Microsoft Agrees To Buy Skype For $8.5 Billion!

Microskype ? Makes me wonder! http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/
The deal was good for US stock market as it drew encouragement from Microsoft's $8.5 billion deal for Skype Technologies and from signs of strength in the U.S. economy and overseas.

But on the whole I wonder what Microsoft will do to Skype, 8.5 Billion or not because first thing I heard about the deal was that M$ was going to integrate Skype capabilities with XBox. Time will tell.

Read more: http://snapvoip.blogspot.com/2011/05/microsoft-agrees-to-buy-skype-for-85.html#ixzz1LyExEvgp

DDoS Attacks on the Rise

VeriSign (NASDAQ:VRSN) has a unique role and position in the administration of the Internet. VeriSign runs some of the root DNS servers as well as operating the .com Top Level Domain providing visibility that others don't have.

Looking beyond their own infrastructure, VeriSign did a study of 225 IT decision makers to get their insight into Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks. Though VeriSign has its own insight into attacks, Ben Preto, SVP of the Networking Intelligence and Availability group at VeriSign told InternetNews.com that he was shocked by some of the results.

DDoS attacks have gone mainstream with 63 percent of survey respondents getting hit at least once and 11 percent getting attacked more than six times. Going a step further,VeriSign asked about downtime incidents. Just over half of VeriSign's survey respondents had some kind of downtime, though only 33 percent was attributable to DDoS attacks. Downtime incidents had a direct result on the bottom line too with 51 percent noting they lost money as a result of the downtime. Preto noted that the the DDoS attacks were widespread across multiple market verticals. The average cost to defend against attacks across VeriSign's respondents came in at $2.5 million.

"That's a huge hit to an IT budget on something that is arguably just getting worse and just getting more expensive," Preto said.

There are a number of DDoS mitigation techniques and technologies in the market today. VeriSign offers a managed service which also includes DDoS and DNS services. Less than half (40 percent) of VeriSign's survey however indicated that they would outsource DDoS protection, which isn't particularly good news for VeriSign's business.

Petro noted that the scale of DDoS attacks has grown to the point where few organizations can defend themselves on their own. Petro said that back in 2001 the top end of DDoS attacks was a sustained 5 Mb attack. He added that VeriSign saw an 84 Gbps attack last quarter.

"Who can withstand that," Preto said. "Companies used to be able to protect against DDoS on their own but with the size of attacks now, there are few companies that have enough bandwidth."

In terms of DNS specifically, which can often be the target of DDoS, Preto said that there are a lot of older unpatched DNS servers in use today. According to Preto, the number of unpatched open source BIND DNS servers is in the 70th percentile.

VeriSign manages the root zone DNS servers for the Internet with their own technology called Atlas. For managed services, Preto noted that VeriSign's service leverages Atlas, but it's not the same system that powers the Internet's DNS. He explained that the needs and structure for managing the global Internet are different than the needs of hosted DNS customers.

"We're in the same cage, but on different ip's and network infrastructure, Preto said.

Sean Michael Kerner is a senior editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of Internet.com, the network for technology professionals.

10 Reasons Why Your Computer Crashes

Your system crashes. Some of you don’t know how the computer crashed, or why it crashed? We are posting the top 10 reason for a computer to crash, covering hardware and software issue. Computer crashes can be very damaging – no matter what you use your computer for, chances are that a compute crashing can be very frustrating. You might lose important documents and photos, and even losing the use of your computer for awhile while it gets fixed might cause difficulties for you. Everyone knows the headaches that are associated with computer crashing – but not everyone knows that there are things you can do for your computer to prevent it from crashing in the first place.


1 Hardware conflict
The number one reason why Windows crashes is hardware conflict. Each hardware device communicates to other devices through an interrupt request channel (IRQ). These are supposed to be unique for each device.
For example, a printer usually connects internally on IRQ 7. The keyboard usually uses IRQ 1 and the floppy disk drive IRQ 6. Each device will try to hog a single IRQ for itself.

If there are a lot of devices, or if they are not installed properly, two of them may end up sharing the same IRQ number. When the user tries to use both devices at the same time, a crash can happen. The way to check if your computer has a hardware conflict is through the following route:

* Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager.

Often if a device has a problem a yellow ‘!’ appears next to its description in the Device Manager. Highlight Computer (in the Device Manager) and press Properties to see the IRQ numbers used by your computer. If the IRQ number appears twice, two devices may be using it.

Sometimes a device might share an IRQ with something described as ‘IRQ holder for PCI steering’. This can be ignored. The best way to fix this problem is to remove the problem device and reinstall it.

