Tech Recipe

What’s AT-HDFC, AX-Airtel, TA-IITians…?

2009-06-30T09:51:00.001+01:00

Recently, from almost a month SMSs from Banks, Service Providers, Companies have started prefixing something like ID, AT, VK…etc. What’s all this after all!!? Here I am to explain you what it is! Normally these SMSs originates from a Bulk SMS provider where you can use 11 digit Alpha-Numeric characters as "Sender". But there were some security risks in this method. I was able to give a phone number as "Sender" & it appears as that person at the recipient end. Basically there was a chance to send SMSs as a different person! I was actually using this to fool my friends.

But the new TRAI regulation insisted bulk SMS providers to restrict the "Sender ID" to 8 characters. Other three characters should be used to specify who is the service provider & where it’s originated from. Say for example: HDFCBANK sends an SMS to you using bulk SMS provider located at Tamil Nadu which uses Airtel. You will receive it as AT-HDFCBANK. First character specifies which service provider the message is being originated & the second character specifies from which location it’s originated. Here is the table which has details of these SMS codes:

Service Provider Codes:

Service Provider
Code

Aircel, Dishnet Wireless
D

Bharti Airtel
A

BSNL
B

BPL Mobile/Loop Telecom
L

Datacom Solutions
C

HFCL Infotel
H

Idea Cellular
I

MTNL
M

Reliance Communications
R

Reliance Telecom
E

S tel
S

Shyam Telecom
Y

Spice Telecom
P

Swan Telecom
W

Tata Teleservices
T

Unitech Group
U

Vodafone Group
V

Service Area
Code

Andhra Pradesh
A

Assam
S

Bihar
B

Delhi
D

Gujarat
G

Haryana
H

Himachal Pradesh
I

Jammu & Kashmir
J

Karnataka
X

Kerala
L

Kolkata
K

Madhya Pradesh
Y

Maharashtra
Z

Mumbai
M

North East
N

Orissa
O

Punjab
P

Rajasthan
R

Tamil Nadu
T

UP-East
E

UP-West
W

West Bengal
V

So, combination of these two constitutes the first two digit of ?Sender? followed by an hyphen (-) & actual sender name.

Gmail: Use Reply By Chat to Converse About an Email in Real Time

2009-06-29T08:19:00.001+01:00

The Reply by Chat feature allows you (and your contacts) to converse about an email message that you have sent or received, in real time. An added bonus is that if you have Gmail saving your chat history, the chat will be nested in with the rest of the conversation generated by the message.

1. Go to Gmail and log into your account.

2. Open the desired message.

3. Check to see if the contact is online and available.

4. Click the Reply by chat link at the bottom of the message (next to the Reply and Forward links).

5. A chat window will open. You will see the email message’s subject displayed. Begin chatting.

6. When the conversation is finished, close the chat window.

7. After a few seconds, go back to the email message and you will see the chat session included in the conversation. You can reply to it by email or start a new chat session.

How to Make a Trojan Horse

2009-05-29T15:02:00.001+01:00

Most of you may be curious to know about how to make a Trojan or Virus on your own. Here is an answer for your curiosity. In this post I’ll show you how to make a Trojan on your own using C programming language. This Trojan when executed will eat up the hard disk space on the root drive (The drive on which Windows is installed, usually C: Drive) of the computer on which it is run. Also this Trojan works pretty quickly and is capable of eating up approximately 1 GB of hard disk space for every minute it is run. So, I’ll call this as Space Eater Trojan. Since this Trojan is written using a high level programming language it is often undetected by antivirus. The Trojan is available for download along with the source code at the end of this post. Let’s see how this Trojan works…

Before I move to explain the features of this Trojan you need to know what exactly is a Trojan horse and how it works. As most of us think a Trojan or a Trojan horse is not a virus. In simple words a Trojan horse is a program that appears to perform a desirable function but in fact performs undisclosed malicious functions that allow unauthorized access to the host machine or create a damage to the computer.

Now lets move to the working of our Trojan

The Trojan horse which I have made appears itself as an antivirus program that scans the computer and removes the threats. But in reality it does nothing but occupy the hard disk space on the root drive by just filling it up with a huge junk file. The rate at which it fills up the hard disk space it too high. As a result the the disk gets filled up to 100% with in minutes of running this Trojan. Once the disk space is full, the Trojan reports that the scan is complete. The victim will not be able to clean up the hard disk space using any cleanup program. This is because the Trojan intelligently creates a huge file in theWindowsSystem32 folder with the .dll extension. Since the junk file has the .dllextention it is often ignored by disk cleanup softwares. So for the victim, there is now way to recover the hard disk space unless reformatting his drive.

The algorithm of the Trojan is as follows

1. Search for the root drive

2. Navigate to WindowsSystem32 on the root drive

3. Create the file named “spceshot.dll”

4. Start dumping the junk data onto the above file and keep increasing it’s size until the drive is full

5. Once the drive is full, stop the process.

You can download the Trojan along with it’s source code HERE.

How to compile, test and remove the damage?

Compilation:

You can use Borland C++ compiler (or equivalent) to compile the Trojan.

Testing:

To test the Trojan, just run the SpaceEater.exe file on your computer. It’ll generate a warning message at the beginning. Once you accept it, the Trojan runs and eats up hard disk space.

NOTE: To remove the warning message you’ve to edit the source code and then re-compile it.

How to remove the Damage and free up the space?

