KoMpYuTeR...

FACEBOOK IN SKYPE

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:42:00 +0000

i was reading my mails in gmail when i suddenly saw a this message and thought yeah this is cool..so, i checked it out and voila!!!...its real, you can actually login in facebook and read your wall..how cool is that huh...

and i can actually see all my facebook friends contact detail...what else can you ask for...

just click here to get the SKYPE 5.0 Beta version..

10 Privacy Settings Every Facebook User Should Know

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Thu, 07 Oct 2010 11:39:00 +0000

Posted by Nick O'Neill on February 2nd, 2009 11:00 AM

We’ve updated this guide with the new privacy settings just launched by Facebook. You can get the new Facebook privacy guide now.
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.

Become a fan of AllFacebook to stay up to date on the latest Facebook privacy changes.

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.

Become a fan of AllFacebook to stay up to date on the latest Facebook privacy changes.

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!

Microsoft Security Essentials

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Sun, 05 Sep 2010 07:35:00 +0000

As Freelance Computer Technician, 95% of problems I deal with are mostly due to malwares, trojans, viruses etc. A nuisance to everybody, i've read the book "A Little Blackbook on Computer Virus", i can't still grasp the logic on it why they create these organisms and release it. Well, good for me, more clients.

Anyway, just want to share to everybody that you don't have to spend a lot of money on subscription for security on your computer, if you are using a Windows Operating System you can just download Microsoft Security Essentials from this link and voila you have an all-in-one security on your computer. There is a catch though, you have to make sure that the operating system that is installed in your computer is genuine because MSE will validate your OS before installing.

I will show you how easy it is to have it:

1. Download Microsoft Security Essentials from the download link given above.
2. Install MSE.
3. Restart computer.
4. Update MSE and scan your computer.
5. And now you are PROTECTED.

I would recommend this to all who have WINDOWS OS.

Happy computing...

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:05:00 +0000

In depth: BlackBerry Torch 9800 makes 'corporate' cool

RIM's new smartphone really could cure enterprise customers of iPhone/Android envy.

By Dan Rosenbaum

August 12, 2010 06:00 AM ET

Computerworld - About nine years ago, I was walking around with a first-generation BlackBerry on my belt. That 'Berry couldn't make phone calls, it couldn't browse the Web, and it sure couldn't play music. It did just one thing: e-mail. Smartphones hadn't been invented yet, and the concept of a mobile device for sending and receiving mail was completely exotic, even in ever-compulsive New York.

The gadget world has been through a few revolutions since then, what with Sidekicks and Treos and iPhones and Droids. But one fact has remained pretty fundamental: You can have all the fun you want with that other gear, but if you're serious about e-mail -- especially corporate e-mail -- you're probably going to wind up with a BlackBerry in your pocket.
Research in Motion, the Waterloo, Ontario-based company that develops and builds BlackBerries, has released a legion of the devices over the years, with each one differing from its predecessors in form and somewhat less so in features. Generally speaking, though, BlackBerries have distinctly trailed the smartphone market. They've been perfectly fine phones that were more than good enough to be corporate standard issue, but they've lacked the sexy oomph that sells gadgets to consumers. In many ways, they've been the gadget equivalent of a buzz cut: efficient, standard, corporate, boring.

BlackBerry Torch

The new BlackBerry Torch 9800 ($200 with a two-year contract from AT&T; data plans are $15/month for 200MB or $25/month for 2GB) pretty much catches up to the cool kids. It features a new operating system, BlackBerry 6, but its physical form is unmistakably classic BlackBerry.
The new operating system has a new interface, a media player, a new browser and hooks into social media, but it doesn't give you much in the way of features that you can't find in any other top-of-the-line smartphone. That may be good enough. In a world where RIM was in danger of being lapped by the competition, the Torch is a more-than-reasonable rejoinder for an enterprise manager besieged by users insisting on Android phones or iPhones.

