How to Check How Much Memory a Process is Consuming in Linux

The pmap command reports the memory map of a process or processes.

OPTIONS

• -x extended -> Show the extended format.
• -d device -> Show the device format.
• -q quiet -> Do not display some header/footer lines.
• -V show version -> Displays version of program.

Example : we want to check how much memory is consumed by the apache(httpd) process. Run the below commands step by step :

Step:1

To get a pid of httpd process,run below command

• [root@mail1 ~]# ps -eaf | grep http

root 1759 4493 0 04:02 ? 00:00:00 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache 1760 4493 0 04:02 ? 00:00:25 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache 1761 4493 0 04:02 ? 00:00:23 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache 1762 4493 0 04:02 ? 00:00:21 /usr/sbin/httpd
apache 1763 4493 0 04:02 ? 00:00:18 /usr/sbin/httpd

Step:2

Now run the pmap command against the PID number:

• [root@mail1 ~]# pmap 1760 | tail

97406000 28K r--s- /usr/lib/gconv/gconv-modules.cache
97463000 16K rw--- [ anon ]
97467000 524288K rw-s- /tmp/apc.tE1RRo (deleted)
b7467000 11096K r---- /usr/local/zend/lib/libicudata.so.38
b7f3d000 4K rw--- /usr/local/zend/lib/libicudata.so.38
b7f3e000 64K rw-s- /dev/zero (deleted)
b7f4e000 504K rw-s- /dev/zero (deleted)
b7fcc000 32K rw--- [ anon ]
bfd74000 144K rwx-- [ stack ]
total 2742152K

The process, which is apache is consuming about 2.7GB of memory

Difference Between Build / Verify, Clear, Quick Init & Skip Init While Creating An Array In RAID

The differences between these options are listed below. If unsure of which option to use, it is recommended to choose "Build / verify".

Build / Verify

• Array is available for use immediately. The Build operation continues in the background. Therefore, an operating system installation may begin while the array is going through the Build process, although performance will be impacted until the process has completed. 
• Creates parity/redundancy for each disk in the array. Example: For a RAID 1 logical drive, data is copied from the source drive to the mirrored drive. For RAID 5 and RAID 6, parity is computed and written. 
• A Build can take up to 20x longer than Clear (due to parity generation).

Clear

• Array is not available to use until the operation completes. 
• Fastest way to set the disks into a known good state. 
• Writes only zeroes to the disk. Although no real redundancy/parity is created, all disk sectors contain zeroes (no data) so none is required. Any future write operations will create required redundancy.

Quick Init

• Array is available for use immediately. 
• Only creates metadata on member disks of the array, the build process is bypassed, the first few and last blocks in the user addressable area (incl. partition tables) will be wiped off. While this is the fastest method for creating a RAID array, it is only recommended for use with new drives. Performance will be impacted while the logical drive is in Quick Init mode until a Verify with Fix is performed. 
• For striped arrays (such as RAID 0, RAID 10, RAID 50, RAID 60), write performance is affected when less than a full stripe is written. The array remains in full-stripe write mode until a Verify with fix operation is completed to validate redundant information. 
• Default Setting for RAID 1, RAID 1EE, and RAID 10 arrays.

Skip Init

• Updates metadata only. 
• If multiple disk drives fail in the same logical device, it may be possible to recover the data by recreating the logical device without the initialization step (skip init). Omitting the initialization step reconstructs the logical device metadata without modifying or destroying other data on the disks. 
• Not available on HostRAID controllers.

How To Edit PDF Files in Ubuntu

With the help of pdfedit software we can edit the pdf files in ubuntu. Pdfedit can change either raw pdf objects (for advanced users) or use predefined gui functions. Functions can be easily added as everything is based on a scripts.

Installing pdfedit

Use Below command to install pdfedit

Starting pdfedit software :

OR

Open the terminal type the below command :

• [linux-expert@nextstep4it] sudo pdfedit

Editing the pdf file

click on file Option , then click on Open , then it will ask you the location of pdf file.Once you have selected the pdf file . It will look like below :

Now edit text and other objects of the pdf files by selecting appropriate options.

How to Secure Your Apache WebServer using SSL Certificates in Linux

In Linux,Apache is the most widely used WebServer , so in this document we will use Apache WebServer on Centos-6.3 and will make it secure by implementing SSL Certificates. I am assuming httpd package(i.e apache software) is already installed on the linux box.

Step 1 : Install the necessary packages

• [root@localhost /]# yum install mod_ssl openssl.

Step 2: Genrate the self signed certificate.

Using OpenSSL we will generate a self-signed certificate. If you are using this on a production server you are probably likely to want a key from Trusted Certificate Authority, but if you are just using this on a personal site or for testing purposes a self-signed certificate is fine. To create the key you will need to be root so you can either su to root or use sudo in front of the commands.

# Generate private key using below command

• [root@localhost /]# openssl genrsa -out server.key 1024

Now create certificate Signing Request(CSR) With Server RSA Private Key using below command

• [root@localhost /# openssl req -new -key server.key -out server.csr

# Now choose the CA to Sign Your Server's Certificate , using below command

• [root@localhost /#openssl x509 -req -days 365 -in server.csr -signkey server.key -outserver.crt

Now we have successfully created and signed a certificate and Copy the files to the correct locations.

• [root@localhost ~]# cp server.crt /etc/pki/tls/certs/
• [root@localhost ~]# cp server.key /etc/pki/tls/private/
• [root@localhost ~]# cp server.csr /etc/pki/tls/private/

Step 3: Now edit the ssl.conf file

• [root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/httpd/conf.d/ssl.conf

Change the paths to match where the Key file is stored. If you've used the method above it will be

• SSLCertificateFile /etc/pki/tls/certs/server.crt
• SSLCertificateKeyFile /etc/pki/tls/private/server.key

Save quit the file and restart the apache serivce

• [root@localhost ~]# /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Step 4: Now modify the httpd.conf file

• [root@localhost ~]# vi /etc/httpd/conf/httpd.conf

Save & quit and Put the html files in /var/www/html and restart httpd service using below command :

• [root@localhost html]# /etc/init.d/httpd restart

Step 5

If your web server is ruuning behind the firewall , then open 443 port. Once all the steps are done , we can access the our website “https://www.example.com” using webroswer.

Swap file in windows & How to change the size of the virtual memory paging file

A swap file, also called a page file, is an area on the hard drive used for temporary storage of information. Windows uses the swap file to improve performance. A computer normally uses primary memory, or RAM, to store information used for current operations, but the swap file serves as additional memory available to hold additional data.

Note:

Microsoft recommends that you allow Windows to manage the Virtual Memory settings for you (i.e., leave the default setting as is). Only experienced users should change this setting, as it can adversely affect system performance.

