[How to] Run infected files without getting your system infected

Yes it’s true that you can run infected files on your system without getting the system infected. Sandboxie is an Application that allows you to do so. This is useful in circumstances where you have a USB device or installing a not so known file on your computer. Sandboxie can help you install the program even if it is infected without getting your system affected.

Here is a quick demonstration

I have downloaded a infected file. 

2. Kaspersky prompts me that the file is infected.


3. Thankfully I have Sandboxie on installed on my computer.

4. Now run the file. You have to navigate to the folder that has the file which is infected.

5. Right Click on the file and then Click “Run Sandboxed” from the drop down menu.

 

Link: Download Sandboxie

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What Is QR Code?

 With the rise of the technologies, each and every day we are getting more useful stuffs in our usual life. The mobile phones are becoming the most important gadgets these days as they can perform various task and improving all the tie with lots of new stuffs. One of them is the QR Codes  (abbreviated from Quick Response code)  and Matrix Barcodes (or two-dimensional code), which are becoming the hot favorite for every mobile phone users these days.


It is readable by dedicated QR barcode readers, telephone cameras, and to a less common extent, computers with webcams. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. The information encoded may be text, URL, or other data.

Common in Japan, where it was created by Toyota subsidiary Denso-Wave in 1994, the QR code is one of the most popular types of two-dimensional barcodes. The QR code was designed to allow its contents to be decoded at high speed.


Although initially used for tracking parts in vehicle manufacturing, QR codes now are used in a much broader context, including both commercial tracking applications and convenience-oriented applications aimed at mobile phone users (termed mobile tagging). QR codes may be used to display text to the user, to add a vCard contact to the user's device, to open a Uniform Resource Identifier (URI), or to compose an e-mail or text message. Users can generate and print their own QR codes for others to scan and use by visiting one of several paid and free QR code generating sites or apps.

QR codes storing addresses and Uniform Resource Locators (URLs) may appear in magazines, on signs, buses, business cards, or almost any object about which users might need information. Users with a camera phone equipped with the correct reader application can scan the image of the QR code to display text, contact information, connect to a wireless network, or open a web page in the telephone's browser. This act of linking from physical world objects is termed hardlinking or object hyperlinking.

QR codes can be used in Google's mobile Android operating system via both their own Google Goggles application or 3rd party barcode scanners like ZXing or Kaywa. The browser supports URI redirection, which allows QR codes to send metadata to existing applications on the device. Nokia's Symbian operating system is provided with a barcode scanner, which is able to read QR codes, while mbarcode is a QR code reader for the Maemo operating system. In the Apple iOS, a QR code reader is not natively included, but more than fifty paid and free apps are available with reader and metadata browser URI redirection ability. With BlackBerry devices, the App World application can natively scan QR codes and load any recognized Web URLs on the device's Web browser.


The technology has seen frequent use in Japan, the Netherlands, and South Korea, while the rest of the world has been slower in the adoption of QR codes.

Now, you know that what are QR codes? QR codes are being used for various purpose these days. Many publishers are using the QR codes for spreading their content among the users. That is why, QR code generators are so much in demand these days. Sparq is one of the best qr code generator service which provides lots of features and facilities which can help in improving the business of a publisher. QR codes are going to be more popular in the near future and would be one of the most used mobile application very soon.

If you do not know about them then click here to know more about the Matrix Barcode.

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All you want to know about Google +

What G+ really about (pst!!! it's not social)

View more presentations from fttechfounder

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Hashtags: Tweet Your Message to a Larger Audience with Hashtags

Twitter is a great place to find and follow people with the same hobbies and interests as you have. Unfortunately, once you have as many followers as Darren does, it starts to get overwhelming to stay in touch with them all, and make sure the right information goes to the right people.

Making an appearance at a marketing seminar and love to cook? You’ve got a situation then. How do you make sure you’re tweeting details about marketing events to the seminar group while tweeting your favorite recipes to the cooking group?

Enter Hashtags. A hashtag is a symbol – # – followed by a name that can be used to broadcast to a specific group of people. For example, there’s a group for #googlenews, #love and even #kmart. None is probably more popular right now and relevant than the group created for the Mumbai attacks – #mumbai.

