After a long while I am back with a new post on dual boot loading with Windows 7 and Windows XP. Yesterday night my friend and me decided to play Need For Speed most wanted on LAN. I had a bad experience in gaming in Windows 7 environment. So I was needed to install XP on my system. Priory I was having Windows 7. I just did a newly partition for installing Xp on my system and got over with installation.

But I felt hammered and shocked as I was unable to see  boot loading option for Windows 7  because I had many works done in it.

Well, that time I was in a mood to play game and then look upon this problem.  After playing I googled many ways to reach the remedial post and found none efficient.  In breaks in found some informations and finally I experimented and had both OS in my boot loading option.

This is the way I did. :-

1) Had Windows 7 previosly installed.

2) Installed Windows XP on a new partition.

3) Restarted the system and only XP was booting.

4) Inserted Windows 7 dvd.

a) Choosed Installion language.

b) Moved to second screen with option “GOTO REPAIR COMPUTER”

c)Choosed Command Prompt and entered following commands.

bootrec/FixBoot (Press Enter and Restart)

d) Now you are on your lost Windows 7.

But folks, you have now loosed Windows XP. Dont be panic. You can recover that too with following continuing steps.

5) Download .NET FRAMEWORK 2.0 and EASYBSD .Framework is required to run EASYBSD.

6) Install and run EASYBSD.

NOTE:- This is required to repair the Windows XP boot file and add Windows 7 to the Windows Boot Manager list.

7) In EasyBCD, click on Add/Remove Entries (left side). (See screenshot below)

In the bottom right section under Add an Entry,

type: Windows NT/2k/XP/2k3.

Name: Windows XP

NOTE: You can type whatever name you would like to have displayed in the Windows Boot Manager for XP though.

9) Complete step 8 and click save.

Screenshot after saving.

10) In EasyBCD, click on Manage Bootloader (left side). (See screenshot below)

Note:- Let the option be on “Reinstall the Vista Bootloader” and Click on Write MBR and restart your system.

If every step is did in a fine way. you will be able to see Windows Boot Manager with both XP and 7 without a trouble.

Enjoy the post.

Here are some of the popular portable OSes for you to choose from and get going.

1. Puppy Linux

Puppy Linux is an open source operating system based on GNU/Linux. With a size of around 93MB, Puppy Linux supports Live booting from a CD, DVD, USB flash drives and other portable media.


System requirements include 64MB of RAM (depending on the version, up to at least 256MB of RAM). Small in size Puppy Linux is around 93MB. The OS claims a boot time of less than a minute, on most systems 30-40 seconds. Puppy Linux includes a range of applications: wordprocessor, spreadsheet, browser, games and image editor. There is also extra software in the form of dotpets.

Puppy Linux comes with AbiWord, which supports .doc files, and Gnumeric, which supports .xls. Actions that require a double clicks in Windows, such as opening a file, require only a single click in Puppy.

Puppy Linux was first released in June 2003 by Barry Kauler The community. However, the OS does have some limitations, like absence of Hibernate or Sleep option as well as power management support.

2. Slax

The owners of Slax describe it as a pocket operating system. The open source operating system has a modular approach and provides a wide collection of pre-installed software for daily use.

The OS can boot and runs from either a CD or an USB drive. There is also an option to run Slax from RAM. Under 200MB, Slax provides a wide collection of pre-installed software including a graphical user interface and recovery tools for system administrators.

If a user is missing his favourite text editor, networking tool or game, he can simply download a module with the software and copy it to Slax, no need to install, no need to configure.

3. Ubuntu

One of the popular community-developed operating systems, Linux-based Ubuntu packs a host of applications including a web browser, presentation, document and spreadsheet software and instant messaging.

Available for free, the OS also offers additional software which are available online. There are separate versions of Ubuntu available for laptops, servers and desktops. There is also free security updates for at least 18 months on the desktop and server.

The Ubutu community claims to release a new desktop and server release every six months.

