ROOT WEB DIRECTORY VERIFICATION

http://anupriti.blogspot.com/anupriti.blogspot.comd31050ebd4c35e4bfef7968f2083013109fa7941.htm

Google vs Bing : On Data retention policy change

1. Ever wondered about privacy policy of search engines specifically about Google and Bing...i came to know of this recently while i read at http://www.bing.com/community/blogs/search/archive/2010/01/19/updates-to-bing-privacy.aspx on the subject.

2. In case of Bing,the amount of time IP addresses are stored from searchers is 18 months which the claim now to reduce to 6 months. Generally, when Bing receives search data ,the following things undergo action

First, steps to separate the account information (such as email or phone number) from other information (what the query was, for example).

Secondly , after 18 months another additional step of deleting the IP address and any other cross session IDs associated with the query.

3. Under the new policy, all the steps will continue as were applied previously except that now IP address will be completely removed at 6 months, instead of 18 months. Rival Google had cut retention time to 9 months from 18 in August 2008.Notwithstanding, Microsoft executives arrogates their initiative go much further than Google , because Microsoft intends deleting all parts of the IP (Internet Protocol) address after six months, while Google still retains part of the address after its self-imposed nine-month cut-off point.

4. Thanks http://microsoftontheissues.com

ZUNE 120 GB

1. For those of you who are hearing this name for the first time,lemme tell you what it is in brief? ZUNE is a Microsoft entertainment platform and portable media player on the lines of Ipod by Apple on a larger scale in terms of screen, capacity, features. etc. Of the various models of Zune, ZUNE120 measures 4.3 inches high by 2.4 inches wide. I will give some brief on this since i got this one recently.

Features

2. Main menu has the following scroll down as shown in screen shot from my ZUNE.

- Music

- Videos

- Pictures

- Social

- Radio

- Market Place

- Games

- Settings

3. Further brief on few of these of interest are enumerated below

Market Place allows browsing, previewing & downloading music directly from Microsoft's Zune Marketplace online store. Marketplace submenu further allows choosing between browsing Songs, Albums, and New Releases, or search for specific music by keying in a few letters. Songs can be previewed for 30 seconds with the option to add them to your virtual cart or purchase and download immediately. By signing up for Microsoft's Zune Pass music-subscription service (a free 14-day trial is available).....still to be availed by me.....

ZUNE is WiFi enabled and allows keying in the passwords if required vide Zunepad.

Radio : An interesting part of my first few days of interaction with ZUNE was non running of FM stations till the time I got link to this thread ie http://vasudevg.blogspot.com/2007/12/zune-fm-radio-tip.html that involved simply changing country from preset US to Europe

Video format : The only problem that I faced was that the horde of movies that I possess do not run directly on this.One needs to convert them to zune/ipod format with easy to use Windows Media Encoder....time consuming but worth it when we play it here on the ZUNE......I converted Sivaji Rajinikanth(...my fav) with a third party software Cucusoft...but was labelled with trial version watermark throughou(screen shot down)....rest was quiet ok....then converted with windows media encoder...and worked perfectly fine....gr8 output in video and sound....

Ports : Only two including one to ear phone and the other to USB for interface with PC for sync and charging battery.

Capacity : 120 GB...thats awesome for storage!!!!!

4. Any one across with any difficulty or query on Zune player can just leave his/her problem....will get back asap.......thats a promise for while.....

SHARING DESKTOPS REMOTELY

1. Of the many tools that exists today for desktop sharing including standard Windows Remote Desktop Connection...i recently found one which is relatively very easy...the name is TEAMVIEWER.A very light software about 2.56 Mb only,easy to install,no complex configurations,no IP setup problems,easy interface.....just login like you log in a regular e-mail id account with a password.

2. I recently used it for trial with my friend across the another part of the continent.The result was quick and very smooth.

3. The same is available for download at http://www.teamviewer.com/index.aspx .There is a paid version too with more features....but for general viewing and sharing,the unpaid will work fully to your requirements.

Microsoft choose to stay in China: Why not?

1. Just a day after I mentioned that Bing will be seen smiling on Google's exit from the dragon land, Microsoft have released a official statement on this. Brief Extract from http://infotech.indiatimes.com/News-Internet-We_will_stay_in_China_Microsoft/articleshow/5448256.cms reproduced below :

Microsoft Corp has no plans to pull out of China, its chief executive has said, playing down concerns about recent cyber attacks and censorship raised by rival Google Inc.

The company's stance indicates the world's largest software maker is not likely to support its fierce rival in its battle with China and rebuffs broad US political backing for Google.

"There are attacks every day. I don't think there was anything unusual, so I don't understand," Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer told Reuters after a meeting on modernizing government services at the White House.

"We're attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is too. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary."

