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Build Your Disaster Recovery Plan Before Disaster Strikes

info@e-janco.com — Sun, 21 Mar 2010 09:47:34 -0600

Build Your Disaster Recovery Plan Before Disaster Strikes. Hurricane season is still with us and earthquakes happen at un-predictable times.

Now you can apply industry recognized best practices without spending thousands on consultants. The Disaster Recovery Planning Template has everything that you need.

Go to http://www.e-janco.com/drp.htm

Disaster Recovery Plan versus Business Continuity Plan

Webmaster — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 14:16:47 -0600

Both the disaster recovery and the business continuity plan covers how employees will communicate, where they will go and how they will keep doing their jobs. The details can vary greatly, depending on the size and scope of a company and the way it does business. For some businesses, issues such as supply chain logistics are most crucial and are the focus on the plan. For others, information technology may play a more pivotal role, and the BC/DR plan may have more of a focus on systems recovery.

The critical point is that neither disaster recovery nor business continuity issues can be ignored. These IT and human resources plans cannot be developed in isolation from each other. The core of disaster recovery and business continuity is about constant communication. Business leaders and IT leaders should work together to determine what kind of plan is necessary and which systems and business units are most crucial to the company. Together, they should decide which people are responsible for declaring a disruptive event and mitigating its effects. Most importantly, the plan should establish a process for locating and communicating with employees after such an event. In a catastrophic event (Hurricane Katrina being a relatively recent example), the plan will also need to take into account that many of those employees will have more pressing concerns than getting back to work.

Hackers arrested in Spain

Webmaster — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 15:07:54 -0600

Authorities in Spain have arrested three men accused of operating a massive botnet composed of 12.7 million PCs, which stole credit card and bank log-in data and infected computers in half the Fortune 1,000 companies and more than 40 banks, according to published reports.

The botnet 'Mariposa', which means butterfly in Spanish, first appeared in December 2008 and grew to be one of the largest botnets ever, The Associated Press reported. It spread the worm via removable drives, MSN Messenger and peer-to-peer programs, and targeted Windows XP and older systems.

Unlike many underground hackers, the alleged ringleaders of the operation were not skilled programmers, but had contacts who were, authorities said.

Microsoft sneaks code onto PCs with live update

Webmaster — Thu, 25 Feb 2010 08:27:19 -0600

Microsoft has started offering Windows 7 users an update to the company's anti-piracy software via Windows Update. Microsoft announced the revision was necessary to detect more than 70 "activation exploits," Microsoft's term for what others call "cracks" that sidestep the product activation process or use stolen keys to illegally activate counterfeit copies of Windows 7.

Windows 7 users who have Windows Update set to automatically download and install all updates will receive the WAT update -- tagged as KB971033. Users whose PCs have already downloaded and installed the WAT update can uninstall it from the Control Panel. The uninstall option is also new for Microsoft's anti-piracy software; in the past, once installed, WGA updates could not be removed.

Disaster recovery plans depend on working backups

Webmaster — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 17:16:35 -0600

Disaster recovery plans are impacted by data encryption. Encryption continues to be the topic on every CIO and IT person's lips nowadays. No one wants to end up in the news as the next victim of a privacy breach or the next company that did not protect its customers' information. If you conduct a news search using the words personal data breach, you will be alarmed at the number of instances where personal information such as social security and credit-card numbers have been exposed to possible theft. In a recent breach, a state government site allowed access to hundreds of thousands of records, including names, addresses, social security numbers and documents with signatures.

Whether it is government agencies, research facilities, banking institutions, credit card processing companies, hospitalsor your company's computers the risk of compromising private information is very high. The relationship business has with technology. -- business relies so heavily on technology today, business risk becomes technology dependent. The possibility of litigation is part of business. It has always been a risk of doing business, but because technology and today's business are so intertwined, business risk has a higher threat level. This has prompted many to encrypt workstations and mobile computers in order to protect critical business data.

If you have rolled out encryption, how do you maintain your IT service quality when the hard disk drive fails? How do you plan and prepare for a data loss when the users computer is encrypted? These are all issues that should be considered when putting together a data disaster plan. In addition, data recovery, one of the more common missing elements of a disaster recovery plan, should also be factored in because it can serve as the "Hail Mary" attempt when all other options have been exhausted.

IT organizations of all sizes contend with a growing data footprint with more data to manage, protect, and preserve for longer periods of time. Online primary storage, has focus a on fast low latency, reliable access to data while near-line secondary storage has a focus on low cost and high capacity. Long-term data retention requires a combination of ultra-low cost, good performance during storage and retrieval, and reduced footprint in terms of power, cooling, floor-space and economics (PCFE) - also known as a small green footprint - for inactive data.

