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Sony announces two Android Honeycomb tablets

2011-05-05T10:43:00.001+02:00

Sony has announced that it is developing two new Android Honeycomb-based ‘Sony Tablet' touchscreen devices, which will be available in the market later this year.

"Sony Tablet delivers an entertainment experience where users can enjoy cloud-based services on-the-go at any time. We're aiming to create a new lifestyle by integrating consumer hardware, including Sony Tablet with content and network," said Kunimasa Suzuki, corporate executive, SVP, and Deputy President of Consumer Products & Services Group.

The two devices, the S1, which is designed for rich media content and entertainment, and the S2, designed for mobile communication and entertainment are equipped with both Wi-Fi and are 3G and 4G compatible.

The S1 has a 9.4-inch display and an off-centre of gravity design to help make the tablet easy to grip and comfortable to use.
The dual-screen S2 has two 5.5-inch displays and can be folded in half for transportation. The two screens can be used simultaneously as one large screen, or they can be split to do two separate functions, such as showing video in one screen and the control buttons in the other.

Both run off Android 3.0 or Honeycomb, designed for tablet devices.

"Android 3.0 is a new version of the Android platform with a new holographic user interface that is designed from the ground up for devices with larger screen sizes, particularly tablets. I'm excited about Sony Tablet as it will further spur the development of applications and network offerings which users are looking for," said Andy Rubin, senior vice president, Mobile, Google Inc.

The Sony Tablet devices are designed for use with existing Sony networks, including Qriocity1 for music and video services, PlayStation Suite for gaming and Reader Store2 for eBook content.

Through the tablets, users can control home entertainment devices; the S1 uses infrared technology and works as universal remote controls for a variety of AV devices, including the Bravia series.

Both devices also feature DLNA functionality, so users can throw personal content to large screen televisions or music to wireless speakers.

Microsoft launches Windows MultiPoint Server 2011

2011-05-05T10:17:00.001+02:00

Microsoft has officially launched its Windows MultiPoint Server 2011 technology at the Gulf Education Suppliers and Solutions exhibition in Dubai.

This technology allows up to 20 screens to use a single PC and each screen can show individual content controlled by the teacher. The device is aimed at the educational sector, from K-12 and beyond into higher education.

"I believe this is a fascinating piece of technology because it will allow increased access to information communication technology devices at a much reduced cost, so it is saving on investment in hardware. Releasing this kind of investment will increase access to education," said Azza Shinnawy, Education lead for Microsoft Gulf.

The MultiPoint Server technology can reduce costs of technology for schools up to 66%, according to Microsoft.

The technology also means that every student can have access to a computer. The screens can also be split into two, meaning in larger classrooms, two students can share the same screen and both can have individual content.

"[MultiPoint] is very flexible for the teacher to manage the computers, they have management over what these computing devices actually operate and each of the individual screens is customised to reflect the student that is using it," said Shinnawy.

"So for example if they are voting or having a test or opinion poll, with the click of a button from each student, the teacher will have on her machine, she will be able to get the results and be aware how students are progressing."

The Ministry of Education in the UAE has recently a Connected Learning Gateway (CLG), solution, developed by Microsoft ITWorx, and based on the Microsoft Learning Gateway. The GEMS schools across the region have also already implemented the technology and the government in Qatar is also looking at introducing it.

The Microsoft MLG is a cloud-based portal that allows teachers, students and parents access to information and services from any where at any time.

Hackers hunt credit card details says IT Matrix

2011-05-03T09:53:00.002+02:00

One of the most lucrative things on the internet for hackers are debit and credit card details, according to Mirza Asrar Baig, CEO of online fraud protection company IT Matrix.

He says that wherever these kinds of details are stored, hackers will hunt it down, which is precisely what happened with the PlayStation Network, Qriocity network and Sony Online Entertainment hacks.

"If you remember in 2009 we had the Heartland security breach, where around 1.5 million card credentials were compromised. There will be many more. The question is not why social networking would be a target, just like in the Sony PlayStation hack, but where ever there is card data stored, that is a potential target. Any e-commerce site storing card data for repeat transactions is a good target," said Baig.

This targeting of e-commerce sites is why payment card industry data security standards (PCI DSS) are there, to ensure that adequate controls are in place where ever there is card data stored, according to Baig.
He said that the reason behind the Sony hack is also likely to be to do with pressures on business leading to a lapse in security measures or updates.
"The pace of business and accordingly the pressures on technology evolution is now in hyper speed. This is making it very difficult for CIOs to balance their work with adequate security controls. Not to compromise business deadlines, security controls end up at the back seat, the net result is exploitable vulnerabilities requiring little effort [to hack]," said Baig.

He added that organised crime, which is behind many of the hacks globally, is investing a huge amount of money and time in finding ways around security controls, profiling potential targets and making sure when they do move, they do so will full knowledge of their target.

Twitter Bird Icons & Illustration

2011-04-11T15:18:00.007+02:00

The NTWorld Freebies: Twitter Bird Icons & Illustration

A SMALL BUT CUTE GIVE AWAY & UPDATE, FREE TWITTER ICONS & CHARACTER

More freebies, yes I know! This time we’ve put together a free Illustration, beautifully made by Pasquale D’Silva, and a couple of Icons which you can use for your twitter status sections of your site. The file is a transparent background PNG, so can easily be imported and scaled into any design.We had to remove the old twitter icons in the set because of a mix up over copyright. But we’ve now got a custom icon and illustration which we’re willing to share with you.

Inspiration & Genius Behind the Bird ...
I decided rather than just making a Icon that we could have a character that people could use on their own sites however they wish, this gave me a great excuse to use the services of Pasquale D’Silva from NTWorld Team – The guy’s work has amazed me for a while so as soon as my pen broke I knew who I wanted working on the project.
I wanted to offer an alternative to the “Twitterific Bird” that people tend to use a lot in their sites, I think Pasquale’s Illustration is a lot softer, friendlier and more inviting, and after scaling it down and adding a few tweaks on the Icons, I’m happy at how it now looks in Icon size.
He’s also got a good sense of humour and is very easy to talk to, I’d more than recommend him to anybody, and it might be worth you getting your own custom made twitter illustration from him.