Hashtags.org shows the most recent group tweets on Twitter

To see which groups have already been created, visit www.hashtags.org – the official site that creates, organizes and displays these groups. Use the search box in the upper right corner to see if your group name is already available.

If it isn’t, you can create it simply by tweeting and including the hashtag (#) within your post.

The first step though, is to make sure hashtags can index and display your group tweets. Just follow @hashtags and the service will follow you back automatically. Then it’s time to help spread the word about your new Twitter group.

For example – Got a great Twitter tip? Just send it to #TwiTip and you could see it on our blog!

The second step is to get familiar with hashtag commands, so that you only broadcast a message out to the people you want to receive it, those being the members of your hashtag group. Here’s a quick rundown of the more useful ones:

Follow #tag – (example: follow #twitip) – lets you follow all updates tagged with #twitip.

Follow username#tag – subscribe to all updates from a certain person that are sent to a group. (Example: Follow problogger#twitip will give you every post by Darren sent to the #twitip group)

#tag message – Send a message or question to the group. (Example: #twitip Anyone know a great software program to organize tweets?)

#tag !message – Send a message only to people who are subscribed to updates from #tag. (Example: #twitip !How many twitip users post to twitter daily?)

Leave #tag – Unsubscribe from the group. If your friends are subscribed to this group as well, you’ll still get messages from them that include updates for the group. (Example: leave #food will unsubscribe you from the Food group, but you’ll still get messages from your best friend and fabulous cook Jenny whenever she sends a message to #food).

Remove #tag Unsubscribe from the group and from friend messages that include this tag. So if Jenny posts a recipe to #food and you’ve typed Remove #food in your Twitter status bar, you won’t see that recipe even if Jenny is on your followers list.

You’ll probably want to print out this set of hashtag commands for future reference. If and until Twitter creates its own built-in service for groups, hashtags is the most up-to-date (albeit unattractive) way to stay in touch and create powerful, profitable groups for expanding your Twitter empire and connecting with people who share your interests.

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5 Ways to Encourage Customers to Share Your Content

Nearly every brand has realized that integrating social elements into most or all of its marketing programs is essential. Companies are also thinking about social media as an integrated element that spans all of its campaigns and channels – not as its own silo. But enabling people to share a campaign with friends is only half the battle; you’ve got to give them a compelling reason to socialize.

Here are five creative ways to motivate social sharing. We’ll provide insights as to how you can structure campaigns to encourage more people to share, alongside examples of brands that are getting it right.

1.       1. Increase the Payoff When People Share More

With the advent of DIY group deals, you can create campaigns in which the more people share among themselves, the more they all save. The idea of collective benefit also plays to team dynamics: people will mobilize when lots of folks can get a benefit.

Oscar Mayer’s recent program for its new Oscar Mayer Selects hot dogs provides a good example. Oscar Mayer offers consumers a coupon to try the product, and encourages them to come back to share a “Taste-a-Monial” (essentially their personal review of Selects Hot Dogs) to get a second coupon. But this second coupon is progressive in nature: for every 5,000 people who share their Taste-a-Monial, the value of the coupon will increase by $0.50. The value continues to increase until the deal becomes a free pack of hot dogs, or until the promotion ends on August 15. At that point, everyone who shared a Taste-a-Monial will be rewarded their coupon.

Snoop Dogg made headlines recently for the progressive group deals he runs from his Facebook page’s “Shop Snoop Now” ecommerce tab. Each day, one product is featured for a special group deal – the more “Likes” the product gets, the lower the price for the product.

2. Give Them Something Exclusive

Giving people something unique or exclusive in return for sharing can be a powerful motivator — we all want to feel privy to something special.

For example, in a recent campaign to build awareness for recording artist Cady Groves, RCA offered fans a free song download for registering on the Cady Groves website. RCA also incentivized fans to share Cady’s music with their friends by offering a free merchandise pack to every fan who convinces five people to download the song.

Many brands are also rewarding fans by providing early access to content. For example, a big trend we’re seeing in the music industry is “share to reveal,” where fans get advance access to music videos or song tracks in return for sharing with friends.

3         3. Appeal to Their Altruism

People are inherently good. If you make it easy for them to help, they often will — and your brand will get a major boost along the way.

