Computer

2007-04-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

RSA Attack Efficiency Improves
by: Carl Jongsma

August 2006 saw the disclosure of a fairly interesting attack against the RSA encryption algorithm (most famously being used in SSL - protecting online transactions). While it didn't target the actual algorithm, which still has not been broken, it is a so-called side channel attack, targeting the peculiarities associated with implementing the algorithm on various computing hardware.

The team behind the initial disclosure have recently submitted a modified approach to the attack, resulting in almost-astronomical improvements in attack efficiency.

In basic terms, the attacks rely upon a phenomenon known as 'Branch Prediction Analysis', where a program / attacker is able to predict what other software is doing as it passes through the CPU of a system.

In the first iteration of the described attack, the method required snooping on what was happening with the CPU for a relatively long period (or number of cycles), and certain software that implemented SSL protection (OpenSSL) quickly introduced patches to protect against this listening attack.

While many hardware manufacturers and Operating System developers have introduced defensive mechanisms to try and prevent this sort of attack taking place, it has been discovered that Pentium-IV (PIV) chips with Hyper-Threading enabled still have two caches that are not adequately protected. The new iteration of the attack, using a technique dubbed 'Simple Branch Prediction Analysis' (SBPA) targets both of these caches and can extract almost the complete secret SSL key in just one cycle. Running as an unprivileged user, this method can also target and extract data from any other software processes running on the system (SSL is an example in this case).

The technical black magic of how a branch predictor attack works can be explained as follows. Although modern CPUs are very quick, they still can't process absolutely every bit of information that they need to without a queue building up. This queue of instructions / data waiting for processing sits in a cache next to the CPU and they are executed in order of priority / time spent in the queue (various tuning settings come into play). By attempting to monopolise the CPU's attention, and filling the cache, the miniscule timing differences between when instructions from the same process are executed can give hints about what other instructions and data are moving through the CPU. Being able to interpret what this data is exactly, is key to branch prediction.

Mitigating the issue is the requirement to be running secure and insecure processes on the same processor at the same time, and for the attacker being able to run their process as a local user. Due the spying process capturing almost 100% CPU continuously while it is running, normal system monitoring software should be alerting administrators to something out of the ordinary running on the system.

What real-world threat exists for this relatively esoteric attack? Shared-server installations. It would be possible for a lesser-privileged account holder on a shared server to run the spying process while other account holders are negotiating SSL connections. A well timed attack will allow them to run their spying process once (and thus minimise the attention drawn to it), and then be able to effectively intercept SSL communications directed at the target.

2007-04-13T04:34:00.000-07:00

What Is RSS?
by: Madison Lockwood

RSS is technology - a simple software program - that allows you to access web and blog content automatically. The acronym's most popular translation is "Really Simple Syndication. Once your browser or computer has an RSS reader on board, you can subscribe to any number of RSS "feeds." A feed is simply a way in which a reader may subscribe to website content - most commonly blogs or news sites. A news site, for example, may list their latest headlines or entire articles in their feed every time a new article is published. A blog would publish this feed as a series of recent posts.

Feeds are published by millions of publishers, from small individuals to large organizations like Newsweek. The value of a feed is that it brings the most current site content to you in a format that is easily scanned; further, you are spared the task of visiting each source site each day. This is typically done through the use of what is called an 'aggregator' or 'feed reader'.

Feed readers or RSS readers, are software programs that run on your computer (or PDA or phone); let you easily subscribe to feeds, and allow you to read through them efficiently. Some are relatively simple, showing the headline and summary. The fancier ones often work with (or in) your browser to make viewing the material look much like the source page. Once you have a reader on your computer, subscribing to a feed with is an easy click or drag from your browser. Sites that provide RSS feeds will usually have a button for that purpose.

There are several RSS feed formats as well as one with an entirely different methodology called Atom. Atom has become popular with some bloggers and blogging tools. Some aggregators can read both. The other acronyms you will see in "feedspeak" are XML, which stands for 'extensible markup language' and is the code standard for these simple text feeds. An 'OPML" file is a format for indexing hierarchical feed lists. If you dive into this web habit in a big way, your aggregator or reader may keep your subscription list in an OPML file.

An RSS feed is a great method for staying abreast of issues and topics that interest you. There are a number of feed "libraries," so to speak, from which you can learn what's out there in your areas of interest. Google has a built-in reader that makes the subscription process easy, as does Yahoo. Firefox has a downloadable extension for the purpose of aggregating RSS feeds, as well as a default ability to save RSS feeds as "live bookmarks" that update via the RSS feed. You can download a number of stand alone readers and aggregators; you can find them through a simple web search.

The whole RSS "movement" is a step towards utilizing the Internet more efficiently. The trick is to avoid overloading your email inbox with daily reports that you end up ignoring most of the time. For that purpose, there are sites like Feedster that will search millions of RSS feeds for articles that are relevant to your interests. Like any search tool, however, these services are hit and miss. They are still working off keywords and sometimes what they find is relevant, sometimes not. But if you want daily news broken into categories, it's great technology once you learn how to make it work for you.