Share these Icons & Illustrations

If you find these useful we’d like you to pass them on to other who you think might appreciate the set. You can do this easily by clicking one of the share links at the bottom of this article, or using the URL in the address bar and give the link to this article Page to anyone who needs ‘em. The URL to share is: http://ntworld.blogspot.com/2011/04/twitter-bird-icons-illustration.html

Important, you must link to this article when sharing the Icons or illustration, you must not upload these files anywhere else.

Download The Character & Icons

Download The Set | .zip Format | 65.9 KB

Get The Rest of The Icons in the Set

Most of you will already have or be aware that we have 126 other icons in the set of these twitter icons. Which you can view on the link below.
Download Function Icon Set | 128 Icons | .zip Format | 663kb | 48x48px Icons

BIO-IT WORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO 2011

2011-04-11T10:48:00.003+02:00

WELCOME TO BIO-IT WORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO 2011
Record Attendance Expected at the 2011 Expo!

Setting aside any and all volcanic eruptions, the 2011 Expo plans to unite 1,700+ life sciences, pharmaceutical, clinical, healthcare, and IT professionals from 29 countries. The Expo provides the perfect venue to share information and discuss enabling technologies that are driving biomedical research and the drug development process. Since its debut in 2002, the annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo has established itself as a premier event showcasing the myriad applications of IT and informatics to biomedical research and the drug discovery enterprise. The 2011 program will feature compelling talks from industry and academia on new
trends in data generation, knowledge management, and information technology in life sciences and drug development, including best practice case studies and joint partner presentations relevant to the technologies, research, and regulatory issues of life science, pharmaceutical, clinical and IT professionals. New features include tracks on: Cloud Computing, Drug Discovery Informatics, Next-Generation Sequencing Informatics, as well as several pre-conference workshops on Cheminformatics, Diagnostics, and Proteomics.

KEYNOTE PANEL:A special plenary session featuring a series of succinct, forward-looking presentations by:

Ken Buetow, Ph.D., Associate Director for Bioinformatics and Information Technology, National Cancer Institute	Martin D. Leach, Ph.D., Executive Director, MRL IT for Discovery & Pre-Clinical Sciences, Merck & Co.	Debra Goldfarb, Senior Director, Strategy, Microsoft
Yury Rozenman, Global Head of Marketing, Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Sector, BT Global Services	Mark Boguski, M.D., Ph.D., Founder, Resounding Health Incorporated	Jamie Heywood,Co-founder and Chairman, PatientsLikeMe

Since its debut in 2002, the annual Bio-IT World Conference & Expo has established itself as a premier event showcasing the myriad applications of IT and informatics to biomedical research and the drug discovery enterprise. The 2011 program will feature compelling talks from industry and academia on new trends in data generation, knowledge management, and information technology in life sciences and drug development, including best practice case studies and joint partner presentations relevant to the technologies, research, and regulatory issues of life science, pharmaceutical, clinical and IT professionals. New features include tracks on: Cloud Computing, Drug Discovery Informatics, Next-Generation Sequencing Informatics, as well as several pre-conference workshops on Cheminformatics, Diagnostics, and Proteomics.

Spanning three days, the meeting includes 9 parallel conference tracks and 13 pre-conference workshops dedicated to:

CONCURRENT TRACKS:

NTWorld: IT Infrastructure – Hardware
Track 1 explores high performance computing technologies and techniques (traditional and accelerated technologies), architecture to handle data in a concise fashion, transferring data across networks (storage, management, safety, visualization), and grid computing.

NTWorld: IT Infrastructure – Software
Track 2 explores data handling and integration activities (new approaches to integrating corporate internal data with public literature, collaborative web technologies, semantic solutions for knowledge management, open source software approaches, social media), disruptive technologies, mobile applications, and analysis pipelines.

NTWorld: Cloud Computing - NEW
Track 3 provides focused research presentations, real world use cases and individual experiences with cloud computing. Themes include HPC in the Cloud, value of cloud computing studies, cloud vendors/providers, non cloud solutions that provide what the cloud does, performance benchmarking, security models, and tools and frameworks for data analysis.

NTWorld: Bioinformatics
Track 4 explores databases/data warehousing (biological/public/private/genomic), epigenetics, emerging genomics technologies, general strategies to integrate information for translational studies, and biomarker discovery.

NTWorld: Next-Generation Sequencing Informatics - NEW
Track 5 explores sequencing platforms and managing the instruments, workflows and data analysis tools.

NTWorld: Systems & Predictive Medicine
Track 6 provides an in-depth approach from in silico to in vivo with an emphasis on drug discovery, ADME predictions, and systems medicine resulting in efficient clinical trials.

NTWorld: eClinical Solutions for Clinical Trials and Clinical Operations
Track 7 explores how to leverage technology to optimize speed, quality and cost of clinical trials. Themes covered include best practices in data collection and analysis, systems integration, improving trial monitoring, recruiting and engaging patient communities using Web 2.0 technologies, adaptive clinical trials, pharmacovigilance, and utilization of EHR data for drug development.

NTWorld: eHealth and HIT Solutions for Personalized Medicine
Track 8 explores the integration of life sciences, IT and general healthcare to support the care delivery process and innovative R&D of next generation health IT and personalized medicine solutions. Themes covered include EHRs and their impact on R&D, translational medicine, the development of companion diagnostics, integrating clinical data with genomic data, and technology tools to support the care delivery process.

NTWorld: Drug Discovery Informatics - NEW
Track 9 will explore innovative methods, approaches and technologies that pharmaceutical organizations are utilizing for knowledge management and translational medicine.

