Prabakaran

Constructing home

2016-10-30T01:22:00.002+05:30

For a common man, constructing a home is a dream. It's a completely different experience and satisfaction when you construct your home with your efforts than purchasing a flat or an already constructed villa. You will be knowing how individual structure is constructed. You will be getting more ideas and you will customize as it progress.
I would like to share my personal experience that I gained in currently constructing home.

Disclaimer:

Certain technical details mentioned below are out of own experience. Consult your Civil engineer for accurate and appropriate information.
Most points are relevant only to India and particular to state of Tamilnadu.

Stages involved:

Choosing land

Purchasing from a newly build layout
Purchasing from an old layout

Builder
Planning and approval
Finance
Construction
Electrical, plumbing and networking

Choosing land:

Selecting land for constructing your home is very important and it is not easy to change once you start construction. Below are the things you need to remember before purchasing/selecting your land.

Approved land/layout
Availability of basic amenities like roads, water, drainage, electrical lines, internet providers.
Distance to your work place
Nearby educational institutions, hospitals/clinic, play ground, shopping centers
Neighborhood
No to industrial and heavy traffic zones

Purchasing from a newly build layout:

If you are purchasing from a newly laid site, you should always select land approved by local bodies like DTCP or CMDA. If DTCP needs to approve a layout, it should adhere to set of rules and regulations like the width of road, drainage, local water tank & pipelines, electrical lines & street lamps, play grounds, links to next layout or nearby roads, soil test, patta land, etc. With the recent regulations posted by Chennai high court, one cannot register(sale/purchase) an unapproved layout. No financial institutions will fund you if the land is unapproved.

Once you choose your site, you need to register the plot in your name. In most cases, the land developers itself will take care of necessary things to do the registration. In the next section you will see things required for registration.

Purchasing from an old layout:

It is same as purchasing from a new layout but there are few additional item you need to explore/confirm before buying an old layout. The same site would have sold to more than one people in the past when the registration department was not computerized. In some cases the site would have mortgaged.

To avoid such fraudulent, one can verify all such information through encumbrance certificate(EC). Also check if it's a patta land. To download/verify EC and patta, below links will help you. For both these cases you need survey number. Optionally you can download EC by entering the registered document number. But this will not give you complete history of whom the land was registered in pasts. So to verify EC always choose to download using survey number.

Encumbrance certificate

Patta

In most registration offices they required parent documents from the seller, EC for 25 years, patta. You need to buy stamp paper for 7% and registration fee of 1% of the sale amount. More info here

Builder:

Once the land comes to your possession, you need to see if you need a builder(contractor) or if you can build by your own by hiring labors and building materials. If you choose to build by your own then your involvement is very critical and complete dedication is required. You would need an engineer hired and he should visit in regular basis and his presence is must during important stages like foundation, concrete structures(beam, column, lintel & roof), water sump, septic tank, compound wall. Your presence in the construction site is required often and you need to manage material stocks,

But if you choose to build through a builder or a contractor your task become much easier. Still your presence is important at certain stages to see things are going as planned.

You can give contract in two ways. Labor contract & material contract. In case of labor contract, you are responsible for purchasing and selecting the required materials. The cost will be based on the area of construction, building layout and complexities involved in construction.

If you choose material contract, the contractor is responsible for purchasing and stocking the materials and also for labor. Some contractors may leave the curing part to the owner. Curing is an important part and will be discussed in later sections. The cost is also based on the area of construction, materials to be used, etc. You need to discuss on the following important things before giving the contract.

Cement(also grade) used for different things like columns, beams, masonry brick, concrete slabs, cement plastering, etc
Mortar ratio(Cement, sand) and concrete ratio(cement, sand, gravel) for above stages
Reinforcement bars used for columns, beams, lintel, roof concrete, compound walls. It is also necessary to discuss on the size of the bars used, grade of the bars, distance between links, etc
Number of columns used
Thickness of walls and cement plaster
Thickness of concrete slab & lintel concrete
Elevation requirements
Flooring requirements like tiles, granite, marbles cost per sq.ft
Kitchen, bathroom & elevation tile cost per sq.ft
Bathroom fittings
Water sump & septic tank volume
Overhead water tank capacity
Plumbing & electrical fittings
Painting & wall care
Materials used for doors, windows
Interior design
Curing responsibility
Time required for completing the construction
Exclusions

Make sure the above are made in a written statement and if possible registered to avoid issues in later stages. Try to look at his completed and ongoing projects. Get the feedback from the owners.

Planning and approval:

This stage should occur in parallel with selecting the builder. Based on personal needs you need to find out the number of bedrooms & bathrooms required, area of all rooms like bedroom, bathroom, hallway, kitchen, foyer, study room, pooja room, balcony, sitout, portico, etc. You also need to decide on the position of building, rooms, water sump, septic tank, staircases, etc. It is very important to adhere to rules dictated by government for the free space around the building.

Once you decide on the above, you can reach a building planner or an engineer to get the drawing. He will advise you with the number of columns required, depth of column, size of the column, size of rods to be used, thickness of concrete slabs, outline for septic, water sump & water harvesting.

You need to use the above drawing to get the building licence from the corporation. You can also do it in online by the link(for coimbatore)

Finance:

It is essential to plan your construction based on your affordability. You can approach the same engineer who planned your building for estimation of the building. It is advisable to keep 20% of the estimated amount reserved to avoid surprises in later stages. Money flow to contractors should be proper and you will need to disburse at regular intervals in completing each stages.

If you need to avail loan, below are few pointers

Choose the financial institution: Government or private sector
Choosing the right plan : Fixed EMI or variable EMI
Eligibility. Most institutions provide 80 - 85% of the total estimate
Affordability. 50 - 55% of total income excluding other EMI and other parameters
Tenure. 5 - 30 years
EMI

Most institutions would required the following documents

Original registered document on your name
Parent documents
EC for 30 years
Patta
Land approval
Building approval
Income certificate
Proof of employment
Bank statement where your salary credited for recent 6 months
Payslip for recent 6 months
Form 16 for recent 2 years
Recent increment certificate if any

You would need to pay 0.5% of loan amount as a processing fee*. For MOD you would need to buy 0.5% stamp duty.

