MaSSSoftech

10 Old Computer Ads

2011-08-03T08:43:00.000-07:00

Textbox value empty when set to Readonly

2011-07-27T21:15:00.000-07:00

When you try to set textbox readonly, it loses its value...
Reason is readonly controls are not posted back to server.

To solve the above problem use the below code.

Ref : here

RadioButton in GridView

2011-07-25T10:11:00.000-07:00

Design View

Code View

Ref : here

Hide toolbar of pdf

2011-07-18T00:03:00.001-07:00

use iframe to show your pdf file.
use paramater"#toolbar=0" to hide the toolbar of pdf file after you url ends
e.g.
src="sdsd/sdsd.pdf#toolbar=0"

Delete Physical file By SQL Script

2011-07-14T02:16:00.001-07:00

xp_cmdshell 'IF EXIST D:\Delete\Delete.txt. del D:\Delete\Delete.txt.'

Dynamic Menu with recursive function

2011-07-11T21:59:00.001-07:00

using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;

public partial class _Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    DataTable dt = new DataTable("Menu");
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        dt.Columns.Add("MenuId");
        dt.Columns.Add("MenuName");
        dt.Columns.Add("ParentMenuId");
        dt.Columns.Add("NavigationUrl");
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "1","Home","0","http://www.google.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "2", "Sub_Home_1", "1", "http://www.yahoo.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "3", "About Us", "0", "http://www.reliancemoney.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "4", "Sub_AboutUs_1", "3", "http://www.relince.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "5", "Sub_AboutUs_2", "3", "http://www.codeproject.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "6", "Contact Us", "0", "http://www.sqlauthority.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "7", "Sub_Contact Us_1", "6", "http://www.crm.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "8", "Sub_Sub_Contact Us_1", "7", "http://www.firebug.com" });
        dt.Rows.Add(new string[] { "9", "Sub_Sub_Home_1", "2", "http://www.dotnet.com" });
        ShowMenu(mnuTest.Items,0);
    }

    private void ShowMenu(MenuItemCollection nodes, int parentMenuId)
    {
        int MenuID;
        string MenuName, Url = string.Empty;

        DataRow[] ChildMenu = dt.Select("parentMenuId='" + parentMenuId + "'");
        if (ChildMenu.Length == 0) return;
        foreach (DataRow child in ChildMenu)
        {
            MenuID = Convert.ToInt32(child.ItemArray[0]);
            MenuName = Convert.ToString(child.ItemArray[1]);
            Url = Convert.ToString(child.ItemArray[3]);
            MenuItem NewNode = new MenuItem(MenuName, MenuID.ToString(),string.Empty,Url);
            nodes.Add(NewNode);
            ShowMenu(NewNode.ChildItems, MenuID);
        }
    }
}

Response.redirect to new window

2011-06-27T03:20:00.001-07:00


Response.Redirect(path, "_blank", "menubar=0"); 
 
And add the below class 
 
public static class ResponseHelper 
{ 
public static void Redirect
(this HttpResponse response, string url, string target, string windowFeatures) 
{ 
if ((String.IsNullOrEmpty(target) || 
target.Equals("_self", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase)) && 
String.IsNullOrEmpty(windowFeatures)) 
{ response.Redirect(url); } 
else { Page page = (Page)HttpContext.Current.Handler; 
if (page == null) 
{ 
throw new InvalidOperationException(
"Cannot redirect to new window outside Page context."); } 
url = page.ResolveClientUrl(url); 
string script; 
if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(windowFeatures)) 
{ script = @"window.open(""{0}"", ""{1}"", ""{2}"");"; } 
else { script = @"window.open(""{0}"", ""{1}"");"; } 
script = String.Format(script, url, target, windowFeatures); 
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(page, typeof(Page), "Redirect", script, true); 
} } } 
 
 
OR
Use Java Script
ScriptManager.RegisterStartupScript(this.Page, typeof(Page), 
"Redirect", "window.open('Default.aspx', '_blank', 'menubar=0, width=906, 
height=550, scrollbars=1, status=0');", true);

FileUpload Validation

2011-06-09T03:04:00.000-07:00

Upload only pdf files using Fileupload

File Upload

2011-06-08T00:47:00.000-07:00

if (fuUpload.HasFile)
                {
                    string FilePath = Server.MapPath("~/App_Data/Articles/");
                    string FileName = Path.GetFileName(fuUpload.FileName);
                    fuUpload.SaveAs(FilePath + FileName);
                }

If you are using FileUpload control inside Update Panel then use triggers

Get file list from web server in dropdownlist

2011-02-22T02:15:00.000-08:00

Dim strVideo As String= String.Empty

'I have a folder named assets in my website. e.g. "http://www.example.com/assets"

strVideo = "~\assets"

strVideo = Server.MapPath(strVideo)

Dim strValue() As String = Directory.GetFiles(strVideo)

For index As Integer = 0 To strValue.Length - 1

dropdownlist1.Items.Add(strValue(index).Substring(strValue(index).LastIndexOf("\") + 1))

Innovation at its Best - Google

2010-07-26T10:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends
 Don't know how much  truth in these photos. It's a great invention if it rally works as it explains.
 Let's  wait..........

Smart Internet search will be able to do  with a  mobile device in the NEAR future  

A mobile  device with Touch screen, built in camera, scanner, WiFi, google map  (hopefully google earth), google search, image search… 

Like this way, when you can see a building  through it, it gives you the image search result right on the spot.

Choose a building and touch a floor and it  tells you more details of the building. You can use it when you want to  know a car model, an insect name, what kind of food is served at a  restaurant and how much, who built a bridge, etc. etc.

It's got a scanner built in.

so you can use it this way when you want to  check the meaning of a word in the newspaper, book, magazine, etc. It  would be much easier to read a real book. You can use the dictionary,  wikipedia, thesaurus and anything else available on the web. What do you  think? 

Indoor guide:Works in a building, airport,  station, hospital, etc. 

Automatic simultaneous translation: here  Latin to English. 

Search keyword: Helpful when you want to  find out a word from a lot of text in newspaper/book.

Nutrition: This kind of function would be  helpful for health freaks..

Getting data of a weather forecast, maybe  this might be possible.

Indian Rupee finalized Symbol

2010-07-19T10:45:00.000-07:00

Finally, the Rupee will have a symbol like the Dollar ($) or the Euro (€) or the Pound (£). The Cabinet today finalized the design for the Rupee.
IIT post-graduate Uday Kumar’s entry has been selected out of five shortlisted designs as the new symbol for the Indian Rupee.
The government had organized a symbol design competition with a prize money of Rs 2.5 lakh. Five designs were shortlisted from a competition and all new notes will bear the design finally approved.
The growing influence of the Indian economy in the global space is said to have prompted this move that will result in the Indian rupee joining the select club of global currencies like the US dollar, the British Pound, European Euro and Japanese Yen that have unique symbols.
The abbreviation for the Indian Rupee, 'Re' or 'Rs' is also used by India's neighbors Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka.

Best Keyboard Shortcuts

2010-05-18T07:37:00.000-07:00

Getting used to using your keyboard exclusively and leaving your mouse behind will make you much more efficient at performing any task on any Windows system. Below are some of the Keyboard Shortcuts:

Windows key + R = Run menu
Windows Key + E = Explorer
ALT + Tab = Switch between Active Windows
ALT, Space, X = Maximize window
CTRL + Shift + Esc = Task Manager
Windows key + Break = System properties
Windows key + F = Search
Windows key + D = Hide/Display all windows
CTRL + C = copy
CTRL + X = cut
CTRL + V = paste
CTRL + Z = Undo
"Right-click" key next to the right Windows key on your keyboard.
[Alt] and [Esc] Switch between running applications
[Alt] and letter Select menu item by underlined letter
[Ctrl] and [Esc] Open Program Menu
[Ctrl] and [F4] Close active document or group windows (*does not work with some applications)
[Alt] and [F4] Quit active application or close current window
Ctrl] Lft., Rt. arrow Move cursor forward or back one word
Ctrl] Up, Down arrow Move cursor forward or back one paragraph
[F1] Open Help for active application
Windows+M Minimize all open windows
Shift+Windows+M Undo minimize all open windows
Windows+F1 Open Windows Help
Windows+Tab Cycle through the Taskbar buttons
Windows+Break Open the System Properties dialog box
Right SHIFT for eight seconds........ Switch FilterKeys on and off.
Left ALT +left SHIFT +PRINT SCREEN....... Switch High Contrast on and off.
Left ALT +left SHIFT +NUM LOCK....... Switch MouseKeys on and off.
SHIFT....... five times Switch StickyKeys on and off.
NUM LOCK...... for five seconds Switch ToggleKeys on and off.
END....... Display the bottom of the active window.
HOME....... Display the top of the active window.
NUM LOCK+ASTERISK....... on numeric keypad (*) Display all subfolders under the selected folder.
NUM LOCK+PLUS SIGN....... on numeric keypad (+) Display the contents of the selected folder.
NUM LOCK+MINUS SIGN....... on numeric keypad (-) Collapse the selected folder.
LEFT ARROW...... Collapse current selection if it's expanded, or select parent folder.
RIGHT ARROW....... Display current selection if it's collapsed, or select first subfolder.
Delete. DELETE
Delete selected item permanently without placing the item in the Recycle Bin. SHIFT+DELETE
Copy selected item. CTRL while dragging an item
Create shortcut to selected item. CTRL+SHIFT while dragging an item
Rename selected item. F2
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next word. CTRL+RIGHT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous word. CTRL+LEFT ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the next paragraph. CTRL+DOWN ARROW
Move the insertion point to the beginning of the previous paragraph. CTRL+UP ARROW
Highlight a block of text. CTRL+SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select more than one item in a window or on the desktop, or select text within a document. SHIFT with any of the arrow keys
Select all. CTRL+A
Search for a file or folder. F3
View properties for the selected item. ALT+ENTER
Opens the shortcut menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Cycle through items in the order they were opened. ALT+ESC
Display the shortcut menu for the selected item. SHIFT+F10
Display the System menu for the active window. ALT+SPACEBAR
Refresh the active window. F5
View the folder one level up in My Computer or Windows Explorer. BACKSPACE
Cancel the current task. ESC
SHIFT when you insert a CD into the CD-ROM drive Prevent the CD from automatically playing.
Move forward through tabs. CTRL+TAB
Move backward through tabs. CTRL+SHIFT+TAB
Move forward through options. TAB
Move backward through options. SHIFT+TAB
Select or clear the check box if the active option is a check box. SPACEBAR
Select a button if the active option is a group of option buttons. Arrow keys
Display Help. F1
Display the items in the active list. F4
If you have a Microsoft Natural Keyboard, or any other compatible keyboard that includes the Windows logo key and the Application key , you can use these keyboard shortcuts:
Display or hide the Start menu. WIN Key
Display the System Properties dialog box. WIN Key+BREAK
Show the desktop. WIN Key+D
Minimize all windows. WIN Key+M
Restores minimized windows. WIN Key+Shift+M
Open My Computer. WIN Key+E
Search for a file or folder. WIN Key+F
Search for computers. CTRL+WIN Key+F
Display Windows Help. WIN Key+F1
Lock your computer if you are connected to a network domain, or switch users if you are not
connected to a network domain. WIN Key+ L
Open the Run dialog box. WIN Key+R
Open Utility Manager. WIN Key+U
Type the following commands in your Run Box (Windows Key + R) or Start Run
devmgmt.msc = Device Manager
msinfo32 = System Information
cleanmgr = Disk Cleanup
ntbackup = Backup or Restore Wizard (Windows Backup Utility)
mmc = Microsoft Management Console
excel = Microsoft Excel (If Installed)
msaccess = Microsoft Access (If Installed)
powerpnt = Microsoft PowerPoint (If Installed)
winword = Microsoft Word (If Installed)
frontpg = Microsoft FrontPage (If Installed)
notepad = Notepad
wordpad = WordPad
calc = Calculator
msmsgs = Windows Messenger
mspaint = Microsoft Paint
wmplayer = Windows Media Player
rstrui = System Restore
netscp6 = Netscape 6.x
netscp = Netscape 7.x
netscape = Netscape 4.x
waol = America Online
control = Opens the Control Panel
control printers = Opens the Printers Dialog

ShutDown, Restart, LogOff

2010-05-01T03:06:00.000-07:00

To Download Source Code Click here >System Scheduler.rar

Open Visual Studio and Click on New Project Window from template.
Place 2Labels, 1DateTimePicker, 1ComboBox, 1Timer, 1NotifyIcon and 3Buttons.
Set Properties for Label1

Text = "Set Time for Operation"

Set Properties for Label2

Text = "Select Operation"

Set Properties for DateTimePicker

Name = "dtpTime"
Format = "Time"
ShowUpDown = "True"

Set Properties for ComboBox1

Name = "cboOperation"
DropDownStyle = "DropDownlist"
Items = "Log Off, Restart, ShutDown"

Set Properties for Button1

Name = "btnOk"
Text = "Ok"

Set Properties for Button2

Name = "btnCancel"
Text = "Cancel"

Set Properties for Button3

Name = "btnAbout"
Text = "?"

Now use the Below give Code.

Code:

Public Class frmScheduler<br /> <br /> Dim intHH As Integer = 0<br /> Dim intMM As Integer = 0<br /> Private blnLoad As Boolean = True<br /> <br /> Private Sub ProcessOperation(ByVal Operation As String)<br /> Dim sngT As Single<br /> Dim objWMIService, objComputer As Object<br /> Select Case Operation.ToUpper<br /> Case "LOG OFF"<br /> objWMIService = GetObject("Winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Debug,Shutdown)}")<br /> For Each objComputer In objWMIService.InstancesOf("Win32_OperatingSystem")<br /> sngT = objComputer.Win32Shutdown(0, 0)<br /> If sngT <> 0 Then<br /> MsgBox("Error occurred!!!")<br /> End If<br /> Next<br /> Case "RESTART"<br /> objWMIService = GetObject("Winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Debug,Shutdown)}")<br /> For Each objComputer In objWMIService.InstancesOf("Win32_OperatingSystem")<br /> sngT = objComputer.Win32Shutdown(2 + 4, 0)<br /> If sngT <> 0 Then<br /> MsgBox("Error occurred!!!")<br /> End If<br /> Next<br /> Case "SHUTDOWN"<br /> objWMIService = GetObject("Winmgmts:{impersonationLevel=impersonate,(Debug,Shutdown)}")<br /> For Each objComputer In objWMIService.InstancesOf("Win32_OperatingSystem")<br /> sngT = objComputer.Win32Shutdown(8 + 4, 0)<br /> If sngT <> 0 Then<br /> MsgBox("Error occurred!!!")<br /> End If<br /> Next<br /> End Select<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub frmScheduler_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load<br /> blnLoad = False<br /> dtpTime.Value = My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime<br /> dtpTime.Checked = False<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub frmScheduler_SizeChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.SizeChanged<br /> If Not blnLoad Then<br /> Me.ShowInTaskbar = False<br /> NotifyIcon1.Icon = Me.Icon<br /> NotifyIcon1.Text = "System Scheduler"<br /> NotifyIcon1.Visible = True<br /> Me.Visible = False<br /> End If<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub frmScheduler_FormClosing(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.FormClosingEventArgs) Handles Me.FormClosing<br /> If intHH >= (My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Hour Mod 12) And intMM >= My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Minute Then<br /> e.Cancel = True<br /> NotifyIcon1.Icon = Me.Icon<br /> NotifyIcon1.Text = "System Scheduler"<br /> NotifyIcon1.Visible = True<br /> Me.Visible = False<br /> End If<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub btnOk_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnOk.Click<br /> If cboOperation.Text = "" Then<br /> MessageBox.Show("Please select a Operation to Perform.", "System Scheduler", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)<br /> cboOperation.Focus()<br /> Exit Sub<br /> End If<br /> If dtpTime.Checked Then<br /> intHH = dtpTime.Value.Hour Mod 12<br /> intMM = dtpTime.Value.Minute<br /> Timer1.Enabled = True<br /> Timer1.Start()<br /> Else<br /> ProcessOperation(cboOperation.Text)<br /> End If<br /> btnOk.Enabled = False<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub btnAbout_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnAbout.Click<br /> MessageBox.Show("hieee." & vbCrLf & "For any Query related to Projects or doubts Contact me at," & vbCrLf & "Email : nadarmuthukumar@yahoo.co.in " & vbCrLf & "Mobile : 9833240124", "About me.", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.None)<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub btnCancel_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnCancel.Click<br /> Timer1.Stop()<br /> Timer1.Enabled = False<br /> dtpTime.Value = My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime<br /> dtpTime.Checked = False<br /> cboOperation.SelectedItem = vbNullString<br /> intHH = 0<br /> intMM = 0<br /> MessageBox.Show("Operation Cancelled Successfully.", "System Scheduler", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)<br /> btnOk.Enabled = True<br /> End Sub<br /> <br /> Private Sub Timer1_Tick(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Timer1.Tick<br /> If intHH <= (My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Hour Mod 12) And intMM <= My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime.Minute Then             ProcessOperation(cboOperation.Text)         End If     End Sub      Private Sub dtpTime_ValueChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles dtpTime.ValueChanged         If dtpTime.Value < My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime Then dtpTime.Value = My.Computer.Clock.LocalTime     End Sub      Private Sub NotifyIcon1_DoubleClick(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles NotifyIcon1.DoubleClick         blnLoad = True         Me.Visible = True         If Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Minimized Then Me.WindowState = FormWindowState.Normal         NotifyIcon1.Visible = False         blnLoad = False     End Sub  End Class 

Help From : http://www.devasp.net/net/articles/display/513.html 

To Download  Source Code Click here >System Scheduler.rar

You cannot change your future

2010-04-11T07:22:00.001-07:00

You cannot change your future... but, u  can change ur habits... And sure ur habits will change ur future.  -Bernard Shaw

Dream is not what you see in sleep

2010-03-29T07:55:00.000-07:00

Dream is not what you see in sleep. It is  something that does not let you sleep. -Abdul Kalam

Contact me

2010-03-18T08:15:00.000-07:00

Name    : Muthukumar Nadar

email   : nadarmuthukumar@yahoo.co.in

Mobile  : 9833240124
City    : Mumbai 

State   : Maharashtra
Country : India

So guys, as if now this is all about my contact details if anybody have any doubt  on anything are most welcome to contact me, and i assure you that i will  try my best to Solve your problem.

And Student looking for IT Projects can also Contact me. 

Save Image without Using Database

2010-03-17T10:17:00.001-07:00

To Download Source Code Click Here > Save image in MySettings.rar

Open Visual Studio and Click on New Project window from template.
Place Four buttons and a Picture box.
Set Name Properties of :

Button1 = "btnBrowse"
Button2 = "btnSave"
Button3 = "btnDelete"
Button4 = "btnExit"
Picturebox1 = "pctImage"
OpenFileDialog1 = "ofdImage"
Form1 = "frmImageSave"

4.Set Text Properties of :

Button1 = "Browse"
Button2 = "Save"
Button3 = "Delete"
Button4 = "Exit"
Form1 = "Save Image"

5.Goto Project Menu and Click on SaveImage in MySettings Properties.
6.From the Left side Select Settings Tab
7.Now Set the Name as Image.
8.Select the Type and click on Browse.
9. Now a Window will open. In that click on System.Collections. Under that Click on ArrayList.

10. Select Scope as User.

11. Set Value Field as Empty. I mean don't Enter  any value.

12. Right Click on Form and click on View Code.

13. And Paste the following Code.

Imports System.IO

Public Class frmImageSave

Private Sub frmImageSave_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load
If Not My.Settings.Image.Count = 0 Then
Dim bytImage(My.Settings.Image.Count - 1) As Byte
For index As Integer = 0 To My.Settings.Image.Count - 1
                bytImage(index) = My.Settings.Image.Item(index)
Next
Dim MS As New MemoryStream(bytImage)
            pctImage.Image = Image.FromStream(MS)
Else
            pctImage.Image = Nothing
 End If
    End Sub

Private Sub btnBrowse_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnBrowse.Click
With ofdImage
            .InitialDirectory = "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Pictures\Sample Pictures\"
            .Filter = "JPEGs|*.jpg"
            .FilterIndex = 1
 End With
If ofdImage.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then
If FormatNumber(FileLen(ofdImage.FileName) / 1024, 0) > 30 Then
                MessageBox.Show("Please Select Image of Size less then 30kbs", "Save Image", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
  Exit Sub
            End If
            With pctImage
                .Image = Image.FromFile(ofdImage.FileName)
                .SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.StretchImage
End With
        End If
    End Sub

    Private Sub btnSave_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSave.Click
Try
Dim MS As New MemoryStream
            pctImage.Image.Save(MS, Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)
Dim bytImage() As Byte = MS.GetBuffer
For index As Integer = 0 To bytImage.Length - 1
My.Settings.Image.Add(bytImage(index))
 Next
            My.Settings.Save()
            MessageBox.Show("Image Saved Successfully.", "Save Image", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
Catch ex As Exception
            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message & " btnSave_Click")
End Try
    End Sub

    Private Sub btnDelete_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnDelete.Click
My.Settings.Image.Clear()
My.Settings.Save()
        MessageBox.Show("Image Deleted Successfully.", "Save Image", MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)
 End Sub

    Private Sub btnExit_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnExit.Click
        Application.Exit()
End Sub

End Class

To Download Source Code Click Here > Save image in MySettings.rar

Life is Like a piano

2010-03-14T09:52:00.000-07:00

Life is Like a piano
White Keys are Happy moments
n Black Keys are Sad moments
But remember both Keys are played
together to give sweet music
its Life.

Save and Retrieve Image from Database

2010-03-14T09:02:00.001-07:00

To Download Source Code Click Here > image to database.rar

Open Visual Studio and Click on New Project Windows from template
Place PictureBox, ListBox, OpenFileDialog, and Four Buttons
Set Name Properties of :

PictureBox = pctImage,
ListBox = lstImages,
Button1 = btnBrowse,
Button2 = btnSave,
Button3 = btnDelete,
Button4 = btnExit

Set Text Properties of :

Button1 = Browse,
Button2 = Save,
Button3 = Delete,
Button4 = Exit.

Right Click on the form and Click on View code
And type the following Code.