Keyboard conundrum

The Torch's 3.2-inch touch screen is a bit of a departure from earlier BlackBerries, except the Storm. But where the Storm has only a soft on-screen keyboard, the new Torch also includes a slide-down hard QWERTY keyboard. This will be a great relief to longtime tappers. Also, the BlackBerry's hard trackpad makes a welcome return to the middle of the row of function keys.
But as welcome as the hard keyboard is, it presents something of a user interface conundrum. Between the touch screen and the keyboard, there are several different ways to perform the same function on the Torch. You can see your e-mail, for instance, by tapping in a "quick access" area at the top of the screen, by tapping or clicking on an application icon, or by using the trackpad to click on either. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It is, however, unusual and a point of possible confusion.
The phone, when closed, is a tiny bit narrower and shorter than an iPhone 4, though at 0.57 inches thick and about 5.7 ounces, it's half again as thick as an iPhone and nearly a full ounce heavier. Blame the hard keyboard. Extending the keyboard adds 1.4 inches to the length. The back is rubberized plastic, and the phone has a generally solid, substantial, well-balanced feel.
There is 512MB of flash memory and 4GB of general on-board memory built in, and a 4GB microSD card is included. The phone supports quad-band GSM and HSPDA, and RIM says it supports 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi connectivity. Unfortunately, although I have no reason to doubt that the phone supports 802.11n, I was unable to get it to connect to an up-to-date Apple Airport Express router.

The built-in flash camera takes 5-megapixel pictures and shoots videos with continuous autofocus. In practice, the camera was just OK, but -- in what is an unusual feature for a smartphone -- it offers the ability to select from among 10 "scenes" with preset settings, such as "face detection," "party," "beach" and so on. This can make things easy for novice photographers.
RIM claims that the Torch's battery supports about 5.5 hours of talk time, 30 hours of audio playback and six hours of video playback. The screen is crisp and clear, although it's no rival to a Droid X's Super AMOLED. The screen supports multitouch input, recognizing taps, pinches and slides. The display also rotates between landscape and portrait mode as you reorient the phone with the keyboard stowed, but it does not go to landscape if you have the keyboard open.
Setup, as one would hope for a corporate-oriented phone, was quick, smooth, and trivial -- particularly the e-mail and Exchange parts. The e-mail applications were exactly what one would expect from a BlackBerry, with mailbox sync, message filtering and display by thread (or not). If you've hardwired your fingers to the BlackBerry interface over the years, you won't be disrupted.

BlackBerry 6

The BlackBerry 6 user interface feels a lot like Android's. The home screen is initially clear except for your wallpaper, but you bring up screens of applications with an upward flick of a finger and page through them by flicking up and down or left and right. The interface supports folders, so you can group applications together, but it took some fumbling to understand that the "Back" button below the screen is how you move upward through the file structure to the home screen.
In general, when using BB6 it's not always clear what you can do through a touch and what needs a click -- and whether the click should come from the trackpad, the BlackBerry button or the Back button. In the time that I worked with it, I didn't detect a consistent pattern of behavior; it may well become clearer with practice and familiarity.
As with any contemporary smartphone platform, there's an online store where you can download apps for the Torch; it's called BlackBerry App World. Don't expect the breadth of offerings available at either Apple's App Store or the Android Store -- certainly not right away. But it wouldn't surprise me in the least if developers came up with some highly useful corporate apps for the Torch in short order.
You can search for apps or browse by category and then scroll through using the trackpad. Unsurprisingly, you need to sign up for an account, but that's quick and painless, aside from the two unconscionably long license pages whose terms you need to agree to en route.
The phone comes with a 3-inch CD containing BlackBerry Desktop Software, which lets you load music onto the Torch through a USB connection; it also helps you sync notes, contacts and calendars with your desktop software if you don't do it wirelessly through the cloud. (If you've got a computer -- like a MacBook -- with a slot-loading drive, a 3-inch CD is useless. Fortunately, the software is also downloadable from RIM's site.)