More details here

Construction:
Once you have the building approval and prepared with the financial cost, you would be start to construct with Bhoomi pooja. You should be starting to construct before the first installment of your loan is disbursed. This should be with your own contribution. Based on the progress, your banker will disburse the amount. By this time you should have decided whether to go with pillar based construction or without pillar. Foundation should be laid accordingly.
Recent decades even for small house construction, people are going for pillar based construction as it has several advantages over the later one. Though pillar based construction involves more cost, it is future proof. If you use right rods and have enough foundation, you can raise the building for two stories easily. If you construct without pillar, the load will be on the brick wall. So if you want to remove a wall for some reason, your entire building may collapse. More details here.
At any part of structure, curing is very important. More details here.
For pillar based construction, your builder/engineer would have decided on the number of pillars and the position of each pillars. The foundation for the pillar should be dig at least for 5' and until you see the gravel or the rock. There you will be placing the footing concrete. The rods used are based on your needs. The better the reinforcement rods, more you can raise the building without issues. You would need to use at least 12'' rods of 4 numbers and link rods with an interval of 9''. The concrete for your pillar foundation should be prepared with 1:2:4 ratio of cement, gravel and sand.
You can see more details here.

Once the pillar is raised to the ground level, beam should be constructed similar to pillar but horizontally that links each pillar. It should be laid where you required the walls.

Above the beam you need to raise wall(wherever required) for height at least 4' from road level. It will be helpful if the road height is increased in future. Once the wall is raised, fill the space with soil. It is then watered and compacted. Note that pillar should be raised from the beam and based on your need of lintel height(mostly 7'), you should be raising from this level.

You would then raise wall to your lintel height. Here you will be laying beam that connects each pillar and also on the wall. This again helps to distribute the load in each pillar. Above this lintel you will again construct wall for about 3' based on your needs. More details here.

Here comes the another important structure that you need to be careful which is roof construction. This involves three stages where you first prepare the base for the RCC support.

Reinforcement bars are then placed over the support. More details here.

You will need to plan the electrical lines which will be discussed in next section. Based on the needs you need to plan for placing the hooks for various purposes.

Concrete is then poured above this. The thickness should be at least 5''. Use vibrators to avoid honeycomb like patches which will degrade the bars used. More details here.

The concrete will become hard within 8hrs and it is based on the cement used. Post that it should be cured at least for 24 days. At first the strength of uncured concrete is only 50%. The strength will then increases gradually.

Once the RCC is cured, you will be laying parapet wall for 4', if you only construct single floor.

Before cement plastering on the walls you need to make provision for the electrical pipes, electrical boxes and plumbing lines if required.

Based on your needs you need to plan for the elevation.

For wall care, you can go for POP(Plaster of Paris) for interior walls as it is more smooth compared to putty. Putty is mostly used in outer walls as water cannot cause issues to putty. Also putty is little costlier than POP and will not have good finish as POP. You may need to apply several coating to get same smoothness as POP.

Once the masonry work & wall care work are complete you will need to decide on what material to be used for flooring. Granite will be a best option considering their toughness but costlier. Tiles will be better as its cost vary for low budget to high. Vitrified tiles will be better as this is strong compared to normal tiles. Tiles are made out of clay. Higher the top coating the higher the strength will be.
For bathroom wall tile, most people prefer to lay for 7'. And for kitchen, it would be of full height.

For main doors & windows try to use teak wood as it is the greatest of all woods. Though it is costlier it is the best wood in the world.

Electrical, plumbing and computer networking:

Any faults that occurs out of masonry work will happen at least after 1 year. But any faults in electrical & plumbing will occur immediately. Since these are used in daily life, one should be at most care before installing electrical lines, plumbing works & computer networking.

Electrical:
At the time of roof construction itself, one should decide on the electrical lines required to place. You should be placing the fan boxes and provision for ceiling lamps well ahead. You can make provision on the brick wall once it is laid but not on concrete structure. Also note that PVC pipes that used in roof should be very strong because while pouring concrete the pipes are prone to break. If one of the pipe is broken then concrete will pass to all those pipes which will become unusable.

Central hub for electrical is the MCB where all lines to each room and heavy appliances are distributed. This should not be placed in a room instead on a hallway where it is easily accessible. Go for 3 phase lines as it will be helpful if one of the phase has a problem.

For each boxes have a provision to use both UPS lines & power lines, so that it can be easily changed in future. Use 1.5 sq.mm wires to distribute from switch boxes to appliances like lights & fans. Use 2.5 sq.mm for MCB to boxes. Use at least 3 sq.mm for AC and it should be from MCB. Wherever possible use a dedicated lines from MCB for high voltage appliances like refrigerator, grinder, washing machine, heaters, etc.
Try to use LED lamps wherever possible. It is costlier than CFL but it is environmental friendly. The life time of an LED is very high when compared to CFL. So you also need to be careful before purchasing an LED as you less likely required to replace.

Plumbing:
Unlike electrical lines do not run the lines inside the wall as the size of a plumbing lines are bigger than electrical ones. Hence run over the walls. Use pressure pump for overhead tank if you need more pressure on the shower.

Computer networking:
Computer networking is also equally important as you may need to digitally connect all your smart devices.

Similar to MCB you need to decide the place for your networking switch that interconnects all the lines(Ethernet). Try to run the lines under the ground so as to avoid electrical interference. Avoid having the Ethernet lines in the electrical pipes or boxes. Try to use CAT 6 cables with full copper wire. As of now CAT 5E is enough but go for CAT 6 as it is future proof.

Similar to electrical lines, run your Ethernet lines to each room. Unlike electrical lines it is not easier to distribute from a single line as you would need a networking switch to split. Hence try to run as many Ethernet wires from your central hub/switch.

Try to have provisions to all your TV as there are smart devices available. If possible run your Ethernet wire to possible appliances like your AC, refrigerator, Microwave oven as it likely may become smart devices in future.

Run the Ethernet wires for your surveillance camera, motion sensor devices, WiFi devices, etc. You should also make sure to run a wire to the lowest possible height at your gate and highest possible height. This is for your internet providers to easily connect their cables to your home. They no need to mess up your home by providing extra lines themselves.

This internet line should not directly connected to a switch. Instead you should be connecting it to router and then to switch. If you are connecting directly to the switch, then each of the devices in your network will expect an IP from your service provide which normally they will not allow. One public IP for one connection is their possible option. So if you connect to the router, then this device will be responsible for providing IP and internet for all your devices.

Place WiFi router in central part of your home. Use WiFi repeaters to enhance the WiFi coverage.

This blog will be updated with more pictures once construction is complete.

Internet on SMS

2012-08-26T22:31:00.000+05:30

Hello all,
I recently went through an interesting website http://55444.in. It is an SMS based free app that access web contents without GPRS or 3G. This website and its service has launched few months ago and it gained attention to lot of developers and users. There are much more interesting things like you can find the train timings, send mails, chat in social websites, as a search engine, online dictionary. Its all being done in SMS. Almost all apps are free which means toll free to use 55444. Also we can send unlimited SMS, as sending SMS to 55444 does not limits your daily SMS count by TRAI.

