Ubuntu 8.04 - Who needs Windows?

Ubuntu has released the latest version of its Linux operating system, nicknamed "Hardy Heron." The new release includes Long Term Support, which lasts for three years on the desktop and five years on the server.

Ubuntu LTS releases come out every two years. The last Ubuntu LTS, Dapper Drake (6.06.2), came out in May 2006, and has one more year of support left. The previous version, Gutsy Gibbon, or Ubuntu 7.10, was released in October 2007 but wasn't LTS.

With the release, Ubuntu and its commercial sponsor Canonical aim to dispel the myth that there isn't a market for the Linux desktop and that it can compete against Microsoft. The Ubuntu 8.04 release also aims to make it easier for users to try out Linux.

"The key areas of focus for 8.04 are stability and also ease of installation and a focus on removing barriers to testing the platform," Canonical CEO Mark Shuttleworth said on a conference call with reporters and analysts.

One such barrier will be removed with a new technology called "Wubi," which is a Windows based installer for Ubuntu. Creating a dual-boot machine is fairly common, with Windows on one partition and Linux on the other, but it can be a daunting task to anyone not comfortable with disk partitioning or unwilling to lose existing files. With Wubi, there is no partitioning of the disk drive, so Ubuntu can be installed on to an existing Windows machine without losing any data. If the user or admin decides against Ubuntu, it can easily be uninstalled using the Add/Remove Programs option in Control Panels.

Ubuntu 8.04 comes with several new applications, such as the Transmission BitTorrent client, a new CD burning program (Brasero), the Cheese webcam application, a new version of Xorg (which offers improved auto-configuration options for monitor set up) and the PolicyKit (an interface which enables users to more easily allow or deny access to applications).

Ubuntu 8.04 also comes with a photo managing application, F-Spot, as well as music sharing features, a movie player with YouTube browsing capabilities, a clock and a calendar. GNOME applications provide desktop visual effects.

Corporate and individual users get security updates and maintenance for three years due to the longer upgrade planning cycle for Ubuntu 8.04. Upgrading to Ubuntu 8.10, due in October this year, will be an appealing option for users needing the latest applications. Those who need longer deployment cycles can continue with Ubuntu 8.04 for 3 years and then move on to the next LTS release. Adobe, Google, Real Networks, Nero, Skype, Corel, Parallels, Fluendo are among the more than 30 commercial independent software vendors who plan to distribute their applications on the 8.04 LTS desktop platform.

A new version, Ubuntu 8.10 (codenamed Intrepid Ibex), is just around the corner; it is scheduled to be released sometime in October.

Security risks in Firefox, Adobe Reader, Microsoft Word and Eee PC

Firefox: Version 2.0.0.11 of the browser has numerous security loopholes. These include a data leak that allows attackers to read user's surfing history and a buffer overflow that could allow dangerous code to be executed.

Solution: Version 2.0.0.12 was released to patch these holes. Update your browser immediately.

Adobe reader: Since January, pdf files that infect victims with a trojan using a security loophole have been circulating around the internet.

Solution: Click on 'Help-Search for updates..' to patch the program.

Microsoft Word: Hackers could target Word 2000-2007 because of a security hole in a common database component. This doesn't apply to Vista users.

Solution: For now, it remains unpatched. Be wary of random executable email attachments.

Eee PC: The cheap and compact Eee PC from Asus has a few security loopholes, including vulnerabilities in the Samba network service for Windows. The errors in the customised Xandros Linux OS were discovered more than a year ago.

Solution: So far, Asus has not issued any updates.

Sharp Willcom D4 - World's first Intel Atom mobile internet device

Japanese tech company Sharp has collaborated with Willcom to develop their Sharp Willcom D4 device.

The company said that this would be the first product to be powered with the recently launched Intel Atom processor.

Measuring 190×84x25.9mm, the Mobile Internet Device Willcom D4 weighs just 470 grams.