CHINA & GOOGLE

1. The long tug of war between these two respective giants is finally coming to an end...and the end means the end of GOOGLING in china.The fact that any person can choose to access anything at any time, and usually at no cost is too uncomfortable an idea for the Chinese thinking tank and they have been busy implementing moves and measures to constrain people's access to the internet for about last two years that i have read across in various articles and snips.

2. I can see the smile on the Bing's face now....no Googling means more chance of a Binging and likely revival of few earlier search engines...remember AltaVista generation about 10 years back.

3. Now China's logic behind this!!!!!we all know when we google what happens...i had given on post at http://anupriti.blogspot.com/2009/12/google-binged-my-100th-post.html .This reason is valid though.Extract produced from Google's blog at http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2010/01/new-approach-to-china.html is reproduced below :

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that what at first appeared to be solely a security incident--albeit a significant one--was something quite different.

First, this attack was not just on Google. As part of our investigation we have discovered that at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses--including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors--have been similarly targeted. We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities.

Second, we have evidence to suggest that a primary goal of the attackers was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Based on our investigation to date we believe their attack did not achieve that objective. Only two Gmail accounts appear to have been accessed, and that activity was limited to account information (such as the date the account was created) and subject line, rather than the content of emails themselves.

Third, as part of this investigation but independent of the attack on Google, we have discovered that the accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based Gmail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties. These accounts have not been accessed through any security breach at Google, but most likely via phishing scams or malware placed on the users' computers.

4. Who's is correct then? It is just a matter of perspective and convenience of the mind.

The ALT key Combos

Nothing new for those who are conversant with the special characters used in combination with the ALT key.Following is a small summary i could manage from technochest...for those of you who do not understand the use of such characters......they are of crucial signia in the world of PASSWORDS......got that!!!!!!

Alt +0162 = ¢ , Alt +0163 = £ , Alt +0165 = ¥ , Alt + 0128 = €

Alt +0169 = © , Alt +0174= ® , Alt + 0153 = ™ , Alt + 0161 = ¡

Alt +0177 = ± , Alt +0191 = ¿ , Alt +0215 = × , Alt + 0247 = ÷

Alt +0190 = ¾ , Alt +145 = æ , Alt + 155 = ¢ , Alt + 156 = £

Alt + 157 = ¥ , Alt +159 = ƒ , Alt + 171 = ½ , Alt + 172 = ¼

Alt + 225 = ß , Alt + 230 = µ , Alt + 241 = ± , Alt + 0134 = †

When EARS Speak!!!

1. Do you any of the following :

(a) That your ears make sound?

(b) That these are know as otoacoustic emissions?

(c) That this has a biometric angle?

(d) That any two persons always have different otoacoustic emissions?

2. I am sure most of you don't because the exploitation of this fact has been recently discovered.Although it has been known from quite some time, that our ear makes sounds of its own, sometimes due to a scientific principle called otoacoustic emissions1, other times in protest to the loud music we listen to. In either case, the sounds are too weak to detect using normal microphones.Although scientists knew about these sounds since the 1940s, it was only with improvements in microphone technology in the 1970s, that it became possible to detect these otoacoustic emissions (OAE).

3. Recently though it has been suggested that such sounds may in-fact be used for biometric security devices of tomorrow. The variations in each person's OAE can be used as a metric for determining one's identity. The technology is as simple as a microphone!

4. A good enough microphone embedded in any device can be used to detect these sounds, and accordingly confirm ones identity, and be eventually used by banks to confirm the identity of a person over the phone, or by the phones themselves before they allow someone to make a call!

5. So for example,as on date when u speak to a customer service at a bank...u r supposed to tell you DOB,Phone number or street address for verification before you actually demand a solution to your account query...not so will be required in near future...wherein your phone set will be able to detecty the sound in your ear and verify your identity...nothing to memorise....plain simple unique identification.

6. Otoacoustic emissions can be clinically important as they are the basis of a simple, non-invasive, test for hearing defects in newborn babies and in children who are too young to cooperate in conventional hearing tests.

7. The good thing is that dead people do not emanate otoacoustic emissions.So unlike Hollywood movies...wherein a cut thumb or extracted eye have broken the identity procedures...this one won't....

Charge cell phones by using Radio-Waves

1. Here comes another first from NOKIA...no more charging from your mobile chargers...no more that last minute search to find that hidden mobile charger....now charge from a mixture of 78.03% nitrogen, 20.99% oxygen, 0.94% argon, 0.03% carbon dioxide, 0.01% hydrogen, 0.00123% Neon, 0.0004% helium, 0.00005% krypton, 0.000006% xenon or more simply AIR!!!!!!

