New Virus Conficker (Kido/Downadup)

There will be a widespread infection of the Conficker worm on April 1st 2009, which can infect a Microsoft Windows system from a thumb drive, a network share, or directly across the network if the system is not patched with MS08-067.

Millions of Windows-based personal computers worldwide, including thousands in China and India, have been affected by a family of network worms which goes by the name Conficker (also called Kido or Downadup).

Relevant URL(s):
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/security/Bulletin/MS08-067.mspx
http://www.us-cert.gov/current/index.html#conficker_worm_information

Solution:
Install the Microsoft Windows Patch MS08-067(KB958644).

How to check if your system is updated with Patch:
Note : Please ensure that your system Microsoft Windows Patch MS08-067(KB958644) is updated on your system. Please execute the following to check if your system is having these updates.
On Windows XP system Go to Control Panel -> Add/ Remove programs à select Show updates check box ,you will find the Security update for windows as shown below Picture 1.

On Windows Vista system Go to Control Panel -> Programs and Features -> Installed updates, You will find the security update for Windows as shown in below Picture 2.


Picture 1 ( Windows XP )


Picture 2 ( Windows Vista )

How to check if your system is infected:

The presence of a Conficker infection may be detected if you are unable to navigate to the following websites:
http://www.symantec.com/norton/theme.jsp?themeid=conficker_worm&inid=us_ghp+link_conficker_worm
http://www.mcafee.com

If you are unable to reach either of these websites, the Conficker infection may be indicated (the most current variant of Conficker interferes with queries for these sites, preventing a user from visiting them).

Google Summer of Code 2009

Google announced on March 23 that it is now accepting student applications to participate in its Google Summer of Code program.

Google officials said the company will be accepting student applications to participate in the Summer of Code program from March 23 through April 3.

About Google Summer of Code :

Google Summer of Code (GSoC) is a global program that offers student developers stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with several open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund several projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together nearly 2500 students and 2500 mentors & co-mentors from nearly 100 countries worldwide, all for the love of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

For more details check out : http://socghop.appspot.com/

Visual Studio 2010

The next version of Visual Studio is Visual Studio 2010 and the next version of .Net Framework is .Net 4.0.

There are two major features of Visual Studio 2010.

1. Cloud Development : Microsoft Announced Windows Azure, The comprehensive cloud environment on Oct 27 2008. With Windows Azure Tools for Microsoft Visual Studio you can build, debug and deploy services and applications for Windows Azure.
2. Parallel Programming : Microsoft is committed to simplify parallel programming for both native and managed code developers, so they can safely and productively build robust, scalable and responsive applications.

Microsoft® Visual Studio 2010® bears the stamp of Microsoft’s commitment and provides a solid foundation for the parallel age. Its significant improvements to the core platform and tools for both native and managed applications offer developers improved confidence, simplicity, and productivity in producing parallel applications. It will include the following:

• Visual Studio IDE support for parallel programming
• Parallel Pattern Library: Native C++ libraries that use lambda functions and align well with STL
• Parallel Extensions to the .NET Framework: Librarybased support for imperative data and task parallelism via the Task Parallel Library, support for declarative data parallelism via PLINQ, and work coordination and managing hared state via the Coordination Data Structures
• Concurrency Runtime: Resource management of the multicore hardware and task scheduling
• Parallel debugging windows which will provide a view of tasks running in the application, and a graphical view of parallel call stacks.
• Parallel profiling views which will give developers an understanding of their application’s core utilization, thread behavior and contention blocking, and thread execution pattern per core.

Some highlights

• The editor in Visual Studio 2010 has been rebuilt using WPF
• One Click Deployment
• Inline Call hierarchy
• Sharepoint Development
• C++ Development

Among the great new functionality in Visual Studio Team System 2010:

• Discover and identify existing code assets and architecture with the new Architecture Explorer.
• Design and share multiple diagram types, including use case, activity and sequence diagrams.
• Improve testing efforts with tooling for better documentation of test scenarios and more thorough collection of test data.
• Identify and run only the tests impacted by a code change easily with the new Test Impact View.
• Enhanced version control capabilities including gated check-in, branch visualization and build workflow.