Google's Chrome falls short

Webmaster — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 13:20:49 -0600

Shorttcomings of Goggl's Chrome are identified

Printing doesn't work well in Chrome
Google Chrome is "spyware" and gives Google a lot of information about who you are
Some websites don't work properly for example xml files like RSS feeds are not displayed properly
Lack of hardware integration (like fingerprint scanners)

CIOs need to measure and manage

Webmaster — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 15:07:44 -0600

Firms and government organizations are constantly buffeted by changes in their business environment - from changing customer tastes to economic changes affecting raw material prices to government regulations that make hitherto smart business strategies irrelevant. Firms must respond well to these changes to survive and thrive. While firms have used different business strategies to insulate themselves from the effect of change, CEOs are beginning to recognize the need for their firms to become more agile in detecting and making the changes to strategy, operations, and products. Turning agility from a buzzword into a business capability requires firms to measure and manage their ability to change - and agree on what agility means specifically for their enterprise.

The Metrics for the Internet, Information Technology, and Service Management HandiGuide® is the one tool that CIOs of any sized enterprise can use to meet these challenges.

iPhone loses luster

Webmaster — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 14:22:10 -0600

The new numbers come from ABI Research, an analytics firm based in New York. ABI measures sales of smartphones from quarter to quarter and works with manufacturers to ensure its data is in line with the companies' own estimates.

According to ABI, Apple's iPhone accounted for 18.1 percent of market share

in the third quarter of 2009. In the fourth quarter, that number dropped to 16.6 percent.

The change itself isn't enormous, but what is noteworthy is that smartphone sales overall grew by 26 percent -- yet, even with that significant growth in the market, Apple's iPhone sales fell.

"We're getting to a point where the iPhone is starting to look a little tired, a little dated," ABI said.

This is Apple's first quarter-to-quarter drop in smartphone market share in two years, ABI's research indicates. The last time the iPhone suffered a loss was in late 2008.

Compliance Management Complicated by Email

Webmaster — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:01:19 -0600

For the past decade or more, business people have faced a paradox regarding e-mail: it simultaneously makes their jobs easier and more difficult. In a globalized economy where rapid communication is an essential competitive element, e-mail has become the preferred method for communications and interchange of data driving exponential e-mail growth. Companies trying to control that growth through file size limitations, mailbox size limitations and other means such as e-mail archiving may be replacing one problem with another. Users may choose to send digital content outside of the company network, which could increase security threats or threaten regulatory compliance.

Numerous laws and regulatory mandates focus on corporate governance and accountability around sensitive information (specifically financial, non-public information and protected healthcare information). This has significantly impacted the underlying IT systems that support the applications and repositories holding this sensitive information. Organizations are continuously looking for help in

Disaster plans need to be reviewed

Webmaster — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 11:51:55 -0600

In response to the growing scope and complexity of crisis situations, communication and emergency notifi cation technology has evolved to meet the changing needs of emergency response. Emergency notification technology has become more sophisticated, moving from simple, one-way broadcast notifi cation capabilities to automated intelligent notifi cations and true bi-directional communication across multiple channels and devices. Most recently, emergency notification/communication technologies have broadened their focus to include tools that accelerate the resolution of events and enable better collaboration and coordination among crisis response teams.

In order to provide the best protection and safety for employees, constituents and communities, organizations should revisit and update their Disaster Recovery plans to include risk scenarios for new threats. In addition, organizations should seek to automate their disaster recovery plans with the latest technology that enables organizations, schools, local government, as well as multinational corporations to respond quickly and effectively when disaster strikes. Organizations should take advantage of advances in emergency notifi cation and crisis communication tools to ensure that they can locate their people and then move rapidly into managing and resolving the crisis. Preplanning combined with automated, immediate communication capabilities can help ensure that people are safe, informed, engaged and mobilized when an emergency situation arises.

1.2 Million Social Security Numbers at Risk

Webmaster — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 17:13:24 -0600

Lincoln National, a New Hampshire financial services company, has sent data breach notification letters to 1.2 million customers after discovering that shared passwords, set up to simplify administrative functions nearly 10 years ago, could have exposed their private data.

Lincoln National began notifying customers of the problem according to a letter (pdf) posted to the New Hampshire Department of Justice's Web site. According to the letter, the company learned of the issue after a federal regulator was tipped off by an unnamed source. The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority was given a username and password combination that let anyone access Lincoln's portfolio information system.