To remove the damage and free up the space, just type the following in the “run” dialog box.

%systemroot%system32

Now search for the file “spceshot.dll“. Just delete it and you’re done. No need to re-format the hard disk.

NOTE: You can also change the ICON of the virus to make it look like a legitimate program. This method is described in the post: How to Change the ICON of an EXE file ?

Changing the ICON of an EXE file?

2009-05-29T14:46:00.001+01:00

Some times it becomes necessary to change the ICON of an executable(.exe) file so that the exe file get’s a new appearence.Many of the Tools such as TuneUP Winstyler does this job by adjusting the Windows to display a custom icon to the user.But in reality when the file is carried to a different computer, then it shows it’s original ICON itself.This means that inorder to permanantly change the ICON, it is necessary to modify the executable file and embed the ICON inside the file itself.Now when this is done the exe file’s ICON is changed permanantly so that even if you take file to a different computer it show’s a new icon.

For this purpose I have found a nice tool which modifies the exe file and will embed the ICON of your choice into the file itself. ie:The tool changes the exe ICON permanantly.

I’ll give you a step-by-step instruction on how to use this tool to change the icon.

1. Goto www.shelllabs.com and download the trial version of Icon Changer and install it (Works on both XP and Vista).

2. Right-click on the exe file whose ICON is to be changed.

3. Now you will see the option Change Icon…Click on that option.

4. Now the Icon Changer program will open up.

5. Icon changer will search for all the ICONS on your system so that you can select any one of those.

6. Now select the ICON of your choice and click on SET.

7. Now a popup window will appear and ask you to select from either of these two options.

Change embeded icon.
Adjust Windows to display custom icon.

Select the first option (Change embeded icon).

8. You are done.The ICON get’s changed.

Custom Excerpts Plugin for WordPress

2009-05-28T14:16:00.001+01:00

Author: Sean Bluestone

Custom Excerpts allows you to implement custom excerpt text, length, and to choose HTML tags to allow and whether to make the link nofollow or dofollow. Previously the only way to achieve this was to edit the WordPress core file formatting.php which meant changes would be lost after each update.

Download

Facebook Now in Bengali, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Punjabi

2009-05-27T14:17:00.001+01:00

Good news for Indians...Facebook has recently launched itself in 5 Indian regional languages.

With more than 1100 million people, a large number of whom are young, India can be a big market for Facebook and similar other social networking sites.

Just a few weeks ago Gmail also introduced Indian languages for composing email on this popular email service provider.

After Orkut, Facebook is the second most widely liked networking site in India.

Users can change language settings through the ‘settings’ tab or through the language option on their Facebook homepage.

Facebook users can only browse through the site in the five regional languages and not message each other or update their status yet. Rival Google’s social networking site Orkut has Indian language transliteration in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.

Introduction of regional languages was incorporated by Google in its networking site Orkut, however when the facility was tried by users there were some technical drawbacks which did not allow transliteration through Google’s own browser Chrome. Online war to defeat and rise is always on by websites in competition, and the new change seems to be Facebook’s trial to fit in visitor’s convenient requirement.

Windows 7: My System Won’t Stop Restarting (Looping on System Failure)

2009-05-27T12:54:00.001+01:00

If you a bad driver installed on your system and have Windows 7 set to automatically restart upon system failure, your computer can become stuck in a loop of restarting. You can easily get out of this loop and work on fixing your system’s error.

1. Once the computer begns it’s next restart, press F8 on your keyboard repeatedly until the Advanced Boot Options screen appears. If the Windows startup logo shows up, then you will need to start over because you missed the opportunity.

2. Using the arrow keys on your keyboard, select Disable automatic restart on system failure and press Enter on your keyboard.

Wndows 7 will start up and not automatically restart, allowing you to troubleshoot the error and hopefully fix your system’s problem.

Windows 7: Check Your System’s Power Efficiency

2009-05-26T14:31:00.001+01:00

By running a Power Efficiency Diagnostics Report, you can view an analysis of your system and check common energy efficiency and battery life problems as well as check for errors and warnings for your power setup and hardware.

First you will need to access an elevated command prompt, to do this:

1. Click the Orb (Start button).

2. Click All Programs.

3. Go into Accessories.

4. Right-click on Command Prompt.

5. Select Run as administrator.

6. When the UAC prompt appears, select Yes.

Once you have your elevated command prompt, follow these steps:

1. At the command prompt, input the following:
powercfg -energy -output %USERPROFILE%\Desktop\PowerCFG_Analysis.html

2. A 60 second analysis of your computer system will then be executed.

3. When completed, a summary will be displayed.

4. Go to your Desktop and find the PowerCFG_Analysis.html file and open it to view the report.

How to Enable, Adjust or Disable Transparency in Windows 7

2009-05-17T08:12:00.002+01:00

You must have noticed that the borders of windows in Windows 7 are transparent or translucent so that you can see what’s behind the window. You can enable or disable or adjust transparency according to your convenience.

WARNING

You will not have the Transparency option if you have a Basic and High Contrast Theme instead of a Aero Theme.

Aero Requirements to be Enabled in Windows 7:
NOTE: If Aero is not enabled, then Transparency will not work even when enabled.

1 GHz 32-bit or 64-bit processor
1 GB of system memory
A graphics card with support for DirectX 9 graphics with at least 128 MB of memory.
The graphics card must support Pixel Shader 2.0 and the Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM).
You must be have True Color (32 bit) set instead of High Color (16 bit).
The desktop composition and Animate controls and elements inside windows options enabled in Visual Effects.
Refresh or update your WEI score.