2006-07-24T21:31:00.000-07:00

Optimizing Flash Files For The Search Engines
by: Mike Goldstein

What is a Flash Movie?

A flash movie, or shock wave file (SWF), is the file format published when a Flash movie is exported. A SWF file can also be exported by several other Macromedia or Adobe Products. The SWF is usually an animation, dynamic menu, or highly interactive web-based application embedded into an HTML page. Flash files, when exported correctly for the best web-based optimization, are compressed, thus making their file size lightweight. The SWF format is ideal for presenting vector-based, interactive and animated graphics with sound and video for the web. Vector images are ideal because they will not “pixilize” if stretched or compressed. Flash files can also contain text which can be animated, static or dynamically populated from external sources, such an XML file or a database. Text embedded in a Flash file, for many years, could not be read by search engines. However, recent updates by Macromedia are making this a possibility.

Problems with Flash and Search Engines

Historically, it has been difficult to get Flash content indexed and ranked by search engines. In the past, search engines, such as Yahoo and Google, did not spider Flash content as they could not read the compressed file and much of the text inside the SWF appeared as graphics to the search engines.

The main page of a web site, if Flash-based, rarely ranked well, unless off-page factors such as link popularity or link reputation were sufficient enough to carry the page. Flash files that were indexed by Google, Lycos and other search engines, which did not have any text or key words associated with them in the search engine results pages (SERP).

Techniques Used in the Past to Make Flash Visible to Search Engines

Traditional Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques would help your site get indexed, but not rank for search terms. Every web site needs at least one HTML page to load into a browser. For a web site developed completely in Flash, developers would embed their flash files into an HTML document and then create the meta tags in the head section of the HTML file. They would also add descriptive HTML text for the search engines in the body section of the HTML page, then use CSS positioning and percentages to load the Flash move in a pixel-perfect location over the top of text. This particular technique should not be used any longer, as search engines will view this technique as an attempt to add hidden text, and hidden text will incur a penalty from the engines.

Another technique which could help your Flash ranking is to not compress your SWF files. One of the reasons search engines could not read flash files in the past is that the files are compressed. If the SWF is uncompressed, search engines can read the static text. This technique can be accomplished easily. Upon exporting a Flash file, you can set the compression to "not" if you want your text inside the Flash movie to be readable by the search spiders. However, this is not a good practice, as not compressing your SWF will increase the file size, consequently negating a major benefit to Flash file – a lightweight file.

What Macromedia has Done to Make Flash More Visible to Search Engines

In the past, Google did index Flash files. Anyone can test this fact out by searching in Google using the “filetype” operator to restrict your search. For example, try the following search: "Casino Games filetype:SWF”. The SERP will include over 200 Flash files, which are indicated by the “Flash” text to the left of the listing.

Some search engines are now using the Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK (Software Development Kit). For example, Google, AllTheWeb, Lycos, and other sites can readily display links to Flash content. Flash Search SDK is and open source tool that allows search engines to modify it to suit their needs. With this level of customization, it is likely that the major search engines will modify SDK, making it difficult for website owners to know exactly what information will be pulled out of the SWF file or how it will impact actual rankings.

The Macromedia Flash Search Engine SDK can be found at

http://www.macromedia.com/software/flash/download/search_engine. According to the Macromedia/Adobe web site, The SDK includes an application named 'swf2HTML'. Swf2HTML extracts text and links from a Macromedia Flash SWF file, and returns the data to an HTML document. Swf2HTML is provided as a compiled application and as a static library for linked library implementation. SDK can interoperate any links that are in the action script so long as adhere to the following criteria:

• The link is contained within single quotes (' ') or double quotes (" "), and

• The link prefix is HTTP, and

• The link suffix is HTM, HTML, CFM, SWF, JPG, JPEG, MP3, or WAV

By default SDK extracts the following text from your flash file:

• Text on stage in the current movie (dynamic text, static text, or input text that has an initial value assigned)

• Text on stage in a movie that is called with movieClip.attachMovie()

Google can see certain text in Flash files now, but how and where certain text gets extracted depends on what you do with that text in the Flash presentation. For example, text that is static or is used in a motion tween can be read as a single instance with SDK. However, some animation involves converting text into a symbol and then using multiple copies of that symbol to achieve a desired effect. This will create duplicate instances of your text to the SDK output, which may be viewed as duplicate content and not given much importance by Google.