#mycontacts
I have developed my first app in 55444 which stores your contact numbers online. Whenever your handset is out of reach you can get back your contact numbers by just doing an SMS from any others mobile to 55444. Everything is secured through username and password which means no one can fetch your contacts unless they knows your credentials.

To create an account SMS : "#MYCONTACTS NEW USERNAME PASSWORD" to 55444.
Eg., #MYCONTACTS NEW BOB MYSECRET to 55444

To add a contact name to your account SMS : "#MYCONTACTS ADD USERNAME PASSWORD CONTACT_NAME CONTACT_NUMBER" to 55444.
Eg., #MYCONTACTS ADD BOB MYSECRET LISA 923456789 " to 55444.

To retrieve your contact number SMS : "#MYCONTACTS GET USERNAME PASSWORD CONTACT_NAME" to 55444.
Eg., #MYCONTACTS GET BOB MYSECRET LISA" to 55444.

You can create your own application here http://55444.in/apps/
My app page : http://55444.in/apps/mycontacts/

Download direct to your PC from Nokia OVI Store

2012-01-20T21:51:00.000+05:30

Normally Nokia OVI store do not allow us to download the softwares directly to your PC. It is possible to download only through the Nokia OVI store software in the mobile phone.
But there are cases where internet is not available in your mobile phone. So it is impossible to download your favorite content from this store.
To download directly to your PC follow these steps :

Goto http://store.ovi.com
Sign in with your Nokia account
Goto your desire content page to be download.

For eg..,

Now rename the URL as .,

thats it. Enjoy !!!

Too far from blogging

2011-09-30T18:39:00.000+05:30

It seems just like a day to blogging, but years passed by. Atleast from this day I have to change myself and should do technically useful.

Some cool new Features from Windows 8

2011-05-03T15:58:00.000+05:30

It seems that the good folks over on MyDigitalLife have had more time to play with the leaked code for Windows 8 Milestone 1 (M1) than I have, managing to unlock some cool features by leveraging registry tweaks.

First up is a webcam app:

Credit for this find goes to NaiveUser for this workaround:

In registry HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\GRE_Initialize
create a DWORD value called “RemoteFontBootCacheFlags“, set its value to 0×100f (4111)
then run webcam.exe

Then there’s the built-in PDF reader:

Credit for this find once again goes to NaiveUser :

Under this key in the registry:HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Applets\Paint\Capabilities
create a string value named “CLSID“, set its value to “{D3E34B21-9D75-101A-8C3D-00AA001A1652}” , then runglcnd.exe.

And here’s the Ribbon UI for Windows Explorer:

Again, credit for this find goes to NaiveUser:

create such a key in registry: HKEY_CLASS_ROOT\CLSID\{4F12FF5D-D319-4A79-8380-9CC80384DC08}
create a string value in this key called “AppID“, set its value to “{9198DA45-C7D5-4EFF-A726-78FC547DFF53}“

There’s also a massively buggy new Task Manager:

Lots to see. Lots to play with

Bret Adams speech at TEDxSalem

2011-01-31T13:16:00.001+05:30

The only NRI of TEDxSalem 2011 is Bret Adams. She is already expertise in TEDx talks. She begun with an impressive block to the audience “I won’t let the audience to shout ‘Pothum Pothum’”. “I know only these words in Tamil”, she added.

Took a paper bit from her tag and makes the audience to listen by telling, her speech will not last more than 10 Minutes.

Guidelines from Bret:

* Be Humble
* Be Realistic
* Be Honest
* Be Open
* Be Grateful

She explained these bullets by, We should be thankful for the opportunity that we are given with. And whatsoever we are talented, we should be humble.

Continued her speech by developing a story that happened in her work location. Her intention is to improve the local community. Then she explained why she came to India.

She wondered of Indian’s helping tendency and she thanked them. She endured her gratefulness by thanking the audience for listening her and also the TEDxSalem Team for this opportunity.

The world’s smallest periodic table

2010-12-22T22:05:00.000+05:30

Chemistry Professor Martyn Poliakoff had a hair removed from his head and (for his birthday) had a periodic table etched onto it. The hair was placed into an ion beam electron microscope. Gallium was fired at his hair, cutting away particles on the surface of his hair to draw the electron microscope.

The microscopic table is 89.67 microns long and 46.39 microns tall! For comparison, a micron is 1/10,000 centimeters.

Microsoft on Windows Phone 7

2010-12-22T22:00:00.000+05:30

Microsoft is finally ready to talk about numbers for its Windows Phone 7 platform. But the numbers they’ve released need a bit more parsing than usual.

My colleague Mary Jo Foley already picked up the eye-catching numberthat Microsoft wants to see in headlines: More than 1.5 million Windows Phone 7s sold to date. That number comes from an “interview” with Achim Berg, Microsoft’s vice president of business and marketing for Windows Phones, published on the Microsoft News Center.

Here’s the full quote:

Sales are ramping well as our reputation is growing for offering users a unique experience and are in line with our expectations – especially when compared to other new platform introductions. With a new platform you have to look at a couple of things, first of all customer satisfaction. As I mentioned before, we’ve seen great response on the complete mobile phone experience.
Another is phone manufacturer sales – phones being bought andstocked by mobile operators and retailers on their way to customers. We are pleased that phone manufacturers sold over 1.5 million phones in the first six weeks, which helps build customer momentum and retail presence.

Had this interview been conducted by an actual journalist, you might have seen a follow-up question here: How many of those phones have been activated by customers? That’s the real metric for market share—Google, for example, now claims that it is activating 300,000 new Android devices a day—and it’s telling that Microsoft isn’t sharing that number. If those phones aren’t flying out of the stores, then it could be a classic case of channel stuffing.

(And directly comparing Windows Phone 7 sales to the original iPhone isn’t that easy. Because Apple sold the first iPhone model directly to its customers, they didn’t have to worry about he channel. Still, it’s worth noting that it took 74 days for the original iPhone to hit 1 million units sold, back in 2007.)I don’t want to dismiss these new numbers completely, because they do represent a serious commitment on the part of carriers and retailers to buy and stock and sell the phones. And a key part of Microsoft’s strategy is to get those devices out into the world so potential customers can try them out. As Berg notes:

We introduced a new platform with Windows Phone 7, and when you do that it takes time to educate partners and consumers on what you’re delivering, and drive awareness and interest in your new offering. We’re comfortable with where we are, and we are here for the long run; Windows Phone 7 is just the beginning. Our opportunity is to make sure people get to play with a Windows Phone. Once they do, they love it. This is very important for us.