The most recent version of Ubuntu comes installed with a wide range of software including OpenOffice, Firefox, Pidgin, Transmission, and GIMP. Users can install the OS from a Live CD. By booting it, a user can first choose to Test drive the Ubuntu OS, providing the opportunity to test hardware compatibility and driver support.

The CD also contains the Ubiquity installer which guides the user through the permanent installation process. Installing from the CD requires a minimum of 256 MB RAM.

4. CrunchBang Linux

An unofficial branch of Ubuntu, CrunchBang is a Linux OS which uses the Openbox window manager. Openbox works with applications and makes the desktop easier to manage.

Though not designed for old systems, CrunchBang Linux is reported to operate well where system resources are limited like in case of netbook ASUS Eee PC.


With few exception, CrunchBang Linux is built entirely from packages available from the Ubuntu repositories. This means if users miss out an application or tool, they can fetch the software from the Ubuntu repository.

The OS has the ability to play most popular media formats, including MP3, DVD playback and Adobe Flash. CrunchBang Linux also comes with many popular applications installed by default, including Firefox 3 web browser, VLC media player, Skype, Deluge BitTorrent Client, Gwibber microblogging client and GIMP for image and photo editing.

5. Damn Small Linux (DSL)

Another free operating system, Damn Small Linux was designed to run graphical applications on older PC hardware. Minimum system requirements include a 486 processor and 8MB of RAM. The system requirements are higher for running Mozilla Firefox and optional add-ons such as the OpenOffice.org office suite.

As the name suggests, DSL is quite small with a size of 50MB. It can be installed from USB flash drives, memory cards and Zip drives. In fact, it is said to have been originally developed as an experiment to see how many usable desktop applications can fit inside a 50MB live CD.

An experimental project to see how much software could fit in 50MB, Damn Small Linux includes Firefox, a VNC viewer, file managers, instant messaging clients, and even a web server.

As for what all DSL has: XMMS (MP3, CD Music, and MPEG), FTP client, Dillo web browser, Netrik web browser, FireFox, spreadsheet, Sylpheed email, word-processor (Ted), three editors (Beaver, Vim, and Nano ), graphics editing and viewing (Xpaint, and xzgv), Xpdf (PDF Viewer), emelFM (file manager), Naim (AIM, ICQ, IRC), VNCviwer, Rdesktop, SSH/SCP server and client, DHCP client, PPP, PPPoE (ADSL), a web server, calculator, generic and GhostScript printer support, NFS, Fluxbox and JWM window managers, games, system monitoring apps and a host of command line tools.

6. Knoppix

Knoppix, or KNOPPIX is an operating system based on Debian designed to be run directly from a CD/DVD. The OS boots and runs completely from CD or DVD and can be used to read and write Windows. There are two main editions of Knoppix: Compact Disc (700MB) edition and DVD (4.7 gb) edition.


It includes programmes such as OpenOffice.org, Abiword, The Gimp, Konqueror, Mozilla, Apache, PHP, MySQL and many other open source programmes. Though Knoppix is designed to be used as a Live CD, it can also be installed on a hard disk. USB devices can load Knoppix from a USB flash drive or memory card.
The system requirements include, Intel-compatible processor (i486 or later), 32MB of RAM for text mode, 96MB for graphics mode with KDE (at least 128 MB of RAM is recommended to use the various office products), bootable CDROM drive, or a boot floppy and standard CDROM (IDE/ATAPI or SCSI) and standard SVGA-compatible graphics card.

In fact, according to the scientists, the software can take a live video feed of a person talking and make them look and sound like somebody else could actually change that, the ‘New Scientist’ reported. In their research, the scientist recorded video of volunteers performing 30 different facial expressions such as frowning, smiling and looking surprised. For each expression, the positions of key facial features, such as the eyes, nose and corners of the lips, were manually labelled.

That annotated footage was used to “train” software to recognize the face of each individual featured in the set. Once trained on a person in this way, it can closely track every move of their face in video footage.

Those movements can then be transferred onto the face of another “known” person by calculating how the recipient’s features need to change to take on each new expression.

