Ctrl-Alt-Del

The communion of form and function with Thames Valley Windows

2019-07-07T09:34:00.001-07:00

Enter a new dimension of beauty and security

Windows and doors are not only architectural elements that allow light and access into your home. An integral part of good design, they convey your own personal style, well-being and security to all who enter your home.

We at Thames Valley Windows are passionate about the design of our windows and doors. With over 30 experience in the business, we offer a wide selection of designs to fit every budget. All our products are FENSA certified and incorporate the latest technologies in energy efficient double glazing and locking security for peace of mind and lower your heating bills.

Products choices designed to fit your budget

We offer a range of products in three distinct categories.

Essentials

Our Essentials line of entry-level products is designed to match beauty and budget for first-time home buyers.

Heritage

Our Heritage line is offers rich design, colours choices and exquisite materials for the discerning taste.

Exclusive

Our Exclusive line is the top of the line range. No expense is spared in the design of these products including electronic biometric locking systems.

At Thames Valley Windows, we are here to serve you. Our Home Consultants are experts in their field and can advise you on the right product to fit your needs. Call us for a commitment-free assessment of your needs at 0800 181 698 or come visit our showroom in Bracknell or Guildford.

Why you should care that half of EU members are shirking the EC about data sharing rules

2017-05-05T03:54:00.000-07:00

Ministers from half of the EU's 28 member states have signed a letter asking the EU Commission to drop its “barriers to the free flow of data”

Ok, let’s get the facts out first. The Commission will publish the findings of its inquiry into online platforms (“search engines, social media, knowledge and video sharing websites, app stores, etc.”) which took place after the publication of the EU's Digital Single Market Strategy last year.

In an article published by The Register, ministers from Belgium, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Great Britain, Ireland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Lithuania, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden decried the EU’s data protection legislation. They “encouraged the commission to move ambitiously forward in its efforts to remove regulatory and non-regulatory barriers in the Digital Single Market”, so that data can be shared more easily between and beyond member states.

Presently, data sharing across the EU is a complicated matter, with more complexity foreseen with the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018. As a result of the new legislation, which brought about the collapse of Safe Harbor (The Guardian, Oct 6, 2015), data localisation projects have picked up in Germany and France.

The authors of the letter pleaded the commission and the Dutch incumbent in the EU's rotating presidency to take the following into account (only excerpts are shown):

Build a solid foundation for the digital economy. For the digital economy to flourish businesses and consumers must thrive in a trusted and connected digital environment...review of the e-Privacy directive with the aim to repeal all elements that are no longer fit...regulatory framework should be adapted to better spur investments…

Strengthen the framework for digital innovation and entrepreneurship. Refrain from one-size-fits-all regulation which would reduce competition and hamper innovation...ensure that data can move freely across borders, both within and outside the EU, by removing all unjustified barriers to the free flow of data.

Move the single market into the digital age. As both consumers and businesses can benefit significantly from cross-border e-commerce within Europe we need to step up efforts to make it easier to trade online across the internal market and not impose new burdens on businesses.

In effect, the letter calls for the the outright repeal or heavy amendment of the e-Privacy directive using broadband business competitiveness as its justification to allow data to flow freely across borders.

The veil of secrecy

However, the “truth” is never what it seems and is usually shrouded in obfuscation and a foggy mist of vested interests. A regular bugbear for many governments, the EU's e-Privacy directive caused some distress in January when a legal opinion determined that it meant the ongoing snooping activities of many member states' governments were not strictly lawful.

The collapse of Safe Harbor also caused trouble for many of the US-based multinationals which had otherwise been able to promise they were following the European legal regime with Europeans' data when held in the US. Of course, the Snowden disclosures proved this was not the case.

Patriotic tech companies might complain about the stricter directives, but for the most part, multinationals, particularly American ones, have only one concern - the bottom line. Besides, of what use is European personal information in a US located database? Products and services offered on websites and social media are location based, i.e., a person is offered products and services based on that person’s geographical location, be it online or from a brick and mortar nearby. Even if that person were to login to Amazon, the majority of the products offered are locally sourced and, at best, they are pan-European handled by a local distributor. The exception (and it is a rare one as far as end-user shopping is concerned) is those products actually purchased in the US and shipped to Europe. So Americans have no real need or use for European personal information even though they will tell you they need that information to better match personal online behaviour and product offers. All that can be done just as efficiently right here without any need for leftpondian interference as all it requires is the right analytical algorithm.

Ulterior motives?

Of greater concern is the state apparatus that requires tech companies to turn over their data under the banner of national security. And exactly whose national security are we talking about, America’s or Europe’s? Paris, Brussels, Oslo, The Sinai Jet Bombing, Ankara, Beirut...where were the state intelligence agencies?

One might argue that only the metadata is scanned and inspected, and that no actual information is viewed or analysed. After all, state agencies have to scan millions of metadata tags daily making it impossible to detail each individual phone call or message. The problem lies in “three degrees of separation” or “the three hops,” (The Guardian, Oct 28, 2013) that the NSA’s PRISM program uses to determine association. It’s that third hop of connection that greatly expands the probability of innocent people worldwide being scooped up into the NSA’s surveillance machine. As Ars Technica explain in an article from 2013, you’re only “one hop from the author, and three hops from Hamid Karzai.” And if you think it’s only happening in the US, guess again. Just yesterday, May 26, the UK’s independent biometrics commissioner, Alastair MacGregor, revealed that 53% of the 9,600 individuals on the counter terrorism databases have never been accused of a crime.

How we feel about it

The simple truth is that national security agencies have drunk their own Kool-Aid and have ended up seeing terrorists under every rock. It’s called tunnel vision which then morphs into collective paranoia. Just look at what’s happening in the US with Patriot Act I and II, the FISA courts, the militarisation of police forces and the institutionalised racism of ethnic minorities. You think this is all crazy talk? Does the name Donald Trump ring a bell? The fact is security agencies are no more likely to stop a terrorist attack than you or me as evidenced in a series of articles: Business Insider, The Most Interesting Revelations From Frontline's Powerful Exposé of the National Security Agency, May 20, 2014; The Intercept, US Mass Surveillance Has No Record of Thwarting..., Nov 17, 2015; The Washington Post, NSA Phone Record collection Does Little to Prevent Terrorist Attacks..., Jan 12, 2014.

We take data security very seriously; it is the heart and soul of our business. So when a news article like this one is published, and entire governments seek to water down privacy laws, we get very concerned. That is not to say we don’t applaud the work of national security agencies, we do. It is a thankless and wearisome job. But we do ask state agencies to show some common sense judgement when it comes to privacy laws and data sharing.

We do nothing to further the cause of national security by indefinitely detaining, without due process (Human Rights Watch, Apr 18, 2016), a false positive suspected terrorist in Guantanamo while simultaneously arming ISIS rebels in Syria through Turkey’s back door (The Guardian, Now The Truth Emerges..., June 3, 2015) simply because they are against Bashar al-Assad. The farce is almost laughable.

Data security and privacy go hand in hand and one cannot be isolated from the other. If you don’t have privacy, you don’t have data security; if you don’t have data security, you don’t have privacy. It’s that simple. So, while entire governments seek to weaken the privacy rights of individuals in the guise of “increased commercial opportunities,” the security industry takes an opposing view because it negates everything we’re trying to accomplish for our clients - the possibility of safeguarding the integrity of their information assets from prying eyes, industrial espionage and data breaches. In fact, we in the cybersecurity subscribe to the opposite: only by guaranteeing data security do our clients feel more confident in expanding e-commerce opportunities.

The Answer

Clearly, each side has its own agenda and motives, and never the twain shall meet. Or can they? We argue that both sides can achieve a workable solution to everyone’s satisfaction if each is willing to compromise. Do secret state security agencies really need to exchange data deemed “suspect” between each other? We already have Interpol for that. From a commercial point of view, European companies doing business on the continent already freely exchange customer information between marketing and financial organisations to offer targeted advertising. At the same time, cybersecurity vendors should provide more robust encryption of data packet transfers. In this day and age, we should offer the best of both worlds.

Secon Cyber Security
At Secon Cyber Security, we take the matter of data privacy very seriously. Our whole purpose for being is cybersecurity. As such, we offer advice and services around GDPR compliance, network security, cloud security, endpoint security, email archiving, DLP (data loss prevention) solutions, user-awareness training and education, cyber skills assessment and development.