The world’s first mobile Internet device comes packed with fantastic features that include 1.33GHz Intel Atom Processor, a 5- inch TFT screen with 262k color LED-blacklit, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD, QWERTY keyboard and a 2 mega pixels camera.

Besides, the new Willcom D4 also features a micro-SD card slot and WANSEGU Digital TV Tuner. Users can tilt or slide the screen as and when required.

The new mobile internet device works on Windows Vista Home Premium. Moreover, it boasts connectivity options like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Priced at ¥128,600, ‘Sharp Willcom D4’ will hit Japanese market by June 2008.

Youtube grabs 73% of video market.

Hitwise reports that YouTube and Google video combined grab over 77 percent of US video visits. In March, YouTube snagged 73.18 percent of US visits, a 32 percent increase over March 2007. Despite decreasing by 52 percent, Google Video maintained third place at 4.06 percent, compared to 8.42 percent last year.

MySpaceTV, Yahoo Video, Break.com, MetaCafe and DailyMotion all bled a few visitors over the past year in a market that declined by seven percent in general. MySpaceTV fell 48 percent from March of last year to grab just 9.21 percent of the online video audience.

Yahoo Video and Break.com are virtually neck and neck in the race, jockeying for 2.16 percent and 1.82 percent respectively. The rest of the top ten are lucky to grab one percent, with Blinkx rounding out the bottom with 0.58 percent.

Though YouTube and Google prove their dominance, the numbers show both how fragile the online video market is and how wide open it is to newcomers. NBC and Fox's joint venture, Hulu, appeared on the list at number 22, just exiting beta on March 15. In two weeks, Hulu grabbed 0.22 percent of the market.

"As online video becomes more mainstream with internet users, the share of referred traffic from the younger audiences of social networks is declining, shifting instead toward search," said Heather Dougherty, Hitwise's director of research.

Chinese hackers target Indian Government website

The MEA (Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India) computer systems have become the target of hackers from China on Friday. Official sources said that the hackers, who penetrated the computer systems of the MEA, are suspected to be from China because their IP addresses have been traced to China. The sources expressed confidence that no sensitive material was acquired by the hackers who penetrated the system last month.

What were the hackers looking for? Were the hackers trying to sniff into the Tibet policy related data in the MEA servers? On the same day unknown hackers blocked access to the official website of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, www.tibet.net Read here

The government of India did not rule out recurrence of such incidents in the future and stressed the need for more caution.

In fact last year the Chinese government itself was accused of hacking into the highly sensitive system of the Pentagon in the US. The Chinese government denied that it was behind the attack and said that Beijing was against cybercrime. The hackers had penetrated the computer system in the office of defence secretary Robert Gates in June last year. Official sources added that this was not the first time hackers have targeted the MEA’s computer systems and that there have been numerous attacks from hackers in Europe. They added that hackers have been trying to penetrate the system for the last 5 years.

Tibetan website hacked

Unknown hackers on Friday blocked access to the official website of the Tibetan government-in-exile in India, Tibetan officials said.

The website, www.tibet.net, offered "blank" as a message or drew Internet surfers to other Tibet-related sites through the Google search engine.

The hacked website, constructed four years ago, had been carrying a flurry of anti-Chinese statements since March 10, when Beijing ordered a crackdown on riots which erupted in the Tibetan capital Lhasa. Tibet.net had also carried several statements of the Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and had turned into a vehicle of support for the exiles to crank up their opposition to the Beijing Olympics Games in August. A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said he was aware of the hacking, which came a day after Indian newspapers reported an attack on computer servers of India's diplomatic mission in Beijing.