PRE-CONFERENCE WORKSHOPS | Tuesday, April 12, 2011 - from NTWorld.

Full Day (8:00am-4:00pm)

(W1) Current Methods for Computational Toxicology and Chemogenomics

Morning Workshops (8:00-11:30am)

(W2) Pathway-Based Analysis: A Systematic Approach to Biomarker Discovery
(W4) Creating a Best of Breed Informatics Environment for Your Organization
(W5) Building and Using an Ontological Framework for Drug Discovery to Clinical Data
(W6) Tools and Methods for RNA-seq Analysis
(W9) Utilization of EHRs/EMRs to Further Drug and Disease Related Research
(W10) Imaging Informatics: Data Management and Annotation for the Life Sciences

Afternoon Workshops (12:30-4:00pm)

(W3) Conquering the Complexity of Protein Data: Genes are Easy
(W7) Visualization of Large-Scale Biological Data
(W11) Cloud Computing: Applications and Advances
(W12) Advancing Personalized Cancer Medicine through IT Innovation
(W13) Next Generation Sequencing: From Data to Discovery - "I Have My Data, Now What?"

EVENT FEATURES:

Access All Nine Tracks for One Price
Network with 1,700+ Global Attendees
Hear 125+ Technology and Scientific Presentations
Attend Bio-IT World’s Best Practices Awards
Connect with Attendees Using CHI’s Intro-Net
Participate in the Poster Competition
Choose from 13 Pre-Conference Workshops
See the Winners of the following 2011 Awards:
Benjamin Franklin
Best of Show
Best Practices
View Novel Technologies and Solutions in the Expansive Exhibit Hall
And Much More!

Click here to register for the 2011 Expo.

For questions or suggestions about the meeting, please contact:

Cindy Crowninshield
Conference Director
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
781-354-0120
ccrowninshield@healthtech.com

Edel O'Regan, Ph.D.
Vice President, Production
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
781-972-5423
eoregan@healthtech.com

Micah Lieberman
Executive Director, Conferences
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
541-482-4709
mlieberman@healthtech.com

Mary Ann Brown
Executive Director, Conferences
Cambridge Healthtech Institute
781-972-5497
mabrown@healthtech.com

Get Ubuntu: Download Ubuntu Desktop Edition

2011-04-10T15:23:00.011+02:00

Questions you may have

Will my computer work with Ubuntu?

Try it and see! Ubuntu works brilliantly with most computer models whether they're Dell, HP, Acer or Toshiba. If you're unsure whether your computer will work with Ubuntu, you can always run an Ubuntu CD alongside your current system – if it works, you're all set to go.

What software can I run on Ubuntu?Ubuntu comes packed with all the open-source software and applications you need. You can find hundreds of fantastic applications in the Ubuntu Software Centre. And Ubuntu integrates brilliantly with other technologies too – whether it's Microsoft Office, Flash or Skype.

Can I get a computer with Ubuntu on it?Yes you can! Lots of retailers sell computers with Ubuntu pre-installed. Ask in your local store or search for a distributor online.

Can I keep my current system and run Ubuntu alongside it?Yes – that's easy. You can use Ubuntu Windows installer or burn a CD to run Ubuntu alongside your current system.

Can I trial Ubuntu before installing it?That's easy too! Just burn a CD so you can trial Ubuntu without affecting your current system.

What will happen to all my files?

When you switch to Ubuntu, you can open, edit and manage your existing files and use hardware like cameras, phones, printers and MP3 players. Remember, it's always a good idea to back up your files first – so back up before you fire up!

Top 10 Android Security Risks

2011-03-30T13:51:00.012+02:00

Last year, Android became the world's second favorite mobile OS, racing past BlackBerry and Apple. 67 million of the nearly 300 million smartphones sold in 2010 were Android-powered devices like the Samsung Galaxy S, Motorola Droid X, and HTC EVO. New Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") tablets will spur even more growth this year.

As a result, approximately half of enterprises are working to embrace Android devices. One of IT's biggest challenges: Android's consumer roots mean minimal support for enterprise-class security. Here, we consider today's biggest Android security risks and what can be done to mitigate them.

1. AWOL Androids: The top concern about any mobile device is loss. In a Juniper survey, 58 percent of smartphone and tablet users feared not being able to recover lost content. Apple iPhone users can restore nearly everything from iTunes, but Androids are not managed via desktop sync. Data loss can be avoided in two ways. First, install an auto-backup app (e.g., WaveSecure, MyBackup) to enable quick restoration of all that matters to you. Second, enroll your Android with one of the many available "find me" services to locate and recover lost devices.

2. Flimsy passwords: If your Android falls into the wrong hands, more is needed to prevent thieves from stealing broadband service, ringing up SMS fees, reading your email, or abusing VPN connections. In Juniper's survey, 3 out of 4 users locked their smartphones. This is an excellent first line of defense, but users need to understand Android's limitations.

Researchers report using smudges to guess Android swipe-lock patterns over 90 percent of the time. Instead, Androids should be locked with PINs or passwords (2.2 or later) or third-party lock apps such as Norton Mobile or AppProtector. Users may also want to enroll in a remote lock service (often combined with find) but beware of SMS dependencies. Enterprises should use either Exchange ActiveSync or the Android 2.2 Device Admin to remotely enforce password policies, ensuring that devices are routinely locked and lost passwords can be reset.

3. Naked data: A major business risk posed by Android is lack of hardware data encryption. Fortunately, Android 3.0 ("Honeycomb") adds an API to let manufacturers offer encryption and IT enforce use. Unfortunately, existing Androids cannot yet perform hardware encryption. Until self-encrypting Androids appear, stored data can be protected in two ways. First, those remote lock apps and APIs can request remote wipe as well, resetting the device to factory defaults – but only when reachable, without wiping SD card data. For more rigorous protection, enterprises should scramble sensitive data such as email and contacts using self-encrypted apps (e.g., Good for Enterprise,Exchange Touchdown)

4. SMShing: This phishing variant uses texting to trick smartphone users into visiting fraudulent or malicious links. Hackers are now being drawn to Android's popularity and openness. For example, last summer, unlucky SMS recipients were invited to download Trojan-SMS.AndroidOS.FakePlayer, a free Movie Player. Once installed, FakePlayer started texting premium-rate numbers, without user knowledge, ringing up huge bills. To block potentially-costly texts, users can add SMS controls such as SMSLinkGuard. Enterprises may also consider using a Mobile Device Manager (MDM) that can monitor Android wireless expenses (e.g., SMS, roaming).