2016-10-05T03:12:00.002-07:00

your money or your files are gone forever

Our logo

2016-05-19T04:43:00.002-07:00

Now THAT’S embarrassing!

2016-05-13T10:50:00.000-07:00

A goatse hosting site is hacked leaving users with their asses vulnerable (pun intended)

Reality. You can’t make this up. It’s so much better than any reality TV show.

A data breach at a forum for "anal fisting" has resulted in the exposure of 107,000 accounts. More than a third (37 per cent) of those affected by the Rosebutt Board were already included in the Have I Been Pwned? site, according to security researcher Troy Hunt. Victims will be able to use Have I Been Pwned? to check whether their data has been exposed once Hunt uploads the leaked data.

Info exposed includes usernames, email addresses, IP addresses, and weakly hashed passwords, Vice reports. Info uploaded to Have I Been Pwned? will be flagged as "sensitive" and not publicly searchable.

The Rosebutt Board caters to enthusiasts of “extreme anal dilation and anal fisting,” many of whom have been placed at risk of public humiliation or blackmail as a result of their sexual proclivities.

Not surprisingly, multiple .gov and .mil email addresses were exposed in the Rosebutt breach, Hunt reports.

Note: You know what this means, don’t you? After years of the government sticking it up our rear ends, it’s time for some serious payback!

Here’s the cherry on top

How often do you find this kind of synchronicity in life?

Right after reading the above news article, I turned to the Guardian. And what do I find? The 2016 Turner Prize shortlist features the sculpture of a man’s ass! Here’s the picture.

More than just another brick in the wall

2016-05-11T07:49:00.001-07:00

Sats answers published online...the second time in 3 weeks! Testing to go ahead despite leak

Pink Floyd's The Wall

News published by several media sources yesterday revealed that the Department for Education suffered a second major embarrassment after the answers for its Spelling, punctuation and grammar tests for 10 and 11 yr olds across england were published online.

When we grew up and went to school there were certain teachers who would hurt the children any way they could...

Despite the leak, testing would go ahead. A DfE spokesperson said the key stage 2 test of spelling, punctuation and grammar (Spag), which is compulsory for pupils in the final year of state primary school in England, would take place as planned but said its investigation would continue.

By pouring their derision upon anything we did and exposing every weakness however carefully hidden by the kids.

A whistleblower revealed to the Guardian that Pearson, the multinational education publisher responsible for administering the Sats, posted the tests a day early on a password protected site for test markers. According to the BBC website, a company statement said that "a small number of markers accessed the paper, although as contracted markers they are bound by confidentiality and have a duty not to share any papers. We do not have any evidence that the content of the paper has been compromised."

But in the town it was well known when they got home at night their fat, psychopathic wives would thrash them within inches of their lives.

John Fallon, Pearson CEO, said the company believed 102 markers had seen the paper in the four hours it was available. "Unfortunately, in this case we have made a mistake which we are very sorry for," he said.

We don't need no education.

The DfE said while the paper had not been put into the public domain, it appeared a "rogue marker" had then leaked the paper to the Guardian newspaper.

We don't need no thought control.

The new key stage 2 tests for 10- and 11-year-olds have also been widely criticised by teachers and parents who say they are too difficult for the age group. Last week parents across the country took their children out of school in protest at the tests.

No dark sarcasm in the classroom; teachers, leave them kids alone.

One experienced primary school headteacher said the new grammar tests would have stumped Jane Austen. “I have a degree in English language and there are a number of questions that I couldn’t answer,” she said.

Hey, teacher! Leave them kids alone! All in all you're just another brick in the wall.

Special thanks to Pink Floyd for a great album.

A new cybersecurity study reveals that…

2016-05-11T05:56:00.001-07:00

Cybersecurity studies - how many does that make this year, 12...15?

No one keeps a secret for long

Has anyone noticed?

Almost daily we are being treated to the findings of yet another cybersecurity report designed (and not by accident, I might add) to scare the living bejesus out of us.

For some reason, everytime I see a new cybersecurity report has been released, regardless of its content, I am instantly transported back to that popular 80s arcade game, Pac-Man ━ that canary yellow, jaw-chomping, insatiable dot eater, whose 8-bit wakka-wakka wav sound file was the inspiration for Shakira’s 2010 World Cup Waka-Waka theme song, I’m guessing. OK, that’s not even close.

This Pac-Man, however, has my face on it and I’m being chased around an ever increasingly, difficult-to-survive, digital maze by 4 hungry little chomping “ware” ghosts - adware, malware, spyware and ransomware. Actually, any 80s arcade game is a great metaphor for today’s cyberattacks ━ Joust, Frogger, Space Invaders, Caterpillar, even Q*Bert ━ they’re all coming to get you, the hero, and you know that, sooner or later, you’re going to die. There’s no escape.

I may be wrong but it’s as if these reports are being released almost simultaneously with the news of some cyberattack. And that makes me wonder if somehow security developers might be in cahoots with code hackers.

I don’t want to belittle the gravity or consequences of these attacks ━ they are real. But it’s not surprising either that most of these cyberreports originate in the US, the masters of fear mongering. Americans live off fear; just look at their news and adverts. It’s how they make their money. They spread fear and get you to buy stuff. Erectile dysfunction? We have a pill; Weird, suspicious looking neighbors? We have guns; Fear of illegal immigrants? We’ll build a wall; Running out of oil? We’ll start a war somewhere. All you have to do is pay.

In fact, this heightened state of collective paranoia has reached such a fever pitch that, just this past weekend, a lady on a flight from Philadelphia to Syracuse reported to flight attendants that the person sitting next to her might be a terrorist because he was “writing strange things on a notepad.” It turns out the person next to her was professor Guido Menzio, an Italian economist working on some differential equations. I’m sure authorities at the Pentagon and NSA love this woman because she bought into the fear like a champion. To me, though, this woman just went off on a (sinα / cos α). In case you’re wondering, that equation translates to tangent. Hey, maybe I’m a terrorist, too!

So the big question remains. How do we sift through all the fear tactics with the least amount of psychological and emotional damage?

There are at least two ways. The first one is guaranteed to rid you of your fear forever. Live off the grid. Throw away everything electronic - TVs, phones, computers, cars, radios, watches, microwave ovens, trainers, etc. - basically anything with a chip in it, sell your house and belongings, buy a 60s or 70s vintage car, move out into the country far away from CCTV cameras, grow your own food and live free away from prying eyes, negative news reports, inane reality shows and doomsday-predicting politicians! Some people have done it and swear by it.

It’s a great life, if you can find it. Just ask this fellow from Alabama. Wait...what? That’s right, if you don’t buy any stuff, the government will come for you and evict you from your own land for being “unpatriotic.” So much for freedom, then. Clearly, you’re only allowed to be as free as the stuff ‘fear’ tells you to buy.

The other way is to use common sense, the ability to act in accordance to the consequences of cause-effect, a commodity of which we are in short supply. The demographics here are quite clear: millennials are, by far, the most tech savvy group. In other words, they’re the ones who spend the most time online, and, by extension, the demographic with the least awareness for common sense. Again, I don’t blame the ordinary millennials for their lack of cybersecurity awareness. They’re programmed to be online 24/7 with no regard for consequences. It’s a trend that’s been slowly developing and taking hold since the 80s.

Those of us who are older, and hopefully wiser, know the dangers of information, i.e., data, overload. We were brought up with phrases like, “Loose lips sink ships” and “Mum’s the word.” So we’re naturally wary of all these bits of personal data flying about in cyberspace. But millennials have no such compunction; they don’t know anything else.

So, use common sense because there’s no other alternative.

Install a good, reputable security program on all your devices. Make sure these offer VPNs and are cloud compatible.
Install a good password manager.
Make sure all your system devices are patched and updated.
Don’t go putting stuff on the internet you wouldn’t want your mother to see.
If you must do porn, go only to reputable porn sites. (yes, they exist!)
Don’t share everything with everybody - your real life is more important than your virtual one.
If you’re going to cheat on your spouse, do it the old fashioned way - go to a brothel and pay for it; don’t look for it online. Check out The Girlfriend Experience on Showtime.
READ! Preferably more than 140 characters at a time. There’s a lot of great advice out there; inform yourself. We have more knowledge available to us than at any point in history, and yet, we seem to be dumber than ever before.
Employ a “best practices” strategy.

But above all, just remember this - everything you do online is visible in some form or another. What would you like strangers to know about you...or not?

