Internet may go down for thousands on July 9

The warnings about the internet problem have been splashed acrossFacebook and Google. Internet service providershave sent notices, and the FBI set up a special website. 

But tens of thousands of Americans may still lose their internet service Monday unless they do a quick check of their computers formalware that could have taken over their machines more than a year ago. 

Despite repeated alerts, the number of computers that probably are infected is more than 277,000 worldwide, down from about 360,000 in April. Of those still infected, the FBI believes that about 64,000 are in the United States. 

Users whose computers are still infected Monday will lose their ability to go online, and they will have to call their service providers for help deleting the malware and reconnecting to the internet. 

The problem began when international hackers ran an online advertising scam to take control of more than 570,000 infected computers around the world. When the FBI went in to take down the hackers late last year, agents realized that if they turned off the malicious servers being used to control the computers, all the victims would lose their Internet service. 

In a highly unusual move, the FBI set up a safety net. They brought in a private company to install two clean internet servers to take over for the malicious servers so that people would not suddenly lose their internet. 

But that temporary system will be shut down at 12:01 am EDT Monday, July 9. 

Most victims don't even know their computers have been infected, although the malicious software probably has slowed their Web surfing and disabled their antivirus software, making their machines more vulnerable to other problems. 

But popular social networking sites and internet providers have gotten more involved, reaching out to computer users to warn of the problem. 

According to Tom Grasso, an FBI supervisory special agent, many internet providers are ready for the problem and have plans to try to help their customers. Some, such as Comcast, already have reached out. 

The company sent out notices and posted information on its website. Because the company can tell whether there is a problem with a customer's internet server, Comcast sent an email, letter or Internet notice to customers whose computers appeared to be affected. 

Grasso said other internet providers may come up with technical solutions that they will put in place Monday that will either correct the problem or provide information to customers when they call to say their internet isn't working. If the internet providers correct the server problem, the internet will work, but the malware will remain on victims' computers and could pose future problems. 

In addition to individual computer owners, about 50 Fortune 500 companies are still infected, Grasso said. 

Both Facebook and Google created their own warning messages that showed up if someone using either site appeared to have an infected computer. Facebook users would get a message that says, "Your computer or network might be infected," along with a link that users can click for more information. 

Google users got a similar message, displayed at the top of a Google search results page. It also provides information on correcting the problem. 

To check whether a computer is infected, users can visit a website run by the group brought in by the FBI: http://www.dcwg.org . 

The site includes links to respected commercial sites that will run a quick check on the computer, and it also lays out detailed instructions if users want to actually check the computer themselves.

Read More

Facebook Messenger for Windows Comes Out of Beta

After three months of testing, Facebook Messenger is coming to a Windows desktop near you.

The social network on Monday announced that Messenger for Windows, a standalone app that lets you IM friends via Windows 7, will be coming out of beta in a few weeks.

“Millions of people log into Facebook every day to keep up with friends. They also browse other websites and run computer programs, so it’s easy to miss important stuff,” reads a post on Facebook’s blog. “Maybe a cousin just posted about getting a new job, or a best friend wants to chat about dinner plans for tonight. You should be able to stay in touch anytime, no matter what you’re doing.”

Of course, you could do the same thing if you left Facebook open on your browser all day, but this is a way to keep in touch even if you close out of Facebook.

The desktop sequel to Messenger has been a long time coming. Facebook introduced the Android and iOS-based mobile Messenger app last August. Based on technology from Beluga, a Facebook acquisition, Messenger provides seamless integration with SMS.

In December, a version of Messenger for Windows 7 leaked. Hours later, Facebook released a version of the software. That, however, was a test, a Facebook rep says. The new iteration will be available to everyone. The rep added that Facebook designers are working on a Mac version. Facebook isn’t saying when that version will be out.

When Facebook released the test version in December, we found that the Windows app looked almost identical to the chat bar on Facebook.com. As with that feature, users get notifications when friends want to chat. Friend activity is also shown, however clicking on these items will take you to a web browser. The same goes for messages in your Facebook inbox. As the pics provided by Facebook below show, this version looks the same:

For installation and more https://www.facebook.com/about/messenger

Read More

Moser Baer launches credit-card shaped pen drive, 4GB at Rs. 1,100

Moser Baer has launched a new USB flash drive in the shape of a credit-card, designed to fit easily in wallets and card holders, for convenient portability. Called the Moser Baer Zap pen drive, it for now will be available in only one capacity – 4GB, at Rs. 1,100.

