Proxies

Many of us need to use an anonymous proxy service while online.  Most people want to remain anonymous in their browsing activities.  Who wants their ip address showing up all over the place?

For me, I do SEO for many different clients across the country.  I can't create a bunch of the same accounts using the same ip address, that would look weird and probably get me banned from sites I need to use.  A private proxy is the perfect answer for this.

Mine automatically switches out my ip address every 30 minutes (this is what I set it to) and I can change ip address in seconds if I want to.  It does not interfere with my internet connection or mess up my browsing experience like other anonymous proxies can do.  It's real simple and it works.
I use Private Proxy.  I tried several other services and they were a little too complicated for me.  Yes, I can set up a Wordpress blog with tons of plugins making it fully SEO optimized and ready to rock, but it shouldn't be that way with a proxy service.  I don't want to configure ports and stuff like that.  Private proxy makes it so easy.
You just install it, enter your log in information and you are done!  You can pick from different locations to generate your ip from and all of them have many different ip addresses.  Some of the sites I used to create for clients would only let me create one account per day, but with private proxy I was able to post multiple times every day.  It just switched IP's on it's own and I created more accounts!

Plus, it works with my software.  I have several SEO software programs (EVO II for seo, Bookmarking Demon, etc.) and it works easily with all of them.
Finally, what really makes this a great proxy service is the price.  It's $9.99 a month.  Who cannot afford that?  That's like a Starbucks run!   Plus, you get to try it out free for 7 days to see if you like it before you buy it.  Can't beat that people.  I'd love to drive a car for seven days before I had to sign the papers...
I hope you learned something from this review, and yes, it is real.  I have used Private Proxy for a little over 2 years now without any problems....knock on wood!

 Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/seo-articles/proxy-reviews-whos-the-best-anonymous-proxy-server-service-1926036.html

My comment: SEO refers to search engine optimization. Basically proxy is a web page which allows you to browse certain webpage even they are being blocked by content filter. A proxy website enable us to bypass the Internet provider and browse through the proxy website. It is easy to use where we only need to type the web site address that we want to visit in the form they provide, and start to browse. We are protected from the real IP if we are browsing through the way. Proxy websites are always being updated so we have to keep track with it if we are going to use it often.

Google Earth

Most of us have been using one online mapping program or another for years now. They're a godsend for those of us who get lost within a 3-mile radius of our homes, and they're just plain fun for people who enjoy figuring out where stuff is.

With this in mind, imagine how amazing Google Earth must be for it to elicit awe from the online community and cause South Korea to demand changes to the program.

Google Earth is no ordinary mapping application. Type "Denver, CO" into the Google Earth search box, and yes, you can learn where Denver, Colo. is in relation to Grand Junction, Colo. and how to get from your address to 1600 Curtis St. in downtown Denver. In the same search, though, you can also learn that 1600
Curtis St. is in the 80202 zip code and that there are 12 Starbucks Coffee shops within a half-mile radius of that address; you can zoom out from 1600 Curtis St. and watch it disappear into a satellite view of the Earth and then zoom back in as if you were falling onto 1600 Curtis St. from space; and if you click on "Forbidden City" in the "Sightseeing" column, you can see what it would look like to fly Superman-style from 1600 Curtis St. in Denver to the Forbidden Palace in Beijing, China. And you thought the world was small before.
The ap­plication is fairly easy to use, but there are a lot of functions to try out. See how Google Earth gets images and data and learn how you can get started with Google Earth so you can explore some of the features and customization options.

Source:  http://computer.howstuffworks.com/internet/basics/google-earth.htm

- This service enable us to view the maps through satellite. And now there is even a version of Google Earth 6 which let us to see the 3D buildings and terrain, we can also find cities easily through this. This is how it works. -

Antivirus, how do they work?

An anti-virus software program is a computer program that can be used to scan files to identify and eliminate computer viruses and other malicious software (malware).
Anti-virus software typically uses two different techniques to accomplish this:

• Examining files to look for known viruses by means of a virus dictionary
• Identifying suspicious behavior from any computer program which might indicate infection

Most commercial anti-virus software uses both of these approaches, with an emphasis on the virus dictionary approach.