Conclusions

As with any BlackBerry, e-mail is at the core of the Torch 9800's functionality. But instead of a corporate buzz cut, the Torch is more like a mullet: business in front, party in the back. That's not a bad thing. It allows for excellent enterprise functionality but has room to let people have some fun.

5 indispensable IT skills of the future

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Mon, 23 Aug 2010 19:00:00 +0000

5 indispensable IT skills of the future

installing windows xp using a flash drive

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 08:49:00 +0000

this tutorial is useful for netbooks...

To complete this tutorial you need a 32bit version of Windows XP or Windows Vista installed on your home PC.

What you'll need:
USB_PREP8 (alternative download)
PeToUSB (alternative download)
Bootsect.exe (alternative download)
Special Note: If you use the program Nlite be sure to keep the manual installation files as the USB_prep8 script relies on these files.

Extract the files in Bootsect.zip
The next step is to extract USB_prep8 and PeToUSB.
Next copy the PeToUSB executable into the USB_prep8 folder.
Inside of the USB_prep8 folder double click the executable named usb_prep8.cmd.

The window that opens will look like this:

Press any key to continue

You next window will look like this:
These settings are preconfigured for you all you need to do now is click start.
Once the format is complete DO NOT close the window just leave everything as it is and open a command prompt from your start menu (type cmd in the search bar or run box depending on your version of windows.).

Inside of the command windows go to the directory you have bootsect.exe saved.
(use the cd directoryname command to switch folders)

Now type "bootsect.exe /nt52 R:" NOTE R: is the drive letter for my USB stick if yours is different you need to change it accordingly. What this part does is write the correct boot sector to your USB stick, this allows your PC to boot from the USB stick without it nothing works.
Please note: When running the bootsect.exe command you cannot have any windows open displaying the content of your USB stick, if you have a window open bootsect.exe will be unable to lock the drive and write the bootsector correctly.

If all went well you should see "Bootcode was successfully updated on all targeted volumes."

Now you can close this command prompt (don't close the usbprep8 one by mistake) and the petousb window.

You window you see now should look like this:

If it doesn't try pressing enter.

Now you need to enter the correct information for numbers 1-3.
Press 1 and then enter. A folder browse window will open for you to browse to the location of you XP setup files (aka your cdrom drive with xp cd in)
Press 2 and enter a letter not currently assigned to a drive on your PC
Press 3 and enter the drive letter of your USB stick
Press 4 to start the process.

The script will ask you if its ok to format drive T:. This is just a temp drive the program creates to cache the windows installation files. Press Y then enter.

Once it's done formating press enter to continue again, you can now see the program copying files to the temp drive it created. Once this is done press enter to continue again.

Next you will see a box pop up asking you to copy the files to USB drive yes/no you want to click yes.

Once the script has completed copy files a popup window asking if you would like to USB drive to be preferred boot drive U: select YES on this window.

Now select yes to unmount the virtual drive.

Ok we are done the hard part, close the usbprep8 window.

Now make sure your EEE pc is configured with USB as the primary boot device.
Insert your USB drive and boot up the EEE.

On the startup menu you have two options, select option number 2 for text mode setup.

From this point on it is just like any other windows XP installation delete/recreate the primary partition on your EEE pc and format it using NTFS. Make sure you delete ALL partitions and recreate a single partition or you will get the hal.dll error message.

Once the text mode portion of setup is complete it will boot into the GUI mode (you can press enter after the reboot if your too excited to wait the 30 seconds)

Once the GUI portion of setup is complete you will again have to boot into GUI mode this will complete the XP installation and you will end up at you XP desktop. It is very important that you DO NOT REMOVE THE USB STICK before this point. Once you can see your start menu it is safe to remove the usb stick and reboot your pc to make sure everything worked.

