New Technology

Watch TV over the internet using Skype!

2006-07-12T05:22:00.000-07:00

Novac from Japan has come up with a software, which enables watching TV from a PC using the free Skype video conferencing facility.

So in order to make this functional, Skype and the Novac software needs to installed on a PC. The software comes with a USB analog tuner, which can be that is all that is required to watch TV on the internet.

This Novac package comes for $85 and Skype is free.

Using the Skype video-calls facility the TV can ping you over IM and you can instruct the TV to change channels as well.

What is Sony VAIO UX180P?

2006-07-11T08:17:00.000-07:00

Sony has released a device similar to a UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC), but sporting more processing power, higher resolution, integrated keyboard and EDGE. This device as seen in the picture above is the UX180P. It is priced at $1800, which is almost double the cost of a regular UMPC like the Samsung Q1.

The best feature of the Sony UX180P like other UMPCs is easy mobility. In terms of mobility it can be compared to a OQO device, and can fit in a carry case like in the picture shown below.

Microsoft has announced support of its upcoming Vista Operating system for the UX180P.

Some of the hardware configurations of the UX180P includes 512MB RAM and Core Solo U1200. It has a nicely integrated QWERTY keyboard which slides smoothly in the background as shown below.

The device comes pre-installed with Windows XP Professional and loads of adware and trialware, which eventually slow down the performance of the machine. Much of the drivers are available on the recovery disk and it is not very easy to install a fresh operating system and then to load the drivers separately.

A multipurpose Bluetooth headset by BlueAnt

2006-07-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

BlueAnt X5 Stereo Bluetooth Headset is a newly released high-tech yet multi-function set of head phones that is packed with a bunch of features that are able to stream clear stereo music from various devices with Bluetooth capabilities such as mobile phone, PDA, iPod, MP3 player as well as computer.

It can also take calls over internet applications such as Skype or MSN through VoIP technology. The Bluetooth Audio Streamer is capable of sending CD quality stereo music from one device to another through A2DP technology: Advanced Audio Distribution Profile.

The x5 is capable of handling up to 10 devices within a range of 10 meters. The support for AVRCP Bluetooth profile allows remote control of Windows Media Player, Winamp, WinDVD and other compatible music applications.

It has a 3.5mm line-in jack for your iPod or MP3 player and one touch redial/answer function for your mobile phone. Upon fully charged, X5 could last up to 12 hours of talk time and up to 200 hours of standby time. The battery is removable, you can power it up by using a mini USB connection which is actually for the detachable microphone.

In summary, the BlueAnt X5 Stereo Bluetooth Headset is just a perfect gadget which covers most of the usage for any devices.

Top 10 MP3 players under $100

2006-07-09T06:06:00.000-07:00

Following are MP3 players which offer the basic requirements and do not cost more than $100.

All the devices listed below offer a minimum of 512 MB of storage and two or more of the following characteristics: good sound quality; a stylish, compact design; advanced features such as an FM radio or recording capabilities; and an impressive battery life.

1. Samsung YEPP YP-MT6X (512MB)

The good: Superior AA battery life; solid sound quality; compact and durable; highly readable display for such a small player; FM radio; voice, radio, and line-in recording; next-track readout; MP3, DRM WMA, and OGG playback.
The bad: Too many operational instructions to remember; FM radio and voice recordings placed in random play queue; line-in encoding requires uncommon 2.5mm plug.
The bottom line: For a Windows user, the Samsung YEPP YP-MT6 is a superior choice to the Apple iPod Shuffle, thanks to its compact design, its good sound quality, and its many useful features and functions.

2. Samsung YP-U2 (512MB)

The good: The affordable Samsung YP-U2 is a supercompact MP3 player with a convenient plug-in USB design; it includes an FM tuner, a voice recorder, subscription compatibility, a legible LCD, and an intuitive interface. Plus, it features an extensive set of equalizer and DSP sound settings. Sound quality is quite impressive, but there is a caveat.
The bad: The placement of the headphone jack is not that impressive. It has an average battery life, the subpar voice-recording quality, and the audible clicks when starting or stopping a song. Additionally, the Samsung YP-U2 does not ship with a lanyard or an armband, and it currently maxes out at 512MB.
The bottom line: Despite some minor issues, the simple but feature-friendly YP-U2 from Samsung will be a hot seller, thanks to a sweet price and great overall sound quality. It's a good choice for budget-minded users looking for their first MP3 player.

3. Sony NW-E105 Network Walkman (512MB)

The good: Fantastic battery life; inexpensive; solid sound quality; gets really loud; innovative rocking faceplate controls.
The bad: No FM tuner or recording options; inelegant software; must use SonicStage app to transfer songs.
The bottom line: Budget-conscious music fans who want more than the Apple iPod Shuffle has to offer will be pleased with Sony's NW-E100 flash players.

4. Cowon iAudio G2 (1GB)

The good: The Cowon iAudio G2 delivers great sound quality and sound-enhancement options, plays protected WMA files, and features line-in recording.
The bad: The Cowon iAudio G2 is a bit large for a flash-based player, lacks an FM tuner, and most notably, uses the slow USB 1.1 protocol for transfers.
The bottom line: The Cowon iAudio G2's terrific audio quality and ease of use overcome its lack of USB 2.0 connectivity.

5. Creative MuVo TX FM (512MB)

The good: Cool design; USB 2.0; comes with armband and belt clip; great sound; easy to use.
The bad: Tiny screen; no USB extension cable.
The bottom line: Creative's MuVo TX FM is a great option for people who want a small, lightweight, and gymworthy player with a decent feature set.

6. Creative Zen Nano Plus (512MB)

The good: Plenty of cool color options; ultracompact design; comes with a belt clip, a case, and an armband; impressive, but not great, sound and recording quality; supports DRM-protected songs; includes FM, voice, and line-in recording features.
The bad: Small LCD; no true playlist support.
The bottom line: This is feature-packed flash player and cheap device for the features it provides.

7. iRiver T30 (512MB)

The good: Supports subscription WMA files; small and light; solid audio quality; voice and line-in recording.
The bad: No FM radio; occasional glitches in playing subscription downloads.
The bottom line: The T30 is a basic player by iRiver standards, but Janus support makes it an attractive flash-based device.

8. MobiBlu DAH-1500i (512MB)

The good: The cute and stylish MobiBlu DAH-1500i features a user-friendly, ultra-tiny design; a bright OLED screen; and useful extras such as FM tuning and recording, voice recording, and SRS Wow sound effects. This MP3 player also works as a removable flash drive and is DRM compatible.
The bad: The MobiBlu DAH-1500i uses a nonstandard USB cable and has poor battery life.
The bottom line: It is a good device for people fond of tiny things.

9. SanDisk Sansa m250 (2GB)

The good: Available in up to 4GB capacity; solid value; includes FM tuner and voice recorder; compatible with WMA DRM 10 (Janus) and Audible files; decent controllers; on-the-go playlists.
The bad: Bulky (but lightweight); no line-in recording; poorly backlit display; only one quality option for voice recording.
The bottom line: With its many features as well as its compatibility with audiobooks and subscription-based music, the SanDisk Sansa m200 series is an overall great value.

10. MobiBlu B153 (512MB)

The good: The MobiBlu B153 offers unbeatable battery life as well as nifty features such as an FM radio, line-in recording, and SRS Wow sound effects. Podcast Ready software comes loaded on the device, allowing for automatic updating of subscribed podcasts from any Internet-connected computer.
The bad: The MobiBlu B153's design is bad, and navigation is strictly via folder trees, so there's no sorting by artist, album, genre, and so on. Also, the screen is small in relation to the device.
The bottom line: MobiBlu's B153 isn't the most stylish MP3 player on the block, but if you're looking for an ultra-long-lasting device with plenty of features, it may be just the ticket.

Source - Reviews by CNET

In - car PC with GPS Navigator, DVD and more

2006-07-08T07:00:00.000-07:00

Do you hate cables and chargers in your car?
If yes, this in-dash car PC from Prober Industries, called the “E319″, is for you.

The device functions as an entertainment center and has a 6.5″ touch screen with 800×480 resolution with a 65 degree viewing angle. Speaking of angles, it can connect to backview camera using a CVBS video input port so you can see what’s behind when you are backing out of your garage.

It can connect to the internet using GPRS networks and can be used as a cell phone over GSM networks.

The car PC components aren’t that impressive but it should be good enough for playing your media files. It has a 20GB HD with 128 MB of RAM which connects to a 400MHz AMD AU1200 processor running Microsoft Windows CE 5.0.

The specs on the GPS receiver isn’t all that clear but the navigation system supposedly can provide voice guidance and route planning.

Besides all these, other features that are worth mentioning: AM/FM radio, DVD, VCD, CD, MP3 player.

There are USB and headset ports in front and a stylus pen.

The price is not given but Prober Industries is willing to share that info if you put in an order for 100 or more units.

The 10 Most Destructive PC Viruses Of All Time

2006-07-06T05:24:00.000-07:00

Computer viruses are like real-life viruses: When they're flying around infecting every PC (or person) in sight, they're scary. But after the fact...well, they're rather interesting, albeit in a gory kind of way. With this in mind, we present, in chronological order, the 10 most destructive viruses of all time.

CIH (1998)

Estimated Damage: 20 to 80 million dollars worldwide, countless amounts of PC data destroyed

Unleashed from Taiwan in June of 1998, CIH is recognized as one of the most dangerous and destructive viruses ever. The virus infected Windows 95, 98, and ME executable files and was able to remain resident in a PC's memory, where it continued to infect other executables.

What made CIH so dangerous is that, shortly after activated, it would overwrite data on the host PC's hard drive, rendering it inoperable. It was also capable of overwriting the BIOS of the host, preventing boot-up. Because it infected executable files, CIH wound up being distributed by numerous software distributors, including a demo version of an Activision game named Sin.

CIH is also known as the Chernobyl virus because the trigger date of certain strains of the virus coincides with the date of the Chernobyl nuclear reactor accident. The virus is not a serious threat today, thanks to increased awareness and the widespread migration to Windows 2000, XP, and NT, none of which are vulnerable to CIH.

Melissa (1999)

Estimated Damage: 300 to 600 million dollars

On Friday, March 26, 1999, W97M/Melissa became front-page news across the globe. Estimates have indicated that this Word macro script infected 15 to 20 percent of all business PCs. The virus spread so rapidly that Intel, Microsoft, and a number of other companies that used Outlook were forced to shut down their entire e-mail systems in order to contain the damage.

The virus used Microsoft Outlook to e-mail itself to 50 names on a user's contact list. The e-mail message contained the sentence, "Here is that document you asked for...don't show anyone else. ;-)," with an attached Word document. Clicking open the .DOC file -- and thousands of unsuspecting users did so -- allowed the virus to infect the host and repeat the replication. Adding insult to injury, when activated, this virus modified users' Word documents with quotes from the animated TV show "The Simpsons."

ILOVEYOU (2000)

Estimated Damage: 10 to 15 billion dollars

Also known as Loveletter and The Love Bug, this was a Visual Basic script with an ingenious and irresistible hook: the promise of love. On May 3, 2000, the ILOVEYOU worm was first detected in Hong Kong. The bug was transmitted via e-mail with the subject line "ILOVEYOU" and an attachment, Love-Letter-For-You.TXT.vbs. Similar to Melissa, the virus mailed itself to all Microsoft Outlook contacts.

The virus also took the liberty of overwriting music files, image files, and others with a copy of itself. More disturbingly, it searched out user IDs and passwords on infected machines and e-mailed them to its author.

An interesting footnote: Because the Philippines had no laws against virus-writing at the time, the author of ILOVEYOU was not charged for this crime.

Code Red (2001)

Estimated Damage: 2.6 billion dollars

Code Red was a computer worm that was unleashed on network servers on July 13, 2001. It was a particularly virulent bug because of its target: computers running Microsoft's Internet Information Server (IIS) Web server. The worm was able to exploit a specific vulnerability in the IIS operating system. Ironically, Microsoft had released a patch addressing this hole in mid-June.