Imports System.Data.SQLite

Imports System.IO

Imports System.Drawing.Image

Public Class Form1

    Private Conn As New SQLiteConnection("data Source =" & Application.StartupPath & "\Images.img")

    Private Adpt As SQLiteDataAdapter

    Private strFileName As String

    Private Sub DisplayInList()

        Dim strQry As String = "SELECT imgName FROM MyImage"

        Adpt = New SQLiteDataAdapter(strQry, Conn)

        Dim Dt As New DataTable

        Adpt.Fill(Dt)

        lstImages.DataSource = Nothing

        lstImages.Items.Clear()

        lstImages.DisplayMember = "imgName"

        lstImages.DataSource = Dt

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnBrowse_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnBrowse.Click

        With OpenFileDialog1

            .InitialDirectory = "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Documents\My Pictures\Sample Pictures\"

            .Filter = "JPEGs|*.jpg"

            .FilterIndex = 1

        End With

        If OpenFileDialog1.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then

            With pctImage

                .Image = Image.FromFile(OpenFileDialog1.FileName)

                .SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.StretchImage

            End With

            strFileName = OpenFileDialog1.FileName.ToString

        End If

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnDelete_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnDelete.Click

        Dim cmd As New SQLiteCommand("DELETE FROM MyImage WHERE imgName = '" & lstImages.Text & "'", Conn)

        cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

        DisplayInList()

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnSave_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSave.Click

Try

            Dim ms As New MemoryStream

            pctImage.Image.Save(ms, Imaging.ImageFormat.Jpeg)

            Dim arrImage() As Byte = ms.GetBuffer

            ms.Close()

Try

                Dim strImageName As String = strFileName.Substring(strFileName.LastIndexOf("\") + "1")

                Dim InsQuery As String = "INSERT INTO MyImage (imgName,imgPict) VALUES(@imgName,@imgPict)"

                Dim Cmd As New SQLiteCommand(InsQuery, Conn)

                Cmd.Parameters.Add("@imgName", DbType.String, 50).Value = strImageName

                Cmd.Parameters.AddWithValue("@imgPict", arrImage)

                Cmd.ExecuteNonQuery()

            Catch ex As Exception

                MessageBox.Show("Please select Image to Save")

            End Try

            DisplayInList()

        Catch ex As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, Me.Text, MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub Form1_Load(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles MyBase.Load

        Conn.Open()

        If lstImages.Items.Count > 0 Then

            lstImages.SetSelected(0, True)

        End If

        DisplayInList()

    End Sub

    Private Sub lstImages_SelectedValueChanged(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles lstImages.SelectedValueChanged

Try

            Dim Ds As New DataSet

            Dim strQry As String = "SELECT * FROM MyImage WHERE imgName = '" & lstImages.Text & "'"

            Adpt = New SQLiteDataAdapter(strQry, Conn)

            Adpt.Fill(Ds)

            If Not Ds.Tables(0).Rows.Count = 0 Then

                Dim arrayImage() As Byte = Ds.Tables(0).Rows(0).Item(1)

                Dim ms As New MemoryStream(arrayImage)

                pctImage.Image = Image.FromStream(ms)

                pctImage.SizeMode = PictureBoxSizeMode.StretchImage

            Else

                pctImage.Image = Nothing

            End If

        Catch ex As Exception

            MessageBox.Show(ex.Message, Me.Text, MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Error)

        End Try

    End Sub

    Private Sub btnExit_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnExit.Click

        If Conn.State = ConnectionState.Open Then Conn.Close()

        Application.Exit()

    End Sub

End Class

To Download  Source Code Click Here > image to database.rar    

Hide Files into JPEG

2010-02-15T08:20:00.000-08:00

Now hide your personal files, i mean any files into a jpeg file.

Steps to Hide the Files :

Put all the file you wanted to hide in a Single Folder and add that folder into zip file.
Now make a folder and place a jpeg file and the zip file you made now.
Now go to Start > Run > type cmd and press enter, this will open a command prompt i.e. a black screen.
Now i assume that the Folder you created is in D: Drive.
In Command Prompt type Cd\ and Press Enter.
Now type cd d: and press enter.
The zip file Name i used here is NewFolder.zip
Now cmd is in d:\> if you are right.
Now type cd NewFolder and press enter.
Now type the following command without Double codes "Copy /b Muthu.jpg + NewFolder.zip Muthu.jpg" and press Enter
that's it.

Steps to get the Files Back :

One is you simply change the extension from .jpg to .zip.
second right click the image and select open with and select winrar or winzip .
that's it.

Conditions apply * This method wont work with AMD Processor

Text to Voice

2010-02-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

To Download the Source Code Click Here > Text to Voice.rar

It is very easy to convert the text to voice in VB.Net.

Open Visual Studio and Click on New Project Windows form Template.
Place a Text box control from toolbox to Form and set its Multiline properties to "True".
Place a Button Control from toolbox to Form and set its Text Properties to "Speak".
place a NumericUpDown Control from the toolbox to the form and set its Maximum Properties to "25" and Minimum Propertied to "-25".
Right click on the Form and Click on View Code.
And type the following code.

Public Class Form1

    Private Sub btnSpeak_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles btnSpeak.Click

        Dim Speak As Object = CreateObject("SAPI.SPVOICE")
        'Pitch has a range of -25 to 25 
        Speak.Speak(txtMessage.Text, 1)

    End Sub

End Class 

Help From : http://www.visualbasicscript.com/m63061.aspx

To Download the Source Code Click Here >Text to Voice.rar

TextBox User Control

2010-02-12T08:47:00.000-08:00

To Download Source Code Click Here > TextBox User Control

You can create your own Custom Text box and and Custom Properties and select the Custom Text box's properties as per your requirement.

Lets Start...

Open Visual Studio and open new Project under Visual basic, Windows form Template.
Now right click in the solution explorer, click on add, click on User Control, which will give you a blank form without any boarder.
Now add a Text Box Control to that form, and re-size the form according to the size of the Text box Control.

4. Now right click on the Text box added and click on View Code and type the following code.

Public Class MyTextbox

Enum txt

Numeric

Alphabet

AlphaNumeric

End Enum

Dim txtbx As txt = txt.Alphabet

Property txtStyle() As txt

Get

Return txtbx

End Get

Set(ByVal Value As txt)

txtbx = Value

End Set

End Property

Private Sub TextBox1_KeyPress(ByVal Sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.keyPressEventArgs) Handles TextBox1.KeyPress

Select Case txtbx

Case txt.Numeric

Textbox1.MaxLength = 11

If Char.IsDigit(e.KeyChar) Or Asc(e.KeyChar) = 8 Or TextBox1.MaxLength > 11 Then

Else

e.Handled = True

End If

Case txt.Alphabet

Textbox1.MaxLength = 11

If Char.IsAlphabet(e.KeyChar) Or Char.IsWhiteSpase(e.KeyChar) Or Asc(e.KeyChar) = 8 Or TextBox1.MaxLength > 20 Then

Else

e.Handled = True

End If

Case txt.AlphaNumeric

Textbox1.MaxLength = 11

If Char.IsAlphaNumeric(e.KeyChar) Or Char.IsWhiteSpase(e.KeyChar) Or Asc(e.KeyChar) = 8 Or TextBox1.MaxLength > 50 Then

Else

e.Handled = True

End If

End Select

End Sub

End Class

5. Go to Build Menu and Click on Build "Your Project Name"
6. Go to Solution Explorer right Click on Form1 and Click on View Designer.
7. Place three Labels and Set its Text Properties to Name, Address, Mobile Accordingly.

8. Now go to Tool Box you will find a new Control added to Your tool Box at the top, ad three of that new tool to your form and set its property as per your need.
9. Now press F5 key from the keyboard and try entering the values to the text box.

Thats all...

Help From : http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/customTextBox.aspx.aspx

To Download Source Code Click Here > TextBox User Control

Create a PDF Document using VB.Net

2010-02-10T07:41:00.000-08:00

To download Source Code Click here > Convert To PDF.rar

This article will explain on how to create a pdf document using VB.Net 2005.
I used the itextSharp.dll to achieve this task.
iText# or iTextSharp is a port of the iText open Source Java Library for PDF Generation written entirely in C# for the .Net Platform.

Download iTextSharp.dll. To download click here > Download iTextSharp.dll
Create New Windows Form Project in VB.Net.
Go to Solution Explorer Right Click on the Project and click on Add Reference.
Browse to iTestSharp.dll and click Ok.

Add TextBox to the Form and Set its MultiLine Properties to True.
Add a Button to the Form and Set its Text Properties to "Save to PDF".
Add a SaveFileDialog to the Form.
Now Right Click the Form and Click On View Code.
Now Import the Following References

Imports System.IO

Imports System.Linq

Imports System.Text

Imports System.Collections.Generic

Imports iTextSharp.text

Imports iTextSharp.text.pdf

6. Now Double Click on the Button and write the following code :

Private Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

        If SaveFileDialog1.ShowDialog = Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK Then

            'Create Docu ment class obejct and set its size to letter and give space left, right, Top, Bottom Margin

            Dim doc As New Document(iTextSharp.text.PageSize.LETTER, 10, 10, 42, 35)

Try

                Dim wri As PdfWriter = PdfWriter.GetInstance(doc, New FileStream(SaveFileDialog1.FileName  & ".pdf", FileMode.Create))

                'Open Document to write

                doc.Open()

                'Write some content

                Dim paragraph As New Paragraph(TextBox1.Text)

                ' Now add the above created text using different class object to our pdf document

                doc.Add(paragraph)

            Catch dex As DocumentException

                'Handle document exception

            Catch ioex As IOException

                'Handle IO exception

            Catch ex As Exception

                'Handle Other Exception

            Finally

                'Close document

                doc.Close()

                MessageBox.Show("Pdf File Created Successfully", Me.Text, MessageBoxButtons.OK, MessageBoxIcon.Information)

            End Try

        End If

    End Sub

That's All

To download Source Code Click here > Convert To PDF.rar

Help From : http://www.dotnetspark.com/kb/654-simple-way-to-create-pdf-document-using.aspx

VS 2005 trick for obtaining the public key token and blob of a signed assembly

2010-02-08T06:46:00.000-08:00

The way to get the public key token using the .NET 2.0 provided utilities is to open a Visual Studio 2005 command prompt and typing: sn.exe -T [full path to strong named assembly]
However, there's an even easier way using the external tools dialog in Visual Studio 2005

In Visual Studio 2005, click Tools -> External Tools...
Click Add and enter the following into the different fields as displayed in the following screen shot:

Title: Get Public Key
Command: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio 8\SDK\v2.0\Bin\sn.exe
Arguments: -Tp "$(TargetPath)"
Uncheck all options, except Use Output window\

Now, you have a new entry listed in the Tools menu titled Get Public Key as shown in the following screenshot:

Assuming you have a project open that has been configured to be signed when built, and you've built it at least one time, selecting the new Get Public Key menu item from the Tools window to get the public key token and blob in the Output window, as shown here:

Very slick! You can even take this one step further by adding a button to a toolbar by customizing your toolbar and adding a button from the Tools category. you should pick External Command # where # is the index of the external command from the External Tools window (in my screen shots above, this is External Command 3). Then you can change the name of the button to be Get Public Key as shown below:

Very cool!

Help From : http://www.andrewconnell.com/blog/archive/2006/09/15/4587.aspx

What is event Viewer?

2009-11-11T05:35:00.001-08:00

Event Viewer is often the first troubleshooting tool that you will use to diagnose a problem and gather troubleshooting information. Event Viewer has many improvements and new features to help you search for event information on both a local and a remote computer. You can create custom views to save filtered information, subscribe to a remote log to forward events, and view event data for specific Windows applications and services.

Event Viewer can be accessed under the Diagnostics category in Server Manager or by launching it from the command line by typing eventvwr.msc. This opens MMC with the Event Viewer snap-in module loaded. Event Viewer has been categorized into five key areas.

Following are the descriptions of five key areas:

Event Logs Summary: Event Logs Summary aggregates events from key logs. Data is categorized by error, warning, information, and audit success events. You can see a snapshot of events that have occurred over the last hour, 24 hours, and 7 days. You can also view the total number of events, recently accessed nodes, and a summary of log properties.

Windows Logs: The Windows Logs area includes the Application, Security, and System logs. It also includes two new logs, the Setup Log and the ForwardedEvents log. Windows logs store events from earlier applications and events that apply to the entire system.

Applications and Services Logs: Applications and Services Logs have been extended to include new log files for hardware events, Internet Explorer, and key management services, and Windows components. These logs give you a direct approach for gathering troubleshooting and diagnostic information.

Subscriptions: The Subscriptions area gives you the ability to collect copies of events from multiple computers and store them locally. The subscription specifies exactly which events will be collected and in which log they will be stored. Event collecting depends on the Windows Remote Management and the Event Collector services.

Custom Views: The Custom Views lists displays views that you have saved after querying, analyzing, and sorting events. You can use these views for future references. You can select a custom view, apply the underlying filter, and the results are displayed.

How to Install or Remove a Font in Windows

2009-11-11T05:33:00.001-08:00

How To Install or Remove a Font in Windows

To Reinstall the Accepted Fonts Included With Windows

The afterward fonts are included with Windows and are installed on every computer:

• Courier New (TrueType, including Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic variations)

• Arial (TrueType, including Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic variations)

• Times New Roman (TrueType, including Bold, Italic, and Bold Italic variations)

• Symbol (TrueType)

• Wingdings (TrueType)

• MS Serif

• MS Sans Serif

If any of the accepted fonts that are included with Windows are missing, you can run Windows Setup again. Setup replaces missing or afflicted files. If these accepted fonts are missing, added Windows files may aswell be missing, and Setup corrects these problems.

Note On Microsoft Windows NT 4.0, Microsoft Windows 2000, Microsoft Windows XP, and Microsoft Windows Server 2003, you have to be an ambassador to add and abolish fonts.

Adding New Fonts

Windows supports TrueType fonts or fonts that are distinctively advised for Windows, and these fonts are accessible commercially. Some programs aswell cover appropriate fonts that are installed as allotment of the affairs installation. Additionally, printers frequently appear with TrueType or appropriate Windows fonts. Follow the admonition that appear with these articles to install these fonts.

To manually install or re-install a font:

1. Click Start, and again bang Run.

2. Type %windir%fonts, and again bang OK.

3. On the File menu, bang Install New Font.

4. In the Drives box, bang the drive that has the billowing or CD-ROM that contains the fonts you wish to add. If you are installing fonts from a billowing disk, this is about drive A or drive B. If you are installing the fonts from a bunched disc, your CD-ROM drive is about drive D. Double-click the binder that contains the fonts.

5. Click the chantry you wish to add. To baddest added than one chantry at a time, columnist and authority down the CTRL key while you bang anniversary font.

6. Click to baddest the Copy Fonts To Fonts Binder analysis box. The WindowsFonts binder is area the fonts that are included with Windows are stored.

7. Click OK.

Removing Fonts

To absolutely abolish fonts from the harder disk:

1. Click Start, and again bang Run.

2. Type %windir%fonts, and again bang OK.

3. Click the chantry you wish to remove. To baddest added than one chantry at a time, columnist and authority down the CTRL key while you bang anniversary font.

4. On the File menu, bang Delete.

5. When you accept the “Are you abiding you wish to annul these fonts?” prompt, bang Yes.

To anticipate a chantry from loading after removing it from the harder disk, move the chantry from the Fonts binder into addition folder. Use this adjustment for troubleshooting purposes. This action does not absolutely abolish the font, because chantry anthology advice is not deleted. However, it prevents the chantry from loading.

APPLIES TO

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise Edition (32-bit x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Datacenter Edition (32-bit x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Accepted Edition (32-bit x86)

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Web Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, Enterprise x64 Edition

• Microsoft Windows Server 2003, 64-Bit Datacenter Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Professional

• Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition

• Microsoft Windows XP Tablet PC Edition

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Datacenter Server

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional Edition

• Microsoft Windows 2000 Server

• Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition

• Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0 Accepted Edition

• Microsoft Windows NT Workstation 4.0 Developer Edition

Make Money Online With Your Facebook Account

2009-11-07T20:01:00.001-08:00

Facebook is one of the largest social networking sites. People all around the world use it to connect to each other. It was formerly created for high school and college students. It opened up for everybody in 2006 and then later in 2007 it opened up itself to developers. Therefore, it launched enormous opportunity for its users to make money online. From the time Facebook has opened up for developers, it has seen new applications overflowing.

Many people are constantly developing new applications on Facebook and many of them are even used by various different users to create pages that appeal to their own interests and needs. More than 1,900,000 users access the Facebook Marketplace application, which has now become a trend that is gaining fame.

Following are the few ways, which can help you, generate money online with Facebook:

Selling ad space: This is the most attractive part when it comes to making money online on Facebook. This forms majority of the business people do on it. Some Facebook applications let sellers advertise their wares to Facebook friends and other members. This method can help you make a lot of cash online by selling ad space on their page through ad networks like Lookery, Userplane and Google Adsense. Facebook is free to place ads in this marketplace and there is no limit on how many you can place. You can also try out the Social Ads to see how it benefits you. If you do not wish to sell, there are commission based sales referral programs that can help you a great deal. Following are 3 simple steps that can guarantee you a steady stream of income:

Develop a Facebook page that interests some advertisers. Create a space where ads can be placed on your Facebook pages and for this purpose install the My Stuff application that allows you to install any code on your Facebook profile and pages.

Find an advertiser who is willing to advertise on your Facebook page. Selling goods and services: Facebook application Brand Tracker looks for upcoming concerts, events, and links to ticket selling websites. As predicted, people may start buying things from their own Facebook page.

Sponsorship: this feature has also helped many people in making quick, easy, and handsome amount of money. Write a Facebook Book: it basically means advances and royalties for authors. So, you can make use of this option if you are good at writing content. If you are able to get good appreciators then you can surely earn enormous money online. Write a Facebook Blog: there are already numerous good ones who cover it up all. Surely, there is room for many more. Once you get an audience for your blog, you can begin to earn lot of money online.

Sell your Facebook application: create an application on Facebook, bring it in the notice of some thousand users, try and fetch revenue from it and then offer cast Per Install ads via Adonomics and provide data to get an Adonomics certified valuation. This is a sure shot path to earn handsomely on Facebook.

Facebook applications as a consultant: As of now, there is scarcity of good developers and so they are in huge demand. If you think you have it in you, go and fill up the vacuum there and earn sitting at home. Do not just think of Facebook as a site to have fun and contact people. It can also help you make money online. Facebook has users all around the world and it has huge audience to it which and help you a great deal in your purpose of making money. You can access it anywhere anytime and people from all age groups can use it. So make use of the enhanced opportunities Facebook provides to its members.

Apache troubleshooting tips

2009-11-07T19:36:00.001-08:00

How many times have you installed a LAMP server only to find Apache doesn’t seem to want to run right? Or you install a new module only to see Apache try to download pages as file, instead of displaying them on screen?

There are a hundred and one thousand things that can go wrong with any web server installation. From a fresh installation to an installation that has been running for a long time, you never know when something is going to cause your web server to go astray. When it does happen, it’s always nice to know that, usually, Occam’s Razor applies.

In this tutorial you will find some advice that will help you through some of the more common issues that can pop up with an Apache web server.

Is your server actually running?

Believe it or not, this has happened to plenty of administrators. You take the server down, do some maintenance, and when you go to check out the server you’re getting errors. The first thing you do, naturally, is check out that /etc/apache2/apache.conf file to make sure your syntax is correct. But it’s perfect! What’s up? The first thing you might want to check is to make sure the server is running. But you don’t want to just issue the command to start the server or reload the server. Instead, issue the command:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 status

Which should return something like:

* apache is running (pid 9751).

If not, start the server with either:

sudo /etc/init.d/apache2 start

or

sudo apache2ctl start

NOTE: If you are using a distribution like Fedora, SuSE, or Mandriva you will need to first su to the root user and issue the above commands WITHOUT using sudo.

It’s not running and it won’t start

Did you just make changes to your Apache configuration file? Are the changes correct? If you’re not sure, you can use the apache2ctl command to check the syntax of your configuration file. This is done with the command:

sudo apache2ctl configtext

The above command should report:

Syntax OK

If you don’t get an OK, you will get information that points to the errors in your configuration file.

Apache wants to download .php files!

This is another common issue. When you add a new tool on your web server (such as Drupal), if your configuration file is set up properly, any .php file might not be displayed. Instead any attempt to view a .php file will instead have your browser trying to download the file. Why is this? Apache must be informed that certain extensions are to be displayed, not downloaded. This is done from within the Apache configuration file. Open up that file (in the Ubuntu server it will be /etc/apache2/apache2.conf) and first look for the following line:

DirectoryIndex index.html

If that file doesn’t include index.php nearly all sites that use php will be rendered useless.

The second line to look for is:

AddHandler application/x-httpd-php .php

If you find this line, and it is commented out, make sure you uncomment it by removing the “#” character. If it is not there add it to the bottom of the configuration file.

And, as always, when you make a change to the configuration file, restart Apache.

Know where to look for problems

Finally, it is crucial that you know where to first turn when the above doesn’t help you out. Any time I have an issue with Apache where Occam’s Razor does not apply, the first place I turn is the log files.

If you look in /var/log/apache2 you will find, at least, the following files:

* access.log: This keeps track of any connection made to your server.
* error.log: This keeps track of any errors that occur with Apache.
* other_vhosts_access.log: This is where virtual hosts will log when the virtual host has not been prescribed its own log file.

Of course, as your site evolves so will your available log files. Regardless of what you find in /var/log/apache2, that is where you should always first turn when you have problems. Even before you google.

Final thoughts

Now you should be able to handle some of the more common issues with the Apache server. And if your problem isn’t common, you also know where to turn to find clues that will lead you down the right path to correction.

Infosys Collaborates with Oracle to Launch the Infosys Business Platform for HR

2009-11-07T07:38:00.000-08:00

BANGALORE, India, Nov. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Infosys Technologies (Infosys), a world leader in Consulting and Information Technology Services, today announced that it has teamed up with Oracle through the ’BPO Powered by Oracle program,’ and is launching a comprehensive managed services platform for multi-function HR through its Infosys Business Platforms offering.

With this launch, Infosys moves into the next generation of multi-process HR transformational outsourcing. This platform is built on state-of-the-art technology and will enable process transformation, while also being cost-effective. This will help companies streamline their HR operations and reduce operational costs. The Infosys Business Platform for HR frees up significant capital expenditure locked into HR technology and process investments, allowing the HR function to be a strategic enabler of an organization’s business objectives.