Also note that you can manually move the location of the swap file to a different drive. In some situations, this can be advantageous. If you have a drive with more free space or a faster access time, you may improve performance by moving the swap file to this drive.

Windows 7, Vista, and XP allow you to set up swap files for each drive on your system. In these versions of the Windows operating system, the swap file is dynamic and hidden.

Windows 7 and Vista

To view your current swap file information in Windows 7 and Vista:

• From the Start menu, right-click My Computer or Computer, and then select Properties.
• From the Tasks menu, select Advanced system settings.
• In the dialog box that opens, click the Advanced tab. Under the "Performance" section, select Settings....
• In the Performance Options dialog box, select the Advanced tab.

Click Change.... The swap file information is listed at the bottom.

Windows XP

The name of the Windows XP swap file is pagefile.sys, located in the root directory. The swap file is dynamic, changing size depending on system conditions. If you run several applications at once, the swap file will grow to accommodate the additional information required to run each application smoothly. This is a hidden file, so you will have to change your folder view setting to be able to see the file.
To view your current swap file information in Windows XP:

• Right-click My Computer, and then select Properties. 
• Select the Advanced tab. 
• Under "Performance", click Settings. 
• Select the Advanced tab. Information about your swap file is listed under "Virtual memory".

To change the size of the virtual memory paging file in windows OS.

You must be logged on as an administrator or a member of the Administrators group in order to complete this procedure. If your computer is connected to a network, network policy settings may also prevent you from completing this procedure. 

• Open System in Control Panel. 
• On the Advanced tab, under Performance, click Settings.
• On the Advanced tab, under Virtual memory, click Change. 
• Under Drive [Volume Label], click the drive that contains the paging file you want to change.
• Under Paging file size for selected drive, click Custom size, and type a new paging file size in megabytes in the Initial size (MB) or Maximum size (MB) box, and then click Set.

If you decrease the size of either the initial or maximum page file settings, you must restart your computer to see the effects of those changes. Increases typically do not require a restart.

Note

•  To open System, click Start, click Control Panel, click Performance and Maintenance, and then click System. 
• To have Windows choose the best paging file size, click System managed size. 
• For best performance, do not set the initial size to less than the minimum recommended size under Total paging file size for all drives. The recommended size is equivalent to 1.5 times the amount of RAM on your system. Usually, you should leave the paging file at its recommended size, although you might increase its size if you routinely use programs that require a lot of memory. 
• To delete a paging file, set both initial size and maximum size to zero, or click No paging file. Microsoft strongly recommends that you do not disable or delete the paging file.

How To Create Shortcut Key To Switch To Next Desktop Background In Windows 7 And Windows 8

Microsoft introduced Desktop Slideshow feature with Windows 7 OS and the feature is present in Windows 8 as well. As all of we know, Desktop Slideshow lets you have a slide show of our favorite wallpapers. The feature supports changing of the desktop wallpaper at intervals ranging from 10 seconds to 1 day.

Hundreds of theme packs (set of wallpapers) are also available as free download from Windows personalization gallery. The only problem with the feature is that you need to manually right-click on desktop and then click Next desktop background option to switch to the next background in the slideshow.

Sure, we can set the interval in Personalization window but wouldn’t it be nice if there was a shortcut to quickly switch to the next background in the pipeline, without having to open the desktop context menu.

Of course, when we are on desktop, we can press Shift + F10 keys followed by N key to switch to the next desktop background but we have a better solution that automates clicking above keys and lets you switch to the next background with a click.

Windows 7 and Windows 8 users who love to have themes will be glad to know that it’s actually possible to create a shortcut to switch to the next desktop background. Just follow the given below steps to create a shortcut to perform “next desktop background” action.

Step 1

your Notepad application and then paste the below code in the Notepad. setWshShell=WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WshShell.SendKeys("^")
WshShell.SendKeys("+{F10}")
WshShell.SendKeys("n")

Step 2

Save the file with any name but with .vbs extension. That’s it! You can now do a double-click on the newly created .vbs file to switch to the next desktop background. Users who would like to have a keyboard shortcut need to follow the next two steps as well.

Step 3

Right-click on the newly created .vbs file and click Create shortcut to have a shortcut of the the file on desktop.

Step 4

Do a right-click on the shortcut, select Properties. Switch to Shortcut tab, and then enter a hotkey in the Short Key box. Click Apply button.

That’s it! From now onwards, you can use this new shortcut key to switch to the next desktop background.

Creating the Bootable USB (Pen Drive) for re‐flashing

Step 1

Download utility form below link ftp://ftpguest:letmein@ftp.vxl.net/Utilities/ImagingToolLX/ImagingTool.rar

Step 2

Extract the zip file “ImagingTool.rar”

Step 3

Insert the USB‐Key (Pendrive) to system

Step 4

Format the USB Key (PENDRIVE) with Fat32 FS

Step 5

Launch the unetbootin‐windows‐408.exe file

Step 6

Select the Disk image browse for the ISO file extracted “Image for LinuxR1.iso.

Step 7

Select the Type “USB Drive” then select Drive {Drive letter where USB KEY (pendrive) is mapped}.

Step 9

Click Exit, Eject the pendrive and plu‐in again.

Step 10

Create folder “Image” on USB Key (Pen Drive)

Step 11

Copy .tbi files on image folder created. Now Pen drive is ready for the re‐flashing.

Re‐flashing procedure:

Step 12

Plug‐in the pen drive to thin client

Step 13

Power on the thin client

Step 14

Go to CMOS and change the boot order, to boot it from a USB Key (Pen Drive)
(if USB Key does not appear in the Hard disk boot order, then in COMS > Integrated Peripherals > USB Device Settings.
Change mode to HDD mode from Auto of listed USB Key (Pen drive) under ***USB Mass Storage Device BootSettings*** and then save changes and reboot the thin client and go to COMS settings and select the boot device as USB Key (Pen drive)

How to Add Multiple Clocks in Windows 7

Step 1

The first thing you will need to do is go to your clock settings. This will be at the lower right hand corner of your main monitor. Click it and select Change date and time settings then you will see the following window.

Step 2

Select the Additional Clocks tab at the top and you will see the two extra clocks that you are able to add.
If you are adding just one extra clock then just check the first Show this clock box, and then using the drop down menu select the time zone you want shown. In below case we wanted two extra clocks (in addition to my normal time) so we checked both boxes and the different time zones we wanted to see. Now enter a display name for eack clock (eg UAE and New York respectively) then press Apply and OK.

Step 3

Now when you click on your clock at the bottom of your screen, you will see the new additions. There is only a maximum of three clocks that you can show here. If I find a regedit for it I will update to show this.

LG G3 will be water and dust resistant

LG appears to be following on the footsteps of other device makers, making its next flagship phone water and dust resistant.