2. Nokia says that in a few years time, they will be able to charge cell phones by utilizing close radio waves. This conniving and shaking up technology could lead to brobdingnagian reductions in energy demand if every cell phone could pull a charge of juice out of thin air.

3. Researchers at the Nokia Research Centre in Cambridge in the UK are working hard on a technology that can harvest small amounts of energy from ambient radio and TV waves. The cell phone would pick up radio wave frequencies as low as 500 megahertz up to 10 gigahertz, which includes television broadcasts, microwave ovens, mobile phones, wireless LAN, bluetooth, GPS, and two-way radios. In theory, two circuits would be capable of receiving and then converting the free energy to an electrical current to charge the battery of a cell phone.

4. Hopefully, it would be enough energy to keep the phone charged in standby mode; although at first it won’t be adequate to charge the phone while in use, or to full battery capacity. So far, the device can collect up to 5 milliwatts of power, and the short term goal is to collect 20 milliwatts of power, which is just enough to keep the phone charged in standby mode. Ultimately, 50 milliwatts of power would be ideal and could help slowly recharge the battery.

5. This technology could be applied to other electronic equipment as well. Radio waves could be used to charge MP3 players, handheld devices, Kindles, portable game players, etc. Nokia isn’t relying on this type of technology alone to power their phones, they are also looking at integrated solar cells to work in conjunction with this new development. Deployment of this feature in Nokia phones is still at least 3 years away. We’ll be standing by with our waning cell phones waiting for word.

6. Thanks http://technochest.com

HP in the racists scoooop!!!

1. Phenominal is the pace at which the IT Sector is growing and Interesting are the ways in which few errors happen one of which I am mentioning down.....

2. The issue has attracted worldwide attention this month, when a US Black man known as "Black Desi" posted a YouTube video that showed his HP webcam built in to its new computers refusing to track his face but on the other hand it could do so just fine for his white friend Wanda.Titled "HP computers are racist", the YouTube video quickly attracted more then 500,000 hits and showed Black Desi's webcam working as it should when his work colleague "White Wanda" stepped in front of the camera, but when "Black Desi" got in front, no face recognition took place.

3. What does HP have to say about it?

""

"We thank Desi, and the people who have seen and commented on his video, for bringing this subject to our attention," it said in a blog on its help page.

"The technology we use is built on standard algorithms that measure the difference in intensity of contrast between the eyes and the upper cheek and nose. We believe that the camera might have difficulty 'seeing' contrast in conditions where there is insufficient foreground lighting," the blog added.

""

4. So what would have happened is like this !!!!!HP would have conducted all QC tests in their labs which in all probablity would have involved only the whites......HP by now mut have enrolled few Blacks for better QC of their products in their labs......well that was just in good humour....

5. To errrrrr is human.....and to IT errrrr is HP.

2010

This number is not to be connected with any Microprocessor or any IT equipment......this comes to wish you all a VERI

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2010

BIDI makes LCD touchscreen A PASSE past

1. This is definitely going to be some thing new for most of the readers.....the following article makes the present touchscreen a PASSEE by introducing the BIDI.

2. The BiDi Screen is an example of a new type of I/O device that possesses the ability to both capture images and display them. This thin, bidirectional screen extends the latest trend in LCD devices, which has seen the incorporation of photo-diodes into every display pixel. Using a novel optical masking technique developed at the Media Lab, the BiDi Screen can capture lightfield-like quantities, unlocking a wide array of applications from 3-D gesture interaction with CE devices, to seamless video communication.The BiDi Screen uses a sensor layer, separated by a small distance from a normal LCD display. A mask image is displayed on the LCD. When the bare sensor layer views the world through the mask, information about the distance to objects in front of the screen can be captured and decoded by a computer.

3. This allows a typical LCD screen working by interpreting hand gestures, without touching the screen.This allows viewers to control on-screen objects by waving their arms in the air without touching the screen, let alone a mouse or keyboard.Although users can touch the screen to activate controls on the display but as soon as they lift their finger off the screen, the system can interpret their gestures in the 3-D.

4. "This is a level of interaction that nobody's ever been able to do before," New Scientist quoted Ramesh Raskar at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab, as saying.The screen - dubbed BiDi, short for bi-directional - allows users to manipulate or interact with objects on the screen in three dimensions.

5. It will also function as a 3D scanner, he adds. "If you spin an object in front of screen, the software will stitch together a 3D image."The new system uses an array of optical sensors that are arranged behind a grid of liquid crystals, similar to those used in LCD displays. They physically control how much light passes from the display's backlight.In the new system a regular grid of hundreds of pixels spread across the screen use their liquid crystals to create a tiny hole that acts as a pinhole camera lens, focusing an image of the scene in front onto a thin translucent film a few centimetres behind the LCD.