Sometimes you may have to find more recent drivers on the internet to make the device function properly. A good resource is www.driverguide.com. If the device is a sound card, or a modem, it can often be fixed by moving it to a different slot on the motherboard (be careful about opening your computer, as you may void the warranty).

When working inside a computer you should switch it off, unplug the mains lead and touch an unpainted metal surface to discharge any static electricity.

To be fair to Mcft, the problem with IRQ numbers is not of its making. It is a legacy problem going back to the first PC designs using the IBM 8086 chip. Initially there were only eight IRQs. Today there are 16 IRQs in a PC. It is easy to run out of them. There are plans to increase the number of IRQs in future designs.

2 Bad Ram
Ram (random-access memory) problems might bring on the blue screen of death with a message saying Fatal Exception Error. A fatal error indicates a serious hardware problem. Sometimes it may mean a part is damaged and will need replacing.

But a fatal error caused by Ram might be caused by a mismatch of chips. For example, mixing 70-nanosecond (70ns) Ram with 60ns Ram will usually force the computer to run all the Ram at the slower speed. This will often crash the machine if the Ram is overworked.

One way around this problem is to enter the BIOS settings and increase the wait state of the Ram. This can make it more stable. Another way to troubleshoot a suspected Ram problem is to rearrange the Ram chips on the motherboard, or take some of them out. Then try to repeat the circumstances that caused the crash. When handling Ram try not to touch the gold connections, as they can be easily damaged.

Parity error messages also refer to Ram. Modern Ram chips are either parity (ECC) or non parity (non-ECC). It is best not to mix the two types, as this can be a cause of trouble.

EMM386 error messages refer to memory problems but may not be connected to bad Ram. This may be due to free memory problems often linked to old Dos-based programmes.

3 BIOS settings
Every motherboard is supplied with a range of chipset settings that are decided in the factory. A common way to access these settings is to press the F2 or delete button during the first few seconds of a boot-up.

Once inside the BIOS, great care should be taken. It is a good idea to write down on a piece of paper all the settings that appear on the screen. That way, if you change something and the computer becomes more unstable, you will know what settings to revert to.

A common BIOS error concerns the CAS latency. This refers to the Ram. Older EDO (extended data out) Ram has a CAS latency of 3. Newer SDRam has a CAS latency of 2. Setting the wrong figure can cause the Ram to lock up and freeze the computer’s display.

Mcft Windows is better at allocating IRQ numbers than any BIOS. If possible set the IRQ numbers to Auto in the BIOS. This will allow Windows to allocate the IRQ numbers (make sure the BIOS setting for Plug and Play OS is switched to ‘yes’ to allow Windows to do this.).

4 Hard disk drives
After a few weeks, the information on a hard disk drive starts to become piecemeal or fragmented. It is a good idea to defragment the hard disk every week or so, to prevent the disk from causing a screen freeze. Go to

* Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter

This will start the procedure. You will be unable to write data to the hard drive (to save it) while the disk is defragmenting, so it is a good idea to schedule the procedure for a period of inactivity using the Task Scheduler.

The Task Scheduler should be one of the small icons on the bottom right of the Windows opening page (the desktop).

Some lockups and screen freezes caused by hard disk problems can be solved by reducing the read-ahead optimisation. This can be adjusted by going to

* Start > Settings > Control Panel > System Icon > Performance > File System > Hard Disk.

Hard disks will slow down and crash if they are too full. Do some housekeeping on your hard drive every few months and free some space on it. Open the Windows folder on the C drive and find the Temporary Internet Files folder. Deleting the contents (not the folder) can free a lot of space.

Empty the Recycle Bin every week to free more space. Hard disk drives should be scanned every week for errors or bad sectors. Go to

* Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > ScanDisk

Otherwise assign the Task Scheduler to perform this operation at night when the computer is not in use.

5 Fatal OE exceptions and VXD errors
Fatal OE exception errors and VXD errors are often caused by video card problems.

These can often be resolved easily by reducing the resolution of the video display. Go to

* Start > Settings > Control Panel > Display > Settings

Here you should slide the screen area bar to the left. Take a look at the colour settings on the left of that window. For most desktops, high colour 16-bit depth is adequate.

If the screen freezes or you experience system lockups it might be due to the video card. Make sure it does not have a hardware conflict. Go to

* Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Device Manager

Here, select the + beside Display Adapter. A line of text describing your video card should appear. Select it (make it blue) and press properties. Then select Resources and select each line in the window. Look for a message that says No Conflicts.