According to a news report by South Korean publication ETNews, the electronics giant's next flagship phone, LG G3, would be both water and dust resistant. LG is expected to launch G3 smartphone in June this year. The device is said to have display resolution of 2560x1440p, run on a 64-bit processor and 16MP rear camera.

The rumour comes days after a report by Gizmodo Germany that claimed that Nexus 6, Google's next flagship phone, will be a "lightweight version" of the LG G3. It is speculated that Google may opt for a lower camera and screen resolution. Nexus 6 may have an 8 or 13MP rear camera and 1920x1080p resolution (just like Nexus 5).

Backup and Restore Phone Contacts

Lost your phone? Upgrading to a new one? You shouldn't have to give up that painstakingly curated list of contacts. Keep multiple backups of your contacts, both on the device as well as the cloud. Our team show you how

For Android ....

InDefend

To use InDefend, you need to first sign up for a free account. This step is essential because it lets you connect two Android devices for backup and quick restore. All your data is encrypted and stored on InDefend's servers from where you can access it anytime. Apart from contacts, this free app also lets you backup other data from your phone.

SanDisk Memory Zone This multi-faceted free app lets you back up any file to your phone's memory card, move files from your phone's internal memory to memory card and sync data with your cloud service of choice (just sign in to Dropbox, Box, Google Docs, SugarSync or OneDrive from within the app). You can also use the password protection feature to keep your data safe.

Go Contacts Pro Although Go contacts Pro is more of a phonebook/dialer replacement for Android, it comes with an easy-to-use backup feature; it lets you export contacts to device storage as a single VCF file. You can then transfer this file to another device and use the app to Import all the contacts to your new device. You can also use the app to import contacts stored on your SIM card. In addition, the app also has a merge function that lets you find and remove duplicate contacts from the phonebook.

Contacts Backup & Restore A relatively new app, Contacts Backup and Restore is ad-supported, has an easy-to-use interface and does a fantastic job. It creates a backup of your contacts on your device and also gives you the option to email the backup file. You can save multiple backup files on your PC for storage.

For IOS ..

Easy Backup - My Contacts Backup Assistant One of the rare free contacts backup solutions for any iOS device, Easy Backup lets you do a one-touch backup of all your contacts. You can then choose to email the backup to yourself or upload it to Dropbox/Google Drive. The backup can be restored to your device using the native mail app.

iOS & Android ..

My Contacts Backup If you prefer to store local (offline) copies of your contacts, this free app is the solution. It offers one-touch backup of your contacts to your device in VCF format and even lets you export them to CSV format (as a spreadsheet). You can choose to save the backup file on cloud storage or just email it to yourself.

Lookout is a complete security app for your smartphone. Apart from the usual security features like tracking, remote wipe and a privacy advisor, it offers a contacts backup solution. It saves all your contacts to the cloud from which they can be restored or downloaded to a PC anytime.

Windows Phone..

Contacts Backup This free app has a plain and simple interface. It works with multiple accounts that you have added to your Windows Phone device. You can choose which accounts to use and it creates a contacts (VCF) file that is saved to your OneDrive (previously SkyDrive) cloud storage. You can even choose to save it locally on your device. Note that it does not support restore of contacts.

BlackBerry..

Contacts Backup for BlackBerry 10 This free app offers basic options to backup or restore your contacts. It saves all your backup files in an XML format and displays a list of various backups made on your device. You can choose to delete all existing contacts before restoring a backup file. Users of older BlackBerry devices can use the free Backup Contacts app by Amaira Soft.

Connected phonebooks Ever called a friend's phone number to find that it's changed? Well, what if your phonebook could update itself with the latest numbers? If you change your contact details, they should get updated in everyone else's phone and vice versa. It's possible with connected phonebooks. One easy way to do this is with a free cross platform app like IntouchApp (www.intouchapp.com). IntouchApp works with Android, BlackBerry and iOS devices. It automatically backs up your contacts to the cloud, syncs your contacts across multiple devices, helps to transfer all your contacts to a new phone and keeps your contacts updated (provided those people also have IntouchApp installed). Depending on which app is more popular in your group, you can also try Addappt (iOS only) and Six Degrees (Android only).

Phonecopy One of the few cross platform services available, PhoneCopy lets you back up your phone contacts, messages & calendar entries and sync them across all the devices you own. You need to signup for a free account so that your data can be stored on the PhoneCopy servers. PhoneCopy offers free apps for all smartphones and also works with some feature phones that support synchronisation over a data connection. You can check if your feature phone is supported on www.phonecopy.com. Once your contacts are saved to their servers, you can access and edit them from anywhere by just logging in from a web browser.

Backup contacts to your computer

Almost all the major brands have their own free desktop software which you should install for regular backups. There are usually two options available: to backup phone contents to the computer so that you can restore the data if needed or to sync contacts with an address book (Windows/Apple Address Book, Outlook/Outlook Express). If you have an Android phone, give MoboGenie a try (www.mobogenie.com). MoboGenie is a free program that works with most Android devices. It can safely store a backup of your personal information locally, on your computer. If you prefer more features, you can go for premium programs like Coolmuster ($35.95, Android) and Xilisoft iPhone Contacts Backup ($15.95, iOS).

Google launches indoor maps in India

Google on Wednesday announced the availability of indoor maps in India. The company said that users of Google Maps on Android, iOS and personal computers can now access the floor plans of 75 places in 22 Indian cities.

Most of these 75 places are shopping malls but museums and convention halls also find a mention in the list. Similarly, while most of these places are located in big cities like Delhi and Mumbai, some buildings from Raipur and Ludhiana too are a part of the project.

"We launched indoor maps in countries like the US earlier. Now we are bringing it to India. We worked with mall owners and authorities that manage a place to get the floor plans and location details and have added that information to Google Maps," Suren Ruhela, director and product manager, India Google Maps, told TOI. "For now we are starting with 75 places. But as we get feedback from consumers and work with more partners, we hope to add more places."

The indoor maps will be available to consumers immediately. Those who use Google Maps on Android phones or iPhones will be prompted for an update to their maps app and once they have updated app, they will be able to use indoor maps option.

"Malls are getting bigger and there are occasions when we are looking for a shop and can't find it. Through the indoor maps feature, you can locate the shop with help of your phone. You don't have to go all the way back to a mall's main gate to look for the floor plan," said Ruhela.

The feature uses several techniques to find the location of a user. The most important of these is the ability to look for Wi-Fi. Inside building GPS signals are very weak. Hence, Google is relying on a phone's ability to scan for Wi-Fi and then the Wi-Fi details to determine location. Ruhela said that indoor maps feature would work best when a user has the Wi-Fi scanning option turned on in the phone. He clarified that for this feature the phone only needs to scan for networks and doesn't have to connect to them.