For example, Clarisonic recently ran a fundraising campaign for “Look Good, Feel Better,” a program that helps women battling cancer cope with treatment-related skin changes and hair loss. It contributed a $1 donation for each new “Like” on its Facebook page. The campaign made it fun and easy to share the program with friends by designing different “calls to action” that visitors could choose to share. As a result, Clarisonic generated over 30,000 new Likes on the page.

Of course, many fans will share simply because they love the cause and want to spread the word — so make sure you’ve at least added social elements to all your customer touch points.

4         4. Let Fans Help Create the Offer

Giving fans the ability to choose which version of a product should be offered, or to vote for the discounts or special offers they want to receive, helps ensure they’ll share it. For example, HarperCollins’ Bookperk website, which keeps readers up to date on new books and special deals, lets members select which books will be offered at a discount. Once members have chosen a book, they have the option to log into Facebook and share their selection with friends, therefore spreading the word about the discount.

5.       5. Identify, Recognize and Reward Superfans

Humans are inherently social beings, and like to be recognized for their expertise and achievements. Recognition can be a powerful motivator for social activity.

In the Cady Groves example mentioned above, not only was the campaign successful in getting many fans to share with their friends, but furthermore, quite a few “superfans” took sharing to the next level. They generated their own tweets, direct messages and Facebook posts. Some individuals managed to recruit several hundred new fans to the Cady Groves website and Facebook page.

These superfans aren’t necessarily motivated by the incentive; they’re interested in promoting the artist, getting free merchandise for their friends and establishing their reputation as someone in the know. Smart marketers will look to identify and reward these superfans on an ongoing basis, and further provide them with ways to carry on their message.

Once you’ve identified your superfans, make them part of your marketing mix. Give them preferential or early access to new items, and reward them with recognition on your Facebook page, Twitter or your website.

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Why Is Bluetooth Called Bluetooth?

When two devices need to talk to each other, they need to have a handshake on various parameters before the conversation starts. The first agreement is on the medium – will they use wires, or talk over some wireless signal?

Bluetooth is one such wireless signal (protocol) over which two (or more) devices communicate over.

Strange name though isn’t it – are the bluetooth waves invisible but blue and shaped like teeth? Wrong! There is absolutely no relation between the name and the meaning.

The Bluetooth protocol was created by Ericsson (pre-Sony Ericsson) which is a major Swedish telecommunication company.

They named it after the Danish viking king, Harald Blåtand. As legend goes, Blåtand had the blessed ability to bring people negotiate with each other, and come to talking terms.

So skilled was he, that he was able to unite Denmark and Norway together! The literal translation of Blåtand means blue-tooth, hence the name Bluetooth for the protocol. It does precisely what Blåtand did – lets two wireless device to communicate with each other!

The Bluetooth symbol has Harald Blåtand’s initials inscribed into it (in Runic). The two lines sticking out of the back of the B actually represent a Runic H – thats H for Harald .The B for Bluetooth also stands for Blåtand!

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Indian Govt Takes The Open Source Route

 The Indian Government has been talking of the open source-based systems for long, but for the first time it is working on a policy on the use of operating systems and device drivers in all new e-governance projects.          
Friday, July 08, 2011:   According to the latest draft policy on e-governance, all new projects must work on open source operating systems only. The draft Policy On Device Drivers For Procurement Of Hardware For e-governance says, “Government of India (GOI) endeavours to provide e-governance services, which are technology-neutral, cost effective, interoperable and vendor-neutral. GOI Policy on open standards is a step towards meeting this objective in the development of e-governance applications.” The policy shall apply to all the new e-governance projects as well as the existing ones.
   



 The need for such a policy was felt because while implementing open source, there is a possibility of non-availability of device drivers for all general purpose operating systems. “Hence, there is a need for a policy by GOI for procurement of computers and associated peripherals to empower the implementation of e-governance projects with neutrality to all general purpose OS,” states the draft.

The draft clarifies the reason for covering both computers and peripherals. According to the document, most parts of the computer, in general, work with the recent stable versions of Windows and Linux operating systems. However, some of the devices internal to computers may require drivers, which should adhere. The policy has to be applicable to them also, for example, webcam, inbuilt speakers. Other devices (like printer, scanner) are external to computers. Hence both computers and peripherals are covered in the policy, in addition to the drivers of external peripherals to ensure the complete-working of the computer system.