"This username and password had been shared among certain employees ... and employees of affiliated companies," Lincoln National's letter states. This is in violation of the company's security policy. The portfolio system is used by the company's subsidiaries, Lincoln Financial Securities and Lincoln Financial Advisors.

According to Lincoln National, the system is not used in trades or balance transfers, but it contains names, Social Security numbers, account numbers and balances, dates of birth and e-mail addresses, data that could be misused by identity thieves if the password should fall into the wrong hands.

After hiring a forensic investigator, Lincoln National discovered that six shared usernames and passwords were created, starting back in 2002 to help staffers with administration and customer support duties. Lincoln National has no evidence that the passwords ever fell into the wrong hands, but the company notes that there is "no evidence to support a conclusive determination that no such unauthorized access occurred."

Lincoln National doesn't believe that the incident constitutes a data breach, at least so far as New Hampshire state law is concerned, but it said it is a voluntarily notifying the state and customers as a precautionary measure.

Victims will be notified by mail and offered free credit monitoring

Pricing for Office 2010 favors electronic versions

Webmaster — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 00:16:09 -0600

Microsoft released its pricing for Office 2010, and the most intriguing part is how much less money you'll pay for the non-boxed versions --- up to 30 percent less. This pricing scheme will ultimately help turn boxed software into an endangered species.

With Office 2010, Microsoft introduces what it calls Product Key Card pricing, which essentially means unlocking an electronic version of Office, rather than buying Ofice as boxed software. The Product Key Card version of Office Professional is $349, compared to $499 for the boxed version. Office Professional includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, Publisher 2010, Access 2010, premium technical support, and Office Web Apps.

The Product Key Card version of Office Home and Business is $199, compared to $279 for the boxed version. Office Home and Business includes Word 2010, Excel 2010, PowerPoint 2010, OneNote 2010, Outlook 2010, and Office Web Apps.

Windows 7 set to take off in 2010

Webmaster — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 14:13:01 -0600

After kicking the tires of Windows 7 in 2009, enterprises will be ready to adopt the new operating system in 2010. However, much-ballyhooed enterprise features may not make as big of an impact as Microsoft expected (or hoped), and IT managers will lean on trusty old technologies to aid in migration. Now that the standard has been ratified and competition is growing stiffer, the time is right for enterprise adoption of 802.11n. And you can expect to see bold moves in the mobile app space.

Is Windows 7 the new legacy system

Webmaster — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 09:01:39 -0600

Microsoft Windows 7 may represent the last ever, large in-mass upgrade of the Windows client environment and define the line where the desktop PC was no longer the center of the end-user universe, according to IDC.

"We have come to the conclusion that Windows 7 represents a really important demarcation line in the evolution of client devices," says IDC. "We think Windows 7 is going to be the last really big refresh, in-mass, of the Windows client environment as we have known it for the last decade plus."

What is missing from Windows 7

Webmaster — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:22:49 -0600

Windows 7 is great but it still is missing some features.

Custom installer - Look, its the 21st century. Installing the OS on one drive and setting it up so that the data is stored on another drive should be a trivial matter thats handled during setup.
Better support for compressed file formats - There are are a number of very good, free, open source tools for handling compressed files out there. Apart from supporting .ZIP archives, Windows still cannot handle any other commonly used compressed file format.
Combined antivirus/antispyware/firewall.
Updated Task Manager - The Windows Task Manager is a very useful tool. However, its very long in the tooth and overdue for a revamp (apart from some minor additions, it's the same Task Manager that was present in NT4).
Software install center - Microsoft has a lot of cool, free software on offer but unless you know where to look for it, youll never find it. Linux distros such as Ubuntu have a Software Center where users can download new stuff from. Microsoft needs something similar, along the lines of how it delivered Ultimate Extras to users.
End to 16-bit support - There a time and a place for dumping legacy support and moving on. Windows 8 should be that time.
Reboot-free updates - If you can already update certain Linux distros without requiring a reboot, we should be able to do the exact same thing in the next version of Windows.
.ISO support - Windows 7 allows me to natively burn .ISO files to disc, but why do I have to scrabble around like a raccoon in a dumpster looking for a tool in order to be able to create and mount these files?