Secure.me your Facebook page (pt. 2)

2013-02-17T03:07:00.002-08:00

OK, we've discussed the first two sections of Secure.me. Before jumping into the third section, I thought I would post links to a couple of reviews I found online. The first one is from the Secure.me website and provides a primer on how Secure.me works. It also provides some interesting statistics on their analysis of 500,000 social media apps. The statistics alone should give you cause for concern. The second one is a blog written by a mother who expresses her concerns about online stalkers and the need to protect her children. Needless to say, she uses Secure.me to monitor her children's facebook profiles.

3. Threat summary
On the left hand column, Secure.me displays your threat summary. The number is orange next to 'Summary' is the total number of threats over the time period you set (see '2. Scan now' below) found by the scan process. The total is broken down into the 5 different areas I described previously. As you can see, in my particular case, I have a total of 232 potential threats of which 201 are due to photos. And these are the threats found over the previous 7 days only. (I dread to think what Secure.me will find if I perform a scan back to 2007!)

Photos

Open image in new tab

Photo Analysis Section

Activities

Activities Analysis Section

Privacy Analysis

Privacy Analysis Section

Click the text in these boxes or the "i" on the right side boxes

Profile Analysis

Profile Analysis Section

Network Analysis

Network Analysis Section

4. Privacy, Profile and Network Analysis
This topic has been covered at length in the previous section and needs no further explanation.

5. Secure ranking
This topic has also been covered in the previous section and needs no further explanation

And basically, that's it! Remember: Secure.me will not fix your Facebook security. It will point out potential weaknesses in your page and recommend fixes. If you still encounter problems, email me.

One last thing, I apologize for the layout of the blog - it's horrible. I'll have to do something about that.

Secure.me your Facebook page (pt. 1)

2013-02-15T09:25:00.002-08:00

With Facebook's new Graph Search capabilities, your profile page pictures and wall posts are more exposed than ever before. The New York Times recently wrote an article on several privacy tools users may find useful. So far, I've only tried Secure.me which I explain below.

Recently, lots of Facebook users have been posting privacy notices and the need to get expressed written consent for the use of their pictures or content. Out of fear, other users see the post and share it by copy/pasting it on their own walls causing the whole thing to go viral. While the post may sound legal, beguiling the user to think (erroneously) he or she is actually protected, these messages have no legal bearing whatsoever.

The worst part is, people don't even bother to check the veracity or authenticity of the message. They just simply assume that because it's being posted on Facebook, it must be true the same way chain emails are true. (If you don't forward this blog to 10 friends, the DPRK will nuke the US.) However, a quick check on Snopes.com will tell you all you need to know about the message you're posting. But if you still don't get it, College Humor has a video that will make you feel like a downright idiot. If you're still in doubt, just Google it and see the results.

So, stop posting useless, none binding legal notices and stop asking your Facebook friends to perform security tasks for you. Take responsibility for your own security. Secure.me is just one of many available free apps that can help you in this regard.

Secure.me
Let me start by saying Secure.me is a monitoring tool, it will NOT configure your privacy settings on Facebook; you still have to do that yourself. What Secure.me does is scan all your photos, activities (latest user activities, status updates, comments, likes, places and friends), privacy analysis (personal information), profile analysis (questionable language on wall posts) and network analysis (questionable language on your friend's posts), and then proceeds to give you an account summary of its findings. You may or may not care for the language analysis feature of Secure.me, but it's there for a reason. Job recruiters and HR personnel normally do Facebook background checks of potential employees. By minimizing objectionable language, candidates will have a more positive projection of themselves.

After you install Secure.me (I am assuming you know how to install a free app), go ahead and login. You should see the following screen. Right click the image and select 'Open image in new tab' from the contextual menu. A full size image will open in the new tab. I've boxed and labeled the sections 1 to 5 which are explained below.

Secure.me User Home Page

1. Automatic Monitoring
You can choose to have your Facebook page monitored 24/7 (ON) or you can manually scan your profile (OFF). If this is the first time you use Secure.me, change the setting to ON.

2. Scan Now
The first time you use Secure.me, the Automatic Monitoring option is set to OFF by default. Click the Scan Now button. After the scanning process is complete, which can take several minutes depending on the time frame option (7 days, 30 days, 90 days), set the Automatic Monitoring option to ON.

Below these two options is a graph of the results of the scan. And right below the graph, it displays a summary of the analysis of privacy issues as well as the state of your profile and your network. Each of these three topics gets a rating up to 10 points, with 10 being the best.

(cont'd. in pt. 2)

Google, online content and government censorship

2012-06-19T08:12:00.009-07:00

Today's headlines reveal that Google is alarmed over increasing government requests to censor online content. Do you have cause to worry?

The first thing I do in the morning is go online and read the news. Most days I read up on the latest sporting results and the headlines on the utter failure of the Spanish economy. However, when I wake up to this sort of news it's like shooting caffeine straight into my veins.

In its latest Transparency Report, Google claims that governments, both foreign and domestic, have increased their request for the search engine giant to remove blog posts and videos. Aside from removing content, the requests also asked Google to hand over user information. Amazingly, the requests were made mostly at the behest of western democratic governments.

This would all be well and fine if the content were solely related to terrorist activities and copyright infringement but this is not always the case. The Independent, a British newspaper, states that "Google says it increasingly fields requests from government agencies trying to use their power to suppress political opinions and other material they don't like. That comment may have been aimed at the US, where police prosecutors, courts and other government agencies submitted 187 requests to remove content from July through December last year, more than doubling from 92 requests from January through June."

The Voice of America further states that "the latest report goes on to detail a noticeable increase in the number of governments requesting material be taken down or blocked not for legal reasons per se, but more for image purposes."

Here's a sampling of the Transparency Report:

Germany - A court order resulted in the removal of 898 search results that linked to forums and blogs containing statements about a government agency and one of its employees that the court determined were not credible.

Canada - We received a request from the Passport Canada office to remove a YouTube video of a Canadian citizen urinating on his passport and flushing it down the toilet. We did not comply with this request.

Spain - We received 14 requests from the Spanish Data Protection Authority to remove 270 search results that linked to blogs and sites referencing individuals and public figures. The Spanish Data Protection Authority also ordered the removal of three blogs published on Blogger and three videos hosted on YouTube. We did not comply with these requests.

United States - We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove a blog because of a post that allegedly defamed a law enforcement official in a personal capacity. We did not comply with this request, which we have categorized in this Report as a defamation request.

We received a request from a local law enforcement agency to remove 1,400 YouTube videos for alleged harassment. We did not comply with this request. Separately, we received a request from a different local law enforcement agency to remove five user accounts that allegedly contained threatening and/or harassing content. We terminated four of the accounts, which resulted in the removal of approximately 300 videos, but did not remove the remaining account with 54 videos.

We received a court order to remove 218 search results that linked to allegedly defamatory websites. We removed 25% of the results cited in the request.

The number of content removal requests we received increased by 103% compared to the previous reporting period.

Freedom of expression
The question then is, does free speech exist? For those of us living in western democracies, the answer would be an unequivocal "yes," but if and only if you tow the government zeitgeist.

I lived in the U.S. for over five years while going to school, and in all that time I never felt that I was living in the "land of the free." To me, freedom in the U.S. was always an illusion. Instead, it felt like an Orwellian nightmare police state. The U.S. will have their citizens believe they are free only if they buy their brand of freedom, which is to say fear. By instilling fear, the government controls the people, how they think and what they think. Look for example what happened in Iraq. The government fed its people a bunch of lies, sprinkled it with Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) and impending terrorist attacks, and justified the subsequent invasion.

Time's Man of the Year
For me, the clearest example of this "controlled" freedom of the press happened back in 2001.

Every year Time magazine selects a Man of the Year or, as it is now known, Person of the Year. The only criteria set by the editors of Time to determine who or what receives the recognition is a person, group, idea or object that "for better or for worse, has done the most to influence the events of the year." As such, Time had previously selected Hitler, Stalin and Ayatollah Khomeini as Person of the Year.

In 2001, the choice was clear: Osama bin Laden. However, prior to the release of the issue, Time conducted a survey among readers in the mid-west. The reaction was foreseeable: the choice of Osama bin Laden was seen as deplorable and would have antagonized its readers, possibly damaging the magazine's and the Group's revenues.

Time's official statement was the following: "Though we spent hours contemplating the pros and cons of naming Osama bin Laden, it ultimately became easy to dismiss him," said managing editor Jim Kelly. "He is not a larger-than-life figure with broad historical sweep...he is smaller than life, a garden variety terrorist whose evil plan succeeded beyond his highest hopes."