The Department of Information Technology (DIT) has demanded the following from the original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).

1. The computers shall be capable of running on all general purpose operating systems.
2. OEMs shall provide drivers for computers and peripherals, which are capable of running on all general purpose OS.
3. The drivers of computers and peripherals for GNU/Linux (one of the general purpose OS) shall satisfy any of the following conditions:

a. The source code, build procedure and installation instructions for the drivers must be made available as per any of the open source software (OSS) licences listed. Computers and peripherals must be operational using these drivers in the latest stable Linux-kernel. It implies that in case, the source code, build procedure and installation instructions for the drivers are made available as per any of the open source software licences listed in the policy, and if these are accepted in the latest stable Linux-kernel, then it is expected to work in any of the Linux-distributions.

b. The source code, build procedure and installation instructions for the drivers must comply with LSB-3.0 or higher versions and accepted by any of the Linux-distributions. The compliance with LSB-3.0 or higher versions is opted because the current stable version of Debian distribution (Version 6.0 Squeeze) is compliant with LSB Version 3.2, and not LSB Version 4.0.

c. In case only binaries are made available for the drivers, then they shall be Linux-compatible; in addition, kernel dependent binaries must adhere to the specifications of the latest stable Linux-Kernel.

As mentioned above, the adherence to any one of the three conditions is sufficient when considering Linux OS. The reason cited for this is: "The source code of the device driver for the Linux operating system is made available through two approaches, (a) under open source licences (b) LSB compliance, as indicated in the policy. From any of the two approaches, binary for the device driver can be built. Third approach is to use the binary of the device driver provided by the vendor as per the policy requirements."

The open source licences demanded in the policy are:

1. Apache License, Version 2.0
2. Eclipse Public License- v 1.0
3. European Union Public License (EUPL v.1.1)
4. GNU General Public License, version 2 (GPLv2)
5. GNU General Public License, version 3 (GPLv3)
6. Mozilla Public License 1.1 (MPL 1.1)
7. The BSD License
8. The GNU Lesser General Public License, version 2.1 (LGPLv2.1)
9. The GNU Lesser General Public License, version 3.0 (LGPLv3)
10. The MIT License
11. Any other licence which gives freedom to copy, modify and redistribute driver source code without any restrictions.

The draft policy clarifies the demand for so many open source licences. It says, “The widely used OSS licences are listed along with generic open source software licence which gives freedom to copy, modify and redistribute driver source code without any restrictions. Hence the driver is made available by building the executable from the available source-code under any one of the listed licences.”

Source: www.efytimes.com

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Cloud computing Vs Virtualization: Differences and Similarity

Virtualization and Cloud computing are been rapidly embracing the internet techies.With the rapid growth of these technologies, innovative trends captured the whole Home and Business computing platforms.Let us walk through what these technologies aims for and current underlying platforms in web that backs up these ideas.

For new to these technological terms simply speaking “Cloud computing is a technology that uses the internet and central remote servers to maintain data and applications. Cloud computing allows consumers and businesses to use applications without installation and access their personal files at any computer with internet access. This technology allows for much more efficient computing by centralizing storage, memory, processing and bandwidth”.A simple example of cloud computing is Yahoo email or Gmail etc. You dont need a software or a server to use them. All a consumer would need is just an internet connection and you can start sending emails. The server and email management software is all on the cloud ( internet) and is totally managed by the cloud service provider Yahoo , Google etc. The consumer gets to use the software alone and enjoy the benefits.

Both the terms Cloud computing  and virtualization  are some way or other interrelated.The basic difference is “virtualization” happens on your own hardware and “cloud computing” happens on someone else’s hardware. At the lowest level they are the same.Virtualization and Private Cloud Computing are inter-related yet clearly different from each other. Virtualization itself can take several forms, from server virtualization, to network, desktop and storage virtualization. In each case, and importantly, virtualization abstracts the resource, i.e. Windows or Linux server, from the underlying physical hardware. The most popular products for virtualization include VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, KVM and Citrix Xen.Private Cloud Computing is the application of Cloud Computing concepts to a privately owned and operated data center(s). Thus, features such as on-demand provisioning, distributed redundant architecture, and self-service administration should be part of a Private Cloud Computing implementation. Companies such as VMware are expanding their Virtualization offerings to support buildout of a full Private Cloud.”Virtualization is simply one of the elements that makes cloud computing, so cloud computing can happen without virtualization..

