Remove Downadup/Conficker/Kido Worm from your PC

Conficker worm is the most widespread worm in today's date. It has been making news since last few weeks.
This worm is one of the most deadly worm which attacks your network and modify your system settings. It gets launched automatically at system startup and stays in memory in stealth mode to prevent its detection. It spreads itself through pen drives, network holes and it also features a method of cracking administrator password.
Almost all the antivirus vendors have released separate tools to remove the worm. These standalone programs do not require any installation. Just download, unzip/extract if required and then run on the infected PC.

There are lot of tools available on web which can remove various versions of Conficker aka Downadup aka Kido worm.

Some Conficker Removal or Deletion tools are as follows:
1. Avert Stinger Standalone tool from McAfee
2. F-Secure Worm:W32/Downadup.AL Removal Tool from F-Secure
3. Symantec W32.Downadup Removal Tool from Symantec
4. Conficker Single PC Removal Tool from Bitdefender
5. Conficker Network Removal Tool from Bitdefender

You can download any of the above tools to remove conficker or downadup or kiddo virus from your computer safely. Leave a comment if none to the above tools works for you.

Impress your audience with professional cliparts and sounds in your presentations

If you find the accompanied Clip Art and sounds in Microsoft Office insufficient, then you can try out Microsoft office online Clip Art at Microsoft Office Online. Here you can find plenty of professional Clip art, Sounds and much more rich media for your documents, presentations, etc. The media is well categorized as well as you can search for your choice.

Beautiful March 2009 wallpapers

Here are some beautiful high resolution wallpapers to decorate your desktop for this March.
http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/27/desktop-wallpaper-calendar-march-2009/

Updating BitDefender 2008

MANUAL METHOD

Click on this link : http://download.bitdefender.com/updates/bitdefender_2008/x86/weekly.exe

download the file and run it.

AUTOMATIC METHOD

To configure the automatic update do the following:

1. Open BitDefender and click Update to open the Update module.

2. Click Settings.

3. Configure the Update location settings.

BitDefender 2008 includes two update locations, allowing one of them to point to a local mirror. The default update location is http://upgrade.bitdefender.com/. This is the location recommended for normal users.

4. Configure the Automatic update settings.
BitDefender checks for updates every 1 hour. You can change the period BitDefender updates from Time interval. By changing the number displayed in the box you will modify the number of hours after which a check for updates is performed.

Leave the Confirm update to Silent update unless you desire to be prompted before downloading the updates or before installing them. A similar option is available for the manual update under the Manual update settings.

5. Configure the Advanced settings.
To prevent prompts asking for reboot, select Wait for reboot, instead of prompting.

6. Click Apply to save the settings.
7. Click Default to restore the default settings.

Occasional updates can be perfomed at any time, even when the product is set to update automaticaly:

1. Open BitDefender and click Update.

Click also Update at the top of the window if the Settings are displayed

2. Click Update now to start the update process.

If the option Prompt before downloading updates was selected in the Settings, and when updates are available, a list of the updates available for download is displayed. Select the product to install and click Details to see the file download details. Select Switch to silent update (don't ask me again) to stop being prompted on manual update. Click Ok to download and install the new files or Cancel to postpone the update.

For more help, follow the following links :

http://kb.bitdefender.com/KB233-en--Updating-BitDefender-9.html

http://www.bitdefender.com/site/view/Desktop-Products-Updates.html

Create hidden private storage area on Pen Drives and Hard Disks - SafeHouse Explorer

If you want to protect your personal data from curious eyes, you need to hide and encrypt it on your USB memory stick, local hard drive or any removable media like ipod. In this way nobody can view it without your permission. Here is a free, reliable application, SafeHouse Explorer which hides, locks and encrypts any documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and anything else. It uses super strong 128-bit advanced encryption technology which ensures total protection of your data. Moreover unlike other similar product, you can create unlimited number of private storage vaults as large as 2,000 GB each.