The Infosys Business Platform for HR is built on Oracle’s industry-leading PeopleSoft Enterprise Human Capital Management (HCM) Suite and offers the entire "Hire-to-Retire" processes and operations such as HR Administration, Payroll and Talent Management functions like Recruitment, Performance Management, and Learning Management in a fully hosted and managed environment.

Clients can take advantage of the scalable IT infrastructure to achieve economies of scale, best practices and variable cost models. Offshore teams will provide integrated technology, process and language support from multiple offshore and near-shore delivery centers. The unique shared services business model helps clients realize transformational benefits by unlocking capital expenditure, streamlining business processes and enhancing operational performance metrics.

"We are excited to team up with Oracle and are already seeing early successes of this model in Australia and New Zealand. The launch will also extend to Asia, Europe and the Americas," said Anantha Radhakrishnan, Vice President, Infosys. "This unique bundling of HR technology, application services, HCM process consulting and BPO delivers transformational value using levers such as global sourcing, technology innovation, process optimization, scale and centralization."

"The combination of Oracle’s PeopleSoft Enterprise HCM Suite and Infosys’ world-class IT and HR capabilities can help global organizations achieve HR process transformation and cost reduction using a ’pay-as-you-go’ variable pricing model," said Tibor Beles, Vice President, Oracle Business Process Outsourcing. "We are impressed with Infosys’ execution capabilities as demonstrated by winning their first customers on Infosys Business Platform for HR within the first few months of working together."

About Infosys Technologies Ltd.

Infosys (Nasdaq: INFY) defines, designs and delivers IT-enabled business solutions that help Global 2000 companies win in a Flat World. These solutions focus on providing strategic differentiation and operational superiority to clients. With Infosys, clients are assured of a transparent business partner, world-class processes, speed of execution and the power to stretch their IT budget by leveraging the Global Delivery Model that Infosys pioneered. Infosys has over 105,000 employees in over 50 offices worldwide. Infosys is part of the NASDAQ-100 Index and The Global Dow. For more information, visit www.infosys.com.

Infosys Safe Harbor

Statements in connection with this release may include forward-looking statements within the meaning of US Securities laws intended to qualify for the "safe harbor" under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. These forward-looking statements are subject to risks and uncertainties including those described in our SEC filings available at www.sec.gov including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the year ended March 31, 2009, and our other recent filings, and actual results may differ materially from those projected by forward-looking statements. We may make additional written and oral forward-looking statements but do not undertake, and disclaim any obligation, to update them.

Trademarks

OracleÂ® is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation and/or its affiliates. Other names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

Troubleshooting Common Problems

2009-11-06T05:59:00.000-08:00

Here we provide solutions for problems that you may encounter when using the HD Media Player.
Player SWF doesn’t load on page: You must have Flash Player 10 installed (you will probably have to close and reopen your browser to complete the installation), and you must provide a valid path to the SWF on your web server. If you are loading a SWF file that is NOT hosted on the same server as the page where it is being displayed, you must use a crossdomain.xml file in the root of the website that contains the SWF file (this is part of the Flash Player security model).

XML playlist doesn’t load in player: You must provide a valid path to your XML (using FlashVars, ActionScript, JavaScript, or the Component Inspector), and your XML can not contain errors (check all your media paths and use one of our default XML files to check your syntax). If you are loading a XML file that is NOT hosted on the same server as the page where it is being displayed, you must use a crossdomain.xml file in the root of the website that contains the XML file (this is part of the Flash Player security model).

Bandwidth detection doesn’t work: You must provide a valid path to your bandwidth test location (using a parameter in the XML or Component Inspector). Please refer to our “Automated Bandwidth Detection” tutorial for more information.

Fullscreen doesn’t work or player doesn’t resize correctly when exiting fullscreen: You must have Flash Player 10 installed (you will probably have to close and reopen your browser to complete the installation); you must be testing your SWF in a web page using a web browser (will not work on your desktop); and you must set the “allowfullscreen = true” in your embed code. If you have altered the size and/or location of any objects on the stage, you also have to modify a few lines of action script to account for the new layout. Please refer to our “Fullscreen Setup and Resizing” tutorial for more information.

JavaScript interaction doesn’t work: You must provide valid paths to all of your media files; you must define the “id & name” of your SWF in the embed code; you must test your SWF on a web server using a browser (i.e. will not work locally, swf must be embedded in a webpage, and the SWF can not be inside a form tag); and you must have JavaScript enabled in your browser. Please refer to our “JavaScript Interaction” tutorial for more information.

H264 (mpeg-4) files cannot be seeked before they are completely downloaded: The MOOV atom in your H264 files is located at the end of the file. To fix this problem you should re-encode the file using Adobe Media Encoder or QuickTime Pro. Alternatively, you could try using the QTIndexSwapper, but it may not work in all cases.

MP3 playback is too fast or too slow: Your MP3 contains variable bit rate encoding or unsupported sample frequencies (e.g. 48Khz). To fix this problem you should re-encode the track using constant bit rate encoding and a supported frequency (11, 22, 33, or 44 kHz), which can be done with iTunes.

Video duration/dimensions are wrong or progress bar/scrubbber doesn’t work: Your media file does not include metadata. To fix this problem you can manually define the duration using the “dur” attribute in node of the XML, or you can re-encode the file using Adobe Media Encoder (FLV & H264 files), QuickTime Pro (H264 files), or iTunes (MP3 files). Alternatively, you could try using the Buraks FLV Metadata Injector, but it may not work in all cases.

Progressive (http) FLV file doesn’t work: You must provide a valid path to your progressive media file. If you are using a relative path it must be relative to the location of the page where it is being used (not the location of the SWF). If you are using a Windows 2003 server (Microsoft IIS Server 6.0), make sure the FLV mime type has been added to the server (link to simple instructions).

Streaming (rtmp) file doesn’t work: You must use a supported server type (FMS 3.x, Wowza, or Red5); you must provide a valid path to your streaming media file (correct syntax based on file type); and you must use the correct ”instance” setting to help the player parse your rtmp path. Please refer to our “Working with a Flash Media Server” tutorial for more information.

Simple SAN Management

2009-11-06T05:26:00.000-08:00

3PAR InServ Storage Servers Maximize Storage Capacity
Back in 2004, Cvent, a provider of meeting and event management SaaS offerings, had outstripped the 1.2TB capacity of its SAN. Its fast growth and rapid acquisition of customers was threatening to overwhelm its storage capacity, and the IT staff was spending a lot of time troubleshooting performance problems and trying to find additional space on its database.

“We couldn’t even grow volumes. We had to play games on the SAN to find additional space on our database,” says Dwayne Sye, CIO of Cvent. “That was all time we weren’t able to spend helping our customers.”

So Sye and others on the IT staff began evaluating possible replacements for the system. They knew they needed not only more storage space but also much faster performance. At the same time, however, they were concerned that any significant upgrade was likely to be both complex and time-consuming—and being a small, fast-growing company, Cvent didn’t have endless IT resources to spend on a complicated storage implementation, so manageability and ease of use were key requirements for any new system.

After looking at three vendors’ SAN products, Cvent opted to go with 3PAR’s InServ S400 storage server (www.3par.com), which has two or four controller nodes, up to 32GB of data cache, up to 640 drives, and a top storage capacity of 300TB. It also features RAID levels 0, 10, and 50.

Making SANs Simple

A key selling point of the InServ server, says Sye, was its administrative interface. The interface was designed to make configuring and changing drives and setting up the virtual SAN as quick and easy as possible.
“While it’s not extremely complicated stuff—creating volumes, exporting them, resisting, optimizing—it can seem pretty complicated and time-consuming. So the ability to do that so easily [on the InServ], especially compared to our old SAN, was what really sold me,” he says.

3PAR’s interface hides some of the complexity of configuring and administering storage by automating details that don’t really need a human to do, such as application provisioning and array planning and mapping. That automation, and the easy-to-understand interface, has saved Cvent substantially in IT administrative time, according to Sye.

Performance has also been very satisfactory, says Sye: “Now we don’t have performance problems with the disk subsystems. We don’t have to experience long query times to the database server—no bottlenecks.”

Saving Time & Effort

For Cvent, the Virtual Copy and Remote Copy functions of the 3PAR InForm software suite that accompanies the InServ have proved useful in reducing administrative time and headaches

Virtual Copy is 3PAR’s version of a snapshot that provides a quicker method of backing up data than the traditional one of copying the entire set of data. Virtual Copy allows Cvent to take quick snapshots of the data to be backed up on an incremental basis, thus reducing overall backup time substantially.

“We used that when our backup window approached eight hours. By using Virtual Copy, we made it virtually instantaneous,” says Sye.

Remote Copy is a host-independent, array-based data mirroring solution. 3PAR Virtual Volumes are mirrored from one 3PAR InServ server to another. Remote Copy, which Cvent uses to back up its corporate data, has helped reduce the time to recover lost information from an average of two weeks to two hours.

The InForm Suite also includes 3PAR’s Thin Provisioning capability, which automatically manages applications’ storage needs with a just-in-time approach. This differs from the traditional method of allocating space, wherein an administrator assigns large blocks of unused storage to each application for it to use as needed but that no other application can use. By employing Thin Provisioning, Cvent has been able to reduce its new storage capacity purchases by an estimated 95%.

Moving To T-Class

Cvent today has more than 4,500 clients, compared to just 45 when it first bought an InServ in 2004. So far, the scalability of the S400s, plus the optimization technologies it leverages, have provided Cvent with ample storage space. But given the growth rate of the firm and the associated growth in storage, Sye is considering an upgrade to 3PAR’s newest server, the T-Class array.

A big part of the appeal of the T-Class, says Sye, is that it offers administrators the ability to change volumes from fat to thin on the fly. So past decisions to use traditional “fat” provisioning—allocating a set amount of storage per application—for a volume can be changed if the administrator sees the need.

“I could deploy everything as thin or fat and then see how the volume gets utilized to decide if I need to change it,” says Sye, noting that being able to make use of these new types of storage optimization capabilities has also changed his way of looking at storage in general.

Which antivirus is best at removing malware?

2009-11-06T05:22:00.000-08:00

Detecting the presence of malicious code is one thing, successfully eradicating it is entirely another.

According to AV-Comparatives.org’s recently released malware removal test evaluating the effectiveness of sixteen antivirus solutions, only a few were able to meet their criteria of not only removing the FakeAV, Vundo, Rustock and ZBot(Zeus) samples they were tested against, but also getting rid of the potentially dangerous “leftovers” from the infection.

More info on the tested antivirus solutions , and how they scored:

The test, including the following antivirus solutions - Avast Professional Edition 4.8; AVG Anti-Virus 8.5; AVIRA AntiVir Premium 9.0; BitDefender Anti-Virus 2010; eScan Anti-Virus 10.0; ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4.0; F-Secure AntiVirus 2010; G DATA AntiVirus 2010; Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010; Kingsoft AntiVirus 9; McAfee VirusScan Plus 2009; Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0; Norman Antivirus & Anti-Spyware 7.10; Sophos Anti-Virus 7.6; Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 2010; Trustport Antivirus 2009, relied on a modest malware sample, whose prevalence is however easily seen in the wild these days.

Their conclusion:

“None of the products performed “very good” in malware removal or removal of leftovers, based on those 10 samples. eScan, Symantec and Microsoft (MSE) were the only products to be good in removal of malware AND removal of leftovers. Due to the sample size, the final ratings may be generous, but we applied the scoring tables strictly. We tried to give different values for different types of leftovers, although this was very difficult in some gray area cases.

This was the first public malware removal test of AV-Comparatives and due the lack of generally accepted ways to rate malware removal abilities, we did out best to give a fair rating based on the observed overall malware removal results and to do not look / base out ratings on e.g. the deletion of the binary malware only.”

Sony Ericsson announces XPERIA X10 Google Android device

2009-11-06T05:10:00.000-08:00

Sony Ericsson has been known to make some compelling smartphones that had sleek, solid designs at high prices, like the XPERIA X1 I purchased and then returned earlier this year. Today we see the announcement of their first Google Android device, the XPERIA X10 and I have to say this device is lustworthy with its 8 megapixel camera, custom Mediascape interface that is highly focused on media (a weakness in all other Google Android devices), Timescape technology that recognizes connections between contacts, content, and media, and much more.

The SE XPERIA X10 won’t be available until the first half of 2010, but it shows how awesome Google Android devices can be and I think 2010 will be the year of the Android revolution and I can’t wait. I loved seeing that the X10 will have a model supporting T-Mobile USA’s 1700 MHz frequency and I hope to see it released sooner rather than later.

Specifications of the XPERIA X10 include:

* 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon QSD8250
* Up to 1GB integrated memory
* 4 inch 480×854 pixel resolution touchscreen display
* 8.1 megapixel camera with face recognition and stabilization
* WiFi
* Bluetooth
* A-GPS
* 3.5mm headset jack
* microSD card slot with 8GB card included
* microUSB for syncing and charging
* Support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync
Engadgets has a full hands-on look at the XPERIA X10 and this will definitely be one that I will find hard to resist. It has no hardware keyboard so it will have to be priced right for me to go for it though.

Implementing Network Infrastructure

2009-11-03T04:40:00.000-08:00

the concept of DNS and, perhaps more importantly, how to manage it in an organization. We looked at a number of ways of keeping your thumb on DNS.

The first way we looked at was simply the Monitor tab of your DNS server properties dialog box. The main use of this tab is to perform some queries against your DNS servers. You can perform either recursive or iterative queries against your servers (remember those?)

The next tool we looked at was NSLOOKUP. NSLOOKUP is a command line tool and uses reverse lookup zones (remember those?) to lookup your name servers, hence the name. We discussed the various things you can do with NSLOOKUP, and instead of rehashing them here, check out this link to get more information.

The next tool we looked at was a powerful DNS tool called DNSLint. This tool is available from the Windows Support Tools and is used to do some advanced DNS troubleshooting. Depending in which options we use with the command, we can do various things. For example, running dnslint /d boston.contoso.com will test the boston.contoso.com domain to ensure that it has proper DNS connectivity. Again, TechNet has more information here.

Next up, we looked at the DNSCMD command, which can be used to directly manipulate the DNS database. If, for example, I want to insert a Host (A) record pointing traffic aimed at mailserver.contoso.com to 10.1.5.1 I would type in this from the command prompt:

dnscmd dnsserver.contoso.com /recordadd mailserver A 10.1.5.1

The last thing we discussed was Replication Monitor, which is launched simply by issuing the replmon command from the command prompt. This command allows us to ahem, monitor replication to discover any errors that might be happening.

Troubleshooting Heros in Windows 7

2009-11-03T04:30:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 includes a wealth of features that improve your productivity at work in addition to providing fun activities for you and your family to enjoy using your PC even more. But there might be a time when a problem might occur that you need to solve on your PC, whether its hardware or software related. Windows runs on over 1.2 billion configurations world-wide. That’s a lot of PC’s and its a testament to how well designed and sophisticated the Windows platform is, to make it work on the variety of setups that exist around the world. The Windows Team does its extreme best to make the Windows experience trouble free, but there is always a chance that something will go wrong from time to time. Not to worry though, because Windows 7 in particular introduces a set of easy to use solutions that can help you get out of a mix or suggest a quick fix. Today, I want to take a look at some of these tools in addition to the improvements that this major release of Windows introduces.

Windows Troubleshooter

Windows 7 includes a new trouble shooting utility called Windows Troubleshooting, which diagnoses and resolves common operating system, application and hardware issues by providing built-in troubleshooters for several different types of problems. Whether its power management, performance, programs, networking or printers just to name a few. Some troubleshooters that come with Windows 7 automatically run in the background on a scheduled basis. If they discover a problem they will let you know in the Action Center. Examples of such scheduled maintenance tasks include cleaning up temporary files, detecting hard disk errors, removing broken shortcuts, and ensuring the system time is correct. Lets take a look at utilizing Windows Troubleshooter. In this scenario, I am having some problems accessing a shared folder on another PC. To start the the Troubleshooter, click Start, type: Troubleshooter

Hit Enter

As you can see the Troubleshooting Control Panel list a collection of available Task that Windows users can use to diagnose common problems that you might be experiencing. Windows 7 includes a collection of 20 common Troubleshooting Task. The Action Center will notify you of new and updated troubleshooters when they’re made available online, as provided by Microsoft or your computer vendor.

My specific problem as indicated by the error in the Network explorer I am having a problem ‘accessing shared files and folders on other computers. Its exactly what I am looking for! Lets click it and see what its all about. As you can see below, a wizard is started, specifically designed to resolve problems related to Shared folders.

The wizard runs a quick diagnostics test then ask for some form of input if necessary, this will vary by Troubleshooter. In this case I am being asked for the Network path (location) that I need access to. Going back to Network Explorer, clicking in the Address Bar, the name reveals it is located within \HOME-DELLX86 while the name of the folder I need access to is ‘SharedDocs’ so, the path I should type in the Troubleshooter wizard is ‘\HOME-DELLX86\SharedDocs’, lets go ahead and do that.

Troubleshooting success!

After entering the necessary information, the wizard will run a series of test, attempting to correct the problem. The wizard will then ask you to close the Troubleshooter and check if the problem is corrected. If you are interested, you can monitor a history of all your troubleshooting activities. Users must note that, Windows Troubleshooting is not or never will be a complete answer, but it compliments the array of options available to Windows users when trying to solve a problem.

Compatibility

Compatibility is always a sensitive issue when it comes to a new version of Windows. Microsoft takes it very seriously and considers it a hallmark of the Windows platform, making it easy for users to transition to a new release with little or no hiccups. With the release of Windows XP, Microsoft introduced Compatibility Mode, which let older applications run on the OS emulating supported versions of Windows with the ability to save settings so that your applications will start in the correct mode every time. Compatibility Mode worked in some cases and others it did not.

Windows Vista’s compatibility story was a tough one, simply because of the fundamental changes that were made to enhance the system’s security foundations. In Windows 7, the Compatibility process is handled through a number of avenues, which include the Windows Upgrade Advisor and Application Compatibility Toolkit (ACT) to help customers assess application compatibility. Microsoft is tackling compatibility through shims, which avoids some of the problems that programs encounter when trying to function on a new version of Windows. Windows Vista affected compatibility through new improvements to its account privileges called Standard User Mode.

Because of the limitations of Standard User, applications that were designed to run with only Administrative privileges could not function properly under Vista, there is both a good and bad here, the good being malware could not easily infiltrate a system, but at the same time, the user would not be able to use a desired application effectively. With Shims, an application is prepared to run with Administrative privileges by making the application believe it has full rights while still in Standard Mode. Windows 7 provides a total of 6,999 shims for applications with more expected every patch Tuesday. Companies can create their own shims using the Windows Application Compatibility Toolkit recently updated to version 5.5, this helps with diagnosis of compatibility problems and the ability to apply the proper shims for troublesome programs. ACT also offers a shim that helps a custom application locate system files written in an unexpected directory as a result of different versions of the operating system.

One of the common ways to work around application compatibility problems in Windows 7, is to use the interactive right-click method and click the Run as administrator contextual menu option. To occasionally run an application with a full administrator access token, use the following procedure.

To perform this procedure, you must be logged on as a local administrator or provide the credentials of a member of the local Administrators group.

1. Locate the program icon or a shortcut in Windows Explorer
2. Right-click the program icon or shortcut, and then click Run as administrator.
3. When the UAC message is displayed, do one of the follow:

* If you are logged on as a standard user, or if UAC is configured to always require credentials, enter the appropriate administrative credentials, and then click OK.
* If you are logged on as an administrator and UAC is not configured to always require credentials, click Yes to start the application.

If the above does not provide a solution, you can utilize the Program Compatibility troubleshooter. If an older program does not run correctly, you can use it to simulate the behavior of earlier versions of Windows. Program Compatibility troubleshooter runs a quick diagnostic check which searches for a list of programs that you might be experiencing problems with. If you don’t see the program, you can click ‘Not Listed’, click next and browse your hard disk for the program. If your program is listed, select it and click Next. Program Compatibility will then suggest recommended options. Personally, I prefer choosing ‘compatibility settings based on problems you notice’. As I noted earlier, most application issues are often related to compatibility with the OS.

Windows will then ask you to check off any of the behaviors you are noticing when attempting to use the program. All may not apply and most often, choosing an earlier version of Windows that the program worked in can resolve the problem. For my scenario, I will select ‘The program worked in earlier versions of Windows but won’t install or run now’. Program Compatibility will then list versions of Windows that the program worked in. Select one and the Program Compatibility Troubleshooter will reconfigure the application to run the appropriate settings.

Preparing an incompatible application to work in Windows 7

Problem Steps Recorder

Problem Steps Recorder is used to capture application compatibility issues for evaluation by technical experts. It does this by automatically capturing the steps you take on a computer, including a text description of where you clicked and picture of the screen during each click. Once you capture these steps, you can save them to a file that can used by a support technician or an expert to resolve the problem you might be experiencing.

System Restore

Last year I did a CISCO IT Essentials course which prepared me for the CompTIA A+ exam. One of the things I discovered during my learning was how important System Restore is in the troubleshooting process for Technical Support staff. Microsoft first introduced System Restore with the release of Windows Millennium Edition in 2000. Since then the Windows Team has included it with new versions of Windows while improving the reliability of this essential utility. With Windows 7, there are some welcome improvements I want to take a quick look at.

System Restore provides an opportunity for users to restore their PC to an earlier time in case of a problem. Windows saves snapshots of the system in its current condition. By taking a snapshot before installing a program, you can correct the problem by rolling back your computer to a point in time when it was working well. The great thing about System Restore has always been the ability restore with confidence knowing that your personal files will not be altered or destroyed during the process. System Restore affects Windows system files, programs, and registry settings. It can also make changes to scripts, batch files, and other types of executables created under any user account on your PC.

In Windows 7, System Restore is more reliable, predictable, and effective. You’ll see a list of programs that will be removed or added, providing you with more information on which restore point to choose. System restore points are also available in your backups, giving you a larger list of restore points to choose from—and likely over a longer period of time. When combined with other features such as Previous Versions which are copies of files and folders that Windows automatically saves as part of a restore point Windows users can feel secure knowing their information is always protected by the OS.

Recently I took a look at the two other important troubleshooting features in Windows 7, Recovery Options, Backup and Remote Assistance.