Google continues on the open source path with hardware vendors

Webmaster — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 06:51:36 -0600

It is rumored that Google along with Dell plan to release Chrome OS to consumers next year as a lightweight Web-centric operating system for netbooks. Google has not disclosed its marketing plans other than to state that it is working with hardware partners. Google and Dell have a long history of working together. Dell's PowerEdge servers, for example, form the basis of the Google Search Appliance for enterprises.

A Google spokesperson said that Chrome OS is open source and that it's exciting to see developers experimenting with it.

In July, Google said that its Chrome OS team was working with Acer, Adobe, ASUS, Freescale, Hewlett-Packard , Lenovo, Qualcomm, Texas Instruments, and Toshiba.

Moblin is another open source Linux-based operating system for mobile devices and netbooks that is said to be working with Google.

Windows 7 beating all sales records at Microsoft

Webmaster — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:03:33 -0600

Windows 7 isn't just getting good reviews, it's also selling well, CEO Steve Ballmer told shareholders. Delivering opening remarks at Microsoft's shareholder meeting, Ballmer said that Windows 7 was off to a "fantastic start."

"We've already sold twice as many units as any OS in a comparable time frame," Ballmer said. "Windows 7 is simply the best PC operating system that we or anyone else has ever built."

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer delivers a point at the company's Worldwide Partner Conference in July. By last week, Windows 7 accounted for 4 percent of Web-accessing devices, according to Net Applications; it took Vista more than seven months to reach that level.

Droid phones not viable for business use

Webmaster — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:26:46 -0600

The two new Google Android phones, Motorola Droid and HTC available from Verizon, lack basic security capabilities that make them unusable in many business environments. Their lack of management features mean that even where businesses can acept their security limitations, they won't be able to deploy them in large numbers. Worse, it appears that the Droids do not support Exchange ActiveSync policies, so many Exchange servers will not grant them access. When it comes to Exchange, Droid is not a viable option.

Maybe Apple's Ads are Correct

Webmaster — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:41:28 -0600

In some recent blog posts it seems that Windows 7 is not perfect and maybe closser to what Apple says in its most recent add campaign.

Microsoft is offering students the option of buying a downloadable upgrade version of Windows 7 for $29--a significant savings off the full boxed copy of the new operating system. However, a number of students have reported problems when trying to download and install the new version of Windows.

In a blog posting, Microsoft says it is aware of several issues that folks have encountered. Most common is the fact that folks can't easily go from the 32-bit version of Vista to the 64-bit version of Windows 7. That requires a clean installation.

Those in that camp can either get a refund or contact Digital River, the company managing the digital downloads, to try to get a disc with the operating system.

In addition to that issue, Microsoft notes that it is investigating two other errors that folks have been encountering. For some folks, the download hangs at a certain percentage and won't continue or resume.

"This appears to be a series of isolated issues that are often related to the user's Internet provider or installed third-party software," Microsoft said.

In other cases, users get a generic unspecified error message. "While not widespread, this issue appears to be caused when one of the downloaded files is incomplete or has become corrupted on the user's computer." Students in that camp should try re-downloading the operating system, Microsoft said.

Many do not want net neutrality

Webmaster — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 12:34:02 -0600

Almost fifty companies sent a letter to the FCC saying new regulations could hinder the development of the Internet.

"Until now, the innovators who are building the Internet and creating the advancements in telemedicine, education and the vast array of other online products and services have done so in an environment driven by competition and innovation," said the letter, signed by Cisco Systems, Alcatel-Lucent, Corning, Ericsson, Motorola and Nokia. "We believe government's role in the Internet should be to support investment, jobs, and new technologies, especially if they increase the opportunity for all Americans to connect online."

Instead, new Net neutrality rules could prohibit broadband providers from offering advanced and well-managed networks, the companies said.

"Public policy should encourage more investment to expand access to the Internet, whether it is access through a cell phone, a laptop, a PC or any new device that we have yet to imagine," the letter said. "If the FCC takes a prescriptive approach to new regulations, then it could place itself in the position of being the final arbiter of what products and services will be allowed on the Internet."

With the explosion of technology into every facet of the day-to-day business environment there is a need to define an effective infrastructure to support operating environment; have a strategy for the deployment and technology; and clearly define responsibilities and accountabilities for the use and application of technology.

Microsoft thinks it will create 5.8 millions job world wide

Webmaster — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:38:48 -0600

Microsoft Corp. forecasts the information technology (IT) industry will create 5.8 million new jobs and more than 75,000 new businesses over the next four years.

The expected growth rate for IT employment of 3 percent a year is more than three times the rate of growth of total employment and a strong indicator that investing in IT will contribute to economic recovery and growth.