Also known as Bady, Code Red was designed for maximum damage. Upon infection, the Web site controlled by the affected server would display the message, "HELLO! Welcome to http://www.worm.com! Hacked By Chinese!" Then the virus would actively seek other vulnerable servers and infect them. This would go on for approximately 20 days, and then it would launch denial of service attacks on certain IP addresses, including the White House Web server. In less than a week, this virus infected almost 400,000 servers, and it's estimated that one million total computers were infected.

SQL Slammer (2003)

Estimated Damage: Because SQL Slammer erupted on a Saturday, the damage was low in dollars and cents. However, it hit 500,000 servers worldwide, and actually shut down South Korea's online capacity for 12 hours.

SQL Slammer, also known as Sapphire, was launched on January 25, 2003. It was a doozy of a worm that had a noticeable negative impact upon global Internet traffic. Interestingly enough, it didn't seek out end users' PCs. Instead, the target was servers. The virus was a single-packet, 376-byte worm that generated random IP addresses and sent itself to those IP addresses. If the IP address was a computer running an unpatched copy of Microsoft's SQL Server Desktop Engine, that computer would immediately begin firing the virus off to random IP addresses as well.

With this remarkably effective way of spreading, Slammer infected 75,000 computers in 10 minutes. The outrageously high amounts of traffic overloaded routers across the globe, which created higher demands on other routers, which shut them down, and so on.

Blaster (2003)

Estimated Damage: 2 to 10 billion dollars, hundreds of thousands of infected PCs

The summer of 2003 was a rough time for businesses running PCs. In rapid succession, IT professionals witnessed the unleashing of both the Blaster and Sobig worms. Blaster, also known as Lovsan or MSBlast, was the first to hit. The virus was detected on August 11 and spread rapidly, peaking in just two days. Transmitted via network and Internet traffic, this worm exploited a vulnerability in Windows 2000 and Windows XP, and when activated, presented the PC user with a menacing dialog box indicating that a system shutdown was imminent.

Hidden in the code of MSBLAST.EXE -- the virus' executable " were these messages: "I just want to say LOVE YOU SAN!!" and "billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!"

The virus also contained code that would trigger a distributed denial of service attack on windowsupdate.com on April 15, but Blaster had already peaked and was mostly contained by then.

Sobig.F (2003)

Estimated Damage: 5 to 10 billion dollars, over 1 million PCs infected

The Sobig worm hit right on the heels of Blaster, making August 2003 a miserable month for corporate and home PC users. The most destructive variant was Sobig.F, which spread so rapidly on August 19 that it set a record (which would later be broken by MyDoom), generating over 1 million copies of itself in its first 24 hours.

The virus infected host computers via innocuously named e-mail attachments such as application.pif and thank_you.pif. When activated, this worm transmitted itself to e-mail addresses discovered on a host of local file types. The end result was massive amounts of Internet traffic.

On September 10, 2003, the virus deactivated itself and is no longer a threat. Microsoft has announced a $250,000 bounty for anyone who identifies Sobig.F's author, but to date, the perpetrator has not been caught.

Bagle (2004)

Estimated Damage: Tens of millions of dollars...and counting

Bagle, a classic but sophisticated worm, made its debut on January 18, 2004. The malicious code infected users' systems via the traditional mechanism -- an e-mail attachment -- and then scoured Windows files for e-mail addresses it could use to replicate itself.

The real danger of Bagle (a.k.a. Beagle) and its 60 to 100 variants is that, when the worm infects a PC, it opens a back door to a TCP port that can be used by remote users and applications to access data -- financial, personal, anything -- on the infected system. According to an April 2005 TechWeb story, the worm is "usually credited with starting the malware-for-profit movement among hackers, who prior to the ground-breaking worm, typically were motivated by notoriety."

The Bagle.B variant was designed to stop spreading after January 28, 2004, but numerous other variants of the virus continue to plague users to this day.

MyDoom (2004)

Estimated Damage: At its peak, slowed global Internet performance by 10 percent and Web load times by up to 50 percent

For a period of a few hours on January 26, 2004, the MyDoom shockwave could be felt around the world as this worm spread at an unprecedented rate across the Internet via e-mail. The worm, also known as Norvarg, spread itself in a particularly devious manner: It transmitted itself as an attachment in what appeared to be an e-mail error message containing the text "Mail Transaction Failed." Clicking on the attachment spammed the worm to e-mail addresses found in address books. MyDoom also attempted to spread via the shared folders of users' Kazaa peer-to-peer networking accounts.

The replication was so successful that computer security experts have speculated that one in every 10 e-mail messages sent during the first hours of infection contained the virus. MyDoom was programmed to stop spreading after February 12, 2004.

Sasser (2004)

Estimated Damage: Tens of millions of dollars

Sasser began spreading on April 30, 2004, and was destructive enough to shut down the satellite communications for some French news agencies. It also resulted in the cancellation of several Delta airline flights and the shutdown of numerous companies' systems worldwide.

Unlike most previous worms, Sasser was not transmitted via e-mail and required no user interaction to spread. Instead the worm exploited a security flaw in non-updated Windows 2000 and Windows XP systems. When successfully replicated, the worm would actively scan for other unprotected systems and transmit itself to them. Infected systems experienced repeated crashes and instability.

Sasser was written by a 17-year-old German high school student, who released the virus on his 18th birthday. Because he wrote the code when he was a minor, a German court found him guilty of computer sabotage but gave him a suspended sentence.

Source - Information Week

A T-Shirt with a live digital clock

2006-07-05T05:18:00.000-07:00

Don’t mind being a walking clock yourself ? Or desperately looking for some attention ? Then dress-up for the occasion with the digital clock T-shirt.

This amusing unisex T-shirt has 4 AAA batteries that are within a hidden, washable battery compartment. The batteries last from 12-36 hours depending on whether you are operating in the digital clock or stop-watch mode. The clock itself can be switched on/off through a small button located on the pack.

It is highly likely you will catch a few stares wearing this T-shirt. It might also be a good idea to wear one when you want to get across a not-so-subtle message to people who never seem to get to places on time.

It is available from latestbuy at $59.95 apiece. Buy only if you are looking for some pricey fun.

An online free equivalent of Microsoft Visio

2006-07-04T05:49:00.000-07:00

Too many online software offerings seem to be challenging the Microsoft Office products these days. After online spreadsheet (equivalent of Excel) and notebook (equivalent of OneNote) by Google, Gliffy is offering an online diagramming tool, which is equivalent to Visio.

Gliffy provides the following features:

· Diagramming in your web browser without downloading additional software
· Similar to Visio, yet in your web browser
· Desktop application feel in a web-based diagramming solution
· Add collaborators to your work and watch it grow
· Link to published Gliffy drawings from your blog or wiki
· Create many types of diagrams like Flowcharts, UI wireframes, Floor plans, Network diagrams, any simple drawing or diagram

How to pick the right camera phone?

2006-07-03T08:58:00.000-07:00

Most of us will agree that the usage of mobile phones is growing by the day. If the mobile phone can also double up as a camera, it can be used to take pictures and preserve any special occurrence during the time when we are not carrying our cameras. Hence picking up a right camera phone requires some amount of knowledge and awareness. We have done some research around it and following are the key points which needs to be considered when buying a camera phone.

In simplest terms, there are 2 key factors for selecting a camera phone, picture quality and ease of transferring photos to a PC.

The picture quality of a camera phone will not match the quality of the dedicated camera, but the higher end camera phones can take pictures which are good enough to be printed.

If the camera phone is to be used for more than spur-of-the-moment shots, a minimum of 1.3-megapixel model would be required; these are common now in popular, mainstream phones like the LG VX8300 for Verizon. Two-megapixel camera phones like the Samsung MM-A800 for Sprint take photos that are good for printing and saving for posterity, but they're more expensive. The one 3MP camera phone in the U.S., the Nokia N80, doesn't take shots much better than the best 2MP phones, but it has a ton of other powerful features.

A few camera phones such as the Sony Ericsson W810i Walkman offer autofocus, but most are fixed focus, so the objects should be placed more than a few feet away for the best pictures. Sadly, camera-phone flashes are so weak that they reach only a few feet. In low-light situations, 3 to 6 feet is the sweet spot for camera-phone shots.

Camera phones can also capture video. For capturing video with a camera phone, there are few phones that support 352-by-288, 15 frame-per-second (fps) video, such as the Samsung SGH-T809 for T-Mobile. Now, 15 fps isn't as good as a dedicated digital camera and nowhere near the quality of a real camcorder, but it will do in a pinch. Many camera phones record video at 176-by-144 or even 128-by-96, which is hardly archival quality.

Having a camera on the phone is pretty useless if the pictures can’t get off it. For many low-end camera phones, the only option is picture-messaging shots to yourself, a friend, or to a picture-sharing or printing service. Unfortunately, that's often expensive, difficult, and clumsy.

Most camera phones enable connectivity with a PC using USB, Bluetooth, Infrared or Firewire technologies. Generally any mode of connectivity which does not requires complex software installation and configuration should be just fine. Most USB and Bluetooth phones can communicate with a PC or laptop without much pain. The better way is to opt for a camera supporting the SD Memory card which can store the photos while in the mobile and the same card can be removed from the mobile phone and inserted in a PC or laptop for photo transfer.

Pictures can also directly be printed from a camera phone to a growing range of printers, including the Epson PictureMate. Some phone supports PictBridge printing over a USB cable, like the LG LX550 Fusic for Sprint. Some phones can also send photos to printers over Bluetooth, but that's more difficult to set up than a USB connection.

The World’s most expensive phone!

2006-07-01T06:49:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the billionaires lounge – please, pull up a throne, light a Honduran cigar and marvel at what is unquestionably the most expensive phone in the world.

We can just imagine its maker, Goldvish, sitting in a Genevan underground lair and drumming its fingers together mischievously while it dreamt up the €1-million (£690,000) ‘Piece Unique’.

It must come bedecked with 100-carats of the finest grade diamonds, it chuckled, and be part of such an impossibly limited production line that it’ll make the Jules Rimet trophy seem common.

As is befitting of a phone that makes Vertu’s Signature Platinum seem as exclusive as a Lion bar, little else is known about it – there’s apparently a secret compartment, but the specs won’t contain anything like a 10MP camera. It’s all about the bling.

Goldvish has, though, announced more details about its lower end phones, which start from a pathetic €18,900 (£13,075). The ‘Illusion’ models will have a mere 18ct gold casing and sport Bluetooth, an FM radio, a 2MP camera and come bundled with a 2GB SD card.

The collection will be available from a select number of jewellers across Europe from September.

What is a BULLET-proof USB drive?

2006-06-30T05:33:00.000-07:00

Pretec have made a flash drive called as i-Disk Bullet proof, which comes in sizes from 128 MB to 2 GB.

It is claimed to be resistant from water, ice, fire and of course, bullet. No word of being grenade proof though.

It can transfer data at the rate of 20 Mbps and has write speed of 12 Mbps.

Some bloggers are planning to test the product for their claim of being bullet proof at their local rifle range.

A cellphone in a wrist watch

2006-06-28T05:44:00.000-07:00

The picture above shows a wrist watch, CEC GSM F88, which has features like built in mobile phone, color display, speaker phone for conferencing, and a 3-megapixel camera for video conferencing.

It weighs just around 3.5 ounces or 100 grams and is available for around $1100.

Other features of this product include a built-in microphone, voice dialing, 4 minutes of video recording, infrared connectivity, tools for scheduling and alarm clock.

The number pad can be found on the straps and the product comes with pre-installed world cup games.

Considering the size of the product, it has an amazing set of features and seems to be missing only a MP3 player and FM radio.

The first Windows Mobile 5.0 phones with 3G/W-CDMA released by HTC!

2006-06-26T05:28:00.000-07:00

MTeoR (left) and TyTN are the new mobile phones released by HTC under its own brand name. MTeoR is the 3G smartphone version and TyTN is the Windows Mobile Pocket PC.

Although HTC (High Tech Computer Corp) is an old timer in mobile phone manufacturing business, it used to manufacture mobile phones for other brands, rather than its own. HTC entered the PDA market with its popular O2 model PDAs. MTeoR and TyTN are the first phones to be released under the HTC brand name.