Google Street View Launches in few Cities

Google has launched the Google Street View in few Cities of Britain.
All you need to do is open google maps of UK. http://maps.google.co.uk. Click on the New Feature
Explore the World in pictures with Google Street View in UK
Now Search any location in UK. Here is the demonstration of the Google Street View.



Steps to use Google Street View:

1. Navigate to your desired location
2. To view street-level imagery for a specific location, click and drag to the location you want. Roads with street-level imagery available appear with a blue border.
3. A street-level view appears for this location with an overview map in the bottom right corner of the view. A movable Pegman icon appears in the overview map.
4. To close the view, click or or .

   Learn more about Street View

Here are few screenshots of the Google Street View

Microsoft Releases Internet Explorer 8

Microsoft officials at the company's MIX09 conference said, IE 8 would become available for download from the Internet Explorer 8 web site at 9 a.m. pacific time on March 19.

According to News, Microsoft also is announcing that there are more than 500 new add-ons for IE 8 in the way of accelerators, web slices and visual search.

Accelerators are a form of selection-based search that enables a user to invoke an online service from any other page using only the mouse. Accelerators eliminate the need to copy and paste content between web pages. IE8 specifies an X M L-based encoding that enables a web application or web service to be invoked as an Accelerator service. Web Slices are snippets of an entire page that a user can subscribe to. Web Slices will be kept updated by the browser automatically, and can be viewed directly from the browser's Favorites bar, complete with graphics and visuals.

The key priorities of IE8 are :

1. Security
   
2. Easy of Use
   
3. Improvements in RSS
4. CSS
5. AJAX

According to a Microsoft fact sheet, here are the ways Internet Explorer 8 makes browsing faster and easier:

• Smart Address Bar
• Tab Groups
• Redesigned New Tab Page
• Reopen Last Browsing Session
• Enhanced Find On Page
• Find On Page
  
• Result count
• Result highlighting
• Slipstream installation => Deploying IE8 with Windows Vista
• Simplified Internet Explorer Administration Kit => To help IT Pros in deploying IE8 easily
• Advanced Printing
• Easy Search box
• RSS Feeds
• Page Zoom

Coming to Security, IE8 comes with variety of features like InPrivate Browsing, InPrivate Filtering etc., to ensure that History, temporary Internet files and cookies are not recorded on a PC after browsing.

You can Download Internet Explorer 8 from below link

Download IE 8 \m/

Microsoft Rocks the Web at MIX09 <3

Microsoft delivers a slew of new Web development and design technologies at its MIX09 show.
Microsoft released Silverlight 3 beta and Expression Belnd 3 Preview, and continued progress in the cloud with updates to the Azure Services platform

Microsoft demonstrated a series of technologies to enable developers to deliver a rich, interactiv epresence on the Web.

Microsoft also demnostrated SketchFlow, a new capability that allows designers to quickly prototype the flow and composition of applications.

Few Funny Pics

This is what I was waiting for. Really. I want a software like this. I used to forget few things where I kept in my home. So immediately I think that. Go infront of my home. Click on the search and search for the Item missing :P. hehe.. that was really funny. :)

Some one please do this kind of software :) and thanks to the guy who created this funny pic :) :P

\m/

Google Releases New Version of Google Chrome

Although Google has launched Google Chrome on December 11 2008, it is going to release a new version of Google Chrome with more enhancements and features to the exisitng version.

Google says that the new version is twice as fast as the old version of Google Chrome.

The new features include basic form autofill, full page zoom, support for autoscroll, and a new way to drag tabs into side-by-side view.

You can download the latest version of the Google Chrome (BETA) from here. Click here

\m/ n@pster

MIX 09 | The Next Web Now

The much awaiting MIX 09 Conference is going to start today. There going to be lot of Sessions on Web Development in It.