This method has advantages over all current no cdrom methods of installing XP to the EEE. You do not have to copy setup files in DOS to the SSD and install from there. It gives you access to the recovery console by booting into text mode setup, and it gives you the ability to run repair installations of XP if you have problems later on.

Canon Printer Ink Cartridges

8 quick tips for getting the most from IE8

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:17:00 +0000

8 quick IE8 tips

1. Use Accelerators to speed up your work

2. Bookmark only the info you need

3. Cover your tracks

4. Navigate pages without a mouse

5. Protect your privacy and even block ads

6. View incompatible pages

7. Decode the Status Bar

8. Customize the interface

Sidebar: IE8 keyboard shortcuts

Computerworld - Internet Explorer 8, the latest update to Microsoft's venerable Web browser, introduces several features intended to provide greater security and ease of use. New security settings in IE8 allow for more privacy, new add-ons allow quick access to Web-based information and services, and a new browsing mode changes the way you interact with your browser.

Some old features return in new form, too, such as toolbar customization, the ability to view pages the way earlier versions of Internet Explorer saw them, and a set of mysterious boxes that have colonized the bottom of the browser window.

These tips will help you take advantage of the new and enhanced features. And if you're among those who still haven't upgraded from IE6 or 7, take a peek to see what you're missing.

1. Use Accelerators to speed up your work

Accelerators are add-ons for IE8 that let you quickly do a variety of tasks based on text you select on a Web page: get a stock quote, look up the definition of a word or phrase, map a location, convert currencies, share selected text on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, create a shortened URL, search for a product at an online shopping site and much more.

Select any piece of text on a Web page, and the Accelerator button, shown at right, will pop up; click that button to see the Accelerator menu. (You can also access Accelerators on the right-click contextual menu.)

Some Accelerators show their results in a pop-up window, as shown in the image below, while others appear in a new tab.

Using the Google Dictionary AcceleratorIE8 comes with several built-in Accelerators, but third-party developers are already starting to produce a wide range of new ones that you can install yourself. Go to Microsoft's Accelerator Gallery to see the available options.

2. Bookmark only the info you need with Web Slices

Another add-on that's new in IE8 is the Web Slice. Web Slices allow you to subscribe to a frequently updated part of a Web page, such as sports scores, headlines or current weather -- if the site's developers have designated that part of the page as a Web Slice. (Most Web sites are not Web Slice-enabled at this time.)

When a page you're viewing contains a Web Slice, a green icon appears on the toolbar next to the Home icon, as shown to the right. The same icon appears next to the Slice-ready content on a Web page when you mouse over it. Click the icon in either location to see a dialog box asking if you want to add the content to your Favorites bar.

Internet pioneer Cerf urges IPv6 migrations

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 17:01:00 +0000

InfoWorld - Internet pioneer Vinton Cerf repeated a call for migrations to IPv6 (Internet Protocol version 6) to stave off an anticipated lack of available addresses on IPv4.

Speaking at an industry event at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, Calif. on Wednesday, Cerf, co-designer of the TCP/IP protocols, warned that IPv4 will run out of addresses next year or in early-2011. While there will be a period of attempts to sell off IPv4 spaces, Cerf stressed that the "smart thing to do is implement v6 now." He has made similar calls for migration to IPv6 previously.

[ Many businesses say they see no economic advantage to deploying IPv6 over their networks, but IPv6 is coming, ready or not. ]

IPv6, from the Internet Engineering Task Force, dates back several years and represents the next generation of the Internet protocol. Internet service providers need to move to IPv6, said Cerf, who currently is vice president and chief Internet evangelist at Google Inc. Without more IP addresses, the Internet will not be able to grow very well, he said.

Cerf and other dignitaries in computing were featured at a dual celebration of the 40th anniversary of ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency Network), which was a forerunner of the Internet, and the 125th anniversary of IEEE, which sponsored the event. The first transmission of the ARPAnet was on Oct. 29, 1969, from the University of California, Los Angeles, to SRI.