With these phones, HTC claims to have made the first Windows Mobile 5.0 phones with 3G/W-CDMA.

Both the models will start shipping in July 2006.

Peter Chou, CEO of HTC Corp. said at the product launch: “We have a rich heritage of innovation and aim for our products to continue being the devices of choice on the Microsoft Windows Mobile platform. Our operator and OEM strategy remains key to this success, and we are committed to further strengthening our partner relationships by providing customised and differentiated offerings.”

The HTC MTeoR, the world’s first 3G Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone, is a stylish, slim-line, candy bar device. It may be small, just 112.4 x 49 x 14.8mm and weighing a mere 120g, but this neat device is a powerful and “smart” phone. The HTC MTeoR features Windows Mobile 5.0 Direct Push technology for immediate synchronization of email, calendar and notes plus document viewers for PDF, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. It’s the ideal choice for busy people on the road who only want to carry one small device. MTeoR has a 2.2” TFT LCD screen and a built-in 1.3 megapixel camera.

Designed with easy messaging in mind, TyTN features Direct Push email technology available with Windows Mobile 5.0, internet browsing, synchronization with Microsoft Outlook Calendar, Contacts and email, and the ability to work on applications in the Microsoft Office suite such as Word, Excel, PowerPoint and viewing PDF documents. TyTN comes equipped with a 2.8” colour display with touch-screen. It also features a jog wheel for easy, one-hand operation. The image below shows the TyTN.

What is Skype?

2006-06-24T05:56:00.000-07:00

Skype is an internet telephony provider, where users who have installed the Skype client on their computers can talk to each other free of charge using VoIP (Voice over IP). The Skype client is also available for free and the program can work across firewalls and NAT, thereby allowing anyone on the internet to talk to anyone else.

Skype was developed by the founders of KaZaA and is currently owned by eBay.

For communication with traditional phone systems, Skype has a paid service which allows a computer to dial and receive calls from traditional phones. In the paid service, voicemail is also supported.

Skype maintains the users contact lists online supports video conferencing.
Skype is platform independent and can be installed on Windows, Mac and Linux. However, the functioning of Skype is not a roller-coaster ride with Linux and Mac. It works best with Windows. Skype also works with PocketPC.

Since Skype uses a peer-to-peer model rather than the traditional client-server model, the infrastructure can scale up very easily without any need for major upgrades. Incidentally, it is rumored that Skype has to manage only the login servers and the entire routing is taken care of by the peers. As of this writing, 100 million plus customers are serviced by Skype.

The unpopular part of Skype is the mechanism for call routing. Let’s say, UserA is trying to communicate with UserB. The call from UserA to UserB may happen directly or can be routed through another user, UserC. In this case, UserC becomes a ‘Supernode’ and is functioning as a router between UserA and UserB. This unduly penalizes UserC for being a part of the Skype network. Also, the software is a closed source software and proprietary. Hence no customizations or add-ons can be added by software developers.

Although the product has not been reverse-engineered by independent developers, Skype is believed to have made good use of encryption technology in its product and the software codes are well-written.

The average age of Skype subscribers is 29.7 years. About 46% of the subscribers are from Europe and 13% from China. These numbers are derived by SR Consulting, which reviewed some 4 million users profile of Skype.

Skype client is very easy to set up. For people who have not set up a Skype client, here are the steps:

1. Download the software.
2. Install the software. It automatically configures itself for your computer and network.
3. Register as a Skype user.
4. Get a headset for your computer.
5. Locate another Skype user. Searching tools make this easy.
6. Click on a Skype contact name. You can do this from a variety of places within the client application.
7. Talk free to people anywhere in the world.

The clarity of the call in Skype is amazingly clear and most people don’t appear to be talking from the other side of the world.

Apart from making regular calls to Skype users, it also facilitates conference calls between a maximum of 5 users, file transfers and instant messaging.

Netgear recently announced a Skype compatible phone. The phone removes the dependency of placing calls from the PC. Instead it connects directly to a WiFi router for connection. Similar products from other companies are also in the pipeline.

What is Casio Exilim EX-Z70?

2006-06-23T06:55:00.000-07:00

Casio has introduced a 7.2 megapixel camera called as Exilim EX-Z70. It will be available from early July 2007 in black color. The silver color model will be available from a month later than the black one.

It is slightly smaller than the current version of the slim and stylish product series called as Exilim EX-Z60 with 2.5 inch LCD, 3x optical zoom and digital image stabilization.

The weight of this digital camera is 118-grams and it will cost around $425. The Z60 is available at $249.

Like the previous products in the series, the EX-Z70 will have the Easy Mode feature. This provides an easy 3-step settings mechanism for digital camera beginners. It is available with 3 easy menus for image size, flash and self timer.

For those who are choosy about the looks of their camera, the EX-Z70 has smooth round edges, giving a very elegant look.

What is Ubuntu Linux?

2006-06-21T06:27:00.000-07:00

Ubuntu is a Linux distribution for desktops and Servers. The current version is 6.06 LTS. It is distributed by Canonical Ltd.

The current Ubuntu release supports PC (Intel x86), 64-bit PC (AMD64) and PowerPC (Apple iBook and Powerbook, G4 and G5) architectures.

According to some estimates, it has some 16000 software built-in including word processors and spreadsheets from OpenOffice and Firefox. Also the server version has built-in web server, email server, database, file services and programming tools.

Below is a screen shot of Ubuntu:

The biggest user of this product is the Andalusian regional government in Spain which has hundreds of thousands of desktops running Ubuntu, according to Canonical’s Chief Operating Officer, Jane Silber.

Canonical releases a new version of Ubuntu every six months with the latest updates. Earlier, support was provided for each version for 18 months, which Canonical has increased to 3 years for desktop and 5 years for server releases. This change is effective from the release 6.06 as of 1st Jun 2006. Hence the name LTS which stands for Long Term Support.

There is almost no similarity between Windows and Ubuntu. Also the installation procedure is non-GUI and needs some Linux skills to handle. But once, Ubuntu is installed, the box is ready with the operating system and all the required software for productivity and fun.

There is some good news for someone who has a Windows computer and would like to try Ubuntu. He can simply run Ubuntu from the CD without impacting his Windows OS or any of the applications. Also Ubuntu can be dual-booted with Windows.

What is the cost of Ubuntu?

Since the meaning of the African word Ubuntu means ‘humanity towards others’, and also like most versions of Linux, Ubuntu is a free product. Ubuntu has a very friendly community of developers for online support. Canonical have lined up with some 200 partners who can also provide support for Ubuntu.

Ubuntu is available for download and can fit in a single CD. This CD is referred to as a Live CD and can be used to run Ubuntu from a desktop without having to copy files to the hard disk.

What is Wizxer WXP350?

2006-06-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

Here is a cool device which has functionalities like playing video and audio from a 30 GB hard disk with a display of 4 inches.

Apart from playing audio and video, the device has a 1.3 megapixel camera built-in.

So what does it provides in addition to my trusted iPod?

Other features like FM radio, car navigation using GPS, UMS, an ebook reader, VOIP capability, Wifi, Bluetooth and audio / video recording is also included. It can also be connected to a projector for presentations and also to TV sets.
The device runs on Windows CE, which enables tasks like surfing internet and accessing emails.

The only components missing are the mobile phone and Windows Mobile 5.0. Hopefully, these components would be included in the next version of the product.

The device is made by a Korean company called as Wizxer.

What is Hybrid Hard Drive?

2006-06-19T10:41:00.000-07:00

How about a computer which can boot up almost 30 seconds faster, and a laptop which can last on battery for 45 min more than the usual battery time? By combining traditional rotating magnetic storage with flash memory, Samsung plans to create hard drives called as hybrid hard drive.

So in short, Hybrid Hard Drive = Traditional Disk + Flash memory

"These kind of drives have the best of both worlds and this could be a great drive for consumers wanting to use their PCs for entertainment," said Nicole d'Onofrio, an analyst at research firm Current Analysis. "I estimate we'll see other manufacturers with hybrids by the end of this year or beginning of 2007."

The idea is to use the larger storage capacity of traditional drives and use the speed and reliability of the flash memory combined with power efficiency into a single unit.

The hybrid hard drive contains a 1Gb flash memory chip from Samsung's OneNAND family. Incoming data is directly recorded to the chip. When the chip is about full, the hard drive wakes up, takes the data, records it and goes back into idle. This is the reason for laptops consuming less power since hard disk rotation is one of the key consumers of power. In HHD, the hard disk rarely spins and hence the laptop is estimated to stay longer on batteries.

Also the applications are stores in the flash memory enabling faster boot-ups.
This product will be compatible with the upcoming Microsoft Vista Operating System.

"Hybrid hard disks and Windows ReadyDrive Technology are integrated advancements that improve the performance and reliability of computers using Windows Vista, especially notebook computers," said Mike Sievert, Microsoft's corporate vice president in the Windows Client Marketing division, in a statement.

People have mixed opinions about Hybrid Hard drives. The earlier comment which was from Nicole d’Onofrio sounded like a favorable one. Following are some non-favorable ones from Gartner.

Joseph Unsworth, a principal analyst at Gartner, was of the opinion that Intel’s Robson will be a better market-puller than Samsung’s HDD "Robson offers flash right on the chipset," he said. "We're going to see a lot of notebooks with Robson, and you don't need Vista to run it." He said he expects Robson to be out in first quarter of 2007.

Gartner analyst John Monroe downplayed the value of the Samsung HHD technology. "There is nothing new in having cache on a hard drive -- it's been done for years," he said. "The basic difference here is that it is bigger and nonvolatile. The main reason you would need it is because Vista takes so long to boot."

With mobile devices, it might have some value, he said. "But probably not with desktop machines, which are often left on."

What is Diskpart.exe in Microsoft Windows?

2006-06-16T06:49:00.000-07:00

Ever ran out of disk space on a particular partition / volume with ample of free space in the server? If yes, the only options are to either backup the data, break partitions, and recreate them again with more appropriate size, or to figure out ways in which the existing partition which is running out of space can be extended. There have been non-Microsoft tools available in the market to extend the partition. A similar tool from Microsoft was much desired for uniformity of the tools by a single manufacturer.

Diskpart.exe is a tool introduced by Microsoft, to extend the data volumes in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows 2003.

It is a command line utility to extend the existing partitions by using the unallocated space displayed in Disk Management.

Diskpart.exe can be used to extend both Basic as well as Dynamic partitions. When extending a NTFS partition, Microsoft recommends to perform the action in Safe Mode or Active Directory Restore Mode in order to prevent the open handles to the drive from causing to fail the process.

There are some requirements for extending the partitions by using the Diskpart.exe utility with the ‘extend’ command:

• The volume must be formatted with the NTFS file system.

• For Basic volumes, the unallocated space for the extension must be the next contiguous space on the same disk. For example, consider F: needs to be extended and there are 3 Hard Disks on the server. F: is on the second disk and the unallocated free space is on the third disk. This does not satisfies the condition for running the Diskpart utility with the extend command. Also if the F: and the unallocated space are in the same drive, but there is another partition created in between them, does not meet the requirement.

• For Dynamic Volumes, the unallocated space can be any empty space on any Dynamic disk on the system.

• Only the extension of data volumes is supported. System or boot volumes may be blocked from being extended, and you may receive the following error:
Diskpart failed to extend the volume. Please make sure the volume is valid for extending

• You cannot extend the partition if the system page file is located on the partition. Move the page file to a partition that you do not wish to extend.

Following are the steps to extend the partition using Diskpart:

1. At a command prompt, type diskpart.exe.

2. Type list volume to display the existing volumes on the computer.

3. Type Select volume volume number where volume number is number of the volume that you want to extend.

4. Type extend [size=n] [disk=n] [noerr] . The following describes the parameters:

size=n

The space, in megabytes (MB), to add to the current partition. If you do not specify a size, the disk is extended to take up all of the next contiguous unallocated space.

disk=n

The dynamic disk on which to extend the volume. Space equal to size=n is allocated on the disk. If no disk is specified, the volume is extended on the current disk.

noerr

For scripting only. When an error is thrown, this parameter specifies that Diskpart continue to process commands as if the error did not occur. Without the noerr parameter, an error causes Diskpart to quit with an error code.