Indeed, the 1.5 million number is most significant as an expression of confidence on the part of carriers worldwide. But we won’t be able to judge whether that momentum has reached takeoff velocity until Microsoft begins to talk about activations.

My Father

2010-12-21T20:51:00.000+05:30

An Ordinary man stays in Stone but a Great man lives in Heart

There is an End for every human being born in this world, but not every men leaves their foot print after their death. Its very hard to stay in every ones heart even after they dies. My father is such a person who stays in every ones heart of my family and his friends.
This post is dedicated to him on his 12th Death Anniversary.

My father Selvaraj, born in a village near to Annur for Marappa Gounder and Thulasiammal. He has a brother, Ponnusamy. From his childhood he is very naughty and well known to the people living nearby. He discontinued his studies when he was 10. Later they moved to Coimbatore.
He joined in Suguna Motors and later started doing his own business. His helping tendency and his braveness made a lot of friends. His walking style and the way he speaks attracted many people and respected. He was the first person in any function of my family. He took the majority of role in making it success. He was the back-bone of my family. If any one seeks him help he never neglects. He was hard working, mentally strong person and well treated. His contribution to the family is lot. Its not alone restricted to the family but also friends and neighbours.
I and my cousin used to wet our pants on his shout. We used to get beat a lot for mistakes at the same time we enjoy a lot.
Two months before he dies, my kathu kuthu vizha happened. The people who came to that function amazed by seeing it because it was so grand like a marriage.

On 21st Dec 98 he died of Heart-stroke. It is an unbearable loss to my family. They felt like lossing one hand. Even after 12 years, tears well in the eyes of my family when he comes across their mind.

These are only the few incidents that I know about him.

Please father, in the next reincarnation do not go away from us and like to be your son always.

To my sweet mom

2010-11-29T19:02:00.000+05:30

Dedicated to my mom :

# A man loves his sweetheart the most, his wife the best, but his mother the longest.

# A man's work is from sun to sun, but a mother's work is never done.

# A mother is a mother still,The holiest thing alive.

# A mother's arms are made of tenderness and children sleep soundly in them.

# A mother's love's a blessingNo matter where you roam
Keep her while she's living
You'll miss her when she's gone.

# Beautiful is your nameWonderful is what you are to me
   It's you I see in my dreams
   Everyday and I pray for you
   Queen of my life you are so beautiful, mama
   You're beautiful

# Hundreds of stars in the pretty sky,Hundreds of shells on the shore together,
   Hundreds of birds that go singing by,
   Hundreds of lambs in the sunny weather.
   Hundreds of dewdrops to greet the dawn,
   Hundreds of bees in the purple clover,
   Hundreds of butterflies on the lawn,
   But only one mother the wide world over.

# I attribute my success in life to the moral, intellectual and physical education which I received from my mother.

# If the whole world were put into one scale, and my mother in the other, the whole world would kick the beam.

Potter debut at $125 million

2010-11-25T19:37:00.000+05:30

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 1" slayed the competition in its weekend debut with a franchise best $125.1 million in U.S. and Canadian theaters, according to studio estimates on Sunday.

Last week's No 1. film, animated comedy "Megamind," came in a distant second with $16.2 million, just ahead of runaway train flick "Unstoppable" with $13.1 million.

Given the popularity of the "Potter" movies about the British boy wizard -- six previous films have raked in a total $5.4 billion at global box offices -- the other movies had not been expected to work much magic at box offices.

The $125.1 million for "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" beat the previous best weekend debut for a "Potter" film in the United States and Canada, which was $102.7 million for "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" in November 2005.

"Deathly Hallows: Part 1" rode up the box office charts to land at No. 6 on the list of all-time best weekend debuts, just behind the $128.1 million from "Iron Man 2" earlier this year.

The movie, which is based on the final installment of the series of best-selling books by J.K. Rowling, collected more than $30,000 per theater in just over 4,100 venues. By contrast, "Megamind" took in $4,300 per location in nearly 3,800 theaters.

Coming into the weekend, "Potter" studio Warner Bros had said it expected "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" to break the $100 million barrier, while some box office watchers had speculated it could reach as high as $150 million.

But only two previous movies have broken into that range with Batman film "The Dark Knight" holding the record for the best-ever debut with $158 million in 2008. No. 2 on that list is "Spider-Man 3," which collected $151 million on its debut in 2007, according to figures from Hollywood.com Box-Office.

Dan Fellman, head of domestic distribution for Warner Bros, told Reuters that "Deathly Hallows: Part 1" had performed well among all audience groups. He said its core fans, dating back to 2001's initial "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone," had not wavered in their support.

"What sets this apart is that the audience has aged right along with the movie and the cast," Fellman said.

Rounding out the top five films in the United States and Canada were comedy "Due Date," in the No. 4 spot with $9.1 million, and behind it was the debut of the Russell Crowe drama, "The Next Three Days," with $6.8 million.

Warner Bros, which also released "Due Date," is a unit of Time Warner Inc. "Megamind" was produced by DreamWorks Animation Inc and released by Paramount Pictures, a unit of Viacom Inc.

"Unstoppable was distributed by 20th Century Fox, a unit of News Corp, and "The Next Three Days" was distributed by the film division of Lions Gate Entertainment.

New messaging system from facebook

2010-11-25T18:26:00.000+05:30

Facebook, with more than 500 million users communicating with each other daily, is looking to reinvent communications - and not just email.

The company today is introducing a three-pronged system that strives to not necessarily change the way we communicate but to make it more efficient, more personal and definitely simpler. And, of course, Facebook wants to make it seamless across the platforms and devices we’re already using.

At a press event in San Francisco this morning, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg stressed that this is not “Facebook email,” which was the general belief in the guessing game that surrounded this event. Yes, everyone will soon have the option of securing an @facebook.com email address if they so choose - but it’s more than that. He said:

We’re using a mechansism that’s much simpler, like SMS or IM. We spent a lot of time building a handful of products that fit what we think of as a modern day messaging system.

At the heart of it all is the “social inbox,” a place where messages - again,not just email - are housed and filtered. Because Facebook already knows who your “friends” are, it can filter messages that it believes to be important to you. Everything else - not necessarily junk but maybe a newsletter or a bank statement or something from a family member who’s not on Facebook - goes into an “other” folder.

And if one of those messages from a friend would be better for the “other” folder or a message from someone who landed in “other” should be in the social inbox, the user can move them back and forth, adjusting how those emails are handled in the future.