Using the SDK tool, any developer can get the text output from the SWF and see how search engines view the extractable text of any SWF. On a Windows operating system, you can go to the DOS prompt and execute the swf2HTML application very easily. The following is an example from the DOS prompt: C:\sdk\swf2HTML -o test.HTML C:\sdk\crt_webfiles\test.swf

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Techniques Used Historically for Flash

Each Flash file does not need to be uploaded independently and called as a SWF file; rather a Flash file can be embedded in a standard HTML document. One of the best techniques is to create a modular web site, where there are several Flash files which make up the web page combined with standard HTML elements. A hybrid site such as this, works especially well, if your navigation uses traditional HTML links. You can use cascading style sheets to give the appearance of flash text links. This type of hybrid site will always rank better than an all Flash site – all other factors being equal. It's also important to have your HTML page title correct, regardless of anything else. Several search engines look at meta titles first. In addition to the page title, you can add meta tags to the head of the file. Outside of the actual HTML page, off page factors are important. There has been much written in recent articles that reciprocal links are not as important any longer, but certainly, one-way links pointing to your site from highly relevant and high ranking pages will increase your page rank. In addition links from prominent directories, such as Yahoo and Business.com, placed in the most relevant categories will help. One-way inbound links from relevant sites is still the best way to increase your ranking with or without Flash.

There are programming techniques which work while in the Flash authoring environment. While you are in the Flash authoring environment, with your FLA open...click F12. It will generate the HTML page for you. Look at the code of the page; it creates a place for you to put the text and URL's used in the Flash.

New SEO Techniques for Flash

Today there are many techniques which can overcome the limitations of the past, where Flash files are concerned. With the inception of the new Macromedia Flash 8, there are techniques which can be implemented to greatly increase the ability of search engines to index Flash files and even rank for key words.

In the past, SWF files could not have titles. This is one important reason why Flash files didn't rank well. This title limitation has now changed. Flash 8 does allow you to input meta data. Flash 8 defines two fields with meta data for all Flash files. These two fields are Title and Description. You can access the meta data fields under Document Properties. To add meta data, fill in the text fields and the search engines will know what info to display about your Flash file.

SDK is fairly intelligent in terms of recognizing text and links that are embedded in the file. If text is static or dynamically driven by an XML or text file, it can be read. If your content is dynamically driven it must be done so using the latest version of ActionScript 2.0. The SDK does parse ActionScript 2 byte code looking for links. It could conceivably find the link to the XML file that way and hand it back to a search engine.

As referenced earlier, certain text can be modified into a symbol rather than strait text. For example, a button might have the text output two or three times. Alternatively, tweened text has motion associated with the action. Tweens result in a single occurrence in the output from the extraction process. You should also notice that the link text in the Google results page is identical to the first couple of lines of text at the very top of the text extracted by swf2HTML. Armed with the knowledge of how SDK parses your content, you can manipulate text in your Flash Movies more carefully and make your content key word dense, easily indexable, search engine friendly and, with a little more skill, even optimized.

What is the gist of all this? Flash is still not the best solution for a pure SEO-based project, but their have been giant leaps forward by both the search engines and Macromedia in allowing your flash files to be indexed and even rank for the key word phrases you covet.

2006-07-24T21:26:00.000-07:00

Google's Latest Acquisition
by: Matt DeAngelis

Fans of Google (including me), enjoy trying to figure out what Google is up to. In that spirit, I’m sharing some news.

Google has purchased a company called Upstartle, which makes web-based word processing software called Writely. Both Google and Writely had little to say in their blogs, other than the deal was done and Google is delighted to have the team on board. I went to look at both blogs this morning and they are absolutely jammed up, so I am unable to see what was written. I linked them for you so you can take a look when the heat is off.

When I read Google news I often grin, chuckle or laugh out loud. This one deserves a laugh out loud.

Google bought Upstartle because it wants to enable people to perform office tasks over the Internet. That’s a nice way of saying it wants to kick Microsoft’s butt, which makes me grin. I think kicking Microsoft’s butt is a good part of their strategy.

Money Magazine agrees with me, but thinks there’s more to it. Google has always expressed a desire to move from client (PC) based computing to Network (Internet) based computing. This basically means that only a little piece of the program you’re using resides on your computer (called thin client), and the rest stays on the server.

I’ve been hearing that thin client computing is going to take off like a rocket for twenty years now. Sixteen years ago when Larry Ellison of Oracle was pushing stripped down computers that used the network to work I thought it was a dumb idea, and I still do. At the time a powerful computer cost a couple of grand, and USB dongles that hold a gigabyte of data weren’t even invented yet (I don’t even think USB was invented yet).

The rationale then was that a cheap network computer that cost a couple hundred bucks could just hook up to the network and use its processing and storage power. Now a powerful computer is a couple hundred bucks, so who needs a stripped down version?

Besides, I want to control my own resources and files and software. I don’t want them sitting on Google’s big giant hard drive so they can use them to decide what kind of advertising to serve to me.

And that’s what Money thinks is the end game.

But competing with Microsoft is more of an afterthought for Google, which is contending with Wall Street’s high expectations for continued growth. Browser-based applications like Writely could feature Google’s contextual advertisements, a business which is projected to grow to $9.5 billion this year.