To enable or disable Transparency in Windows 7 follow these simple steps:

1) Right click on an empty area of the Desktop and choose Personalize option

2) In the Personalization window click the Window Color link at the bottom of the window

3) Now check the Enable transparency option to enable transparency
You can then slide the slider forward or backward to adjust the degree of transparency.
OR
Uncheck the Enable transparency option to disable transparency.

4) Click on Save Changes button

How to Adjust Window Transparency in Windows XP / 2000

2009-05-17T07:38:00.001+01:00

Today's tip is on how to adjust the transparency of an application window in Windows XP... By adjusting the transparency of a window, you'll be able to see the contents of any windows beneath, as well as the desktop...

Windows 2000 and XP have the built-in ability to display variable transparency, but do not provide a method to adjust transparency levels for standard applications... We'll be using a free and extremely lightweight utility called Vitrite... Vitrite uses very little resources, and allows you to adjust the transparency for any Windows application...

Vitrite can be downloaded from here...

After you have downloaded and installed Vitrite, you can adjust individual window transparency by pressing Control+Shift+(number from top row of keyboard), for example Control-Shift-1 = 10% visible, etc... Control-Shift-0 returns the windows back to 100%...

Another cool feature of this utility is that you can make a window always stay on top by pressing Control-Shift-+... Pressing this combination again causes the windows to revert back from its "Always on Top" state...

Click on the image below to see an example of Vitrite in use:

Please leave a comment if you have any questions.

The Bare Minimum Processes Needed to Run Windows XP

2009-05-16T14:09:00.001+01:00

When repairing a PC by either trying to shutdown a virus, trying to remove adware/spyware/malware, or just trying to get a speed increase, you need to shut down processes that run in the background.

It is necessary to know the bare minimum processes which Windows needs to operate, and it is sometimes difficult to tell.

Here is a list of the essential processes that Windows needs to run correctly.

System Idle Process

explorer.exe

taskmgr.exe

spoolsv.exe

lsass.exe

csrss.exe

smss.exe

winlogon.exe

svchost.exe – You will notice more than one running.

services.exe

By shutting down anything other than these processes, stand alone Windows should operate fine, however, if any of these processes are shutdown, Windows will start to become unstable, or unusable.

On most computers there will be multiple instances of svchost.exe, these control various connections on your computer whether it is to the Internet, or within a LAN. It is usually safe to switch off some of these, however, it’s not easy to determine which ones, so its better to leave these alone.

To shutdown a Windows process, Press Ctrl+Alt+Delete which will take you to Windows Task Manager, click on the Processes Tab, select a process and click End Process.

If you are not sure what a particular process does, then I recommend checking out Uniblue Process Library, a library that lists what each task does, its threat level,and makes it easy to determine what is running on your computer.

Disable Avira Notifier

2009-05-16T13:43:00.001+01:00

I recently downloaded Avira AntiVir Personal - Free Antivirus as my primary antivirus program. I had been using version 8.2.

Avira has one drawback - A nagging notifier to upgrade to the premium version pops up every time you update the Avira database.

To disable this pesky notifier, simply follow these directions:

For XP and Vista Users:

1. Start-> Control Panel

2. Administrative tools-> Local security policy

3. Click on Software Restriction Policy-> Action (at the top)-> create new restriction policies

4. Right-click additional rules (on the right side)-> new path rule

5. Click Browse and navigate to C:\Program Files\(Avira)\AntiVir Desktop\ and double-click avnotify.exe

6. Set the security level to Disallowed-> apply-> ok

If you had Avira previously installed and have already disallowed this, you need to change the thread to match (which for me meant changing AntiVir Personal Classic to AntiVir Desktop).

It’s a beautiful thing my friends!

You can download Avira AntiVir Personal at <a href=”http://download.cnet.com/Avira-AntiVir-Personal-Free-Antivirus/3000-2239_4-10322935.html?part=dl-10322935&subj=dl&tag=button&cdlPid=11012914”>Download.com</a>.

Using the New Google Search Options

2009-05-13T15:11:00.004+01:00

Everyone’s favorite search engine has made it easier to get the search results you desire. You can filter your result set to show forums, reviews, videos, etc. and place a time constraint on the result set as well.

1. Go to Google as you normally would.

2. Input the search criteria and click the Google Search button.

3. You will see your result set (as you normally would).

4. Go to the very top of the result set and click the Show options link.

5. You will see a set of search options appear on the left side of the screen. Your options are Videos, Forums, and Reviews. Time constraints are Recent results, Past 24 hours, Past week and Past year. You can enhance the standard result set with either images from the page or with more text. Finally, you can look at related searches, the Wonder Wheel or a Timeline.

Here are some examples:

Selecting Video will narrow your result set to show only those pages with an associated video.

Selecting Forums will narrow your result set to show only those pages that Google has associated with Forums.

Selecting Reviews will narrow your result set to show only those pages that Google has associated with Reviews.

By using Google’s new Search Options, you can narrow your result set and find what you are looking for in far less time than before.

Microsoft sites not opening with BSNL modems

2009-05-12T08:06:00.002+01:00

I recently switched to the BSNL UL 750 connection and was surprised to see that with a slow speed the connection didn't even allow me to open any Microsoft sites. I tried changing the DNS settings to but didn't succeed. The trick instead was very simple. You just have to use a proxy server. Try using http://www.freeproxy.ca/ or IP 67.69.254.251; Port 80. These settings worked for me. If they don't work in your case try other servers mentioned in http://www.proxy4free.com/page1.html.