In terms of the seamless integration that Zuckerberg and team talked about, the idea is that users should be able to have an IM appear as an SMS or an SMS appear as an email, giving people a way to use the communication tool they prefer without worrying about how the recipient will see it or respond to it.
That can be pretty powerful.The company said the rollout to users will be a slow one - over the next couple of months - and initially will be spread via invitations. The idea is to let people get used to it and offer some feedback to Facebook about it.

Overall, I like what Facebook is doing here. For some time now, I’ve been squawking about how cumbersome and inefficient email continues to be - despite some of the breakthroughs that companies like Yahoo and Google have been pitching lately, such as Gmail’s Priority Inbox.

The jury will be out for a bit on whether Facebook’s effort is a winning solution or whether people will actually start using it. Zuckerberg stressed that no one at Facebook is expecting users to dump their Gmail or Yahoo mail accounts any time soon.

But the idea that some users, including the younger users who already prefer SMS and Facebook over traditional email systems, will shift the winds for future generations is something that makes me hopeful - hopeful that the clunky e-mail systems of today will someday be history.

Create a free proxy server

2010-11-24T01:20:00.000+05:30

Create a Free Proxy Server with Google App Engine

Here’s one such proxy site that you can build for your friends in China or even for your personal use (say for accessing blocked sites from office). This is created using Google App Engine and, contrary to what you assume, the process is quite simple.

Step 1: Go to appengine.google.com and sign-in using your Google Account.

Step 2: Click the “Create an Application” button. Since this is your first time, Google will send a verification code via SMS to your mobile phone number. Type the code and you’re all set to create apps with Google App Engine.

Step 3: Choose a sub-domain* that will host your proxy server. Make sure the domain is available, agree to the Google Terms and click save. The sub-domain is also your App ID that will uniquely identify your proxy application.

Step 4: OK, now that we have reserved the ID, it’s time to create and upload the proxy server application to Google App Engine. Go to python.org, download the 2.6.4 MSI Installer and install Python.

Step 5: Once Python is installed, go to code.google.com, download the Google App Engine SDK for Python and install it.

Step 6: Download this zip file and extract it to some folder on your desktop. The zip file, for the curious, contains a couple of text files (written in HTML and Python) that you can read with notepad.

Step 7: Start the Google App Engine Launcher program from the desktop and set the right values under Edit –> Preferences (see screenshot above).

Step 8. Click File –> Add Existing Application under the Google App Launcher program and browse to the directory that you created in Step 6. Click the Edit button and replace “YOUR_APP_ID” with the ID (sub-domain) that you reserved in Step 3.

Step 9: Click Deploy and your online proxy server is now ready for use.

Computers at 2000

2010-10-24T19:32:00.000+05:30

People starts using computer at different ages. In the last few decades people started using only after their age of 20's, but these days even a little one uses computer. We can say a plenty of reasons for this change. But this post is not deal with that. Here are my first step to computers and also how the older generation was.......

Many people wont forget their first experience on anything. Even people loves their first Operating System in computer. As that I like Windows 98 a lot mostly for its classic appearance. Its pretty much simpler and easy to use.

Personal life with computers (2003) :
My uncle bought me a second hand computer at my age of 12, with Intel P3 processor and 64MB RAM. Thats the first day, I touched the computer. On my first time I played Microsoft's Monster truck madness, a superb bigfoot game.

It had lots of other games like RoadRash, Age Of Empires I, Dangerous Dave, Need For Speed SE, MS-DOS prince and also had Office 2000, Norton Anti Virus 2000, AutoCad 2000, ACD See, etc. Windows 98 was installed in it. Those days Internet package was costlier and bandwidth is much slower. My uncle bought a Dial Dishnet CD which was a 25 hours Internet Package cost Rs 250. As we were in remote area the connection was much slower than normal. I created my first mail-id in 2004 - prabakar1991@yahoo.co.in and still its my primary mail box.

After my school gets over I used to sit infront of the system and explored many things. I used to take a floppy to school for storing wallpapers. My CS teacher prabhu and sudha priya helped me a lot in collecting software and wallpapers. I'm very thankful for them, making me interest in me. When I was doing 9th my uncle bought a laptop. It is fujitsu and came with Win 2000. Unfortunately when my cousin working in that, OS got corrupted and he got a Win 2000 installation disc to recover it. Meanwhile another cousin's friend Prabhu and Hari gave me a Windows XP cd for my desktop PC. I was not aware how to install an operating system They said its little bit complex to install an Operating System. As it was windows 98 I was successfully managed upgrading to Win XP. And within few days I installed Win 98, Win 2000 and Win XP by dual booting.

It made a lot of interests in computer, but it didnt last long. As the system was too old there occured a severe problem with the VDU and at last I'm not able to repair it. Finally my uncle decided to sell it.

Days passed by I finished my 10th. Then I purchased a Desktop with Athlon processor and 512 MB RAM. Then I started collecting softwares seriously. As soon as I get it, burned in a CD. And now I had hundreds of CDs and DVDs with softwares alone. I'm a very big lover of ubuntu, started requesting CD's from canonical and made a collection of ubuntu and its derivatives. Till now I have requested about 50 CD's from canonical. I can tell this is one of the reason for my love with dear. Its not the topic round here so I leave it.

When I entered college, my software collecting business decreased. Now I'm not intersted in it, instead I'm spending much of the time, online. But the time I spent with computer decreased even I'm online. The days I spent with computer during schooling was plenty. I loved computer a lot but I dont have it now as before.

Presently I'm interested in networking and I like to work in a computer network instead of a single system and also like to handle in hardware parts. As of online I like blogging, tweets, building the site, etc.

continue ...............

Happy Birthday Windows 7

2010-10-22T19:13:00.002+05:30

Its been 365 days since Microsoft launched its Windows 7 to the public.

Windows Server 2008 R2 was also launched at the same day as Windows 7. Windows 7 has several new features including Multi-touch capability. Windows 7 showed better performance in booting, shutdown time and also other programs loaded faster than its predecessor. But still Windows XP has its more users, where almost 50% of the users running Windows XP but only less than 25% users runs Windows 7. Windows XP has rich performance in Business areas, Video editing works, etc. However we can say Windows se7en is far better than Windows Vista since it has lot of failures. Windows 7 does not have any compatibility issues, since almost all legacy applications runs in it.

Windows 7 comes with Internet Explorer 8, Windows Media Player 12, Windows XP mode (Virtual PC). It has 6 different editions having both 32bit and 64bit.

Recently Microsoft released Service pack 1 beta for Windows 7 and Windows 2008 R2.

Microsoft will never get tired from developing products for this software world. And now Microsoft released IE9 beta, two months before.

And finally Happy Birthday, Windows 7.