Cerf hailed the growth of the Internet and predicted its expansion into numerous devices, including household temperature systems and even into outer space. Sensor networks on the Internet will tell people which devices are consuming how much electricity, Cerf added.

"There are over 600 million servers on the Net that we can see," and the actual number is probably double that, Cerf said. The Internet has 1.6 billion users as of 2009, he said.

"We are still in a state of evolution," Cerf said. "There are so many opportunities to add new functionally and new capabilities," to the system, he said.

"We are going to see billions and billions of devices on the Net," he said. The Internet, for its part, has invited many people to contribute content, Cerf said.

He explained he has been developing protocols for Internet-like space exploration systems. A three-node interplanetary network already is in use in a test mode involving the international space station, the EPOXI space craft and an Earth-bound surface system, he said.

Also speaking at the event, Howard Charney, senior vice president in the Office of the President at Cisco Systems Inc., said development of the Internet has come a long way, although three-fourths of the world remains unconnected. This leaves an amazing opportunity, he said.

"Basically, the advent of this technology has transformed every single sector of our lives," including government, retail, health care, manufacturing, and education, Charney said. "Nothing -- nothing -- is the same anymore."

"What comes next is pervasive computing, where everything is connected, 24/7, to everything else," Charney said.

Echoing Cerf, Charney said everything would be connected ranging from pacemakers to maybe even cartons of milk. The Internet, meanwhile, can offer the opportunity for someone in Botswana to sell crafts to a much larger market, Charney said. In Cambodia, one spot lacking electricity nonetheless is improving itself through use of wireless Internet access, he said.

The Internet boosts productivity and, in turn, standards of living, Charney said.

Intel sees PCs spreading, becoming more desirable in future

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:19:00 +0000

August 28, 2009 (IDG News Service) The PC market is likely to see steep growth in the years ahead, similar to the growth witnessed in the phone market after the introduction of mobile phones, an Intel executive said on Thursday.

In the same way telephones moved from one per house to one per room to one for each person, PCs are also becoming personalized devices, said Mooly Eden, vice president and general manager, of Intel's Mobile Platforms Group, at a meeting in Bangalore.

"It could be a notebook or a netbook or a mobile Internet device (MID)," Eden said.

Selling PCs has become a "consumer game", focused as much on the elegance and sleekness of the device, as its performance and other specifications, Eden said.

In most markets, affordability is not an issue for marketers of PCs, but the "desirability" of the computers, Eden said. To become desirable to a large segment of potential users who can afford PCs, the devices have to have content, user interface, and applications that they can relate to, he added.

This optimistic view of the market may hold true for mature markets, but not in emerging markets like India where 10,000 rupees (US$200) is seen as the magic price level for a reasonably configured PC to take off in large volumes.

Netbook prices are likely to come down because of economies of scale, said Eden, but he was not willing to forecast when the price would be below US$200.

Eden expects that demand in emerging markets could get a push through subsidies, for example if telecommunications service providers offer netbooks at a discount or free as part of a service plan.

Intel originally thought demand for netbooks powered by its Atom processor would first ramp up in emerging markets, because of the low-cost of these devices, Eden said. Currently about 85 percent of the sales of netbooks are in mature markets, Eden said.

A lot of netbook customers in these markets want to go beyond basic browsing and communications to applications like storing movies, which led vendors to include large hard-disk drives, and in some cases Microsoft's Windows operating system, Eden said.

To cut netbook prices, vendors in emerging markets can, for example, use the Moblin Linux operating system, backed by Intel, which is good enough for basic applications like browsing and communications, he added.

China Unicom to sell iPhone next quarter

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 15:26:00 +0000

August 28, 2009 (IDG News Service) China Unicom has reached a 3-year deal with Apple to offer the iPhone in China, it said Friday, confirming rumors that have swirled for months.