SafeHouse Explorer works with Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Server 2003, 2008 and
64-bit XP/Vista/Server and very easy to use. You can drag and drop file on to SafeHouse Explorer window for encrypting it (After creating a private storage vault). Your files are completely invisible until you enter your password. After you enter your secret password, you access your files using SafeHouse Explorer's familiar drag-and-drop Explorer-like interface.

With SafeHouse Explorer, you can protect any files residing on any drive, including memory sticks, external USB drives, network servers, CD/DVDs and even iPods.
Features of this 100% free, full featured application include:

* Complete full-featured stand-alone security solution.
* Hides, locks and encrypts documents, spreadsheets, photos, videos and anything else.
* Perfect for USB memory sticks and other portable media - even iPods
* Super strong 128-bit advanced encryption ensures your total protection.
* Unlimited number of private storage vaults as large as 2,000 Gigabytes each.
* Graphical password strength meter helps you choose strong passwords.
* Can be run directly from USB memory sticks without prior Windows installation.

Download SafeHouse Explorer from here

Rs 500 laptop display on Feb 3

NEW DELHI: A $10 laptop (Rs 500) prototype, with 2 GB RAM capacity, would be on display in Tirupati on February 3 when the National Mission on
Education through Information and Communication Techology is launched.

The $10 laptop project, first reported in TOI three years ago, has come as an answer to the $100 laptop of MIT's Nicholas Negroponte that he was trying to hardsell to India. The $10 laptop has come out of the drawing board stage due to work put in by students of Vellore Institute of Technology, scientists in Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore, IIT-Madras and involvement of PSUs like Semiconductor Complex. “At this stage, the price is working out to be $20 but with mass production it is bound to come down,” R P Agarwal, secretary, higher education said.

Apart from questioning the technology of $100 laptops, the main reason for HRD ministry's resistance to Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project was the high and the hidden cost that worked out to be $200.

The mission launch would also see demonstration of e-classroom, virtual laboratory and a better 'Sakshat' portal that was launched more than two years ago. Sources also said that the ministry has entered into an agreement with four publishers — Macmillan, Tata McGraw Hill, Prentice-Hall and Vikas Publishing — to upload their textbooks on 'Sakshat'. Five per cent of these books can be accessed free.

The mission, with an 11th plan outlay of Rs 4,612 crore, is aimed at making a serious intervention in enhancing the Gross Enrolment Ratio in higher education. The mission has two major components. One, content generation through its portal 'Sakshat', and two, building connectivity along with providing access devices for institutions and learners.

In this context, government would give Rs 2.5 lakh per institution for 10 Kbps connection and subsidise 25% of costs for private and state government colleges.

The mission would seek to extend computer infrastructure and connectivity to over 18,000 colleges in the country, including each department of nearly 400 universities and institutions of national importance. The mission would focus on appropriate e-learning procedures, providing facility of performing experiments through virtual laboratories, online testing and certification, online availability of teachers to guide and mentor learners, and utilization of EduSat and DTH.

Acer updates Aspire One netbook

New model has 10.1in screen and is XP-only
Acer has unveiled a new version of its Aspire One mini laptop with a larger screen and more memory.
Widely regarded as one of the more polished mini laptops launched in the wake of the Asus Eee PC, the Aspire had an 8.9in display and could only be fitted with up to 1.5Gb memory.
The new Aspire One ships with a 1,024 x 600 10.1in screen and can be fitted with up to 2Gb of memory. As with earlier models and most other so-called netbooks, it is based on Intel's 1.6GHz Atom processor.
However, while the original Aspire was available in versions with Linpus Linux, the new model appears to be available only with Windows XP. Also out is any mention of Flash SSD storage options, with the new specifications listing only a 160GB 2.5in hard drive.
Acer said that the new Aspire One combines style, great features and a new form factor to provide the best combination of ultra-portability and maximum screen size for navigation and data input.
As well as 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, the Aspire one can be fitted with an optional internal 3G broadband modem, or a WiMax adapter in territories where there are such networks available.
Acer has kept the starting weight down to 1.18kg, but this is with the standard three-cell battery pack which will deliver up to three hours of use. Two larger six-cell packs are available, one rated at 4400mAh for up to six hours use, the other rated at 5200mAh for up to seven hours. Choosing one of these bumps the weight up to 1.33kg.
The new Acer Aspire One is expected to be available in February, but no pricing information was available at the time of writing.