5. Type exit to quit Diskpart.exe.

Diskpart will notify about the successful completion of the command and the space will be added to the existing partition.

There is a special condition when extending a Simple Volume on a Dynamic Disk in Windows 2000 and Windows XP. If the volume was created originally in the Basic Disk and then the disk was upgraded to a Dynamic disk, the volume cannot be extended. However, if the disk was already Dynamic when the volume was created, then Diskpart can be run successfully. The above condition applies only to Simple Volumes and not the Striped Sets and the rest. This condition was removed from Windows 2003 and does not apply in its case.

Diskpart comes built-in with Windows 2003 and Windows XP. However, for Windows 2000, the utility needs to be downloaded from Microsoft’s web site.

Diskpart can also be used to perform other disk related tasks like adding disks to or breaking a mirror, making a particular partition active, assign drive letters to partitions, converting basic disks to dynamic and empty dynamic disks to basic and more.

What is new in Microsoft Longhorn? – Part 2 of 2

2006-06-14T06:12:00.000-07:00

Continued from ‘What is new in Microsoft Longhorn? – Part 1 of 2'

New features in Microsoft Longhorn (Continued) are:

11) Microsoft will introduce ‘Network Access Protection’ or NAP in Longhorn. The idea behind NAP is to identify and isolate virus-infected or ‘unhealthy computers’ from the network. NAP works in conjunction with DHCP and VPN. One of the common nuisance which will be avoided from NAP is from a visitors laptop connecting to the corporate network. If the visitors laptop is infected or unhealthy, it will automatically be detected and removed from the network. This provides the facility for the visitor to use the corporate network and the IT Administrator the facility to allow the visitor access to the corporate network without worrying about the viruses coming in from his machine.

12) In Windows 2003, there was an option to disable the USB. However, this option was not intelligent enough to differentiate between a USB storage device from a USB mouse. Most administrators wanted USB to be disabled so that users cannot copy data and take it out with them. However, with the existing technology, if the administrators took a hard call and did disable USB, they were left with no other option but to go in for other non-USB devices like a PS2 mouse. In Longhorn, the Group Policy will provide options to disable different device types connecting to USB, thereby providing the administrators to manage security as well as provide non-risky USB privileges to the users. Also XML files are set to replace the ADM for managing the templates used by Group Policy.

13) Microsoft will introduce a successor to Remote Installation Services (RIS) in Longhorn called as Windows Deployment Services (WDS). The data available till this writing mentions that WDS will support the Windows Imaging Format (WIM).

14) Microsoft will introduce ClickOnce in Longhorn. This will allow for applications and programs to be installed on the computers by providing a single. This will make life simpler for the end user and in combination with software distribution mechanisms like SMS, will also help facilitate licensing compliance.

15) Error messages will be replaced by Task Dialogs in Longhorn. Task Dialogs will contain troubleshooting information and links in addition to the error message, thereby empowering non-technical users, to perform some basic level of troubleshooting before approaching for help.

16) Peer Name Resolution Protocol (PNRP) is like a poor man's DNS in that it allows hosts to discover one another. This will be especially useful for a small company not intending to use DNS but still would prefer some amount of name resolution. PNRP uses the Winsock 2 Namespace Provider API. Apparently PNPR only works on IPv6. Could be used for applications to find and connect with each other.

17) Microsoft had improved the event logging in Windows 2003, by providing more details for the problem and in some cases also providing the resolution steps. According to Microsoft, this improvement is still better in Longhorn.

18) Using any current imaging technology, if an existing machine needs to be re-installed by using OS imaging, it is well understood that the data will have to be backed up and restored. This means, the time taken to backup and restore the data adds up to the lost productivity time of the user. Using the XImage feature in Longhorn, Windows Vista images can be deployed on machines without losing files.

What is GSM technology for mobile phones?

2006-06-13T09:20:00.000-07:00

GSM stands for Global System for Mobile Communications. It was a digital standard first offered commercially in 1991. It is used to send and receive phone calls and is currently the most popular mobile phone transmission technology globally.

The GSM standard uses TDMA digital technology, which allows for three different voice calls to be placed in the same time slot, rather than one call using the old analog "cell" phones. This is possible through digital compression that GSM then builds upon with the addition of encryption. A GSM phone takes up the same amount of transmission space as the old technology, but has the additional benefit of added security.

GSM phones work with SIM cards or ‘Subscriber Identification Module’. This is a small card with a built-in chip which is fitted in the back of the phone. The SIM card is the heart of the GSM phone, since it enables the phone to communicate with the service provider. SIM cards are provided by the service providers and can also store contact information and SMS messages. SIM cards provides the additional benefit of changing handsets without changing the phone number or losing out on SMS and contacts.

GSM technology is also responsible for the popularity of SMS messages in Asia and Europe.

GSM got a boost in the US due to Cingular Wireless becoming America’s largest mobile provider, choosing to adopt GSM technology.

Using a GSM phone is highly recommended for someone traveling abroad, since it is a widely used technology and it is very easy to get a local SIM card of the visiting country and ‘Go Mobile’.

What is new in Microsoft Longhorn? – Part 1 of 2

2006-06-12T08:50:00.000-07:00

Longhorn is the code-named for the upcoming version of Microsoft Windows.

When we write of new features in Longhorn, we mean the new features in Microsoft Windows Vista (Desktop version) as well as Microsoft Windows Server 2007 (Server version).

Following are the new features in Microsoft Longhorn:

1) Longhorn has a new feature called Server Manager that lets administrators configure servers with only the components they need for specific tasks, such as file servicing, Web serving, DNS or DHCP. Server Manager includes 17 roles.

2) Longhorn will include a component called as Windows Hardware Error Architecture (WHEA). According to Microsoft, WHEA lets users manage potential error sources such as processor, memory, cache and I/O bus. Hardware vendors will stipulate certain attributes to be managed on each hardware component. WHEA will not cover such components as fans and will not support PCI Express in the first version of Longhorn.

3) Longhorn will include the BitLocker technology, which is used to prevent malicious software or users from executing a boot sequence that is different than what is stored in BitLocker.

4) Active Directory Federation Services (ADFS) was introduced in Windows 2003 R2. In Longhorn, Digital Rights Management (DRM) functionality will be added to ADFS, making it more secure.

5) Longhorn will have exciting graphics which will clearly differentiate its interface from Windows XP or Windows 2000. It achieves this with the use of a high end user interface called Aero Glass which provides stunning animations, vector graphics-based icons and screen elements, and translucencies. The beauty is, depending on the hardware configuration of the machine, Longhorn will auto-configure the machine to provide Aero Glass. If Longhorn finds the machine not-so-suitable to run Aero Glass, it will be auto-configured to run a scale down user interface called as Aero Express. This will be an Aero Glass type interface with XP style graphics.

6) In order to prevent the users on the client computers to be a member of the Local Administrators group, Microsoft will be introducing a concept called ‘Least Privileged User Account’. This is basically a secure code compartment in which most application code will typically run, something like the ‘Local System’ account under which the Services in Windows currently run. When trusted applications need administrator-level access, they can temporarily run in Protected User mode. It is an optional feature and administrators can continue working in the same old way if they choose to.

7) Microsoft aims to further reduce the number of events which require a reboot in Longhorn. The aim is to reduce the number of reboots required in Longhorn by 70% as compared to Windows XP or Windows 2003. Microsoft also plans to incorporate a concept called ‘hot patching’ which can update the kernel level drivers with the newly released patches and still would not require a reboot. As a disclaimer, there will still be some patches which will require the machine to be rebooted post-installation.

8) Longhorn will provide built-in protection against spyware and viruses. Also the administrators would be able to centrally control the anti-virus and anti-spyware features for organization wide uniformity.

9) Longhorn introduces a concept of Virtual Folders. The easiest way to understand a virtual folder is to compare it with a saved query in a search box. For example, if there are 20 files in the computer with words MCSE anywhere in it, and a Virtual Folder called as MCSE is created. Each time a new file is added to the computer with the content of MCSE or an existing file is removed, the contents of the virtual folder MCSE will be updates. The Virtual Folder will be displayed in blue color as compared to yellow of the regular folders.

10) Longhorn is also back to the Windows NT 4.0 concept of Backup Domain Controllers (BDCs). Only this time they are called Read-Only Domain Controllers (RODC). According to Microsoft, RODCs are better for branch office situations where the security and IT skill set will not be at par with the central office. RODC will have Universal Group Caching on by default.

Part 2 of this document is available here.

A letter from Eric Schmidt, CEO, Google

2006-06-09T12:18:00.000-07:00

Freedom of access to information on the Internet is a topic that we believe is of great interest and importance to Inside AdSense readers. Our CEO Eric Schmidt has written a letter to you, our publishers, on the subject of "net neutrality" -- read below for the full text:

Dear AdSense Publisher,

There's a debate heating up in Washington, DC on something called "net neutrality" – and the outcome of this debate may very well impact your business. Therefore, we are taking the unprecedented steps of calling your attention to this looming crisis and asking you to get involved.

Sometime in the next few days, the House of Representatives is going to vote on a bill that would fundamentally alter the Internet. That bill would give the big phone and cable companies the power to choose what you will be able to see and do on the Internet.

Today the Internet is an information highway where anybody – no matter how large or small, how traditional or unconventional – has equal access to everyone else. On the Internet, a business doesn't need the network's permission to communicate with a customer or deploy an innovative new service. But the phone and cable monopolies, who control almost all broadband Internet access, want the power to choose who gets onto the high-speed lanes and whose content gets seen first and fastest. They want to build tollbooths to block the on-ramps for those whom they don't want to compete with and who can't pay this new Internet tax. Money and monopoly, not ideas and independence, will be the currency of their Internet.

Under the proposed "pay-to-play" system, small- and medium-sized businesses will be placed at an automatic disadvantage to their larger competitors. Those who cannot afford the new Internet tax – or who want to compete directly with the phone and cable companies – will be marginalized by slower Internet access that will inevitably make their sites less accessible, and therefore less appealing.

Creativity, innovation and a free and open marketplace are all at stake in this fight. Imagine an Internet in which your access to customers is constrained by your ability to cut a deal with the carriers. Please call your representative in Congress at 202-224-3121. For more information on the issue, and more ways to make your voice be heard, visit www.ItsOurNet.org.

Thank you for your time, your concern and your support.

Eric Schmidt
CEO of Google Inc.

P.S. -- If you are unsure of who represents you in Congress, you can look them up by zip code at http://www.house.gov. And if you would like to stay informed about this issue, and other policy issues affecting Google, you can opt-in to our policy mailing list at http://groups-beta.google.com/group/googlepolicy/subscribe (powered by Google Groups).

Source: Adsense

What’s new in Microsoft Exchange 12 / Microsoft Exchange 2007?

2006-06-08T22:53:00.000-07:00

Following are the new features / improvements in Exchange 2007:

1) Exchange 2007 will be available only in 64-bit version. The objective behind this move according to Microsoft is that messaging has become mission critical application for most organizations, and complexities in terms of email usage through multiple clients, security considerations using multiple security groups and IPSec has pushed the servers at the extreme end of hardware capacity which can be supported on a 32-bit architecture. Hence the result for most organizations is, increase in the number of Exchange servers which add up to cost and manageability issues. Hence, if there is only a 64-bit version available, the companies could consolidate their servers and save on cost and benefit from lesser complexity. Exchange 2007 with run on x64 and not on Itanium (IA 64). Exchange 2007 will run on 64-bit versions of Windows 2003 Server or Windows 2003 R2 server.

2) The Unified Messaging feature of Exchange 2007 is a mind-boggling one. It provides the feature to combine email, phone (voicemails) and fax in a single system. For example, the voicemails and fax will now be delivered directly to the users mailbox. It will also save costs for companies by preventing them from maintaining three separate systems. What great flexibility will this provide for users who are mobile and can now check on their smart phones about a fax received in the office!