Its not only the world’s first pocket projector, but comes with some superb extra features also. It is enabled with an an integrated USB video reader. The tiny 1.4lb (640g) Joybee features a variety of multimedia applications, and the 15-80 inch image in 4:3 format (16:9 selectable) is adjustable with digital zoom and preset picture PC and A / V modes. Joybee is packed with advanced features to effortlessly project a variety of multimedia applications that consumers of any age group might need, such as movies, photos, console games, and home videos.  The Joybee also amplifies the enjoyment and impact of various mass storage devices (such as external High Definition Devices), digital cameras, personal multimedia players, PDAs, iPods, iPhones, and Smartphones. Isn’t that amazing  ?

The Joybee’s unrivaled 120% NTSC and 100AL project photos, design renderings, and videos (such as virtual home tours) in high-impact color, even in fully-lit settings.  Compared to the average 55%-80% NTSC of most projectors, the Joybee noticeably outperforms with bolder, more deeply saturated hues across a broader color gamut.  The 15-80” image in 4:3 native format (16:9 selectable) is adjustable with digital zoom and preset picture PC and A/V modes.  Auto play modes, auto keystone, auto search, and Wall Color Correction get content up and running fast, while the integrated speaker delivers instant digital sound.  Ample connectivity includes D-Sub, Composite, and USB inputs, and PC audio output.  A detachable iPod/iPhone docking station is available as a clever option.


The Joybee is certified RoHS, WEEE, and EuP, draws 30% less power than competitor models, and has a <1W standby mode, making it environmentally friendly. BenQ would also like consumers to consider that the cost of the Joybee is about the same as nine family movie nights at the local theater, which includes tickets for four, popcorn, and drinks.  The Joybee also lasts longer with a 20,000+ LED life for years of ongoing entertainment in a variety of functions.

The Joybee GP1 Mini Projector will be available June in the U.S. with an MSPR of $499.

You can download the full specification here.

Twitter is no more a new term for the web users. Its a micro-blogging social networking website which allows one to tweet( text based posts with maximum 140 characters). After a deep reviews over internet I found this list of popular celebrities accounts on twitter. These are real and fake celebrity Twitter accounts.  The Name link takes you to the Wikipedia entry for the celebrity, even for the fakers. @……….. redirects you

Please leave a comment if you have new information for this list.

50 Cent Real

@50cent

Musician

Al Gore Real

@algore

Politician

Evidence: Al Gore mentioned his Twitter account in a TV interview with Kevin Rose for Current TV.

Al Gore Fake

@TheRealAlGore

Politician

Evidence: Al Gore’s real Twitter account is @algore

Ashton Kutcher Real

@aplusk

Actor :Best known for playing Kelso in “That ’70s Show”.

Evidence: Twitter Suggestions links to his account.

Barack Obama Real

@BarackObama

Politician

The President of the United States of America. He used Twitter leading up to the 2008 election.

Beck Unknown

@beck

Musician

Beck Hansen is a singer who goes by the stage name Beck.

Evidence: I suspect this account is fake. It has zero updates and he follows 315 people as of this writing. Typical celebrities follow few people and have a lot of followers.

Ben Templesmith Real

@templesmith

Artist, Author

Ben Templesmith is an artist and writer most widely known for his work in the American comic book industry where he has received multiple nominations for the industry’s top prize, the Eisner Award.

Evidence: His web site .

Bobby Llewellyn Real

@bobbyllew

Actor, Writer

Perhaps best known for the role of Kryten in the BBC series Red Dwarf.

Brea Grant Real

@breagrant

Actress

Evidence: See her blog . She did a live UStream interview with Twitter users , also.

Brent Spiner Real

@brentspiner

Actor

Brett Gurewitz Real

@OblivionPact

Musician

Britney Spears PR Staff

@britneyspears

Musician

Evidence: Mentioned here .

Brooke Burke Real

@brookeburke

Actress

TV personality, dancer, and model. She hosted “Wild On!” and won season 7 of “Dancing with the Stars”.

Evidence: Twitter Suggestions lists her account.