Google said that detailed floor plans will automatically appear when you're using the Google Maps app on iOS and Android, and zoomed in on a building where indoor map data is available. Zoom out and the indoor maps will fade away. For all 75 buildings, floor plans are available. But Suren added that for around 15 of these places, Google will also offer "location feature".

"In some locations, you'll have the option of using the indoor My Location feature to help you navigate your way inside. Where available, the familiar 'blue dot' icon can help indicate your approximate location in order to help you more easily find your way. This means that when you move up or down a level in a building with multiple floors, the map will automatically update to display which floor you're on. At these locations, you can also access indoor walking directions to help you get to where you need to go more quickly," said a Google spokesperson.

Google says that so far indoor maps are available in over 10,000 places across the world. Nokia, the company which maintains Here Maps, also offers a similar feature. Last year the company announced that it would offer indoor maps of around 20 places in India. However, the feature is only available to Nokia Lumia and Asha phone users.

Astronomers Discover a New Super-Powered Small Black Hole

Using multiple telescopes, researchers from the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research have discovered a new super-powered small black hole. A team of Australian and American astronomers have been studying nearby galaxy M83 and have found a new super-powered small black hole, named MQ1, the first object of its kind to be studied in this much detail. Astronomers have found a few compact objects that are as powerful as MQ1, but have not been able to work out the size of the black hole contained within them until now. The team observed the MQ1 system with multiple telescopes and discovered that it is a standard-sized small black hole, rather than a slightly bigger version that was theorized to account for all its power.

Curtin University senior research fellow Dr Roberto Soria, who is part of the International Center for Radio Astronomy Research (ICRAR) and led the team investigating MQ1, said it was important to understand how stars were formed, how they evolved and how they died, within a spiral shaped galaxy like M83. “MQ1 is classed as a microquasar – a black hole surrounded by a bubble of hot gas, which is heated by two jets just outside the black hole, powerfully shooting out energy in opposite directions, acting like cosmic sandblasters pushing out on the surrounding gas,” Dr Soria said. “The significance of the huge jet power measured for MQ1 goes beyond this particular galaxy: it helps astronomers understand and quantify the strong effect that black hole jets have on the surrounding gas, which gets heated and swept away.

“This must have been a significant factor in the early stages of galaxy evolution, 12 billion years ago, because we have evidence that powerful black holes like MQ1, which are rare today, were much more common at the time.”

“By studying microquasars such as MQ1, we get a glimpse of how the early universe evolved, how fast quasars grew and how much energy black holes provided to their environment. ”As a comparison, the most powerful microquasar in our galaxy, known as SS433, is about 10 times less powerful than MQ1. Although the black hole in MQ1 is only about 100 kilometers wide, the MQ1 structure – as identified by the Hubble Space Telescope – is much bigger than our Solar System, as the jets around it extend about 20 light years from either side of the black hole.

Black holes vary in size and are classed as either stellar mass (less than about 70 times the mass of our Sun) or supermassive (millions of times the mass of our Sun, like the giant black hole that is located in the middle of the Milky Way).

MQ1 is a stellar mass black hole and was likely formed when a star died, collapsing to leave behind a compact mass. The discovery of MQ1 and its characteristics is just one of the results of the comprehensive study of galaxy M83, a collection of millions of stars located 15 million light years away from Earth. M83, the iconic Southern-sky galaxy, is being mapped with the Hubble Space and Magellan telescopes (detecting visible light), the Chandra X-ray Observatory (detecting light in X-ray frequencies), the Australia Telescope Compact Array and the Very Large Array (detecting radio waves).

Sony Xperia E1 and Xperia E1 Dual with Android 4.3 launched in India

Sony Xperia E1 and Xperia E1 Dual have been launched for the Indian market priced at Rs. 9,490 and Rs. 10, 490 respectively.

The company has announced that the Sony Xperia E1 Dual will be available starting March 10, while the Sony Xperia E1 will hit the stores by 25 March 2014.

The Sony Xperia E1 is the single SIM variant, while the Xperia E1 Dual is the dual-SIM (GSM+GSM) variant, and both models otherwise come with identical specifications. The Sony Xperia E1 (and Xperia E1 Dual) features a 4-inch WVGA display with a resolution of 480x800 pixels and a 233ppi pixel density. The smartphone is powered by a 1.2GHz dual-core Qualcomm Snapdragon 200 (MSM8210) processor, alongside 512MB of RAM. The Xperia E1 comes with 4GB of inbuilt storage, with expandable storage support up to 32GB via microSD card.

The Xperia E1 sports a 3-megapixel rear camera capable of 720p recording, and has no front-facing camera. The smartphone packs a 1700mAh battery that's rated to deliver up to 9 hours of talk time, and 551 hours of standby time. Notably, it features 3G connectivity support. The smartphone weighs in at 120 grams, and has dimensions 118x62.4x12 mm. Sony notes that the Xperia E1 will be available in Black, Purple and White.

The Japanese giant is touting the Xperia E1 as mid-range device and claims that the device can produce up to 100Db music through loudspeakers. Sony also is offering a promotional 30 day free pass for company's Entertainment Network music streaming service.

The Xperia E1 was announced in January this year, alongside the Xperia T2 Ultra phablet. Notably, Sony is yet to reveal any pricing and availability details of the Xperia T2 Ultra. The Xperia T2 Ultra was made available online in India in February via an online retailer, for Rs. 32,000. Sony at MWC 2014 launched a new mid-range smartphone, the Xperia M2, alongside the company's flagship Xperia Z2 smartphone and the Xperia Z2 Tablet.

World-float Launches 'Video Twitter' For Celebrities

Worldfloat, India's home grown social networking site with over 45 million users, has introduced a new feature called "viralx" that provide real-time access to videos mostly shared on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

"Worldfloat viralx are like trending news of Twitter except in a video news version only and not like Twitter which is mostly text based or video links based. We play videos directly upfront on the viralx page," said Worldfloat founder Pushkar Mahatta.

He said viralx offers access to latest real-time video news from all over the world and Internet. "These viral videos are videos which are getting mostly shared on Twitter, Facebook and other social media channels of Internet and TV channels like BBC, CNN and Fox News."

Drawing a comparison between Worldfloat's new feature with those of leading social networking sites, Mahatta said: "Twitter's main focus is to broadcast public views of trending celebrities and their conversations via text and video and photo links and the main focus of Worldfloat viralx is to broadcast upfront trending video news of celebrities directly via videos, not via links of videos or text."

In Worldfloat viralx you can not only watch the videos of trending topics from around the world but also type in a celebrity name and see their latest viral videos and their life happenings and events and movies and music.