All About MIX 09

The Web Belongs to You. <3 Your Web

If you are interested in learning or developing design skills for the Next Generation of Web, then this conference is made for you. MIX09 is going to be the 4th conference, a gathering of designers and developers who are developing the World's most innovative websites.

Just like you, Microsoft understands that the Web is the future of commerce, education, and communication, and we want to make sure you have the tools and knowledge to create the next generation of UI, applications and web design.

At MIX09, you'll get in-depth exposure to exciting new Microsoft technologies, exchange ideas with fellow developers and designers, meet the industry's thought leaders and be inspired. MIX09 brings together the best ideas, sessions, parties and people, and it's where you'll find everything you need to <3 your Web.

• Explore the next wave of opportunities and help redefine the boundaries between content and commerce, PC and TV, Windows® and the Web


• Be inspired by an impressive lineup of UX, design and development sessions


• Connect with experts on a wide range of topics for one-on-one guidance and inspiration


• Learn about the future of Silverlight^TM, Internet Explorer®, Expression®, ASP.NET and other web technologies from Microsoft


• Network with executives from Microsoft and some of the world's largest web sites and interactive agencies

MIX09 brings together the best ideas, sessions, and people, and it's where you'll find everything you need to <3 your Web.

MIX is for designers and developers who build innovative web sites. Attendees are coders, strategists, information architects, visual designers, UX professionals and digital marketers. They represent top web sites, web start-ups, interactive agencies and other organizations that do business on the Web.

Here is the website of MIX 09 | Click here

For the guyz who are at home can also check out the sessions going on.

\m/ n@pster

Animated Gif's in Outlook 2007

After Installing Outlook 2007, You will find out that there won\'t be Animation of the Gif/Flash files. This is not a bug with the Outlook 2007. It is a feature that comes with Outlook 2007 which most of us found irritating.
This is as per Microsoft, Outlook 2007 wont be supporting the following features:

1. animation of the Gif files.


2. animation of the Flash files.

Here is the Fix how can we see the animation of the Gif/ Flash files. all you need to do is open the mail in a browser.
The steps to open the mail in browser are:

1. Select any mail that contains the Gif/Flash files.


2. Open the mail. (double click on the mail in Outlook 2007 which opens the mail in another Outlook window)


3. Now on the Top Menu you can see Other Actions. Click on this.

Under the Other Actions Menu, you can find View in Browser Click on this. It opens the mail in Internet Explorer or any default browser.

Now you can see the animation of the Gif Files :)

Microsoft Announced Windows 7 SKU's

In January Windows has announced the beta version of Windows 7 for public testing.
Now In February,
Microsoft has announced the Windows 7 SKU's

1. Windows 7 Enterprise (for VL customers)


2. Windows 7 Professional (Businesses)


3. Windows 7 Ultimate (Enthusiast)


4. Windows 7 Home Premium (Most home users)


5. Windows 7 Home Basic (emerging markets only)


6. Windows 7 Starter ( OEM only for certain hardware – netbooks)

Features of Windows 7 :

1. Windows 7 is going to be superset of the Older versions of Windows OS. This is to help the earlier Windows OS Customers directly to upgrade with Windows 7 and use the existing features as well.


2. Windows 7 is designed for different set of hardwares. Ex: Notebook-PCs, Gaming Desktops.


3. Windows 7 Home Premium is the recommended choice for consumers. It gives them a full-function PC experience and a visually rich environment in everything from the way they experience entertainment to the way they connect their devices.


4. Windows 7 Professional is the recommended choice for small businesses and for people who work at home but have to operate in an IT-managed or business environment where security and productivity are critical. For those running Windows Vista Business, it will be a very logical move to Windows 7 Professional.


5. For biggest enterprise customers, Microsoft continues to have an Enterprise edition.


6. Windows 7 Ultimate Edition has all the features of all the editions. This is for the people who want to have experience all the flavours.

Pricing of the Windows 7 has not yet been announced. So Wait and see for the updates :)

Gmail gets hiccups again

Again Gmail is in trouble. Google's E-Mail users couldn't get into their accounts on Wednesday and tuesday. However, Most of the affected users regained access within 30 minutes.