Virus dictionary approach
In the virus dictionary approach, when the anti-virus software examines a file, it refers to a dictionary of known viruses that have been identified by the author of the anti-virus software. If a piece of code in the file matches any virus identified in the dictionary, then the anti-virus software can then either delete the file, quarantine it so that the file is inaccessible to other programs and its virus is unable to spread, or attempt to repair the file by removing the virus itself from the file.

To be successful in the medium and long term, the virus dictionary approach requires periodic online downloads of updated virus dictionary entries. As new viruses are identified "in the wild", civically minded and technically inclined users can send their infected files to the authors of anti-virus software, who then include information about the new viruses in their dictionaries.

Dictionary-based anti-virus software typically examines files when the computer's operating system creates, opens, and closes them; and when the files are e-mailed. In this way, a known virus can be detected immediately upon receipt. The software can also typically be scheduled to examine all files on the user's hard disk on a regular basis.

Although the dictionary approach is considered effective, virus authors have tried to stay a step ahead of such software by writing "polymorphic viruses", which encrypt parts of themselves or otherwise modify themselves as a method of disguise, so as to not match the virus's signature in the dictionary.

Suspicious behavior approach
The suspicious behavior approach, by contrast, doesn't attempt to identify known viruses, but instead monitors the behavior of all programs. If one program tries to write data to an executable program, for example, this is flagged as suspicious behavior and the user is alerted to this, and asked what to do.

Unlike the dictionary approach, the suspicious behavior approach therefore provides protection against brand-new viruses that do not yet exist in any virus dictionaries. However, it also sounds a large number of false positives, and users probably become desensitized to all the warnings. If the user clicks "Accept" on every such warning, then the anti-virus software is obviously useless to that user. This problem has especially been made worse over the past 7 years, since many more nonmalicious program designs chose to modify other .exes without regards to this false positive issue. Thus, most modern anti virus software uses this technique less and less.

Other ways to detect viruses
Some antivirus-software will try to emulate the beginning of the code of each new executable that is being executed before transferring control to the executable. If the program seems to be using self-modifying code or otherwise appears as a virus (it immediately tries to find other executable s), one could assume that the executable has been infected with a virus. However, this method results in a lot of false positives.

Issues of concern
Macro viruses, arguably the most destructive and widespread computer viruses, could be prevented far more inexpensively and effectively, and without the need of all users to buy anti-virus software, if Microsoft would fix security flaws in Microsoft Outlook and Microsoft Office related to the execution of downloaded code and to the ability of document macros to spread and wreak havoc.

User education is as important as anti-virus software; simply training users in safe computing practices, such as not downloading and executing unknown programs from the Internet, would slow the spread of viruses, without the need of anti-virus software.

Computer users should not always run with administrator access to their own machine. If they would simply run in user mode then some types of viruses would not be able to spread.The dictionary approach to detecting viruses is often insufficient due to the continual creation of new viruses, yet the suspicious behavior approach is ineffective due to the false positive problem; hence, the current understanding of anti-virus software will never conquer computer viruses.

There are various methods of encrypting and packing malicious software which will make even well-known viruses undetectable to anti-virus software. Detecting these "camouflaged" viruses requires a powerful unpacking engine, which can decrypt the files before examining them. Unfortunately, many popular anti-virus programs do not have this and thus are often unable to detect encrypted viruses.
Companies that sell anti-virus software seem to have a financial incentive for viruses to be written and to spread, and for the public to panic over the threat.

What's so bad about Microsoft?

Why is it that Microsoft's products keep mushrooming in size with each new release always requiring significantly more disk space and more processing power than the last time? They might claim it's because of all the new features they add each time, but that's only half the story. The new features and the increased processing requirements are designed to fuel the process of perpetual upgrades. This is Microsoft's way of rubbing Intel's back so that Intel will give Microsoft preferential treatment when it comes out with new chip specs. It's also Microsoft's way of convincing consumers that their newer product versions are better because they are so much bigger. Their new features are often superfluous but users must still deal with the overhead required by the features even though most will never use the features.