Note: This problem does not occur with all BSNL modems. The modem that I was given was ZTE ZXDSL 531B.

Windows 7: Customize How the Date is Displayed in the System Tray

2009-05-11T14:20:00.005+01:00

By default the Windows 7 taskbar uses large icons, which makes for a bigger taskbar. This easily allows not only the time to show in the system tray, but the date as well. You can customize how the date is displayed and what information it will show.

1. Go to the Control Panel.

2. Select Clock, Language, and Region.

3. Select Region and Language.

4. Click the Additional settings button.

5. Select the Date tab.

6. Go to the Date formats section. Use the Short date dropdown to select the desired display. Click the Apply button to view the results.

If you don’t see what you want, you can add your own by placing your cursor on the dropdown and typing.

You will need to keep these notations in mind:

d, dd are for displaying the date

ddd, dddd are for displaying the day of the week

M, MM, MMM, MMMM are for displaying the month

yy, yyyy are for displaying the year.

By using these notations and seperators such as hyphens, commas, periods, etc. you can customize your date to display in a number of ways.

For example:

ddd MM/dd/yy

will make your date look like this:

Using xp-AntiSpy

2009-05-11T14:02:00.001+01:00

xp-AntiSpy is a neat little utility to automatically apply different settings to the operating system, which could also be done by hand, but at a higher expense of time.

It’s latest version 3.95 can be downloaded from here

xp-AntiSpy runs on the following operating systems:

Microsoft Windows XP Home/Professional
Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional

It displays various settings most of which are hidden in Windows.

Now, select Profiles>Suggested and the program will highlight all the important settings, then click ‘Apply Settings’ and restart Windows for the settings to take effect.

Well that part is over.

The next option is ‘Connection Limit’. This option can be used to increase the default connection limit in Windows which is 10.

The following was extracted from the xp-AntiSpy help file:

The connection limit was introduced by Microsoft with Service Pack 2 for Windows XP and Service Pack 1a for Windows 2003. It limits the connection requests at a time to 10. This should prevent malware from goin’ bezerk on your system and spreading its seed rapidly all around the network.

Some programs, for example filesharing software, sometimes reach the limit and therefore cannot perform as required without the limit.

Performance is not meant as bandwidth in this context.

You can check for yourself if your system reaches the limit. Take a look in the event viewer (hit start->run and enter Eventvwr.msc). When you click the System entry, take a look at the row named Event ID. If you see the number 4226 being displayed, then your system has reached the limit at that time.

To increase connection limit go to Special>Connection Limit which will bring up a dialog box with a message. Click ‘Yes,I got it’.

A second dialog box shows up displaying your current Connection Limit.

If the limit set on your computer is 10 then change it to 50 and click ‘Patch’.

Applying this tweak is very useful for filesharing softwares.

That’s it. I hope you found this tutorial useful. Please let me know by commenting here.

How to increase download speeds of uTorrent

2009-05-11T13:50:00.003+01:00

uTorrent was very slow for me until recently I applied a few tweaks. Here’s what I did.

Note: Some of the settings mentioned below are optimized for 256k connection. If you want to calculate the optimal settings for your connection, check at the end of this tutorial. But I suggest you to read the entire tutorial for guidance on other settings.

First go to Options>Preferences>Network

Under ‘Port used for incomming connections’, enter any port number. It is best to use a port number above 10000. I use 45682.
Randomize port each time utorrent starts: UNCHECKED. I leave this unchecked because I have a router. If you do not have a router or a firewall, and want extra security,check this option.
Enable UPnP port mapping (Windows Xp or later only): UNCHECKED. I leave this unchecked because I have experienced it slowing down speeds. It is not needed if you manually port forward.
Add utorrent to Windows Firewall exceptions (Windows XP SP2 or later only): UNCHECKED (do this only if you have windows firewall disabled)
Global Maximum upload rate (kb/s): [0: unlimited]: 22 (for 256k connection)
Protocol Encryption: ENABLED. I would recommend everyone to enable this. This can help increase speeds with many ISPs.
Allow incoming Legacy Connections: CHECKED

Options>Preferences>Torrents

Global Maximum Number of Connections: 130 (for 256k connection)This number should not be set too low or the number of connections made to your torrents will be limited. Setting it too high may cause too much bandwidth to be used and can cause slowdowns.
Maximum Number of connected peers per torrent: 70 (for 256k connection)If you see that the peers connected to a specific torrent are exactly this number, or very close, increase this number to improve speeds.
Number of upload slots per torrent: 3 (for 256k connection)This depends on how much you want to upload to other users. Do not set too low or it may affect download speeds.
Use additional upload slots if upload speed <90%: CHECKED
Maximum number of active torrents: 2 (for 256k connection)
Maximum number of active downloads: 1 (for 256k connection)
Enable DHT Network: CHECKEDThis is recommended to be checked to improve speeds. More people will be available for sharing if this is checked.
Enable DHT for new torrents: CHECKED
Enable Peer Exchange: CHECKED
Enable scrapping: CHECKED
Pre-allocate all files: CHECKED
Append .!ut to incomplete files: UNCHECKED

Options>Preferences>Advanced

net.max_halfopen: 50

If you use Windows XP SP2, patch tcpip.sys with LvlLord’s Event ID 4226 Patcher to get better performance.