The evolution of the Netbook

It's getting harder to tell the difference between a Netbook and a notebook.

Except when you look at the bottom line of the companies making them. Though initially thought of as a way to sell cheaper, less powerful companion devices to notebooks, Netbooks are beginning to lose their distinction, as evidenced by the new Netbooks unveiled at CES 2009. While it's good for consumers, the blurring of lines between the two could potentially be destroying the business models of PC manufacturers.

That lack of distinction between a Netbook and a notebook will become more clear as soon as Windows 7 arrives on the scene, likely in the next nine to 12 months. Microsoft's new operating system is designed to work on Netbooks and actually may provide a good experience for users on relatively low-powered devices, unlike Vista. That calls into question the value proposition of the Netbook category if the same OS is available on what are supposed to be two different kinds of machines, according to Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis for the NPD Group.

"What does that do to our business model? Have we (just) traded $799 sales for $399 sales?" he asked.

And the timing isn't great. "The unfortunate aspect is we're bringing these products out in a recession, which is likely to mean it's harder to (sell) these as an additional PC and not as replacement for something else you're going to buy," said Baker.

For the past year, when a laptop had a screen smaller than 10 inches, an Atom processor, and cost below $400, we'd call it a Netbook. Starting from essentially zero market penetration in late 2007, by the end of last year, roughly 10 million Netbooks have shipped, according to IDC. They now account for 7 percent of all portable PCs, an extraordinary growth rate in a short time. But exactly how the category is growing is the big question mark.

"The market is multi-faceted," said Loren Loverde, PC analyst for research firm IDC. "You don't get growth along a straight trajectory, more like growth in an amoeba. It stretches out in different directions and grows and absorbs different things."

What is a Netbook?
At first there appeared to be a semblance of agreement on what made a Netbook different, and its own category of computer. Intel launched the category with its Atom processor, which promised less computing power, but for far less cost. One Laptop Per Child and Intel led the way with low-cost notebooks intended for developing nations. But Asus broke the category open for consumers in late 2007 with its Eee PC, at first equipped with a tiny 7-inch screen, little chiclet keys, solid-state memory, and Linux instead of Windows.

Much has changed since then. A year later we have almost as many interpretations of a Netbook as we do manufacturers. Dell defines Netbook differently than Sony, who sees the market in a way that Acer and Hewlett-Packard do not. (And Toshiba refuses to see any Netbook market at all--at least in the U.S.)

Acer and Asus essentially agree on what a Netbook is: a low-power notebook with a 9-inch screen with a price point between $300 and $400. They're not meant for much beyond connecting to the Web. Those two Taiwanese manufacturers were first to market and have been rewarded handsomely for their efforts, capturing the majority of Netbook market share early on. Acer has done particularly well in Europe.

In late summer, Dell, the largest PC maker in the U.S. and the second largest worldwide, threw its hat into the ring, apparently to defend its territory. The Dell Inspiron Mini 9 was a normal Netbook, but the subsequent Mini 12 was puzzling. By grouping it with the Mini line it's being sold as a Netbook, but the 12-inch screen size is bumping up dangerously close to smaller traditional notebooks. At just under $600, it also appears to compete with the $699 Dell Inspiron 15.

Each PC vendor is trying to mold the Netbook trend in a way that fits with their own product line. Companies like HP are trying to draw a distinction between Netbooks through software: The Mini 1000 MIE has a custom interface designed to hide the fact that it's essentially a Linux device. Sony's also putting its touch on the idea, with the Sony Vaio P Lifestyle PC, an expensive device not aimed at the masses.

By each company tweaking their Netbooks a little here and a little there in the name of differentiating and adding more features that consumers want or expect, they're basically creating something that looks like yet another notebook PC.

