Microsoft to give away free antivirus

Microsoft is poised to start giving away security software. The company is reportedly trialling free anti-virus software internally and said the beta version would be released “soon”.

Called Morro, the software will tackle viruses but lack the broader range of utilities, such as parental locks, found in paid-for security suites. Morro will be Microsoft’s second venture in the highly competitive security market. Microsoft’s first attempt revolved around the Windows Live OneCare service that did not succeed in turning many customers away from rivals such as Symantec and McAfee.


Microsoft plans to discontinue Live OneCare once the Morro software is ready.

No specific date has been given for when Morro will be released, but in the past Microsoft has said it would be out by the end of 2009 at the latest.

Microsoft said Morro would tackle viruses, spyware, rootkits and trojans.

Janice Chaffin, Symantec’s president of consumer products, said customers wanted more than just basic protection.

“A full internet security suite is what consumers require today to stay fully protected,” she said.

Security software for home PCs typically cost around £30-40 and often allow users to install protections on more than one computer.

Other companies, such as AVG and Alwil already produce and distribute free anti-virus products.

Fake help

In its latest update, Microsoft added code that detects and deletes the widespread Internet Antivirus Pro family of fake security software programs.

Such programs, also known as scareware, have been proving more popular with hi-tech criminals in recent months.

The Anti-Phishing Working Group estimated that there were 9,287 bogus anti-malware program in circulation in December 2008 - a rise of 225% since January 2008.

The US government has moved to shut down some companies peddling the programs that falsely claim to find malicious software on PCs and then charge for the non-existent threats to be removed.

In addition, the Internet Antivirus Pro software displays fake Windows security messages to try and trick people into thinking the product is legitimate. The software also contains a password stealer that watches where people go online and grabs login data.

                                 source: BBC

News : Indian Companies Among Top Ten IT Infrastructure Outsourcers

Indian outsourcing companies figure among the top ten worldwide in IT infrastructure services, reflecting the growing appeal of offshore delivery of these services, according to outsourcing consultancy Technology Partners International (TPI).

      Indian outsourcers figured in the top ten by value of contracts closed in the first half of this year, not only in their traditionally strong area of application development and maintenance (ADM), but also in infrastructure services, Siddharth Pai, a partner at TPI, said on Thursday. 

       That Indian companies such as HCL Technologies and Wipro have made it to the top ten in infrastructure services, a relatively new area in IT services for Indian outsourcers, suggests that customers are now considering seriously the option of remote delivery of these services from offshore locations like India.

        The market for outsourcing has shrunk to US$40.2 billion in contracts in the first half of this year from $51.5 billion in the first half of last year. TPI monitors contracts of a value of $25 million and above.

       It is unlikely that the outsourcing market this year will grow to last year's level of $93.1 billion, and is more likely to end this year with total contracts of less than $80 billion, Pai said.

      Top Indian outsourcers have reported flat or declining revenue in the quarter ended June 30. Infosys, India's second largest outsourcer, has forecast that revenue for its fiscal year ending March 31, 2010 will decline by 3.1 to 4.6 percent over revenue in the previous year.

source : pcworld.com

What is blogging all about?

Ok why was this blog started by me? What does this blog intend to do? What is the history of blogging? The first two questions i can answer very easily because i know why i started this blog and what all i intended to do with this blog. I wanted to share all the technology stuff around with people from the blogosphere. But now the blogosphere has completely changed. People are doing business with blogs and people make money by writing content on it. A self explanatory and a very good about Choosing the right blogging software can be found at web-articles.info, where one can submit his own article on just about anything and could get positive responses for it. The article about blogging history goes on to say this;  Blogging is really about three things:
• Information Telling

• Relationships Building

• Knowledge management 

   Do note that the blogs specified are related to business and not a time passer blogger. Nowadays business people and their kind have started to blog about all their business plans and discuss it very openly among other bloggers because it gives them an exposure to business ideas and how to groom these ideas into practice. The article then explains how to choose the right blogging software for yourself. Really worth a read!