Cesar Millan Real

@cesarmillan

Other

Cesar is The Dog Whisperer

Christopher Walken Unknown

@cwalken

Actor

Chuck Grassley Unknown

@ChuckGrassley

Politician

Chuck Norris Fake

@fakechucknorris

Actor

Badass.

Claire McCaskill Real

@clairecmc

Politician

U.S. Senator for Missouri.

Evidence: Her Senate web page links to her Twitter account.

Coldplay Real

@coldplay

Musician

This is the official Coldplay twitter page. Coldplay is a band.

Craig Newmark Real

@craignewmark

Geek

The founder of Craigslist.

Dave Matthews Real

@DaveJMatthews

Musician

David Gregory Real

@davidgregory

Journalist

Moderator of “Meet the Press”.

David H. Lawrence XVII Real

@dhlawrencexvii

Actor

David plays “The Puppetmaster” Eric Doyle on Heroes.

Evidence: His web site.

David Hewlett Real

@dhewlett

Actor

Diane Rehm Real

@drshow

Commentator

Public radio talk show host.

Dr. Drew and Stryker Real

@lovelineshow

Commentator, Other

Co-host of the radio talk show “Loveline”.

Felicia Day Real

@feliciaday

Actress

Falicia played Vi on the TV series “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”. She is also the star, script writer, and producer of “The Guild”.

Evidence: Her web site.

George Stephanopoulos Real

@GStephanopoulos

Journalist

Host of ABC’s “This Week with George Stephanopoulos”.

George W Bush Fake

@GeorgeWBush

Politician

The 43rd President of the United States, from 2001-2009.

Evidence: Obviously fake. His bio reads “Bring it on, you godless liberals!”

Greg Grunberg Real

Hammer Real

@MCHammer

Musician

Evidence: His web site links to his Twitter account.

Henry Rollins Fake

@NotHenryRollins

Musician

Evidence: It’s official, Henry don’t twitter

Hillary Clinton Unknown

@hillaryclinton

Politician

Janina Gavankar Real

@janinaz

Actress

Jennifer Granholm Real

@govgranholm

Politician

Evidence: Her web site links to her Twitter profile.

Jimmy Fallon Real

@jimmyfallon

Comedian

Jimmy Kimmel Unknown

@jimmykimmel

Comedian

JJ Abrams Unknown

@JJ_Abrams

Director, Producer, Writer

Co-creator of Lost, among other things.

Joel McHale Unknown

@joelmchale

Actor, Comedian

Joel Edward McHale (born November 20, 1971) is an American actor, comedian and television presenter, best known as host of The Soup.

Evidence: I suspect his account is real, but he has zero updates as of 2/10/2009.

Joe Trippi Real

@JoeTrippi

Politician

John Battelle Real

@johnbattelle

Journalist

Evidence: His blog

John Cleese Real

@johncleese

Actor, Comedian

Evidence: His blog convinced me.

John Hodgman Real

@hodgman

Comedian

Evidence: See his blog .

John Mayer Real

@johncmayer

Musician

John McCain Real

@JohnMcCain

Politician

This is his old presidential campaign Twitter account. He now Tweets from @SenJohnMcCain

John McCain Real

@SenJohnMcCain

Politician

Senior United States Senator from Arizona.

Jonathan Coulton Real

@jonathancoulton

Musician

Karl Rove Real

@KarlRove

Politician

He was the Deputy Chief of Staff for George W. Bush.

Evidence:  His web site links to his Twitter account.

Kate Hewlett Real

@katehewlett

Actress

Kent Beck Real

@KentBeck

Geek

Kevin Rose Real

@kevinrose

Geek

He co-hosted “The Screen Savers” and is co-founder if several Internet sites: Revision3, Pownce, Digg.

Lance Armstrong Real

@lancearmstrong

Athlete

Lance won the Tour de France a record-breaking seven consecutive years.

LeVar Burton Real

@LeVarBurton

Actor

Evidence: This account replaced a fake Levar Burton account.

Lily Allen Real

@lilyroseallen

Musician

An English singer and songwriter, best known for “Smile”.

Evidence: Her official web site links to her Twitter account.