In the end, time named Rudolph Giuliani as Person of the Year and in so doing compromised its journalistic integrity. Eleven years on, the world still lives under the shadow of Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda. Where has Rudolph Giuliani been all these years?

Whatever justification Jim Kelly gave, Time sold out to crass commercialism and threw its principles out the window. And it is for this simple reason I have not bought a Time magazine since 2001. I cannot subscribe to a news company that claims to be impartial when in fact it is not.

So, is there freedom of expression? Absolutely...just tow the government line and live an illusion.

My mind is my voice; my laptop its vocalizer - Javi Brias

Megaupload: piracy or business savvy?

2012-01-25T03:49:00.116-08:00

The Megaupload case has created worldwide interest due to its ramifications. The outcome of this case could determine the future of file sharing, not only on a wholesale basis but on a personal level as well.

I've been following the Megaupload case with great interest and was going to start this post yesterday but decided to wait for the outcome of Dotcom's bail hearing, which we now know has been denied.

Beyond the criminal aspects of this case which have yet to be proven, there's something very unsettling about this whole media circus because its akin to a schoolyard bully marking his ground and demanding tribute.

This story is not about justice, it's about disrespect. It's about the street corner drug dealer not paying the Don his due. When Big Content says Megaupload is guilty of piracy, they're not really concerned that people are illegally downloading copyrighted content from the site. They're enraged that Dotcom is making money off their labor and he's not paying them a cent. And that's the whole point. It's a question of money and not justice.

For decades the Hollywood bigwigs have languorously sat behind huge oak desks smoking illegally obtained Cuban Cohibas while their media output produced millions in earnings. In the process, the media moguls have become complacent believing their goose would lay golden eggs forever.

Enter the young upstart. Seeing the complacency of Mr. Hollywood's ways, he decides to rattle his goose's gilded cage. And that's got the media moguls fuming. Still, this isn't the first time this has happened.

One of the earliest copyright infringement cases using new technologies is the Betamax Case (Sony vs. Universal) of 1984. Basically, the Supreme Court held that Sony, maker of VCRs, "was not liable for creating a technology that some customers may use for copyright infringing purposes, so long as the technology is capable of substantial non-infringing uses. In other words, where a technology has many uses, the public cannot be denied the lawful uses just because some (or many or most) may use the product to infringe copyrights." Sound familiar? Clearly, based on the latter statement, we have a precedent for the legality of file sharing sites.

But there's more. I mentioned the complacency of media moguls and their current business model. A recent global study by Social Science Research Center, and backed by Canada's International Development Research Center, seems to agree. Following several years of independent investigation in six emerging economies, the report, Media Piracy in Emerging Economies, concludes that piracy is chiefly a product of market failure, not a legal one.

Simply stated, nature abhors a vacuum. Innovators saw a market opportunity which Hollywood has largely dismissed or is still trying to assimilate. I put my own case as an example. I like many of the American TV series and like to watch them as soon as they come out. However, living in Europe I often have to wait a year or two before the current season is aired. And that's assuming the show I'm interested in is picked up by local networks. To top it off, by the time the show is aired, it's dubbed. So, I tried logging into Hulu.com and other similar sites to watch the shows online. However, these services are not allowed to operate over IP addresses outside the U.S. I've even written them stating that I would be willing to pay a monthly fee to access their content but current contractual constraints prohibit them from providing their service overseas. There are many people like me all over the world and we are largely ignored. So what's a person to do?

I don't know who's right or who's wrong and, quite frankly, I don't care because I know innovation will win out in the long run. Innovation is an unstoppable force and Hollywood its unmovable object. This is a wake up call for Hollywood. Sooner or later they are going to have to accept market innovation and design new ways of delivering content to users. They may even have to make a deal with the devil himself.

More suckers than I care to know...

2010-04-11T12:44:00.000-07:00

Ok, I get it - the iPad looks cool.

But seriously, do you really want to end up with something you can't really use for 500 bucks?

Apple products have become the standard for status seeking yuppies. I can't argue with their marketing techniques; they do know how to sell a product. They even had a whole episode of Modern Family dedicated to the iPad. But creating a want and needing that want are two very different things.

The iPad is beset with flaws, most notably the lack of Flash compatibility. Eighty percent of all websites use Flash to enhance the surfing experience with rich Internet applications (RIA). This means that most of the sites you visit, including most social networking websites, will not appear properly on your new iPad if you manage to see anything at all. Forget playing online games - they all use Flash.

Maybe Apple's success has gone to their heads. If so, it sounds extremely arrogant and ultimately stupid.

Here's a couple of other things you can't do with your new iPad.

You can't plug in any peripherals because there are no USB ports. That means no photo downloads from your camera unless it's got bluetooth/Wi-Fi and no report printouts unless your printer's got bluetooth/Wi-Fi. In fact, you can't use any peripherals unless they have bluetooth/Wi-Fi and that includes an external hard disk, something that will be essential since the iPad only has a between 16GB and 64GB of memory. By today's standards, that's nothing. You can buy a USB pen drive with more memory.

In the end, you're stuck with a nice looking product that does a few things well (screwing up your whole music library when you download iTunes) and which you will tire of rather quickly. And then, you'll come to the stark realization you could have had something different for much less with a lot better performance and capacity.

I make no bones about it - I've never been an Apple fan. I just can't trust a company that locks you out of your own product. It's like an open-source guru once told me, "You wouldn't buy a car that denied access to the engine because the hood was welded shut, would you? That's what Apple does."

The way I see it, Apples are for people who don't know about computers but want to look good doing it.

Salesforce.com and the value of social networks

2009-12-03T01:51:00.000-08:00

Anybody who is even mildly tech savvy probably has an account in one of the popular networking sites. The fact that you're reading this blog proves it as I've only posted it on Facebook. Such is their popularity that these sites (Facebook, MySpace, Twitter) have become the ideal platform to share messages, photos, videos and comments with family and friends. Best of all, they are cloud operated platforms requiring no aplication downloads on your own PC.

But for big business, what is the value of a social network?

Social networks are the natural evolution of the first collaboration productivity tools. Initially, these consisted of email and instant messaging. Later on, wikis, user forums and developer communities appeared on the scene allowing a greater level of interaction. Subsequently, these different productivity tools made their way into social networking sites offering all-in-one functionality.

One of the greatest benefits to end users of this evolution is the concept known as crowd sourcing - user forums or communities that share experiences on specific subjects. Nowadays, we no longer rely on sales hype to determine the cost-benefit of a product or service. We go online to see what type of experiences other users have had with the product and base our decisions on these personal assessments. It's the equivalent of customer testimonials on a massive scale.

Until now big business has not really known how to profit from or take advantage of social networks as these sites are available to anyone free of charge. Site revenues come mostly from advertisers wanting to maximize demographic reach. Facebook, for example, has 350 million registered users.

That is, until now.

Salesforce.com, founded in 1999, is the world leader in cloud computing CRM (Customer Relationship Management) solutions. CRM is an automated system that traces the life-cycle of sales, from lead generation to post sales service and maintenance. Residing in the cloud as Software as a Service (SaaS), Salesforce.com's CRM solutions require no downloads on the client's PC and is OS agnostic. Because of the flexibility of its CRM solution (highly configurable and secure modules), Salesforce.com pricing model is just as flexible (subscription or per-user basis). Since its incorporation, Salesforce.com has steadily grown and refined its product and service portfolio. Today, they have more than 50,000 customers and over 100,000 contributing developers.

In 2007, Salesforce.com launched Force.com, a new concept in cloud computing known as Platform as a Service extending the capabilities of CRM's SaaS model with the incorporation of collaboration tools in an integrated, flexible and secure suite of services. As with their CRM solutions, Force.com's mashable aplications offer a high level of user customization and configuration.

Peter Coffee, Salesforce.com's Director of Platform Research, states that Force.com has experienced impressive growth in the emerging markets of India, Brazil and Australia where there is a large concentration of outsourcing companies and developer communities. Companies like Infosys and Tata, for example, have had such a great success with Force.com that they have actually been able to export their processes to the US. In other words, the high level of efficiency (read cost minimization) these companies have achieved through the use of the Force.com platform has permitted them to export the whole process (sales, service, help desk)to countries where costs are considered to be prohibitive.

Force.com consists of four basic components: Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Custom Cloud and Chatter. These components are available as independent modules as well.

Sales Cloud - offers the main benefits of Salesforce.com CRM including mobile communications and real time updates including collaboration tools and analytics.