The company expects to launch the phone in the fourth quarter this year, it said in a statement. The deal brings the iPhone to a huge market in a country with nearly 700 million mobile subscribers.

The company listed both the 8GB iPhone 3G and 16GB and 32GB versions of the iPhone 3GS as models it will launch in a document posted on its Web site. The document advertised a "competitive purchase cost" for the phones, without giving details.

The iPhone is already popular among fashion-conscious Chinese users who buy smuggled versions or get the phones abroad.

The iPhone supports WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access), a 3G standard being promoted by China Unicom that is also used in Europe and by some operators in the U.S. But the iPhone offered by China Unicom is unlikely to support Wi-Fi, which was not listed in the record for an unnamed Apple device that received one of the government licenses needed to be sold in China.

China has not allowed Wi-Fi on mobile phones until this year, when it began allowing handsets that support a domestically developed security protocol for wireless LANs.

NBC Dallas Showing Some eHow Love

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:27:00 +0000

NBC Dallas Showing Some eHow Love

Shared via AddThis

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 19:23:00 +0000

Apple Hot News http://www.apple.com/hotnews/ Hot News provided by Apple. en-us Copyright 2009, Apple Inc. Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:08:31 PDT Tue, 04 Aug 2009 10:08:31 PDT Apple In house http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss/ Learn how to draw Garfield on iTunes U http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/vdoe.brpbs.org.2029969714.02029969716?sr=hotnews Thanks to the Virginia Department of Education and the Professor Garfield Foundation, you — and your kids, of course — can get an Introduction to Comics on iTunes U. The 15 video episodes encourage children to draw, sculpt, and carve. In fact, Jim Davis — who created Garfield — gets the course off to a great start, showing us all how he draws his famous lasagna-loving feline. Fri, 31 Jul 2009 09:00:00 PDT Coming Attractions: Julie & Julia http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/julieandjulia/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss Meryl Streep is already receiving rave reviews for her performance as Julia Child in Julie & Julia. The film, which co-stars Amy Adams as Julie Powell, is based on Powell’s memoir, Julie & Julia, and Child’s My Life in France. Written and directed by Nora Ephron (You’ve Got Mail, Sleepless in Seattle), Julie & Julia opens in theaters on Friday, August 7. Bon appétit. Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:15:00 PDT Apple releases MobileMe iDisk app http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320654497&mt=8?sr=hotnews If you subscribe to MobileMe, you can now use your iPhone or iPod touch to view and share Pages documents, Keynote presentations, Microsoft Office documents, PDFs and more. To view documents, simply select them. To share them with others, just tap the share icon and choose your recipients. iDisk will send them an email with a download link. Get the free MobileMe iDisk app from the App Store. Wed, 29 Jul 2009 15:28:28 PDT Taking care of business on the App Store http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124881952727688085.html?sr=hotnews Salesforce Mobile, RoamBi Visualizer, the eBay Profit Calculator, Invoice Makers, Day Tracker, Bid Estimates — they’re but a few of the growing number of apps now available for small business owners on the iPhone App Store, according to Riva Richmond (online.wsj.com). Says iphonebootcampnyc.com dveloper Jonathan Sarno, “For the road warrior, the iPhone is perfect. Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:16:29 PDT App of the Week: Rolando 2: Quest for the Golden Orchid http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=321084051&mt=8?sr=hotnews Ready for a sequel that outplays the original? Rolando 2 breaks new ground, taking you underwater and up in the sky, offering new vehicles and weapons, and featuring a new 3D look and 45 levels of play. Like the original, it encourages you to touch, tilt, and slide your Rolandos to new levels of achievement. You can let friends know about your high scores, or challenge them via Facebook or email. Will you be able to discover the Golden Orchid? Wed, 29 Jul 2009 08:05:55 PDT iPhone: Essential Equipment