5. Unsafe surfing: Think web browsing on your Android is safe? Last fall, M.J. Keith showed that a known WebKit browser vulnerability could be exploited on Android 2.0 or 2.1. Thomas Cannon reported an Android 2.2 browser flaw that could give hackers full SD card access. Recently, Google fixed an Android Market cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerability that enables arbitrary code execution, found by John Oberheide. Unfortunately, Android users cannot quickly patch around bugs, because OS updates are deployed infrequently by carriers. One work-around: Using an app like BadLink Check or TrendMicro to avoid known-malicious websites.

6. Nosy apps: Speaking of the Android Market, telling friend from foe can be hard. According to the App Genome Project, Android Market apps more than doubled in the past 6 months. A whopping 28 percent of those apps now access device location, while 7.5 percent access stored contacts. Do these apps really need to know that info and what are they doing with it? Android apps must request permissions during installation – users need to seriously review those requests, exercise caution, and avoid apps that seem too nosy. To flag intrusive apps already installed on your Android, check out Lookout Mobile Security's Privacy Advisor or Webroot.

7. Repackaged and fraudulent apps: Some apps aren't what they appear to be. Many repackaged apps found on third-party Android markets are legitimate free apps, repackaged to generate ad revenue. But repackaging is also used to implant Android trojans, such as the Android.Pjapps trojan (included in modified versions of the Steamy Windows app) and the Android.Geinimi trojan (turns infected phones into bots). Most of these can be avoided by installing apps only from the Google Android Market. Don't frequent unregulated third-party markets or manually install Android packages from untrusted sources.

But even apps distributed by the Google Android Market receive no official review. Last year, "09Droid" sold about 40 different mobile banking apps at the Android Market. Unfortunately, none were affiliated with those banks. It is unclear whether 09Droid intended to phish for banking passwords, but when banks complained, those fraudulent apps were pulled from the Market. Be very careful when downloading apps that access sensitive accounts. Check with banks or other institutions to confirm apps are distributed by an authorized developer and beware of look-alikes.

8. Android malware: According to traffic analysis by AdaptiveMobile, Android malware spike 400 percent last year. The total is still miniscule compared to other platforms, but more malware is likely to target Android's rapidly-expanding pool of potential victims. When Coverity assessed the Android kernel, it identified 359 code vulnerabilities, 88 of which posed "high risk" of exploitation. Because Android is an open development platform, hackers have ample opportunity to find and learn how to take advantage of these kinds of flaws.

Fortunately, application sandboxing is built into Android to limit potential damage by malicious apps – unless malware breaks out of that sandbox. That is apparently what DroidDream did last month. Hidden inside about 50 Android Market apps, including Sexy Girls, Advanced File Manager, Task Killer Pro, and Advanced Sound Manager, DroidDream "rooted" infected phones, sending IMEI/IMSI and OS version back to a command-and-control server. The "nature of this exploit" so concerned Google that it remotely removed installed apps from an estimated 50K phones. This "kill switch" was a fail-safe measure of last resort, but users can proactively defend themselves using Android anti-malware apps (e.g., Kaspersky, F-Secure).

9. Fake anti-malware: Alas, the fake anti-virus trend sweeping the PC world has now emerged for Android as well. When Google killed DroidDream, it installed a clean-up app called "Android Market Security Tool 2011." Android.Bgserv soon appeared on a third-party Chinese market, pretending to be Google's tool but carrying an SMS trojan. The lesson: Hackers prey on user emotions like fear – don't assume that security apps are legitimate. Check out sellers and read reviews. Enterprises should go further by testing apps in a lab environment, then using an MDM to suggest or auto-install verified safe apps on employee Androids. For example, Sybase Afaria now provides over-the-air app management for Android.

10. Lack of visibility and control: Ultimately, enterprises must embrace Androids – even employee-purchased Androids – so that IT can regain visibility into and control over business activities on these devices. Unlike iOS, Android does not yet offer native MDM to enable third-party device management. However, Android does provide APIs that MDM agent apps can use to read/write settings (e.g., password complexity), query attributes (e.g., installed apps, GPS location), and invoke remote lock or wipe. A bit of this can also be done via Exchange ActiveSync. Either way, IT can enroll Android devices, track their use, and enforce (at least limited) policies. Configurable settings are limited but rapidly expanding – more so for some manufacturers than others. But putting a management framework in place can help you leverage new Android security capabilities as they emerge.

Note: Many of the apps cited above are actually suites that include multiple security tools – for example, remote find, lock, and wipe plus password and anti-malware. We included many different examples for the sake of diversity; shop around to find Android security suite(s) that best fit your own needs.

Lisa Phifer owns Core Competence, a consulting firm focused on business use of emerging network and security technologies. A 29-year industry veteran, Lisa enjoys helping companies large and small to assess, mitigate, and prevent Internet security threats through sound policies, effective technologies, best practices, and user education.

Five Top Google Adsense Earners

2011-03-03T17:23:00.006+02:00

If you think that nobody can make money with Google Adsense, read about these five top earners of the Google Adsense advertising program. They make more money in a month than most people make in a year.
You will notice that the top five Google Adsense earners listed here all own websites which are interactive.
They are cashing in on the Web 2.0 platform to attract tons of traffic to their websites. As anybody who’s been online to make money knows the secret to really earn money online especially through Google Adsense is traffic. Without traffic your website may as well be dead.

