General

Apple Co-Founder Meets President of Armenia

Co-founder of Apple Inc., Steve Wozniak, arrived in Armenia last week to consult the country on investing in education and youth at the initiative of the Armenian government, reports Asbarez.com.

During his visit, he met with President Serzh Sarkisian, who awarded Wozniak the “Global Award” for “Outstanding Contribution to Humanity through IT 2011.” Before the official ceremony, Wozniak spoke at a press conference about the importance of nurturing creativity among young people in Armenia. At the award ceremony, the president referred to Wozniak as “a person who has revolutionized the world.”

Wozniak is the second person to receive this prize from the president; the first recipient was Craig Barrett, a chairman of the board of the Intel Corporation.

From the moment he landed at Zvartnots Airport, Wozniak was greeted by many fans. ArmRadio reported that on the same day of his arrival, Wozniak received an award from Synopsis Armenia for “humanistic vision, enthusiasm and boundless energy in promoting innovation in the spirit of entrepreneurship around the world and in Armenia.”

Wozniak co-founded Apple with the late Steve Jobs and often speaks about encouraging creativity in children and young people. When discussing the topic with RFE/RL’s Armenian service, Wozniak said that good ideas usually come from young people because “they aren’t so set in knowing how to do things already.”

Along with the president, Wozniak also met with other government officials during his visit, including Prime Minister Tigran Sargsyan.

Need Samsung camcorder battery spares?

Spares are always important especially when it comes to consumer electronics these days as you never know when one can have an empty camcorder battery just when you plan to take the most surreal video of your life.

And for this, carrying a spare Samsung camcorder battery turns out to be a life-saver. But where does one find these items?

One option might be to hunt in stores for your needs while some people find internet shopping more and more convenient these days, and thus attempt to find these very same spares (with resounding success) in the comfort of their own home.

Not only do these sites provide spares for just about every consumer electronics product you can find but it also sells accessories such as the Samsung waste toner container while also showcasing all of the latest models of toner cartridges that are right for your printer.

Interestingly, these sites do not offer these accessories to just digital electronics but also to refrigerators (of which the water filter labeled da29-00003b) and host of other electronics goods that might work as appliances at home.

And while most people will insist on visiting the store to get these spare or even hire an expert to fix their problems for them, there are some precious moments that can be lost (such as in the case of a malfunctioning camera) if one is not careful enough to carry working spares with them.

Computer Security Awareness in the UK

Computer Security is field that has opportunities for many as a career. A nonprofit group in the United Kingdom called the Cyber Security Challenge was formed with the purpose of raising awareness of just that fact. The CSC has now initiated a program to conduct three specific exercises later this year to cultivate interest in the field of Computer Security.

The first challenge is called Qinetiq Network Defense Competition. This challenge is split into two categories- 17 & 18 year olds and Graduate & Post Graduate students. In each category teams consisting of 3-5 persons can enter. The teams will be provided material which describes a problem that a business could face and they have up to six weeks to provide a solution. The two top teams from each group will go on to Qinetiq’s headquarters and participate in a face-to-face network defense challenge.

The second challenge is called the SANS Institute and Sophos treasure hunt. This challenge focuses on website vulnerabilities. The best six participants will go on to participate in face-to-face challenge created by Sophos.

The third challenge is focused on computer forensics and is called the DC3 Forensics Challenge. Twenty two teams will be allowed to take part in this and each will have to get through 25 challenges.

The best teams/individuals of each challenge will be invited to the Cyber Security U.K. Masterclass which is scheduled to be held in January 2011. There, one person will be crowned the U.K.’s Cyber Security Champion.

LG Targets Increase in Shipments of 3D Laptops by 30%

LG Electronics from South Korea announced earlier this week that it is targeting an increase in shipments of 3D notebook PCs by 30% next year. This projection has been finalized because of an increase in sales of 3D gadgets and products led by 3DTV/s. LG Electronics is the second largest manufacturer of Televisions and they have projected that their worldwide sales of 3D notebook PCs would increase by five times in 2011 to1.1 million pieces and then to 13.8 million pieces in 2015.