DO NOT CHANGE THIS OPTION unless you have Windows XP SP2 and have patched tcpip.sys.

You can also patch tcpip.sys with xp-Antispy.

If you have a firewall

Open up the options/preferences/settings for the firewall - usually your firewall will have an icon to click in the taskbar
Look for the keywords “allow list” or “programs”
Add the application you want to give access to the internet
Make sure to save your settings when you are done

If you have a router

Go to start>run>type cmd, press enter>type ipconfig, press enter
Remember both your ip address and your default gateway
Type in your default gateway into your default browser, a password prompt may come up. The default username and password are admin for my router
Under ‘Applications’ fill out one line for each p2p client you use
You need to use your ip address, the correct port range and set either tcp or udp
You can find and change the ports in the actual p2p client’s settings, just make sure they are the same in the router
Most p2p apps need both tcp and udp checked, if you are not sure check your p2p client’s FAQ
Save your settings

Check PortForward.com to forward ports for uTorrent.

Some of the settings I mentioned above are relative to my bandwidth.

How to calculate optimal settings for your connection

In order to apply the following tips you need to know your maximum upload and download speeds. You can test your bandwidth over here.

Maximum upload speed

If you use your Maximum upload speed, there won’t be not enough space left for the files you are downloading. So you have to cap your upload speed.

This is how I calculate my optimal upload speed…

upload speed * 80%

Maximum download speed

Setting your maximum download speed to unlimited will hurt your connection. So use this to calculate your optimal setting.

download speed * 90%

Maximum connected peers per torrent

upload speed * 1.3

Maximum upload slots

1 + (upload speed / 6)

Disable Windows Firewall

Windows Firewall hates P2P and so disable it and get yourself a decent firewall like Zone Alarm.

And last optimize your Internet connection with TCP Optimizer.

Know any other tricks to increase uTorrent’s download speed? Please share them here.

How To Protect Your Personal Information When Making Charitable Donations

2009-05-10T12:46:00.003+01:00

What Happens to Personal Information When Making a Charitable Donation? New Grants Benefit Both Charities and Donors During Spike in Identity Theft. Data security issues have garnered a great deal of press lately. And of course it is not a huge stretch to imagine why charities are often attractive to hackers. They simply don't have the budgets or the staff to maintain tight data security--and they handle money… sometimes a lot of money. Typically, supplying the charity with a great deal of information that may even include an address, social security number and banking information.

This can be a nightmare for some. Normally this information becomes hard data utilized in part to solicit for further funding somewhere on down the road. Personal data, even an identity can be sold, stolen, misused or even used in such a way to harass an individual with constant solicitations.

Works of Life Ministries may be able to help with new grant offerings available to Charitable programs.

So far in 2009, over 100 million records containing Social Security numbers, bank accounts, age, gender and other information on individuals have been lost. Imagine what can be lost from the lack of security at a non-profit school, or a non-profit hospital, both collecting a varied array of their client's personal information.

The reasoning for this has to do with the nature of the relationship the organizations have with the individuals they serve. Rarely do for profit business-to-business companies have personal relationships with customers.

However, the relationship between most nonprofit organizations and their donors is different. Charitable business transactions aren't about buying, they're about giving. Donors are making a personal investment into a charity's mission. Therefore, to ensure revenue streams remain intact, nonprofits must go the extra mile to make sure their donor's information is protected.

In some cases, such as with many faith based charitable organizations, personal information may never be exposed to such as risk. As in the United States, many faith based organizations are not required to disclose their financials in any way unless requested by their Donors.

"This extra layer of protection receives a great deal of criticism from many who do not subscribe to the idea that the Church and State should be separate but we all know that the Government has never been good at running a religious entity. Those who disagree should probably move to a country where fewer people have given their lives to afford us such rights," comments Director D.O. Smith of Works of Life and the Computers with cause's charitable program.

"I have never heard of a church or faith based charity that has a problem disclosing to any individual Donor where their donation is going or who has benefited from their gift," states Rev. Everett of Works of Life. "Non-disclosure really is not an issue for those who actually are Donors to these types of Charities," adds Everett.

The risk is the same no matter what kind of donation is made. A financial or car donation, even a real estate donation, Donors still give up a great deal of sensitive data. "We only store the data needed for the reason it was collected. If the data is no longer needed, we get rid of it," adds Everett.

"We limit the storage of Donor data only to systems that are not connected to the Internet. Stand alone systems only to eliminate the possibility of a security breach. This allows us to secure the Donor's sensitive data both physically and technically," states Dir. Smith of Works of Life.

"Our previous CEO insisted on making the Donor the focus and with good cause. Creating policies and procedures that the Ministry then implemented when dealing with sensitive data. Having these policies not only protects your donors, but protects your organization as well," says Dir. Smith.

When it comes to responsibility and ethics, always make sure that the Organization has a stated privacy policy and will not share any information with outside parties.

Always ask to be informed as to who will benefit from the donation. Keep in mind that there is a right to place certain stipulations on a gift (within reason) and should make sure to have this noted on a federal tax form IRS 8283. Follow the donation and the data!

So the IT focus for charities definitely needs to change from acquiring hardware and software to having the resources to protect charity networks and servers from outside attack. It is making an already tough job even tougher.