The Moser Baer Zap credit-card pen drive has dimensions of 84.15 x 52.83 mm, and has a USB2.0 interface. It’s quite lightweight as well, at 10.25 grams. The Zap USB flash drive is compatible Windows 2007, Mac OS 9, Linux

Read More

BSNL to launch 7-inch tablet @ Rs 3250 to rival Aakash

BSNL announced it would bring three tablets in partnership with Pantel, a company based in Noida. Of the three, the cheapest one will be sold for Rs 3,250, a few hundred rupees more than the commercial version of Aakash tablet.

The 7-inch tablet - BSNL Penta T PAD IS 701R - is powered by 1ghz processor and comes with 256MB RAM. It has a resistive screen and runs on Android operating software. The tablet will be sold along with special data plans and 3G services from BSNL.

The two other tablets are priced at Rs 10,999 and Rs 13,500. Both have capacitive screen, which has better touch sensitivity. These two tablets are also made by Pantel . Pantel website shows that the company has started a prebooking for all three.




How to buy  Where to buy Bsnl Tablets?? 

http://www.pantel.in/

Read More

New Shortcut Keys in Windows 8

You’ve probably already been using hotkeys in Windows 7 and previous versions, so now that Windows 8 is out, all you need to learn are the new shortcut keys. Here are the important new keys in a short list that you can easily learn.

New Windows 8 Shortcut Keys

There might be a couple of new keys that aren’t included in this list, but as far as we know, these are the most important ones.

• Windows key – brings up the Metro start screen. You can start typing to search for an app, just like the Win7 start menu.
• Win + D – brings up the old Windows desktop.
• Win + C – brings up the Charms menu, where you can search, share, and change settings.
• Win + I – opens the Settings panel, where you can change settings for the current app, change volume, wireless networks, shut down, or adjust the brightness.
• Win + Z – opens the App Bar for the current Metro application.
• Win + H – opens the Metro Share panel.
• Win + Q – brings up the Metro App Search screen.
• Win + W – brings up the Metro Settings search screen.
• Win + F – brings up the Metro File search screen.
• Win + K – opens the Devices panel (for connecting to a projector or some other device)
• Win + ,  (comma) – Aero Peek at the desktop.
• Win + .  (period) – Snaps the current Metro application to one side of the screen. (Right side)
• Win + Shift + . (period)  – Snaps the current Metro application to the other side of the screen. (Left side)
• Win + J – switches focus between snapped Metro applications.
• Win + Page Up / Down – moves the current app to the other monitor.
• Win + Tab – opens the Metro application switcher menu, switches between applications.

You might notice that we didn’t show screenshots of how all these shortcut keys work, and there’s a reason for that: you need to test them out for yourself to really learn how they work.

If there’s any other shortcut keys that are new to Windows 8 and we haven’t featured them, be sure to let us know in the comments.

Read More

Cannot censor the Web: Google to India

Ahead of a court hearing, technology giant Google facing controversy in India allegedly for hosting obscene and objectionable content on Thursday made it clear that it is not possible for the company to monitor everything on its website.

Google and Facebook are among 21 companies whose executives have been summoned to appear in person in a lower court in Delhi on March 13 for allegedly hosting obscene and objectionable content.

"I'm hoping there will be a balanced debate around it and eventually the right thing would happen," Google's chief business officer Nikesh Arora said.

The companies have challenged the summons in the high court. The next hearing is due on February 2.

"We cannot censor the Web. We cannot censor the ability of people to express themselves around the world," Arora told a news chaneel on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum at Davos.

"You are asking not just censor the Web in India, you are asking to censor the entire world wide web. The Web has no borders.

"I think the idea of censoring everything and pre- clearing everything is going to fundamentally, sort of, taint the growth of the Indian economy in India and vis-a-vis the world," he added.

During the last hearing in court, Google and Facebook had argued that there was no way for them to screen content before it was posted online.

Google had also said the Indian subsidiary could not be held responsible for an act by its parent company.

The legal trouble for companies including Orkut, Yahoo and YouTube is based on a petition filed by Vinay Rai, a Delhi resident who has pointed the court to obscene depictions that he found online of Hindu deities, the Prophet Mohammed and Jesus Christ.

Read More

64MP image of earth shot by NASA

NASA has unveiled a 64 million pixel image of the earth, taken from one of its satellites in January.