Listen to this:

For Google, which prizes the math Ph.D.’s it has on staff, the calculation is alarmingly simple. Google makes around $16 per user per year in advertising. There are more than 300 million Microsoft Word users today. If Google persuades some of those users to use its Web-based software instead of Word, and they spend more time using other Google tools as a result, Google could boost its per-user advertising sales. Even a $1 boost per user translates to $400 million in additional revenue.

I’m not sure I want to use a web-based word processor that sticks in ads based on what I type. Wait…I am sure. I don’t.

Jeez…with all of those eggheads gathered in one place over at Google, is plastering context ads all over a web-based word processing program the best they can come up with? I’m starting to smell one trick pony.

I hope I’m missing something, as I’m still not sure I understand what Google is trying to do, but it’s fun to watch. For more laughs I like to visit the Google Rumors website. You should take a look.

2006-07-24T21:24:00.000-07:00

4 Ways To Make Your Word File "Slim"
by: Isaac Chu

This time we will talk about some related to your office daily work. Did you encounter the following situation? You want to send an email with a Word file attachment, but the email cannot be send out cause the Word file is too large. And you waste many efforts in making the file slim. You can try the following methods, which can reduce the size a lot.

1. Save as

In Menu, choose "File > Save As", and save the file with a new name. You can compare the new file with original one; you will find that the file size of new one is much smaller.

You can also work in this way. Select the whole content of the document, copy and paste it to a new blank document and save it. Again, you will that file size of two documents is different.

2. Delete old versions

If there are many old versions kept in the file, the file size will be larger. In Menu, choose "File > Version", check to see if there is any old version saved. You can delete those versions with no value to make the file slim.

3. Insert picture wisely

"Insert Picture" is one of the main reasons for the word file get fat. Try to insert a smaller picture. You can use graphic editor to reduce the size of picture before insert into the file. The file format should use GIF or JPG and do not use those high-resolution graphic, like BMP.

4. Don't "Embed True Type Font"

"Embed True Type Font" will increase the size of word file. In Menu, choose "Tools > Options", switch to "Save" tab page. Confirm that your word file have no true type font, and cancel the "Embed True Type Font" option. If you embed true type font, then choose "Embed characters in use only".

Try the above four methods, you will see your word file getting slim.

2006-07-23T22:21:00.000-07:00

Unlimited Web Hosting? Better Read the Fine Print
by: Anthony Hamill

OK, so unlimited hosting sounds tempting. And if you operate a number of small business websites, you probably ought to consider some of the options for unlimited multiple domain hosting. But before you sign up you'd better examine all the details of any unlimited web hosting plan you may be considering.

Some unlimited web hosting plans place no limit on the number of domains you may operate for one flat monthly rate which can be quite attractive. Other plans allow you to operate what may as well be unlimited for most people’s purposes: 10, 20, 30 or more domains.

Unlimited what?

Don't make the mistake of confusing “unlimited domains” with unlimited resources. These plans come with a fairly generous allotment of storage and bandwidth which can be shared across all the domains on your hosting plan. But few provide totally free unlimited file storage and bandwidth.

Unlimited plans can be highly economical for the online business owner who wants to operate multiple websites without the hassle, and expense, of having to keep up with a separate plan for each.

Who will manage your websites?

There are a few things to be aware of with unlimited web hosting plans. One is that they are usually set up under a single account. This means that if you plan to have each web site managed by a different webmaster you’ll experience a security risk from sharing the account password.

How much do you really need?

Another thing to watch out for is the temptation to sign up for an unlimited web hosting plan if you don’t actually need one. While they provide terrific value for what they offer, if you don’t actually need unlimited hosting you’ll be overpaying. You can host a single web site for a very cheap monthly rate.

The Key Elements to Internet Marketing – A DIY Guide

2006-07-23T22:20:00.000-07:00

The Key Elements to Internet Marketing – A DIY Guide
by: Brandon L. Wilcox

So you have a website, and you want to increase your traffic to sell your product. There are thousands of the websites just like yours, so how will you be seen? There are basically 3 options. You can pay some company thousands of dollars to market your site for you; you can hire someone full time to do the marketing for you; or you can do the marketing yourself. This guide will give you the basic knowledge you need to market your website successfully at your own pace.

First, you need to have realistic expectations. Web sites do not get in the top 10 in search engines over night. There is a lot of hard work that needs to be put into a site for it to rank high. I would grab a pen and paper and write down your main competitors. Then I would use the Google Toolbar to check their pagerank and incoming links to see how they rank. The higher the pagerank and more links pointing to your site, the higher your site will be in the search engines. Once you see how many links are pointing to their site and how good their pagerank is, you have an idea how much work is needed to get your site listed.

Link trading is the process in which you will get these links pointing to your site. You need to contact other similar, good ranked pages and tell them how trading links will benefit both sites, and then link to them, and in exchange they will link to you. The more pages linking to you the better, but remember quality, relevant high pagerank sites is what your looking for, you want your link to be on a pagerank 2 site as least, preferably 3+. Managing your link exchange program takes time, some software on the market can do this for you, some of the software is good, some bad. I would recommend adding the links to your site manually to start, until you get a better understanding of the SEO world.