A spokesman for the Dalai Lama said he was aware of the hacking, which came a day after Indian newspapers reported an attack on computer servers of India’s diplomatic mission in Beijing.“We are not surprised as this had happened a couple of years ago,” said Tenzin Takla, the Dalai Lama’s spokesman by telephone from the Indian town of Dharamshala.Tibetan exiles said they did not know who had hacked into the website but said they suspected it could be the Chinese.“Who else could it be but China that destroyed our website?” said Tibetan student Dolma.
Source: AFP

Threat to Israel's National Security - Facebook

Israeli defence chiefs have put curbs on social networking sites such as facebook after the officials discovered some soldiers had uploaded pictures of themselves with classified equipment, inadvertently revealing sensitive information. A review of Facebook pages belonging to Israeli troops found that some had posted detailed pictures of air bases, operations rooms and inside submarines.

A new list of rules announced Thursday aims to prevent soldiers and Defense Ministry employees from revealing classified information on social networking sites.

The new set of rules - which have not been made public and some of which existed previously - include a ban on images of pilots and members of special units, and anything that shows specific military manoeuvres.

Media reports - BBC - http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7343238.stm

Fox News - http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,350329,00.html

21 Spectacular websites on the internet

Here is a list of 21 best-designed websites on the net.

1) Lightbox

2) Luigi Bussolati

3) By Hook


4) Lois Jeans



5) Proxonic Visuals

6) Supersteil

7) Erik

8) Un.titled

9) Persepolis

10) Pink Floyd

11) Nalden

12) Commonwealth of cultures - Poland

13) Virtual Murder

14) Parent design

15) Vermeersch

16) Design and the Elastic Mind

17) Color Chart

18) Converse

19) Chanel mobile art

20) Minuit

21) Maniack

Internet 10,000 times faster than broadband

"The Grid", the superfast internet is on its way. The lightning-fast grid will be capable of downloading entire feature films within seconds. At speeds about 10,000 times faster than a typical broadband connection, the grid will be able to send the entire Rolling Stones back catalogue from Britain to Japan in less than two seconds. The latest spinoff from CERN, the particle physics centre that created the Web, could also provide the kind of power needed to transmit holographic images; allow instant online gaming with hundreds of thousands of players, and offer high-definition video telephony for the price of a local call.

CERN has built Large Hadron Collider (LHC), which is the most powerful particle accelerator ever constructed. It took almost 15 years and $8 billion to construct for CERN. The LHC is located in a 27-km circular tunnel 100 metres below ground level outside Geneva on the Franco-Swiss border.
The project will recreate what happens in nature all the time by sending protons crashing into each other. The main difference is that this time there are powerful detectors set up to monitor what exactly happens.

Cern, which is based near Geneva, in Switzerland started working on the Grid seven years ago, when researchers realised the LHC would generate data equivalent to 56 million CDs each year – if they were stacked one on top of another, the pile would be 40 miles high.

Cern was where Sir Tim Berners-Lee invented the Web in 1989. But it is not powerful enough to handle this much data – if it was used, the entire Internet could crash worldwide. That’s because the Internet is linked by cables and routing equipment that was originally designed for telephone calls. It lacks the capacity for massive high-speed data transmission. But the Grid has been built with dedicated fibre optic cables and modern routing centres. There are no outdated components to slow the data. Over 55,000 servers have already been installed to store the data, and this network will expand to 200,000 within two years.

Technical Director of the Grid project Prof Tony Doyle says: “We need so much processing power, there wouldn’t be enough electricity to run the computers if they were all at Cern.” So the new network has to be powerful enough to send the data instantly to research centres in other countries. This parallel Internet is now built, using fibre optic cables that run from Cern to 11 centres in the United States, Canada, the Far East, Europe and around the world. From each centre, further connections radiate out to research institutions, using existing high-speed academic networks. Britain alone has 8,000 servers on the Grid system – in theory, any student in these chosen institutions should be able to hook up to the Grid rather than the Internet by the end of this year. Grid project leader Ian Bird says grid technology could make the Internet so fast that people could stop using desktop computers to store information and keep it all on the Grid. “It will lead to what’s known as cloud computing, where people keep all their information online and access it from anywhere,” he said.