The image is actually a composite image made up of a number of photos of the Earth's surface shot on January 4, 2012.

Measuring 8000 x 8000 pixels, the image comes from the Suomi NPP satellite, which is the first in a new generation of satellites to observe the different aspects of a changing earth.

On board it carries several instruments for observing the globe, of which the biggest and most important is the Visible/Infrared Imager Radiometer Suite, or VIIRS for short.

Composite

Sitting 514 miles above the surface of the earth, it is able to get a complete view of the planet every day. The first image that was released showed the entire globe in one composite shot and was released back in November 2011.

VIIRS is capable of imaging the surface of the earth in long wedges which measure approx. 3,000 kilometers (1,900 miles) across.

The latest image, named "Blue Marble" by NASA, instead shows a section of the globe containing North America.

The VIIRS satellite sees the Earth at around 250 metres per pixel, and will be used to record a variety of things such as ocean temperature, clouds, and the location of fires.

NASA uploaded the shot to its Flickr stream on January 25th, where it has been viewed more than 1.3 million times since.

ORIGINAL SIZE

Read More

Google Shut-Downs number of services, The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day

Google announced today that it is closing a number of services that it wasn't able to attract millions of users to without making any effort. The worst of the lot to lose are two: the Social Graph API and DIY data extraction service Needlebase. Following on the heels of the kitten-stomping-bad sunsetting of Postrank, these latest closures are really meaningful, even if the adoption of the services never was.

Back when there was hope for Needlebase, the Social Graph API and for Postrank, those services represented hope for the web making the world a better place. Of course people can still use stupid Facebook to organize a protest, or Twitter to speak without hinderance to the world, but with the demise of these three efforts, some important things are lost from the web. These are the kinds of things that a benevolent organization would have invested a lot of support in, for the sake of the world.

'As we head into 2012,' Dave Girouard, VP of Product Management at Google and probably the kind of person who boos after children's Christmas plays, wrote today, 'we've been sticking to some old resolutions--the need to focus on building amazing products that millions of people love to use every day. That means taking a hard look at products that replicate other features, haven't achieved the promise we had hoped for or can't be properly integrated into the overall Google experience.'

Rest in Peace, Needlebase

Needlebase, which came to Google in the acquisition of travel data giant ITA Software, was (is) like a magic wand; you could touch a part of the marbled, veiny web with it - and its magic would flow through every crease and crevice until the web's swirls and pockets were traced and could be illuminated in a flash of data visualization. Specifically, you could point and click to train Needlebase to recognize the various parts of a web page, then jump from page to page of structured data, extracting information and placing it in a database, map or other visual experience.

If, for example, you were preparing to attend a big conference, you could point Needlebase at the conference speakers' biographic entries, show it where the home page links are, where the 'next page' links are, and then set it free. Like a cross between a bloodhound, a sheep dog and a magic unicorn, Needle would gather all those links up into a bundle. Set them inside a custom search engine and what have you got? Instant access to the collective published knowledge of every speaker's organization at a conference, usable to better understand what any other speaker says in context. In minutes.

My favorite story about using Needlebase is this one. One day here at ReadWriteWeb we caught wind of a local Salt Lake City newspaper that ran a story about a big new data center opening in town with a mystery anchor tenant. The paper believed that the tenant was Twitter, opening its first data center outside of San Francisco - as the company said it would, in a location undisclosed. We used the (now Google-acquired) web app called Needlebase to investigate.

We grabbed the URL of the Twitter List of the staff of Twitter Inc. and we trained Needlebase's point-and-click screen scraping tool to recognize what a user name, Tweet text and location field (when there was one) looked like on the page of staff Tweets. Then I clicked a button and said 'go!'

In just a few minutes, the most recent 1125 Tweets from staff were pulled into Needlebase and we said 'show 'em on a map!' Sure enough, one Twitter network engineer had posted a Tweet with a location attached to it right across the highway from the alleged mystery data center. He'd just left San Francisco, he had Tweeted, and arrived in Salt Lake City ready to get to work.

That Tweet was quickly deleted after we reported on it.

Needlebase was one of the most accessible of a class of tools that made data magic available to non developers. Magic.

There is too much information on the web for the human mind to understand it all, of course. The ability to draw sets of it together, to extract and sort it, and thus to discover new qualities about that which is described with the data, is humbling, it is a thing of contemporary existential beauty.