Verify the choice of charities and remember that a charity need not be listed with the IRS to be "legit." However, it is fairly easy today to find if an Organization is providing services with the funds they collect. Churches and most religious organizations do not need to be listed with the IRS to be tax exempt, neither do some hospitals or schools. (See IRS form i1023)

"We run many of our offices out of Volunteers homes," states Everett, "Our former CEO was disabled and started the Organization out of a residential based office to make the Ministry possible. On the upside it also eliminated a great deal of overhead. That allowed us to spend more providing an actual benefit to those in need," Everett stated.

A very recent donation in excess of $100,000.00 is allowing Charities such as Works of Life to also provide assistance to other like-minded Non-profit Organizations to create and implement their own data security programs as well. The same Donor has pledged to provide a quarterly grant to help other Charities and to assist in the creation of these secure programs.

So what should nonprofit leaders do?

Ask for Help! "We welcome any Responsible, like-minded Charitable Organization to contact us if they need advice or funding," states Director Smith Of Works of Life, "A great part of our mission is to provide works of this nature."

Works of Life International Ministries
1081 S. Cimmaron
Las Vegas, Nevada 89145
http://www.worksoflife.org

About Works of Life International Ministries:

Operating since 2002 Works of Life International Ministries is a non-profit, non-denominational faith-based charitable organization that provides charitable works for other like-minded organizations in the form of endowments, grants and much, much more.For a secure data program grant please apply online at www.worksoflife.org

NEW Panda Cloud Antivirus: The First Free Cloud-Based Antivirus

2009-05-10T12:30:00.003+01:00

Panda Security, a leading provider of ITsecurity solutions , announced the global beta release of Panda Cloud Antivirus , the industry’s first and only free cloud-based antivirus thin-client with 50 percent less impact on PC performance compared to the industry average.

With Panda Cloud Antivirus, Panda Security is introducing a new protection model that utilizes a thin-client agent and server architecture which processes and blocks malware more efficiently than locally installed signature-based products.

By moving the entire malware scanning and determination process to the cloud and applying non-intrusive interception techniques on the client architecture, Panda Cloud Antivirus is able to provide advanced protection against new and unknown viruses with a lightweight thin-client agent that barely consumes any PC resources.

Traditional antivirus products for PCs rely on multiple locally installed technologies which intercept each file at different layers (entry vector, file system and execution) and scan them using various techniques (antivirus, heuristics, intrusion prevention, behavioral analysis, etc.).

This process results in heavy usage of local PC memory and CPU resources, negatively impacting performance. The Panda Cloud Antivirus thin-client agent introduces a new philosophy for on-access asynchronous cloud-scanning. It combines local detection technologies with real-time cloud-scanning to maximize results while minimizing resource consumption. This optimized model blocks malicious programs as they attempt to execute, while managing less dangerous operations via non-intrusive background scans.

Panda Cloud Antivirus includes local and remote antivirus, anti-spyware, anti-rootkit, heuristics and goodware cache, while only consuming an average of 17 MB of RAM and 50 percent of the PC performance impact as compared to the industry average.

Utilizing Panda’s proprietary cloud computing technology called Collective Intelligence, Panda Cloud Antivirus harnesses the knowledge of Panda’s global community of millions of users to automatically identify and classify new malware strains in almost real-time. Each new file received by Collective Intelligence is automatically classified in under six minutes.

Collective Intelligence servers automatically receive and classify over 50,000 new samples every day. In addition, Panda’s Collective Intelligence system correlates malware information data collected from each PC to continually improve protection for the community of users.

“We truly believe that Panda Cloud Antivirus represents a quantum leap in protection over the traditional approach to antivirus architecture,” said Juan Santana, CEO for Panda Security. “Panda Cloud Antivirus offers consumers a truly install-and-forget solution that delivers the industry’s fastest protection against the newest malware with literally half the performance impact. We’re excited to make it available today for free, which is Panda’s way of paying back to the community and growing our Collective Intelligence network so that we can deliver even greater protection to all customers.”

For more information or to download the free product, please visit: http://www.cloudantivirus.com

About Panda Security
Since 1990, its mission has been to analyze new threats as rapidly as possible to keep our clients safe. Several teams, each specialized in a specific type of malware (viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, phishing, spam, etc), work 24/7 to provide global coverage.

To achieve this, they also have the support of TruPrevent® Technologies, which act as a global early-warning system made up of strategically distributed sensors to neutralize new threats and send them to PandaLabs for in-depth analysis. According to Av.Test.org, PandaLabs is currently the fastest laboratory in the industry in providing complete updates to users. More information is available in the PandaLabs blog.

Dual boot Windows 7 with Windows XP and Vista

2009-05-10T12:27:00.001+01:00

If you’re dying to try out Windows 7 but aren’t ready to give up your installation of XP or Vista, let’s take a look at how to dual boot Windows 7 with XP or Vista.

Step 0: Download the Windows 7 Beta and Burn It to a DVD

Assuming you’ve already downloaded a fresh copy of Windows 7, you’ll need to burn it to a DVD in order to do a fresh installation. To handle this task, grab a copy of the most popular CD and DVD burning tool ImgBurn, burn the ISO to a DVD, and move right along to step 1.
Step 1: Partition Your Hard Drive

Before you go installing Windows 7, the first thing you need to do is create a new partition on your hard drive to hold the new installation of Windows. Partitioning your hard drive will vary depending on whether you’re running XP or Vista—namely because Vista has a partition tool baked in, XP does not.