Articles are another good method to establish links to your site. Unlike a regular link exchange which is just a sentence with a link, publishing an article you wrote will give other websites quality content about your business / products and also link back to your site. Most article sites do not require a link back to them, so when your link is published search engines count that link better then a standard link exchange because you are not linking back.

One-way links is just that, a link to your site, but in return you do not link back. Articles are great one-way links, but so are directories! There are numerous directories on the internet ranging from shopping to home improvement. You can go to these sites, and either for free, or a small fee you can submit your site to them. Having your site listed in the major directories benefits your site in 2 ways. First, you get a link back to your site, increasing your link popularity, and second, people searching the directories for your product may see your site and buy from you.

As you can see, getting your site listed in the major search engines will take some time to do, you need to manage a link exchange program, submit your article to publishers and directories, and maintain your current website, but remember if you take your time, and establish your presence steadily over time, then your website will begin climbing in the search engines, and you will begin to enjoy the benefits of increased traffic.

Think It's Hard to Find The Best Web Hosting Companies?

2006-07-11T23:07:00.000-07:00

Think It's Hard to Find The Best Web Hosting Companies?
by: Anthony Hamill

It's really not. In fact the best web hosting companies can be identified rather easily if you make time to absorb some basic information.

Building a Web Site

You can build a very basic web site with a simple word processing program such as Microsoft Word. Then after you've built your web site, you'll need to find a way to publish it if you intend for it to be accessible on the World Wide Web. For this you'll turn to a web hosting company.

A web host will provide you with the disk space, services,and tools you'll need to publish your site on the Internet. While occasional technical problems are inevitable, competent web hosting companies will ensure your site is up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week so that anyone, anywhere in the world, can find your web site at any time of the day.

Many Hosting Choices

There are literally tens of thousands of web hosting companies to choose from so finding one of the very best web hosting companies can be challenging.

Prices range from free to hundreds of dollars a year for personal web hosting and small business web hosting all the way up to hundreds of dollars per month for ecommerce web hosting for large online businesses.

The best web hosting companies offer a wide variety of web hosting services all of which can be confusing if you're new to web site hosting.

What You Need to Know

There are a number of basics you need to learn if you want to create a good website that is cost-effective, easy to manage, and provides a meaningful experience for your visitors. Some of these basics include:

- How to decide whether free or paid web hosting is right for you
- What is a web server and why does it matter to you?
- How to select and register a great domain name
- How to determine if you need shared or dedicated hosting
- How to connect your domain to your web hosting provider
- How to publish your web site
- How to make use of free web templates and other authoring tools

Our nine-part Introduction to Web Hosting at http://www.web-host-watch.com/bestwebhostingcompanies.html will help you make sense of all the available information and give you the confidence to find, evaluate, and select a web hosting company that is most suited to your needs.

2006-07-11T23:06:00.000-07:00

Picture Postcards from Heaven with Google Earth
by: Klaas Brumann

How to print real photo postcards from a satellite image of your street or neighbourhood

The virtual earth simulation software “Google Earth” has become hugely popular amongst internet users across the world. The free application incorporates maps, driving directions, and satellite images. It allows users to zoom and pan over three-dimensional images of cities and landscapes, drilling down from space to overhead details.

With a few steps and tricks it is even possible to produce personalised aerial postcards of a street or neighbourhood without the costs that used to be associated with aerial photography. Google Earth works on Windows 2000, XP, or Mac OS X (10.4) and can be downloaded for free from http://earth.google.com/. Once installed it is easy to navigate to an addresses in the UK using a post code or place name. The aerial image displayed can be rotated and tilted for the best view, which can be saved as a jpeg. The application allows tagging places and buildings, e-mailing images or creating so called place marks, which work like a link which can be shared with other Google Earth users. Another convenient way to extract image data from Google Earth, is using one of the many screen shot applications available for free on the net. One such application is greenstreet SnapShot. Greenstreet software Limited, a 20 year old British developer of graphic software applications and their screen shot tools SnapShot can be downloaded for free from Electric Software (http://www.electric-software.co.uk/enews/register/), a site which promotes software offers, including several greenstreet applications and games.

The Google Earth Licence limits the use of the image data, but states: “You can personally use an image from the application as long as you preserve the copyrights and attributions including the Google logo attribution. However, you cannot sell these to others, provide them as part of a service, or use them in a commercial product such as a book or TV show without first getting a rights clearance from Google.” The image data, though constantly improving (a new update was released in January), is still patchy in places, but from other areas images can be extracted, which are sufficiently clear to print satisfying aerial postcards of a street or neighbourhood. Google Earth images do not produce the crispest of prints, but are unique and a great surprise and joy for friends, a gift for a housewarming party or suitable image for an invitation card.