In this fundamental economic reset, innovative technologies will play a vital role in driving productivity gains and enabling the creation of new local businesses and highly skilled jobs that fuel economic recovery and support sustainable economic growth, said the CEO of Microsoft. Countries that foster innovation and invest in infrastructure, education, and skills development for their citizens will have a major competitive advantage in the global marketplace.

Microsoft claims that about 14.9 million IT jobs worldwide are related to the business activities of the Microsoft ecosystem (Windows based systems and applications), an inter-dependent ecosystem of nearly 700,000 local companies that partner with Microsoft as developers, distributors, retailers and service providers.

National and local communities particularly benefit from Microsoft partner-driven business model, which creates jobs and spurs innovation. For every dollar of revenue made by Microsoft, local partners around the world on average will make $8.70 in 2009. Local partners will generate local revenues for themselves of $537 billion in 2009.

BlackBerry lets iPhone take a leadership position

Webmaster — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:58:11 -0600

BlackBerry has ceded the leadership role in the smartphone market to iPhone. No longer is the smartPhone the mark of the user being an executive or business traveler. Today, SmartPhones are now bought mainly by individual consumers and used for mostly personal needs.

The Apple iPhone has the best level of customer satisfaction, at 83 percent. Google's Android platform and the Palm Pre tied for second place at 77 percent, followed by the Research in Motion BlackBerry at 73 percent, the "dead" Treo at 70 percent, and devices using Nokia's Symbian OS and Microsoft's Windows Mobile coming in last at 66 percent.

Policies that cover the service level requirements are available from Janco. Included with the policies are forms that can be used to facilitate the implementation of the policy. Included are these ready to use forms:

Internet & Electronic Communication Employee Acknowledgement
E-Mail - Employee Acknowledgement
Internet Use Approval Form
Internet Access Request Form
Security Access Application Form

Apple Adds A Glut of Software on Wiindows

Webmaster — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 16:28:48 -0600

Apple is using its automatic update process to deliver massive amounts of new software to users. And it is delivering this massive payload without even a pretense of proper disclosure and without asking consent from its users.

Apple is completely out of step with generally accepted norms for delivering updates and new software to users with proper consent . In the past 18 months, the only evidence Apple has shown that it is capable of learning from its mistakes is that it decided to stop installing Safari along with iTunes upgrades on Windows systems.

A program called Apple Software Update should not push new programs on users. Not without getting their consent first.

iTunes 9 has now crossed the 100MB threshold? Thats a 25% increase in only one year.

Windows 7 upgrades Could Take Almost a Full Day

Webmaster — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 06:03:03 -0600

Microsoft said that some "in-place" upgrades from Windows Vista to the new Windows 7 may take some users over 20 hours to complete.

The upgrade performance tests used the metric of total upgrade time to gauge how Windows 7 upgrade performed against Vista upgrade. The tests were designed to measure total upgrade time simulating different user profiles (with different data set sizes, number of programs installed and settings) against different hardware profiles.

The best that users can hope for is a 1 hour and 24 minute process, said a member in the Windows deployment team, in a company blog published.

So-called "clean" installs, where the user overwrites an existing edition of Windows to end up with the OS, but no former data or applications, take less time: from 27 to 46 minutes.

In-place upgrade times were obtained from lab machines in three different configurations -- labeled low, mid-range and high-end -- with three simulated users: a medium user, a heavy user and a super user. The profiles differed in the amount of data and the number of applications that were on the PC before the upgrade to Windows 7. The medium user profile, for example, assumed 70GB of data and 20 applications; the super user profile, on the other hand, contained 650GB of data and 40 applications.

Windows Mobile a poor product at best

Webmaster — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 18:09:40 -0600

It's becoming obvious that Microsoft Corp. officials, including CEO Steve Ballmer, wish Windows Mobile were a better mobile operating system. Earlier this year, Ballmer told public sector CIOs that Windows Mobile 6.5 (Version 6.5 is due out in October while version 7 is due next year) was not "the full release we wanted to have this year." His comment was made in response a question about how Microsoft planned to keep up with phone rivals, such as iPhone and Android.

Attendees of Microsoft's Venture Capital Summit reported via Twitter today that Ballmer said Microsoft "screwed up with Windows Mobile" and changed the Windows Mobile team recently to try to recoup losses.

New push for Windows 7

Webmaster — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 10:23:53 -0600

Microsoft started a new Windows 7 promotion that heavily discounts copies of Windows 7 for college students, with the price nearly matching what Apple charges for its Snow Leopard upgrade.