If you have video card hardware conflict, you will see it here. Be careful at this point and make a note of everything you do in case you make things worse.

The way to resolve a hardware conflict is to uncheck the Use Automatic Settings box and hit the Change Settings button. You are searching for a setting that will display a No Conflicts message.

Another useful way to resolve video problems is to go to

* Start > Settings > Control Panel > System > Performance > Graphics

Here you should move the Hardware Acceleration slider to the left. As ever, the most common cause of problems relating to graphics cards is old or faulty drivers (a driver is a small piece of software used by a computer to communicate with a device).

Look up your video card’s manufacturer on the internet and search for the most recent drivers for it.

6 Viruses
Often the first sign of a virus infection is instability. Some viruses erase the boot sector of a hard drive, making it impossible to start. This is why it is a good idea to create a Windows start-up disk. Go to

* Start > Settings > Control Panel > Add/Remove Programs

Here, look for the Start Up Disk tab. Virus protection requires constant vigilance.

A virus scanner requires a list of virus signatures in order to be able to identify viruses. These signatures are stored in a DAT file. DAT files should be updated weekly from the website of your antivirus software manufacturer.

An excellent antivirus programme is McAfee VirusScan by Network Associates ( www.nai.com). Another is Norton AntiVirus 2000, made by Symantec ( www.symantec.com).

7 Printers
The action of sending a document to print creates a bigger file, often called a postscript file.
Printers have only a small amount of memory, called a buffer. This can be easily overloaded. Printing a document also uses a considerable amount of CPU power. This will also slow down the computer’s performance.

If the printer is trying to print unusual characters, these might not be recognized, and can crash the computer. Sometimes printers will not recover from a crash because of confusion in the buffer. A good way to clear the buffer is to unplug the printer for ten seconds. Booting up from a powerless state, also called a cold boot, will restore the printer’s default settings and you may be able to carry on.

8 Software
A common cause of computer crash is faulty or badly-installed software. Often the problem can be cured by uninstalling the software and then reinstalling it. Use Norton Uninstall or Uninstall Shield to remove an application from your system properly. This will also remove references to the program in the System Registry and leaves the way clear for a completely fresh copy.

The System Registry can be corrupted by old references to obsolete software that you thought was uninstalled. Use Reg Cleaner by Jouni Vuorio to clean up the System Registry and remove obsolete entries. It works on Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows 98 SE (Second Edition), Windows Millennium Edition (ME), NT4 and Windows 2000.

Read the instructions and use it carefully so you don’t do permanent damage to the Registry. If the Registry is damaged you will have to reinstall your operating system. Reg Cleaner can be obtained from www.jv16.org
Often a Windows problem can be resolved by entering Safe Mode. This can be done during start-up. When you see the message “Starting Windows” press F4. This should take you into Safe Mode.

Safe Mode loads a minimum of drivers. It allows you to find and fix problems that prevent Windows from loading properly.

Sometimes installing Windows is difficult because of unsuitable BIOS settings. If you keep getting SUWIN error messages (Windows setup) during the Windows installation, then try entering the BIOS and disabling the CPU internal cache. Try to disable the Level 2 (L2) cache if that doesn’t work.

Remember to restore all the BIOS settings back to their former settings following installation.

9 Overheating
Central processing units (CPUs) are usually equipped with fans to keep them cool. If the fan fails or if the CPU gets old it may start to overheat and generate a particular kind of error called a kernel error. This is a common problem in chips that have been overclocked to operate at higher speeds than they are supposed to.
One remedy is to get a bigger better fan and install it on top of the CPU. Specialist cooling fans/heatsinks are available from www.computernerd.com or www.coolit.com

CPU problems can often be fixed by disabling the CPU internal cache in the BIOS. This will make the machine run more slowly, but it should also be more stable.

10 Power supply problems
With all the new construction going on around the country the steady supply of electricity has become disrupted. A power surge or spike can crash a computer as easily as a power cut.

If this has become a nuisance for you then consider buying a uninterrupted power supply (UPS). This will give you a clean power supply when there is electricity, and it will give you a few minutes to perform a controlled shutdown in case of a power cut.

It is a good investment if your data are critical, because a power cut will cause any unsaved data to be lost.

Researchers hijack botnet, score 56,000 passwords in an hour

Researchers at the University of California Santa Barbara have published a paper (PDF) detailing their findings after hijacking a botnet for ten days earlier this year. Among other things, the researchers were able to collect 70GB of data that the bots stole from users, including 56,000 passwords gathered within a single hour. The information not only gave them a look at the inner workings of the botnet, they also got to see how secure users really are when it comes to online activities. (Hint: they aren't.)