The end of DRM in iTunes - Apple finally removes DRM

Apple Inc., the most popular source of music in the United States, stripped copy protection from all the songs in its iTunes music store and disclosed plans to charge as little as 69 cents a track. Under a variable pricing plan, songs will cost 69 cents, 99 cents, or $1.29 starting in April, with most albums going for $9.99, Apple marketing head Phil Schiller said yesterday at the Macworld conference in San Francisco. He spoke in place of chief executive Steve Jobs, who said Monday he’s undergoing treatment for a “hormone imbalance.” Apple had drawn criticism for using so-called digital rights management on most tracks, prompting Jobs two years ago to make a public plea to music labels to change their licensing terms.
The protections prevented customers from listening to music on unauthorized devices and limited the copies they could burn onto CDs. The company also faced competition from Amazon.com Inc., which charges as little as 79 cents a song - with no copy protection. While record labels liked having DRM, they also wanted variable prices, letting them charge more for popular songs, said Barry Jaruzelski, a partner at the consulting firm Booz & Co. in Florham Park, N.J. Until now, Apple sold most tracks for 99 cents each. Starting yesterday, about 8 million songs were being offered without copy-protection software as part of the iTunes Plus service, Apple said. By the end of March, the other 2 million songs in its catalog will be available without such software.

Microsoft releases Windows 7 and is available for download

The first public trial, or beta, version of Windows 7 has been released. Microsoft boss Steve Ballmer used his keynote speech at CES to announce that software developers would get at the trial version on 7 January. On 9 January members of the public will get the chance to download the successor to Windows for themselves. Mr Ballmer said Windows 7 would be the pivot of a broader Microsoft push to improve the way its separate software and service families work together. In delivering the opening keynote, Mr Ballmer has taken over from Bill Gates - who in 2008 bowed out of day-to-day involvement with the company he founded. In a nod to the chilly economic climate, Mr Ballmer said: “We face some really big challenges. We are all feeling it and its impact will likely be with us for some time.”
But, he said, the global economic slowdown would not hobble the pace of technological change. “I believe our digital lives will only continue to get richer,” said Mr Ballmer. “There’s no turning back from the connected world.” The newest version of the Windows operating system would, he said, be the “linchpin” of an effort to make it easier for customers to do more with the different Microsoft gadgets and services they use. Microsoft is expected to cap the number of copies of the beta version of Windows 7 available to the public. The minimum requirements for running Windows 7 are a PC with a 1 Ghz processor, 1GB of RAM, 16 GB of disk space, 128MB of video memory and support for DX9 graphics. Some of the Windows 7’s features help it work with other devices. A “home group” system makes it straightforward to enrol PCs, Xbox consoles, media servers and other gadgets into a local network that can share media and content.

Earn money blogging at PayingPost !

Blogging is a way to express ones feeling about the surrounding world, so that any one have a look at the post can learn the feelings of a person even though both haven’t interacted. But blogging can be made as a source of profit by using the concepts of Blog advertisements. Note: Blogging should not be primarily intended in earning money. The simple way advertise on blogs is to sign up with payingpost.com which I found while surfing the net. I just found that this is the quickest and the easiest way to earn money through just writing and publishing posts in your own blog. This post, in fact, states you clearly why I signed up for PAYINGPOST.COM and what I hope to achieve with it, will earn me $5 ! It does seem strange, that I would be writing something to be paid. But in reality, I would have written this exact same post whether I was paid or not. It’s simply a matter of connections - which is what PAYINGPOST.COM is all about.

Before I knew about how to create my blog, I have been waiting to express my feelings as I was already reading some blogs of my friends. I didn’t know that I can even make money from blogging. While I was reading the blog of my friend about her new entry on “I signed up for PAYINGPOST.COM, I was wondering what it’s all about. I click on their website and it is a site for blog ads. So I decided to open an account with them. It was from my friend that I have learned about blog ads and how reliable their site and aside from that it’s another way of earning at your own pace. This is a perfect opportunity for anyone to have additional income after their regular work hours. Learn more about What is Blog Advertising and How it is perfomed at payingpost.com who have just change their layout too to make their website more intuitive .People don’t have to worry about doing overtime at work either, and whats next , start earning!. 

Sun Java tutorials, certification training guide - e-book

A big Hello to all the java fans and enthusiasts too. For all those who are already experts in java and also to those who are learning to learn java, here are some e-books and help files that would be of some help of you're preparing for the exclusive Sun Java Certification exam .. Happy Java'ing!!

Download ::

java_developers_guide.rar (1mb)

Sun Java Tutorials(chm) with code.zip (12mb)

Java 2 Certification training guide.pdf  (3mb)

disclaimer : Links to external, or third party Web sites, are provided solely for visitors' convenience. we do not host any files.we provide mere links to third-party sites that already contain the content.