Why Android Is Preferred Over iOS 7

In the mobile market a cold war is going on among Android and iOS for outright supremacy. Android’s success is mainly based on the sales as well as its device options. Even though iOS platform is well built and its security is top-notch, Apple’s iOS is not held in such high regard. Apple’s software has high quality that can be compared to Android but it lacks many features that users find on Android. Nowadays a strong reason is required for the user to select an Android device over an iOS one. Here is a list of ten reasons due to which Android beats iOS as compiled by Business Insider:

Customization:

Android includes the option to customize your Smartphone according to your taste. You can change your default home screen with vibrant themes. Jelly Bean 4.3 enables you to make different accounts which containing selected apps. This comes in handy when you have kids who get their hands on your handset. In comparison, iOS doesn’t offer customizing option to their users.

Sharing Option:

In Android sharing option is made easier with its wide range of applications, but in iOS sharing is more limited. While Android users can share things through installed app like Mail, Whats App, and WeChat, iOS user have only some basic options like Text, E-mail, Facebook, Flicker and Twitter. The sharing ability of Android enables the user to try out many sharable Apps that are available in Google Play Store. Android with its endless sharing option is the king in sharing domain.

How to Recover a Dead Hard Disk

Your hard drive just stopped working. It never made any odd sounds like screeching, popping, or clicking, and it didn't crash. It just quit and it has some priceless data that isn't backed up to another device. This guide may help you troubleshoot and correct any problems related to your drive. (Alternatively, read up on how to recover data from the hard drive of a dead laptop.) Be sure to read all warnings before proceeding.

Basic Steps :

Step-1 : Inspect the outside of the hard drive for damage.

• Stop using your computer or external hard drive.
• Power down the computer or disconnect the external drive.
• Remove the hard drive from the computer or device.
• Examine it carefully for 'hot spots' or other damage on the external controller board.
• Check if there are broken parts.

Step-2 : Replace the cables

Plug the hard drive in with new cables (power and data connection) that you know works and try again. Note that an IDE drive will need a flat-ribbon cable.

Step-3 : If you have a PATA (IDE/EIDE) drive, switch drive pin settings

• If it was “slave” or “cable select,” set it to “master.”
• Plug it in alone without any other device on that port and try again.

Step-4 : Try other IDs and/or another PCI controller and try again.

If you don't have another controller, a PCI card that adds ports to your computer, just change the ID.

Step-5 : Plug it into an external drive adapter or external drive case (i.e. USB) if you have one.

• If it does not spin up, try connecting it to another power source (include data connection as some drives don't spin up without). If on both it does not spin up, the fault is most likely related to the Printed Circuit Board.

Step-6 : Connect the drive into another computer and try again.

If this works, it is possible that the motherboard is at fault and not your hard disk.

Replace the Drive's Controller Board

Step-1 : Inspect the drive's controller board carefully to see if it can be removed without exposing the drive's platters.

Most drives will have an externally-mounted controller board. If not, stop here.

Step-2 : Find a sacrificial drive

It is important to match the exact same model number and stepping (i.e. firmware revision, printed circuit board number). Matching drives can sometimes be found at places like eBay, inspect the photo in the auction carefully to determine if the model and firmware match. Contact the seller to be sure the drive being auctioned matches the picture prior to buying.

Step-3 : Remove the controller board of the failing drive.

• Remove the screws with the correct screwdrivers. Most drives use Torx (star drive) head which is available at home repair stores. Be careful, the screws are soft.
• Learn everything about how it is connected to the drive. Most drives are connected via ribbon cables and pin rows. Be gentle. Do not crimp or damage the connectors.

Step-4 : Remove the controller board from the working drive.

• Again, be extremely careful.

Step-5 : Attach the working board to the failing drive.

Step-6 : Connect the drive to your computer or device and test.

If it works, immediately copy your data onto another form of media or a different hard disk drive. If that didn't work, try to re-assemble the sacrificial drive with the working controller board. It should still work.

Using Linux to recover your Data

Many times when windows can not see your drive its because the filesystem itself is damaged. In the case of a damaged filesystem, it would be wise to first take an image of the hard drive before running any type of "filesystem repair" utility. The reason for this is if you have a drive that has both filesystem damage as well as minor physical damage, you may make matters worse. Taking an image of the drive prior to attempting to fix it will allow you to always revert back to the original state. If you are linux savvy you can use DD to image a hard drive. Be careful with DD as imaging the wrong way will be disastrous. You can boot up off of a windows XP installation cd and select the recovery console and once in a dos prompt use chkdsk to repair the file system like you see below. Replace (DRIVELETTER) with the applicable drive letter. chkdsk (DRIVELETTER): /f This will force windows to attempt to repair the file system itself. Newer versions of Linux may have the ntfs-3g program and ntfsprogs and it includes a program called ntfsfix which can help repair a windows ntfs file system so it can be mounted or booted. Linux might have no issues being able to see and actually access the data even if the drive is not bootable. While you can try to mount the drive in a computer that is already running Linux you can also use a Live CD do the same without having to do anything other than downloading and burning the CD or building a bootable Linux system on a USB stick. To find out how to build a bootable Linux USB stick you can find detailed instructions up on the Pendrive Linux Website.

• Download a live disk. System Rescue CD is a good one for this application.
• Burn the .iso onto a blank CD with an Image Burner.
• Boot the computer, don't forget to change the boot order in the BIOS.

Boot up a Linux system or mount the drive using a Linux live disk and begin to backup your data if Linux can see the filesystem.

• Mount the drive by typing this command: mkdir /mnt/disk && mount -t auto /dev/sda1 /mnt/disk. If the drive is a IDE drive the command would be mount -t auto /dev/hda1 /mnt/disk assuming you only have one partition on the drive if in doubt Consult a basic linux guide for specifics.
• Mount another drive and backup data. Again, consult a basic linux guide for specifics.

Linux has many different utilities specifically designed for doing data recovery. If the partition table is too damaged Linux can easily fix this with a utility called Testdisk.

Testdisk will help recreate the partition table.

• Boot into a Linux live disk. See above instructions
• Run the command: testdisk /log. This command is not on every live disk, it is on System Rescue CD.
• Follow find your drive and choose to recreate the partition table. Read the Documention the Website for Testdisk can be found online here.

For those who have never used Linux the first IDE drive in your system will be seen as /dev/hda if it is a sata or scsi drive or is connected via USB it will be seen as /dev/sda. The first partition on the C drive would be /dev/hda1 the second partition on that drive would be seen as /dev/hda2 and so on. Whenever running either testdisk or its companion program photorec always run it with the /log command unless the system you're attempting to recover data from is very small. What this does is give you the ability to run the command again if for some reason the program stops running without having to start all over again. There is a second component to Testdisk that is called Photorec which can recover your data even if the partition table is not able to be recovered. It can take a long time to run but it does a great job, even with severely damaged Hard Drives.