But the real goal of the Grid is to work with the LHC in tracking down nature’s most elusive particle, the Higgs boson. Predicted in theory but never yet found, it is supposed to be what gives matter mass. But even at optimum performance, The LHC will generate only a few thousand of the particles a year. Analysing the mountain of data is such a huge task that it will keep the Grid’s gargantuan capacity busy for years to come. The bad news is that the Grid itself is unlikely to be available to domestic Internet users, but the good news is that many telecoms providers and businesses are already introducing its pioneering technologies. One of them, dynamic switching, creates a dedicated channel for Internet users trying to download large volumes of data such as films. In theory, a standard desktop computer could download a movie in five seconds using this technology, rather than the three hours or so it takes today.

But the Grid will be made available to academic researchers, including astronomers and molecular biologists. Cern scientists claim it has already been used to help design new drugs against malaria. Researchers used the Grid to analyse 140 million compounds, a task that would have taken a standard Internet-linked computer 420 years. Projects like the Grid will bring huge changes in business and society as well as science, experts say. The history of the Internet shows one cannot predict its real impacts, but they are bound to be huge.

18 Common Mistakes that Violate Google Adsense TOS

1. Never click your own adsense ads or get them clicked for whatever reason. You know this one very well. This is a surefire way to close you Adsense account. Never tell your office associates or friends to click on them. Keep a check if your family or children are busy increasing your income by clicking your ads and indirectly trying to stop your income. Dont even think of offering incentives for clicks, using automated clicking tools, or other deceptive software. Adsense is very smart to detect fraudulent clicks. Check the ads which appear on your pages by the Google Preview tool if required.

2. Never change the Adsense code. There are enough means of adsense optimization & customizations available to change the colour, background or border to suit your needs. Do whatever you want to do outside the code, never fiddle within the ad or the search code. They know it when you do. The search code has more limitations to colour and placement, but you should adhere to the rules. The code may stop working and violates the TOS.

3. Do not place more than 3 ad units and 3 ad links or 2 adsense search boxes on any web page. Anyway, ads will not appear in those units even if you place more ad units. But this is the limit they set, so it is better to stick to it.

4. Do not run competitive contextual text ad or search services on the same site which offer Google Adsense competition in their field. Never try to create link structures resembling the adsense ads. Never use other competitive search tools on the same pages which have Adsense powered Google search. They do allow affiliate or limited-text links. Update: Google has allowed you to run contextual advertising like Yahoo ads, Chitika etc provided the ads do not resemble Adsense ads.

5. Do not disclose confidential information about your account like the CTR, CPM and income derived via individual ad units or any other confidential information they may reveal to you. However, you may reveal the total money you make as per recent updates to the TOS.

6. Label headings as “sponsored links” or “advertisements” only. Other labels are not allowed. I have seen many sites label ads with other titles. Dont make your site a target in a few seconds gaze.

7. Never launch a New Page for clicked ads by default. Adsense ads should open on the same page. You may be using a base target tag to open all links in a new window or frame by default. Correct it now as they do not want new pages opening from clicked ads.

8. One Account suffices for Multiple websites. You do not need to create 5 accounts for 5 different websites. One account will do. If you live in the fear that if one account is closed down for violation of TOS, believe me they will close all accounts when they find out. You can keep track of clicks by using channels with real time statistics. They will automatically detect the new site and display relevant ads.

9. Place ads only on Content Pages. Advertisers pay only for content based ads. Content drives relevant ads. Although you might manage some clicks from error, login, registration, “thank you” or welcome pages, parking pages or pop ups, it will get you out of the program.

10. Do not mask ad elements. Alteration of colours and border is a facility to blend or contrast ads as per your site requirements. I have seen many sites where the url part is of the same colour as the background. While blending the ad with your site is a good idea, hiding relevant components of the ads is not allowed. Also do not block the visibility of ads by overlapping images, pop ups, tables etc.

11. Do not send your ads by email. Html formatted emails look good and allow placement of these javascript ads. But it is not allowed as per TOS. You do not want impressions registering on their logs from any email even once. They are watching!