The botnet in question is controlled by Torpig (also known as Sinowal), a malware program that aims to gather personal and financial information from Windows users. The researchers gained control of the Torpig botnet by exploiting a weakness in the way the bots try to locate their commands and control servers—the bots would generate a list of domains that they planned to contact next, but not all of those domains were registered yet. The researchers then registered the domains that the bots would resolve, and then set up servers where the bots could connect to find their commands. This method lasted for a full ten days before the botnet's controllers updated the system and cut the observation short.

During that time, however, UCSB's researchers were able to gather massive amounts of information on how the botnet functions as well as what kind of information it's gathering. Almost 300,000 unique login credentials were gathered over the time the researchers controlled the botnet, including 56,000 passwords gathered in a single hour using "simple replacement rules" and a password cracker. They found that 28 percent of victims reused their credentials for accessing 368,501 websites, making it an easy task for scammers to gather further personal information. The researchers noted that they were able to read through hundreds of e-mail, forum, and chat messages gathered by Torpig that "often contain detailed (and private) descriptions of the lives of their authors."

(Comically, the report notes that 0.1 percent of Torpig victims love "exchanging insults" online, with another four percent spending their time looking for sex online. The rest are doing relatively mundane things like worrying about grades, looking for advice from doctors and lawyers, looking for jobs, and playing video games.)
Of course, the primary goal of Torpig is to steal financial information like credit card numbers and bank logins. In just ten days, Torpig apparently obtained credentials of 8,310 accounts at 410 financial institutions, including PayPal, Capital One, E*Trade, and Chase. The researchers noted, too, that nearly 40 percent of the credentials stolen by Torpig were from browser password managers, and not actual login sessions, and that the Torpig controllers may have exploited these credentials for between $83,000 and $8.3 million during that time period.

Interestingly, a large number of the financial institutions that had been breached required "monumental effort" in order to notify the victims, according to the report. In fact, financial institutions weren't the only ones—interacting with registrars, hosting facilities, and law enforcement were all "rather complicated," indicating that there's a long way to go in order to make notifying botnet victims easier.

Not becoming a victim in the first place is the most ideal situation, however. The researchers concluded that victims of botnets are usually those with poorly maintained machines and who choose "easily guessable" passwords. " This is evidence that the malware problem is fundamentally a cultural problem," reads the report. "Even though people are educated and understand well concepts such as the physical security and the necessary maintenance of a car, they do not understand the consequences of irresponsible behavior when using a computer."

What's Really Better?

   
    The best thing about technology and computers today is how diverse everything is. While it can be overwhelming when you're having to look into new computers, phones, tablets, hardware, touchscreen monitors and much more, there is something out there for everyone. This is one topic that always comes up between people a lot today that use these technologies as tools in their everyday life. 


Which one is better?
Is one system better than another?

I don't write a whole lot but this topic is one that I would like to get off my chest; from my point of view. I have a Bachelor of Computer Science and regularly work with different types of computers, operating systems, tablets, phones and networks. There is one thing that almost every technology has in common. Keeping you connected to the people/information you need and use in your everyday life. With desktops and laptops people become divided into three groups. 


Mac users, Windows users and Linux/Unix users. 


These are just the three common groups that I notice all the time. With tablets now coming out in growing numbers. I can name these groups of operating systems.


Windows, Linux and Mac users


Now the Linux list of operating systems for tablets and computer systems could go on forever but everyone knows or has heard of the Android system for phones and tablets. Also, Meego is another linux system used in tablets and there are many more for computer, tablets and phones. 

Now this goes a little off topic, but focus with me on this. All through life you meet and become friends, acquaintances, and/or family with people all around you. The more popular someone is, the more criticism or exposure they get to others. After a while of getting to know this person it's not hard to point out their flaws as no one is perfect!


Ok, so now look at what operating systems are more popular and used more in the real world. Most people who read this probably won't have any idea or know much about the Linux system, while most of you reading this will know much, much more about Mac systems and Windows systems. With tablets and phones, this is the same. 


One side note: When talking to people about what system is better is like talking to people about what religion is better?!?!?


Windows is used in offices around the world as it is also sold with almost every computer that you can buy in most stores. Mac's are also becoming more and more popular, as offices around the world also use this system, and more stores are starting to sell them. Windows has more people attacking its systems because it is more popular than mac, so more vulnerabilities are obviously going to come up. Now Mac systems aren't any better than Windows systems, it is just not as commonly used in everyday life like windows is. Below is a list of vulnerabilities for Mac systems.