• CNN has a good article which explains why bloat is such a bad thing. Unneeded features make products more cumbersome to use and the addition of new features often sacrifices the performance (and sometimes the integrity) of older features. Why not stick with an older version of the product then? Two reasons: 1) you only get customer support if you stay current and 2) if you need to work with other people using the same program older versions are often incompatible with newer versions, so if anybody is using the newest version then everybody must upgrade.

• "The Bloatware Debate" is a technical discussion of how two separate people dissected one particular Microsoft program and found out, to their shock, that it was over 2,000% larger than it should have been. It would appear from this discussion that the cumbersome size of Microsoft programs is due not only to the continually growing clutter of useless features but it is also due to careless programming (perhaps to an even larger degree).

• Did you realize 486's are still usable machines if you're running something other than Microsoft's latest software? For instance, Linux worked great on 486's back when they were the top of the line and amazingly enough it didn't stop working on them once the Pentiums came out. Yes, Linux has evolved since then to take advantage of more powerful computers, but the latest version of Linux will still work well on older equipment. There are also plenty of other operating systems that work equally well on machines that Microsoft has abandoned support for. Don't let your old equipment gather dust - older machines make great IP Masquerading routers (which allow you to connect multiple computers to the internet at once using only one phone line or cable modem) or great machines for checking email and chatting online. If you can't use your older equipment yourself, rest assured that somebody out there (such as your local school) could put it to very good use. Don't write it off because Windows doesn't run on it.

• Dan Martinez summed up the situation created with the incompatibility in subsequent versions of Word when he said "while we're on the subject of file formats, let's pause for a moment in frank admiration of the way in which Microsoft brazenly built backward-incompatibility into its product. By initially making it virtually impossible to maintain a heterogenous environment of Word 95 and Word 97 systems, Microsoft offered its customers that most eloquent of arguments for upgrading: the delicate sound of a revolver being cocked somewhere just out of sight." (cited from the quote file) For a more detailed lament of how Microsoft likes to pressure its customers to keep buying the same product over and over by using backward incompatibility, see Zeid Nasser's page on 'Forced upgrading,' in the World of Word.
• Microsoft freely admits to building software that is incompatible with previous versions of the same product, though this is typically spun as being a trivial, harmless issue. However, in an incredibly rare display of honesty, Microsoft has published on its very own website an article which calls the backward incompatibility in certain versions of Internet Explorer as being a "horrible drain" on companies. (The article doesn't deride Internet Explorer by name, but it's clear that the browsers it refers to are Internet Explorer and Netscape.) Interestingly, this article also serves as an equally rare full admission of guilt that Microsoft makes a practice of releasing incredibly bug-ridden software. The author is very harsh on what was released as the production version of Internet Explorer and also strongly alludes that software at Microsoft is frequently shipped under strong protests from its developers as to its lack of fitness. Don't expect this article to stay on the Microsoft website for long now that we are linking to it - read it while you still can. If it is no longer available by the time you get to it, you can search for it under the title of "When Is Software Ready? Ship It Anyway!" by author Victor Stone, dated March 29, 1999. References: [MSDN Article]

Source:  http://www.kmfms.com/whatsbad.html

-Sometimes a new product which is costly is not applicable to all consumers. Not everyone can support it or need the unnecessary features. Consumers have to be wise which only select the products that they need but not follow the trend. Do not purchase any product for the sake of buying, but make sure it is applicable. An older version just do not mean that it is not good enough, sometimes a new version might be too complicated for new users.- 

Peer-to-peer (P2P)

P2P (peer-to-peer) is a type of file-sharing network that allows individuals across the globe to trade files, or torrents, directly with one another without going through a third-party server. Computers on a file-sharing network link up using peer-to-peer software. A few examples of files shared over P2P include freeware, shareware, betas, and original works of all kinds from music to photography, programs and scripts. It is illegal, however, to share copyrighted materials without permission.