3) Another great feature is Outlook Voice Access (OVA). Using our traditional phone systems, we can call into the voicemail systems and retrieve or delete our voice mails. With a voicemail system integrated with Exchange 2007, not only will the voice mails be accessible, but the mails and calendar entries will also be read out by the voicemail system. This means that if you are traveling, and running out of battery of your laptop and want to check on a few mails, all you need to do is call up the voicemail system and ask it to read the mails out for you. You can also reply, forward or delete mails.

4) If a mailbox has to be moved from one Exchange server to another, in the current version the users Outlook session will have to be terminated. However, in Exchange 2007, the mailbox move between servers is absolutely transparent to the user and his Outlook will keep functioning as ever. This will help the IT department to quickly move the mailboxes if a particular Exchange server needs to be taken offline for unplanned maintenance. They can undertake this activity any time during the day without bothering to inform the users.

5) Exchange 2007 comes with a UNIX style command-line management shell called as ‘Monad’. This command line interface provides an ultimate management experience and allows the administrator to perform everything using the command line or scripts which could traditionally only be done using GUI. Refer to the picture below

6) The Exchange System Manager has a component called as Toolbox. This comes built-in with Exchange Server Best Practice Analyzer, Exchange Server Performance Monitor and Exchange Queue Viewer. This makes the day-to-day task of the Admin team further simpler, by providing a common interface to perform their value added activities.

7) A log-shipping type of backup mechanism has been introduced in Exchange 2007. Like in SQL, log-shipping can be used to replicate the changes made to the database server to a different server. In case of the first server crash, the second server has the complete data and can be brought online pretty quickly without restoration tapes. This feature is called as ‘Continuous Backup’ in Exchange 2007. With this feature, disaster recovery or a single mailbox recovery will become a breeze in Exchange 2007.

8) Thankfully, there will be no more STM files. Unfortunately, STM files were known to grow in size all of a sudden, and produce all kind of problems, most of the times due to antivirus settings issues. Exchange 2007 will have a different mechanism for providing web content.

9) Exchange 2007 can host up to 50 databases on a single server with the Enterprise edition and can use up to 2 billion log files.

What is Rights Management Services (RMS)?

2006-06-08T07:09:00.000-07:00

Worried about the confidential company data landing in wrong hands? If yes, Rights Management Services is the answer. The objective of RMS for Windows 2003 is to control access to the data whether it is online or offline, inside or outside the firewall. So even if the sensitive data finds its way to the wrong hands, the data still cannot be accessed rendering it useless.

This is independent of domain memberships or operating systems. So even if I am the administrator of a given computer or a domain and I receive a file or mail which is RMS protected, no matter what I do as an administrator, I would not be able to access it.

OK, so the working of RMS requires three components:

1) RMS running on Windows 2003 and Active Directory
2) Applications supporting RMS, for example, Microsoft Exchange and Outlook
3) Policies in place to provide the right level of access to the right people.

The way in which RMS controls access to the data is by sticking the access information with the data. So unlike a file secured by NTFS, which loses all security information as soon as it is copied to a FAT or FAT32 partition, or sent to someone by mail, RMS protects the data even if it is handed over to someone without access by mail or by a pen drive.

Using RMS is a pretty simple task. Any user who wants to protect a message from being accessed by an unauthorized user, or let’s say the sender wants to restrict what the recipient of the message can and cannot do. For example, the sender wants to restrict the recipient from printing the message and also the recipient should not be able to forward it. The sender would like to allow the recipient to reply to the message though. This can be done by the sender himself by using few simple clicks in his Outlook client. So not only does RMS prevents data from reaching the wrong hands, it also controls effectively what actions the intended recipient can and cannot do.

A couple of examples below from Microsoft:

A company manager has access to the online sales system. She pulls up sales information about last quarter's unit sales using her browser. Because the information is sensitive, specific restrictions have been applied to the report: She cannot print, copy, or paste the data. RMS helps the company protect its sensitive quarterly sales data from accidental or deliberate leaks before its official earnings announcement.
A CEO needs to send an e-mail message that contains confidential information about an upcoming reorganization to his executive staff. In Microsoft Office Outlook 2003, he selects a template to specify that recipients can only read the e-mail message, and that they cannot copy, paste, edit, or forward the information. The recipients receive the e-mail message in Outlook 2003, with the usage policies automatically applied to the message. The CEO has a new level of confidence that this sensitive information will be viewed only by his executive staff.

Below are some screenshots on how this can be done from the client end.
Figure 1 below displays the option from MS Excel from where RMS can be initiated.

Figure 1

Figure 2 shows the various level of rights and user selection that can be done for a RMS client. The user opted for permission needs to be a valid user in the AD.

Figure 2

The user receiving this document also needs to have the RMS client installed on his machine in order to open the protected data.

RMS is also pretty straightforward to setup in the back end. All it requires is Windows 2003 Server, SQL Database and Active Directory. This combined with the client end application supporting RMS is enough for RMS to work.

Microsoft provides the SDK for software developers to provide the RM capability in their products.

The component of RMS which is embedded in MS Office products is called as ‘Information Rights Management’ or IRM.

RMS is based on public key cryptography, using digital certificates to identify users and determine their access rights. The RMS server issues the certificates. When an internal RMS server is set up in the organization, it uses Windows authentication for issuance of the certificates.

What is MMS?

2006-06-07T00:06:00.000-07:00

MMS, short for Multimedia Messaging Service is an enhanced form of SMS which can be used to transfer not only text messages, but also pictures, audio and video clips using mobile phones.

MMS messages can be sent to other mobile users or to email addresses. This is another add-on over SMS which can be primarily mobile-to-mobile. MMS can additionally be sent to mobile-to-email and email-to-mobile.

The only pre-condition for sending and receiving the MMS messages is the compatibility of the handset. Any device after Nokia 7650 and Ericsson T68i will most probably have support for MMS. Most handsets available today, which have a built-in camera are also MMS capable.

Sending and receiving a MMS message is pretty straightforward. A sender clicks a picture or shoots a video. He or She can then optionally customize the picture for another message or simply send it across to the intended recipient. The recipient on receiving the MMS message can open it just like a regular SMS message and the attached multimedia file will be displayed automatically. For example, if the attachment was a picture, the picture would be displayed along with the message. Or if the attachment was a video file, the video would start playing when the message is opened.

MMS is a store-and-forward technology, where the message sent by the sender is first received by the MMSC (Multimedia Messaging Service Center). The MMSC then sends a notification to the recipient that a message is waiting to be downloaded. The recipient can choose if he wants to download the message or reject it. If he chooses to download the message, the message is delivered to his handset and the sender gets a ‘Message Delivered’ notification. This is also called ‘Deferred’ delivery.

There is another option available for preventing the delay in receiving MMS messages. It is the ‘Immediate’ option, which is available in some handsets today. The user can choose to select either Deferred or Immediate delivery for MMS.

In SMS, although the messages are routed through the SMSC (Short Messaging Service Center), the delivery to the recipient is direct without first sending out a notification informing the user that a message is waiting for him.

What is WinFS?

2006-06-06T04:37:00.000-07:00

WinFS is a short name for Windows Future Storage. This is the code name for a Microsoft technology to be used for data storage in the upcoming products. WinFS will work on top of NTFS and will create relationships between the files stored normally on the disk. This will facilitate better presentation and analysis of the data which was otherwise unarranged and unusable in its raw form.

WinFS will be using a relational database of SQL 2005 in order to achieve this.

File Systems like NTFS stores data in the form of bytes. The only information that the file system has about the data stored in the File Name. Hence, assume a new file by the name Tester.doc is stored in a drive. The file system can be searched for only the filename, that is, Tester.doc and it will provide the result in the result box. However, if this file had a status report for a particular activity, and the file system is searched for, “Show all files which have the words ‘Status Report’ in them”. The file system in helpless for such searches because it only understands the file names.

In the above example, a desktop search application can facilitate the search above since it indexes the contents of the file system and can search based on the contents of the files in the file system. However, a search like, “Show all files having the status report from Jan 2006 to Mar 2006 and which has been sent to Bob in the last week” cannot be processed by the desktop search application since, it not only looks into the contents of three different applications, like Word Processor, Database and Email system, but also needs to have built-in intelligence to create a relationship between the data.

This is where WinFS comes into the picture.

WinFS achieves the above but categorizing the data files. For example, it understands that a .jpeg file as a picture file and a .pst file as an Email file. It also has the built-in intelligence to determine the relationship between the above applications or more applications as installed on the computer.

WinFS will not be bundled into Windows Vista or Longhorn, but will be available as a downloadable add-on. WinFS is currently on Beta 1, but Beta 2 is expected to be announced the upcoming Tech Ed sessions.

WinFS will be storing data in the form of stores. Whenever a file is copied in the file system, the application will provide the information about the attributes constituting the metadata and the relationship of the data with other applications in the store.

For detailed information, visit here.

What is OQO Model 01+?

2006-06-05T06:35:00.000-07:00

OQO Model 01+ is the smallest UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC) device in market today. It is the size of a PDA, but in effect is a full blown laptop running Windows XP Tablet PC edition.

It has features like a 1 GHz Processor, 512 MB RAM, 30 GB Hard Drive, Wireless, Bluetooth, Touchscreen, digital pen etc. The RAM cannot be extended beyond 512 MB.

It is just 4.9 inches long, 3.4 inches wide and 0.9 inches thick.

It has all features of the laptop like connectivity to a projector, Firewire, in-built speakers, and connectivity to an external keyboard.

OQO Model 01+ also comes with a pull-down keyboard. This provides an option to someone who is not comfortable using the stylus for typing long text. Refer to the image below.

The battery life is around 2 hours with moderate use. This might be inadequate for traveling users who would be away from charging points for the whole day. A larger battery life like 5 hours would be more desirable.

The cost of the OQO Model 01+ is in the range of $ 2000 which is higher compared to the UMPCs of Samsung and others.

Performance wise, considering the hardware configuration of OQO Model 01+, it can be easily used for surfing, emails and office applications. However, it cannot be used for playing CPU-intensive games or editing videos which is understandable. The screen provided is also pretty dim as compared to other Tablet PCs and makes reading in the sunlight a tough task.

Apple Virtual Keyboard

2006-06-04T07:14:00.000-07:00

Apple Virtual Keyboard is a touchscreen arc shaped keyboard where a user can type in using his 2 thumbs.

This type of keyboard is predominantly used the Microsoft Origami project for UMPC (Ultra Mobile PC)

Apple has filed for a patent for this invention. Few people believe that Microsoft Origami project is a copy of Apple’s original research of the virtual keyboard.

UMPCs which are going to use the virtual keyboard are highly mobile and provide nearly the same functionality as laptops. Apart from their mobility, few people also believe that typing using a virtual keyboard is going to block the screens display and an error while typing will be realized after some time.

Blu-Ray

2006-06-03T11:29:00.000-07:00

We all know about CD and DVD. Blu-Ray is the next generation optical disc format. It is also called as Blu-Ray Disc or BD. The key objective behind creation of Blu-Ray discs was to provide storage for high definition video and huge amount of data (as high as 25 GB per disc). Blu-Ray discs can also be dual layered like DVDs which means that they can store about 50 GB of data.

The Blu-ray discs will be available in the standard BD-ROM, BD-R and BD-RW formats as in CD and DVD drives. Most existing codecs like MPEG and WMV will be supported in Blu-ray.

The success of the Blu-ray discs will depend on the movie studios. If the studios decide to publish movies on Blu-ray discs the Blu-ray players will become an instant hit and more and more people will opt in for Blu-ray discs rather than DVDs. As of this writing, seven out of eight prominent movie studios have extended support for Blu-ray.

Many companies like Sony, Panasonic, Samsung etc are coming up with players that can play Blu-ray discs, DVDs as well as CDs.

HP and Dell are also planning to introduce the BD Drives in their upcoming computer models.