Photorec

Photorec is file/data recovery software originally designed to recover lost pictures from digital camera memory or even Hard Disks, it ignores the filesystem and instead is looking for what is known as file headers, this is the very first part of every file and generally tells the OS what kind of file it is without the system having to read the file extension. It has been seriously extended to search also for non audio/video headers. It can now search for over 80 different types of files. Photorec is part of the Testdisk package. To install the following package in a Debian based Linux Distro you would as the root user run the following command.

apt-get install testdisk

If you are not running as root just precede the command with sudo like you see below.

sudo apt-get install testdisk There are some basic rules when dealing with Photorec.

Photorec can also be used to recover deleted files as long as they were RECENTLY deleted.

When running photorec unless the device your running it against is very small (less than 1 gig)and not severly damaged it is always recommended to use the \log command function so if for any reason photorec stops its processing it can be restarted and it will continue from where it stopped as long as its is recognized as the same drive again IE, /dev/sda If you do not know which drive it is open up a console/shell and run the command dmesg and assuming the drive is connected via usb just plug it in and after perhaps a minute run dmesg then read the messages you see. After the drive is plugged in it will show up in the system and you will see this in the dmesg output.

If you do run photorec and or testdisk without the /log flag you will be forced to start again from the beginning if for some reason the program closes or does not complete. I have had seriously damaged drives take over 100 hours to complete but generally it takes perhaps 5 hours to do a recovery on a 40 gig drive. Also NEVER write back to the same device even if all other partitions are good.

To run Photorec on an image file in Linux, do: sudo photorec /log imagefilename -d /some/directory/to-store/recovered/items To recover files directly from a device, run photorec without any arguments and you will be given a menu of available devices. sudo photorec /log This utility should only be used if you are unable to mount that partition as your filenames will be lost but it does a great job of recovering data even if the hard drive is very damaged, as long as it will spin up you can pretty much expect to get some stuff back and frequently you can get virtually everything back.

What this program will do is search the HD for readable files by searching for the magic headers and copy them to where ever you tell it to with the -d flag. Another rule of thumb is if you are recovering 20 gigs of data in this fashion you will need a minimum of at least 40 gigs of free space. The resulting files will get dropped into folders and since your partition table doesn't exist or is not readable the file names would be lost and will instead be renamed with the inode number of where they were found on the drive.

In other words you will end up with files with names like f53247.doc or f21433.jpg that will be in folders named recup_dir.1, recup_dir.2 and so on. The folders get created dynamically once they reach about 50 megs in size a new one is automatically created and the found files are copied into each folder as the program runs across the drive recovering data.

Many types of files actually have some data in the magic header or other locations that might enable you to recover some part of the original file name or at least give them more meaningful names. For instance Digital Cameras write what is known as exif data into the pics. You can use a Linux program called jhead to read this data and rename all of the files with the date and time the actual pictures were taken, Mp3's also save the ID3 tags which if they are correctly set will give you all the info you need when renaming your recovered files.

See this the Testdisk website for a detailed description of how to use Photorec and Testdisk. There is also some hints on how to rename and sort the resulting recovered files once the program is finished.

Warnings

• Static electricity grounding precautions should be observed.
• Don't believe you've "never had a problem" with RAID 0 array, or even "never had a problem" from not backing up your data. Just because the drive in question was working for a certain period of time before it failed does not mean it was configured properly.
• You will void hard drive warranties. These instructions are for recovering data that is far more valuable than the drives themselves.
• After the a controller board swap, you will certainly have two failing hard drives, whether you recovered the data or not. Do not re-use these drives. Consider other identical drives you purchased from the same batch 'suspect'.
• This procedure is not for logically erased data (i.e. 'un-formatting'). This procedure is for physically inoperable drives with intact data.
• If you are not good with delicate hardware tinkering, don't follow these instructions. Find a professional or someone who is experienced with hardware tinkering to try it for you. Don't hold it against the person if they fail to recover your data. Most retail outlet technicians are not trained for component-level repair of this type.
• If the failing drive was sold with a computer or device, you may void the manufacturer's warranty if you follow these instructions. Make sure the data, or your attempt to recover data, is worth voiding that warranty.
• Configuring drives in a RAID 1, 5, or 10 is not a substitute for a regular backup routine. RAID controllers will fail eventually, writing bad data to the drives. RAID controller failure is difficult to detect until it's too late. A RAID controller also does not protect the data from logical issues and user generated problems.
• When all else fails, contact a professional data recovery company, e.g. Stellar Data Recovery, Drivesavers, DTI Data, Salvagedata.
• Do not attempt to open a drive without the correct environment. The internals of hard drives are very sensitive. Dust and static electricity can damage your hard drive beyond the repair of professionals often resulting in very high prices or even the complete loss of the data.
• Finding spare parts for older drives is more difficult than newer drives, though often repair is easier.

For More Info visit:Phoenix Technologies

How to improve internet security on software

How to improve internet security on software

millions of internet users that got their credit cards stolen over the Web.

And that's a real shame, since a bit of prevention can go a long way at protecting yourself from many online risks, if only a few guidelines and some basic common sense is used.

At its very core, the basic concept of internet security is a simple one-- extend computing and data-processing capability to the physical world around us.

And the earliest manifestations of this are starting to be seen already in the growth of smart devices-- TVs, automobiles, appliances, electronic hydro meters, etc.

You can imagine numerous scenarios in which our businesses can be streamlined through strategic application of this concept-- dynamic inventory management; self-diagnostic capability for appliances; better logistics; increased efficiencies resulting from better telemetry and so forth.

These advantages promise rapid and prolific adoption as implementation comes to fruition, but there are also serious ramifications for security and privacy.

The top governance-level concerns were related to security and privacy. Specifically, increased security threats were cited by 38 percent of respondents, followed by data privacy, which was a top concern of 28 percent of respondents to the ISACA 2013 IT Risk/Reward Barometer.

Still, there have been IP-connected, closed architecture, specialized devices in the scope of many security programs for quite a long time. Consider the role of PoS (point-of-sale) devices in retail, diagnostic modalities in healthcare (MRI machines and the like), and industrial control systems in energy and manufacturing.

While wildly different in functionality and implementation, these devices have common aspects that can help shed light on the security challenges ahead as more IP-connected and purpose-built devices come online. Those historical challenges can serve as a touchstone to prepare for the emergence of the Internet of Things.

we can't solve all of them now but anticipating today what capabilities we might need as smart devices become more prevalent has a few advantages. It can give us a leg up if businesses ramp up quickly, as it is likely to, and also help insulate organizations against risks during early adoption, when guidance and standards are still emerging.

Although securing the web is a work in progress, there are a few security capabilities to develop if they're already in place in order to prepare. These are elements you can do today that have benefits right away but that also will be critical as the internet develops more and when smart devices really start to proliferate everywhere.