Windows 7 includes advanced recovery options that can guide you through the ‘reinstallation of Windows’ and restoration of personal files and settings. This will require that you have an available Windows 7 installation disc or Recovery Image, which will assist with the reinstallation. You will have to restore your files from a backup, programs must also be reinstalled. Most OEM’s (Original Equipment Manufacturers) such as HP, Lenovo and Dell install a hard drive partition customized with additional tools such as a separate system recovery tool for restoring the computer back to its original state. Advanced Recovery also includes the option to backup files before starting this procedure. You can find the Advanced Recovery option in Control Panel > Action Center > Recovery > Advanced recovery methods. Read the entire article here

Windows 7 backup and restore features are designed to make protecting your data and system easier. The combined file and system backup wizard delivers a simplified configuration experience, and the folder selectivity functionality for file backup provides users greater control over their backup content. Managing backup is easier with the new space management user interface and integration with Action Center. Recovering your system is made easier with simplified interface and better guidance for choosing a recovery method. Read the entire article here

Remote Assistance in Windows 7 introduces a new feature called ‘Easy Connect’ which simplifies the process of connecting to another PC remotely with only a password, no file needed. When a connection is established between both computers, contact files are exchanged which creates a trust relationship. This further simplifies future connections that are made without the need for a password. Read the entire article here

Conclusion

Windows 7 makes troubleshooting a worry free process that emphasizes strong confidence when using your PC, protecting your precious memories and critical data. For beginner’s and experts, the operating system covers a wide range of problem solving capabilities that can assist you in the event of a problem. If you ever encounter an issue, just know that Windows 7 got your back! :)

Is Microsoft a dinosaur to Google's mammal?

2009-11-03T04:14:00.000-08:00

I had a couple of very enlightening conversations with representatives from Microsoft and Google back-to-back on Friday. While our conversations were focused on their educational initiatives, some of which I’ll be featuring tomorrow on ZDNet Education, the more interesting aspects of the interviews actually related to their entirely different approaches to the Web, the cloud, and computing in general. These approaches, and the history behind them, beg the question, is it time for Microsoft to reinvent itself if it wants to avoid becoming the computing equivalent of fossil fuels?

I know, the La Brea Tar Pits don't actually contain any dinosaurs...but is it time for a shift in strategy for Microsoft?

Microsoft has been around for a while. It was founded in 1975, the year before I was born, making it truly ancient in computer years. This isn’t a bad thing, in and of itself. Experience counts for a lot and, if Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, and Office 2007 (with 2010 on its way) show us anything, it’s that Microsoft has learned a lot of lessons and can crank out some pretty impressive desktop productivity software. True, Server 2008 isn’t desktop software (unless you count what it can do in terms of Terminal Services and desktop virtualization), but Active Directory and much of its software stack directly support desktop computing environments.

Google, on the other hand, is a relative baby. Founded in 1998, the company was created for, by, and through the Web. As Google’s Jeff Keltner told me the other day, the company has built an entire Web-based infrastructure throughout the company. They have a “single way” of thinking about how they do business with a single “back-end and front-end model” that they leverage both internally and externally in the variety of products that grew from their original search business.

If you talk to the folks at Google, Microsoft is shoehorning a dying desktop-centric strategy into a Web-enabled world. Talk to the folks at Microsoft and Google is shoving cloud strategies down the throats of enterprise customers who need far more control than Google Apps can offer.

So who’s right? And more importantly, who’s right long-term? Right now, it seems clear that they both are. Microsoft has a robust, mature software ecosystem that can manage an enterprise’s desktop experiences quite handily. Increasingly, with Live Web Apps, Sharepoint Live, Outlook Live, etc., users can access their documents and messaging in very familiar forms from the Web. The best of both worlds, right?

But what if the desktop really is dead? What if the desktop computing experience will be irrelevant in a year? Two years? What if Google is right? Google doesn’t need an ecosystem of integrated products that also integrate with the cloud because all of its services were built from the ground up to work in the cloud. The desktop was not part of Google’s core strategy; they’re simply able to leverage their massive Web presence and huge data center capabilities to potentially eliminate the need for a desktop for many users. In fact, again according to Keltner, Google now focuses in terms of Apps on how best to satisfy the needs of their customers, rather than replicating what Microsoft can do.

Many of these questions have been asked before:

* Is the desktop dead?
* Is the OS dead?
* Is Microsoft a dinosaur?
* How many of your users really need Office in all its glory?
* Can the cloud actually work for the enterprise?

Now, though, as Microsoft pushes hard to keep up in the cloud and maintain its desktop advantage, while Google begins to look like the 1000 pound gorilla taking over the Internet, it seems as though the game might be changing. I think that it’s premature to assume that Microsoft will follow the dinosaurs into extinction. Not only did the dinosaurs dominate the earth for millions of years before mammals pulled a slick bit of Darwinism, but as any 2nd-grader will tell you (mine most definitely included), dinosaurs are super cool. So are many of Microsoft’s current products.

However (and this is a really big however), Google’s products are maturing at an incredible pace, perhaps because they eat their own dogfood and run their own enterprise on Google technologies. Here’s the real question you have to ask yourself: Is it worth investing in a Microsoft ecosystem now? Or does Microsoft need to fundamentally shift directions if it hopes to keep attracting new customers in a world that is increasingly turning to the Web for everything it does?

All of Microsoft’s Live offerings are a compelling start. My money isn’t on either Microsoft or Google; it’s on the Web and the company who can leverage web technologies in the way that is most meaningful to users. Right now, the advantage seems to be going to Google, but this is hardly over. Microsoft, as well as plenty of other cloud players like IBM and Amazon will not be conceding any time soon.

Into the world of Information Technology

2009-11-03T04:13:00.000-08:00

When hard drives fail and blue screens abound, students with a myNotebook laptop have sought out the support services of Information Technology. But most students at the College of William and Mary have no knowledge of what goes on behind the scenes in the basement of Jones Hall.

The College’s IT department maintains the campus computer labs, phone system, myWM, Banner and the e-mail servers.

Usually students only encounter the public face of the department when two student employees at the front desk attempt to diagnose a computer’s problem and repair it on the spot.

“Some things you’re replacing right here while you wait, so we do some keyboards, CD drives, AC adapters, hard drives,” Manager of Technology Support Center Brian Persinger said.

Of all of the computers brought to IT, around 20 percent of them are repaired at the front desk, within fifteen minutes. But if the damage is more serious, the computer is checked in and brought to the back room where staff technicians dismantle the computer to replace broken parts.

“Spills are a pain,” Technology Support Engineer Danny Clouser said. “I had one yesterday where I had to replace eight or 10 parts because somebody dumped a coke on it.”

The technicians can draw from numerous drawers filled with the parts for each computer model in the
myNotebook program.

“The way it works is that [the manufacturers] give us one computer for every 100 computers sold and we take that one computer and break it down into parts,” Persinger said.

Once the broken parts are replaced in a student’s laptop, the broken pieces are sent to the manufacturer, who then restocks the parts assembly in IT’s back room. When the computer is fixed, it heads to the front desk for the student to pickup.

Computers are usually returned within a day, with three days as the maximum. If a computer has multiple parts failures, the technicians will sometimes, reluctantly, send the computer back to the manufacturer for repair or replacement of the unit.

“We always want to get the computer back in the student’s hands as quickly as possible so they can do their schoolwork,” Persinger said.

Persinger said that IT has recently changed its support policy to stop backup and data retrieval for myNotebook computers because a single hard drive would take the staff hours to backup.

“Our turn-around time was always around three days, but we wanted that to be our maximum, not our norm,” he said. “So we decided to make some changes which was getting some repairs done up front and eliminating us being responsible for helping users restore data.”

Technicians will not only repair any myNotebook computer, but also will attempt to fix any student, staff and faculty Lenovo or Dell computer that has an active hardware warranty.

Though they are not directly involved, the department also provides consulting to the Tribe Apple Center in the ID Office.

The myNotebook program, established five years ago, was designed to have a consistent hardware in the student populace.

“It would have given the professors much more flexibility to incorporate technology into their teaching because everybody had [the same computer],” Chris Ward, Director of Systems and Support said. “But that didn’t work.”

The idea never truly took off as diversity in campus computers has increased over the years.
myNotebook laptops have declined in popularity, and now constitute only 50 percent of College’s computers, down from 80 percent five years ago.

IT strongly recommends that all students back up their hard drive. Ward said that one professor had to learn that the hard way when she paid $1,000 dollars to an outside company to extract her book off a failed hard drive.

“We have a tech that always says there are two kinds of people,” Ward said. “There are those who have lost data and those who will lose data. So back-up your data.”

Troubleshooting Internet Explorer 7.0 Issues

2009-11-03T04:09:00.001-08:00

Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) is light years ahead of its predecessors, but by no means does that proclamation mean that the browser is perfect. You are still going to encounter issues with IE from time to time.

Here are some of the concise guides that deliver some troubleshooting steps that will clear up the majority of issues we encountered with IE7.

Issues with Internet Explorer 7.0 with solutions

Problem: Crashes or hangs

If IE crashes, the most likely problem is that there's a buggy add-on (Toolbar or Browser Helper Object). In order to verify and isolate the buggy add-on, follow these steps:

1. Start IE in No Add-ons mode, either by right-clicking the Desktop icon, or clicking START - RUN and typing: iexplore.exe -extoff

2. Determine if IE fails.

3. If not, use Tools - Manage Add-ons to disable all browser extensions and toolbars.

4. Restart IE and re-enable browser extensions one-by-one.

5. Once you've found a broken extension, contact the manufacturer and ask for an update.

(Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928426)

If IE still crashes often, even when browser add-ons are disabled:

• Please ensure that you are running the very latest version of your anti-virus, anti-malware, and/or firewall programs.

• Please ensure that the drivers for your graphics card are up to date.

• If you have Google Desktop installed, please ensure that you update to the latest version of Google Desktop.

• If you have 7-Zip or other Windows Explorer extensions installed, please ensure that you update to the latest.

Problem: Cannot connect to Internet using IE after updates installed

If you see the "Page Cannot be Displayed" error after installing Internet Explorer updates from Windows Updates, it's possible that you have a 3rd party firewall installed that is blocking access because the IE files have been updated. Please see http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942818/en-us for more information.

Problem: IE always starts in "No Add-ons" mode

The problem is that you're launching Internet Explorer using a shortcut icon that has the "-extoff" command line parameter. That parameter causes IE to start without add-ons. Thus, every time you use that shortcut icon, IE will start in No Add-ons Mode.

1. How do you normally start Internet Explorer? Right-click whatever icon you're using to start IE, choose "Properties" and remove the -extoff part of the shortcut.

2. If you click the green START button, click Run, type iexplore.exe in the RUN box, then hit the ENTER key, IE will start with Addons enabled.

Problem: IE opens small windows

IE opens new windows at the size of the last closed window. If you find that IE is opening small windows, do this:

• Close all IE windows.
• Open one new IE window.
• Adjust that window to the size you prefer. Do this by dragging the window borders. Do not use the maximize button:
• Close the IE window.
• New IE windows will open at the size you chose.

Problem: ClearType Text appears fuzzy

IE7 turns on a text-smoothing technology called "ClearType" by default. ClearType is scientifically proven to make text easier to read, particularly on LCD flat panel monitors.

If ClearType looks fuzzy on your monitor, you might want to try the ClearType tuning wizard, which can help you adjust the display of ClearType.

If you still don't like the appearance of ClearType, you can turn it off by unchecking the checkbox: Tools - Internet Options - Advanced - Multimedia - Always use ClearType for HTML.

Problem: IE Startup takes a long time (>3 seconds)

1. IE may start very slowly if you have a huge number of sites listed in your Restricted or Trusted sites zone. Some tools, like "SpyBot Search & Destroy" will place thousands of sites in these zones if you use their "immunize" feature.

2. Follow the "Crashing on startup" steps above to see if starting in No Add-ons mode starts much faster

3. If you're not using a proxy, uncheck IE's "Automatically detect settings" option on the Tools - Internet Options - Connections - LAN Settings dialog.

Problem: Slow Page rendering

1. Increase the connection limit. This tweak allows IE to make up to 16 connections per server.

2. Ensure that both "HTTP1.1" checkboxes in Tools - Internet Options - Advanced are checked.

Problem: IE7 Setup fails to install Internet Explorer

See http://support.microsoft.com/kb/917925

Problem: My address bar won't turn green?

IE7 includes a cool new feature that turns the address bar green when a secure site presents an Extended Validation certificate:

If you're having trouble with this feature, on a site you know has an EV certificate:

1. Ensure that you either have the Phishing Filter set to "Automatic" mode or Tools > Internet Options > Advanced > Security > Check for Server Certificate revocation checked.

2. If that doesn't work, install this: Windows Root Certificate Update and restart.

Problem: After installing, IE7 starts then vanishes

It's possible that one of IE's DLLs isn't installed correctly

1. Click START - RUN and type cmd
2. In the command prompt, type cd\
3. In the command prompt, type cd Program Files
4. In the command prompt, type cd Internet Explorer
5. In the command prompt, type regsvr32 IEPROXY.DLL

(Reference: http://support.microsoft.com/?id=928427)

Problem: Error message about PSAPI.DLL

If you install IE7 and the following error message begins to show:

The procedure entry point GetProcessImageFileNameW could not be located in the dynamic link library PSAPI.DLL

1. Search your hard disk for PSAPI.dll.

2. Any copies of this DLL that are found outside of the Windows or Windows\System32 folder should be renamed to PSAPI.bak.

Problem: IE always goes to http://runonce.msn.com/runonce2.aspx instead of my homepage

If IE7 always goes to the RunOnce page on startup, even after you've tried to save the first run settings, it's possible that the mechanism that IE is using to save the settings does not work for some reason.

You can prevent IE from going to the RunOnce page and cause it to go directly to your homepage by running this script.

For more info, check out this Knowledge Base article.]

Problem: IE always goes to http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx instead of my homepage

If Internet Explorer always goes to this page on startup, it's likely that you have an anti-spyware package (like "SpyBot") that prevented IE from correctly modifying your registry.

Try running this script. Note: you may need to disable your anti-spyware tool temporarily for the script to work.

Problem: On startup, IE always shows an error message about the AOL toolbar

If you see the following error message every time IE starts:

"Cannot find 'file:///C:/Program%20Files/AOL%20Toolbar/welcome.html'. Make sure the path or Internet address is correct."

..then you've hit a bug in the AOL Toolbar.

Try running this script. Note: you may need to disable your anti-spyware tool temporarily for the script to work.

Problem: I installed a "branded" version of IE7, but I'd prefer a "plain" copy without toolbars and customizations.

An article on this topic can be found here: How to remove branding in Internet Explorer 7.

Problem: Malware / Adware

If Internet Explorer is behaving strangely (crashing, visiting unwanted sites, etc), it's possible that there is malicious software installed on your computer.

As a first step, you should allow your antivirus software to scan and attempt to repair your computer. Additionally, you may want to try the following Microsoft tools:

• Windows Defender
• Windows Live OneCare
• Windows Live Safety Center
• Malicious Software Removal Tool

You should also ensure your computer has all the security updates available at Microsoft Update.

Problem: My searches are redirected to unrelated sites and I cannot connect to WindowsUpdate or antivirus websites

If Internet Explorer searches are redirected to unrelated sites or search engines, it's possible that your computer was infected with malware (see the previous tip). However, if your computer is not currently infected with malware, it's possible that at some time in the past, malicious software altered your computer's DNS settings. DNS works like an "internet phonebook" that maps URLs (like "windowsupdate.microsoft.com") to internet protocol addresses (like "207.46.225.221").

To determine if a malicious DNS server is configured:

- Go to Start -> Control Panel ->Network Connections.

- Right click your default connection, usually Local Area Connection or Dial-up Connection, if you are using Dial-up, and left click on Properties.

- Double-click on the Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) item

Check to see if you're set to something other than "Obtain DNS servers automatically". If so, contact your ISP to ensure that the address specified is correct, or set the "Obtain DNS servers automatically" checkbox. Then restart your computer.

Problem: After opening many tabs, Windows and IE paint abnormally.

See http://blogs.msdn.com/tonyschr/archive/2005/05/25/desktop-heap-limitations.aspx

Problem: A remote user is having networking problems with Internet Explorer. How can I collect information about his system to help me to troubleshoot?

Have the user run Netcheck and send you the log file.

Problem: Overlong headers result in HTTP/4xx or HTTP/5xx errors, particularly on devices like routers or webcams

Problems of this nature are usually caused by one of the two request headers in yellow being longer than the device expects.

GET / HTTP/1.1

Accept: image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/x-silverlight, application/x-silverlight-2-b2, */*

Accept-Language: en-us

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8)

Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate

Connection: Keep-Alive

Host: 192.168.10.1

These headers are dynamically generated out of registry keys. They can usually be trimmed by editing the registry without any important side-effects.

To trim the list in the Accept header, click START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE. Using RegEdit, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\Accepted Documents

..and remove elements from the "Name/Type/Value" list to remove values that aren't strictly required. Elements in red are of lower importance than those in black:

image/gif, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-ms-application, application/vnd.ms-xpsdocument, application/xaml+xml, application/x-ms-xbap, application/vnd.ms-excel, application/vnd.ms-powerpoint, application/msword, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/x-silverlight, application/x-silverlight-2-b2, */*

A similar problem can occur with the User-Agent header.

To trim the list in the User-Agent header, click START > RUN > REGEDIT.EXE. Using RegEdit, navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\5.0\User Agent\Post Platform

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings\User Agent\Post Platform

..and remove elements from the "Name/Type/Value" list to remove values that aren't strictly required. Elements in red are of lower importance than those in black:

User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 8.0; Windows NT 6.0; WOW64; Trident/4.0; SLCC1; .NET CLR 2.0.50727; .NET CLR 1.1.4322; InfoPath.2; .NET CLR 3.0.30618; .NET CLR 3.5.30729; OfficeLiveConnector.1.3; OfficeLivePatch.1.3; MS-RTC LM 8)

Idera Offers New SQL toolbox for SQL Server DBAs and Developers

2009-11-02T09:01:00.001-08:00

SEATTLE, WA -- 11/02/09 -- In booth #200 at the 2009 PASS Summit, Idera, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner and leading provider of management and administration solutions for Microsoft SQL Server, today announced SQL toolbox(TM), a collection of powerful, easy-to-use products containing more than 25 essential tools for SQL Server database administrators (DBAs) and developers. SQL toolbox combines more than 25 tools for SQL Server database backup, virtual data recovery, database comparison and database administration, all in one value-priced bundle.

The SQL toolbox includes:

-- SQL virtual database(TM) -- A NEW tool that enables instant-access to
critical data in a backup file without wasting the time or storage
necessary to restore the database.
-- SQL safe Lite(TM) -- A lite version of Idera's award-winning SQL
safe(TM) backup and recovery solution for SQL server, SQL safe Lite
delivers record breaking compression and speed using a scriptable interface
(command line and XSP).
-- SQL administration toolset(TM) -- 24 essential desktop tools for
monitoring, troubleshooting, administering and reporting on SQL Server.
-- SQL comparison toolset(TM) -- One product that does the job of two:
object and data comparison, and synchronization of SQL Server databases.

"Idera's SQL toolbox delivers powerful tools that DBAs will use each and every day to save hours of time and provide increased levels of service to their users," said Rick Pleczko, President and CEO of Idera. "When you consider the price of SQL toolbox is around $600 less than the cost of the individual tools, it's easy to see that SQL toolbox provides incredible value for SQL Server DBAs and developers."

Idera also announced new product, SQL virtual database, and a new version of its SQL safe(TM) product. To read the press releases go to http://www.idera.com/Action/Show.aspx?ThisList=News

Pricing and availability

The SQL toolbox is available today at $995 per instance. Idera customers receive automatic notifications when new tools are available, upgrade notifications and even the ability to install upgrades directly from SQL toolbox.

About Idera

Idera provides tools for Microsoft SQL Server, SharePoint and PowerShell management and administration. Our products provide solutions for performance monitoring, backup and recovery, security and auditing and PowerShell scripting. Headquartered in Houston, Texas, Idera is a Microsoft Gold Partner and has over 6,000 customers worldwide. To learn more, please contact Idera at +1-713.523.4433 or visit www.idera.com.

Idera is a division of BBS Technologies, Inc. Idera, SQL toolbox, SQL administration toolset, SQL comparison toolset, SQL virtual database and SQL safe are trademarks or registered trademarks of BBS Technologies, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States and other jurisdictions. All other company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.

About me

2009-11-02T04:25:00.001-08:00

This blog is all about gathering data.
Data means informative data.
This blog will be updated with information which on what i think.
And, this blog will contain information on Coding, and many other things also.
Because i am not here to only focus on Coding. So i will update all such think that i study daily.
I mean i m going to update this blog with information which i m studying daily in my life,
so that this will be a good friend for me which will take care on what i study daily.
And main motive to make this blog is to update myself and to clear the Doubt of the visitors of my blog. So its a great opportunity for people who have doubts so continue asking my Questions.
For the time that's all i think ed about.
Later their will be more stuff added to this blog depends on me and my Blog Visitors mind, which will really entertain all Visitor.

Dedicated Exchange Server Hosting Interrelated Information

2009-11-02T04:14:00.001-08:00

You see, we should be very thankful that we are born in this modern generation because of the existence of the Internet. With the Internet, every information (whether about dedicated exchange server hosting or any other such as freebsd dedicated server, tomcat hosting, discount dedicated server or even freebsd dedicated server) can be found with ease on the Internet, with great articles like this.

Getting your own dedicated server for your business is a great idea if you are interested in security, being the only business on the server, eliminating potential server problems, and have a budget that includes a substantial monthly fee.

The next thing you need to consider would be if the dedicated server you would be getting will be managed or unmanaged. If you are very knowledgeable, and you have an idea on how you would be managing the server on your own, then you could go for an unmanaged server, but if you do not, it would be recommended to get a managed dedicated server.

If you don't have an IT staff or a server administrator to provide support, you may want to find a person to help you manage your dedicated server. Many hosting companies that offer dedicated server plans also offer "per issue" support, meaning that you'll pay a certain amount, usually an hourly fee, for technical support issues. Some dedicated server plans have optional "support tickets" that you can purchase in advance.

Don't forget that you are only a step away from getting more information about dedicated exchange server hosting or such related information by searching the search engines online. Google.com alone can give you more than enough results when you search for dedicated exchange server hosting.