A "small subest" of Gmail's more than 100 Milliion users were locked out of their e-mail until early morning on Wednesday, according to Google.

Charge your cellphone battery in seconds

The wait is over. US Researchers create a revolutionary battery that recharges in seconds.

The days of waiting hours to charge a mobile phone could soon be history, Thanks to US Researchers, who have created a revolutionary battery that recharges in seconds instead of several hours.

MIT Engineers have created a kind of beltway that allows for the rapid transit of electrical enrgy trough a well-known battery material, an advance that could usher in smaller, lighter batteries, reports Nature journal. Researchers at MIT didn't use any new material to develop the battery. What they did was simply change the way the electricity is transmitted into the battery. State-of-the-art lithium rechargeable batteries have very high energy densities. They are good at storing large amount of charge. The tradeoff is that they have relatively slow power rates; they are sluggish at gaining and discharging that energy.

Welcome to The Real N@pster's World

Hi Everyone.

This is Mohan G. I am an under graduate from Bits Pilani Goa Campus, India. Currently I am Working in a Software Company.

I am interested in Tech Stuff, Computers, OS, Mobiles, Movies, Music. I Love blogging. I used to blog on Blogger before. But Currently in my office, Blogger.com has been disabled. So I came to WordPress.

Hope you will find something interesting here :)

n@pster^

Transfer Files using Wireless Network

If you want to transfer the files between two laptops having Wireless enabled on both the laptops, then setting up network between the laptops will take 1 min maximum.
All you need to have is two laptops(minimum) with Wireless enabled on both the laptops.

• Turn on Wireless on both the laptops.
• In this setup, One laptop will be acting as Wireless Access point for the other laptops.
• Click Start and go to Control Panel.

Open Network and Sharing Center

Click on Setup Wireless Network.
Create a Wireless Adhoc network, with a specific name and type of Security you want.
Security type recommended is W2PA.
If you are very much sure of security that only your friends will connect to the network then you can leave the Security as Open.
If you have specified the security as W2PA, then you need to enter the Security Phrase which is a minimum of 26 characters. (Example : 12345678900987654321abcdef)
Now in the Second Laptop, Click on Start and Click Connect To…

Now search for the Wireless networks in the range.
You will find the above created network. Connect to the network.
Enter the Security phrase if Security type is W2PA.
You are done, by setting up the network and connecting the two laptops with Wireless Connection. Now Transfer the files using IP Messenger. You can download IP Messnger from here .

Toorgle

The best way to search for Torrents is Toorgle. Search for any torrent on this site and it searches all the torrent sites and gives you the result.

I found it really interesting.

MTV Hero Honda Roadies

The very much interesting, action and adventerous TV Show, MTV Roadies will be telecasted on Sunday 7 pm instead of saturday 7pm Live on MTV.

You can also download the latest torrents of MTV Roadies Hell Down Under from http://www.bwtorrents.com/ . Check out the torrents in TV Shows/MTV category.

FIrst Microsoft App for Iphone

Microsoft has released its First Application for Iphone.
"Seadragon"

• Seadragon Mobile brings the same smooth image browsing you get on the PC to the mobile platform.


• Get super-close in on a map or photo, with just a few pinches or taps of your finger.


• Browse an entire collection of photos from a single screen.


• You can browse Deep Zoom Images.

You can download the App from Apple and its free. Click here for downloading the app.

Tiny URL

Welcome to TinyURL!™
Are you sick of posting URLs in emails only to have it break when sent causing the recipient to have to cut and paste it back together? Then you've come to the right place. By entering in a URL in the text field below, we will create a tiny URL that will not break in email postings and never expires.
Visit TinyURL.com
An example
Turn this URL:
http://rover.ebay.com/rover/1/711-53200-19255-0/1?type=3&campid=5336224516&toolid=10001&customid=tiny-hp&ext=unicycle&satitle=unicycle
into this tinyURL:
http://tinyurl.com/unicycles
Which one would you rather cut and paste into your browser? That's the power of TinyURL!