, the Cuban government has decided that broad Internet access is essential to a 21st century economy. The Internet cafes and now this Wi-Fi network show that the government is serious about expanding Internet access," said William LeoGrande, a professor of government at American University.

The Cuban government also slashed prices from $4.50 to $2 an hour, still exorbitant for Cubans, who typically earn a monthly salary of about $20.

Many Cubans suspect the new development is related to the recent warming of US-Cuba relations.

The two former Cold War rivals on Wednesday agreed to reopen embassies and restore diplomatic relations as of July 20.

In January, US President Barack Obama relaxed the US economic embargo for telecommunications, hoping to promote the Internet in Cuba.

For Fidel Croswell, a 50-year-old taxi driver from Havana, the new Wi-Fi network means no longer standing in lines at state Internet parlours.

"But the ultimate solution would really be home Wi-Fi, where you can connect while sitting around shirtless in your flip-flops," he said.

bluehost mysql database – frequently asked questions

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 14 Jul 2014 05:05:00 +0000

Hosting your domains on Blue host platform comes with innovative web-hosting features at no extra cost. One of such innovative hosting solutions is Blue Host MySQL Database. Right now, you can jump at the Blue host coupon code $3.95 per month to enjoy extensive web-hosting solutions,
and at the same time save as much as 75% on all your web-hosting purchase. Blue host is one of the top leaders in the web-hosting industry, with reputation of offering quality web-hosting affordably. This article covers some frequently asked questions about MySQL Database feature on Blue-host platform.

What is Blue-Host MySQL Database?

MySQL is a web-based solution that aids in the management of huge amounts of information over the internet. No matter how large, managing on-web information comes easy with a database. A good number of the internet-based applications require a database to run. Examples of such applications include the following;

• Bulletin boards
• Content management systems
• Online-based retail stores or shops.

MySQL Database is a complete FREE tool when you host your account on Blue-host platform.

How Can I Create MySQL Database?

Here are the steps involved in creating MySQL Database;
• Access your control panel
• Click MySQL button found right under the “Databases” section
• In the “New Database” text field, write the name you prefer for the new database
• Hit the “Create Database” button to complete the process.
When you click on “Go Back”, you will see the new database created appear in the “Current Database” table.

How Do I Delete a MySQL Database?

If at any time you chose to delete MySQL database that you created, follow these simple steps to accomplish the task;
• Navigate your cursor to the “Current Database” section
• Find the “Delete Database” icon placed by the side of the database you want to delete
• Click on the “Delete” icon to remove the database

How Do I Copy a Database?

The steps involved in copying a database require exporting the original database first, then importing it onto the new one.

So, here are steps to export the original database;
• Navigate to phpMyAdmin
• On the left sidebar, click on the existing database
• Locate “Export” link at the top and click on it
• Check the “Save on server in the directory” button
• Click Go

The above steps will save an SQL file on your account in a temporal folder.
Steps to import onto a new database;

• Log in to your Cpanel and create a new database
• Navigate to phpMyAdmin
• At the top left, click on “New Database”
• Locate ‘Import’ in phpMyAdmin’s main area and click on it
• Locate the “Select from the web server upload directory/home/USERNAMe/tmp/:” radio button and click to check it
• Click on the imported database from the drop-down men
• Click Go

Take note: After 30 seconds, phpMyAdmin will time out. If this happens, you should upload the database backup file into your account and use the details to create a Ticket, so that Bluehost technical crew will help you accomplish the “Import”.

For increased security, the best bet is to upload your database to “/home/USERNAME” section on your Bluehost account. Use your Bluehost account username to replace USERNAME.

How Can I Rename a Database?

In order to rename your BlueHost MySQL database, you will repeat the steps abovek; then import the database to an empty, new database with your preferred name.

How Can I Manage Database with Applications?

When it comes to managing your BlueHost MySQL Database, there are tons of applications that can be installed onto your PC for this purpose. Some of the applications are provided by third-parties, some will cost nothing while some will come with fees. The type of database a user is connected to will determine what database management application to choose. MySQL database is a feature that accompanies all Bluehost webhosting plans.

If you wish not to use a desktop application for MySQL database, you can manage your database with the phpMyAdmin through your cPanel, accessible through a web browser.

Our list of recommended applications for managing MySQL contains the following;

• EMS SQL Management Studio – not free
• EMS SQL Manager – could be free or fee-attached
• MySQL Workbench (Oracle product) – Free or fee-attached
• Navicat – not free

Note: You can only use one of these recommended applications at a time.

Blue-host offers world-class web-hosting features affordable. You can save even more on quality webhosting services by taking advantage of Blue-host discount coupon $3.95 per month to purchase webhosting on this platform. The right time to use this discount offer and save 75% on web-hosting is now since it is a limited-time offer!