Luke Wilson Unknown

@LukeWilson

Actor

Matt Damon Unknown

@matt_damon

Actor

An American actor from Good Will Hunting, Saving Private Ryan, the Bourne movies, etc.

Michael Bay Fake

@michael_bay

Director

Evidence: @breagrant confirmed he is fake .

Neil Diamond Real

@NeilDiamond

Musician

Evidence: His website links back to his Twitter account.

Newt Gingrich Real

@newtgingrich

Politician

Former speaker of the US House of Representatives.

Opie (Gregg Hughes) Real

@OpieRadio

Comedian

Co-host of “Opie and Anthony” on SiriusXM Radio.

Evidence: He mentioned his account on air, on the Opie and Anthony Show.

Oprah Winfrey Unknown

@oprah

Mogul

Patrick Wilson Real

@patrick_wilson

Musician

Penn Jillette Real

@pennjillette

Comedian

Rachel Maddow Real

@maddow

Commentator, Journalist

Rebecca Walker Real

@rebeccawalker

Author

Rebecca Walker (born November 17, 1969) is an American feminist and writer. She has been named by Time Magazine as one of the 50 future leaders of America.

Evidence:  Her blog links to her Twitter acccount.

Richard Branson Real

@RichardBranson

Billionaire

Evidence: His blog

Robert Kelly Real

@R_Kelly

Comedian

Sara Bareilles Real

@SaraBareilles

Musician

Evidence: Her web site links to her Twitter account.

Sarah Palin Fake

@FakeSarahPalin

Politician

Sarah Palin Fake

@Sarah_Palin

Politician

Sarah Palin Fake

@SarahPalin

Politician

Seth MacFarlane Unknown

@sethMacfarlane

Actor, Comedian

Shaquille O’Neil Real

@THE_REAL_SHAQ

Athlete

Shaq is an American pro basketball player.

Evidence: This NY Times Article .

Stephen Colbert Unknown

@stephencolbert

Comedian

Stephen Fry Real

@stephenfry

Actor

English actor, comedian, author, and TV presenter.

Evidence: His home page links back to his Twitter profile.

Steve Case Real

@stevecase

Geek

The co-founder and former CEO of AOL.

Thomas Dolby Unknown

@tdolby2001

Musician

Tina Fey Fake

@TinaFey

Actress, Comedian

Evidence: See this New York Magazine article .

Tracy Morgan Unknown

@Mango1580

Actor, Comedian

Ward Cunningham Real

@WardCunningham

Geek

Warren Ellis Real

@warrenellis

Author

Evidence: His blog mentions his Twitter account.

Wesley Stace Real

@WesleyStace

Musician, Writer

From Wikipedia: “Wesley Stace (born 22 October 1965) is a folk/pop singer-songwriter who goes by the stage name John Wesley Harding and who has called his style of music ‘folk noir’ and ‘gangsta folk’. Under his real name, he has recently written two bestselling novels.”

Evidence: He has linked to his Twitter account from his web site .

William Shatner Unknown

@WilliamShatner

Actor

Wil Wheaton Real

@wilw

Actor, Author

Evidence: Wil’s blog points back to his Twitter profile.

Sun Microsystems has agreed to be bought by US tech giant Oracle in a $7.4bn (£5.1bn) deal, just two weeks after takeover talks with IBM fell apart.

Oracle announced today that it will pay $9.50 a share for Sun, making the company the latest in a string of acquisitions for Oracle’s chief executive Larry Ellison.

Oracle’s offer is only slightly more than IBM was proposing to pay. The future of Sun was plunged into uncertainty on 6 April when the IBM talks collapsed.

Oracle, which offers a range of business software including databases, customer relationship management programs and collaboration tools, hopes to conclude the deal by this summer.

“Oracle and Sun have been industry pioneers and close partners for more than 20 years,” said Sun chairman Scott McNealy. “This combination is a natural evolution of our relationship and will be an industry-defining event.”

Sun, which developed the Java software platform and whose products include Sparc chips, the Solaris operating system and the MySQL open source database, has cut thousands of jobs in recent years as it attempted to reduce costs. Under chief executive Jonathan Schwartz it has pursued an open source strategy, but the company struggled to deliver sufficient revenue growth after the dotcom boom ended.