Purpose-built devices, no matter what they are, have security vulnerabilities to the same degree that everything else does on the Web. Device makers may not have the same kind of vulnerability reporting and response channels as, say, an operating system or application vendor would.

Those devices are often closed architecture with a non transparent and often proprietary code base. There will be varying degrees of transparency when it comes to security vulnerability reporting. As previously unconnected dumb devices start to come up with built-in network and computing capabilities, knowing what and where those devices are will be very important.

And it's a good idea to start tracking what they are and where they are, where they live and just who's responsible for them. It's easier to start now while the issue is small than it is to wait and retroactively attempt discovery once usage proliferates.

If you're a manufacturer producing a smart device, you need to minimize the number of issues you have to fix once its in customers' hands. Likewise, if you're a consumer, it's helpful to understand the underlying protocols these devices use to interact and work with each other.

Both require expertise in understanding how applications operate and interact-- like how the protocols operate; how security defects or misconfigurations arise; how other components are likely to impact the applications running on these devices; etc.

If, like many businesses, you've underinvested in this area in the past, starting to build some strength here might be a smart move for the long term, something that will clearly provide you with worthwhile dividends down the road.

Business people might not think to come to information technology when making purchasing decisions about previously unconnected devices that now host both networking and computing capability, but that's how it's done nowadays. Get with the flow

Apple has biggest slice of profits per employee: Study

Apple reportedly makes the most money for its employees with half a million dollars for each of its 80,300 staff, among 18 of the biggest technology and media companies, according to a new study by BuzzFeed.

The company's net income at the end of its 2013 fiscal year in September amounted to $37 billion on revenue of $171 billion. The results were concluded after gathering data from the companies' most recent 10-K reports and then dividing the fiscal year 2013 net income a company reported in its 10-K by the number of employees it reported.

The company said that as of September 28, 2013, it had 80,300 full-time equivalent employees. Apple's $460,772 in profits per employee was followed by 21st Century Fox at $277,344, Google at $270,123, Facebook at $236,705 and Viacom at $230,000 per employee. Meanwhile, Microsoft reported $221,212 in profit per employee, Discovery Communications at $188,597, Time Warner at $108, 824, CBS at $96,460 and Netflix at $55,589 per employee, making it to the top ten companies.

The remaining on the list included Comcast at $50,000 in profits per employee, Disney at $34,857, DreamWorks at $25,045, News Corp at $21,083, The New York Times Co at $18,447, AOL at $18,118, Gannett Co at 12,310 and LinkedIn at $5,312 per employee.

Sony finally puts full weight behind Xperia phones

While Sony has famously been siloed in the past -- with different businesses and units working without any coordination or knowledge of what the others are doing -- Nookala said he is on the phone with the PlayStation team at least once a month, talking not only about the products, but common marketing strategies.

The next big campaign is the FIFA World Cup, the world's largest sporting event where Sony just happens to be a sponsor. Nookala pointed to June as the next potential catalyst to spark sales and boost the perception of the company.

"It's a good way to bring this into the mainstream," said Calum MacDougall, director of product marketing for the Xperia franchise, in the interview.

Bold words from what amounts to the new kid on the block for smartphones. While Sony is still a force to be reckoned with in areas such as televisions, video games, and cameras, it has struggled to make a name for itself when it comes to phones. But Sony hopes that will change, particularly in the US market, where the company believes it can more fully take advantage of its heft and influence in the consumer electronics market to push its smartphones. Nookala called the Xperia Z1S, currently being sold in the US by T-Mobile, a turning point for the company and the first time Sony has brought its full resources behind the device. The company, for instance, is specifically targeting T-Mobile customers who are also PlayStation fans, knowing there's already a brand affinity there, and offered discounts on the phone for anyone who purchased a PlayStation 4. The Xperia Z1S also came preloaded with the Sony PlayStation app, and some customers who bought the phone got a one-year membership to PlayStation Plus. A new "One Sony" While Sony has famously been siloed in the past -- with different businesses and units working without any coordination or knowledge of what the others are doing -- Nookala said he is on the phone with the PlayStation team at least once a month, talking not only about the products, but common marketing strategies. "[CEO Kaz Hirai] talks about One Sony, and it's starting to become a factor," he said. The next big campaign is the FIFA World Cup, the world's largest sporting event where Sony just happens to be a sponsor. Nookala pointed to June as the next potential catalyst to spark sales and boost the perception of the company. "It's a good way to bring this into the mainstream," said Calum MacDougall, director of product marketing for the Xperia franchise, in the interview. The sales pitch for the Xperia Z1S isn't just the hardware, but also the media content and family of accessory devices that are created by Sony itself, Nookala said. Whether they are Bluetooth speakers and headphones, those sorts of accessories are rarely made by the smartphone vendor themselves.

In addition, Nookala explained that the company had initially wanted to focus on locking down the Japanese and European markets. Now that there is stability in those areas, it is bringing its eyes back on to the US.

MacDougall said that the awareness of Sony's brand in connection to smartphones has grown significantly over the last 18 months.

Intel's 730 Series solid-state drive reviewed

Intel's X25-M solid-state drive was a special piece of hardware back in the day. The SSD market was still in its infancy, and the X25-M represented the chip-maker's initial entry into an exciting new arena. It was a pretty good first offering, too. The drive had wicked-fast performance, and it was reasonably affordable for its day. Intel's chip-making prowess, combined with its expertise in designing storage and memory controllers, seemed perfectly suited to tackling solid-state storage.

The X25-M's flash controller anchored three generations of desktop SSDs before it was finally retired. Instead of using another in-house chip, Intel started playing the field. A brief affair with Marvell produced the 510 Series, and its long-term relationship with SandForce fueled a string of successors.

SPECIFICATIONS

Intel’s direction with the SSD 730 Series family is towards the digital media professional, workstations and the PC enthusiast. It has a preliminary release date of March 18, 2014, and will be available in capacities of 240 and 480GB. Performance for the 240GB capacity is listed at 550/270MB/s throughout with up to 85K/56K IOPS read and write while the 480GB capacity increases significantly to 550/470MB/s throughput and 89K/74K IOPS read and write. Intel’s sale of the 730, however, highlights a two drive RAID performance of over 1GB/s throughput and up to 168K IOPS.

Power consumption for the 730 is listed at 1.4W Idle and 3.8W active for the 240GB with 5.5W active for the 480GB. The 240GB is rated at 50GB per day while the 480GB is rated at 70GB per day lifetime endurance for the length of the five-year warranty. Read latency is 50µs at 240GB, along with 65µs for the 480GB and the form factor is that of a ultrathin 7mm 2.5″ notebook size.