At what cost?
Dell VP of Consumer Sales and Marketing Michael Tatelman insisted at CES last week that it's "still too early to tell" if by selling Netbooks it is drawing customers away from buying traditional notebooks, which cost more and offer manufacturers higher margins.

"In some places it's a way to acquire new customers faster, in some places it's a companion device, and in some places it's a primary computer," Tatelman told a crowd of journalists while introducing the company's third Netbook, the Inspiron Mini 10 last week.

HP also insists Netbooks and notebooks are very separate. To which former Seagate CEO William Watkins promptly snorted and rolled his eyes at the idea in an interview last week. He summed up how the category's naysayers feel, saying, "A Netbook is just a low-end notebook."

By the midpoint of this year we'll be able to assess the damage the Netbook craze has done to traditional notebook revenues, said NPD's Baker. "We know there will be some (cannibalization), but we'll find out just how much."

source

Next Generation SDXC (eXtended Capacity) Memory Card Delivering Up To 2TB Massive Storage

The global ecosystem of more than 1,100 technology companies charged with setting interoperable SD standards, SD Association, has developed the next-generation SDXC (eXtended Capacity) memory card specification, which provides up to 2TB (terabytes) massive storage capacity with read/write speeds to 104MB/s this year, aiming to provide users larger capacity and faster transfer speeds for expanded entertainment and data storage.
“SDXC combines a higher capacity roadmap with faster transfer speeds as a means to exploit NAND flash memory technology as a compelling choice for portable memory storage and interoperability,” said Joseph Unsworth, research director, NAND Flash Semiconductors, at Gartner. “With industry support, SDXC presents manufacturers with the opportunity to kindle consumer demand for more advanced handset features and functionality in consumer electronics behind the ubiquitous SD interface.”
“With SDXC, consumers can quickly download higher quality content to their phones, including games, video and music – giving consumers a richer media and content experience,” said James Taylor, president of the SD Association. “The SD interface already has proven itself valuable in mobile phones. Now, SDXC memory card capabilities will spur further handset sophistication and boost consumer content demand.”

“SDXC is a large-capacity card that can store more than 4,000 RAW images, which is the uncompressed mode professionals use, and 17,000 of the fine-mode most consumers use. That capacity, combined with the exFAT file system, increases movie recording time and reduces starting time to improve photo-capturing opportunities,” said Shigeto Kanda, general manager of Canon. “Improvements in interface speed allow further increases in continuous shooting speed and higher resolution movie recordings. As a memory card well suited to small-sized user-friendly digital cameras, the SDXC specification will help consumers realize the full potential of our cameras.”

Army to launch its own mobile service!

Not one to be left behind, the Indian Army will next month launch its own mobile communication system christened 'Mercury blaze', says a PTI report.

An army spokesperson said the mega project is being handled by the Corps of Signals, who are currently weighing the system in terms of reliability and security, among other parameters.

The project was actually launched in January last year, and is expected to reach completion by end of this month.

Sources familiar with the project said the new system will replace the old wireless communication service used during counter-insurgency operations in the state.

They said that the sophisticated technology would ensure faster mobility of troops during anti-terrorist operations. Besides helping provide the best secured communication to troops, the system would provide data communication directly to operational areas.

The sources added that the system would enhance battlefield transparency, with troops being able to coordinate and carry out counter-insurgency operations in the best possible manner.

The countdown to the launch has begun, with a series of mobile towers and other infrastructure already set up across army formations in the country, including Jammu and Kashmir's Rajouri, Doda, Udhampur, Jammu, and Poonch districts.

It is learnt that the new system was put to the test in the army's Nagrota-based 16 Corps operational area that spreads out from the South of the Pir Panjal range to the Jammu plains. And, the trial emerged error-free and successful, according to sources.

The Future of Your PC's Hardware - Memristor: A Groundbreaking New Circuit

Since the dawn of electronics, we've had only three types of circuit components--resistors, inductors, and capacitors. But in 1971, UC Berkeley researcher Leon Chua theorized the possibility of a fourth type of component, one that would be able to measure the flow of electric current: the memristor. Now, just 37 years later, Hewlett-Packard has built one.