Some analysts have speculated that Sun could be broken up, with its semiconductor, database and other software arms sold to different players.

Ellison said the deal would allow Oracle to “engineer an integrated system – applications to disk – where all the pieces fit and work together so customers do not have to do it themselves”. This, he claimed, would cut costs while improving performance and security.

In recent years, Oracle has also bought Siebel, PeopleSoft – after a long and bitter battle – and BEA Systems.

Oracle said that net of Sun’s cash and debt, the deal is valued at $5.6bn.

This is a dream coming true effort by Indian computer scientists for the society who were  unable to hold their fingers on the laptops. Yes, now we have the world’s cheapest laptop developed at scientific institutes located in Veloru, Bangalore and Madras. This will surely boom the information technology movement in the vast country like India and abroad.

India has developed and released it some days back with costing max to 10$ to 20$ (  500 to 1000 INR). That will be surely a butter bite for the IT enthusiasts. The laptop, jointly developed by University Grants Commission, Indian Institute of Technology-Madras, and Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore was released by honourable Union Minister for Human Resources Development. This product is in beta testing stage and will be available in markets by next 4-6 months.  It is named as “SAKSHAT”.

It is a naked truth that high prices of Laptops have blocked the spread of computer and IT revolution to the large rural and student areas of India. So this is an initiative taken to solve this problem of high cost effect. Surely it will be a boon for Indian students who wish to have computers in their personal hand. It will be a crucial medium for “National Mission on Education through Information and Computer Technology”.

The low priced  computing device is 10 inches long and 5 inches wide hand-held device, resembling a palmtop or a modem, helps e-learners access the Web easily. Priced versions of e-content available on the Net can be accessed through this device. It comes with 2 GB of memory, which is expandable. It has Wi-Fi and fixed Ethernet capability and will consume just 2 watts of power. Thats really a plus point as it saves lot of power.

The so-called laptop actually turned out to be a storage device containing megabytes of data info which can be accessed by a user by connecting this device to a laptop. It meant that unlike the internet, this device can display that information that has already been stored.

Some delegates at the exhibition claimed that with the help of this device a laptop costing about $60 can eventually be manufactured. But for now at least the $10-laptop turned out to be damp squib.

Indian Minister of Education, said that the actual cost of production of this computer is 15.50 euros, but that the costs will be reduced with bulk production in future for maximum human reach.

Salutes to the Indian scientists and student developers behind this great work.

This is not an April fool’s day joke dear. Its a virus which is said to hit many Pcs and takeover control over them on 1st April. The name is conficker. Prominently it targets the Microsoft Operating systems and especially Windows Xp and Vista. Conficker first bubbled up in late 2008 and began making headlines in January as known infections topped 9 million computers. Now in its third variant, Conficker C, the worm has grown incredibly complicated, powerful, and virulent… though no one is quite sure exactly what it will do when D-Day arrives. So its a suspense and we have to watch to see its vulnerabilities on 1st April.

Conficker hideously installs remote softwares on infected PC leaving insecured and allowing remote connection with head servers of the Virus. Its unpredictable that what will be the affects of this worm. But it is said to be that the virus is meant to create a botnet with help of installed malicious softwares and further it will be rented to the cyber-criminals who wish to do SPAM activities and stealing IDs and Passwords and even more.

This worm mostly spreads across networks. If it finds a vulnerable computer, it turns off the automatic backup service, deletes previous restore points, disables many security services, blocks access to a number of security web sites and opens infected machines to receive additional programs from the malware’s creator. The worm then tries to spread itself to other computers on the same network. It even make its copy in removable USB flash memories for spreading.

Who is at risk?

If you have disabled your windows update and have old virus definitions for your antivirus, you may be at high risk. Users who do not have a genuine version of Windows from Microsoft are most at risk since pirated system usually cannot get Microsoft updates and patches.