COMPONENTS

We spoke of the similarities between the SSD 730 and the previously released DC S3500 and we invite you to check out our previous report for comparison. The SSD 730 contains the Intel 3rd Gen PC29AS21CA0 6Gbps eight channel controller along with 2 modules of Micron DRAM cache memory. This controller is architected by Intel with Intel firmware. The 3rd generation Intel controller is manufactured exclusively for Intel. Intel contracts LSI for the manufacturing of this controller.Although there are 16 modules of memory on the 730, and similar to what we saw in the DC S3500, Intel goes against the grain in its NAND memory configuration.

If you look closely at the memory product numbers on both sides, you will find there are 14 modules of 29F32BO8MCMF2 (32GB), a module of 29F64B08NCMF2 (64GB) and a module of 29F16B08LCMF2 (16GB) for a total of 528GB of RAW memory.

The product number of the SSD730 memory is the same as the DC S3500, given exception to the marking of ‘-ES-’ on the end of the product number. Given the high endurance of this SSD, we might think that the memory would be HE memory, however, literature speaks to it as being ‘Compute Quality Components.

Lastly, the two capacitors on the side of the PCB remain in place, as with the previous 3500 and 3700 versions, to provide UPS protection should a power failure occur.

NASA to launch satellite in collaboration with ISRO

Washington: US space agency NASA on Tuesday said it would launch a water-related satellite in collaboration with India's ISRO. The NASA-Indian Space Research Organisation Synthetic Aperture Radar mission is a part of its plan to launch in the next seven years a series of satellite related to water and draught, the agency said. Among others include the Ice, Cloud, and land Elevation Satellite-2 (ICESat-2); Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) Follow-on and Surface Water Ocean Topography mission. These satellite missions join more than a dozen NASA airborne sensors focused on regional-scale issues, understanding detailed Earth science processes and calibrating and validating NASA satellites," the space agency said. NASA monitors Earth's vital signs from land, air and space with a fleet of satellites and ambitious airborne and ground-based observation campaigns. NASA develops new ways to observe and study Earth's interconnected natural systems with long-term data records and computer analysis tools to better see how our planet is changing," it said. "The agency shares this unique knowledge with the global community and works with institutions in the United States and around the world that contribute to understanding and protecting our home planet," it said. NASA said it is scheduled to launch three new Earth science missions this year, which will contribute to water cycle research and water-related national policy decisions.

The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory, a joint satellite project with the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency scheduled for launch Thursday, February 27, will inaugurate an unprecedented international satellite constellation that will produce the first nearly global observations of rainfall and snowfall. The new information will help answer questions about our planet's life-sustaining water cycle, and improve water resource management and weather forecasting. "ISS-RapidScat, scheduled to launch to the International Space Station (ISS) in June, will extend the data record of ocean winds around the globe. The data are a key factor in climate research, weather and marine forecasting and tracking of storms and hurricanes," NASA said. The Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP), launching in November, will inform water resource management decisions on water availability. SMAP data also will aid in predictions of plant growth and agricultural productivity, improve short-term weather forecasts and long-term climate change projections, and advance our ability to monitor droughts and predict floods and mitigate their related impacts on people's lives," the space agency said.

How do I know if a website is secure

Internet security is a matter of great concern for internet users. It is important to know if a website is secure or not while surfing the internet. A secure website creates a safe connection between the website and the web browser so that entered data, such as personal information, credit card details, banking information, etc, is not accessible to unauthorized entities. When the browser opens a secured connection, "https" can be seen in the URL instead of just http. To know if a website is secure or not, look for the locked yellow colored padlock symbol on the lower right corner of the browser window.

Determine if you are on a secured page or not.

Some web sites use a secure connection between the web site and your browser. This may be important to you, for instance, if you want to pay online for a product or a service and have to enter credit card information or other personal information. To know if your browser is viewing a secure web site, you can look in the lower right part of the window. There is a small box in the frame of the window to the left of the area that describes which zone you are in (usually the Internet zone, with a globe icon). If you see a yellow padlock icon, the web site you are viewing is a "secure web site." If the box is empty, the web site does not have a secure connection with your browser. You can also have a look at the URL: if it starts with "[https://]", you are on a secured page; if the URL starts with "http://", you're not.

Google Launcher compatible with Nexus devices running KitKat Arrives On Google Play Store

While the actual launcher component is merely a stub placed on top of the Google Search/Now app, it does enable the useful ability of swiping to the left-most pane of the homescreen to access Google Now. When Nexus devices (other than the N5) were updated to Android 4.4, many users were frustrated that the feature was omitted.

Android: When the Nexus 5 first came out, there were whispers that its new launcher would arrive on all devices. While you could sideload it yourself, there wasn’t a simple option to download it from Google and get updates. Until now.

Unfortunately, the app only seems to be available for a limited number of devices right now. If you have a recent Nexus or Google Play Edition device, you’re in, but everyone else has to wait. Given that Australia hasn’t seen any official Google Play Edition devices, it’s not a very long list. Still, that’s a few more phones than were officially supported before. Hopefully, it’s only a matter of time before more devices get on the list. Hit the link to see if it happens to be available for your device.

Remember when the launcher on the Nexus 5 turned into the Google Now Launcher? We told you at the time that its appearance on the Play store as an app for everyone was likely imminent as it included a way to import settings from your old launcher.

How to Set Picture Password & Customize LockScreen in Windows 8

What is Picture password :

Picture password is a feature introduced with Windows 8 that allows you to create three different gestures on any image of your choice and use those gestures as your password. The gesture can be any combination of circles, straight lines,and taps. For example if the picture you chose was of a face your picture password could be a tap on each eye and then a circle around the mouth.

How do I enable a Windows 8 picture password ?

Customize Lockscreen in Windows 8 :

By default, the lock screen shows notifications from the Messaging, Mail, Calendar and Weather apps. But maybe you'd like to see Twitter updates or info from another app, or you'd like to change the image. You can easily customize all that.

Step: 1

Open Windows 8 Charm Bar (Windows+C) while you are on desktop and click on Settings button. You can directly open the Charm Settings using the Windows+I hot key.

Step: 2

In the Charm Bar settings, click on Change PC Settings  to open your device Metro Settings.

Step: 3

In PC Settings, open the Personalization tab  to show all the customization options. Select Lock screen here to personalize it.

Step: 4

You can easily change the default background image for the Lock screen here. Windows 8 gives you some photo suggestions to choose from. If you want to apply a personal image, click on the Browse button  to select the image from your hard disk.

Now Let us now see how we can customize the apps that are pinned to the lock screen.

When you change the lock screen background photo, you will see the option to select the apps that show on the lock screen. In here you can click on the plus button to choose a new metro app to display on the lock screen. A user can select a maximum of eight apps for the Windows 8 lock screen.

Click on Quick connect , after entering the correct credentials