Once a suitable jpeg has been cropped and scaled to the size desired and it has been interpolated and saved this can be printed on an inkjet printer or through one of the online photo processing services like FotoInsight.com. FotoInsight claims that professional photo processing achieves a higher perceived resolution through the use of a larger number of colours and uses longer lasting inks.

Personalised postcards and greeting cards from satellite images are a welcome change to the Birthday, Anniversary-, Mother’s Day, Season Greetings or Valentines Cards routine. FotoInsight picture postcards have a print area of 14 x 10 cm and the ideal resolution would be 866 x 615 pixel. Folding greetings cards have a print area of 13 x 9 cm where the ideal resolution would be a 799 x 556 pixel digital image file. For all printed cards the image jpegs should ideally exceed 100 kb in size. Once the photograph has been uploaded to http://fotoinsight.com or http://fotoinsight.co.uk the online photo service provides text tools ideal to insert a postcode, name or address details into the aerial photograph. FotoInsight’s print products, like postcards, greetings cards, photo books and photographic calendars are printed in high resolution using the long lasting indigo print process. The cards come in sets of ten cards per order and are delivered by mail.

Note: „Google Earth“ is a registered Trademark of Google Inc.

2006-07-11T23:04:00.001-07:00

Hotkeys for Google
by: Dennis Nazarenko

Just select some text, press the corresponding key combination and the search results are in front of your eyes. This is what the new free program Hotkey Search Tool can do for you.

An advanced Internet user searches from 8 to 30 times a day. In the case of specialized search systems, such as on-line translators, dictionaries, and references, this value increases and totals from 10 to 60 requests a day.

Often, you had to start the browser and enter the search phrase to get the search results. But if the text is already typed, why should you have to type it again?

Suppose you want to search an encyclopedia for some unknown word or find the site of some product by its name. All you need to do is just select the text and send a command to Hotkey Search Tool. The program will copy the selected text to the clipboard and open the browser with the search results. If you do not select any text, the program will select the string typed before you pressed the hotkey.

A lot of users have already come to know Google Desktop. It is a convenient system for searching your local computer and it can work with additional plug-ins too. To perform a search in this system, you have to press windows+G or ctrl+alt+G and after that type the text you want to search for. As you have already guessed, with Hotkey Search Tool, you just select the text you need, press the above key combination and get search results right away.

It should be mentioned that the program is easily customizable and you can use it to search information in any on-line system that gets the text of requests in the URL.

The program does add one more icon to the system tray. So, we can only wish Google developers integrated the features of this program into their developments.

2006-07-11T23:04:00.000-07:00

How to Stop Spam in your Email
by: John Chan

Spammers commonly find email recipients by using a spambot by searching for addresses on websites, forums, or Usenet groups, for example. Another way is to use a name generating type of software which produces likely common words, names, or numerical combinations of email addresses for the sole purpose of sending spam. The more popular an ISP, the more spam is mailed to its members.

If you currently receive unsolicited email on your desktop, you can get it filtered out through settings at your Internet Service Provider’s gateway, the network email server or email gateway, or through your own antispam software or filter on your computer. You have the option of purchasing a wide variety of spam blocking or filtering software---or you can download freeware or shareware as your solution to the spam problem. The problem is that with some of these software options the quality can be quite low and the filtering not really effective. You will find that a combination of strategies, such as using a separate email address, adding some recommended antispam software by experts to your computer, for example, will go a long way toward reducing levels of spam in your mailbox.

For example, the use of content based filtering based on the header of the email is somewhat helpful, but spammers are now changing spelling or some phrases in order to escape the phrase detecting spam filters. Content filtering can be put into action by analyzing the spamming URLs in the body of the email. The URL cannot be concealed as it must have a domain name. The list of these links and reporting them to a list of spamming websites is a good way to stop the much of the spam.

Sometimes many email users use a disposable email address, which is a temporary address that forward mail to your real account. A few services do offer disposable address forwarding. Addresses can be eliminated, or have an expiration date after a certain time period, or can expire after a certain number of messages are forwarded to the address. Or you can use that address to receive email and that you can close or abandon the email address whenever you want.

Another tip is to steer clear of responding to spam, even by responding negatively or complaining about the spamming email. By responding, you are informing the spammer that you have a valid email address. This is probably one of the worst things you can do as it could lead to even more spam as a result. So the last tip is don’t ever respond to spamming emails.

2006-07-11T23:03:00.000-07:00

Getting Started With Your New Printer
by: John Sollars

If you have recently bought yourself a new printer, follow the directions in the manual for setting up cables. Put the installation CD into the CD drive and follow the set up instructions.

If you are using Windows 95/98, select Start Menu, then select Printers. Now select Add Printer, select Local Printer. Choose your printer (If your printer is not listed, choose the one closest to yours and select OK).