In a summarized form go for a dedicated exchange server if the website is in a category of most popular, and it is having tons of daily visitors, if work is on B2B basis, if additional security and functionality are required then its time to go for a dedicated server.

A unique IP address is the fifth important advantage. With a dedicated exchange server, you are guaranteed to have a unique IP address. A shared server has one IP address and special header-reading software determines which website traffic is directed to which actual site. This can slow down a server. Upgradeability is the sixth advantage. You are free to upgrade your dedicated exchange server any way you like.

You also benefit from the lack of sharing going on. You don't have to worry about server problems resulting from multiple users. You don't have to worry about server space, since no one else is using the server's resources. You are free to install any information or software that you want. A dedicated exchange server hosting allows you more freedom, as well as the reduction of down time. Lastly, a dedicated server usually loads content faster and provides an overall more prompt user experience for your customers.

Many people looking for information about dedicated exchange server hosting also looked online for hosting and dedicated server, ut2004 dedicated server, and even bf2 dedicated server linux.

SSL Troubleshooting and Debugging

2009-11-02T04:04:00.001-08:00

Due to the very nature of secure channel establishment, it is often difficult to even approach troubleshooting and debugging SSL related issues.

This brief article intends to illustrate the challenges, approaches and tools available for debugging these difficult scenarios.

SSL Description

Secure Socket Layer (SSL) is a protocol for providing a secure channel of communication between two computers. It makes provisions for data integrity, confidentiality and authentication. Authentication of the server - by the client - provides an assurance of the fact that the traffic has not been diverted to an attacking server. Mutual authentication requires the client to provide credentials to the server over the secure channel.

SSL Handshake Overview

In order to really be able to troubleshoot and debug SSL related issues, we need an understanding of what the protocol actually does on both the client and server sides. This understanding will enable us to quickly categorize the type of problem being encountered and hopefully a category of approaches for tracking down the root cause.

We will touch on issues and troubleshooting approaches in the following categories:

1. Certificate Validation
2. Trust
3. Configuration

So let's briefly describe the protocol with a bit of focus on these three categories.

The client initiates the SSL connection by requesting a channel through the use of a ClientHello handshake message. This message contains the Cipher Suites that are configured to be supported by the client side and are available for the server to choose in creating the most secure channel configuration possible between the two machines. It also contains a random number to be used by the server in the generation of keys - this random number is a result of the configured or default RNG on a given platform.

The server side, in turn, responds with a ServerHello that includes the Cipher Suite selected by the server as the most appropriately secure suite for the channel. If a suitable cipher suite could not be selected from the list of supported suites provided by the client - the request for an SSL connection is denied by the server. It also includes a random number and the certificate that is to be used for authenticating the server to the client. This certificate must be validated by the client in order for it to be trusted as representing the identity asserted by it.

This validation is based on a number of possible factors (driven by configuration):

1.Whether it is expired
2.Whether it has been revoked
3.Whether it was issued by a trusted Certificate Authority
4.Whether the server name within the certificate matches the host name for the current connection

Where Things Can Go Wrong

There are a number of common scenarios that occur as a result of improperly configured environments, clients, servers and certificates that can be categorized into one or more of the afore mentioned categories.

The following are a few descriptions of these scenarios and what the approach to identifying the root cause might be.

Keystores and Truststores
- Categories: Configuration, Trust, Certificate Validation

The client (for mutual authentication) and server each present the other a certificate that represents the identity of the machine its running on. In order for either to present this certificate - it must be available within the appropriate Keystore.

Tip 1: Determine the default certificate for a machine as appropriate for your server and ensure that it exists within the configured Keystore and is available to the process that needs to present it to the corresponding partner process.

Tip 2: Ensure that the issuer of the presented certificate exists within the appropriate Truststore of the recipient process.

Supported Cipher Suites
- Categories: Configuration

As described earlier, the handshake involves the selection of the most secure Cipher Suite by the server from the list of supported suites presented by the client.

If there isn't a common Cipher Suite between the client and server, then there is no way for the two machines to establish a secure channel - as there is no common language that will be understood buy each party that provides the necessary protection offered by SSL.

Tip 3: Ensure that the appropriate Cipher Suites are enabled on the client and server sides in order to establish this common language for secure message exchange.

Tip 4: Utilize SSL debug information to determine which cipher suites has been selected
...

<17849795 SSL3/TLS MAC>

<17849795 received HANDSHAKE>

...

Tip 5: Utilize a tool such as SSLDump as necessary to see details of the handshake and application data message exchanges
...

11 1 0.0035 (0.0035) C>S SSLv2 compatible client hello

Version 3.1

cipher suites

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_MD5

SSL2_CK_RC4

TLS_RSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_RC4_128_SHA

Unknown value 0x4e

Unknown value 0x2f

Unknown value 0x35

Unknown value 0x4b

Unknown value 0x4c

TLS_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

Unknown value 0x50

TLS_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_ECDH_ECDSA_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

Unknown value 0x4f

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_RC4_56_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_WITH_RC2_56_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT1024_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5

SSL2_CK_RC4_EXPORT40

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DH_anon_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

TLS_DH_anon_WITH_RC4_128_MD5

TLS_DH_anon_WITH_DES_CBC_SHA

TLS_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_RC4_40_MD5

TLS_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_DSS_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DHE_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_RSA_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

TLS_DH_anon_EXPORT_WITH_DES40_CBC_SHA

11 2 0.0053 (0.0017) S>C Handshake

ServerHello

Version 3.1

session_id[0]=

cipherSuite TLS_DH_anon_WITH_3DES_EDE_CBC_SHA

compressionMethod NULL

11 3 0.0053 (0.0000) S>C Handshake

ServerKeyExchange

Short read: 0 bytes available (expecting 2)

11 4 0.0065 (0.0012) S>C Handshake

ServerHelloDone

11 5 0.0976 (0.0910) C>S Handshake

ClientKeyExchange

DiffieHellmanClientPublicValue[128]=

8a 23 78 02 8a a5 fc 03 f4 9b 7c 33 05 22 36 91

85 9d 17 e4 bf bf 0a 3e be 45 25 47 07 e0 9c a2

e5 d6 bf 78 95 f1 84 ca cb cc e4 3e f3 d8 d4 9a

3a 01 71 5c 29 0c 0b f9 69 8d 3e a6 f4 08 f0 36

18 fd a7 b9 3e 30 4e a4 a6 19 d9 d3 64 1c 3c 78

d3 c3 fa 83 07 58 f2 be d2 32 80 c0 32 4e 49 4c

bf 73 1a f2 d8 fd f2 16 c7 31 da 48 58 50 bb 99

3f a4 8c 31 6e 5f ed e8 0d d8 91 cf 8f eb fa d8

11 6 0.0976 (0.0000) C>S ChangeCipherSpec

11 7 0.0976 (0.0000) C>S Handshake

11 8 0.0997 (0.0021) S>C ChangeCipherSpec

11 9 0.1000 (0.0002) S>C Handshake

11 10 0.3580 (0.2580) C>S application_data

11 11 0.3580 (0.0000) C>S application_data

11 12 0.3586 (0.0005) S>C application_data

11 13 2.5039 (2.1453) C>S application_data

11 14 2.5039 (0.0000) C>S application_data

11 15 2.5053 (0.0013) S>C application_data

8 20 31.4483 (3.3621) C>S application_data

8 21 31.4483 (0.0000) C>S application_data

8 22 31.4507 (0.0024) S>C application_data

8 23 31.4508 (0.0000) S>C application_data

8 24 32.0824 (0.6316) C>S application_data

8 25 32.0824 (0.0000) C>S application_data

8 26 32.2550 (0.1726) S>C application_data

8 27 32.2550 (0.0000) S>C application_data

8 28 33.1710 (0.9159) C>S application_data

8 29 33.1710 (0.0000) C>S application_data

8 30 33.1745 (0.0035) S>C application_data

8 31 33.1754 (0.0009) C>S application_data
...

Anonymous Cipher Suite
- Categories: Configuration

The failure of a client or server to reject a certificate that is not trusted may present as potential SSL problem. Recall earlier that I describe the process of selecting the most secure Cipher Suite common between both parties.

In a scenario where one of the parties has only the anonymous Cipher Suite enabled and the other party also has it enabled - even if it is one of many - the anonymous cipher suite will be selected and the connection will not be rejected.

Tip 6: see Tip 5 above - in fact, the example ssldump output above is from troubleshooting just such a scenario

Trusted CA's

- Categories: Trust, Configuration

Unless the issuer of a certificate is found in the Truststore of a client or server involved in the establishment of an SSL connection, the certificate validation will fail.

Tip 7: Determine the Truststore/s in use and whether or not the issuer of the presented certificate exists within the configured Truststore

Tip 8: Utilize keytool in order to dump the contents of the Truststores (or keystores for the presented certificates)

Alias name: ttelesecglobalrootclass3ca
Creation date: Feb 10, 2009
Entry type: trustedCertEntry

Owner: CN=T-TeleSec GlobalRoot Class 3, OU=T-Systems Trust Center, O=T-Systems Enterprise Services GmbH, C=DE
Issuer: CN=T-TeleSec GlobalRoot Class 3, OU=T-Systems Trust Center, O=T-Systems Enterprise Services GmbH, C=DE
Serial number: 1
Valid from: Wed Oct 01 03:29:56 PDT 2008 until: Sat Oct 01 16:59:59 PDT 2033
Certificate fingerprints:
MD5: CA:FB:40:A8:4E:39:92:8A:1D:FE:8E:2F:C4:27:EA:EF
SHA1: 55:A6:72:3E:CB:F2:EC:CD:C3:23:74:70:19:9D:2A:BE:11:E3:81:D1
Signature algorithm name: SHA256withRSA
Version: 3

Extensions:

#1: ObjectId: 2.5.29.15 Criticality=true
KeyUsage [
Key_CertSign
Crl_Sign
]

#2: ObjectId: 2.5.29.19 Criticality=true
BasicConstraints:[
CA:true
PathLen:2147483647
]

#3: ObjectId: 2.5.29.14 Criticality=false
SubjectKeyIdentifier [
KeyIdentifier [
0000: B5 03 F7 76 3B 61 82 6A 12 AA 18 53 EB 03 21 94 ...v;a.j...S..!.
0010: BF FE CE CA ....
]
]

Certificate Expiration
- Categories: Certificate Validation, Configuration

Tip 9: see Tip 8 above - In the example keytool output above you can see the dates for which the particular certificate is valid.

Valid from: Wed Oct 01 03:29:56 PDT 2008 until: Sat Oct 01 16:59:59 PDT 2033

Random Number Generation (RNG) Issue
- Categories: Configuration

Performance issues may be encountered due to low or zero entropy on a server. This entropy results in longer than expected blocking in acquiring the random number seeding from /dev/random. There are a couple potential workarounds.

1.use /dev/urandom - NOTE: this may result in degenerated encryption strength and must be investigated by your system/security administrators
2.patches may be available for your particular Linux flavor or Solaris

Tip 10: Observe through SSL debug output whether or not the handshake is timing out as this is an indicator that perhaps we are blocking on the RNG

Tip 11: Ensure that all related patches have been installed on your machine.

Available Tools and Facts

Like any other specialization, troubleshooting and debugging security - and SSL in particular - presents unique challenges and to address these unique challenges we need to be prepared by having appropriate tools and facts at our disposal.

In order to be productive in this area, we need to know certain things about the environment, management consoles, etc.

Debug output
Each middleware platform provides the ability to configure the server to run with SSL debug logging turned on. This configuration enables the viewer of the logs to see pertinent information regarding the configuration and runtime behavior of the handshaking and application data message exchanges in real time.

Tip 12: Determine what the configuration mechanism is for turning on SSL debug information on your platform. On WebLogic Server the following System Properties are used to configure SSL debug information and can be used on the command line or within start up scripts:

-Dssl.debug=false -Dweblogic.StdoutDebugEnabled=true -Dweblogic.security.SSL.verbose=true

Tip 13: When you have access to starting the server with these System properties do so immediately - the information that it creates will be valuable - if not to you then to someone else that is pulled in to help debug - at which time you will be request to do so anyway and go through the whole thing again.

SSLDump

In cases where we don't have access to the server to restart with SSL debug logging or when we would like to supplement that output with additional information SSLDump is hugely valuable.

ssldump is an SSLv3/TLS network protocol analyzer. It identifies TCP connections on the chosen network interface and attempts to interpret them as SSLv3/TLS traffic. When it identifies SSLv3/TLS traffic, it decodes the records and displays them in a textual form to stdout. If provided with the appropriate keying material, it will also decrypt the connections and display the application data traffic.

Tip 14: Download a copy of ssldump from http://www.rtfm.com/ssldump/. You will need to build it on your platform and you may actually need to resolve a couple compilation errors - but it is well worth it.

Examples:

To listen to traffic on port 443:
ssldump -i eth0 port 443

To listen to traffic to the server target on port 443:
ssldump -i eth0 port 443 and host target

To decrypt traffic to the host target server.pem and the password foobar:
ssldump -i eth0 -Ad -k ~/server.pem -p foobar host target

Generic SSL Client

Once you have ssldump built and running on your machine, you can use any SSL client to target the server that you are trying to troubleshoot. Often a browser will suffice - however you may need to build a client more appropriate for your usecase.

Tip 15: Utilize ssldump, SSL debug logging and your SSL client to observe the messages exchanged and the runtime behavior that manifests as a result of your current configuration.

Platform Specific Knowledge

Become intimately familiar with where the appropriate keystores, truststores, configuration files and management consoles are located.

Tip 16: Maintain a checklist of this information and keep it handy so that you don't have to rediscover it every time you encounter SSL issues.

Books

SSL and TLS: Designing and Building Secure Systems, Addison-Wesley, 2001 ISBN 0-201-61598-3

http://www.rtfm.com/sslbook/

PEER 1 & InMon Partner for Per IP-Address Network Monitoring

2009-11-02T01:20:00.001-08:00

PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.

PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.

Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.

For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.

Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”

”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”

PEER 1 Network Enterprises, Inc today announced a collaboration with InMon to provide precise bandwidth measurement and analysis capability.

PEER 1 will deploy the industry standard sFlow® network monitoring technology and InMon’s Traffic Sentinel, in all of its data centers to provide an industry leading bandwidth billing solution for its Managed Hosting customers.

Bandwidth usage is measured on a per-IP address basis, so PEER 1 is able to ignore traffic occurring inside the data center, and provide precise traffic charges to its customers in a way that is not possible through per-port or physical-layer network traffic monitoring.

For PEER 1 customers, the InMon-powered network traffic monitoring and analysis is accessible in real time through the online customer portal with customizable graphs and downloadable data.

Ted Smith, SVP of Operations at PEER 1 said: “We believe our customers should only pay for the services they use and our collaboration with InMon maximizes our network analysis and measurement capability allowing us to accurately pass on lowest cost bandwidth charges to customers. Our IP-based or layer three approach not only increases transparency and billing accuracy, it also enables our customers to accurately re-charge bandwidth usage to their own customers.”

”The unique scalability of InMon’s sFlow solution makes it the ideal choice for monitoring the fastest of data center networks,” said Peter Phaal, president of InMon Corp. “In the expert hands of the PEER 1 engineers, the detailed traffic database in the Sentinel product can be applied to a wide range of applications, from accounting and capacity planning to troubleshooting and security.”

Network Availability Depends on Physical Infrastructure Management

2009-11-02T01:18:00.000-08:00

Physical infrastructures have become the foundation of business’ networks, facilitating communication between the various physical and logical systems in a converged infrastructure and delivering reliable connectivity, security, power, and automation. Increasingly, businesses are deploying the latest converged networking solutions to drive operational efficiency and eco-sustainability. A key trend is to converge physical infrastructure systems on a single IP network to simplify deployment and configuration, centralize management, and help reduce physical footprint and power requirements.

But, while a unified physical infrastructure provides significant cost savings – both short and long term – ultimately, the success of any operation is dependent upon the availability of its network so that users have access to the resources they need to conduct business effectively and efficiently. As such, network uptime and the ability to meet network service level agreements (SLAs) are a critical driver of business success. If you consider network availability as a product, it’s easy to understand that downtime can be as detrimental to business success as poor customer service.

The ability to ensure network uptime requires management solutions designed for today’s complex network infrastructures, including the automated monitoring, diagnosis, and configuration of network assets, to increase efficiency in problem isolation and resolution.

Panduit’s Physical Infrastructure Manager (PIM) solution, with its PanView iQ (PViQ) hardware components are designed specifically to address the complex physical infrastructures that support the access requirements of today’s demanding workforces.

Specifically, the PIM solution adds intelligent management software to the converged data center network, enabling the automation of many tasks, increasing efficiency and reducing risk inherent in manual processes. The real-time visibility enabled by the PIM solution allows network assets to be properly tracked, work order processing and documentation to be automated, management functions to be performed remotely, and, perhaps most importantly for network availability, it is designed to identify connectivity issues and unauthorized access to network resources, which can otherwise result in access failures, inhibiting access to network resources.

When connectivity issues are detected, the solution is designed to quickly restore any failed connections, including assessment of configuration changes required to reinitiate or enhance connectivity. By automating the identification and resolution of connectivity faults, costs associated with time-consuming manual troubleshooting are significantly reduced, and IT staff can focus on other tasks to further business objectives.

In addition, with the entire physical infrastructure connected by a single network, the system is also able immediately identify unauthorized access to the network, whether internal or external. This aids in reducing network resource hijacking, increasing network availability and uptime.

In addition to automated troubleshooting and management functions, Panduit’s solution also provides an easy-to-use interface for manual troubleshooting when required for more effective resolution or preventative measures when strain on certain elements is anticipated.

To further support IT staff in maintaining the network infrastructure and identify recurring points of failure within the network, the PIM solution provides automated reporting and documentation, which can then be used to provide a detailed or high-level overview of network performance, access logs, points of failure, and resolution.

Combined with a UPI-based design, the PIM solution helps IT managers ensure their network resources are being effectively utilized, but also provides the visibility to provide timely alerts when connectivity failures occur – and even provide information required to prevent network failure in the first place.

With the dependence on network connectivity for access to data center resources, this ability is as critical as the physical infrastructure itself. Without proper management capabilities and insight into asset utilization, the infrastructure design can only live up to a portion of its potential in terms of increasing availability and efficiency.

Panduit’s PIM solution supports its broader vision of a unified physical infrastructure by delivering the management capabilities required to ensure the resource optimization enabled by converged infrastructures is fully realized.

CCIE R&S Troubleshooting – Sample Trouble Tickets – Part 1

2009-11-02T00:57:00.000-08:00

Things sure can get spooky in the Troubleshooting section of the new Version 4 Blueprint! Cisco can present a pretty vague issue; give you a very lame diagram; and then really press you for time to solve the Trouble Ticket. In this blog post, I will walk you through this graveyard and attempt to provide some ideas on an efficient and effective approach. For much more detail and practice, our premier products for this exam section are the Volume 4 workbook (currently being edited and improved upon), and the brand new 5-Day Troubleshooting Bootcamp.

Are you ready to find prefixes that go bump in the night? Here is the sample Trouble Ticket we will attack, and the appropriate portion of the Cisco diagram. You will want to have some scratch paper handy (just like in the actual exam). Diagramming can prove to be more important here then in any exam section. You should practice a diagram now based on the show output that follows.

Trouble Ticket 1
Vampires located in VLAN 666 (behind Amityville) are unable to access any resources located behind Transylvania. Correct this issue without static routing, additional routing protocols, or redistribution of any kind.

The first order of business is to “expand” upon their diagram and determine what protocols are in use and where. A quick show ip protocols on each of the devices in the transit path should do the trick.

Transylvania#show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "eigrp 100"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Default networks flagged in outgoing updates
Default networks accepted from incoming updates
EIGRP metric weight K1=1, K2=0, K3=1, K4=0, K5=0
EIGRP maximum hopcount 100
EIGRP maximum metric variance 1
Redistributing: eigrp 100
EIGRP NSF-aware route hold timer is 240s
Automatic network summarization is not in effect
Maximum path: 4
Routing for Networks:
53.234.10.23/32
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: internal 90 external 170

Routing Protocol is "bgp 65001"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
IGP synchronization is disabled
Automatic route summarization is disabled
Unicast Aggregate Generation:
10.10.0.0/16 summary-only
Neighbor(s):
Address FiltIn FiltOut DistIn DistOut Weight RouteMap
53.234.10.44
Maximum path: 1
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: external 20 internal 200 local 200

HalloweenTown#show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "eigrp 100"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Default networks flagged in outgoing updates
Default networks accepted from incoming updates
EIGRP metric weight K1=1, K2=0, K3=1, K4=0, K5=0
EIGRP maximum hopcount 100
EIGRP maximum metric variance 1
Redistributing: eigrp 100
EIGRP NSF-aware route hold timer is 240s
Automatic network summarization is not in effect
Maximum path: 4
Routing for Networks:
53.234.10.44/32
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: internal 90 external 170

Routing Protocol is "bgp 65001"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
IGP synchronization is disabled
Automatic route summarization is disabled
Neighbor(s):
Address FiltIn FiltOut DistIn DistOut Weight RouteMap
23.10.24.190
53.234.10.23
Maximum path: 1
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: external 20 internal 200 local 200

Salem#show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "ospf 1"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Router ID 66.150.201.12
Number of areas in this router is 1. 1 normal 0 stub 0 nssa
Maximum path: 4
Routing for Networks:
Routing on Interfaces Configured Explicitly (Area 0):
FastEthernet0/0
Reference bandwidth unit is 100 mbps
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
102.34.102.12 110 00:30:55
Distance: (default is 110)

Routing Protocol is "bgp 65000"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
IGP synchronization is disabled
Automatic route summarization is disabled
Neighbor(s):
Address FiltIn FiltOut DistIn DistOut Weight RouteMap
23.10.24.200
Maximum path: 1
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: external 20 internal 200 local 200

CrystalLake#show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "ospf 1"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Router ID 102.34.102.1
Number of areas in this router is 1. 1 normal 0 stub 0 nssa
Maximum path: 4
Routing for Networks:
Routing on Interfaces Configured Explicitly (Area 0):
FastEthernet0/1
FastEthernet0/0
Reference bandwidth unit is 100 mbps
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: (default is 110)

Routing Protocol is "bgp 65000"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
IGP synchronization is disabled
Automatic route summarization is disabled
Neighbor(s):
Address FiltIn FiltOut DistIn DistOut Weight RouteMap
66.150.201.12
Address FiltIn FiltOut DistIn DistOut Weight RouteMap
102.34.102.12
Maximum path: 1
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: external 20 internal 200 local 200

Amityville#show ip protocols
Routing Protocol is "ospf 1"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Router ID 102.34.102.12
Number of areas in this router is 1. 1 normal 0 stub 0 nssa
Maximum path: 4
Routing for Networks:
Routing on Interfaces Configured Explicitly (Area 0):
FastEthernet0/0
Reference bandwidth unit is 100 mbps
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
102.34.102.1 110 00:33:23
Distance: (default is 110)

Routing Protocol is "bgp 65000"
Outgoing update filter list for all interfaces is not set
Incoming update filter list for all interfaces is not set
IGP synchronization is disabled
Automatic route summarization is disabled
Neighbor(s):
Address FiltIn FiltOut DistIn DistOut Weight RouteMap
102.34.102.1
Maximum path: 1
Routing Information Sources:
Gateway Distance Last Update
Distance: external 20 internal 200 local 200

As I parse the results, I create a more detailed diagram to provide a better picture of what is going on. Looking at the diagram, I immediately contemplate some design issues that could come into play. The iBGP split-horizon rule, next-hop reachability, and synchronization all could come into play here given the protocol configuration.