'It's not simply that there are too many brickfacts [datapoints] and not enough edifice-theories,' writes author David Weinberger in his new book, Too Big to Know. 'Rather, the creation of data galaxies has led us to science that sometimes is too rich and complex for reduction into theories. As science has gotten too big to know, we've adopted different ideas about what it means to know at all.'

At least some of us have begun to adopt new ideas about what it means to know at all; there are not millions of happy people playing with DIY data extraction tools as a little part of that experience. And since they have not scaled in adoption, Google has decided to dismantle these instruments of ecstasy, just as the curtain began to rise from in front of the stage where the real story of life was to be seen.

Social Graph API, Great if You Care About Other People

The Google Social Graph API was an API that indexed all the rel='me' links connecting social media profiles around the web. You could use it to search for a person and discover all the places they had profiles. If you cared, that is. Google apparently doesn't, because now there's Google Plus. Presumably, not enough other people cared either. I cared though.

Here at ReadWriteWeb we like to use Martin Atkins' AJAX interface for the Google Social Graph API to find all the places that people post things around the web, just by searching for their names. It's a crude use of the tool, so much more could have been done with it.

Right: a search for my name surfaces my blog, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora and other profiles. Who really wants to learn new things about other people though? What a bore!

How else can you programmatically discover, from one hub of a person's identity, all the arms of their star of activity online? Being unable to know that, or being told to go instead to one single social network to learn more about real dynamic people, feels like a throw-back to the Dark Ages.

PostRank...

The worst loss to humanity at the hands of Google's startup eating monster of late remains PostRank, which Google acquired this Summer. I can't bear to write about that again, but the gist of the story is this: Postrank ingested RSS feeds and then let you filter for just the hottest content coming from any source over time; enabling you to subscribe to a much larger number of voices, with the knowledge you'd be less likely to miss anything really important. Google ended that part of the service and made it all about publishers tracking their own social media accolades, though.

The original version of Postrank was like a magic horn that a woodland fairy called Learning and Empathy could hold to its ear to hear the tiniest caterpillar stretch and yawn in the morning, along with the rest of the whole concert of forest noises (blogs), from all around the world. It was captured by Google and refashioned as a mirror for the fairy's hideous ogre sister Naked Self Interest, which the ogre (a publisher using Google Analytics) thought made her more beautiful and rich with pageviews, but which really only made her uglier and more vacuous every day.

I can't believe they are killing Needlebase and the Social Graph API. I can believe it, of course, but I'm thankful that my cynicism is still thin enough that it hurts every time something like this happens again. There are only so many more tools like this on the web left to kill, though.

Read More

Funny After Effects Pictures, If SOPA / PIPA Comes into Action !!!!

SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) bill is on the hot fire in US, most of the people all over the world are against it like Google, Facebook, YouTube, Wikipedia, etc. But some are supporting it by saying internet infringement. Few somehow manage to take humor out of it and are creating funny images in support to say no to SOPA. We look out for those images and are presenting to depict the effects if SOPA comes into action.

It feels relaxed that it is not implemented; otherwise lot of people would be in jail for mere copying. Even we will be in jail under copyright act as we have also copied all images from different sources over the Internet.

I got a new business idea, if US is sure of implementing it, then we can set there a jail management kind of business and it is for sure we’ll earn a lot!!

If you are against SOPA then raise your voice against it and say No to SOPA.

Read More

No joke this! Rajnikanth website really runs without internet

Yes you read it right, that’s the power of  being a Superstar. Guys at Webchutney (Digital Agency) on behalf of Bollywood site Desimartini.com developed a microsite dedicated to superstar Rajinikanth on his 61th Birthday that runs without the internet. Desimartini wanted to pay tribute to the southern superstar on his 61st Anniversary & decided to do it in a manner that does justice to his image.

Desimartini asked Webchutney to create something special for the superstar on his birthday which had to be unique and special and will reflect Rajini’s larger than life image as shown in his movies.

Website features trivia on Rajini’s life, movie and some old famous Rajinikanth Jokes.  On visiting the site, user has to disconnect his/her internet connection to enter the site. While browsing the site if a user reconnect internet, website will pops up a message which says, “This was unexpected. To keep browsing, switch off your internet”

Gurbaksh Singh, creative director, Webchutney, says, “Desimartini came to us with a clear mandate to do something extraordinary to increase outreach and visibility. Initially, we followed protocol and began exploring ideas in the social, mobile and digital space including augmented reality, but soon realised that nothing competed with the might of Rajini’s on-screen and real-life persona. It had to be a simple concept that will baffle users to the point of disbelief, and then a miracle will occur to induce gasps of ‘OMG!’, in keeping with Rajini’s original signature style. We knew we were on to something big as soon as we cracked the idea to create a website that will run purely on ‘Rajini Power’.