Advice to Stay Safe from the Downadup aka Conficker Worm:

1. Run a good security suite and antiviruses such as Norton, Kaspersky.
2. Keep your computer updated with the latest patches. If you don’t know how to do this, have someone help you set your system to update itself.
3. Don’t use “free” security scans that pop up on many web sites. All too often these are fake, using scare tactics to try to get you to purchase their “full” service. In many cases these are actually infecting you while they run. There is reason to believe that the creators of the Conficker worm are associated with some of these fake security products.
4. Turn off the “autorun” feature that will automatically run programs found on memory sticks and other USB devices.
5. Be smart with your passwords. This includes

1. Change your passwords periodically
2. Use complex passwords – no simple names or words, use special characters and numbers
3. Using a separate, longer password for each site that has sensitive personal information or access to your bank accounts or credit cards.

1. Use a passwords management system such as Identity Safe (included in Norton Internet Security and Norton 36o) to track your passwords and to fill out forms automatically.

****One symptom that may indicate you are infected is finding that your computer is blocked from accessing the web sites of most security companies.

Conficker is clever in the way it hides its tracks because it uses an enormous number of URLs to communicate with HQ. The first version of Conficker used just 250 addresses each day — which security researchers and ICANN simply bought and/or disabled — but Conficker C will up the ante to 50,000 addresses a day when it goes active, a number which simply can’t be tracked and disabled by hand.

At this point, you should be extra vigilant about protecting your PC: Patch Windows completely through Windows Update and update your anti-malware software as well. Make sure your antivirus software is actually running too, as Conficker may have disabled it.

Microsoft also offers a free online safety scan here, which should be able to detect all Conficker versions.

****Be safe while you surf ****

This is not a new issue of cyber-war between India and Pakistan. Whenever relations go worse they start attacking Indian computer networks and this has increased after the famous Mumbai terror attacks. This was said by the source from home ministry of India.  Already Pakistani hackers are trying out a dry run against Indian networks through popular websites registered there.

Pakistani hackers have created websites such as the www.Songs.Pk, which are infested with software to hack data from the targeted computers, sources from Home Ministry,India said.

“The website www.Songs.Pk has over 12 lakh Indian users who download stuffs like free MP3 bollywood songs and wallpapers and more from these websites on daily basis,” said a cyber expert in the Ministry.

And hence, its very true that with these sites very much popular, it will take few minutes for the hackers to get control over 12 lakh Indian user’s pc or more via means of vulnerable contents added with the downloading stuffs.
“Instead of the existing less harmful virus, new ones such as Botnet and Zoombie can be easily released into the Indian computers, which later on replicate and make the entire server vulnerable,” the expert said.

“Now a days new virus and worms are detected while downloading songs from these websites, which could be just a dry run to manage a bigger attack,” he said.

I even tried to get some more informations regarding this issue and found it true to an extend. Below is the snap-shot showing security property of a song downloaded from the site. Just have a look.

No doubt I am too an Indian and a regular user of this concerned website. Some days back this security alert was not seen in the downloaded content. But now here is the proof above with date and timings. Indian government’s websites have proved to be vulnerable in the past. ” Most of the times such cases are not reported as the servers are based in Pakistan and we cannot do anything in this regard as said by expert.

The condition may become more worst as these newly intruded viruses cannot be detected by antiviruses as their databases may not have their informations for the quick heal as its totally of new type, resulting their intrudence in our networks. So I can just say that PREVENTION IS BETTER THAN CURE. So Indian users dont download stuffs from www.songs.pk . Its better to find alternates for downloading such contents. I will be updating my blog if I come to know of more such type of vulnerable websites which may be insecure to our networks and systems.

The original Post:

http://news.in.msn.com/national/article.aspx?cp-documentid=1775303

But the question is that how much safe we are when we choose a password. We ocassionaly choose the password as the name of our girlfriend/boyfriend,vehicle numbers and so on which are really very much predictable by your near ones or even hackers who have eye on your personal online banking accounts and etc. It is really a very panic situation when we loose our passwords or our accounts are compromised.  So here I got an “interesting theory of passwords” while I was surfing on this issue. I would like to share the similar theory with you too. Just go through and if you feel any trouble while understanding, leave a comment so that I can clarify upto my knowledge regarding the topic.