You must also know that these people don’t reach the earning levels they are at overnight. It doesn’t work that way. They’ve worked hard for a long time before they can manage to earn what they’re earning now. So if you’re just starting out and making maybe a few dollars a day with Google Adsense, don’t get discouraged.

Reading about the successes of these five top Google Adsense earners would hopefully encourage you to continue to work with increasing your Adsense earnings. These people are great examples that the Google Adsense program is a lucrative one.

1. Markus Frind

Owner of PlentyofFish.com

Earnings per month : $300,000

Markus Frind is the sole owner of the free online dating site PlentyofFish.com. He created the website all by himself at home. It’s a membership site which has attracted many visitors. And through word of mouth, his site has become one of the most visited dating sites on the internet earning him $300,000 a month in Adsense.

2. Kevin Rose

Owner of Digg.com

Earnings per month : $250,000

Digg.com is a site where members post news, videos, audios and pictures on the site. It’s a social bookmarking site where members would cast votes on postings made by other members. With enough votes on a posting, that posting will be featured on the front page of the site and will receive tons of traffic. Kevin Rose started his site in 2008 and is proud to be earning $250,000 a month just from Google Adsense.

3. Jeremy Schoemaker

Owner of Shoemoney Media Group Inc

Earnings per month : $140,000

Schoemaker is a genius at search engine optimization. Therefore his hundreds of websites are able to get tons of organic traffic which is how he earns money from Google Adsense.

4. Jason Calacanis

Owner of Weblogs, Inc

Earnings per month : $120,000

Weblogs, Inc started operation in 2003 and by October 2005, AOL bought it for $25 million.

5. David Miles Jr and Kato Leonard

Owner of FreeWebLayouts.net

Earnings per month : $100,000

Their website provides free mySpace layouts, backgrounds and graphics to members. The amount of traffic which the website received has managed the duo to earn $100,000 a month from Google Adsense advertising.

You would notice that the above top five Google Adsense earners do not sell any product. In fact, they give away free stuffs and free membership but they manage to rake in hundreds of thousands of dollars each month. The secret to their success is simple and that is traffic. Give away things for free and people will flock to your website.

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User

2011-01-10T12:58:00.001+02:00

Should Know .. Everyday I receive an email from somebody about how their account was hacked, how a friend tagged them in the photo and they want a way to avoid it, as well as a number of other complications related to their privacy on Facebook. Over the weekend one individual contacted me to let me know that he would be removing me as a friend from Facebook because he was “going to make a shift with my Facebook use – going to just mostly family stuff.

”Perhaps he was tired of receiving my status updates or perhaps he didn’t want me to view photos from his personal life. Whatever the reason for ending our Facebook friendship, I figured that many people would benefit from a thorough overview on how to protect your privacy on Facebook. Below is a step by step process for protecting your privacy.

1. Use Your Friend Lists

I can’t tell you how many people are not aware of their friend lists. For those not aware of what friend lists are, Facebook describes them as a feature which allows “you to create private groupings of friends based on your personal preferences. For example, you can create a Friend List for your friends that meet for weekly book club meetings. You can create Friend Lists for all of your organizational needs, allowing you to quickly view friends by type and send messages to your lists.”

There are a few very important things to remember about friend lists:

You can add each friend to more than one friend group

Friend groups should be used like “tags” as used elsewhere around the web

Friend Lists can have specific privacy policies applied to them

I’ll touch on each of the things listed above in more detail later. A typical setup for groups would be “Friends”, “Family”, and “Professional”. These three groups can then be used to apply different privacy policies. For example, you may want your friends to see photos from the party you were at last night, but you don’t want your family or professional contacts to see those photos.

Using friend lists is also extremely useful for organizing your friends if you have a lot of them. For instance I have about 20 friend lists and I categorize people by city (New York, San Francisco, D.C., Tel Aviv, etc), where I met them (conferences, past co-workers, through this blog), and my relationship with them (professional, family, social, etc).

You can configure your friend lists by visiting the friends area of your Facebook.

2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results

My mom is a teacher and one of the first things she asked me when she joined Facebook is how she could make sure her students couldn’t see that she was on the site. Understandably my mom doesn’t want her middle school students to know what she’s up to in her personal life. There are numerous reasons that individuals don’t want their information to show up in search results on Facebook, and it’s simple to turn off your public visibility.

How to Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results
Now that you’ve decided that you would like to remove yourself from Facebook’s search results, here’s how to do it:

Visit your search privacy settings page

Under “Search Visibility” select “Only Friends” (Remember, doing so will remove you from Facebook search results, so make sure you want to be removed totally. Otherwise, you can select another group, such as “My Networks and Friends” which I believe is the default.)

Click “Save Changes”

By default, Facebook makes your presence visible to the network you are in. Frequently, people aren’t aware of their visibility, so this is one of the first settings that users wish to modify. By selecting “Customize” from the search visibility drop down you can make your settings even more granular.

3. Remove Yourself From Google

Facebook gets A TON of traffic from displaying user profiles in search engines. Not all of your profile is displayed though. Currently the information displayed in the search profile is limited to: your profile picture, a list of your friends, a link to add you as a friend, a link to send you a message, and a list of up to approximately 20 fan pages that you are a member of.

For some people, being displayed in the search engines is a great way to let people get in contact with you, especially if you don’t have an existing website. Facebook also tends to rank high in the search results, so if you want to be easy to find, making your search profile can be a great idea. Many people don’t want any of their information to be public though.

By visiting the same search privacy settings page listed in the previous step, you can control the visibility of your public search listing which is visible to Google and other search engines. You can turn off your public search listing by simply unchecking the box next to the phrase “Create a public search listing for me and submit it for search engine indexing” as pictured in the image below.

4. Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake

This is the classic Facebook problem. You let loose for a few hours one night (or day) and photos (or videos) of the moment are suddenly posted for all to view, not just your close friends who shared the moment with you. The result can be devastating. Some have been fired from work after incriminating photos/videos were posted for the boss to see. For others, randomly tagged photos/videos have ended relationships.

At the least, a tagged photo/video can result in personal embarrassment. So how do you prevent the infamous tagged photo or video from showing up in all of your friends news feeds? It’s pretty simple. First visit your profile privacy page and modify the setting next to “Photos Tagged of You”. Select the option which says “Customize…” and a box like the one pictured below will pop up.

Select the option “Only Me” and then “None of My Networks” if you would like to keep all tagged photos private. If you’d like to make tagged photos visible to certain users you can choose to add them in the box under the “Some Friends” option. In the box that displays after you select “Some Friends” you can type either individual friends or friend lists.

5. Protect Your Albums

Just because you’ve uploaded photos doesn’t mean that you’ve accurately tagged every photo correctly. This setting is more of a reminder than anything else. Frequently people will turn of their tagged photo visibility to certain friend lists yet keep their photo albums public to the world. If you are trying to make all your photos invisible you must do so on an album by album basis.

There is a specific Photos Privacy page from which you can manually configure the visibility of each album (as pictured below). This is an extremely useful configuration option and I highly recommend that you take advantage of it. This way you can store your photos indefinitely on Facebook yet ensure that the only people that can view your photos are the ones who you really want to see them.

6. Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds

Oh, did you really just break up with your girlfriend? I’m sorry to hear that. I’m sure all of your friends and business contacts are also sorry to hear that. I can’t tell you how many awkward relationship status changes I’ve seen. The most regular one I’ve seen recently is when an attractive female ends their relationship and numerous guys hop on the opportunity to console her.

I’ve also seen the end of marriages, as well as weekly relationship status changes as individuals try to determine where their relationship stands with their significant other. My personal policy is to not display a relationship status, but many like to make a public statement out of their relationship. For those individuals, it can be a smart move to hedge against future disasters.

There are a number of ways to control how your relationship status is displayed. The first thing that most people should do is uncheck the box next to “Remove Relationship Status” in the News Feed and Wall Privacy page. In the rare instance that a relationship does uncomfortably end, you can avoid making things more uncomfortable by avoiding a friend notification about it.

Second, your relationship status falls within your “Basic Information” section of your profile. You can control who can see your basic information next to the “Basic Information” setting on the Profile Privacy page. Keep in mind that other relevant profile information like your gender, birth date, networks, and other settings are visible within your basic information section.

Making your basic information completely invisible to friends probably isn’t a good idea, but removing the news feed stories about relationship changes most likely is.

7. Protect Against Published Application Stories

This one is a little more tricky to manage but I’ll explain the issue at hand. Frequently when you add an application, a news feed item is immediately published to your profile. One way to get instantly embarrassed is to visit the “Have Sex!” application (found here). This application has no purpose besides telling your friends that you are interested in having sex with them. Without taking any action, the application will post a news feed story to your profile which says the equivalent of “Nick just published to the world that he is having sex!”

This is surely something that none of your professional contacts if any of your contacts are interested in seeing (honestly I’m a bit confused about that application, but that’s a different story). That’s why it’s important to monitor what takes place after you install an application on Facebook. Once you install an application you should visit your profile to ensure that no embarrassing notification has been posted to your profile.

More often then not, nothing will be posted but there are many applications on the platform unfortunately that publish stories without you knowing it. There are two ways to avoid having this happen: don’t visit applications or scan your profile every time that you do. Ultimately you shouldn’t be concerned about applications that you’ve built a trusted relationship with but any new applications could potentially post embarrassing notifications.

8. Make Your Contact Information Private

I personally use Facebook for professional and personal use and it can frequently become overwhelming. That’s why I’ve taken the time to outline these ten privacy protection steps. One of the first things I did when I started approving friend requests from people that I hadn’t built a strong relationship with, was make my contact information visible only to close contacts.

The contact information is my personal email and phone number. It’s a simple thing to set but many people forget to do it. Frequently people we don’t know end up contacting us and we have no idea how they got our contact information. Your contact privacy can be edited right from your profile. If you have chosen to enter this information, you should see a “Contact Information” area under the “Info” tab in your profile.

If it displays, you simply click “Edit” and then a screen like the one pictured below will show up.

For each contact item that you have in your profile you should set custom privacy settings (as pictured below) so that contacts that you aren’t close to don’t have access to your phone number and/or email. It’s a small change but it can save you the hassle of being pestered by people you don’t know well. Also, protecting your privacy is generally a good practice to get in the habit of doing.

As a side note, this is a great area to take advantage of friend lists. By getting in the habit of grouping your friends, you can ensure that you are navigating Facebook safely through privacy settings that are attached to your friend lists.

9. Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts

Just because you use Facebook for business doesn’t mean your friends do. That’s why once in a while a friend of yours will come post something embarrassing or not necessarily “work friendly” and it can end up having adverse effects. That’s why Facebook has provided you with the ability to customize your wall postings visibility. You can also control which friends can post on your wall. There are two places you can control these things.

Adjust Wall Posting Visibility

Within your profile page you can control who can view wall postings made by your friends. To do so, click on the “Settings” icon on the wall in your profile page. Next, find the box pictured in the image above and adjust the setting which says “Who can see posts made by friends?” I’d suggest using a strategy similar to the one outlined in the previous step regarding contact information.

Control Who Can Post to Your Wall
In addition to controlling who can view wall postings published by your friends, you also want to control which friends can post on your wall. Not everybody needs to do this, but occasionally you simply want to prevent some people from posting on your page. If you visit the Profile Privacy settings page, there is a section labeled “Wall Posts”.

From this area you can completely disable your friends’ ability to post on your wall. You can also select specific friend lists that can post on your wall. Personally, I don’t really care who can post on my wall but I can understand the need to control who can see those wall postings. If you want to limit who can post wall posts on your profile, this is where you can do it.