6. Those images are detected by a camera inside BiDi, allowing the device to know what is happening before it.

7. Thanks http://infotech.indiatimes.com and http://web.media.mit.edu/~mhirsch/bidi/

Y2K Bug!!!!Do u remember the time?

1. I was just wondering about the time when the much-hyped Y2K crisis had come in with a long, sustained roar and went out with a mewl.While the world excogitated dire predictions of massive global infrastructure failures -- everything from elevators to air traffic control systems was rumored to be vulnerable , the specter of a total paralysis of business operations resulting from cascading Y2K failures galvanized organizations into a frenzy of activity. For many CIOs, the unprecedented size and scope of addressing Y2K problems was the biggest project of their careers.

And then it was over. On Dec. 31, 1999, the world held its breath and nothing happened. Jan. 1, 2000 came in just like any other day. There were no major failures to report anywhere.

2. Today after 10 years....I feel the time has just rolled like a ball....so quickly we are a decade ahead of that night....the night that was a wakeup call for every one who felt that there is no need of IT then....the night that showed how heavily we r banked on the IT......

3. Thanks to http://www.computerworld.com for making me remember that.

Google Binged!!!! - My 100th Post

1. For so many days wanting to upload some post but just could'nt find anthing so interesting before I read about this.

2. From the time Bing was introduced and pitted against arch rival Google,there have been talks and forums across proving each others superiority over each other.Now for the first time some one Big has come up with this.....it follows down..please read!!!

3. A Mozilla official today advised Firefox users to the extension that adds Microsoft's Bing to the list of the browser's search engines after Google's CEO downplayed consumers' privacy concerns.

4. Citing a clip from a CNBC broadcast shown below, during which Google chief executive Eric Schmidt discussed online privacy, During the interview, Google chief executive Eric Schmidt was asked: "People are treating Google like their most trusted friend...should they be?" It was Schmidt's answer that motivated Dotzler to show users how to drop Google, Firefox's default search engine, for rival Bing.

"IF YOU HAVE SOMETHING THAT YOU DON'T WANT ANYONE TO KNOW, MAYBE YOU SHOULDN'T BE DOING IT IN THE FIRST PLACE," SCHMIDT TOLD CNBC. "IF YOU REALLY NEED THAT KIND OF PRIVACY, THE REALITY IS THAT SEARCH ENGINES, INCLUDING GOOGLE, DO RETAIN THIS INFORMATION FOR SOME TIME AND IT'S IMPORTANT, FOR EXAMPLE, THAT WE ARE ALL SUBJECT IN THE UNITED STATES TO THE PATRIOT ACT AND IT IS POSSIBLE THAT ALL THAT INFORMATION COULD BE MADE AVAILABLE TO THE AUTHORITIES," ADDED SCHMIDT.

5. Asa Dotzler, Mozilla's director of community development, then on provided a link to the Firefox extension that adds Bing to Firefox's search engine list.

6. Google chief executive Eric Schmidt would be now trying to undo his statement in some form but the arrow has been shot….and the dent on the google is seen……so googler’s Be ware now on!!!!!!

7. Thanks http://www.computerworld.com

LAPTOP Face Recognition falls FLAT!!!!

1. Now this is one interesting thing to read.All those claims by Saif Ali Khan in his ad promoting one company for face recognition feature introduction had made its way out of the IT World.....well....so it seems!!!!read ON.........

2. Experts from Bkis Internet Security in Vietnam have proven how easy it is to defeat this.In front of technology experts, authors and press representatives from different countries participating in an internet security conference, Bkis experts demonstrated the vulnerabilities in Face recognition function on Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba laptops. Even when set at the highest security level, the laptop could not prevent Bkis expert Mr Nguyen Minh Duc from breaking into the system. With some technical tricks, Duc in turn logged onto Asus, Lenovo and Toshiba computer at the amazement and continuous applause from the audience. Everyone was really surprised to see how a famous and trusted security technique could be broken so easily.A Pic is shown below from actual demo loc.In some cases,even the owners of Facebook profile photo could be printed and used.

3. What the researchers found is that the technology just isn't that hard to fool. Even photographs that have previously been digitized and distributed, like those on Web pages or transmitted through videophone conversations, will do the job.The model exploits the flaw in image processing. In other words, it uses a photo of a person instead of his/her real face. It works because the algorithms will process in effect digital information.Provided those conditions, an attacker might take some photos of one user within the system, perform some image editing, regenerate “special pictures” and penetrate into the system.

4. Now the worry point is that Biometric data, including facial recognition, is increasingly being built into passports, drivers licenses and other forms of ID. Australia and Germany both use facial recognition to control access and determine identity at border crossings, and the U.S. and other countries are moving in that direction. So....ab kya hogaaaa?

5. Thanks http://www.examiner.com,http://www.bkis.com and Chip magazine.