The computer business head of LG Electronics’ mobile communications division, Harrison Park states “With the availability of more 3D content, consumers are enjoying a new experience, and we think that’ll drive growth of the 3D computer market”. It is undeniable that a huge percentage of people have developed an interest in devices and products which are equipped with 3D features, and has been sky-rocketed partially with the release of one of the biggest blockbuster movies of last year Avatar.

The showing of Avatar in theaters towards the end of the year 2009 has solely raised the awareness of people to 3D from 40% to 60% among American consumers. LG announced earlier this week that three of their latest 3D notebook PC models will be sold at approximaetly $1300,which is roughly marked up by 20% when compared to the price of their traditional 2D units.

EcoFactor to the Rescue

Smart technology has invaded the once innocuous thermostat. Now thanks to EcoFactor, you don’t have to set the thermostat constantly. They have come up with a thermostat that analyzes the conditions in your home and acts accordingly.

The thermostat can do fairly standard tasks like switch on & off at specified times and temperatures. But it can also monitor the outdoor temperature, the thermal behavior of your home and even the weather forecast. Of course, the unit needs an internet connection to function properly. But the advertised advantage is that it can make your home heating, ventilating, and air conditioning efficient. How efficient? By as much as 30 percent, according to EcoFactor.

For one of the test trials, the thermostat was set to cool a house down to a specific temperature throughout the day. It was then set to bring down the temperature even more, one hour before the occupants returned. The thermostat then determined that that it was more efficient to not run at all until the point where the extra cooling was required. It based this decision on the thermal characteristics of the house.

The thermostat is now available in its test market of Dallas – Fort Worth. The price has been set at $19.95 with six months subscription free. Thereafter, consumers will be charged $8.99 per month for its usage. If that seems like a fair bit of money, think of it this way – by spending a little bit you are reducing a lot of impact on the environment

The Hurt is About to Get Worse

With the news that Lime Wire is about to go down in flames, others have found courage to hope. The movie industry has also been battling piracy just as much as the RIAA and the newest and most ambitious entrant in to this foray is Voltage Pictures.

Voltage is the independent production company that responsible for the Oscar winning “Hurt Locker”. The company is going after no less than five thousand John Doe’s in a lawsuit. The names of the persons are not known yet as the company has only been able to collect the IP addresses of the pirates. They want all those who downloaded the movie to delete it from whatever storage mediums they have it on and also pay up actual or statutory damages to cover the expenses of the lawsuits.

The plan seems ambitious and does reek a little of bitterness and money grubbing. It is ambitious because even a massive organization like the RIAA has not been able to succeed in this area. The fact that the movie didn’t make more than 16 million dollars at the home box office also could be due to the movie being downloaded and distributed. The lawsuit could be a way of recovering some of the lost revenue, although it makes Voltage look a little desperate.

The company’s co-founder, Nicolas Chartier, is not bothered by the bad press that may be generated because of this lawsuit. In fact he seems to be quite happy to meet it and will probably find a way to use it to his own benefit.

PC’s that Keep Rebooting

PC’s can develop mysterious ailments suddenly. However, if you know what you are looking for you can quickly solve the problem. The key to this is isolating the issue.

Usually, if it is a hardware related problem, you can identify it through the Power On Self Test (POST) beeps. These beeps will help direct you in the general direction of the problem. The common reasons are Memory, Video Card, Keyboard and Motherboard issues. However, there are times when the beep can’t help you.

At times like this you should know that there is an in-built mechanism in motherboards designed to protect the system from overheating. Reboots are triggered to avoid the overheating issue. Sometimes an improperly installed CPU or cooling systems can result in extreme overheating. Check you PC for these issues and rectify them.

Another cause for reboots could be RAM based. Improperly seated RAM or busted RAM chips will cause errors. To rectify this, remove all the RAM chips and insert them one by one and check the machine. You should also alternate the slots they were originally in to determine if there is a problem with the slot itself.