The offer lets students with a valid university-provided e-mail address purchase either an upgrade to Windows 7 Home Premium or Windows 7 Professional for $29.99. Each student can purchase one copy of either edition, which can be downloaded starting on Oct. 22, Windows 7's official launch date.

Students in the U.S. can place their pre-orders immediately through a Microsoft-sponsored site, while those in the U.K. can plunk down their £30 starting Sept. 30, a company representative said yesterday.

Students in Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Korea and Mexico are also eligible for the discount, but will not be able to order until Oct. 22. Microsoft has not set prices for those countries.

The offer ends Jan. 3, 2010 in every market except for Australia, where it will run until March 31, 2010, Microsoft confirmed Friday.

Another body blow to Windows Mobile

Webmaster — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 11:42:24 -0600

Palm announced that it will stop developing new phones running Windows Mobile software, instead focusing future development on its new WebOS operating system.

The news came as the struggling handset maker reported widening losses for the quarter during which it started selling the new Palm Pre, the first device to run WebOS.

Palm has already signed contracts with additional operators to bring phones using WebOS to new and existing markets. The Pre is scheduled to debut later this year in Europe with Telefonica. The newest WebOS phone, the Pixi, will come out from Sprint before the end of the year.

Infrstructure Key To CIO and IT Success

Webmaster — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:07:12 -0600

Often, B2B initiatives were driven by the need to comply with a certain mandate or meet specific operational requirements, resulting in a piecemeal chain of systems and leaving communication gaps within the supply chain. Therefore, many companies are working with legacy applications and silo solutions that are not interoperable. There is no easy way to synchronize the data from each system to create a comprehensive view of the supply chain. Silo tools create barriers to working within multiple formats and standards, resulting in lost business, missed growth opportunities and further eroding value.

Additionally, B2B technology itself has built-in complexities arising from communication issues with AS2, AS3 and VAN mailboxes, erroneous data exchange as well as trading partner connectivity problems. These problems are commonplace and drain resources. In fact, according to a 2006 GS1 study, most businesses spend between $40 and $80 per error to resolve problems with item data and invoicing data.

Furthermore, connectivity issues are typically recurrent which creates a reactive environment, shifting focus from core business operations toward lower impact issues, wasting time and creating unnecessary productivity costs.

Is your PC infected?

Webmaster — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 09:55:53 -0600

There are som common things to look for if you suspect that a computer or workstation is infected with a virsus or spyware. They are:

There are unexplained slowdowns and crashes, especially when searching the Web
Browsers open to strange homepages, return odd search results, or go to unsolicited websites.
The mouse, keyboard, monitor, or CD/DVD drive is unresponsive or performs erratically
Pop-ups open when the user is not surfing the web, or open so often it is becoming a distraction
The security programs are not working, and/or the user cannot access security-related websites
A program or application you attempted to uninstall reappears when the PC is restarted
The computer seems to have a "mind of its own" and is difficult to control

New chip technology will impact Windows 7

Webmaster — Mon, 24 Aug 2009 10:44:34 -0600

Intel's architecture behind its future chips for servers, laptops and desktops is going to be based on Westmere chips. They will be made using the advanced 32-nanometer process and should deliver performance and power benefits over existing Intel chips made using the 45-nm process. Initial chips will integrate a CPU and graphics processor in a single package, which could improve graphics performance while drawing less power.

The first Westmere chips will go into laptops and desktops as early as the first half of 2010. Initial Westmere chips will be dual-core CPUs with 4MB of cache, and will include an integrated memory controller. Clock speeds could remain similar to existing processors, but performance could see a boost by running two threads on each core, Intel officials have said.

Initial Westmere-based laptop chips, code-named Arrandale, could preserve battery life while improving graphics performance. The desktop chips are code-named Clarkdale. The chips are expected to go into production in the fourth quarter this year, though samples have already shipped to laptop and desktop PC makers for testing.

The Westmere architecture is the basis of some of Intel's future laptop and desktop chips, including the Core i3, i5 and 7 chips, wrote Ken Kaplan in a blog entry on Intel's Web site on Wednesday.

The chip package's CPU will be made using the advanced 32-nanometer manufacturing process. The graphics processor will be made using the 45-nm process.

Westmere is a process shrink of Intel's current Nehalem microarchitecture, which forms the basis of the existing Core i7 high-end desktop and Xeon 5500 server chips. Nehalem integrates a memory controller with the CPU and provides a fast pipeline for processors and system components to communicate.