Glenn Dasmalchi, technical chief of staff in the office of the CTO at Cisco, provides a summary of how cloud computing and virtualization are related, and what advantages are afforded to customers. He also touches on the network play with the cloud-virtualization linkage.

Spoon.net -pioneer in application virtualization and cloud computing technologies

Named by Virtualization Review as one of the top two companies to follow in 2011, Spoon is a pioneer in application virtualization and cloud computing technologies. Spoon enables users to launch desktop applications from the web with no install, so you can test and use applications instantly, wherever you are.Today Spoon.net has over a thousand apps available for launch from the cloud with a simple browser plugin. Imagine what’s coming next.

Spoon is a virtualization platform that lets you run desktop apps from the cloud. If you install the provided plug-in, you will be able to access these applications you love without having to worry about installing or updating them. Since everything is hosted on the cloud, that part is done for you.There is nothing to install, and no need to ensure you have the latest version or patch. As long as you have installed the Spoon plug-in, you will be able to play all the games that are included on the site.Some of the featured apps are TweetDeck, Skype, VLC Media Player, Adobe Reader, WinAmp, GOMPlayer… You can check the best of the best on the main page. And the same goes for the featured games, of course – the best titles are spotlighted for all to see.Visit Spoon.net.

Citrix XenApp-employing Virtualized Applications.

 
Citrix XenApp is a remote access publishing platform that allows users to connect to their business applications, available from XenApp servers located in central locations (as Data Centers). Applications can be open it in these XenApp servers, using server hardware (CPU, Memory, hard disk, etc), and images are send to user client devices, instead to the server screen. A XenApp client shows the XenApp published applications to users like a local installed application.

XenApp it is a recently name given by Citrix, renamed from Presentation Server, which was originally known it as Metaframe. Citrix renamed the product due inclusion of many features which gave it new functionalities and to create a “line” of virtualization products, which includes XenDesktop and XenServer.

According Citrix, XenApp means:

Xen = Virtualization
App = Application

XenApp = Virtualized Applications

One XenApp server can support many users, generally from 30 to 80 users, depending of the XenApp server hardware specs, application requirements to run and user usage. A set of XenApp server constitute into a Citrix XenApp Farm. A farm can have around 5000 XenApp servers, supporting thousands and thousands of users.To use Citrix XenApp, you need Windows Servers with Terminal Services capabilities and install specific Citrix XenApp client on user machines. XenApp versions have different features, going from Standard/Advanced to Platinum, with more configuration options and integrated products. XenApp client installations will depend of which operational system you will use on client computers, and can be Windows (all versions), Linux, Dos, Mac Os and others.

Example of Citrix XenApp utilization

A new user is hired in a remote site of a company and needs a computer with Microsoft Office, SAP and some legacy applications using a dedicated and limited WAN link. IT department can create his domain and email account and associate domain groups to give him access to XenApp published applications. Then, IT department can send by post a Thin Client to user with instructions about how to plug mouse and keyboard, and how to turn on the device. After turn on the Thin Client, user will asked for his domain credentials and will see a Windows XP interface (blocked to any user software installations) and with all application icons in Start Menu, ready to work.

If for some reason, a XenApp server has a problem, when opening a new application, user will be automatically redirected to other healthy XenApp servers. If user workstation (ThinClient) has a problem, the same user can input his credentials in any other company workstation and have all same interface, applications and files. And if this user is going to visit an external location, he can easily keep one eye on his XenApp applications using his mobile.

If this company decide to migrate all 10.000 users from Microsoft Office 2003 to Microsoft Office 2007, the job can be done in just few hours in a weekend. IT team needs just deploy the new Office into XenApp farm, if everybody in company it is using Citrix XenApp.This is an video from Citrix made in 2003 – which is still very relevant.

Discussion on cloud and virtualization technologies never ends since it involves diversity such as desktop virtualization , storage virtualization as well as  further applications employing these  technologies such as wine, VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V, Browser OS etc .

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