Some SEO Tricks and Hints.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 10:53:00 +0000

The most flashing topic for debate and discussion in the IT industry is SEO, Search Engine Optimization. This discussion will be unending as day by day the use of search engines is increasing. People tend to use the SEO techniques in order to increase their website’s online presence. This IT field keeps on updating on a regular basis. SEO is never dead but it changes as per the needs and the market demand.

SEO is just a small part of Inbound Marketing. However, this so called small part plays an important role in bringing the website among the top search results. The demand for SEO is increasing day by day. Most of the ecommerce development companies render different types of SEO services such as Off-page Optimization, On-page Optimization are a few.

However, it’s must to know about certain SEO practices to remain aware and check whether the SEO agency is providing proper services or not. Some of them are as follows:-

The important ranking factors do not change often. The main elements of good SEO are Off-page optimization and On-page optimization. On-page can be handled directly by a webmaster while on the other hand Off-page depends upon visitor’s behavior, social contracts, users and other patrons.
If you are a greenie in the field, then to get the best knowledge of SEO , you can have a look at some of the SEO starter guides such as Google SEO Starter Guide, Search Engine’s Land Guide To SEO are a few.
Considering the On-Page SEO, it includes Content Creation, Code and Site Architecture.
Best Off-Page SEO contains Link Building, Traffic Generation Techniques, Social Virtual community are a few.

To get the benefit of the Top SEO Services, the business people can either delegate the task to a well known SEO company or hire dedicated SEO Professionals.

ZestTech Solutions, London, UK is an ecommerce development company that has enormous satisfied clients who have taken the advantage of its top notch SEO services. Ours is an SEO Agency that offers complete SEO services package with detailed analysis as well as daily rankings report.

If you own a website or are the owner of any online business, then you can be one of our esteemed clients by delegating your SEO task to our SEO experts. Ours is an SEO Company that provides you the services along with latest updates about the ongoing trends in the marketing the field of SEO. Approach us for more details and be a member of our vast clientele team.

ITV

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 06:33:00 +0000

Free Download Click Here.

Internet Download Manager (IDM)

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 07 Oct 2013 06:26:00 +0000

IDM

6 Way Build a Search Engine Optimized Website.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:20:00 +0000

If you are a web developer, programmer or an entrepreneur looking for developing a website, you must make sure that your site is built optimized for search engines. By ensuring it, you can be certain that all the search engines find and index your web pages without any trouble or difficulty and put your website’s link on top of its search result.

Since in most cases, 90% visitors are driven mainly by the search engines – so you can guess how important it is for you to ensure that your site is fully SE Optimized before you inaugurate it online. Here are a few invaluable tips for developing a Search Engine Optimized Website.

1. W3C Validation: I know some webmasters don’t regard it as an important thing (mostly because they don’t understand its importance) but believe me, by making sure your website and its pages are valid by W3C Standard – many optimization parameters are automatically taken care of.So, my first and foremost suggestion for SE optimized website building is to make it W3C verified first.

2. Page Load Speed: Make sure your website loads fast. Recently Google has announced that page load time of a site will be a parameter for it’s page rank on google. Keep your coding simple and neat. A good CSS design will help you reduce the number of images on any particular page of your website. Even if the internet speed is 10MBPS on the visitor’s end, it doesn’t mean your site would load in a blink of an eye. Even if your site is too small, it may take time depending on how you code it, how you parallelize the requests made to server and how many requests your site make to server etc. So, learn about the factors that increase or decrease the loading time of your website and apply them on your site.

3. SE Friendly Links: Search Engine Friendly Links or URLs are one of the most important factor as long as SEO is concerned. For proper SEO of your website – you must make sure that the links or URLs to any page of your website contains the keywords available in the TITLE of that page. For example, this page’s title is ‘How to Build a Search EngineOptimized Website’ so the URL should best be ‘Build-Search-Engine-Optimized-Website.xxx etc. You may use the full title separating words with hyphen in place of spaces. The .xxx is the extension of your file.

If you are going to build a website that will dynamically generate pages then you must make sure that no particular page on your website is accessible via more than one URL or link. If you cannot achieve that then you must use ‘Canonical’ in your html head section to define your preferred version of Link or URL for a particular page. (you may also use server side scripting – whichever suits you).

4. Meta Tags: You must also make sure your pages have a Title Meta Tag and a Description Meta Tag. You also must make sure that all these tags have unique content inside.

5. Web 2.0: If your site is going to have user interaction and you can’t afford a very costly hosting then you must reduce load on your MySql database usage. Generally, good hosting companies offer not more than 30 minutes of database usage. If an average query takes 0.0015 seconds then in 1 second, your site is allowed to make 665 queries per second. For any average site, this is a very high limit. However, imagine if you have more than 10000 visitors plus search enginebots crawling or accessing a huge number of pages on a particular day. If an average page of your site has more than 5 queries, the usage may go beyond your control and your hosting provider may shut down access to your site. To avoid these disasters, you need to stay alert when you are building the site. Minimize your database usage. Use file read and write and cashing for reducing load on database.