Windows password crack

2010-10-19T22:20:00.001+05:30

Many of us are interested in intruding some others computer or computers in work location. These systems are possibly be locked by a windows password. There are lot of softwares designed to remove a windows password before entering into windows. There are some softwares by which you can retrieve the windows password. Here is how..,

All our windows login information is encrypted and stored in $windir/Windows/system32/config/sam. This SAM file cannot be accessed when you are in that particular windows operating system. To gain access to that particular file you need to boot other operating system or through DOS.

The password in the SAM file cant be cracked easily. Softwares like l0phtcrack works effectively in recovering these password. However it may takes a week for a moderate password. This software usually compare the passwords with built-in dictionary file or through brute force method. The dictionary method is faster but not guarantee. Brute force method takes longer time but 100% guarantee.

A 6 digit numerical password can be cracked in less than 5min. A 7 digit password having standard symbols and alphanumeric letters can be potentially cracked in 3 weeks or more.

The above time limit is not applicable for all processors.

To make your password more secret and make them tougher to find, try these.

Use at least 7 digit alpha-numeric letters.

For making your password top secret try to use non-standard symbols that are not in standard keyboard. To enable non-standard characters..,

Goto Run, Type regedit
Goto this location HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Keyboard
Set the InitialKeyboardIndicators value to 2
Now you are done for activating non-standard symbols.
To Enable or Disable use ctrl+alt+Numlock
Use Alt character set by Alt + Numbers

A single alt character set in a password requires 229 years to crack

INTEL AMD VS ARM

2010-10-04T09:10:00.000+05:30

Intel, the largest seller in Desktop and Laptop processors since past three decades. Advanced Micro Devices commonly called as AMD is meant for Desktop and Laptop processors but specially meant for its graphical processors.
Both AMD and Intel are now facing threats for the next generation processors by ARM (Advanced RISC Machines). About 95% of the mobile phones contains ARM processors. ARM is light weight, less power consumption processors built in smaller electronics like Watches, Calculators, Mobile Phones, Smart Phones, Netbooks, and also in computer peripherals like hard drives, etc.
Smart Phones currently uses processors based on ARM's Cortex -A8.
Unlike Intel & AMD, ARM doesn't manufactures or Sells processors. Instead it licenses its recipes to chip designers who customize them and add other ingredients to develop more complex SOCs. These customers can either manufacture the SOCs themselves or hire a foundry to fabricate the chips. Nearly all cell phones use ARM- based processors developed on this manner.
The BlackBerry Playbook, which RIM announced uses Marvell processors. Marvell has its of ARM architecture.
Last month ARM announced the Nufront, a technology company based in China had developed an SOC with a 2.0 GH dual-core A9 designed for laptops and netbooks. Manufactured using a 40nm process, the NuSmart 2816 chip also includes ARM,s Mali-400 graphics, a memory controller, a 1080p video co-processor and the required I/O components to built a laptop. This shows not only ARM's performance is reaching up into the PC world, but also how even a small start-up with little processor experience can use one of ARM's "hard macros" and a contract manufacturer to bring a chip to market quickly and at a relatively low cost.

Also neither Intel nor AMD sits still. Intel has announced dual-core version of Atom for netbooks. AMD will launch its Ontario dual-core processor for netbooks and ultra-thin laptops.

Its tougher to tell whether ARM will succeed in PCs and servers, and also its harder to tell whether Intel will push its business into smartphones and tablets. One thing is sure: the choices for mobile computing are about to become much more complicated.

Norton Internet Security 2011

2010-09-09T17:28:00.002+05:30

Norton had released Norton Internet Security 2011 and Norton AntiVirus 2011 beta versions this April. It has lot of outcomes and yesterday Norton releases its final version to the public.

Here are some of the cool new Features of Norton Internet Security 2011 and Norton AntiVirus 2011.

Mostly all antivirus scan the files that comes for execution. This makes the performance of the system to be lower. To overcome this Norton has introduced Insight protection with its Norton 2009 release which not scans if that file is a trusted one. And with Norton 2011 it improves still by providing fine-tuned reputation information about files and by allowing users to perform a Reputation Scan of their files. We can choose to do a quick or full scan or a custom scan of a folder or a drive. Once the scan is done, we will see how our files are rated based on their Trust Levels, Age and Prevalence. Reputation Scan will also compare our results against the rest of the Norton Community. It is an excellent tool to give us an idea of our machine’s risk profile. Here is the screenshot

Scan Facebook Wall with Auto-Scan:

Facebook has become a top social site on the web. More and more people spend a lot of time on Facebook, and this gives cybercriminals the opportunity to use Facebook to propagate malware.

This feature lets users scan their feed for malicious URLs using Norton Safe Web. We get a report of the scan, which we can choose to share on our Facebook Wall.

UI Improvements:

New in the 2011 products is the “Activity Map” feature. Activity Map shows how Norton products protected users around the world. It also allows us to look at the top threats or distribution of threat detections across the world in that timeframe.

New and Improved Download Insight:

In Norton Internet Security 2010, Download Insight analyzed downloads from Internet Explorer and Firefox. In 2011, norton expanded the number and types of applications that will be monitored by Download Insight. In addition to Internet Explorer and Firefox, the list of supported applications includes browsers like Chrome, Opera, and Safari; instant messengers like Yahoo Messenger, AOL Messenger, and MSN Messenger; email clients such as Outlook and Outlook Express; download managers and FTP clients like FileZilla; and P2P clients like Bittorrent and Limewire.

Furthermore, it added the ability to dynamically expand coverage of many more applications.

For most of these applications, when we download an executable file, we will see the familiar Download Insight notification telling us if the file is safe or unknown, or if it is a threat. If it is a threat, it will be remediated automatically. For some download applications, we may not see the Download Insight notification during the download but if we try to run the downloaded file and the file is unknown or bad, Download Insight will alert us before allowing the file to run.

Norton Rescue Tools

Norton Rescue Tools are a set of tools that help us recover a badly infected computer. In addition to the familiar Norton Bootable Recovery Tool, this year we are introducing Norton Power Eraser. These tools complement each other and can be used in various situations.