Copyrighted materials include software that is being shared in a way that is inconsistent with its End User License Agreement (EULA), commercial music and movies. These products are often shared despite laws that protect the works by prohibiting unauthorized distribution. Even a user who only intends to download materials becomes a distributor because of the way P2P works. As a torrent is being received, the parts already present on the hard drive are automatically uploaded to others requesting the file.

Music illegally shared over P2P has been a central focus for lawsuits. This isn't a surprise since the first peer-to-peer network was dedicated to sharing music torrents. To stop the hemorrhaging of protected music over file-sharing networks, the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) has sued some 40,000 individuals.

Fortunately for the RIAA, the architecture of peer-to-peer networks makes it fairly simple to collect required proof, as the Internet Protocol (IP) address that identifies a user's computer on the Internet is displayed inside the P2P software when participating in file-sharing. If the RIAA or a third-party watchdog clicks on a commercial music torrent, the IP addresses of everyone sharing that file is displayed.

Despite illegal sharing, RIAA tactics have come under fire, most notably after unsuccessfully attempting to sue a forty-something disabled, single mother. Tanya Andersen of Portland, Oregon was wrongfully targeted for sharing gangsta rap music, then allegedly pressured for two years to settle out of court, even after the RIAA discovered an error in their methodology that pointed to a different individual as the culprit. The RIAA finally dropped the suit, but not before Andersen filed her own suit against the RIAA, accusing them of a campaign of harassment and intimidation.

The vast majority of RIAA lawsuits for P2P copyright infringement are settled out of court for $4,000-$5,000 US Dollars (USD) each. It's speculated that the RIAA's methods have resulted in more than just one wrongful lawsuit, but most P2P users don't have the means to hire a lawyer, and those who have gone to court and lost have been awarded outrageous sums by juries. Jammie Thomas was found guilty amid overwhelming evidence and ordered to pay $80,000 per song, for a total judgment of $1.92 million USD.

P2P is getting more and more common in the average internet use's daily life. Basically, a P2P network is an ad hoc network that connects participants directly, rather than through a central point. The combined bandwidth of participants is used to transfer data. Today, P2P networks are most commonly used for sharing files real-time data transfer. Most people think of the high profile Napster case a few years ago that involved illegally file sharing — namely music. So, unfortunately, there are still negative connotations associated with the term peer-to-peer. However, there are legal and ethical issues surrounding P2P. While a P2P is not illegal in its own right, sharing copyrighted material is. Many P2P networks are setup for that reason — to share music, video, and text files. A few example of P2P will be BitTorrent, Gnutella and P2PTV. 

So, Let's see the good or bad of P2P through this video.

Youtube

With its ability to collect articles and sell advertisements against them, Google has already become a huge force in the news business — and the scourge of many newspapers. Now its subsidiary YouTube wants to do the same thing to local television.

A local video from VidSF in San Francisco, the “Weekly Show” with Ronn Vigh. VidSF is run by three friends who despise the local TV diet of fires and homicides.YouTube, which already boasts of being “the biggest news platform in the world,” has created a News Near You feature that senses a user’s location and serves up a list of relevant videos. In time, it could essentially engineer a local newscast on the fly. It is already distributing hometown video from dozens of sources, and it wants to add thousands more.

YouTube says it is helping TV stations and its other partners by creating a new — but so far not fiscally significant — source of revenue.But news media companies may have reasons to be wary. Few TV stations have figured out how replicate profits on the Internet. YouTube can easily act as another competitor.
So for now, most of the YouTube videos near you come from nontraditional sources: radio stations, newspapers, colleges and, in the case of a fledgling San Francisco outfit called VidSF, three friends who despise the local TV diet of fires and homicides.

“It really levels the playing field,” said Kieran Farr, a founder of VidSF who covers the city’s culture and uploads his segments to YouTube.
News Near You, started in the spring, is only part of YouTube’s push into news video. This summer, the company invited the more than 25,000 news sources listed on Google News to become video suppliers. The site is also promoting videos from ABC News, The Associated Press, Reuters and other outlets.
This year, it began featuring breaking news videos — including ones submitted by citizens in Iran, where protests are being captured by cellphone users — on its home page.