12. Keep track of your content. So Adsense is not allowed on several non content pages. But it is also not allowed on several content pages too. Do not add it on web pages with MP3, Video, News Groups, and Image Results. Also exclude any pornographic, hate-related, violent, or illegal content.

13. Do not alter the results after ad clicks or searches - Ensure you are not in any way altering the site which the user reaches to after clicking the ads. Do not frame, minimize, remove, redirect or otherwise inhibit the full and complete display of any Advertiser Page or Search Results Page after the user clicks on any Ad or Search results.

14. Avoid excessive advertising and keyword stuffing - Although the definition of ‘excessive’ is a gray area and is subject to discretion, yet Google adsense with correct placement, focused content and high traffic will get you much more income than other programs, so excessive advertising is not required. Keyword stuffing does target better focused ads, but overdoing it is not required.

15. Ensure you Language is Supported - Adsense supports “Chinese (simplified), Japanese, Danish, Korean, Dutch, Norwegian, English, Polish, Finnish, Portuguese, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Hungarian, Swedish, Italian and Turkish”. In addition, AdSense for search is available in Czech, Slovak, and Traditional Chinese. If your web pages language is not supported, do not use the code on such pages.

16. Maximum 2 referral button per product per page - With the launch of the google adsense referral program, you are allowed to put only 2 referral buttons for adsense referral, adwords referral, Google pack and Firefox with google toolbar referral.

17. Do not specify Google ads as your alternate ads. - Several services like Chitika eminimalls allow you to place alternate urls, when a targeted paying ad cannot be displayed. This involved creating an simple html page and putting the ad to be displayed instead. Even Adsense allows an alternate url feature instead of displaying public service ads. But never use Adsense ads as alternate urls.

18. Do not confuse with adjacent images - It was a common policy to increase CTR by placing same number of images as the number of text ads, which falsely gave the impression that the text ads represented an explanation to these images. Inserting a small space or a line between the images and ads is not allowed. Make sure that the ads and images are not arranged in a way that could easily mislead or confuse your visitors. Whenever in doubt, it is better to ask for adsense help from the learned staff of Google Adsense. They are very helpful!

I got this from http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=746977 and http://www.quickonlinetips.com/archives/2005/05/15-common-mistakes-by-google-adsense-publishers/

Google's April Fool 2008

** Google announces technology that searches tomorrow's web, today. Google Australia today announced the launch of gDay™, a new beta search technology that will search web pages 24 hours before they are created.

View
http://www.google.com.au/intl/en/gday/press.html

** Google announces a joint project with the Virgin Group that aims to establish a permanent human settlement on Mars. This operation has been named Project Virgle. It also includes videos of Richard Branson as well as Larry Page & Sergey Brin (The Founders of Google) on YouTube , talking about Virgle.
View
http://www.google.com/virgle/index.html






** Google launches Dajare in Japan (google.co.jp), with the mission of "organizing the world’s laughter." Dajare, as Wikipedia explains, is a kind of comical Japanese wordplay, “similar in spirit to an English pun relying on similarities in the pronunciation of words to create a simple joke.”

** Google also introduced a new feature called "Gmail Custom Time". Google claimed a new Gmail feature had been added that would allow people to date stamp their emails in the past, allowing for all sorts of mischief. Users would be limited to 10 Custom Times a year to minimize the number of fraudulent emails. Clicking any of the three links at the bottom of the page brought the user to a page indicating that Gmail Custom time was, in fact, their April Fools prank for 2008.

** Google Book Search has a new feature: capturing a book's smell. Inside Google Book Search Blog - "I'm pleased to let you know that we've made some headway with one type of volume we've struggled with in the past: books employing scratch-and-sniff technology. Using special equipment and tricky JavaScript, we're now able to capture some of the smells during the scanning process and then embed them in your web browser when you preview these titles in Google Book Search."