Top 25 Android Apps

2010-09-05T11:03:00.000+05:30

1. Google Voice
Google Voice is a service that is so useful I consider it one of the top benefits of Android itself, especially since Apple rejected the Google Voice app for the iPhone. It gives you a phone number that can ring to multiple places or devices and it allows you to access all of your voicemail and text messages over the Web. The Android app integrates even deeper. It can make outgoing calls look like they’re coming from your Google Voice number so that you can keep your real mobile number private.
2. Advanced Task Killer
One of the realities of having a multitasking mobile OS in Android is that you have to manage your apps so that they don’t hurt performance or battery life. Advanced Task Killer (or ATK) is my favorite. It even comes with a widget that you can tap once to kill all open apps.
3. Dropbox
Dropbox is a great cloud service that automatically syncs a folder of files between multiple computers (Windows, Mac, or Linux). This app extends Dropbox to Android and interacts with other apps (such as Documents To Go) to open the files.
4. Evernote
Once you get used to typing on a virtual keyboard (and it honestly took me over a year to do it), then these devices are great for note-taking, and Evernote is a great note-taking app. It is similar to Dropbox in that it saves data locally but syncs it across all your machines and devices.
5. DroidAnalytics
For some reason Google doesn’t have an official app (for either Android or iPhone) for Google Analytics. The best one I’ve found on Android is DroidAnalytics. Another good one is mAnalytics.
6. Documents To Go
The free version of Documents To Go offers a great little reader for Word and Excel files. You can upgrade to the full version (for $15) if you want to edit files and add PowerPoint files to the mix. If you do want editing capability, I’d also recommend taking a look at QuickOffice.
7. Amazon Kindle
I never warmed up to the Amazon Kindle e-reader, but I’m a big fan of the Kindle mobile app. Since it was released I’ve read a lot more books simply because my smartphone is always with me and I can pull it and read a few pages anytime I’ve got a couple minutes free.
8. Places Directory
This is an awesome app for finding shops and services near your current location. From restaurants to movie theaters to medical facilities to taxis, this app is very accurate and takes advantage of the business information from Google Local. This app is better than the info you get from a GPS unit (or app) and better than any of the similar apps available on the iPhone.
9. Tripit
I dig Tripit. It is by far the best app I’ve found for keeping track of all my travel itineraries. It runs on some great backend systems. You simply forward your confirmation emails for your flights, hotels, rental cars, and more to Tripit and it automatically organizes them into trips with all your details and confirmation numbers.
10. Seesmic
Twitter is an amazing instant-intelligence engine and it was made for mobile browsing. Although there’s an official Twitter app for Android now, Seesmic is still the best Android Twitter client.
11. FCC Speedtest
I’m obsessed with running speed tests to check my bandwidth in various places, both to see 3G fluctuations and to check the quality of Wi-Fi. There are a number of really good speedtest apps, but my new favorite is the FCC Test app.
12. Astro File Manager
Another one of the great things about Android (if you’re a geek or a tinkerer) is that you have lower-level access to the system itself. Astro is an app that lets you navigate the Android file system.
13. Got To Do
There are plenty of to-do apps to choose from on Android but I prefer Got To Do because of the solid interface and the fact that it can sync with the online service Toodledo.
14. Gist
Many of us have contact lists scattered across various computers, devices, and online services. Gist is a Web service that can bring them together and even pull in stuff from the Web to help you stay up to date with your most important contacts. There’s an Android app as well as an iPhone app.
15. TED Mobile
TED is a fascinating event that features a meeting of the minds of some of society’s most influential thinkers. You’ll definitely disagree with some of them, because there’s a large diversity of opinions, but many talks are worth listening to. What I love is that they’ve taken the videos from their conference and made them freely available on the Web. This app provides a great way to access the videos. I hope more conferences follow TED’s lead on this.
16. Pandora
Pandora is a streaming “radio station” for the Internet age. You simply search by an artist or song and it will create a running playlist based on that one piece of information. It intersperses an occasional ad between songs but the ads tend to be fairly localized and occasionally even useful.
17. Shazam
If you want to impress your friends with a mobile app, show them Shazam. Ever hear a song being played at a store or on the radio and ask yourself, “Oh, what song is that?” That’s where Shazam comes in. Just hit the button and let it listen for 15 seconds, query its database, and then return the name of artist and the song. It has about an 80% success rate.
18. Dial Zero
Are you one of those people who dials a customer service line and just keeps pressing zero until you get to talk to a real person? Then Dial Zero is your new friend. This app provides a directory of a ton of U.S. businesses and gives you numbers to help you get closer to a real person and instructions for which prompts to hit to speak to a human being as quickly as possible.
19. Google Goggles
This is a fun app that is a little but ahead of its time. It does visual searches. You can take pictures of things and then the app tries to tell you what they are. It’s limited in its scope but it is pretty cool, and it’s definitely a peek into the future. One of the coolest features is the ability to take pictures of text in a foreign language and let that app translate for you. In a foreign country, this can help you read street signs and avoid going into the wrong bathroom. :-)
20. Google Sky Map
Ever look up at the night sky and try to tell your kids the name of that constellation you’re pointing at, or try to remember which planet that is in the southern sky? Google SkyMap lets you point your smartphone at it and get the information. This is part of a new breed of apps called “Augmented Reality” apps that layer digital information on top of real world experiences.
21. Tricorder
A lot of geeks I know like to say that our smartphones are becoming more and more like the Tricorders on Star Trek. Well, here’s a fun app that turns your Android device into a virtual Tricorder. It even offers some useful environmental information, including GPS data, wireless data, and ambient sound measurements.
22. FxCamera
Honestly, the camera software on Android is an area where major improvements are needed, but this app is a great example of what’s possible. It has solid camera controls, full customization options, and offers some great effects for photos.
23. Photoshop Mobile
Photoshop is, of course, the best known photo editor in the world and its mobile app doesn’t do anything to hurt that reputation. But while the desktop version is know for having a zillion features, the mobile app is distinguished by its simplicity. It’s the best Android (and iPhone) photo editing app for simple crops, brightness adjustments, and sharpens, for example.
24. Bump
Bump is a fun (and useful) idea for sharing info between two phones using the accelerometer, and it works across Android and iPhone. You can use it to share contact info (yours and others), photos, and apps. You both simply open the Bump app, choose what you to share, and then hold the phones in your hands and bump your hands together.
25. Barcode Scanner
This app turns the Android camera into a barcode scanner. You simply scan a product’s UPC code and let the app go to work to find it in Google Product Search or a search on the open Web. You’ll be amazed at how fast it works. This is great for when you’re shopping retail and you want to check the price of a product online before buying to make sure you’re paying a fair price.

Interesting BSOD ScreenShots

2010-09-05T10:49:00.000+05:30

Every windows user would have experienced the BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) which is the error screen mainly due to a fatal error of hardware or any device driver crash. Its not only experienced by normal users but also some important persons like bill during their seminars and also it has encountered in Big Screen advertisements, ATM machines, Pay Phones, etc.

Here are some of the interesting screen shots..,

BSOD appeared during his seminar of something.


BSoD in Times Square, New York city

No show at the Paris in Las Vegas. BSoD hits the big screen.