For the Mac, select go to server, (or chooser) and then select printer. Then choose your printer. (If your printer is not listed, then select the closest one.) Then select install.

If you are using Windows XP, then the PC will prompt you for the drivers and install the relevant one from the CD itself (if the appropriate driver is not in the database already).

If you have any problems printing, first check your cable connections. If you get repeated error messages, then reboot your computer and redo the steps above.

If you would like to upgrade the driver of your currently installed printed, then follow the steps given in the next sub-topic.

Installing Printer Drivers

A printer driver is a piece of software that allows the computer to communicate with the printer. Without this software, the printer would be hopelessly lost since it does not speak the same language! Printer manufacturers often update the drivers and these they can be easily downloaded form the company’s website for free. It is a good idea to keep a check on your printer driver version and upgrade if it is too far out of date.

Here is how you can check your print driver version number:

Windows XP

1. Click the Windows Start button, choose Control Panel, and then choose ‘Printers and Faxes.’

2. Right-click your default printer and choose Properties. (Your default printer will have a checkmark within a black circle above the printer icon.)

3. Click the General tab, click the ‘Print Test Page’ button, and then click OK to print the test page.

Windows 95/98

1. Click the Windows Start button, choose Settings, and then Printers.

2. Right-click your default printer and choose Properties. (Your default printer will have a checkmark within a black circle above the printer icon.)

3. Click the General tab, click the ‘Print Test Page’ button, and then click OK to print the test page.

Look on the test page for Driver Version.

All major printer manufactures have web sites that allow you to freely download their printer drivers. To do so, you will need your printer’s manufacturer and model number. When you go to the web site, look for words such as ‘Downloads’, ‘Drivers’, ‘Software’, or ‘Support’ and shortlist your model.

Given below are the website URLs for the popular brands:

Hewlett Packard — http://welcome.hp.com/country/uk/en/support.html?pageDisplay=drivers

Canon — http://software.canon-europe.com/

Epson — http://emeasupport.epson-europe.com/downloads.aspx?LNG=en-EU

Lexmark — http://support.lexmark.com/cgi-perl/selections.cgi?ccs=227:5:0:0:0:0&target=http://downloads.lexmark.com/cgi-perl/downloads.cgi&&req=:::::

Xerox — http://www.support.xerox.com/go/prodselect.asp?Xlang=en_GB&metrics=HDR

Brother — http://www.brother.com/E-ftp/info/index_eu.html

Troubleshooting Printer Problems

In this section, you’ll find some of the more common problems that cause 45 percent of the help centre phone calls.

If nothing has occurred since the last time you used your printer, chances are the problem is quite straightforward. As obvious as it sounds, check to ensure that the printer is turned on. It is quite possible that somebody might have turned it off while you were away from your desk or computer. Make sure the printed is connected properly and there is power to the printer. All printers have some kind of LED that lets you know if it is powered up.

If the printer is turned on but has some flashing lights, then check with your owner’s manual to see what the lights mean. Most of these indicators will be related either to paper, ink, or toner.

Make sure there is enough paper in the printer. Refill the paper tray if it’s empty. Make sure you ‘fan’ the paper stack before putting it in the printer. When the paper stack is cut and packed at the factory, it sometimes causes the pages to stick together. Fanning the paper simply involves flipping through the paper stack with your thumb. This ruffling separates the paper, thereby reducing paper jams.

If the paper is stacked well, then check for a mis-feed or paper jam. Remove the paper stack and check the feed area for jammed paper. You may have to open several panels to make a thorough examination. Even a small piece of paper stuck inside the printer can cause problems. You might have to use tweezers to remove small pieces. Be careful of any contact of the tweezers with printer parts to avoid any damage.

If everything listed above is in place, then check the wire that connects the printer to the computer. You may be using a parallel or a USB connection. Make sure the cable is connected properly. Turn the equipment off and remove and re-insert the connection on both the printer and the computer to ensure a solid connection. If you are at work and your printer is connected to what appears to be a telephone wire, then you should call your resident network expert.

If the printer is functioning but only seems to print illegible garbage, then that is a good indication of a printer driver problem. Try re-booting the computer and turning the printer off and on before making any changes to the driver. If after re-booting you still have the problem, it's probably time to replace the printer driver. You can download the driver from the website URLs listed earlier in this articles. Follow the instructions given by the manufacturer to install your driver.

Scanner can also sometimes interfere with printers. Try re-installing the software for both but install the printer driver first, and the scanner driver afterwards.

If nothing listed above results in a solution, then perhaps it might be time to call the printer manufacturer. Make sure that you are near the printer when you call and have all your warranty information available at hand.

Domain Name Renewals

2006-07-11T22:59:00.000-07:00

Domain Name Renewals
by: Elizabeth Ramer

Domain registration and domain name renewals s can be loaded with problems if you are not careful in selecting your registrar and fully understanding the terms and conditions associated with renewing domain names.