10. Keep Your Friendships Private

While it’s fun to show off that you have hundreds or thousands of friends on Facebook, some of your friends don’t want to live public lives. That’s why it’s often a good policy to turn off your friends’ visibility to others. I’ve had a number of individuals visit my profile and then selectively pick off friends that are relevant to them for marketing purposes, or other reasons.

Whatever the reason they are doing it, just know that they are … it’s part of what makes Facebook so addictive: the voyeuristic nature. Also, your friends are frequently visible to the public through search engines and exposing this information can ultimately present a security risk. To modify the visibility of your friends, visit the Profile Privacy page.

Navigate down to the setting which says “Friends” and then modify the setting to whatever is right for you.

Conclusion

These are just ten ways that you can protect your privacy on Facebook. While there are a few other small things to keep in mind, these ten settings are most important. Keep in mind that while you may have turned off the visibility of many profile sections, there is no way to prevent all photos or videos from being visible if friends of yours make the images visible.

The best way to prevent embarrassing items from showing up on Facebook in the future is to not make bad judgements in your personal life. We’re all human though and being completely paranoid about every choice you make is probably not the best way to live your life. Be aware of what privacy settings are available and be conscious of what your friends may be publishing about you.

While you may not want to configure all of the privacy settings outlined, simply knowing how to do so is a great step in the right direction. By following the 10 settings listed above you are well on your way to an embarrassment free future on Facebook!

Email Security Solutions Guide

2011-01-04T15:26:00.001+02:00

Email security solutions fall into three basic categories: software-based, appliance-based and managed services (also known as SaaS – Software-as-a-Service). Key weaknesses of software-based and appliance-based solutions include: difficulties in ensuring the solution stays up-to-date; major commitment of in-house IT resources; and ongoing investment in additional software/hardware etc,
substantially increasing total cost of ownership. By comparison, managed services offer many clear advantages: a clean email “pipe”; round-the-clock, constantly updated real-time protection; freeing up of in-house IT resources; and lower costs.

MessageLabs is the leading vendor of SaaS worldwide. Its unique proprietary technology, Skeptic™, and world-leading global infrastructure enable MessageLabs to deliver benchmark levels of accurate threat protection at extremely competitive cost; its services also offer unrivalled Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and ease of use. From protection of business continuity, confidential data and brand image, to effective implementation of company email policies and regulatory compliance at national and international level – MessageLabs managed services represent the best email security solution for business.

This Whitepaper will cover;

The Rising Tide of Email Threats
Email Security Options: In Brief
Software-base d Solutions
Appliance-based Solutions
Managed Services - SaaS
The MessageLabs Approach
The Right Choice for Business

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6 Simple Steps to Protect Your Facebook Privacy

2011-01-01T12:44:00.000+02:00

With all the concerns about Facebook privacy these days, here are a few simple steps you can take to protect your privacy:

1. Don't provide information that you don't want to have shared with the universe. Simply put, anything you put online is easily transmitted and generally accessible. Be especially cautious about providing personal information that can be used by identity fraudsters. Beyond personal information, before posting videos and photos, ask yourself if you are comfortable with your entire family, current and future employers, friends and complete strangers

4. Adjust your privacy settings. Be aware that the default settings allow for more sharing than many people would like (remember Facebook is a business and wants to monetize your information). Because of constant updates to Facebook, you should check these settings at least once a month.

viewing this material since, in all likelihood, there's a good chance that it will eventually become available for public viewing.

2. If you plan to use Facebook for gaming or for business purposes, create a separate account. This way your friends and family are not going to get mixed in with the thousands of strangers you only know through Farmville or from your e-commerce activities.

3. Don't become Facebook friends with total strangers -- the reason is obvious.

5. Be very suspicious of applications. They request access to your personal information and you don't know what they will do with that information. It's the equivalent of opening your house to a stranger and then announcing "I'll be back in a little while, do whatever you want."

6. Don't use the same passwords for your Facebook account as your other accounts (e-mail, bank).

With all of this said, remember that in this digital age most of our personal information is already readily available. At least by taking these steps you can protect your privacy a little, but when in doubt always revert to rule #1 - if you don't want the entire world to see something, then don't post it.

Huawei relinquishes 3Leaf assets

2010-12-01T12:56:00.000+02:00

Huawei was recently forced to revoke its acquisition of virtualisation assets (intellectual property and staff) belonging to 3Leaf Systems after pressure from the US government. According to an open letter written by Huawei's deputy chairman of Huawei Technologies, Chairman of Huawei USA, Ken Hu, the US has been concerned about Huawei's relationship with the Chinese government.

The acquisition was worth $2m and was completed on May 31st 2010, but Huawei did not file the purchase with the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), which reviews deal for possible national security implications, until November.

CFIUS suggested that Huawei voluntarily divest the assets, but Huawei said that it would wait until an official decision from the White House. The company has now done a u-turn and is getting rid of all 3Leaf assets and has released an open letter from Hu.

The full letter follows below:

We would like to provide the basic facts behind the recent 3Leaf matter that has been the subject of much attention and discussion about Huawei. These facts will not only help understand the real situation behind the proposed acquisition, but also Huawei's position on this matter. They will also clarify some long-standing and untrue rumors and allegations regarding Huawei.

Futurewei, Huawei's US subsidiary, purchased certain assets from 3Leaf, an insolvent technology start-up located in Santa Clara, California, in May and July 2010, when 3Leaf was ceasing its operations and no other buyers for its intellectual property were forthcoming. Huawei submitted a timely request to the Bureau of Industry and Security at the Department of Commerce in advance of completing the purchase in May and the Department of Commerce certified that no license was required to export the 3Leaf technology. After learning that CFIUS was interested in the 3Leaf transaction, Huawei submitted draft and formal voluntary filings to initiate a CFIUS review of the transaction in November 2010.