So far, the localized videos are no replacement for a print or TV diet of news. On Sunday, visitors near Baltimore saw a news report about a teen assistance program; in Chicago they saw a WGN-TV feature about street performers; and in Los Angeles, they saw a review of an electric motorcycle produced by The Los Angeles Times. Producers often count the views in hundreds, not thousands.
To date, nearly 200 news outlets have signed up with YouTube to post news packages and split the revenue from the advertisements that appear with them. In addition, Google searches now show YouTube videos alongside news articles, helping the videos reach a wider audience.

YouTube’s sheer breadth — it is visited by 100 million Americans each month — makes it a powerful force for promotion, as well as a potential threat to entrenched media companies. And those companies already have more than enough to worry about: much of the local media marketplace has collapsed in recent years as classified ads have moved online, automakers have curtailed ad spending and news and entertainment options have proliferated.
YouTube, meanwhile, is still trying to turn a profit nearly three years after it was acquired by Google. Because copyright concerns prevent it from placing ads on amateur videos, it has striven to sign up professional partners to seed the site with ad-friendly content. News is one obvious option.

“Google can only gain by splitting revenue with people who have feet on the street in local markets,” said Terry Heaton, a senior vice president at AR&D, a company that advises locally focused media organizations.
Google said in June that it was pleased with YouTube’s trajectory and indicated that it expected the site to be profitable in the not-too-distant future, but did not specify when. While YouTube can gain by adding local video, it remains to be seen whether established news outlets will benefit. Google’s scraping of print headlines and links has led some to assign blame to the company for the financial struggles of newspapers.

The chief executive of Dow Jones recently called Google a “digital vampire” that was “sucking the blood” from newspapers by harvesting their free articles. What YouTube is doing is somewhat different. It is not sending digital spiders around the Web to collect videos automatically; instead, it is asking news outlets to sign up as partners and promising a wider audience for their material.YouTube’s push to organize local news video began in earnest in the spring when the News Near You module was introduced. The module uses the Internet address of a visitor’s computer to determine the user’s location and whether any partners are located within a 100-mile radius. If so, seven days of local videos are displayed.

YouTube has also faced criticism over the offensive content in some of its videos. The uploading of videos containing defamation, pornography, and material encouraging criminal conduct is prohibited by YouTube's terms of service and YouTube relies on its users to flag the content of videos as inappropriate, and a YouTube employee will view a flagged video to determine whether it violates the site's terms of service.

Microsoft breakthrough

Microsoft finally was able to break through into the smartphone business by introducing their new Windows Phone 7 smartphones in 2010. The comeback for Microsoft was not easy after its attempt and tries with their previous Windows Mobile 6.5 Platform.

But one disadvantage strikes the OS, as it doesn’t contain universal search option available in iOS, webOS, Android and BlackBerry 6. One more disadvantage of Tiles feature is that it has very limited home screen and customization space compared to Android, iOS and BlackBerry. Apart from these, Windows Phone 7 smartphones won’t be supporting copy and paste out of the box and no third party multitasking of apps. Anyhow Microsoft is bringing a fix for the copy and paste option soon.

The Web browser in Windows Phone 7 is known as Internet Explorer Mobile which is seen as a browser in between IE7 and IE8. And the browser supports 6 tabs, multi-touch gestures, streamlined UI and pinch zooming. The smartphones will receive support for Adobe Flash Player in mid-2011 and YouTube streaming is also available.

When it comes to virtual keyboard it can be compared to Apple’s iPhone and is better than few of best Android smartphones out there. Auto correcting feature is available as one type and will allow the users to change a word after it has been typed by tapping the word.

Ultimately, the smartphones from Microsoft are here to stay and Microsoft has done a good job in terms of navigation, Zune and Xbox Live integration, fast operating system, support for Office and a good email experience. More updates and improved furnishing will be done in near future and the mobile future for Microsoft seems to be bright after its initial failures.