Mac OS X Virus: Inqtana.A Worm
OSX/Inqtana.A is a Java-based worm that exploits the directory traversal vulnerability in the Bluetooth file and object exchange services in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger).

Leap.A aka Oompa-Loompa virus
The Leap.A (aka Oompa-Loompa) infects applications in Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger) running on PowerPC processors.

Mac.Simpson Virus
A mass-mailing email worm affecting only Macintosh OS9.0 and above, Mac.Simpson directs users to an online archive of The Simpsons episodes.
* This is a good link to check into more issues with Mac computers that not many users are even aware of.
http://antivirus.about.com/od/macintoshresource/Macintosh_Viruses_and_Mac_Virus_Resources.htm
This gripe of mine goes for every technology we use for the rest of our lives. When the first version of a system is released you can blame the flaws, but after a while if that system is still being used, it is being used for a reason. The more popular any one system becomes, the more people will point out vulnerabilities. Where as, the uncommon systems won't necessarily be more secure but they won't have the popularity of the masses to point out their vulnerabilities as quickly.

by Zach Kleppe
Mar. 3, 2011 : www.dorkdigital.com

Thank You Google

Dear Google: yes, I know you are pissing off lots of businesses that today aren’t listed as high. CNN Money covers their plight.

I wanted to say “thank you.”

Why? In nearly every search I tried today results are better than they used to be.

Not many people look out for the users in today’s world when so many big businesses are pushing the other way.

I’ve been running lots of searches for things like “San Francisco hotels downtown” and overall your results today are less spammy, have more “real” hotels and fewer intermediaries, and have better results than they used to. Plus, they have fewer ads and fewer of these intermediaries than your biggest competitor, Bing.

Yes, I’m watching Techmeme and seeing the businesses that are hurting. Quora has a very good list of such.
But I just wanted to say “thank you” for trying to do something about the resultsets that are growing less and less useful because more and more sites were getting low-quality content into the result sets.

By the way, these changes don’t help bloggers but I don’t care. I’m a user of Google first and the results have definitely improved lately. I just searched for “Motorola Xoom iPad” and see that my blog is nowhere to be found, but the reprint on Business Insider is on the first page. Definitely Google is much more biased to big brands now than it was eight years ago (eight years ago bloggers were able to be seen much higher than brands).

by Robert Scoble
http://scobleizer.com/

7 WTF gadgets for the home

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, and that idiom definitely applies to these 10 household gadgets. Without the explanations, you might look at them with bewilderment. What are they really used for? Some are puzzling, some have functionality that you might not expect and others are just downright bizarre.

Wine-glass doorbell


If you thought this was some sort of rack for wine glasses, it's actually a doorbell. Visitors to your home are announced by the pleasant sound of a small hammer chiming crystal wineglasses. Well, that and the terrifying screams of people caught underneath a shower of razor-sharp glass shards. $225

USB shoe dryer


It's a table! It's a speaker!



At first glance this looks like a coffee table with a very modern design. But the Acoustable is also a powerful speaker. Underneath the hood it features a TEAC system that cranks out 360 degrees of sound from audio gadgets that can be hooked up to the table via USB or Wi-Fi. If anyone dares to put their feet up on it, turn it on and crank that sound up to 11. Price not available

Espresso by hand



If you try to use the Handpresso as a bike pump, you'll be extremely aggravated later on when you find out that it's actually a handheld espresso maker. It can push hot water through an espresso pod with 16psi of pressure whether you're using it indoors or out. Again, if you use it as a bike pump, don't come crying to us if your lattes start to taste like tire rubber. $78.46

Hub in a storm



If you have a lot of cable clutter on your computer desk, you'll have no trouble sinking this battleship. It may look like a toy, but it's actually a five-port USB hub for all of your peripheral and portable devices. $23

Surveillance 100 lamp



Don't be fooled — the Surveillance 100 won't help protect your home from break-ins. In fact, it just might make it easier for them to find all of the valuable stuff in your home. That's because this is actually an elaborately designed lamp. Regardless, it may help keep your unknowing visitors on their best behavior. Price not available.

RelaxOne massager



Is this person getting an MRI or a massage? Oddly enough, it's the latter. The RelaxOne is a massage chair with an elaborate audio system that surrounds you with sound when the pod is closed. The ultimate in relaxation is allegedly achieved through an immersive experience for the senses. All you need to do is bring a pizza in there and you'll be ready to unwind from a long day at work. Price not available