http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/sunbelt-rentals/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss For Sunbelt Rentals, the iPhone is as indispensable as hard hats. Sunbelt rents scissor lifts, cranes, backhoes and other heavy machinery to construction companies in 34 states. And its 1200-strong sales team depends on iPhone for real-time customer, business, and inventory information. The company even created its own iPhone app — Mobile SalesPro — to deliver that information to every member of its sales force. Tue, 28 Jul 2009 09:46:11 PDT Richard Massey: Demystifying Dark Matter http://www.apple.com/science/profiles/massey/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss Astronomer RIchard Massey maps “dark matter,” little understood material that holds our universe together but is otherwise invisible. The presence of dark matter can be inferred, however, by its effect on galaxies we can see. So Massey takes high-resolution photos of distant galaxies using the Hubble Space Telescope. And to analyze the huge, multi-terabyte images he captures, Massey depends on his Mac. Fri, 24 Jul 2009 16:12:11 PDT Creativity through collaboration http://www.apple.com/iphone/business/profiles/aedas/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss “Once you get a new employee an iPhone, they are in,” says Aedas Sport’s Michael Sedlacek. “They’re connected.” And that connection has spiked productivity — by as much as 400%, the architectural firm estimates. “We couldn’t imagine letting people work without one,” adds managing director Dan Meis. “Because that would mean they weren’t connected to us. And ultimately, that would cost the business money, far more than the cost of a phone.” Fri, 24 Jul 2009 12:13:23 PDT (500) Days of Summer: (15) Questions http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/in-action/fivehundreddays/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss “I prefer Final Cut,” explains Alan Bell, who edited the new film, (500) Days of Summer, “because it offers me an open and easy way to move media and elements in and out of the system, while handling multiple file types and sizes in the same timeline. So it just works better and faster than any other editing solution out there.” Read the full interview with Bell and the film’s director, Marc Webb, on the new Final Cut Studio site. Fri, 24 Jul 2009 10:55:24 PDT Bet you can’t watch just one http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/new.duke.edu.2256724776?sr=hotnews Believe it or not, we’ve been watching television commercials for nearly 70 years. Some have made us laugh. Some have made us cry. A few have even encouraged us to go out and buy something. And many TV ads have entered popular culture, influencing us in ways unexpected by advertisers. Though you won’t see many of these ads on TV anytime soon, you can see them on iTunes U thanks to Duke University and its AdViews. Fri, 24 Jul 2009 09:06:58 PDT Coming Attractions: Funny People http://www.apple.com/trailers/universal/funnypeople/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss Written, directed, and co-produced by Judd Apatow (The 40 Year Old Virgin, Knocked Up), Funny People stars Adam Sandler as George Simmons, a comedian who learns he has less than a year to live, and Seth Rogen as Ira Wright, a struggling stand-up comic that Simmons befriends. The film, which opens in theaters on July 31, also stars Leslie Mann, Eric Bana, and Jonah Hill. Enjoy. Fri, 24 Jul 2009 08:43:23 PDT App Store Pick of the Week: Shakespeare http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=285035416&mt=8?sr=hotnews If you’re headed back to school soon, don’t forget to pack a copy of Shakespeare. On your iPhone. The free app brings you the full text of all forty plays, as well as the Bard’s poems and sonnets. Customize your reading experience by picking the font color and font size. Opt to scroll or tap your way down the page. You can even rotate iPhone or iPod touch and read Shakespeare in landscape mode. Thu, 23 Jul 2009 10:29:21 PDT Apple updates Final Cut Studio with more than 100 new features http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/?sr=hotnews.rss Apple today announced a significant update to Final Cut Studio, offering more than 100 new features and new versions of Final Cut Pro, Motion, Soundtrack Pro, Color, and Compressor. Final Cut Pro 7 expands Apple’s ProRes codec family to support virtually any workflow and includes Easy Export for one step output to a variety of formats. At $999, the new Final Cut Studio is $300 less than the previous release and is also available as an upgrade for just $299. Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:30:15 PDT Apple unveils new Logic Studio http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/?sr=hotnews.rss The new version of Logic Studio introduced today offers major upgrades to Logic Pro and Mainstage and more than 200 new features that simplify tasks. “The new Logic Studio is ideal for professional musicians, live performers and GarageBand enthusiasts who want to take their music to the next level,” said Philip Schiller, Apple’s senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. Available today, Logic Studio sells for $499. Current Logic Studio and Logic Pro users can upgrade for $199. Thu, 23 Jul 2009 05:30:10 PDT Apple reports best non-holiday quarter revenue in company’s history http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2009/07/21results.html?sr=hotnews.rss “We’re extremely pleased to report record non-holiday quarter revenue and earnings and quarterly cash flow from operations of $2.3 billion,” said Apple CFO Peter Oppenheimer. For its third fiscal quarter, Apple posted revenue of $8.34 billion and a net quarterly profit of $1.23 billion, or $1.35 per diluted share. Apple sold 2.6 million Macintosh computers, 10.2 million iPods, and 5.2 million iPhones during the quarter. Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:30:05 PDT Mac OS X Tip: Keep applications in the Dock http://www.apple.com/business/theater/?sr=hotnews/#appsindock?sr=hotnews.rss If you use an application all the time, there’s no need to navigate to the Applications folder whenever you want to use it. Mac OS X Leopard lets you keep frequently used applications in the Dock, where you can launch them with a mouse click. And in today’s Quick Tip, you’ll find out how easy it is to add aliases of your favorite applications to the Dock. Take a look. Mon, 20 Jul 2009 14:53:03 PDT Open Yale Courses now available on iTunes U http://deimos3.apple.com/WebObjects/Core.woa/Browse/yale.edu?sr=hotnews Though you can already enjoy a significant number of Yale University lectures and interviews on iTunes U, now you can sign up for entire courses in Game Theory, Frontiers of Biomedical Engineering, Milton, and others by subscribing to the newly available Open Yale Courses. Yale offers free access to a variety of introductory courses in a variety of disciplines “to expand access to educational materials for all who wish to learn.” Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:15:27 PDT Coming Attractions: G-Force http://www.apple.com/trailers/disney/gforce/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss Ready for some fun? Catch G-Force, a new Disney comedy — in Disney Digital 3-D — produced by Jerry Bruckheimer. In the film, Nicolas Cage, Sam Rockwell, Penélope Cruz, Tracy Morgan, Jon Favreau, and Steve Buscemi play a team of secret agents out to protect the world against billionaire Leonard Saber (Bill Nighy). Of course, these secret agents just happen to be guinea pigs, moles, and hamsters. Enjoy. Fri, 17 Jul 2009 08:06:34 PDT Franz Ferdinand: Better at Night with Logic Pro http://www.apple.com/logicstudio/in-action/fferdinand/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss “When it comes to recording, I don’t want to be a technical person,” says Alex Kapranos, lead singer/guitarist for Franz Ferdinand. “The studio should be a creative place. So I like a system that is really straightforward, visually appealing, and simple.” He found that system, writing most of the songs for Tonight: Franz Ferdinand on his MacBook Pro using GarageBand and Logic Pro. The result? A sound “different from everything we’ve ever done before.” Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:29:31 PDT This Just In http://www.apple.com/finalcutstudio/action/cronkite/?sr=hotnews?sr=hotnews.rss To train the next generation of professional journalists, Arizona State University built a state-of-the-art facility for its prestigious Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. There, student journalists write, shoot, edit, and broadcast their own stories on Mac computers using Final Cut Pro. “Among the most critical decisions we made,” says News Director Mark Lodato, “was choosing Final Cut Pro as our editing tool, and I don’t think we could be more pleased.” Wed, 15 Jul 2009 13:11:14 PDT

OS and File System

cyrilcasimina@gmail.com (Cy) — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 18:46:00 +0000

OS & File System