As a general rule, when renewing domain names - don't leave it to the last minute! Domain name renewal should occur at least 2 months ahead of expiration. Your domain name registration period will continue to run from the expiration date so you don't lose by earlier domain renewals.

If you can, renew for 2 or more years at a time - this will reduce the frequency of the hassle of renewing your domain name. On the other hand; you could forget all about the registration and the domain name expires anyway!

If you have multiple domains, create a spreadsheet or database - or simply a word document with your domain details and domain name renewal schedule so you always can keep track of domain expirations.

Watch who you do business with. There are some shady characters out there who may either not deliver a service or will try to acquire value domains, and they'll be happy to take your money to boot.

Domain name management - Key points to keep in mind

1. Maintain a database of domain details

2. Maintain records of userids, passwords, admin emails for the domain, URLs pertaining to the domain registration

3. Keep whois information current. This is imperative. Do not use your domain name email as your contact info for your domain - no matter how cool it looks.

4. Use a web-based email address like Yahoo, Hotmail, any address that won't go away.

Domain names can go away and if you need to switch hosts; you will be able to do so with a minimum of hassle.

5. Register as close to the registrar as possible (eliminate as many links in the chain).

For example; you may have registered a domain name.

Ideally; you have registered with an Opensrs registrar. Your tracking path or links will look like this:

Registrar (Opensrs) > DomainMonger (Reseller for Opensrs) > You (Opensrs is used here as an example because they are reliable and even it you don't know who the Reseller is; as long as you have a user and pass you can access your control panel to manage domains or get support.) If you have a tracking path that looks like this:

Registrar > Reseller sells for the registrar > Vendor - sells for the reseller who sells for the registrar > Some guy - sells for the vendor who sells for the reseller who sells for the registrar > You It will be extremely difficult to get support; indeed you may not even be able to find out who the registrar is.

6. Use as few registrars as possible.

7. Renew your domain as early as possible to give time to resolve any problems which might arise.

If for whatever reason you are unable to move the domain to a new registrar, and the registrar is not giving you major issues. Go ahead and renew the domain name. In a couple of months; after doing your research, you find another registrar you want to move the domain name to. Move the domain name. You will keep the time you have already invested in with the old registrar. Most registrars require that you sign up for at least a year.

There is *usually* no issues in transferring registrars. It would be wise to check with your registrar.

2006-07-11T22:56:00.000-07:00

5 Tips For New Internet Surfers
by: Franck Silvestre

When you are new to the web, trying to start a new business to make a living online, you need advices to make your surffing life easier...

Everyday, thousands of new surfers open their browsers for the first time, it is confusing in the beginning, but if you have some good advices in the early beginning, you can surf easier and faster with a friendly browser...

Tip 1: Surf in security.

The first action that you will do if you are new to the net is to open your browser to surf. If you have a PC, like most of the Internet population. You will have Internet explorer installed in your computer, but it is not the best browser available on the net, and it is in fact limited. You may think that it is hard to surf on Internet.

When you will discover Mozilla Firefox, you will be even more happy to surf on Internet, for sure.

One of the first reason you should use Firefox is the integrated Firewall, which protect you against spyware and other adawares.

Tip 2: No need to tape http://www.---.com all the time.

The second reason to choose Firefox is that you save time; for instance, when you went on ebay.com yesterday, you wrote: http://www.ebay.com with Firefox, you just tape “e” in the address bar of your browser, then http://www.ebay.com will appear in the drop down menu, it's like magic, and it's fun too.

Tip 3: See all your pages in only one window.

I really love this one; you can surf in tab. That is really powerful.

For instance, with Internet Explorer, whenever you click on a link, you have 2 choice: open the page in the same window, or open it in a new window. Firefox enable you to open several pages in one window.

Let's explain: you are now looking yahoo.com, and you want to see the news, you just right click on the link, select open in a new tab, and you have now two pages in only one window. To switch between your pages, you just need to click on anyone of the page you want to look in, all that in the same window. You can open fifteen windows in one time if you want.

Better, you can bookmark(in Internet explorer, bookmark is favorites) a tab, and open it later. It is a very intelligent way of surfing. It is very efficient when you are doing some researches on a subject, on google for example.

Tip 4: All your downloads at the same place.

The fourth reason to choose Firefox is that when you download a file on your computer, sometimes, you want to open it, but you face a problem: Where did you save that file? With Firefox, just click on tools, and then you select download, and a pop up window appear. You just scroll to find your program. It will save you time and a lot of headaches.

However, it is recommended, for the first time, to save your download on your desktop, then after save your file in the folder you choose. You can download firefox for Free. You just type firefox in google.com and you're done.

Tip 5: Don't forget a good anti virus,

While you surf on Internet, some hijackers will attempt to damage your computer, by introducing a virus in it. If you don't take your precaution, you may loose all that is stored in your hard disk. You can download AVG, which is excellent at download.com.

There is a lot to learn when you start on Internet, but take your time. And everything will go smoothly.