Infocard

2006-06-03T08:02:00.000-07:00

Infocard is a Microsoft project for identity management in Windows Vista, Windows XP and Windows 2003. This will be a part of the WinFX initiative of Microsoft.

Digital Identity is the most commonly used component of the internet. So what is a digital identity? Let’s look at the real life example. Who are you? The answer to this question can differ based on the identification you provide at the time. For example, when you provide a company ID card for swapping, you are an employee. When you use a credit card, you are a bank customer. There are many more examples of identity in the form of passport, driving license etc.

So what could be the digital equivalent of the real world identities? Email address is the best and most easily understandable digital identity. Using an email address a person can identify himself. Other forms of digital identity on the internet could be the usernames of multiple sites like ebay.com or blogger.com. Other examples of digital identity could be the customer ID of the bank account. As of this writing, there is no easy way to manage digital identities. The easiest way to manage digital identity today is to provide a common username for all these identifications manually. This helps in easier memorizing and saves us from writing it down, which no security professional will agree to. However, this has its own challenge considering that different sites having different requirements for user names (digital identities). Some requirements include the restriction on the maximum length of the username which may not accommodate your commonly used username. This adds up to one exception to be remembered.

The aim of InfoCard is to provide a mechanism in which the users need to maintain a single digital identity which will link to all other identities. If it works as expected, you can imagine using the same username and password to access Yahoo Mail, GMail and Hotmail. Also using the same username to purchase a book from Amazon.com. Now that would be extremely cool. The challenge is to bring together the meta directories of multiple companies to facilitate collaboration. Microsoft uses its passport network successfully up to a certain extent for this. One identity gives you access to hotmail, Microsoft webcasts, MSN Messenger and more. However, this is still restricted to the Microsoft domain. Infocard aims at the entire digital world.

Microsoft is aiming to create a metasystem (system of systems) to address the incompatibility issue between multiple identity providers (like Amazon, Yahoo etc). All identity providers need to support a common protocol in order to share information with the metasystem.

Although the technology behind Infocard is a complex one, the end user experience should be easier than the existing system (where you have to remember multiple usernames and passwords). The following image from Microsoft helps convey the UI which will be used with Infocard. This application will contain the information about all the digital identities and provide a control to the user over when and what to send to whom. You can compare it with selecting a card to present while shopping at a store.

So what happens if your laptop gets stolen, with your Infocard in it? Does it means that the thief gets access to all your digital identities (including your name, address, age, credit card details)? The answer is no. Since Infocard will just be a front end application for the user and all the digital information about him will be stored in a secured site like Verisign from where the information will be retrieved each time the user chooses to use it.

For more information on Infocard visit here

What is FireWire?

2006-06-02T09:25:00.000-07:00

In today’s digital life with large multimedia files containing rich video and audio, transferring data between devices is a very time consuming process. Some data files such as virtual hard disks (used with Microsoft Virtual PC and VMWare) can run up to a few GBs. FireWire is a technology which helps transfer data at extremely high speeds (up to 800 Mbps, for the 9 pin Apple’s FireWire 800). It can connect to multiple devices like iPods, Video Digital Cameras, external hard disk drives, computers etc.

The 6-Pin connector

FireWire is also known as i.Link or IEEE 1394. The standard IEEE 1394 version of FireWire is a 6 pin connector, whereas Sony’s version of FireWire which is also called i.Link is a 4 pin connector.

The 4-Pin connector

FireWire is known to be faster than SCSI cables and much easier to set up. FireWire is under patent by Apple. FireWire cable can have a maximum length of 4.5 meters, but can be connected linearly with up to 16 cables, effectively providing the length of 72 meters. In my opinion, for most practical and home purposes 4.5 meters is a pretty reasonable length for transferring data between two devices.

What role does a certificate play in encryption?

2006-05-25T10:37:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Encryption is a mechanism to deliver data without tampering over the network. It also ensures that the data is not accessed by an unauthorized eavesdropper over the network.

What role does a certificate play in encryption?

The primary objective of a certificate is to ensure that the data reaches the person for whom it is intended. Using commonly used technology, it is very easy for someone to impersonate someone else. Certificates prevents us from such eavesdroppers.

What is a certificate?

A certificate is a verification document which guarantees that you are the person whom you claim to be. Let’s take the example of a passport. Passport can be compared to certificate. The passport is one document which guarantees that you are the person whom you claim to be. Why does everyone trusts the passport? Because it is issued by a trusted authority, like the government of any country. The same trusted authority principle applies to the ‘Certificate Authority’ in computing. So a ‘Certificate Authority’ is a trusted entity which issues digital certificates. Many of us must have seen the sign ‘Verisign’ when we do credit card transactions on the web. By displaying Verisign logo, the owner of the site is telling us that the certificate is issued by an authority which is trusted by public in general. OK, so having understood this principle, how does the government ensures that you are the person you are claiming to be before issuing you a passport. In some countries, the governments requires that you provide some form of authentication like school certificates, birth certificates etc, before they can issue a passport. Similarly when you request for a certificate, the certificate authority needs to know the authentication credential before they can issue a certificate. The authentication credentials can be in the form of a user name and password.

How do I configure certificate on my computer?

So after you have provided a validation of your credentials, in the form of login information, the certificate is configured in the browser settings and you can see a small lock icon in the right hand side bottom of the Internet Explorer. When you double click on the lock, you see some information about the certificate, such as, who has issued this certificate, for whom is the certificate meant for, a unique identifier and information on how to encrypt and decrypt files.
Once the certificate is installed in your browser, you can then securely access the financial transactions sites or the emails by using the email client.

Telepresence

2006-05-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

What is Telepresence?

Telepresence is an advanced form of teleconferencing which will provide for high resolution video and audio across high bandwidth IP based networks. According to John Chambers, CEO and President of Cisco Systems, Telepresence will become common within in year.
Telepresence will be a key collaboration tool for global companies, having operations in various part of the world to help collaborate better with employees in different part of the world and customers. Consider an example of a patient who can discuss his problems with the doctor sitting 2000 miles away from his desktop using a Webcam. This would be great if there is no physical examination involved and the quality of the video is good enough.
Telepresence will require a good broadband connectivity and an application running on the desktop which can provide voice and video to the user. Developing one secure application which can deliver both of these with good quality will be a challenge for the manufacturers.
The key message for Telepresence is Quality, which according to John Chambers will be as good as face-to-face conversation.

What are the benefits of Telepresence?

With Telepresence, home consumers can access high resolution content at any time and any place. Telepresence will also benefit business consumers by providing better collaborative functions. The biggest benefit for global companies will be the savings in costs since Telepresence will be utilizing the internet as a medium. When we talk of using the internet as a medium the obvious question arises for security. Telepresence will be designed to provide a proper level of security over the data transmitted on the internet. No company would like to have its internal board meeting hacked by an outsider and published publicly.

The challenge for Telepresence

Setting up an video or audio sharing over a shared network like the internet is in itself a daunting, considering a loss of a single packet would mean missed frames in videos and dropped words in audio adding up to end-user frustration.
The second challenge would be a cultural challenge, whereby asking people to change their existing habits to use the new technology. For example, how many people would be willing to use the computer to make a local phone call?

Where can I find more information on Telepresence?

The video of John Chambers talking about Telepresence can be seen here.

What is Spam (UCE)?

2006-05-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

Spam is the slang word used to describe Unsolicited Commercial Email or UCE. When someone sends out an email to a very large audience for certain commercial reasons, without seeking their approval, it is called as Spam. For example, if you receive an email suggesting to buy a particular product or service, and you have never requested that information, the email qualifies as a spam. On the other hand, if you have requested a particular newsletter from a site and get it regularly, it is not called spam. In easiest terms, an email which is not intended for you and not asked for by you is called as spam.

How would someone benefit from spamming me?

Spamming is primarily done for advertising purpose of pornography, drugs etc or for other fraudulent purposes. It is a cheap way to reach a mass population where the only required element is the mailing list of individuals. Spamming provides advertisement at the cost of the service providers and the recipients.

Why should someone care about Spam?

How would you like to explain about an email containing adult content in your corporate mailbox to your boss? This is just one example of inconvenience caused due to spam. Other more grave concerns about spams are
1) They put up a huge toll on the network infrastructure. Let’s say a company receives a total volume of 1 GB of official mails per day. If they are not adequately equipped to handle spam, they will quickly see this volume grow to a very high number. I have seen organizations receive up to 200% spam mails. This means, when a company knows that the valid volume of mail received is 1 GB, why would anyone plan the network infrastructure to handle 3 GB? This takes its toll on the end user performance and messaging teams start getting calls about the delays in sending and receiving mails from the internet.
2) Depending on the number of spam mails received by a person, it can become very time consuming to flush out all those unwanted mails and focus on the relevant mails. There is always a chance of error when an authentic mail is deleted accidently when flushing out spam. This error is also possible by the publicly available spam filtering software.
3) Most spams carry phishing messages. This means, there will be a very interesting link for example, a link of a reputed bank which is offering an unbelievable interest rate. On closer inspection of the link, the address will seem pretty authentic. For example, let’s say the bank in question in http://goodbank.com. When someone sees a link like, http://goodbank.com/creditcards/offers/cust
id/yduuiisisur8898399@www.badlink.com they don’t see any reason why this could not be an authentic link. However, on closer observation, and clicking the link actually goes to a site called as badlink.com which will have a very similar interface as http://goodbank.com. They will ask for some details, like phone numbers and home addresses, which most of us will provide trusting the reputation of goodbank.com. Well now our personal information is in the hands of badlink.com and http://goodbank.com was never even involved in this entire activity.
Note: In any URL, the part before the @ sign is ignored. Hence on closer observation of the above URL, the badlink.com site is pretty evident.
4) Many spam messages contain worms or viruses.

How to prevent being Spammed?

1) Rule number one is, never reply to a spam. No matter how offending the mail might be, replying to a spam mail, confirms to the spammer about the validity of the email address.
2) For companies, get anti-spam software, and place it at the entry point of your internal network.
3) For individuals, there is little that can be done in terms of prevention. For a comprehensive list of prevention, please refer to this link.

Is spamming illegal?

Yes, spamming is illegal although the laws concerning spamming is not very stringent. Very recently there have been some pretty interesting prosecutions for spammers. One of them is below:

Kodak Pays Fine to FTC for Mass Spamming

iSCSI

2006-05-22T09:32:00.000-07:00

What is iSCSI?

iSCSI (Internet SCSI) is a protocol which is used to link multiple storage devices like SANs, drive arrays or tape devices over regular IP based networks or the internet. It does this by encapsulating the data and SCSI commands between multiple devices.
iSCSI is supported over almost all platforms like Microsoft, Linux, Sun, IBM etc. iSCSI works at the transport layer of the OSI model.

Is iSCSI same as SAN?

Not exactly. In case of SANs, iSCSI is better aligned with IP SAN. IP SAN is an external storage box which can mount data from multiple servers on multiple volumes. So in general, if a company is not very sure about the growth of data in the coming times, it becomes very difficult for them to right size the servers in terms of storage. An IP SAN gives them the flexibility to invest once and mix and match storage requirements on any server as per requirement, without having to resize the server or move to a bigger box.
Some people believe that an IP SAN using iSCSI cannot deliver the same performance as a fiber based SAN. This is not quite true since iSCSI uses a technology called as TCP Offload Engine (TOE) to reduce the overhead of adding TCP/IP data to the data packet.
iSCSI is a completely different technology and should not be confused with a NAS device.

What is different in iSCSI than other related technologies?

1. iSCSI, a block based storage protocol, is superior in speed (up to 10 times faster) to NFS, CIFS file-based protocols. Therefore, iSCSI can be used with any application including databases.

2. The ease of use of iSCSI and the vast support from different OS’s enable the easy transfer of complete volumes from one host to the other as needed, without investing in additional infrastructure or complicated management schemes.

3. iSCSI delivers everything you can get from Fiber Channel protocol, at 1/2 to 1/5 the price, by deploying highly managed IP SAN infrastructures without building dedicated Fibre Channel infrastructures.

4. iSCSI protocol can deliver block based storage over any kind of IP network. So it can be used for advanced storage applications such as Disaster Recovery.