Service Cloud - is centered on client's technical support. Aside from consisting of its own knowledge base for the Help Desk, Service Cloud also incorporates user's experiences (crowd sourcing). The advantages are clear. Different regions offer variations of the same product. For example, A Honda Accord in the US may have very little in common with a European Honda Accord. This means that the propietary knowledge base does not have to be exported to different data centers all over the world. Only the commonalities are exported as each region develops its own unique set of events. The result is a leaner, more agile base freeing up valuable compute resources.

Custom Coud - is the application database created by the developer community. Custom Cloud not only offers all types of applications for use in client's systems, it serves as a direct link with developers to facilitate the modification or customization of Force.com applications.

Chatter - is the latest component of Force.com and is slated for release in the Spring of 2010. On Chatter's release, it will allow the integration of social networking sites into the company's realm. According to Coffee, "Chatter will provide real business value to the whole phenomenon of social networking. It will be the integration of partners, manufacturers, suppliers, customers, service and maintenance techs using existing social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Additionally, the networks will also provide professional tools such as forecasting and analytics. Everyone involved in the company's process will be connected at all times regardless of location providing instant feedback and results."

If your Help Desk or outsourcing partner is turning out to be a black hole of ever increasing costs and poor customer satisfaction, perhaps it's time to look into more viable alternatives. Specifically, Force.com.

For more information visit www.salesforce.com.

Novatel's MiFi - a new kind of wireless

2009-06-24T04:52:00.002-07:00

I'm reprinting this article from the New York times verbatim because I've been using this device for a couple of weeks now and I plan to do a little lab analysis in a few days. However, that analysis will be in Spanish and will be totally irrelevant to anyone not residing in Spain.

Still, this article sums up nicely what Novatel's MiFi is capable of, and thought you might find it interesting.

The New York Times
May 7, 2009
State of the Art

Online Wherever You Like, in a Private Wi-Fi Hot Spot
By DAVID POGUE

Someday, we'll tell our grandchildren how we had to drive around town looking for a coffee shop when we needed to get online, and they'll laugh their heads off. Every building in America has running water, electricity and ventilation; what's the holdup on universal wireless Internet?

Getting online isn't impossible, but today's options are deeply flawed. Most of them involve sitting rooted in one spot - in the coffee shop or library, for example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals leaking from people's apartments are over; they all require passwords these days.)

If you want to get online while you're on the move, in fact, you've had only one option: buy one of those $60-a-month cellular modems from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. The speed isn't exactly cable-modem speed, but it's close enough. You can get a card-slot version, which has a nasty little antenna protuberance, or a
U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a passing flight attendant's beverage cart.

A few laptops have this cellular modem built in, which is less awkward but still drains the battery with gusto.

But imagine if you could get online anywhere you liked - in a taxi, on the beach, in a hotel with disgustingly overpriced Wi-Fi - without messing around with cellular modems. What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere?

Incredibly, there is such a thing. It's the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It's a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone.

When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot.

The MiFi gets its Internet signal the same way those cellular modems do - in this case, from Verizon's excellent 3G (high-speed) cellular data network. If you just want to do e-mail and the Web, you pay $40 a month for the service (250 megabytes of data transfer, 10 cents a megabyte above that). If you watch videos and shuttle a lot of big files, opt for the $60 plan (5 gigabytes). And if you don't travel incessantly, the best deal may be the one-day pass: $15 for 24 hours, only when you need it. In that case, the MiFI itself costs $270.

In essence, the MiFi converts that cellular Internet signal into an umbrella of Wi-Fi coverage that up to five people can share. (The speed suffers if all five are doing heavy downloads at once, but that's a rarity.)

Cellular wireless routers, as they're called, have been available for years. The average person hasn't even heard of this product category, but these routers are popular on, for example, Hollywood movie shoots. On-location cast and crew can kill their downtime online, sharing the signal from a single cellular card that's broadcast via Wi-Fi.

Those machines, however, get no cell signal on their own; you have to supply your own cellular modem. They're also big and metal and ugly. But the real deal-killer is that they have to be plugged into a power outlet. You can't use one at the beach or in the woods unless you have a really, really long extension cord.

The MiFi is remarkable for its tiny size, its sleek good looks, its 30-foot range (it easily filled a large airport gate area with four-bar signal) - and the fact that it's cordless and rechargeable.

How is this amazing? Let us count the ways.

First, you're spared the plug-and-unplug ritual of cellular modems. You can leave the MiFi in your pocket, purse or laptop bag; whenever you fire up your laptop, netbook, Wi-Fi camera or game gadget, or wake up your iPhone or iPod Touch, you're online.

Last week, I was stuck on a runway for two hours. As I merrily worked away online, complete with YouTube videos and file downloads, I became aware that my seatmate was sneaking glances. As I snuck counter-glances at him, I realized that he had no interest in what I was doing, but rather in the signal-strength icon on my laptop - on an airplane where there wasn't otherwise any Wi-Fi signal. "I'm sorry," he finally said, completely baffled, "but how are you getting a wireless signal?" He was floored when I pulled the MiFi from my pocket, its power light glowing evilly.

If he'd had a laptop, I would have happily shared my Wi-Fi cloud with him. The network password is printed right there on the bottom of the MiFi itself. That's a clever idea, actually. Since the MiFi is in your possession, it's impossible for anyone to get into your cloud unless you show it to them. Call it "security through proximity."

The second huge advantage of the MiFi is that, as with any wireless router, you can share its signal with other people; up to five road warriors can enjoy the same connection. Your youngsters with their iPod Touches in the back of the van could hop online, for example, or you and your colleagues could connect and collaborate on a corporate retreat. Verizon points out how useful the MiFi could be for college
students working off-campus, insurance adjusters at a disaster site and trade show booth teams. (Incredibly, Verizon even suggests that you could use the MiFi at home as your primary family Internet service. Sharing a cellular-modem account was something it strenuously discouraged only two years ago.)

Some footnotes: First, the MiFi goes into sleep mode after 30 minutes of inactivity, to prolong its battery life. Yes, it means that a single charge can get you through a full day of on-and-off Internet noodling, even though the battery is supposed to
run for only four hours a charge. (it's rated at 40 hours of standby). But once the MiFi is asleep, your Wi-Fi bubble is gone until you tap the power button.

It's probably the height of ingratitude to complain about having to press a single button to get yourself online. But if the MiFi is flopping around somewhere in the bottom of your bag, just finding it can be a minor hassle.

Fortunately, you can turn off that sleep feature, or even change the inactivity interval before it kicks in. This gizmo is a full-blown wireless router with full-blown configuration controls. If you type 192.168.1.1 into your Web browser's address bar - a trick well known to network gurus - the MiFi's settings pages magically appear. Now you can do geeky, tweaky tasks like changing the password or the wireless network name, limiting access to specific computers, turning
on port forwarding (don't ask) .

A final note: If your laptop has a traditional cellular modem, you can turn on a Mac OS X or Windows feature called Internet Sharing, which rebroadcasts the signal via Wi-Fi, just like the MiFi.

But the MiFi is infinitely easier to use and start up, doesn't lock you into carrying around your laptop all the time, has better range and works even when your laptop battery is dead. (The MiFi recharges from a wall outlet; it still works as a hot spot while it's plugged in.)

It's always exciting when someone invents a new product category, and this one is a jaw-dropper. All your gadgets can be online at once, wherever you go, without having to plug anything in - no coffee shop required. Heck, it might even be worth showing the grandchildren.

Random Access Memory (RAM)

2009-05-26T14:15:00.000-07:00

Before I get into other apps every system should have, I just wanted to add this piece of information as a result of a demo I witnessed the other day by the techies at Kingston Technology.

Kingston is the largest independent fabricator of system memory modules (RAM). You might be familiar with internal/external disc drives, USBs or memory cards (SD, SDHC, etc.) from other fabricators like SanDisk. They are not the same thing.

At the very beginning of this blog I said, "You can never have enough RAM." The reason is simple: new applications requiere ever increasing amounts of RAM to function properly. Even if can't use all your RAM capacity now, sooner or later, you'll need it.

RAM is volatile memory. It's not meant to store anything; when you turn off your computer, everything you have in RAM is lost. It's a temporary workspace applications use to access frequently used data.