I decide to start as close the destination as possible and examine the relevant configurations.

Transylvania#show run | section bgp
router bgp 65001
no synchronization
bgp log-neighbor-changes
network 10.0.0.0
aggregate-address 10.10.0.0 255.255.0.0 summary-only
neighbor 53.234.10.44 remote-as 65001
no auto-summary

It appears the intent is to advertise prefixes (the Loopback interfaces) beyond Transylvania using BGP prefix aggregation. Let me ensure that configuration is done correctly.

Sure enough, here is our first BGP configuration issue. We need to advertise a component prefix of the aggregate. The little gremlin that attempted this configuration tried to accomplish this with the network statement, but they got it wrong. Subnetting is being done here of the 10.x.x.x space, so you need to reconfigure the network statement as follows:

Transylvania#show ip int brief
Interface IP-Address OK? Method Status Protocol
FastEthernet0/0 53.234.10.23 YES manual up up
FastEthernet0/1 unassigned YES unset administratively down down
Loopback1 10.10.10.1 YES manual up up
Loopback2 10.10.11.1 YES manual up up
Loopback3 10.10.12.1 YES manual up up
Transylvania#configure terminal
Enter configuration commands, one per line. End with CNTL/Z.
Transylvania(config)#router bgp 65001
Transylvania(config-router)#network 10.10.10.0 mask 255.255.255.0

After making this change, I check Salem to see if it is receiving the aggregate from Transylvania and we have reachability:

Salem#show ip bgp
BGP table version is 2, local router ID is 66.150.201.12
Status codes: s suppressed, d damped, h history, * valid, > best, i - internal,
r RIB-failure, S Stale
Origin codes: i - IGP, e - EGP, ? - incomplete

Network Next Hop Metric LocPrf Weight Path
*> 10.10.0.0/16 23.10.24.200 0 65001 i
Salem#show ip route bgp
10.0.0.0/16 is subnetted, 1 subnets
B 10.10.0.0 [20/0] via 23.10.24.200, 00:06:26
Salem#ping 10.10.10.1
Type escape sequence to abort.
Sending 5, 100-byte ICMP Echos to 10.10.10.1, timeout is 2 seconds:
!!!!!
Success rate is 100 percent (5/5), round-trip min/avg/max = 28/33/40 ms

We are on our way to solving this Trouble Ticket…we hope you will follow this blog and continue this (and more) troubleshooting scenarios!

Hard Disk Drive Data Recovery - Options to cope with Data Loss

2009-11-02T00:47:00.000-08:00

When your hard drive fails you have all the important information like those financial documents and photos that you just cannot replace are lost. You must have options for hard disk drive data recovery. You must store that information somewhere. Generally, on your server hard disk, so it will be placed on your hard drive permanently.

Losing your information forever is the hardest thing to cope with. Microsoft Windows operating system has some basic features to help you maintain your data structures on your disk. You can schedule an automatic de-fragmentation of your hard drives in a month. You can also set this feature to run on RAID configurations which will help with the parity in stripe configuration.

You should place your data on DVDs or CDs for safekeeping. There are other options such as eternal drives in which you can store your data. You can keep printed copies in your file cabinet. If you have a USB drive you can just put that in your pocket.

Now you can try using software application programs for hard disk drive data recovery that are specially designed to protect and retrieve your data. They make many types of software applications and data recovery programs to fit your needs. They cover a wide range of operating systems that are in today's market. You can check Best Buy or even eBay with the latest in data recovery software programs. You can also do a search on Google and find many data recovery companies on the Internet.

Protecting your data from unforeseeable data disasters that you may encounter is important for you. An important aspect of IT professionals’ life, they have to be very protective when it comes to data recovery. If you need help there are data recovery experts everywhere that can assist you in retrieving hard disk drive data recovery.

Why OPNET Plunged While the Market Rallied

2009-11-02T00:39:00.000-08:00

Major market averages fell roughly 2.5% Friday but not everything went down. OPNET Technologies (OPNT) gained 4.7% today in the face of relentless selling in most other stocks. What gives?

Background --

OPNET Technologies, Inc. provides software products and related services for managing networks, servers and applications. The company's products are used to troubleshoot performance problems in production applications and perform capacity planning and design optimization of networks and servers. Products are also used to provide centralized, real-time visibility of network topology, traffic, and status in a single, integrated view and perform modeling of designs and configuration changes. The company also has products that perform some of the same functions but on wireless networks. Finally, OPNET offers consulting and professional services.

Financials --

OPNET is a profitable small-cap that actually pays a dividend, unusual for a tech company of its size. My several measures, it is not inexpensive: PEG is high at 3.61 and the 12 month trailing PE of 63 is definitely at nosebleed levels.

Given the economic backdrop, it's not surprising that trends in revenue and earnings have been lackluster. The company actually suffered losses in the first two quarters of 2009.

On Thursday after the close, however, OPNET reported results for the third quarter of calendar year 2009 (which, if you're interested, is equivalent to the second quarter of their fiscal year 2010). The company recorded earnings per share of $0.09 which soundly trounced analyst expectations of $0.03. Revenue for the quarter was $30.6 million, which compares favorably to the estimate of $28.69 million.

Software license revenue grew 30.9%, or $2.8 million over last quarter, and operating margin went from negative 2.3% to positive 7.2% over the last quarter. The company also ended the quarter with record deferred revenue of $34.9 million.

Though the year-over-year revenue comparison was negative, the solid profit was enough to fire up investors. The chart below shows Friday's nice up-move on strong volume. The stock was on the TradeRadar Swing Signals list as a BUY on Thursday night. I wish I could say all the Swing Signals worked out as well as this one.

Outlook --

Despite a stronger than expected quarter, management remains cautious. OPNET sees Q3 revenues of $30.5-$32.5 million, versus the consensus of $30.3 million. They see Q3 EPS of $0.03-$0.09, versus the consensus of $0.06. The CEO claims to be seeing more normal buying patterns after the previous year where deals dried up or were yanked at the last minute.

The company seems resilient and responsive to changes in the industry and committed to growth through innovation. As an example, with virtualization an increasingly important strategy for more and more corporations, OPNET has introduced a product for troubleshooting application performance problems in virtualized environments.

For those who like to see management put their money where their mouth is, fully 36% of shares are owned by insiders.

Though a player in infrastructure performance management (IPM), the company's primary strength is in application performance management (APM) which, as it turns out, is not the strong suit of their biggest competitors (all known by their initials) BMC, CA, HPQ and IBM. The other competitors are mostly on the same level as OPNET or even smaller so OPNET still has wide open opportunity to grow market share. The company could even be a buy-out target as one of the big four look to shore up their APM product suite.

Conclusion --

As networks and applications grow in complexity, OPNET is there to offer tools that more efficiently identify root causes and potential solutions. As customers routinely seek fast performance and 24/7 availability, OPNET's products provide the ability to monitor in real-time and troubleshoot quickly.

Despite a tough environment OPNET has managed to deliver bottom-line growth. In an improving economy they should do even better. When the current market correction has run its course, OPNET could add to gains.

In a PC world some say Mac is better

2009-11-02T00:17:00.001-08:00

For as long as I can remember, I have been a fan of Macintosh computers and Apple products. From its sleek design to its user-friendly setup, the Mac is here to stay.

The debate over whether to use a personal computer or a Mac is all about preference.

The advantage of owning a PC is the use of basic programs such as Microsoft Office. However, Macs have all that plus more. Unlike a PC, a Mac is less vulnerable to viruses that will cause the computer to crash or breakdown.

According to edubook.com, Macs focus on the artistic and creative industry, making the use of Adobe software and Photoshop easy. It also increases the competition against your everyday PC.

Even though Macs are considerably more expensive than PCs, you pay for what you get.

If you prefer a PC, then look into what you’re getting into. Every PC catches a virus at one point or another, usually more than one. If you’re ready to face that sort of doom, then get a PC.

But Macs are a good investment. There are little to no virus problems. Even the least expensive Mac is more expensive than a PC, but the way I see it, one should choose quality over quantity any day.

Whether you use your computer for music, work or entertainment, you cannot put a price on something that has such practical value.

Are you familiar with those Apple commercials? Though they’re sometimes exaggerated, they carry some truth.

Apple support and customer care are number one. Apple is right there for you if you are have a problem.

In every Apple retail store, there are “geniuses” that have all of the answers to your questions as well as, provide hands-on technical support for not only Macs, but also for items such as the iPod, Apple TV, and the iPhone. No automated recordings!

The “geniuses” even take care of troubleshooting and actual repairs. I can’t speak much for PCs, but I’ve yet to see a Dell or HP Store.

My first year in college, I was cursed with a PC. If it wasn’t the battery, then it was a virus. If it was not a virus then, it was something else.

If it weren’t for my mother buying me a Mac the next year, than that PC would have been the death of me. My freshman year was so much more stressful as a result of owning a PC.

According to the Apple Web site, the Mac has the world’s most advanced operating system, Mac OS X, and with the recent release of Snow Leopard, it is “finely tuned.” Take THAT, Windows 7!

The better choice for a computer is obviously a Mac. For the Mac users, with all of your wisdom and responsibility, I salute you. PC users, I will continue to pray for you.

What's the key to Apple's success?

2009-10-30T20:51:00.001-07:00

Apple’s weathered the economic downturn like almost no other company, pulling in massive profits without having to resort to deep price cuts. But what’s its secret?

Over the past few weeks I’ve been asking a group of Mac/Apple fans why they thought Apple was doing so well. Here are four possible reasons for Apple’s success:

* Constantly improving, innovative product line
Apple doesn’t have a huge product line, but the company is constantly tweaking it. Most of the product updates are well thought out and offer the end user extra value. This is attractive to both new and existing customers.
* Advertising
Apple has a massive ad budget and this allows it to spread the word to a huge audience. When this comes to Macs, this is allowing Apple to aggressively go after those disillusioned PC users. Those funny Mac vs. PC ads are serious business.
* Customer satisfaction
Apple consistently scores very high in customer satisfaction surveys (the company usually tops the list). Happy customers not only re-buy, but tell others that they are happy, therefore generating further sales.
* Vista sucked
Given how Vista was widely considered by many consumers to be a failure, this has handed users over to Apple on a plate. After all, for users who were sick of Vista, or just wanted to give the OS a wide berth, Apple is an obvious choice.

Use Google Voice with your existing phone number

2009-10-30T07:19:00.001-07:00

Google now gives users of a subset of Google Voice features if they want to simply use their service without getting a brand new “Google Number”. Mobile phone users can now forward incoming calls to their “Google Voice” mailbox rather than the one hosted by their carrier.

The features available to these users basically includes voicemail, and the ability to make low-priced long distance phone calls, according to the official Google Voice blog.

* Online, searchable voicemail
* Free automated voicemail transcription
* Custom voicemail greetings for different callers
* Email and SMS notifications
* Low-priced international calling

For those of you who want to use Google Voice to its full potential — you’re going to have to take the plunge and get a brand new number. The features, if you choose to go this route, are much more interesting and useful:

* One number that reaches you on all your phones
* SMS via email
* Call screening
* Listen In
* Call recording
* Conference calling
* Call blocking

Once Google fully supports number portability, perhaps they will be able to allow users to simply use one of their existing phone numbers with the full service — but I’m not going to hold my breath for that just yet.

Will you be using the new voicemail service from Google Voice?

Can Information Technology Act 2000 satisfy changing Indian needs?

2009-10-27T22:07:00.001-07:00

There is a common saying that only lawyers or solicitors should get acquainted with different aspects of law, they must be well informed or else the profession may come to an end. Can this be accepted as true? Shouldn’t common people get familiar with the same?

What is Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA-2000)?

Well, if you are living in India and are almost a PC freak, you must remain aware of Information Technology Act 2000 (ITA-2000). It, by and large, is an Act of the Indian Parliament (No 21 of 2000) notified on October 17, 2000. It is worthwhile to mention that the United Nations General Assembly by means of resolution A/RES/51/162, dated the 30 January 1997 did accept the Model Law on Electronic Commerce adopted by the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law. This is referred to as the UNCITRAL Model Law on E-Commerce. What is more the Information technology Act 2000 amendment Bill 2006 has since been passed by the Indian Parliament on December 23, 2008.

Is there any new proposal?

It has to be stated that the Government of India, by now, has proposed major amendments to ITA-2000 in form of the Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2006, passed by the Cabinet Committee of the Government of India and are prepared for being placed before the Indian Parliament for discussion.

Nevertheless some substantial developments have taken place in all these years and the bill is known as, at the moment, Information Technology (Amendment) Bill, 2008. Even though some persons try to discern any similarity with the 2006 Bill, it is a totally different Bill and has been approved by the Rajya Sabha and Lok Sabha. Is there any more problem? The Bill is awaiting approval of the President along with the formal notification.

There has been the inclusion of many changes, as already said, and at the same time it does incorporate the recommendations made by the Parliamentary Standing Committee. However there is another problem. In the Indian scenario till the moment a Bill gets finally notified by the Executive it remains a mere Bill. For this reason, till the government of India notifies it, the old Information Technology Act, 2000 would continue to preside over the Indian cyber law.

Has there been any criticism?

What surprises many persons is the dearth of media recognition afforded to the amendment. Apart from this the amendment was passed in 26 minutes the 22nd of December 2008 along with 4 other bills, and another 8 in just 17 minutes the next day. This indicates that there was hardly any debate on what should have been very contentious laws. Even Karnika Seth, renowned cyberlawyer & chairperson of the Cyberlaws Consulting Centre in India, through making a detailed analysis of the recent amendments in the IT Act, 2000 has failed to be optimistic.

Yes, Ubuntu can absolutely be the default Windows alternative

2009-10-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

And I don’t just mean for geeks. I mean a real, viable alternative to Windows for many users despite the apparent quality of both Windows 7 and Server 2008.

About a year and a half ago, ZDNet’s Adrian Kingsley-Hughes asked, “Is Ubuntu becoming the generic Linux distro?” and concluded that “the evolution of Ubuntu into the generic Linux distro isn’t a bad thing”. Fair enough, but Canonical’s Mark Shuttleworth took this idea a bit farther during a press conference call yesterday:

“We’ve already done a lot of work in developer ecosystem and we’re now increasingly interested in the non-developer consumer ecosystem, so that’s what all the OEM work is about,” Shuttleworth said, declaring that his focus was on “making sure that Ubuntu gets pre-installed and Ubuntu is available from Dell.com and others and making sure that Ubuntu is the default alternative to Windows.”

He didn’t mention Apple, which, to many consumers, is the only alternative to Windows. For all its buzz in the tech world, Linux (or Ubuntu) is hardly a household word. Competing with Apple, though, which already has an impressive ecosystem of hardware and is the reigning king of usability, doesn’t make sense anyway and this ad from Novell would never fly outside of the tech community:

So how can I be so confident that Shuttleworth’s vision of becoming the “default alternative”, and not just the default Linux for those geeky enough to try it, will become a reality? Because he very clearly tied it to a vision of platform. If Ubuntu can work well on every device users encounter (including non-Intel smartbooks and other new classes of portable devices that will be emerging in the next couple of years, displacing notebooks for many consumers), then name recognition will follow.

Obviously, the PC space is dominated by Windows. Yet no matter how spiffy Windows 7 is (and even Shuttleworth acknowledged that it was a good OS, worthy of competing with Ubuntu), Vista taught us all a lesson (consumers and techies alike). There are alternatives to the latest and greatest from Microsoft, even if that’s Windows XP. We don’t have to upgrade.

This “PC space” is changing, though. Windows Mobile stinks. Microsoft has no plans to develop Windows on ARM platforms. The cloud is here, not because of the economy, but because of the value businesses perceive in it. Ubuntu is actively developing in all of these spaces and their latest, highly polished OS (available Thursday) shows off many of the technologies.

What forced Microsoft to crank out it’s best OS in years (some might say it’s best ever and certainly the most stable prior to a service pack or two)? Competition. Competition from Apple, certainly, but also a growing awareness of open source concepts in general. Many artists are releasing DRM-free music (and still making money). Books are widely and freely available. Content is everywhere, much of it for free. Something that you pay for, then, like Windows, better be a heck of a lot better than its free alternatives. Competition is our friend, whether we’re consumers, pro users, or CIOs.

Microsoft may very well continue to dominate the desktop PC space. However, a quick look around at the variety of ways people access online content and cloud-based resources suggests that the importance of the desktop PC as we know it is diminishing. Ubuntu is ready to capitalize on that in ways that the average consumer won’t recognize until he or she finds him or herself using Ubuntu on a MID, a netbook, a kiosk, a phone, a virtualized OS, or a smartbook. Can Apple, Microsoft, or any other Linux distributor say that? Competition might be our friend, but an ubiquitous platform is the friend of developers who can start creating the next generation of killer apps, easily ported to whatever screen we might be using.

Sony's new digital photo frame includes built-in photo printer

2009-10-26T22:58:00.001-07:00

It’s no secret that there are millions of digital photos that never see the light of day. They languish on hard drives, flash memory cards, photo CDs, and other digital media, never to be printed or shared. And though some lucky shots get distributed via photo sharing and social networking sites, the days of snapshot prints that you can pass around to your friends and family are dwindling. Sony Electronics is trying to stem the tide with its new S-Frame DPP-F700 digital photo frame.

The DPP-F700 is an all-in-one digital photo frame that not only displays photos on a 7-inch widescreen LCD, but also prints out 4×6-inch snapshots, using a built-in dye-sublimation technology printer. And when Sony says all-in-one, it means all-in-one: you can use the device to do some basic photo editing, such as enlarging, reducing, cropping, and adjusting sharpness, brightness, contrast and hue, as well as print out calendars and other predefiined image templates.

An automatic sensor rotates portrait- or landscape-format images appropriately and offers multiple playback options, such as single images, thumbnails, or slideshows with 10 built-in transitions.

The frame accepts most flash memory formats — including SD, SDHC, MMC, CompactFlash, xD-Picture Card, and of course Memory Stick Pro and Memory Stick Pro DUO cards — as well as USB input from your PC.

And if you actually just want your digital snaps to languish, there’s a gigabyte of internal storage that automatically downsizes your photos to store up to 2,000 images.

The frame/printer will sell for about $200 when it ships in January and is compatible with SVM-F series photo paper packs for Sony Picture Station printers. The cost of consumables per print varies from about 50 cents a print with the SVM-F40P pack (which includes 40 sheets of 4×6 paper and a printer ribbon for $19.99) to about 30 cents per print with the SVM-F120P (which includes 120 sheets of 4×6 paper and two printer ribbons for $34.99).

White House Web site makes open-source move

2009-10-26T09:08:00.001-07:00

The White House announced the move in an Associated Press story that somewhat clumsily tried explaining, "the programming language is written in public view, available for public use, and able for people to edit." Debugging and upgrading the site's code "now...can be done in the matter of days and free to taxpayers."

Well, sort of. First of all, Drupal is a program, not a programming language, and second, just because software is available for free doesn't mean that using it is free. It takes time and expertise to install, configure, and maintain software. Indeed, Drupal and Acquia founder Dries Buytaert said in a blog posting announcing the White House's use of Drupal that companies involved in the Web site switch included not just his but also General Dynamics Information Technology, Phase2 Technology, Akamai, and Terremark Federal Group.

And although open-source software in general can offer a tight feedback loop between the programmers creating the software and the people using it, there's no guarantee that debugging and security patches automatically arrive faster or that software is easier to maintain than with proprietary software.

This move is just the sort of thing that can lead to a lot of misunderstandings about the idea of openness, a term that's up there with motherhood and apple pie these days when it comes to values everybody wants to embrace. Don't confuse the fact that Drupal is cooperatively created and debugged in public with the openness of the present administration's government.

This line in the AP story in particular raised my hackles: "Aides joked that it doesn't get more transparent than showing the world (the) code that their Web site is based on."

That's just silly. Drupal-powered blogs and forums can enable online information sharing and public participation in discussions, but that sort of thing can be accomplished with proprietary software as well. Likewise, it's perfectly possible to use open-source software in a system that's locked-down and closed.

That's not to pluck the feather out of Drupal's cap--or indeed out of the caps of Red Hat's Linux operating system, Apache software for hosting Web site and powering its search, and the MySQL database, all of which also are used in the White House project, according to publisher, tech pundit, and open-source fan Tim O'Reilly.

It's not without reason that open-source software is very popular to power Web properties, including plenty of high-powered ones such as Google and Facebook. The White House's move is an endorsement that could help others--notably the many customers in the federal government itself--feel more comfortable with open-source software.

My 7 favorite Windows 7 features

2009-10-23T23:23:00.000-07:00

Today Windows 7 hits the GA or general availability milestone. That means that you’ll be able to pick up a PC with the OS pre-installed on it, or pick up a disc from your favorite virtual or bricks-and-mortar outlet. To celebrate, here are my top 7 favorite Windows 7 features.

#1 - Performance boost

Without a doubt the top Windows 7 feature for me is performance. On every system that I’ve put Windows 7 on, from monster quad core rigs to humble netbooks, I’ve seen a performance boost.