Commenting on the idea behind the site which runs without internet, Amit Garg, business head, Firefly e-Ventures (wholly-owned subsidiary of HT Media and owner of desimartini.com), says, “To the grab attention of the online audience, we needed to show them something they’ve never seen before, and only a Rajini website holds the credibility to do so!”

Sudesh Samaria, national creative director, Webchutney, says, “The possibility of running a website without the internet has never been leveraged on such a scale. With a heady mix of foot-tapping music, vibrant splash of colours, quirky quotes and illustrations, and icons in true Rajini style and lingo, we knew that the campaign had all the right ingredients to go viral. The microsite showcases the true prowess of the superstar — justifying his ‘larger-than-life’ image by making it happen online, but without the internet!”

Nowadays, Internet users are so smart to understand the actual logic behind this gimmick but still those who didn’t understand here is logic behind this trick. Whenever a user open the website with active internet connection whole Flash Website gets loaded in one go and once the whole site is loaded the Website gives error to those users who are still connected on Internet and If user disconnect website runs without any error. Website is designed in such interesting way which create illusion for not so smart internet users whenever a user click on any of the internal link of the website its shows loading %  and tagline under loading “Initiating Rajini Power”

Here is the Direct link to the Rajinikanth’s New Micro-Site 

Read More

SOPA : Why is the Internet World Against It ?

Several prominent websites like Wikipedia, Reddit and Wired went 'dark' on Wednesday to protest the proposed anti-piracy legislation in the US called SOPA, or the Stop Online Piracy Act. 

Why is the online world up in arms against it? After all, piracy does hurt copyright holders - but the way SOPA aims to go about curbing it threatens several aspects of the internet as we know it today. 

How will SOPA halt piracy? 

Websites that distribute links or host pirated files often spring up in far-flung places, away from US jurisdiction. But the Justice Department could ask the internet providers to block such websites. Even search engines like Google could be asked to exclude search results from blocked websites. 

Credit card companies and payment gateways like PayPal could be asked to block payment and companies could be prohibited from placing ads on such sites. 

Who is supporting SOPA? 

Primarily copyright holders and industry bodies like the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) and the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA). 

What's the problem with that? Wouldn't blocking piracy websites be good? 

Who defines what constitutes pirated content? Would simply talking about a pirated movie on your blog be construed as promotion of piracy? 

What about a situation where a website is unknowingly hosting pirated content? For instance, file sharing websites have useruploaded content. 

Their terms and conditions may clearly state that sharing of pirated content is illegal and they are constantly taking down offending material and blocking users. But it's impossible to monitor millions of users in real time. 

Should the file-sharing service be penalised for what the users upload? Similarly, many websites that you use (like Facebook, Twitter or Google services) rely on user content. 

Will SOPA 'kill' the internet? 

SOPA proposes up to five-year prison term for those found guilty of piracy or counterfeiting goods (for the first offence, if found guilty of streaming 10 pieces of copyrighted content within six months). 

The loose wording of the law states that the offending domain will be blocked. This is downright silly, as can easily be illustrated with these examples: if a single blog on Blogspot or Wordpress is hosting copyrighted content, all our blogs on these two sites will be branded as illegal by the US government. 

If a user (knowingly or unknowingly) posts any copyrighted content on Facebook, Twitter, Google or similar websites, it can get blocked and ultimately lead to their closure. 

How will it affect you and me? 

Protestors argue that the internet should be open for anyone to access global resources and to exercise the right to free speech. 

If SOPA comes into effect and a list of blocked websites has to be maintained by the internet service provider, then the operator will also have to monitor the internet traffic of each and every user. This not only raises issues of privacy but also opens a door for hackers to gain access to sensitive user data. 

SOPA will, in essence, legitimise censorship, make it 'acceptable' or the 'right thing to do'. The US government will reserve the right to brand any website as illegal and cut off all support to it. 

This will hurt entrepreneurial online ventures, hurt jobs and several of your favourite websites may be gone forever too. Plus there will always be ways to get around censorship and those in the know will manage - just the regular users of the internet will be affected.

Read More