Partition Your Hard Drive in XP

To partition your hard drive in Windows XP, you’ll need to download some sort of third-party partitioning software. There are a lot of options available, but I prefer to stick with the previously mentioned GParted live CD, a free, open source boot CD that can handle all kinds of partitioning duties.

To use it, just download the GParted Live CD, burn it to a CD, then reboot your computer (booting from the disc). You’ll boot right into the partitioning tool. HowtoForge’s previous guide to modifying partitions with GParted is a great place to start, but it’s a fairly basic procedure:

1. Resize your current OS drive to free up enough space for a Windows 7 partition (the minimum system requirements ask for 16GB).
2. Create a new partition from the newly freed space.
3. Apply your changes.

Partition Your Hard Drive in Vista

The folks at Redmond were kind enough to include a disk partitioning tool in Vista if you know where to look. So go to Control Panel -> System and Maintainence (skip this one if you’re in Classic view) -> Administrative Tools -> Computer Management. Once you launch the Computer Management tool, click on Disk Management under the Storage heading in the sidebar. It’s partitioning time.

Luckily we’ve already gone down this road before in step-by-step detail, complete with pictures, so check out our previous guide to creating a new partition in Vista. In a nutshell, you’ll need to shrink your current OS partition to free up at least 16GB of disk space (per the Windows 7 minimum system requirements), then create a “New Simple Volume” from the free space.

Step 2: Install Windows 7

Now that you’ve done all the heavy lifting, it’s time for the easy part: Installing Windows 7 on your new partition. So insert your Windows 7 disc and reboot your computer (you’ll need to have enabled booting from your DVD drive in your system BIOS, but most PCs will have this enabled by default).

Once the DVD boots up it’s a simple matter of following along with the fairly simple installation wizard. When you’re choosing installation type, be sure to select Custom (advanced) and choose the partition you set up above. (Be careful here. Choosing the wrong partition could mean wiping your other Windows installation altogether, so make sure you pick the new partition you just created.)

After you select the partition, go grab yourself a drink and let the installer do its work. Windows will run through some installation bits, restart a few times in the process. Eventually you’ll be prompted to set up your account, enter your license key, and set up Windows. Keep your eyes open for fun new Windows 7 features, like your new homegroup (and the accompanying password). When it’s finished, you’re up and rolling with your new Windows 7 installation.

Congratulations! You should now have a new entry for Windows 7 on your boot screen when you first start up your computer. You’ve now got all the tools necessary to dual-boot Windows 7 and XP or Vista—or even to triple-boot Windows 7, Vista, and XP.

This isn’t the only way to set up a multi-boot system by any means, but it’s how I pulled it off. If you’ve got a method of your own that you prefer, let’s hear it in the comments.

Trick to get Windows 7 Release Candidate direct download links

2009-05-09T15:59:00.002+01:00

After weeks of anticipation, Windows 7 Release Candidate (RC) is available for download.

Unlike the trick to download Windows 7 beta installer and license, you do not have to download the Release Candidate immediately - it will be available until July 2009. There are also unlimited access keys for the Windows 7 Release Candidate.

Download Windows 7 Release Candidate

Windows 7 RC is available on the Windows 7 page on Microsoft website, but we figured you shouldn’t have to waste your time by logging in to that website and then downloading it - here are the direct, working links (tested by hand) to Windows 7 Release Candidate.

Choose the correct version below - most likely your computer will be capable of 64-bit, if so choose that. Since Microsoft redirects the links to homepage, we will follow a couple of steps to ensure the download - follow along and you will have no problem downloading it.

Open the appropriate link below (32 or 64 bit) in a new tab or window in your browser. You will notice that it redirects to the Windows 7 page instead of starting a download.

Immediately after you are redirected to the Windows 7 page, copy the link (right-click and Copy Link location in Firefox, Copy shortcut in IE) and paste it into the addressbar of the window in which you opened the Windows 7 page. Your download will start immediately.

Download Windows 7 Release Candidate 32-bit

Download Windows 7 Release Candidate 64-bit

The above steps work because Microsoft checks referrers to see if the visitor is downloading after following the usual steps to download - by copy-pasting the link again, it seems to be tricked. These direct links have been tested and are guaranteed to work at the time of writing - Microsoft may detect it and redirect you to home page (if that happens, please leave a comment here about it, and any working direct links you may know).

Install Windows 7 RC

If you have not installed a pre-release Windows version before or otherwise require instructions for installing, read the Windows 7 RC installation instructions.

How to upgrade Windows 7 beta to RC

Windows 7 RC installer detects software other than Windows Vista and prevent the upgrade. This is a major disappointment for enthusiasts who are looking to upgrade their Windows 7 beta installs.

However, there is a hack to upgrade Windows 7 beta versions to RC - backup your data and read the instructions carefully before attempting the hack.

Duration of use of Windows 7 RC

WIndows 7 RC can be used without any restrictions until 1 March 2010. After that date, it will enter a restricted usage mode and restart every 2 hours.

It will expire on June 1. That should be plenty of time to use and evaluate the RC - rumours point to a late 2009 or early 2010 release date for Windows 7, so you will likely be able to install a proper copy of Windows 7 before the RC approaches its date of expiry.

Upgrade Windows 7 from beta to RC (bulid 7000 to 7100)

2009-05-09T15:51:00.001+01:00

Microsoft has bulit a detection method into Windows 7 RC install files so that it detects OS other than Windows Vista and prevents the upgrade. This will likely be a major problem for enthusiasts who had installed Windows 7 beta and want to upgrade to the release candidate.