Having said that, the other day the nice people of Kingston performed a demo of their latest RAM module: Hy perX DDR3. RAM, like every other technology, has evolved. The very first computers (IBM PC, Apple IIe, Amiga) had 8-16KB RAM, a far cry from the 8GB systems of today. However, today's memory modules are not backward compatible with previous versions. In other words, DDR1 is not compatible with DDR2 which is not compatible with DDR3.

The first thing you notice about the new HyperX is its heat dissipator. It's huge! And that can only mean one thing: it generates a lot of heat. But that's not a bad thing because that also means it's fast. In fact, the whole demo centered around HyperX's capacity for overclocking. In plain English, the user's choice to configure data transfer between RAM and application faster and beyond its intended limits. Techies do this with resource-hungry video games to minimize or eliminate frame by frame latency and is configured from the system's BIOS. What this all boils down to is: if it's capable of seamlessly handling the most resource-hungry video games, it's capable of handling even your most demanding mission critical applications.

I can't give you all the technical details of how RAM works or the specs of HyperX, but Kingston's website does a good job of explaining the development and evolution of RAM modules with this Ultimate Memory Guide.

2009-05-19T04:59:00.000-07:00

Try and Decide

OK. After a much deserved break, I'm back. That trouble with the IRS, as it turns out, was just a hoax. I got all riled up over nothing. Still, work committments have kept me from updating my blog and I must apologize for that. So, let's get back to where we left off.

Try and Decide is a neat little function in Acronis True Image Home 2009 that allows you to test a potentially dangerous application (drivers, apps, updates, upgrades, etc.) before you actually install it on your system.

Try and Decide creates a virtual workspace which isolates systems resources during the testing process. All the user has to do is click on the Try and Decide function from True Image Home's main menu, click on the 'play' button and the computer automatically enters into virtual mode.

Not sure of your latest P2P client, mp3 download or website? Go ahead and try/install it within Try and Decide. If the client, file or program is infected with any sort of trojan or malware, it won't affect your system. Try and Decide allows you to check on program compatibility. When you click on the 'pause' or 'stop' button, your system reverts back to its normal state and you can then discard the infected application.

Try and Decide works within Acronis Secure Zone (ASZ), that disk partition True Image advises you to create upon startup. However, I noticed that Try and Decide tends to use up a lot of the space reserved for ASZ, meaning that you may not have enough space left over for your backup chores. Because of this, I have since opted to save my backup chores on a separate disk partition, a purely arbitrary decision designed to minimize having to manage space requirements.

Next up: More apps you can't do without

Time out

2009-05-08T07:57:00.000-07:00

A thousand apologies...I know I've been remiss in my blog duties but I have a damn good reason for it.

It tax time once again and I just found out I have to pay a bunch of taxes this year because of capital gains. Plus, I have a Hacienda (IRS equivalent in Spain) audit this Monday. Now I don't know about you folks but I HATE having to pay taxes to any government, especially this one. My hard earned money is just gonna end up in the pockets of some crooked socialist politician. I'm an anarchist at heart and I detest any kind of government intervention on private personal gains. I pay more than enough with social security and taxes withheld at source. Why can't they leave me the damn hell alone?

So it was off to the shrink and anti-depressants for me. SIGH......

I promise to be back after my audit next week. Thank you for your understanding.

Back ups and recovering from disasters

2009-04-15T12:43:00.000-07:00

Backup and restore 'best practices'

I started taking about apps you can't do without and 'best practices'. One of the things I forgot to mention, as part of best practices, is that everyone should get into the habit of creating restore points after any major event, usually the installation of an application, driver, patch or update. I got into this habit with Windows XP and I've extended it into Vista.

Windows allows you to create 'restore points' which are basically 'images' or 'snapshots' of your computer's configuration at certain points in time. Windows ordinarily creates these points automatically, although I usually do it manually.

If a problem should occur in your system after the installation of an app, you can always go back to the point before the installation to restore your computer to the most recent working state. However, this is not a foolproof method since some security products like Kaspersky and Norton prevent the proper functioning of this tool. These products have a Self-Defense mode activated by default that interferes with the system restore tool. Read it here.

Nonetheless, in Windows (XP and Vista), go to Start Menu-All Programs-Accessories-System Tools-System Restore. You'll then be presented with an intuitive, self-explanatory dialog box that will allows you to restore your system or create and label your restore points. Now you can go back in time, as it were, to the last known working state. In theory, the Restore System function does not affect any stored files such as documents, music or videos. It only deals with applications, drivers, registries and libraries. However, just to be safe, store your personal files on a separate disk partition as mentioned previously in this blog. Read the full process as explained by a Windows expert. Pay careful attention to the sections that deal with Device Drivers and Compatibility Issues.

This expert, Joli Ballew, also recommends using the Restore System function as a last resort. Usually, a malfunction can easily be fixed by a system reboot. If that doesn't work, the other option is to press the 'F8' key when you boot your system. This brings up a DOS menu with several options. Use the arrow keys to highlight 'Last known good configuration' and press 'Enter'. This method usually works well most of the time.

If you have any experience with Windows, then chances are you've used some or all of these techniques in the past. On a difficulty scale of 1 to 10, I give this process a rating of 3-4 for anyone with average computer skills: more than a beginner but less than an expert and able to locate and use basic system tools such as changing the desktop themes, the disk defragmenter, or the most common word formatting funtions.

The second to the worst case scenario is that the operating system may need to be repaired, NOT reinstalled. This requires the original Windows OS installation disk. There are several forum sites that discuss the procedure which is too lengthy to describe here. However, this one is well illustrated and quite easy to follow and understand.

The worst case scenario is a complete system reinstall, something we want to avoid at all cost because you lose everyting. The plus side is you start with a totally clean system.

As mentioned earlier, the Restore System function may cause errors due to antivirus programs. Because of this, I have since decided to deploy a different solution.

Acronis True Image Home 2009

Because of my line of work, I'm always installing and uninstalling software products to try out. This causes great havoc with the registry entries and library files. Often, I'm left with orphaned entries that affect my computer's performance.

So, instead of having to depend on Windows to get me out of a fix, I chose to go with Acronis True Image Home 2009 for my new laptop. Acronis is a company that specializes in disk management, backups and disaster recovery both at the consumer and enterprise level.

ATIHome 2009, like Windows' Restore Point function, creates an image of your entire system. But that's where the similarity ends. Acronis, as opposed to Windows, is a comprehensive solution offering a wide array of options and a high degree of of granularity.

The main dashboard layout presents the user with 4 four backup tasks and chores (Backup, Manage and Restore, Task Management and Try and Decide) and 6 disk management utilities (System Information, Protection Tools, One-Click Protection, Clean Utilities, Search and Help).

Below, I outline the procedure I followed.

1. System Information

The first step is to go to System Information and get a visual of your disk partitions and their current state. The top part of the interface lists the first 3 tasks that have to be carried out to get started: System Volume Backup, Acronis Bootable Media and Acronis Startup Recovery Manager. These three tasks will have a red 'Not Initiated' tag right next to each one. To start the individual tasks, simply click on each one.

The most important of the 3 tasks is the System Volume Backup which creates a FULL backup of your system including application configuration and settings. You will be asked to save your backup file (.tib) in your choice of folder and partition.

The Acronis Bootable Media is not necessary if you've already created the Windows Recovery Disks. Otherwise, create a bootable DVD/CD.

The Startup Recovery Manager allows you to boot and recover your computer in case of system failure.

To be on the safe side, I executed all three.

Below these three tasks, Acronis presents a visual of the status of your disk. Right below, the user can create Aconis Secure Zone (ASZ). ASZ os a hidden, unaccessible partition that Acronis creates (if you so choose) to store your different backup files. When you create ASZ, the program will automatically determine the amount of disk space needed. In any case, you are allowed to manage (increase, decrease, remove) this disk partition via the Protection Tools feature of the program found on the main screen.

2. Schedule backup tasks

Once the System Volume Backup has been created, you can now set up the frequency of your backups (manually, daily, weekly, monthly, etc.) via the Task Management utility on the main screen.

The nice thing about Acronis is that it is intuitive and easy to navigate. Task Management presents you with a three month calendar and 3 tabs: Scheduled Tasks (planned backup schedules), Unscheduled Tasks (backups performed manually) and Log (a register of the backup actions taken). Clicking on any of these tabs changes the contextual menu on the title bar (top of screen).

Click on the Scheduled Tasks tab and select the 'Create Backup Task' icon on the title bar. You will then be presented with several options: My Computer, My Data, System State, My Email, and My Application Settings. Below each is an explanation of the kind of backup that will be created. Ordinarily, choose My Computer which creates an image of the entire disk, and thus, is the most comprehensive of the options.