How to setup iSCSI?

iSCSI needs an iSCSI initiator. Many operating systems provide them built-in with their product. There are also hardware HBAs available for this. As you would notice in this article, the setup or operation of iSCSI does not requires the use of fiber channels at any point.

SenseWeb

2006-05-21T07:25:00.000-07:00

What is SenseWeb?

SenseWeb is a Microsoft Research project, in which real time data, such as traffic condition, movie tickets availability etc will be provided in a searchable online format. Microsoft plans to provide this information through the Windows Live Local service.

How will SenseWeb work?

SenseWeb will collect data from Sensors. Sensors can be cameras, thermometers, theatre booking computers etc. These devices may be either placed permanently at some locations or can be devices owned by people. For example, if I am stuck in a traffic and have a web cam, I can register myself in the SenseWeb program, and my web cam’s location will be tracked and the pictures captured by my webcam will be available to other users who are looking out for the traffic condition at my location.
The sensors will push the data (images and information) to a central database for indexing and making it search-worthy.
The third component would have to be the online mapping system from where a user can pick and choose the location for which he is looking for a particular information. I believe this will be provided by the Windows Live Local service.

How will it change my life?

With this service, I do not have to rely on luck or past experience when making a travel or planning to go out for dinner or a movie. I can get a precise information right on my hands, about the current status of traffic, parking space availability and more.
Let’s say I am visiting Seattle and am not aware about the best Indian restaurant in town. With earlier available technology, all I could find out is, which are the best Indian restaurants in Seattle and their location. With SenseWeb, I could also get the estimated time to reach my selected restaurant and also the wait time.

For more information visit here:
Microsoft Research
Technology Review

Audit Collection Service

2006-05-20T11:03:00.000-07:00

What is Audit Collection Service (ACS)?

Ever struggled to analyze security logs after a major event from all the servers manually? If, yes, Microsoft Audit Collection Service (ACS) is the right tool for you.
ACS can be deployed as part of MOMv3, which will collect the security events from all the servers and store it in a central database. It will then make those events available to the administrator or an IT Audit professional from a single interface to aid in more efficient analysis.
Point to note is, till date, only security events will be collected by ACS.

How does ACS works?

ACS works by installing an agent on the target server from which security events are to be collected. This agent collects all the security events and sends it to the collector server (ACS), which in turn stores all the security events in a SQL database. The security events stored in a central database are much easier to retrieve an analyze as compared to visiting every server for event checking.

Is it available now?

No. It will be available with MOMv3, now named as System Center Operations Manager 2007. MOMv3 is expected to RTM in end of year 2006

Is it a free product?

Yes and No. Yes, because it will come free with System Center Operations Manager 2007. No, because it is not a built-in part of Windows like DHCP.

The challenge

The Windows Event Viewer was never designed to be a collaborative product. Hence there are some open questions in the usage of ACS:
1) What will happen to the time stamp of the events?
2) Will it be the time stamp of the original server or the collector server?
3) What will happen to time stamps if the originating server and the collector server are in different time zones?
4) Will it only support Security Event logs?

IPSec

2006-05-20T00:31:00.000-07:00

What exactly is IPSec?

IPSec is a set of protocols to facilitate secure transfer of data.

How does IPSec works?

IPSec secures data by encrypting the contents using the public key mechanism at the IP layer. IPSec works in two modes, transport and tunnel. In transport mode, only the content of the packet is encrypted, but the header is not. In tunnel mode, both content and header are encrypted. The receiving device should be IPSec complaint and must share the same public key as the sender in order to decrypt the data. Same public key is required only if the sender and receiving devices are in different non-trusting domains where Kerberos cannot be used. In case of a same or trusting domains, public key is not required as encryption algorithm is provided by Kerberos.

IPSec scenarios

IPSec is generally used in transport mode within the internal network of the company such as from traffic between server-client, server-server and client-client. This mitigates the risk of an external visitor to the company who may use his laptop connected to the company network and use a sniffer tool to capture the packets flowing through the network. If you are using IPSec, although the visitor will successfully capture the packets, he would not be able to open it. Hence the data remains secure.
IPSec in tunnel mode is generally used in conjunction with the Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) to provide data encryption between two locations connected by a WAN. This scenario is valid in case of both a dedicated WAN and a shared VPN. Many would argue, on the requirement of encryption in case of a dedicated WAN. The only reason behind this protection is, although, the WAN is dedicated, the data still flows through the ISPs infrastructure cloud, where it might be compromised.
You can choose to secure communications only which involve a server and let the client-client communication happen over the unsecured network. This can be accomplished by only enabling IPSec on the servers and configuring the clients for ‘respond only’ mode. This means that the server will accept the clear text message from the client and then will create and negotiate an IPSec session with the client. The session will be alive for 1 hour and if the client wants to initiate a session after 1 hour, the entire process will be repeated.

How to configure IPSec?

In Windows 2003, IPSec can be configured using Group Policy. The computers need to be a part of the same or trusted Windows 2000 or higher domain. In this scenario, let’s say we have two client computers running Windows 2000 Professional which are in the same domain, named Client1 and Client2. We have a domain controller in the same domain named DC1. Following are the steps to configure IPSec:

1) On Client1 and Client2, enable local auditing, by selecting ‘Success’ and ‘Failure’ for ‘Audit Logon Events’ and ‘Audit Object Access’

2) On Client1, right click ‘Secure Server’ and click ‘Assign’

3) On Client2, right click ‘Client (Respond Only)’ and click ‘Assign’

4) Client2, ping client1. You will notice that the request is negotiating IP security.

5) Ping again after a couple of minutes and you will notice that the ping goes through.

6) From Client2, check out the security log to see an event proving that the communication happened over IPSec. Look for ‘Encapsulation Transport Mode’ in the body of the event.

This is all it takes to configure a simple implementation of IPSec between a client and a server in Transport Mode. In this case the encryption was handled due to the presence of Kerberos and all systems being in the same domain. In case of systems in multiple and non-trusted domains, you need a common public key and a certificate server to provide the algorithm for encryption.

On what platforms can IPSec work?

IPSec is platform independent and can run on any platform. However, in this article, the emphasis is on the usage of IPSec using Windows.

Second Life

2006-05-19T07:03:00.000-07:00

What is Second Life?

This is the most interesting thing that I have heard of recently. This is in existence since 2003, but I came to know about it only recently.

So what is Second Life?

Second life is a virtual society on the web. More specifically, it is a huge multiplayer game and is subscription based. It was released for the public in 2003 by Linden Lab. All players of the game are residents and they can take part in the economy of the virtual world. This is made possible by the creators of this game, who have mandated that all digital property created by the residents of the virtual world remains the residents property. Below are some screenshots of the second life.

What does this means?

When you decide to enter this society, you can create your own virtual representative. Let’s say your name is John in real world and you create a virtual person named as Richard in the virtual world. Richard will live a life very similar to that of the real world and do things like we do to survive, entertain build relationships, earn money etc. Hence the name second life.

So what?

Richard can live and interact with hundreds of thousands of virtual people in this virtual world. What else, he can own a house or land in this digital world. He can trade in this world, the currencies of which are convertible to our real world currencies. So, Richard can earn and John can get the money. The valid currency in the virtual world in Linden Dollars and each resident of the virtual world receives a weekly stipend to keep him going though his daily routine. Additionally the virtual resident can also buy or sell products and services to and from other residents of the virtual world. As mentioned earlier Linden Dollars is convertible to US Dollars. The conversion rate between Linden Dollars and USD is in the ratio of 200:1. However, this rate fluctuates a lot like real currencies.
One interesting incident happened recently in which a second life resident had sued the makers of the game over a cyber land dispute. This suit was filed in the real world though. Look here for more details.

So what can you do in the second life?

You can customize the appearance of your virtual 3D representative (Richard). You can use lots of tools provided by the manufacturers of the game. You can create structures like buildings and other products which you can sell to other second life residents. You can attend events and visit brothels (only if you are of 18 years and above). For residents younger than 18 years there is a Second Life for teens.

So how much does it costs?

Basic membership is free. Subscription is USD 6 to USD 9.95 per month depending on the type of membership you choose. The difference is, a basic member does not get land by default and receives less stipend than the paid member. Basic membership is a good place to start though.

So how to access Second Life?

You can access second life by clicking here. Second life is built completely on open source technology, but can be accessed by Windows and Mac. In fact, support for a Linux client is only recently introduced for second life.

Gigabeat

2006-05-16T07:05:00.000-07:00

What is Gigabeat?

Gigabeat is the portable media player from Toshiba. In my opinion, it is not much different from an iPod with the only exception being that the audio component can be integrated with XBOX. The other cool feature is the 2.4 inch display.

What can Gigabeat do?

Gigabeat can play music and videos. It can download music and full length movies. The music and video can be listened and watched while on the move or synchronized with the Media Center computer. I like the storage capacity of 40 GB which can easily accommodate around 700 mp3 files. Also the battery life is attractive at 12 hours for audio and 2.5 hours for video. The size of the device is so compact that it can be used as a portable had disk with 40 GB capacity.

How is it different from other devices available in the market?

This device is running a portable version of Windows Media Player unlike iPod and hence can play files which are supported and recognized by the Windows Media Player.

Information on Windows Compute Cluster Server 2003 (CCS)

2006-05-13T02:13:00.000-07:00

What is Compute Cluster Server?

Ever wanted to use the computing power of multiple servers to process the data in your database faster? If yes, Compute Cluster Server has the answer for you.
Unlike regular clusters, which share a common storage and provide availability in case of a node failure, CCS is designed to simultaneously use the computing power of multiple nodes (COMPUTE part of CCS). With this feature, high demanding applications like in financial and research domains, can use the computing power of multiple nodes and release the output faster.

This is a new product from Microsoft Windows server 2003 suite for high performance computing solutions. It works on a 64-bit platform and is currently available in beta and is expected to be available sometime soon (first half of 2006 as per Microsoft. It uses a core technology called as MS-MPI (Microsoft Message Passing Interface).

It can be deployed like any other Windows server deployment with the flexibility of adding more nodes to the existing cluster. The other cool feature is the built-in manageability which provides the administrator to build scripts and run scheduled jobs in a much easier way. The CCS server blends seamlessly with the existing Windows infrastructure and does not need any specialized skillset to manage it. The existing IT team can manage CCS with some amount of training and hands-on.

How is the cluster architected?

The cluster consists of a Head Node and a minimum of two attached compute nodes. The head node is the first node of the cluster from where the cluster administrator can add and manage the compute nodes. The head node manages the jobs and services to be run on the compute nodes like an interface between the users submitting processing requests and the compute nodes doing the processing. The head node can be configured to participate or not participate in the computing process.
The compute nodes can be of dissimilar hardware however, they will all need to be on 64-bit hardware and run the 64-bit editions of Windows 2003 or Windows 2003 R2 operating systems. There is no upper limit on the number of compute servers that can be added to the cluster. The head node will need the .Net Framework 2.0 for CCS to work. The cluster can also be managed remotely from a workstation which is running Windows XP. There is no fault tolerance built in for the head node, hence this is the machine that should have the most reliable hardware.
The following diagram from Microsoft.com helps understand the CCS architecture:

In addition to the public and the heartbeat networks for a regular data storage cluster, the CCS also supports an MPI network. This is a fast network connection which can transfer data between nodes for processing. The best advantage can be utilized by placing the MPI network on a Gigabit switch. In case you do not have a dedicated MPI network, the processing traffic between the nodes can also happen over the heartbeat or the public network. So, in CCS, you can have 3 different networks: Public, heartbeat and MPI.
The installation of the Head nodes and the compute nodes are pretty straight forward and screenshots and step-by-step guide is available here or here.
The sad part is, the applications will have to be re-written in the new CCS environment and Microsoft will provide a Software Development Kit (SDK) for it.
CCS comes integrated with Remote Installation Services (RIS) for automated deployment of compute nodes and Internet Connection Sharing (ICS) for enabling access over NAT.

In what situations is it useful for me?