The official explanation is that upgrading from beta software builds to RC is blocked to avoid problems during such an upgrade. Microsoft recommends a fresh install of Windows 7 RC for the same reason. For example, Windows 7 beta builds like 7077 are blocked from being upgraded to Windows 7 (build 7100) RC.

However, there is a known hack to skip the version detection and upgrade from beta to RC. This method of hacking involves modifying a .ini file within the ISO file before starting the installer. Follow the instructions below for the hack.

Hack to upgrade Windows 7 beta to RC directly

If you do not have it already, download the Windows 7 setup file.

Extract the content of the ISO file to a folder using IZArc.

Inside that folder, open the sources directory.

Open cversion.ini in Notepad or similar text editor.

Change the 4-digit number after the word MinClient build number to a lower value. For our purposes, change it from 7100 to 7000.

Save the file (make sure to save, NOT save as).

Start up the Windows 7 installation.

Extract zip, ISO, DAA files with IZArc[freeware]

2009-05-09T15:47:00.001+01:00

Archiving and extracting files can be done in Windows XP and upwards with the help of built-in tools. However, as with many other things, built-in utilities tend to have very little tweakable options and power features. For anyone that desires better features, the built-in archival utility is not the right option.

IZArc is a freeware archival application for Windows. It has all the normal features expected from an archival application: zip and unzip archives, create self-extracting archives, create normal archives from self-extracting archives, encrypt/decrypt archives.

However, it also has other ‘extra’ features, like extracting individual files from a ISO file (CD image), repair archives, create multi-part archives and merge multi-part archives into one. What this means is that IZArc is a very powerful archival program, with many features not found on similar programs (even paid ones).

In fact, it was such extra features that helped me extract DAA file without using the expensive PowerISO [see tutorial to extract DAA files]

As you can see from the screenshot below, the window is simple and uncomplicated. Once you install IZArc, you can configure it to associate with archive files. Then, double-clicking archives will bring up IZArc with options to extract files. You can also choose the location easily.

Tip: Instead of double-clicking files, right-click archive file, hover over ‘IZArc’, and choose Extract to .<filename>, where <filename> is the actual name of the file. When you do this, the files will be extracted to a new folder within the same folder that the archive file is located in.

Download IZArc

How to extract and open .daa files for free

2009-05-09T15:25:00.000+01:00

.daa extension (Direct Access Archives) is a proprietary format by PowerISO, used commonly to archive large ISO files (ISO is a disk image format that you can burn to a disk using Nero or any other burner). DAA files format has features like compression, password protection, and splitting to multiple volumes.

DAA files can be opened by PowerISO, but unfortunately, it is free to use only for small files. Many file .daa that you get over the internet, especially those from Linux users, or file-sharing services (like BitTorrent) will be in DAA format.

This tutorial will show you how open .daa files for free on Windows. Extracting .daa extension files require two steps - converting the DAA file to an ISO file, and then burning the ISO file to a disc or extracting the ISO to get the required files.

Opening / extracting .daa files

Below are the methods to open .daa files - currently, I have only a tutorial for WIndows. Tutorial for Linux and Mac OS X will be added soon.

For Windows

To get .daa files open in Windows, you should download the following programs: DAA2ISO (no install required, just open it) and IZArc. DAA2ISO converts the .daa file to an ISO file, which you can then burn to a disc or extract (using IZArc). Alternatively, you can mount the .ISO file with MagicISO.

Once you’ve downloaded and installed them, follow these easy steps:

Open DAA2ISO, and in the first box, point to the DAA file. In the second box, select the place where you want to extract the ISO, and also the filename for it.

Open IZArc, and point to the ISO file and fill in the details like where you want it to be extracted to.

You would now have the original files that were converted to DAA. If you need to make a disc of the files, follow the first step from above. Then download and install ImgBurn (freeware). Open ImgBurn and burn the ISO file to a disc to get a disc with all the contents of the original DAA file.

Review: ImgBurn, to write discs for free

2009-05-09T14:55:00.000+01:00

Nero might be omni-present ((when was the last time you saw someone using non-Nero software for burning discs?)) and etched onto the minds of every computer user as the best disc writing tool. However, it costs a premium, and is not really necessary for most day-to-day disc burning needs.

While Nero goes on adding more utilities to its package, I (and you should, too) choose to go the opposite way of using free, lightweight tools for such tasks. ImgBurn is one such tool, that allows you to burn discs without the hype, hassles or problems. All for the price of $0.00.

It has a neat interface (though not very beautiful).

The interface is, admittedly, sparse. However, it is not confusing, and does its job decently . Most people do not realize that the main reason for attraction to popular software like Nero is its interface and not functionality. The most important part is that it is lightweight and perfectly suitable for old and new computers alike.

The worst part of ImgBurn is its design. So, if you can get over it, then you have your hands on a decent application that does what it is intended to do, nothing more, nothing less. ‘Nothing more’ is significant, when you consider that many popular applications are losing fans because of additional functionalities (and consequent resource hogging) that many do not desire. Think Nero, Firefox, Adobe Reader etc.

Functionality is where it shines. ImgBurn burns discs without any problems, and is quick, lightweight and focussed. And most importantly, it is free. What more could you ask for?

ImgBurn download | ImgBurn site