On February 11th, 2011, CFIUS formally notified Huawei that it recommended that Huawei withdraw its notice under terms dictated by CFIUS. We originally decided to decline the offer with an intention to go through all of the procedures to reveal the truth about Huawei. However, the significant impact and attention that this transaction has caused were not what we intended, and on February 18th, we decided to accept the recommendation of CFIUS to withdraw our application to acquire specific assets of 3Leaf.

The United States of America is a great country and one for which Huawei has always had the utmost respect. The values of democracy, freedom, rule of law and human rights in the US are the very values that we at Huawei respect, advocate, and live by. As a company, we are learning much from our close links with the American people. In his inauguration speech, President Obama said, "On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics." We share that vision, and it is the foundation on which we have sought to build our cooperation with American firms as we have invested and grown our business in the United States over the past decade.

Huawei Technologies, founded in 1987 in Shenzhen, China, is a private company owned entirely by its employees. We are currently the second largest telecommunications equipment provider in the world.

Huawei is committed to being a long-term investor in the United States where we already have over 1,000 US employees. In 2010, we purchased products and services from American companies totaling some $6.1 billion. Our investment in research and development activities in the United States has grown by an average of 66% per annum and it reached $62 million in 2010. We have long been offering innovative products and services to our customers in the United States and we have always been a responsible investor, employer, taxpayer and corporate citizen.

Unfortunately, over the past 10 years, as we have been investing in the United States, we have encountered a number of misperceptions that some hold about Huawei. These include unfounded and unproven claims of "close connections with the Chinese military", "disputes over intellectual property rights", "allegations of financial support from the Chinese government", and "threats to the national security of the United States".

These falsehoods have had a significant and negative impact on our business activity and, as such, they must be addressed as part of our effort to correct the record.

First, the allegation of military ties rests on nothing but the fact that Huawei's founder and CEO, Ren Zhengfei, once served in the People's Liberation Army. Born on October 25th, 1944 into a rural family where both parents were schoolteachers, Ren spent his primary and middle school years in a remote mountainous town in Guizhou Province, and studied at Chongqing Institute of Civil Engineering and Architecture, where he graduated in 1963. He was employed in civil engineering until 1974 when he joined the military's Engineering Corps as a soldier tasked with building the then French-imported Liao Yang Chemical Fiber Factory. From there, Ren was promoted to Technician, Engineer and Deputy Director, a deputy-regimental-chief-equivalent professional role that had no military rank. Because of his outstanding performance, Ren was invited to the National Science Conference in 1978 and the National Congress of the Communist Party of China in 1982.

After retiring from the army in 1983, when China's central government disbanded the entire Engineering Corps, Ren became dissatisfied with his job at the logistics service base of the Shenzhen South Sea Oil Corporation and decided to establish Huawei with $2,500 in capital in 1987. He became the President of Huawei in 1988 and has held the title ever since.

It is a matter of fact that Ren is just one of the many CEOs around the world who have served in the military, and it is also a matter of fact that Huawei has only offered telecommunications equipment that is in line with civil standards. It is also factual to say that no one has ever offered any evidence that Huawei has been involved in any military technologies at any time.

Playstation Network Goes Down

2010-12-01T11:18:00.000+02:00

The PlayStation Network is currently down on Thursday, March 3, 2011

The PlayStation Network is currently down on Thursday, March 3, 2011.

We apologize for any inconvenience.
During this time you may:

Not be able to access the PlayStation®Store

Have difficulty signing in to the PlayStation®Network

Not be able to play online games

See a maintenance page when attempting to access the PlayStation®Network

Note: When you log into the PlayStation Network, a message may appear which states, "the PlayStation Network has been suspended". This does not mean that your account has been suspended; it simply means the PlayStation Network has been taken offline. Please wait until the maintenance window has passed before attempting to connect to the PlayStation Network again. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

The problem seems to be affecting all users on the Playstation Network.

This is the second time this week that Playstation's gaming and media network has gone down, and the third time in two weeks it's crashed. According to Mashable, it also crashed on Monday.

UPDATE: The Playstation network appears to be back online.

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Sony announces two Android Honeycomb tablets

Microsoft launches Windows MultiPoint Server 2011

Hackers hunt credit card details says IT Matrix

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2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results

3. Remove Yourself From Google

4. Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake

5. Protect Your Albums

6. Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds

7. Protect Against Published Application Stories

8. Make Your Contact Information Private

9. Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts

10. Keep Your Friendships Private

Conclusion

Email Security Solutions Guide

File Download

6 Simple Steps to Protect Your Facebook Privacy

Huawei relinquishes 3Leaf assets

Playstation Network Goes Down

NTWorld RSS News Feed

Sony announces two Android Honeycomb tablets

Microsoft launches Windows MultiPoint Server 2011

Hackers hunt credit card details says IT Matrix

Twitter Bird Icons & Illustration

The NTWorld Freebies: Twitter Bird Icons & Illustration

Share these Icons & Illustrations

Download The Character & Icons

Get The Rest of The Icons in the Set

BIO-IT WORLD CONFERENCE & EXPO 2011

Get Ubuntu: Download Ubuntu Desktop Edition

Questions you may have

Top 10 questions about Ubuntu Server Edition

Bookmark & Share

AddThis for Firefox

Make sharing easier with AddThis for Firefox.

Top 10 Android Security Risks

Related Articles

Five Top Google Adsense Earners

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User

2. Remove Yourself From Facebook Search Results

3. Remove Yourself From Google

4. Avoid the Infamous Photo/Video Tag Mistake

5. Protect Your Albums

6. Prevent Stories From Showing Up in Your Friends’ News Feeds

7. Protect Against Published Application Stories

8. Make Your Contact Information Private

9. Avoid Embarrassing Wall Posts

10. Keep Your Friendships Private

Conclusion

Email Security Solutions Guide

File Download

6 Simple Steps to Protect Your Facebook Privacy

Huawei relinquishes 3Leaf assets

Playstation Network Goes Down