What is it? As its name implies, the memristor can "remember" how much current has passed through it. And by alternating the amount of current that passes through it, a memristor can also become a one-element circuit component with unique properties. Most notably, it can save its electronic state even when the current is turned off, making it a great candidate to replace today's flash memory.

Memristors will theoretically be cheaper and far faster than flash memory, and allow far greater memory densities. They could also replace RAM chips as we know them, so that, after you turn off your computer, it will remember exactly what it was doing when you turn it back on, and return to work instantly. This lowering of cost and consolidating of components may lead to affordable, solid-state computers that fit in your pocket and run many times faster than today's PCs.

Someday the memristor could spawn a whole new type of computer, thanks to its ability to remember a range of electrical states rather than the simplistic "on" and "off" states that today's digital processors recognize. By working with a dynamic range of data states in an analog mode, memristor-based computers could be capable of far more complex tasks than just shuttling ones and zeroes around.

When is it coming? Researchers say that no real barrier prevents implementing the memristor in circuitry immediately. But it's up to the business side to push products through to commercial reality. Memristors made to replace flash memory (at a lower cost and lower power consumption) will likely appear first; HP's goal is to offer them by 2012. Beyond that, memristors will likely replace both DRAM and hard disks in the 2014-to-2016 time frame. As for memristor-based analog computers, that step may take 20-plus years.

BSNL, Novatium roll out low-cost computer

‘Nova netPC’ is available in two packages of Rs.1,999 and Rs.2,999

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Chennai-based IT solutions company Novatium on Friday rolled out a low-cost home computing device that could help the former achieve a target of 9 million broadband connections across the country in the next couple of years.

At a press conference after the launch of “Nova netPC” on the BSNL’s network, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL Kuldeep Goyal said affordability issues over buying a desktop PC or laptop would no longer stand in the way of broadband penetration, especially in rural areas.

Essentially, the user is provided with a set top box, keyboard and mouse while most hardware functions of a computer will be managed by a central server. Most of the widely used applications will be available to the user. The central server will facilitate access to the BSNL’s broadband conduit, for which the user will need to subscribe to any of the DataOne monthly plans.

Nova netPC, available in two packages (down payment of Rs.1,999 and a monthly charge of Rs.199, and an upfront fee of Rs.2,999 and monthly subscription of Rs.175), is available at BSNL’s outlets in the city.

Mr. Goyal said the total number of broadband users in the country was only 5.25 million, which was less than 1 per cent of the population. In developed societies, the penetration levels were as high as 60 per cent or more.

BSNL aimed to account for about 60 per cent of the 20 million broadband connections stipulated as target for 2010 by the government. BSNL, which now has 3 million broadband users, has equipped at a cost of Rs.1,600 crore 23,000 of its network of 30,000 telephone exchanges for broadband connectivity. BSNL enjoyed a 56 per cent market share in the broadband space, he pointed out.

“Negotiations with the Universal Service Obligation Fund, a body mandated with scaling up rural telephony, are in an advanced stage on providing near-free broadband tariffs and subsidised customer end equipment for rural users,” he said.
3G technology

BSNL’s plans for the immediate future include rollout of 3G technology on its GSM network (the national launch planned from Chennai now has been rescheduled to February), providing broadband on optic fibre for high-end users and facilitating wireless broadband (WiMAX) in 1,000 rural blocks.

Advance purchase orders for WiMAX equipment had been placed with suppliers.

Novatium CEO Alok Singh said the link-up with BSNL fitted in with the company’s vision of making computing simple and affordable and taking broadband to the nook and corner of the country.

The netPC, which is protected with 11 global patents, had been around for over a year in Delhi and would shortly go commercial. In addition to 1,000 users in the capital, the netPC had been launched in Mauritius. In Chennai, where BSNL issued 8,000 new connections a month, Novatium targeted a sale of 1,000 units by January end.

Post-launch, Nova netPC devices were distributed to four BSNL customers.