Putting numbers on this performance hike, on key metrics such as boot-up, video encoding and gaming frames per second, the boost over Vista is, on average, in the region of 10%.

In my opinion, this performance boost is Windows 7’s strongest selling point.

#2 - More restrained UAC

The User Account Control (UAC) experience under Vista was a little like being shot in the face with a shotgun filled with dialog boxes. A single simple action could unleash a barrage of warnings that left many users feeling confused, bewildered and angry.

Under Windows 7, UAC is a little more restrained, limiting prompts to specific actions. Some might argue that this decreases the security it offers, but I think that the “dialog blindness” that the old UAC caused is worse.

Another good side of the new, improved UAC is the fact that users can customize the level of warnings they receive and so set up the system to best suit their needs.

#3 - 64-bit becomes the new default

Microsoft, along with the big OEMs, are pushing 64-bit flavor of Windows harder than ever. Given that hardware, software and driver support for 64-bit is now at an all-time high, there’s very little reason for users not to migrate to 64-bit.

Within a few years I expect the Windows 7 effect to start to erode 32-bit’s strangle-hold on PCs.

#4 - Improved troubleshooting tools

When users hit a problem, what they want to do is find a solution or fix and get on with their day. To help users accomplish this, Microsoft has incorporated numerous troubleshooters into Windows 7.

No troubleshooter is perfect, but the work that Microsoft has done in Windows 7 will help many users fix problems for themselves without having to resort to tech support or trawling the web for answers.

#5 - UI improvements

No one can say that the Windows 7 UI is revolutionary, but the evolutionary changes that Microsoft has made in this new OS are almost all steps in the right direction. There are two aspects of the UI that have been tweaked:

- Helping users find the applications and documents they want to work with
- Once the user has found what they want, the UI fades into the background and allows the user to get on with things

#6 - Touch support

It’s going to be a while until the built-in touch support incorporated into Windows 7 really takes off, but there’s no doubt that Microsoft’s inclusion of support for touch-screens right into the Windows 7 OS will encourage OEMs to offer more systems with this cool feature.

#7 - XP Mode

I’m not a huge fan of the XP Mode feature available in some editions of Windows 7 that allows users to run XP within a virtual machine from the desktop. However, for those folks with specific bits of software that won’t work on a later OS, then XP Mode does offer a lifeline.

Bonus favorite feature - It’s not Vista. ‘Nuff said!

So, is it a good OS? Yes. In fact, I agree with Ed Bott when he calls the OS “impressive.” However, that said, I can’t see any really compelling reason to rush adoption. Take your time, Windows 7 will be there waiting for you 6 months of a year down the line. Over that time it’ll get better, and hardware/driver support will get better, so everyone’s a winner.

So, join the party and upgrade now, or wait and upgrade later. Or stick with what you are already running. Or go with a Mac or Linux … The choice if yours.

Microsoft and PC makers introduce Windows 7 offers for consumers

2009-10-23T09:07:00.001-07:00

Microsoft is really turning up the consumer-focused volume on the Windows 7 launch on October 22 — despite the fact that the company makes a lot of money from selling Windows to business users, either via volume-license agreements and/or various other channels.

Why so much attention on retail — where Microsoft admittedly garners the least amount of Windows revenues? Microsoft officials believe if they can win over consumers with Windows 7, these consumers will push their workplaces to move to Windows 7 more quickly. There’s also, undoubtedly, a large helping of Apple envy/fear that’s part of Microsoft’s consumer push.

To kick off the launch activities, Microsoft unveiled on October 21 a number of retail deals for the product that it has forged with some of its PC partners and retail outlets. Microsoft is calling the promotion “7 Days of Windows 7.” Company officials said to expect more Windows 7 deals to be added throughout the coming week and to check back on Windows.com if you’re in the market for new hardware, upgrades, support, etc.)

Day 1 (October 22) offers include:

* Best Buy offering Full home technology remodel, handyman included. Best Buy PC Home Makeover
* HP laptop, netbook, desktop and monitor package with Windows 7. Geek Squad wireless home network with router and new PC setup is included for $1,199.00
* Dell Studio XPS 13. Save more than $100.00
* Acer AZ5610-U9072 23″ Touch All-in-One (with Windows Touch) for $880.00
* With the Buy a PC, Get a Discounted Upgrade offer, customers who buy a new PC running Windows 7 Home Premium can upgrade a Windows XP- or Windows Vista-based PC they already own with a discounted box copy of Windows 7. This offer will run through Jan. 2, 2010.
* The Windows 7 Family Pack is available tomorrow in select countries while supplies last. With this offer, consumers can buy three Upgrade licenses of Windows 7 for one price.
* The Student Offer begins tomorrow. For a limited time, the Windows 7 Student Offer gives college and university students in the U.S. and select markets worldwide the opportunity to purchase Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade or Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for a discount.

I’m weighing which Windows 7 machine to buy and am open to suggestions. I’m looking for something that’s lightweight and very durable. (I’m actually considering buying both a netbook and a laptop, making the laptop my primary machine and the netbook what I take on the road.) I don’t care about running games. I don’t want or need touch. I do value battery life and don’t need anything flashy (though something with a little personality would be nice). Any suggestions out there?

One other note: If you’re in the New York City area on October 22, feel free to come by our post-launch party. It’s at the Antarctica Bar on Hudson and will start around 5 p.m. Lot of Microsoft bloggers — including Ed Bott of ZDNet, Paul Thurrott of the Windows SuperSite, Tom Warren of NeoWin and more will be there. We’re also expecting Most Valuable Professionals, testers, a few brave/crazy Softies and other hangers-on to show up to sample the seven beers on tap. Hope to see you there!

7 Days of Windows 7 offers

2009-10-23T08:59:00.001-07:00

Today is Windows 7 launch day. Here are some launch day offers that might be of interest to you.

Microsoft is introducing a limited-time series of offers known as “7 Days of Windows 7” with amazing deals on hardware, upgrades, support and other options. Watch for new offers to be released daily on Windows.com.

To kick off Day 1 tomorrow, Microsoft is offering PCs that are targeted at simplifying consumers’ lives. There are a host of offers available for customers, including:

* Best Buy. Full home technology remodel, handyman included. Best Buy PC Home Makeover
- HP laptop, netbook, desktop and monitor package with Windows 7. Geek Squad wireless home network with router and new PC setup is included.
$1,199.00
* Dell Studio XPS 13. All the speed you’ll need.
- Simply put, everything you do on your PC will be easier with a fast, high-performing laptop.
Save more than $100 on a Dell Studio XPS13
* Acer AZ5610-U9072 23″ Touch All-in-One (with Windows Touch)
- Touch capabilities and all-in-one elegance with an integrated PC and monitor
- This stunning, All-in-One PC with Windows Touch incorporates intuitive multi-touch technology for exceptional high-definition (HD) entertainment at your fingertips. An elegant, bring exceptional HD entertainment to your fingertips.
$880.00

With the Buy a PC, Get a Discounted Upgrade offer, customers who buy a new PC running Windows 7 Home Premium can upgrade a Windows XP- or Windows Vista-based PC they already own with a discounted box copy of Windows 7. This offer will run through Jan. 2, 2010.

Other offers available include:

* The Windows 7 Family Pack is available tomorrow in select countries while supplies last. With this offer, consumers can buy three Upgrade licenses of Windows 7 for one low price.
* The Student Offer begins tomorrow. For a limited time, the Windows 7 Student Offer gives college and university students in the U.S. and select markets worldwide the opportunity to purchase Windows 7 Home Premium Upgrade or Windows 7 Professional Upgrade for a significant discount.

T-Mobile announces 3G BlackBerry Bold 9700 with 624 MHz processor

2009-10-22T20:58:00.000-07:00

The new BlackBerry 9700 from T-Mobile comes as no surprise given all the leaks. I was actually in a T-Mobile store a couple months ago and a salesperson mentioned it was coming in an offhand manner. T-Mobile made it official today though and announced that the BlackBerry Bold 9700 would be coming in “time for the holidays”. This is T-Mobile USA’s first 3G BlackBerry and it looks sweet. It also has a speedy 624 MHz processor that should really fly.

Other specs include 256MB of Flash memory with a microSD card slot, Bluetooth, WiFi (with support for VoIP calls over the T-Mobile HotSpot @Home network), GPS, 3.2 megapixel camera, touch sensitive trackpad (no trackball on this device), 3.5-mm headset jack, 360 x 480 resolution display and it runs the new BlackBerry OS 5.0. I see on the T-Mobile site there is also a new service called PrimeTime2Go that offers TV viewing on the go.

The BlackBerry Bold 9700 will be available for $199.99 with a 2-year contract.

Windows 7: An impressive upgrade

2009-10-22T20:55:00.000-07:00

Windows 7 is impressive. That word is rarely used in the same sentence as “Microsoft” and “Windows” – certainly not in recent years. But it fits here.
Unlike its predecessors, this Windows version feels as if it were designed and built by a single, coordinated team instead of being assembled from interchangeable parts. In daily use, Windows 7 feels graceful and often (but not always) elegant. Although it builds on elements that debuted in Windows Vista, it fixes many usability sins and adds consistency and polish to an interface that had too many rough edges. And some very impressive new capabilities, especially the grossly underrated Libraries feature, offer rewards for digging deeper.

Windows 7 runs smoothly and efficiently on even modest hardware. Remarkably, it reverses the longstanding trend to make Windows bigger. From a standing start, Windows 7 uses less memory, runs fewer services, and consumes less disk space than its predecessor, Windows Vista, and in the 64-bit version it can address about five times more RAM than you can actually stuff onto a single motherboard. This year, anyway.

I’ve already covered the features in Windows 7 extensively. Little in Windows 7 has changed since I wrote What to expect from Windows 7 back in May. If you review the screenshot gallery I assembled for that post, you’ll have a very good idea of how Windows 7 looks and acts today (the sole exception is Windows XP Mode, which has changed significantly from the beta release I looked at in May).

When Windows Vista was released in January 2007, I suggested that most businesses of even modest size and complexity would be wise to heed conventional wisdom and avoid it until Service Pack 1 was ready. I don’t feel compelled to offer that same advice here. The development process for Windows 7 has been steady and deliberate. The Release Candidate code that Microsoft made public last May was arguably more stable and reliable than most recent official Windows releases. As I wrote in What to expect from Windows 7 nearly six months ago:

From a features and capabilities point of view, Windows 7 is essentially done. It’s all over but the process of hunting down bugs, many of them associated with OEM hardware and drivers. In a bygone era, code this stable and well tested might have been released as a 1.0 product, followed six months later by a service pack. Not this year. Microsoft is treating Windows 7 as the world’s most ambitious shareware release ever.

I’m told that 8 million people have been running the Windows 7 Release Candidate. That’s four times the number of people who registered as Windows Vista beta testers during its development process. My gut feeling is that the number of people actually using Windows 7 in recent months is at least an order of magnitude higher than the corresponding head count in the runup to Windows Vista. And based on everything I’ve heard, the overwhelming majority of those who try Windows 7 like it.

So, who should upgrade? And who shouldn’t? As always, I don’t believe in one-size-fits-all recommendations. But for a few categories, the choice is simple:

* If you’re running Windows Vista and gritting your teeth over it, you should upgrade as soon as possible. The relief will be immediate.
* If you’re shopping for a new PC, get one with Windows 7 on it. And if it doesn’t run properly on Day 1, return it and find another. OEMs that do a good job of matching PC hardware to Windows should be rewarded. Those who didn’t learn from the Vista experience deserve to be punished.
* If you’re perfectly happy with the performance of XP and don’t want to relearn established habits, stay put.
* For anyone relying on mission-critical Windows-based apps or specialized hardware, testing trumps any desire to have the latest OS, no matter how well it’s been reviewed.

And if you’re feeling gun-shy about switching, it’s OK to wait. Most people forget that the venerable Windows XP was unpopular and unloved for its first two years in the marketplace. And Windows Vista has matured into a solid, if forgettable OS after many reliability updates and two service packs. Based on that experience, Windows 7 will improve with age.

Yes, there are downsides to the Windows 7 transition. For Windows XP users in particular, the upgrade process is tedious. Licensing is still a confusing mess, especially for small business owners. Drivers are still a potential source of headaches, as I’ve found in recent months.

But its improvements in productivity, security, and reliability make Windows 7 worth those short-term hassles. It is, without question, the most impressive software development effort Microsoft has ever undertaken. For anyone who has chosen Windows – out of preference or necessity – it is an impressive achievement and as close to an essential upgrade as I have ever seen.

BlackBerry the choice of organized crime

2009-10-20T01:08:00.002-07:00

Gangs know what encryption is. They are using it in force at the street level, let alone at the very top. Rim’s BlackBerries are the ultimate in security for them. Everything is secured and impossible to monitor by police.
Rim’s Blackberry Enterprise Server (BES) is one of the most sophisticated platforms for email and PIN messages. This system used to be the domain of big corporations. No longer. One of the reasons many financial brokerage institutions ban the use of PIN messages is because they can’t be tracked. In 2005 this was big news and was reported widely. Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) and Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) banned its use. Organized crime picked up where the banks left off.

RCMP Insp. Gary Shinkaruk, head of biker gang investigations in B.C., said BlackBerries are “extremely common” among the criminals his unit investigates.“For a lot of groups, it’s standard practice,” he said.

The RCMP legendary motto maybe heading to the delete bin and may not be able to always get their man after all…

Gartner Says IT Spending to Rebound in 2010 with 3.3 Percent Growth After Worst Year Ever in 2009

2009-10-20T01:08:00.000-07:00

The IT industry is exiting its worst year ever, as worldwide IT spending is on
pace to decline 5.2 percent, according to Gartner, Inc. Worldwide enterprise IT
spending will struggle more with IT spending dropping 6.9 percent. The IT
industry will return to growth with 2010 IT spending forecast to total $3.3
trillion, a 3.3 percent increase from 2009.

Gartner provided the latest outlook for the IT industry during Gartner
Symposium/ITxpo, which is taking place here through October 22. While IT
spending will increase next year, Gartner cautioned IT leaders to be overly
optimistic.

"While the IT industry will return to growth in 2010, the market will not
recover to 2008 revenue levels before 2012," said Peter Sondergaard, senior vice
president at Gartner and global head of Research. "2010 is about balancing the
focus on cost, risk, and growth. For more than 50 percent of CIOs the IT budget
will be 0 percent or less in growth terms. It will only slowly improve in 2011."

The computing hardware market has struggled more than other segments with
worldwide hardware spending forecast to total $317 billion in 2009, a 16.5
percent decline. In 2010, spending on hardware spending will be flat. Worldwide
telecom spending is on pace to decline 4 percent in 2009 with revenue of nearly
$1.9 trillion. In 2010, telecom spending is forecast to grow 3.2 percent.
Worldwide IT services spending is expected to total $781 billion in 2009, and it
is forecast to grow 4.5 percent in 2010. Worldwide software spending is forecast
to decline 2.1 percent in 2009, and the segment is projected to grow 4.8 percent
in 2010.

On a regional basis, emerging regions will resume strong growth. "By 2012, the
accelerated IT spending and culturally different approach to IT in these
economies will directly influence product features, service structures, and the
overall IT industry. Silicon Valley will not be in the driver`s seat anymore,"
Mr. Sondergaard said.

From a budget perspective, there are three important items that IT leaders must
consider in 2010:

1 A Shift from Capital Expenditure to Operational Expenditure in the
IT Budget — Concepts such as cloud services will accelerate this
shift. IT costs become scaleable and elastic. CIOs need to model the
economic impact of IT on the overall financial performance of an
organization. For public companies, they must show how IT improves
earnings per share (EPS).
2 Impact of the Increased Age of IT Hardware — With delayed
purchases of servers, PCs and printers likely to continue into 2010,
organizations must start to assess the impact of increased equipment
failure rates, and if current financial write-off periods are still
appropriate. Approximately 1 million servers have had their
replacement delayed by a year. That is 3 percent of the global
installed base. In 2010, it will be at least 2 million. “If
replacement cycles do not change, almost 10 percent of the server
installed base will be beyond scheduled replacement be 2011,” Mr.
Sondergaard said. “That will impact enterprise risk. CFOs need to
understand this dynamic, and it’s the responsibility of the CIO to
convey this in a way the CFO understands.”
3 IT Must Learn to Build Compelling Business Cases — 2010 marks
the year in which IT needs to demonstrate true line of sight to
business objectives for every investment decision. IT leaders can no
longer look at IT as a percentage of revenue. CIOs must benchmark IT
according to business impact.

Mr. Sondergaard said three additional topics that were important in 2009 will
continue to dominate IT leaders` agendas in 2010. These three topics include

* Business Intelligence - Users will continue to expand their investments in
this area with the focus moving from "in here" to "out there"
* Virtualization - IT leaders should not just invest in the server and data
center environment, but in the entire infrastructure. In 2010, users will create
the cornerstone for the cloud infrastructure. They will enable the
infrastructure to move from owned to shared.
* Social Media - Organizations are starting to scale their efforts in this
space. The technologies are improving and organizations realize this is not only
about digital natives. It`s about all client segments including the most
significant: the population in the next 10 years, the above 60 year old
generations.

While those topics are key to IT agendas today, Mr. Sondergaard highlighted
three themes that will become important going forward. They include:

* Context-Aware Computing - This is the concept of leveraging information about
the end user to improve the quality of the interaction. Emerging
context-enriched services will use location, presence, social attributes, and
other environmental information to anticipate an end user`s immediate needs,
offering more sophisticated, situation-aware and usable functions.
* Operational Technology (OT) - OT is devices, sensors, and software used to
control or monitor physical assets and processes in real-time to maintain system
integrity. The rapid growth of OT is increasing the need for a unified view of
information covering business process and control systems. OT will become a
mainstream focus for all organizations.
* Pattern-Based Strategy - This is a new model about implementing a framework to
proactively seek, model, and adapt to leading indicators, often termed "weak"
signals, that form patterns in the marketplace, and to exploit them for
competitive advantage. A Pattern-Based Strategy will allow an organization to
not only better understand what`s happening now in terms of demand, but also to
detect leading indicators of change, and to indentify and quantify risks
emerging from new patterns rather than continuing to focus on lagging indicators
of performance.

About Gartner Symposium/ITxpo

Gartner Symposium/ITxpo is the industry's largest and most important annual
gathering of CIOs and senior IT executives. This event delivers independent and
objective content with the authority and weight of the world's leading IT
research and advisory organization, and provides access to the latest solutions
from key technology providers. Gartner's annual Symposium/ITxpo events are key
components of attendees' annual planning efforts. They rely on Gartner
Symposium/ITxpo to gain insight into how their organizations can use IT to
address business challenges and improve operational efficiency.

Upcoming dates and locations for Gartner Symposium/ITxpo include:

October 18-22, Orlando, Florida: www.gartner.com/us/symposium

November 2-5, Cannes, France: www.gartner.com/eu/symposium

November 11-13, Tokyo, Japan: www.gartner.com/jp/symposium

November 17-19, Sydney Australia: www.gartner.com/au/symposium

About Gartner

Gartner, Inc. (NYSE: IT) is the world's leading information technology research
and advisory company. Gartner delivers the technology-related insight necessary
for its clients to make the right decisions, every day. From CIOs and senior IT
leaders in corporations and government agencies, to business leaders in
high-tech and telecom enterprises and professional services firms, to technology
investors, Gartner is the indispensable partner to 60,000 clients in 10,000
distinct organizations. Through the resources of Gartner Research, Gartner
Executive Programs, Gartner Consulting and Gartner Events, Gartner works with
every client to research, analyze and interpret the business of IT within the
context of their individual role. Founded in 1979, Gartner is headquartered in
Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A., and has 4,000 associates, including 1,200
research analysts and consultants in 80 countries. For more information, visit
www.gartner.com.

Gartner
Christy Pettey, + 1 408 468 8312
christy.pettey@gartner.com

Let's hope Facebook can integrate FriendFeed's special sauce

2009-10-20T00:58:00.000-07:00

Even since I have been stalking my high school buddies on Facebook in 2004, I can remember the thrill I got inside: “Man, this site is addictive, and I don’t see it going away any time soon”.

As with any growing engine, you have to make sure it doesn’t get too hot too fast, or it will bust. Facebook isn’t at that point yet, but I get nervous when they shell out $50 million to acquire a company that is striving to do the same thing, but do it better. I get even more nervous when that smaller, better site becomes a ghost town, as MG Siegler puts it on Techcrunch.

I’m talking about Friendfeed, a site that has a great user experience for communicating with people and sharing rich content. They do a better job than Facebook when it comes to presentation and interactivity; ask anyone who uses the two regularly. Friendfeed does “real-time” better (I know, I hate that buzz word). Comments come in as they happen… but the problem is, no one is listening.

Everyone is hanging out on Facebook. No one uses Friendfeed anymore.

Microsoft exposes Firefox users to drive-by malware downloads

2009-10-20T00:52:00.001-07:00

Remember that Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant add-on that Microsoft sneaked into Firefox without explicit permission from end users?

Well, the code in that add-on has a serious code execution vulnerability that exposes Firefox users to the “browse and you’re owned” attacks that are typically used in drive-by malware downloads.
The flaw was addressed in the MS09-054 bulletin that covered “critical” holes in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer but, as Redmond’s Security Research & Defense team explains, the drive-by download risk extends beyond Microsoft’s browser.

A browse-and-get-owned attack vector exists. All that is needed is for a user to be lured to a malicious website. Triggering this vulnerability involves the use of a malicious XBAP (XAML Browser Application). Please not that while this attack vector matches one of the attack vectors for MS09-061, the underlying vulnerability is different. Here, the affected process is the Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) hosting process, PresentationHost.exe.

While the vulnerability is in an IE component, there is an attack vector for Firefox users as well. The reason is that .NET Framework 3.5 SP1 installs a “Windows Presentation Foundation” plug-in in Firefox.

Now, Microsoft’s security folks are actually recommending that Firefox users uninstall the buggy add-on:

For Firefox users with .NET Framework 3.5 installed, you may use “Tools”-> “Add-ons” -> “Plugins”, select “Windows Presentation Foundation”, and click “Disable”.

This introduction of vulnerabilities in a competing browser is a colossal embarrassment for Microsoft. At the time of the surreptitious installs, there were prescient warnings from many in the community about the security implications of introducing new code into browsers without the knowledge — and consent — of end users.