The utility then takes you through a process to specify the destination disk of the backup file (this is where you can designate ASZ to store backups), the frequency (dates and times) of backups, and the type of backups (full, incremental or differential).

In my case, I configured Acronis to perform an incremental backup every Monday morning at 2:00 am,and to store the consolidated file in the ASZ partition. By default, Acronis chooses the Incremental Backup method, provided you've created the Full Backup mentioned above. Whether you choose Incremental or Differential, you will need the Full backup to proceed.

So what's the difference betwen Incremental and Differential?

Incremental backups record only the changes made to the system since the last incremental backup, which in turn is based on the first full backup. In other words, if we were to number the logical sequence of the backups, it would look something like this:

1st full backup: filename.tib(1)
1st incremental backup: filename.tib(1)1
2nd incremental backup: filename.tib(1)1.2
3rd incremental backup: filename.tib(1)1.2.3 and so on...

As you can see, each succeeding backup is based on the previous one. Incremental require less space since they only record the latest changes. However, to restore from an incremental backup file, it is absolutely necessary to have ALL previous incremental backups and the original full backup, since the backups are all interdependent.

Differential backups, on the other hand, only record the changes made to the Full backup. It requires less space than a full backup but more space than an incremental backup. Differentail backups are almost as reliable as full backups since the backups are not dependent on each other but only the original full backup. The logical numbering sequence would look something like this:

1st full backup: filename.tib(1)
1st differntial backup: filename.tib(1)1
2nd differential backup: filename.tib(1)2
3rd differential backup: filename.tib(1)3 and so on...

As you can see, each backup is based on the original full backup and not the preceeding differential backups. To restore from a differential backup, you only need the latest differential backup and the original full backup.

SUMMARY:

Partition your hard disk to safeguard personal files.
Secure your system with a comprehensive security solution.
Create 'Restore Points' after the installation of any application, driver, update, plug-in, patch or Internet download.
If you require a more comprehensive backup solution, choose an application that creates volume images rather than one that simply creates copies of files and folders.
Employ a 'best practices' approach to your computing and surfing habits.

Next: Acronis Try and Decide function

General care of desktops and laptops

2009-04-12T07:53:00.000-07:00

Applications you can't do without...

Now that you've got your wireless connection working, you're ready to surf the 'Net and fill your laptop with all kinds of downloads, right? Wrong! If you're anything like the millions of computer users around the world, you probably use your system to store everything from pictures to music to videos to emails to contacts. In other words, your life. On top of that, if you transact business online (banking and purchases) without adequate protection, you leave yourself open to the possibility of identity theft (bank acount, credit card and social security numbers). The loss of any or all of these can cause great anxiety and depression.

So the first thing you need to do is SECURE your system. It's easy to protect a system if you apply a strategy of 'best practices' which I outline below. Many users think that by activating Windows' built-in Firewall and keeping systems updated, computers are protected. Nothing could be further from the truth. Microsoft is not a security provider (at least, not an experienced one), even though they have ventured into the field with their Windows Live One-Care product.

Viruses and other infections, collectively known as malware, can only come from three sources: Websites embedded with malicious code such as porn sites, fake bank Websites that solicit confidential info such as passwords or credit card numbers (phishing), P2P sites (spyware) and other free download sites that have occult harmful payloads that register keystrokes (keyloggers) or allow third parties to take control of your system (botnets); infected email attachments with programs that install themselves when opened; and infected files downloaded from external media such as USBs, DVDs and CD-ROMs.

Incidentally, an authentic bank site would NEVER ask you to divulge confidential information, so if you get an email notice from your bank asking for account number confirmation, it's surely fake. If in doubt, call your bank. Better safe than sorry. Lately, there's also been a lot of concern over the security of social networks like Facebook. So be careful of the type of information you put out there and who you allow to see it.

Indeed, the bad guys are always one step ahead because there's a lot of money to be made (http://tinyurl.com/techweekpanda) from all kinds of scams.

So let's go step-by-step.

1. Partition your hard disk

The first thing you have to do is partition your hard disk. Normally, viruses and other malware will target your computer's C: drive boot sector because that's where the operating system, registry and applications reside. Most people don't bother to partition their disks so most data files and personal information also reside on the C: disk. Create a partition (a virtual disk) for your stored data and personal files. That way, even if your entire C: drive is infected requiring a complete system reinstall, your files will remain unaffected and safe. Windows Vista comes with a basic built-in disk partitioning tool that is fine for end users. However, if you manage several physical internal or external disks, I suggest you use a good partitioning application such as PowerQuest's Partition Magic, a company specializing in disk management acquired by Symantec in 2003.

In Windows Vista, simply right click the My Computer icon and go to Administer/Manage (my OS is in Spanish so I'm translating directly) - Storage - Disk Administrator/Manager. On the right pane, you will have a visual of how your disk is partitioned. Normally, your hard drive will have two partitions, C: (system) and D: (recovery) which are factory set. This is true for most systems sold in Europe. Right click on disk C: and select "Reduce Volume" and specify the size by which you want to reduce the C: drive (normally half the original size is good). What this does is reduce the size of your C: drive creating a new virtual drive with the amount of disk space which you can designate with any letter and name. Make sure this new virtual disk is an NTFS (NT File System) partition. Once created, you can store all your personal files (pictures, music, videos, contacts) in this new partition.

2. Surf safely

Your laptop/computer probably came with an antivirus program when you purchased it. If not, you need to get and install a comprehensive solution before you surf the Web. Today's solutions have evolved and most include a combination of antivirus, antispam, antiphishing, antispyware, firewall and intrusion prevension system (IPS) features designed to provide a safe Internet experience. There are many diferent security providers including free antivirus applications. However, security is one THE one aspect of computers you cannot put a price on, just as you would not be able to put a price on the safety of your children. When it comes to security, don't scrimp, be conscientious. Remember the old adage: Better safe than sorry.

Nowadays, most security providers offer variations of the same solutions, Internet Security. I've tried several in the past and some were better than others. Over the past two years I've been using Kaspersky's Internet Security on my desktop not only because it does a good job and offers a lot of granularity (fine tuning), but because it is light on system resources - you hardly notice it working in the background.

This new HP laptop I'm using came with a 60 day license of Norton's Internet Security 2009, and it is the first Norton product I've used that is lightweight. My experience with previous editions of Norton security products was negative as they were all resource hungry. I remember being severely hampered by my Norton-protected, limited capacity workstation at work. However, I was truly surprised by this version of Internet Security. In addition to providing total web surfing protection (all the features mentioned above), NIS 2009 provides a neat little feature that stores your credit card information for online purchases. When you're ready to complete a purchase, you simply call up the Identity Safe function and NIS 2009, together with its antiphishing feature, evaluate the validity of the page requesting your credit information. Once NIS 2009 assures you of the site's authentication, it supplies your credit card details to finalize the purchase upon your approval.

Which brings me to another point. If you are fond of online shopping, rather than having to enter your credit card information everytime you make a purchase, I suggest signing up with a third party provider such as Pay Pal. Signing up with Pay Pal is free and transactions cost you nothing. The service manages your credit information (encrypted) for you and charges the seller a commission. You enter your credit details only once and when you're ready to make a purchase, Pay Pal guarantees payment to the seller. This eliminates the need of entering your credit details in multiple sites reducing the risk of identity theft.

Next up, backing up your data...

Part deux...

According to the Quick Installtion Guide, after you’ve connected the laptop to the AP, type http://192.168.2.2 in Internet Explorer’s (IE) address bar to call up the security configuration interface. The SMCWEB-N, with four Ethernet LAN ports, requires no application or driver downloads, all software is preinstalled in the Access Point itself.

I have to admit that I’m one of those guys that never reads a user manual because, like any big kid, I can’t wait to start playing with my new toys. If the instruction manual is longer than three pages, I don’t even bother reading the table of contents. I just dive right in. This attitude must be something innate in men and somewhat akin to never asking a woman for directions or stopping to read a map when you’re on a road trip. It’s hardwired into our genetic code to know machines. And I admit I should have read the CD manual because there was no way to get the AP interface up and running.