Capacitors can also be a problem point. When you are inspecting your motherboard for faulty capacitors, look out for puffiness or leakage. Capacitors have pattern on top that resembles an X or a cross and this area should look flat. If it looks raised or puffed, then it is an indication that it is faulty. Do not try to replace capacitors on your own unless you have a good deal of electronics knowledge. Capacitor issues usually mean that you need a new motherboard; unless you know a good electronics repair shop that can do the job properly for you.

Why Should You Compress Files?

Compressing files has only one main purpose – to make them smaller. However, it also has several other sub-uses. Compression programs were mainly used to reclaim disk space as unused or infrequently used files could be made smaller and thus freeing up some space on the hard drive. This practice was also extended to whole hard drives using programs like “Stacker” and “Doubledrive” back in the days of MS-DOS to compress all files while remaining accessible by the OS for immediate use. However with larger hard drives becoming cheaper every day, these reasons have now disappeared.

Compression programs are now mainly used to send files across the internet. This gives a user a few distinct advantages.

1. Several files can be “bunched” together and sent as 1 file. As such the total size to be uploaded by the user and downloaded by the recipient becomes less. However not all files can be compressed enough to be of any practical use. Video files and JPG’s have already had compression algorithms run on them so the compression program you use will have little or no effect on them

2. The files can be password protected and encrypted as well. This gives a great deal of security to the data being transmitted and anyone intercepting the data will find it almost impossible to decrypt it.

3. The integrity of the data can be judged immediately upon receipt of the file. The compressed file simply will not “open” if it was not transmitted properly. Although this does mean that the file will have to be re-sent, it saves the recipient the frustration of receiving several corrupted files.

The Importance of Drivers

Nowadays the term Drivers does not have the same amount of weight attached to it as it used to about 15 years ago. Back then finding Drivers that were released for a particular device was almost as difficult as getting a Republican to endorse President Obama. But Drivers remain important nevertheless.

A device Driver is the software that functions as a bridge between your hardware device and the Operating System. It tells the OS exactly how the hardware can be operated, what functions it is capable of and how the OS should “talk” to it. This is very important as OS manufacturers and hardware manufacturers are almost never the same entity.

These days with OS’s like MS Windows 7, there is really no worry about getting a device to work as the OS contains many thousands of drivers from manufacturers as well as generic ”one size fits all” drivers. But it is always advisable to get the newest driver for your device whenever possible. This is because manufacturers are constantly trying to get the best out of their hardware and therefore from time to time keep releasing new updates that will make the hardware improve its functions. Another reason is that OS’s regularly update themselves, thus requiring small or large adjustments in the way that drivers and hardware interact with them.

To keep your computer running as smoothly as possible, download updates regularly or if an automatic download option is available then you should utilize that. Many manufacturers now include an “identify make & model” tool on their websites, so even downloading the correct driver manually is now an easy task.

Protecting Your Computer from Theft

First of all you have to understand that no computer can be protected from being physically stolen. Short of chaining your desktop computer to the wall or attaching your laptop to your body nothing else can be done to protect it. But what you can protect is the data and here are a few simple solutions to help you do that.

Password protection – All PC’s and Laptops have a BIOS. This is the system that interacts with your hardware the moment you switch it on. By going into your BIOS, you can set a system password so that every time the computer is switched on the BIOS will ask for the correct password before even letting the Operating System start. In addition to this you should also have a strong password for logging into your system. A strong password in this case would be constituted of letters and numbers.

Encryption – Encryption is further protection for your data. Using this you can protect files or folders with a randomly generated “key”. Once encrypted, the file or folder cannot be accessed without being decrypted using the key. However you must be very careful as to where you store this key as

a. Losing it will mean that you can never access that data again.
b. If someone else gets hold of it, they can then access your data

Data wipe – This method is somewhat drastic. There are several vendors online who offer a data wipe out program. This program automatically connects to the vendor’s server and identifies itself every time you log on to the internet and at periodical intervals. In the event that your computer is stolen, you can log on to the vendor’s website and report it as stolen. The next time the computer is switched on (by the thief) and when the software communicates to the server, the server instructs the software to being an automatic wipe out off all the data stored on the system.

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