Resetting a Forgotten Password in Windows

Some notes about the accounts and the passwords

- The built-in Administrator account is found on the Welcome screen only if there are no other accounts available, other than Guest, or when the computer is booted into Safe Mode.
- To get Admin account on the “Welcome Screen” make sure that there are no accounts logged in.
- The built-in Administrator account can create and change passwords for all users, but cannot restore a forgotten one.
- When a password is changed, that account will lose all encrypted files, personal certificates and stored Internet Explorer passwords or network resources.
- Press “CTRL-ALT-DEL” twice to get the classic Windows logon box. Type: Administrator. If this account has a password, enter it. Otherwise, leave the it blank.
- Recovering a password is much more difficult. Using a cracking program can take weeks!
 RESET A PASSWORD USING THE ADMINISTRATOR ACCOUNT

1. Boot into Safe Mode.
2. Log on using the built-in Administrator account.
3. Open: Control Panel -> User Accounts.
4. On the Users tab, select a user name, the password to change and click Reset Password.
 RESET A PASSWORD AT THE LOGON SCREEN WITH THE COMMAND PROMPT
 
At the logon screen, press Shift+F10 to open a Command Prompt with adminisrative priviledges and type:

net user {username} {password}

{username}  =  The Account’s User Name
{password}  =  This will be the new password

 RESET A PASSWORD USING MICROSOFT’S ERD COMMANDER
 
1. Download a 30 day trial from here:

Microsoft Diagnostics and Recovery Toolset 5.0 
http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?familyid=5D600369-0554-4595-8AB4-C34B2860E087&displaylang=en

2. Install it, run it and burn the image to a CD.
3. Boot the CD and run the Locksmith Wizard, found under Start -> System Tools.
4. The Locksmith Wizard is very easy to use, just select an account and input a new password. Too easy!
 RESET A PASSWORD USING OFFLINE NT PASSWORD & REGISTRY EDITOR

Bootable CD (Freeware):
http://home.eunet.no/pnordahl/ntpasswd/bootdisk.html

- This disc can set, reset or unlock the password of any user account.
- You do not need to know the old password to set a new one.
- Works with Windows NT/2k/XP/Vista.

 RESET A PASSWORD USING NT PASSWORD HACK

This will blank the Administrator password (Freeware):
http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/tools/ntpassword/ntpasswordhack.zip
 RECOVER A PASSWORD USING THE LOGIN RECOVERY WEB SERVICE
 
Login Recovery is a service to recover passwords for Windows NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista:
http://www.loginrecovery.com/index.php
LINKS

How to reset the Administrator’s password:
http://www.petri.co.il/forgot_administrator_password.htm

EFS, Credentials, and Private Keys from Certificates Are Unavailable After a Password Is Reset:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/290260/en-us

Administrator and User Passwords in Windows XP:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/win_xp_passwords.htm

Windows 7 first looks - Screen shots - Xclusive!

Microsoft on Tuesday took the wraps of the preview version of Windows 7, which will be the successor to Vista. Julie Larson Green, Microsoft’s vice president for Windows experience, hosted a demo in which she walked attendees through the features of the operating system.At first glance, Windows 7 maintains the streamlined look of Vista, but appears more muted — even Windows XP-like. Mostly, Microsoft seems to be focusing more on functionality, possibly in a bid to put some distance between Windows 7 and the criticisms which have dogged Vista.

Most obviously, a quick tour through Windows 7 reveals its new taskbar, which is sparser than in previous iterations of the OS. From the screen shots, it’s clear that Microsoft has listened to criticism and tuned many features, including search and access to security controls. The look and feel of the user interface is also highly customizable. The version of Windows 7 previewed at PDC is technically a pre-beta release. The official shipment of the final version is expected in about a year’s time.

Screenshots:

$10M for world changing idea - only from Google!!

Google Inc., which is celebrating its 10th birthday this month, today unveiled a $10 million effort to implement ideas that can “change the world by helping as many people as possible.” As part of the Project 10^100 (pronounced Project 10 to the 100th), Google plans to ask its users to submit ideas until Oct. 20 for ways to improve people’s lives. Google will choose what it feels are the 100 best ideas and then allow its users to vote on which of them should be funded. The users will narrow the results to 20 finalists, and a panel of judges will choose up to five ideas that will receive funding, Google said.
Google noted that the ideas can be big or small, technology-driven or not. But they do have to have a potential positive impact on the world. The company cited an example of two people coming up with an idea to help millions of people carry water long distances by designing the Hippo Water Roller, a relatively inexpensive 24-gallon container that can be easily wheeled on the ground. The categories for the project include, but are not limited to, community, energy, environment, health, education, shelter and opportunities for people to better provide for themselves and their families. Start thinking!!!!