Before you can easily identify what a “good” password is we should look at what a “bad” password is and why they are not good for security. An example of a bad password might be “book” which has several reasons for being considered bad:

1. It is a word that can be found in the dictionary,
2. It is a very short password,
3. It contains only letters,
4. More than one character is the same.

Two types of attack would “guess” that password in a relatively short space of time. The first of these is a dictionary attack – going through every word in the dictionary is something that is do-able, and whether it appears near the start of the dictionary or at the end it doesn’t matter as it will eventually figure it out (it’s just a matter of how long it takes). The other way it could be obtained is through brute force. Brute force is where every character combination is tried, so if we assume it’s only trying characters but tried passwords of every length from 2 characters onwards we can easily calculate the most attempts that would be needed to crack the password. For each character there are 26 combinations, and for 2 letters we would multiply it so it’d be 26 * 26 attempts. So for a 4 letter password we would have 676 + 17576 + 456976, which calculates as being 475228 attempts. It might sound a lot, but if a piece of software was guessing the password then it wouldn’t take long at all.

Increasing the complexity and length of the password makes a huge difference in how secure your password is. Using capital letters isn’t a huge benefit on it’s own as it’ll still be vulnerable to dictionary attacks, but would increase the attempts on a 2-letter password to 2704. By then adding numbers into the fold we then have a possible of 62 characters for each character of the password and so a 2 letter password would suddenly take 3844 attempts instead of 676. Adding numbers also decreases the likelihood of a dictionary attack from working, but with passwords such as 3book90 there is still a possibility that a dictionary attack would work due to the English language word being in there, but surrounded by integers.

The trick is to use a word that is not in the dictionary and to mix in integers and possibly even symbols into what you use for a password. Using a brute force algorithm on passwords with symbols only appearing on the keyboard would increase to around 96 different characters depending on your keyboard layout. With 96 different characters to choose from a brute force attack would require a maximum of 9216 attacks to correctly guess your password. When we start to increase the length of your password this increases dramatically. Consider the following table:

This can represented mathematically as x^y where x is the number of characters available, and y is the length of the password. As y is used to increase the power x it signifies that the length of the password holds greater importance than the number of different types of character that could be used in an algorithm. As proof let us consider the following example. We have our “base” measure of 26 * 26 to signify 2 characters each with the possibility of 26 characters (lower case only). If we increase the number of characters in the password by one we get 26 * 26 * 26, but if increase the number of available characters by one instead we have 27 * 27. From the table above we know a 3 character password in lower-case is 17,576 attempts, and 27 * 27 comes to 729 and hence proves the fact that password length matters more.

Saying that an 8 character password in lower-case will take 208,827,064,576 attempts though is not strictly true – if the 8 characters formed a word from the dictionary or a word in common usage then it is likely that the word could be calculated in a significantly fewer number of attempts. For example the English language contains approximately 1,000,000 words including scientific words – on top of this we can also include names and words from popular culture and it will still be an awful lot less than the attempts it would take to brute force that password. Hence the reason why it is equally important to also include a range of other characters such as numbers and symbols in your password.

Based upon this reasoning a password such as 90ge0$tationarY100 would be a very strong password. Such passwords don’t have to be hard to remember either – if you use memorable numbers either side and then think of one or more words with some letters replaced by numbers and/or symbols you will have a memorable password that is also secure due to a high number of possible characters, it being long, and not being in a dictionary. Using this example which is 18 characters in length would mean a stunning 4.76 x 10^35 (using standard notation) attempts.

If the system was to block the user after 5 failed attempts for a period of 2 hours then the likelihood of such a password being guessed is impractical. Under such a system it would only manage 60 combinations per day, 420 per week, and 21840 per year. For this password it would then take approximately 2.2 trillion trillion years at most to be cracked. Such a thing is just not feasible – it is more likely they would find a security hole in the system and gain access that way.

So hence, this article might help you to understand the theory of passwords. Better choose an uncrackable password next time.