Finally, after reading the manual (there’s a reason why manufacturers include instructions), I realized that the configured IP address (Control Panel – Networks and Internet – Shared Resources and Networks Center – Manage Network Connections – Local Area Network Connection – Internet Protocol version 4 – Properties in Windows Vista) must be within a certain range of values to access the AP’s configuration interface. Normally, the IP address is obtained automatically or the ISP gives you a fixed value. Whichever the case may be, all that’s required is to select the box marked: “Use the following IP address” and enter a value between 192.168.2.3 and 192.168.2.254, and a “Subnet Mask” of 255.255.255.0.

And voilá! When you type http://192.168.2.2 in IE’s address bar, SMC’s configuration interface pops up. The interface is intuitive and easy to use. All the user has to do is enter “admin” for the name and “smcadmin” for the password to launch the security configuration wizard, Wireless Network Setup, with five tabs: Basic, Advanced, Tools, Status and Help.

Basic: Click the Basic tab to setup the AP. If you currently do not have wireless access (and I’m guessing that’s why you bought the access point to begin with), setup the SMCWEB-N as a wireless Access Point using the Add Wireless Device wizard. This device comes with a switch that gives you the choice of using the unit as an access point or client. By default, it’s set to AP. All the user has to do is give the unit an SSID name that identifies the device in nearby wireless networks. In my case I used “SMCWEB-N”, but you can use any name you want.

Next, the wizard will prompt you for the type of security you want to implement and suggests several options: WEP, WPA, WPA2, etc. What do these initials stand for? All I know is that they are encryption standards offering varying degrees of authentication security, the most recent and advanced being WPA2. That’s all I have to say about it since I’m not that technical anyway. At any rate, the device suggests WPA2 TKIP encryption and I figure that, in these matters, the machine knows more than I do. So after selecting this option, you are asked to enter a password to prevent third party clients (PDAs, laptops, cell phones, etc.) from accessing your network connection when they are within reach of your access point. Write down this password and keep it in a safe place in the event that you are asked to re-enter it, which could happen during a system failure or power outage. With respect to passwords, choose an adequate length alphanumeric string using a combination of numbers and upper and lower case letters.

And with that, your SMCWEB-N Access Point should be ready to use, as mine was. I won’t go into the other Tab options because, frankly, when I saw that my AP was working fine and securely, I left it at that. No point in lookin’ to fix what ain’t broke!

The only thing left to do is disconnect the Ethernet cable from your laptop, connect it to your broadband modem, and connect your desktop (previously connected to your modem) to the LAN2 port of your AP device.

Lastly, don’t forget to reset your laptop’s IP address (3rd paragraph of ‘part deux’ above) to “Set IP address automatically” in the properties section of your TCP/IP version 4 Protocol.

When you reboot your laptop, go to “Connect to” in the Start menu (Windows logo button). You should see a list of all the wireless networks in the vicinity, among them ‘SMCWEB-N’. Double click on this network and if you are prompted for a password, use the one you wrote down and (hopefully) kept. The AP will recognize it and connect you automatically.

I have to say that I am very pleased with my SMCWEB-N device. On a scale of 1 to 5, with five being the most difficult, I give this device a mark of 2 with respect to the difficulty of its setup. It was rather simple to configure and its 802.11 draft N protocol gives my laptop better performance than my desktop. Of course, the fact that my laptop is a 64-bit system with 4GB of RAM, as opposed to my 2GB 32-bit desktop, also helps. Nonetheless, I’m very pleased with it and it has helped dispel my cynicism of wireless devices.

NOTE: The AP is not a router meaning you won’t be able to access your home printer from your laptop unless your printer has an Ethernet port. But that’s a whole other configuration story.

Next up: Applications you can’t do without…

Then…

Ten years ago, my sister gave me an iBook (Apple), a laptop without Wi-Fi or Bluetooth capability and full of compatibility problems with Windows applications (Excel never worked liked it should have and the Apple store was charging me more than the price of a new one to get it fixed). After that, I never took the iBook seriously and parked it in some corner of the house to gather dust. Since then I’ve been strictly a desktop model user.

Three years ago, I decided to check out the ‘triple-play’ (TV, phone calls, Internet) package of one of the biggest ISPs in Spain. The techs came to the house and changed my PC’s 1MB ADSL modem with a 3MB wireless router and a TV decoder. After that, everything went downhill fast! I experienced constant connectivity problems, and the times I could connect to the Internet, the speeds were waaay below those advertised. I was constantly calling tech support (which, incidentally, were not free calls at all as they had me believe) for some kind of explanation, but none was forthcoming. I tried everything short of signing up with a new service provider, something I regret not doing sooner. In the end, the techs gave up and washed their hands off the whole incident saying the problem lay with my PC since their dashboard gauges were all showing positive results. The problem, according to the tech, was my computer was too old; I needed to get myself a new one.

Like an idiot, I believed them and marched straight out to buy myself a new desktop PC, a system I still use at home. After more than 700 euros and an additional six months of extremely bad or absolutely no service from the same provider (they never did figure out the cause of my poor connectivity), I decided to call it quits and angrily gave these guys the pink slip for having wasted my time. I changed my service provider and hooked up with a company that offered 20MB bandwidth and free local calls (no TV).

Thanks to that wireless experience that had me wired to tech support at all times, I decided to forego venturing into wireless products other than my cell phone. That is, until now.

…and now

A few weeks ago I was given the opportunity to buy a laptop at bargain basement prices. In addition, a manufacturer offered to let me try out a wireless Access Point (AP) which I could keep in exchange for a write up. As a technology journalist, these are the few perks of the trade we enjoy. So, I thought, why not? I’ll document the whole process in a blog.

And this blog is it: what I did, how I did it, and why I did it.

1. The laptop

With so many different makes and models to choose from, the decisive question always reverts to ‘What use will I make of my laptop?’ And depending on the answer, you can narrow down your options. I wanted an all-in-one (professional, personal and entertainment) robust laptop with the latest wireless technologies at a price within my budget, between 600 and 900 euros. My other requirement was that it be small and light enough for road warrior duty. As a journalist, I get to travel around quite a bit and I wanted something light and easy to lug around. If on top of that I could find something that would be the envy of the office, then so much the better.

I finally opted for an HP Pavilion dv3550es with the 64-bit version of Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 (very quick), 2.26GHz Intel Core 2 Duo dual-core processor (quicker even), 4GB of DDR2 RAM (you can never have enough RAM), 13.3” WXGA 1280x800 resolution Brite View wide screen monitor (very sharp), Nvidia GeForce 9300M GS graphics card (for gaming power), 320GB SATA HDD (I would have wished for 500GB, at least), Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, integrated webcam and mike, Altec Lansing speakers, remote control, biometric digital reader, 5-in-1 memory card reader, with HDMI output (easy connect to your HD flat screen TV) and other doo-dads. Total weight: 1.87 kilos or approximately 4 pounds.

On the inside, the Pavilion includes a 60 day license of Norton Internet Security 2009, a 90 day license of Microsoft Office 2007 Home Edition, Microsoft Works (the cheap, unlimited-use version of Office), Windows Mail (the Works version of Outlook Express), Adobe Reader 5.0, and HP MediaSmart and HP ProtectSmart, a media center management application and hard disk protector, respectively.

This laptop is cool both inside and out. It has a nice bronze-finish metal carcass (I don’t know that it’s titanium) and a very thin profile footprint.

The only thing bad I have to say about it is the keyboard. The keys, like the frame are bronzed metallic with a smooth touch and solid feel unlike the cheap, jerky plastic keys on most of today’s laptops. However, the markings are in black which makes the keys hard to distinguish in dim light conditions. Were it not for this oversight on HP’s part, I would have given this Pavilion an A+ on everything from looks to size to performance to price. As it is, the best I can do is give it an A-.

2. Access Point configuration procedure

After creating the user accounts and configuring the biometric reader, the first step in the life of any computer is configuring Internet access. For me, this was the moment of truth as my past experiences had made me rather cynical and apprehensive.

SMC Networks manufactures a whole line of Internet access devices from routers to Access Points. They gave me a choice between a router and an Access Point, and after relating my previous experiences, they suggested I try their easy-to-configure SMCWEB-N wireless Access Point (AP) with the new ‘draft N’ standard of the 802.11 wireless communications protocol. The AP also includes the ‘b’ and ‘g’ standards.

According to the quick installation guide, the only thing the user has to do is connect the laptop (via Ethernet cable provided) to the LAN1 port on the rear of the AP, start Internet Explorer, and type http://192.168.2.2 on the address bar. I’m one of those guys who makes it a point to get by with the least amount of effort. In other words, I never read the instruction manual. Usually, I make do with the quick installation guide.

Next: Part deux...