6. Blocking Search Engines: Nowadays, most websites have dynamically generated pages. For these websites, pagination is sometimes essential. Giving access to search engines to index these pages may not be a good idea because they often have duplicate data. To avoid these sort of problems stop search engine from indexing these pages by using ‘robots’ meta tag.

This is a very important list of things to check before building a website for a successful business. If any of these are missing, your site may perform very poor; and rebuilding or modifying it after it is there on net is a very bad option. So, go ahead make sure, you follow this guideline for developing a Search Engine Friendly website and have success.

Advancing Human Age.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Mon, 05 Aug 2013 13:12:00 +0000

We know how fast the world is growing along with technology, similarly all these are having a great impact on the medical equipment's as well. There has been a documentary by Adam Savage on immortality of human beings and his theory behind it,
despite his great act and the special effects in that video, do not underestimate his theory though. Medical technology has been advancing so much that the death rate has gone down by approximately 68%(normal death via diseases and aging). So many methods of operation are now in the world now along with making organs outside the body for later implantation, are all examples of decreasing the mortality rate.

As days advance a time will come when almost all the possible body parts can be repaired or replaced with new ones.

Not only that there are already nano bio-robots are being developed which are said to be injected in human beings and will serve them fighting against all diseases improving their immune system by 200 times. Yes as much as this might be a good news to most but lets look at it this way will it be a good thing for the law of nature? Can u imagine what will happen to the population rate? This will more or less be a contradictory decision and thought for most of us and our next generation too.

I believe improvements as such are necessary but for reducing the mortality rate but maybe to cure and recover severe accidents and certain diseases. I am still trying to picture what might be the outcome of the world by the next generation. But frankly speaking why don't we put more effort on improving many other technologies too which involves the way of living, traveling, food and many more. So friends let us also contribute by at least doing the least possible to improve our living and our planet, just planting a tree or using our natural resources more wisely and efficiently.

Stop Child Labour - School Is Way To Stop,

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:34:00 +0000

The Stop Child Labour campaign is a joint lobby; education and awareness raising campaign that seeks to eliminate child labour through the provision of full time formal education.

Hivos has been leading the campaign during the first two EU co-financed phases and continues to do so with IBIS, Cesvi and People in Need.

The campaign has four guiding principles:

Principle 1:
Child labour is the denial of a child’s right to education
The elimination of child labour and the provision of full time formal education are inextricably linked. The focus of attention must be to actively integrate and retain all ‘out of school’ children into formal education systems. Children have the right to education at least until the age they are allowed to work which is 15 (while developing countries can choose 14). In addition efforts must be made to remove all barriers to local schools as well as ensuring the necessary financial and infrastructural support for the provision of quality education.

Principle 2:
All child labour is unacceptable
The Convention on the Rights of the Child along with a host of other international agreements unequivocally affirm the right of all children to live in freedom from exploitation. Approaches to the issue have tended to prioritize and segregate solutions to different types of child labour depending on certain categories. These range from children working in hazardous industries to children doing so-called non-hazardous work -including domestic work- but missing out on school.
The Stop Child Labour campaign believes that such distinctions, while helping to cast a spotlight on the worst abuses, tend to be too narrow in their focus and offer only partial solutions. Efforts to eliminate child labour should focus on all its forms, preferably aiming at all children in a certain community.

Principle 3:
It is the duty of all Governments, International Organisations and Corporate Bodies to ensure that they do not perpetuate child labour.

All governments have a duty to ensure that they do not permit, or allow child labour to exist within their state. Furthermore they have a duty to ensure that state agencies, corporate bodies as well as their suppliers and trading partners worldwide, are fully compliant with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and other international agreements protecting the rights of the child.

As part of their corporate social responsibility, all transnational and other business enterprises using child labour should create and implement a plan to remove children from their workforce, including their supply-chain, and enrol them in full time education.

Principle 4:
Core Labour standards must be respected and enforced to effectively eliminate child labour
The eradication of child labour is closely linked to the promotion of other labour standards in the workplace: the right to organise and collective bargaining, freedom from forced labour, child labour and discrimination. A living wage, health and safety at work, and the absence of forced excessive overtime are also crucial. Child labour undermines the opportunities for adult employment and decent wages. Experience has shown that child labour is highly unlikely to exist when a free trade union is present and where core labour standards are respected.

The Problem of Child Labour.

noreply@blogger.com (Babul hosen) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 09:23:00 +0000

An eight year old boy making his livelihood by showing a playful monkey in a running train inIndia in 2011.

Defense of child labour

Child workers on a farm in Maine, October 1940

Wasim, a child labourer, works at a tea stall - cleaning glasses and serving customers, in Indore, India.( 9 July 2010)