[ SEE: Microsoft says Google Chrome Frame doubles IE attack surface ]

This episode also underscores some of the hypocrisy that has risen to the surface in the new browser wars. When Google announced it would introduce a plug-in that runs Google Chrome inside Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Microsoft whipped out the security card and warned that Google’s move increased IE’s attack surface.

“Given the security issues with plug-ins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plug-in has doubled the attach area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take.”

Of course, when it’s Microsoft introducing the security risk to other browsers (Silverlight, anyone?), we should all just grin and take it.

Is speech recognition technology ready for prime time?

2009-10-18T20:25:00.001-07:00

About 10 years ago, health information technology experts were touting speech recognition software as one of the best things to come to health care. About five years ago, the talk was about why adoption of the technology never took off like it was expected.

Physicians' chances to earn incentives from the federal stimulus package have forced many to look at speech recognition as a way of making electronic medical record adoption more palatable to resistant physicians. And because improvements have made speech recognition more reliable and easier to use, some experts and physicians say speech recognition is finally ready to take off.

But will it? Experts say that at least some practices are willing to try it out again.
Megan Hastings, vice president of Health Directions, a Chicago-based consulting firm, said she has seen an increase in practices wanting speech recognition in recent months.

"When you get into a situation where the physician can't type, or [EMR adoption] is severely impacting their clinical work flow, we often see that institutions and practices will purchase [a speech recognition system] to help those physicians struggling to get on board," she said.

It's also helped that the technology has improved greatly from several years ago, Hastings said.

Larry Garber, MD, an internist and medical director for informatics at Fallon Clinic, which has more than 20 locations in Central Massachusetts, tried the technology in 2004. But he quickly discovered that it wasn't going to work. He stopped plans to roll it out to the entire practice.

"It wasn't ready for prime time," Dr. Garber pointed out. "Now it is. No question."

Dr. Garber's practice adopted the technology last year and found that the nagging problems such as speed and accuracy had been resolved. Using the speech recognition software not only has improved quality but also has saved the practice an average of $7,000 per physician per year in transcription fees. That never would have happened with the old technology, he said.
Technology more accurate

Keith Belton, senior director of product marketing for Burlington, Mass.-based Nuance Communications, which developed Dragon Medical, the most widely used speech recognition system in the medical industry, said he admits the technology was lacking in previous versions. But he said it now boasts an accuracy rate of 99%.

When Robert Frank, MD, a family physician with Aurora Advanced Healthcare in Milwaukee, first used the technology in 2004, he said many physicians felt it actually slowed them down. They were forced to go back and edit all of their notes because of the lagging accuracy, Dr. Frank said.

Newer versions are not only more accurate but also more robust, their vendors say. Systems now can work in concert with EMRs, for example.

Dr. Garber's internal study of how speech recognition was affecting efficiency at his practice found that EMR adoption alone didn't improve the availability of information.

The majority of physicians still were using traditional dictation services, which had about a four-day turnaround time, not including the time it took to do edits, once the transcripts were returned. The addition of speech recognition reduced that time to an average of 46 minutes.

Physicians now dictate clinical notes, which are transcribed directly into the patient's file, he said. Once the notes are complete, physicians check for accuracy, then approve them, and they are automatically saved to the record. The system also allows physicians to enter text, such as lab results or medicine lists, using a voice command shortcut.

That might make physicians faster at getting clinical notes into the system, said Mike Uretz, executive director of EHR Group, a Seattle-based consulting company. But if they want to qualify for incentive money for adopting EMRs, voice recognition used in conjunction with an EMR could be an impediment.

"The problem is when you talk into it, the data is not discrete ... it's still like a Word document," he said.

To meet the stimulus package's "meaningful use" requirements on EMRs, physicians will have to do quality reporting, which requires discrete data, Uretz said. Data are "discrete" when they can be categorized into specific fields.

Dr. Belton said it's likely that future versions voice recognition systems that work with EMRs will have this functionality.

Dolan is a business reporter. She can be reached at 312-464-5412 or by e-mail (pamela.dolan@ama-assn.org).

Learn about careers in information technology

2009-10-17T09:15:00.001-07:00

From staff reports

National College’s Danville campus is offering two free seminars on Thursday and Friday for residents interested in information technology careers, according to a news release.

“The information technology sector continues to see increasing demand,” Danville campus director Mark Evans said via the release. “Computer and networking technology touches every industry and the need for trained professionals to manage information systems isn’t going to disappear any time soon.”

As a Microsoft I.T. Academy, National College provides students with advanced instruction and access to the latest software, the release stated. The Danville Campus offers both an associate’s degree program in information systems engineering or a diploma in desktop support.

Tom Jackson, director of information technology programs for National College’s 25-campus system, will serve as the guest speaker.

Attend the seminars from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. on Thursday and 10 to 11 a.m. on Friday. Contact the campus at (434) 793-6822 to reserve a spot.

Toshiba announces Windows 7 touchscreen laptops, netbooks

2009-10-15T19:38:00.000-07:00

Gearing up for the Windows 7 launch, Toshiba on Wednesday has announced its new notebook and netbook lineup, including new touchscreen models.

Touchscreen capability comes on the new 13.3-in. Satellite U505 (pictured, above), which weighs 5 lbs., retails for $1,049 and will arrive on Nov. 1. Similiarly, the 14.4-in. Satellite M505 carries a price tag of $949 and a date of Oct. 22.

Both are loaded with the LifeSpace software package that includes Bulletin Board, an organizational tool, and ReelTime, a visual search aid.

Also announced were the following, with quick summaries and links:

* Satellite A500: 16-inch HD Edge-to-Edge display on select models, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion II Ultra processor, discrete graphics options, optional Blu-ray, starts $589.99.
* Satellite L500: 14″ to 17.3″ displays, AMD Turion II and Athlon II processor, up to 500GB HDD, starting from $504.99 to $579.99.
* Satellite P500: 18.4-in. HD TruBrite display, Intel Core 2 Duo or AMD Turion II processors, Blu-ray in some models, starts $799.99.
*
* Qosmio X505: 18.4-in. display, optional 64GB SSD/320GB HDD dual-drive configuration, $1,899.99.
* mini NB205: 10.1-in. netbook, nine-hour battery life, up to 250GB HDD, five colors (brown, white, blue, pink, black), starts $399.99.

Finally, Toshiba also announced sleep-and-resume functionality for the recently announced Satellite T100 ultrathin laptop.

8 reasons I like the Motorola Cliq Android smartphone and 7 reasons I don't

2009-10-15T19:35:00.001-07:00

The kind folks at Motorola allowed me to spend the last week walking around New York City with their new Cliq smartphone, and having spent that time getting to know the device a bit better, I’m comfortable discussing what I like about it and what I don’t.

First, a refresh: The Motorola Cliq smartphone is Motorola’s first modern entry into the hot smartphone space and will land on T-Mobile on Nov. 2 for $199 with a two-year contract. The phone is a touchscreen messaging phone, and has a slide-out QWERTY keyboard with D-Pad in addition to a 3.1-inch (320×480) display.
It runs on the Google Android platform, but has the company’s in-house layer of software and services, called Motoblur, integrated with it.
The phone is important in several ways. First, it is Motorola’s first major play in the smartphone space, a critical product for a company that has struggled for a hit since the runaway success of the Razr.

Second, it is the latest Android-based smartphone in a growing army of them from HTC, Samsung and others. While HTC’s G1 (Dream) and myTouch 3G (Magic) were the early birds in the Android game, the Cliq — along with the HTC Hero, the first Android phone on Sprint, and the Samsung Behold II — are the first models to incorporate proprietary software that layers on top of the vanilla Android installation.

Here’s a short video of the device, showing its dimensions, transitions and card-style widgets in action:

With that said, here are eight things I’ve come to like about the Motorola Cliq and seven things I don’t.

What I like:

1. Widgets. While Motoblur is part skin, part services and part software, the widget architecture is the most noticeably distinctive aspect of the Cliq. Whether you like it or not, our world revolves around communication, and any advances in simplifying this are welcome. Motoblur improves on the Android experience by offering widgets that can surface messages (e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) or headlines (RSS, etc.) The Cliq has a five-screen “desktop,” offering space for these units, which take up more room than traditional icons. They update on the fly, and offer a quick way to browse content without forcing you to dive all the way in.
2. Unifying identities. Palm was the first to unify identities with its webOS, but Motoblur keeps pace by doing the same thing with all of your services. While the Cliq doesn’t carry conversations across protocols in one spot like the Pre, it does combine things in sensible ways by allowing you to search for people based on knowledge known from other services. One simple example: when I receive a call from a contact, it displays their Facebook profile picture as well as their latest status update alongside their phone number and the “answer” button.
3. Simplified button schemes. As I mentioned previously, Motorola made the “answer” and “hang up” buttons virtual, leaving just three physical buttons (menu, home, back) on the main control area. Besides the fact that it’s a much nicer design experience, it also saves space.
4. T-Mobile. If you don’t have T-Mobile service in your area, this point is moot, but there’s something to be said for using an underdog carrier in a major metropolitan area. I rarely had issues with speed in terms of downloading web pages the way folks with iPhones on AT&T do here in New York.
5. Versatility. The Cliq offers a virtual keyboard as well as a competent physical one with wide keys. In a previous post, I said this was a power user’s dream. That turned out to be mostly true — sometimes I found myself typing short queries using the virtual keyboard, and sometimes it was easier to use the slide-out version, such as during extended instant messaging. Also: some early reviews questioned the use of a D-Pad, but after spending some time with the Cliq, I found that it was much easier to fix a typo or manipulate text with it than using your finger, like on the iPhone.
6. Development. Android is still in its application infancy compared to the iPhone, but considering the amount of handsets hitting the market, it won’t be long before all the essential apps (news, sports, finance, major social media services) are covered. I was able to find Last.fm (owned by this site’s parent company, CBS), Facebook and geosociolocation app Foursquare rather easily, and the widgets natively handle a number of other services (Twitter, MS Exchange, MySpace, Google, Picasa, Photobucket, Yahoo!).
7. Build quality. While the smooth matte finish on some of the plastics felt a little, well, plasticky, the expensive gunmetal finish on the phone’s metal body exuded quality. The sliding mechanism was a little less resistive than the one on the G1, but quite smooth, and I found all of the outside buttons to be placed in logical places (the tiny indicators for the buttons beneath the slider were a nice touch).
8. Business readiness. The Cliq comes preloaded with Quickoffice, meaning I can view Word, Excel and Powerpoint files on the device. Combine that with the QWERTY keyboard and D-Pad, and you’ve got a device that’s a BlackBerry-killer in terms of usability. (Security/BES, another story.)

What I didn’t like:

1. Sluggishness by hardware. This isn’t inherently the Cliq’s fault, but it’s exacerbated by the widget-heavy Motoblur layer. In my experience with Android phones, I’ve found that they’ve all been just a bit hesitant in terms of how quickly they react to my touch. (I’ve found the iPhone experience to be better overall.) This doesn’t happen all the time; rather, it happens intermittently, which can be frustrating. The reason? Hardware. Anand Shimpi explained in detail yesterday why the 528MHz Qualcomm processor in all of the most recent Android phones is the weak link. The user can help the situation by turning off more services and widgets and things, but then why use a smartphone if you’ve disabled its intelligence?
2. Currency. The widgets were indeed nice, but sometimes they didn’t update frequently enough to be useful. Examples: Twitter, RSS. I found that my e-mail and other essentials updated instantaneously, but on occasion I found that the widgets didn’t surface recent blog posts. Several times, the widgets reflected content that was hours old — years in Twitter time, and an impossibility, given how many people I follow on Twitter alone — and, to my knowledge, there was no way to manually refresh the widget. Side note: when you boot the phone, all the apps try to update at once, and there’s no way of halting this train. It’s unnerving.
3. Upgradeability: That extra layer of services presents a problem for Motorola, who in addition to providing cloud services and resources for the effort are also the gatekeepers to progress on Android development. For example, even though Android 1.6 Donut rolled out to existing Android handsets on the market (G1, mytouch), the Cliq will hit shelves with 1.5 Cupcake. Why? Because the Motoblur architecture is hooked into the Android platform, so Motorola can’t update to 1.6 without also updating its Motoblur software. For sure, some Motoblur features may become standard Android features over time. But that puts the onus of development on Motorola — particularly the pressure to both keep pace with open source Android development as well as its own, and not branch off.
4. Choice. I mentioned versatility as something I liked about the Cliq, and that’s true. But people have preferences — personally, I prefer a lighter, slimmer, full touchscreen phone with no physical keyboard at all (like the HTC Hero, but that’s on Sprint). So there needs to be more choice among form factors for Motoblur. Motorola told me it was preparing another Android phone for launch before 2010, but one without Motoblur. It seems to me that it’s a no-brainer to provide a touchscreen-only Motoblur phone as a foil to the Cliq.
5. Screen size. It seemed a little silly to me that the one surface with the screen on it actually had the least amount of area compared to any other flat surface on the device. Why is this? The Cliq device itself is much smaller (width and height) than the established iPhone (screen: 3.5 in.). The Cliq’s smaller screen means I have less room for those big widgets on my home screen.
6. Media player. Motorola says it didn’t Motoblur-ify the default, underwhelming Google Android media player. That’s a shame, because if we’re really moving toward converged devices, I shouldn’t have to carry around my iPod touch, too, just to get a complete multimedia experience.
7. Android market. My main beefs with Android market are that it’s very hard to surface apps and you can’t tell which apps are legitimate. For example, there’s a New York Times app in the market’s Top 10 apps, but it’s not developed by the New York Times Company. The Android market is still a burgeoning movement, and it was a little ironic that some of the apps for the services promoted on the Cliq’s box weren’t preloaded (Facebook, Last.fm, etc.).

Final thoughts: Motoblur’s a great platform, but the hardware is visibly taxed by it. For T-Mobile users, this is the phone to get. Period. It’s much better than a G1 and a myTouch 3G. For others, it’s a harder sell, and depends on your local carrier situation.

The device is a toss-up with the HTC Hero on Sprint — if you prefer physical keyboards, this is your device. It all depends on your hardware preferences.

That’s not all there is to say about the Cliq, but that gets to the heart of the experience.

Motorola Cliq: deal or no deal?

Linux-Windows gap to remain for five years

2009-10-15T07:31:00.000-07:00

The Linux desktop experience is now closer to the Windows environment than before, but the gap in mainstream adoption for the open source OS will not close anytime soon, says an industry analyst.

Laurent Lachal, U.K.-based senior analyst at IT advisory firm Ovum, said inconsistencies across Linux distributions still stand in the way of wider user uptake.

"For one, Linux has two main GUIs (graphical user interfaces), KDE and Gnome. Some see that as choice, but overall it confuses the market," Lachal told ZDNet Asia in a phone interview. He added that each GUI is further tweaked for different distributions, further compounding the disparity.

Different distributions also have different ways of allowing users to perform tasks, such as terminal commands.
Some distributions also try to mimic Windows as closely as possible in order to entice Windows users to migrate, but has often resulted in only "good enough" experience for "basic" enterprise tasks.

Lachal said: "Usability is not a problem with Linux, but the issue lies with application support."

John Brand, Hydrasight's research director, said in an e-mail interview such support issues have plagued Linux, and still do. "The majority of organizations still find application incompatibility and lifecycle management an issue for Linux-based desktops," he said.

Linux can be suitable for "light use" by some members of a company, but this mix-and-match approach where both Windows and Linux platforms are deployed is not typically considered cost-effective, Brand explained.

And while Linux desktop projects may rate well with users during pilot deployments, the "complexities of having a mixed environment generally dilutes any benefits Linux may otherwise provide", he added.

He highlighted Microsoft's integration with its other office products that increases the reliance on the Windows OS. The most significant example of this has been Microsoft SharePoint, he said.

"We see that [SharePoint] adoption has become widespread and often entrenched as a core part of the enterprise IT infrastructure," Brand said. Competing software such as open source document management product Alfresco, has not yet managed to appeal to users to a similar degree, he noted.

Furthermore, device support is still an issue, he said. "Without the commercial drivers for open source, market momentum is variable at best," he added.

However, Laurent disagreed. He said lack of driver support "is still an issue, but overall it has been solved".

Greg Kroah-Hartman, Novell programmer and Linux Driver Project lead, noted in an earlier interview with ZDNet Asia, that the "problem" of device makers resisting the Linux community is not an issue. He said the coders at the Linux Driver Project were getting requests to make Linux-compatible drivers for hardware "all the time", suggesting growing adoption of Linux OSes among enterprises.

The netbook example
The biggest gap Linux needs to close is the maturity of its channel, said Ovum's Laurent, adding that the platform lacks vendor support and market visibility.

Although Linux had the headstart in the netbook game--with Asus supporting the open source platform--Microsoft eventually overtook the lead because "the market was not ready".

Laurent said: "Sales people were not trained and did not understand [Linux] because the sales channels were not experienced. Thus, they could not sell [Linux-based] netbooks properly and customers were unhappy."

Furthermore, Microsoft's decision to extend Windows XP's lifespan for the netbook market was sufficient to sway users back into the familiar Windows camp, indicating that consumers tend to prefer what they are most familiar with, he said.

"The netbook example displays the level of inertia that Linux has to fight," he noted, adding that because of this inertia, Linux will remain a "minority" OS for another five years.

"It will be used more extensively in the enterprise but will not dramatically challenge Microsoft or Apple in the consumer space," he said.

Cloud computing still coming into focus

2009-10-15T07:22:00.001-07:00

Cloud computing, a term used by many Washington information-technology companies these days, may seem simple enough to those of us who use Yahoo e-mail accounts, store pictures on Flickr and upload videos to YouTube.

The basic premise: store your information, photos, documents — pretty much anything — on some company’s remote servers — or in the “cloud” — instead of directly on your computer’s hard drive. That company stores and maintains it for you, and you can retrieve it from any computer as long as you have an Internet connection.
It definitely holds promise. Federal technologists, including Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra in the White House, hope it will save money for agencies and be a more efficient way for employees to share information and work remotely. And if employees’ information is no longer stored on physical hard drives, they won’t lose data even if they lose their laptops.

The White House recently launched apps.gov, a site that lets chief information officers all over the government shop for pre-approved software programs that make use of “the cloud.” Officials can download software from the site, upload their organization’s information, and they’re off and running.

The selection of applications on the site is still relatively limited as the government vets new ones.

But what is still hazy is how that information is stored and kept safe from security and privacy breaches, how to ensure information can be deleted from remote servers without leaving traces of sensitive information and who is going to provide the services. Firms like Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Salesforce have been clamoring to develop cloud-computing products that are robust enough for government use. And firms that have traditionally provided IT services to the government — IBM, Booz Allen Hamilton and CSC, for example — are trying to defend their turf by building their own expertise in the area.

And the government hasn’t even figured out how to define “cloud computing.” The National Institute of Standards and Technology, which advises agencies on technology use, last week released its 15th version of a working definition. It’s two pages long and begins with a caveat: “Cloud computing is still an evolving paradigm. Its definitions, use cases, underlying technologies, issues, risks and benefits will be refined in a spirited debate by the public and private sectors.”

If you’ve been reading the Hillicon Valley blog, you’re aware that the private sector has already stumbled on this front. Last week, T-Mobile informed some of its customers that a Microsoft subsidiary called Danger lost e-mails, photos and contact lists after its servers crashed. If similar episodes continue to occur, the government will probably be less likely to entrust classified, sensitive information to third-party servers until security and reliability improvements are made.

California Congress members cheer on young homebuilders

In the Solar Decathlon going on right now on the National Mall, the team from Silicon Valley, Team California, is in the lead.
Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.) met with the team Wednesday morning at the Capitol to encourage its members in the remainder of the competition, which ends Friday morning.

“We understand, more or less, how important your project is,” he told the team, made up of students from Santa Clara University and California College of the Arts. “A lot of times I wish I had one of those homes. For a single guy living alone, that’s all I need for entertaining.”

The team’s project — Refract House — won first place in the architecture, hot water and communications categories. The house, which uses green materials and energy-saving technologies, will next be judged on its net power production, although the team from Germany is expected to have a leg up in that round. The U.S. Department of Energy puts on the annual competition.

Rep. Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), who attended Santa Clara University’s law school, stepped in to say a few words to the 20 or so students on the team.

“We know we cannot continue our dependence on foreign oil,” she said. “Climate change is real and what you’re doing is part of the solution.”

Ken Reidy, a staffer for Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-Mo.), is also an alumnus of Santa Clara University and swung by the short event to show his support. Carnahan co-chairs the High Performance Buildings Caucus and has taken an interest in sustainable, eco-friendly homes.

Downed Facebook accounts still haven't returned

2009-10-13T21:50:00.000-07:00

Something is really odd here.

As a reporter covering Facebook, I do get the occasional cranky complaints from members who, for one reason or another, are experiencing errors when they try to access their accounts. But it's never been anything like the past week, with a steady stream of e-mails continuing to come in from Facebook members who say they remain shut out of their accounts--despite assurance from Facebook that profiles have not been deleted and that the company is working on the problem.

"This is now seven days and counting," an e-mail sent on Saturday morning read. "It's beyond ridiculous and extremely frustrating."

"The experience completely reversed the Facebook opinion and experience for me," one reader complained. "I see many people bitch and complain, many more beg and a few threaten. To me, the route to take is fairly obvious. Mark Zuckerberg on his own page invites democratic input from Facebook users in one of his most recent videos. Given that statement especially, I find the way their user base is being treated with respect to their disabled account policy hypocritical at best."

"My account has now been held hostage for a week," another reader wrote. "Some of my friends think that I have deleted (my profile) or even blocked them...None of my friends or family can see my profile or even find it in search. It's as if I simply deleted my account or blocked all of them from seeing it without even a word."

Some users have started threads on Get Satisfaction and Yahoo Answers. A few others have pointed me to blogs and YouTube channels devoted to the subject.

The inaccessible accounts appear to be limited to a very small subset of Facebook's over 300 million active users, which means that it's not a large-scale issue for the health of the site. And Facebook is supported by neither subscription money or taxpayer dollars (though it wouldn't have advertising revenue without its users) so there's an argument to be made that users shouldn't be complaining about something they don't pay for. But that's an argument that many of the people who have come to rely on Facebook as a channel of communication simply don't buy.

Whether the string of complaints is warranted or not, Facebook hasn't disclosed exactly what's caused the "extended maintenance issue," and that's what I find puzzling.