One situation I can think of is, if your cluster is running out of computing power and you do not have the right estimate for the amount of load that would be generated on the cluster in the near future, you might want to consider CCS. This situation might arise due to exponentially growing business, or an un estimated increase in the user base. This could arise after you open up a service or a new application for your customers over the internet adding more CPU cycles. Of course, this will need the application to be re-written for CCS.

Data Protection Manager (DPM)

2006-05-11T09:57:00.000-07:00

What is DPM?

DPM is Microsoft’s solution to data recovery and archiving. It plans to achieve this with two offerings:

1) System Center Data Protection Manager 2006
2) Windows Server 2003 R2 Distributed File System (DFS)

The idea in nutshell is, DFS will replicate files from the branch offices to the centralized data center and DPM will backup the data on the disk. The backups would be faster on disk rather than tape. The cool feature of DPM is, it empowers the users to restore their own data without depending on the IT personnel, thereby saving enormous costs on IT support calls.
DPM will backup changed files to the disk, which should then be backed up on tape for offline storage. So we get the benefit of easier data restores by end users, but it is at the cost of additional storage on the server. Some people feel that companies always have additional storage capacity on their servers which they can easily leverage for disk based backups. Besides storage is getting cheaper by the day.

What are the requirements for DPM?

DPM can backup data centrally for Windows 2003 R2, Windows 2003 and Windows 2000 with Service Pack 4. It looks like DPM uses the underlying technology of Volume Shadow Copy (VSC). Remember, the user empowerment to restore files was first introduced in VSC.
DPM requires a minimum of two disks on the server for system files and backup files each. The backup files disk cannot be used for storing any other data. I have tested running DPM on a 2 GHz processor and 1 GB RAM machine and it runs fine.
The DPM server cannot be a Domain Controller and cannot have any other application like Exchange or SQL installed on it. However, it has to be a member of a domain.
DFS is a built-in feature of the Windows Server 2003 R2 operating system and has a new component called as Remote Differential Compression (RDC). As the name suggests the job of this function is to compress the files which have changed and synchronize them over a WAN. DFS is required only if you want to synchronize data from multiple locations over the WAN. If you have a single file server on which you want to run DPM, DFS is not required.

How does DPM works?

DPM will install an agent on the server from where the data will need to be backed up centrally. This agent can be installed only on the operating systems mentioned in the requirements section. Thus it leaves out older and non-Microsoft operating systems.
Interestingly, DPM makes copies of the changes made to a file at the byte level and does not create a whole new copy. For example, a change made to a single cell of a 2 MB Excel file, will not lead DPM to create another 2 MB file. It will just change add another file equivalent to size of the data inputted in the Excel file. This leads to DPM capable of providing multiple versions of the files for restore without taking the equivalent amount of storage space in multiple to the number of versions stored of a file.
DPM can take a maximum of 8 snapshots of a file server per day. Interestingly, if you have multiple DPM servers, in order to manage them you have to access the console from those servers and cannot manage multiple servers from the same window.
Understandably, DPM cannot backup encrypted files and folders.

Why should I care for DPM?

If you are a part of the company which has multiple branch offices with local data, chances are you will want to know more about DPM. As we all know, data in branch offices with lack of equipments and trained personnel, backups are never reliable.
Exchange and SQL backups are currently not supported by DRM, but will be in the future according to Microsoft.

How is DPM different from competing products?

There are other disk backup products in the market like TimeSpring and Veritas. Apparently Veritas can perform similar backups across operating systems from different manufacturers and is not restricted to Windows.

Is it worth it?

I will let you answer this question in the comments. However, in my testing and opinion, the product is definitely worth it for two reasons that I found best:

1) The product allows you to take a continuous backup as the contents of the files changes. It can also backup open files.
2) The other feature I liked was the ease with which the data can be restored by the end-user or the IT Administrator if the end-user is not comfortable performing the restore.

Croquet

2006-05-07T08:47:00.000-07:00

What is Croquet?
Croquet is an open source Operating System supporting 3D. The product is open licensed. This is a peer-to-peer product and does not require a server.
It relies on a platform called as TeaTime which facilitates peer-to-peer communication and resource synchronization between multiple computers.
It has a virtual machine system by the name Squeak which helps the operating system talk to the processor.

Who is making Croquet?
Croquet is made by a group of developers funded by Alan Kay. Not sure if they have support from a front line company.

How will Croquet change my life?
Gaming will no longer be the same with the kind of 3D graphics provided by Croquet. Just have a look at the images below to visualize the potential.
Also if applications like spreadsheet and presentation decks can be made 3D; what will be the impact on us? There are some people who feel that the better chart visualization in 3D would make analyzing the content better, whereas some prefer Office 2007 with its 2D but improved graphics. Please post comments about your opinion.
The developers of Croquet claim that the new operating system can run on very low bandwidths for their network related activities, like peer-to-peer communications.

Why do we need Croquet?
In case you are a small business and users need to collaborate and share information and resources, this could be a handy peer-to-peer and GUI based platform, which does not require a server and complicated architecture for functioning. Not sure how much this will impact the market acceptance of Vista, Microsoft’s upcoming desktop operating system.

Below are some of the screenshots of Croquet in action taken from various web sites

Podcasting

2006-05-07T02:32:00.000-07:00

What is Podcasting?
In the simplest terms, Podcasting is the mechanism of providing online audio or video files to iPods or any MP3 players. Podcasts can be used to watch missed TV programs while traveling in a car. You can watch your favorite game recoded and published as a podcast while waiting for your flight. Basically you can better use your free time to catch up on leisure activities while being on the move.

How is Podcasting different from a radio or a webcast?
In case of a radio, although you can choose different channels, there is no choice to be made in programs. On podcast, you can selectively choose to listen to any one program which is channel independent. It is similar to a webcast with the only difference that podcasts can be listened to and viewed from anywhere without sitting in front of the computer.

Why is it called Podcasting when I do not necessarily need an iPod?
Well, although the technology used in the background (RSS and ATOM) were in use from much before Apple made iPods, the whole culture of podcasting started after people began using iPods. Hence it kind of naturally took over the name by popular demand.

What has RSS / ATOM got to do with podcasting?
The podcasts are downloaded or synchronized in an iPod or mp3 player using the RSS or ATOM feeds. RSS version 2.0 is required for podcasting. The podcast provider will store the multimedia file to a specific location and feed the URL in the RSS / ATOM format. The list of files will be made available to the user using RSS aggregator software. The job of this software is to receive the list of files provided by the podcast provider with some more information like episode number, date, name and maybe some description to the users device.

How can I access a podcast?
You can access podcast either from an iPod (most popular) or any mp3 player. Podcasts can also be accessed from computers and in the future from mobile phones.
You need to subscribe to the podcast provider (typically a web site). Based on your subscription the podcast provider will ‘push’ the list of files / programs available in your channel to your device. You can selectively pick and choose which program you want to listen to or watch. Although you can access a podcast from a computer, an iPod, any other online mp3 player, or maybe your mobile phone, in my personal opinion the best advantage of podcast is the power of mobility. It gives you an option to use your time in a better way than looking out of the window while traveling. Please provide your comment on this thought.

How can I podcast?
If you want to publish an audio or video file for people to view, you need to follow a few simple steps:
1) You will need to create an audio or video file. You can do this by using a camcorder or a microphone system.
2) Send this file to a web site which accepts podcasts from individuals (some examples provided below)
3) You can now start telling your target audience about your podcast and where to find it from.

What are the sites that will accept my podcasts?
You can submit your podcasts to many sites, prominent among them being
iTunes, Podcasts Yahoo, Podcast Shuffle, etc

Can I provide the visitors of my website with podcasts?
Yes, you can provide your web site visitors with podcasts. For achieving this, you need to have a site supporting RSS 2.0 and a script which can be found here.

Anything new I need to know about podcasting?
Waxxi, a web startup company is organizing an event to help develop more interaction in the podcasting community. Refer here for more information about the event.

WinFX

2006-05-06T11:03:00.000-07:00

What is WinFX?
WinFX is a set of APIs to be released by Microsoft with its upcoming release of Vista and Longhorn. This API runs on top of the .NET Framework and will work alongside Win32 based API. It will work as the subsystem of the Operating System which will communicate with the low level services. The Win32 based API was used till Windows 2003 and Windows XP and will continue to be supported in Longhorn and Vista.
WinFX will include a new File System called WinFS and new GUI code named Avalon. Avalon is now called Windows Presentation Foundation.

Who should read this article?
IT Infrastructure Professionals – This article is primarily meant to provide insight about WinFX to the non-developer community.
Developers – Please comment on the accuracy of the article and if you wish you can provide some value add.

Why should I care about WinFX?
Very likely, the applications which are developed using WinFX will be incompatible with the older API of Win32. Effectively this means that companies may be forced to upgrade their existing infrastructure to the latest versions in order to reap full benefit of the new platform.
This will be a whole new platform with greatly enhanced graphics and application experience.

When will I see WinFX in action?
WinFX will work primarily with Vista and Longhorn. However, WinFX can also work with Windows XP and 2003 with the .Net Framework 2.0

How can I benefit from WinFX?
Not sure about the direct benefit derived from WinFX, but using Avalon (WPF) you can expect some real cool and clear graphics with better text display. I hear that WPF will also be supported on UMPC. Here is more information on UMPC.
I hear that WinFS takes on the relational part of the SQL database and embeds it with the File System, making it easier for client side applications to access data.

Anything else I need to know about WinFX?
WinFX is a great development; however the action lies solely with the Dev guys. The infrastructure guys will sit alongside the fence and wait for the applications to come out so that they can use it
There is a great video available about Windows Presentation Framework (Avalon) here

Origami / UMPC

2006-05-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

What is Origami?

Origami is the code name for the project to make Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC). UPMC is designed to be the next best product coming out for mobile computing. Interestingly, Origami is a Japanese word for paper folding. This art involves folding the paper in a skilled way and giving it a meaningful shape. Wonder how this technology got the name from an art of Japanese history. Does it mean that the device will be able to perform any feature with human interaction, just as how a paper can be given any shape by skillful human actions?

Does any company own this project?

This project is owned by Microsoft, which will create the operating system for the platform. Others also involved in this project are the OEM partners of Microsoft who will create the hardware. Notable among them is Samsung.

What is an Ultra Mobile PC?

Ultra-Mobile PC is a very compact device including a maximum of 7 inches screen size diagonally. It can support display settings of 800x480, 800x600, and 1024x600. This is not a limitation but will depend from Manufacturer to Manufacturer. This device will have features like touch screens and blue tooth for inputs and connectivity respectively. It will run the Microsoft XP Tablet PC Edition and support most applications running on Windows XP. The battery life of the device is expected to be 2.5 hours (may differ between manufacturers).

How is this going to change my life?

Life will no longer be the same after Origami / UMPC. It will give a whole new meaning to mobile computing. Although PCs embedded in mobile phones help to a certain extent, but application access on such phones is still challenging. In my opinion, UPMC will enable an average laptop user to do more than 95% of his work on the new device. And the size of the new device is just too convenient to carry along in small packages. Special benefit for ladies who can carry it in their handbags. Men may need bigger pockets if they need to keep their hands free J. It can possibly be used as a portable media player. I love the thought of being able to access my data at all times from wherever I am. A UMPC with a high speed wireless network encompassing towns and cities, like Google did it for San Francisco, will be a dream come true. Will this device make us lazier?

How can I get it?

The hardware manufacturers will start shipping the first UPMCs by second quarter of 2006. I understand that the OS has also have been tested and ready to use. The price of a UPMC is expected to be in the range of $800 to $1200.
In fact as I write this article Samsung has already announced its first UPMC by the name Q1, which will be available at Best Buy. They are in the pre-order mode and will start shipping in June. The configuration of this device would be a Celeron M ULV processor, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Disk, USB and Bluetooth. This device will be priced at around $1100. There are some who believe that the processing power provided in this device of 900 MHz is not good enough and Samsung could have opted for a faster processor.

Another UMPC maker TabletKiosk is also expected to ship their product called eo v7110 by June. It would be interesting to review more models as they release to check out the new features being offered by them.