Probably the most (in)famous appearance of the Blue Screen of Death occurred at Comdex in April, 1998 when Bill Gates and Microsoft senior writer Chris Caposella tried to demonstrate some of the highlights of the upcoming operating system, Windows 98

The big Blue Screen of Death. Advertising.

Errorware keeps up to date with the latest Vista/Windows 7 bsod t-shirt.

This guy's arm can be seen all over the Internet.

Bluetooth Positioning System

2010-08-27T23:20:00.001+05:30

Navigation is now become easier after inventing Global Positioning System (usually termed as GPS). If you need to move from one place to another it is very easier to navigate using GPS. It works with the help of a GPS satellite and a GPS receiver. Mostly these receivers are installed in a car or a vehicle for navigating easier by identifying where the traffic is free. Also it is much easier to reach their destination. The accuracy is limited to 500 M and is not possible to locate within a campus. To overcome this I have designed a new technique using Bluetooth to position exactly within a small area (Eg : To find a general ward within a hospital).

In this technique Bluetooth devices are installed at several important places within the campus (Eg: An educational institution). All these device Media Access Control (MAC) address is stored along with its location and details in a database. As soon as a person with a Bluetooth enabled Handset enters into the campus the software which contains all the database of MAC address will be sent to that particular mobile. When that person enters into the Bluetooth range gets an alert message that he is in this particular area. By this method one can achieve an exact positioning within a small area.

To implement this technology one has to install the Bluetooth device in the important areas and store the device address into the database integarate with that software, and finally send this application to the persons those arrives. Also from this method one can review where he visited in the campus along with the time later.

By this method even a low-end mobile user can able to use it. All the devices are independent, so there is no need to communicate within the bluetooth devices.

Firefox 4 beta 4 features hardware acceleration ... but will be off by default

2010-08-20T09:49:00.000+05:30

Firefox 4 beta 4 is expected to hit download servers on Monday, and this latest build will feature hardware acceleration - although if you want to use it, you’ll have to switch it on.

As of today the code for Firefox 4 b4 is described as “mostly frozen” and is on target for release on Monday August 23rd. Amongst the new features such as tab sets, previously known as tab candy (a feature that allows users to group tabs together and handle them as a single entity), is the use of Windows Direct2D to speed up the rendering of text and images on screen. This means that some of the workload will be shifted from the CPU and onto the GPU.

However, this feature won’t be switched on by default just yet. Here is a tweet by Mozilla VP of engineering Mike Shaver:

b4 won’t have D2D on by default after all; just not quite ready to send it to that many users. soon!

According to Mozilla’s planning notes, it wasn’t “confident enough to turn it on for all users” just yet.

Switching Direct2D acceleration on and off is pretty easy and just involved a little digging around in the about:config settings:

To turn on Direct2D: Go in to about:config and setmozilla.widget.render-mode to 6, andgfx.font_rendering.directwrite.enabled to true.
To turn off Direct2D, once it is on by default, setmozilla.widget.render-mode to 0.
To check whether you are running with Direct2D, go to about:supportand look at the bottom.

It’ll be interesting to see how this browser stands up against Microsoft preview platform for IE9 and Google Chrome.

Intel to acquire McAfee for $7.68 billion

2010-08-20T09:15:00.001+05:30

Tech giant Intel on Thursday announced that it would acquire security firm McAfee for about $7.68 billion, placing a price on the company’s common stock of about $48 per share.

Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee will become a fully-owned subsidiary of Intel, and become a part of Intel’s Software and Services Group. The deal will close pending McAfee shareholder approval and regulatory clearance.

The acquisition underlines Intel’s bet on “hardware-enhanced security” and demonstrates that security is a necessary component as the tech company’s reach expands to handle billions of new Internet-ready devices, such as mobile phones and computers, TVs, cars, medical devices and ATM machines.

Intel says it has raised the priority of security to the same level as energy-efficiency and Internet connectivity.

“With the rapid expansion of growth across a vast array of Internet-connected devices, more and more of the elements of our lives have moved online,” Intel CEO Paul Otellini said in a statement. “In the past, energy-efficient performance and connectivity have defined computing requirements. Looking forward, security will join those as a third pillar of what people demand from all computing experiences.”

McAfee has enjoyed double-digit growth over the past year, as well as large margins, to the tune of almost 80 percent gross. It counts about 6,100 employees in its ranks and managed to rake in $2 billion in revenue in 2009.

Here’s what Intel senior vice president Renée James had to say about her new group:

Hardware-enhanced security will lead to breakthroughs in effectively countering the increasingly sophisticated threats of today and tomorrow. This acquisition is consistent with our software and services strategy to deliver an outstanding computing experience in fast-growing business areas, especially around the move to wireless mobility.
McAfee is the next step in this strategy, and the right security partner for us. Our current work together has impressive prospects, and we look forward to introducing a product from our strategic partnership next year.

The McAfee deal comes after a series of acquisitions by Intel, ranging in scope from gaming to visual computing to embedded device and machine software.

A notice for Windows users

2010-08-19T21:10:00.000+05:30

Its a awkward task for every computer users to update their software periodically. Its necessary that every users to update their system. For Microsoft Windows, releases security updates frequently and is to be updated. Unfortunately users those not having internet connections are not able to update. For this reason some third party patches are built up containing those updates. So those users who not having internet connection can simply download those patches in someother place and can be installed in their system. Sometimes those patches may contain viruses since its been built by some 3rd parties.
Service pack is an alternative for these patches which is provided by Microsoft. And Microsoft makes it mandatory for support reasons. Also installation of some softwares either from Microsoft or someother may seeks to update with the latest service packs.
Here are some of the downloadable links for Windows from Windows 98.

Windows 98 SE :
The following pack is unofficial since there is no service packs from Microsoft
http://bit.ly/Z5x3x

Windows 2000 Service pack 4 :
http://bit.ly/9uJ7oJ

Windows XP Service pack 3 :
http://bit.ly/cKlJvu

Windows Vista :
Service Pack 1 : http://bit.ly/15Mfhb

Service Pack 2 :http://bit.ly/3AHFGT

Its necessary to install SP1 before updating to SP2.

Windows 7 :
Service Pack 1 (beta) : http://bit.ly/covkkk
(Requires Validation)

A leading hacking package

2010-08-13T23:45:00.002+05:30

Are you interested in making fun with the computer system running windows in your school or an organisation, here comes a collections of tools from Hiren. Hiren is formally a utility package having lot of tools for security, networking, diagonisation softwares.

Generally I used to use Hiren for removing passwords in my college systems.

Find all the stuffs here... http://www.hiren.info/