Akash (Sky) Launched On Earth In India

An Android based tablet PC for the mass student community of India has been launched named as ‘Akash’. Akash means Sky. It has been priced at USD 35 coming to approximately Rs. 1800 if put on the higher slab of dollar conversion. The aim is to enable the student community of India to get enabled to buy technology at a lower and affordable rate.

Tablet PC is something that commonly known as Tablet and technically dwindles between a full fledged computer and a smart phone. It therefore gives you ample power to play on it with technology and get conversant well before putting your hands on a PC. It also fulfills your aspirations and technology needs at a much affordable price.

India has not only proved their superiority in Technology, time and again, but also has given a wonderful gift to the children of India whose majority lies in not too rich segment. 

Microsoft Reader: ~~This Reader reads .lit eBook~~

Did you download an e-book from internet having an extension of .lit and were wondering which software to use to open it. It opens with Microsoft Reader that is downloadable free of cost from Microsoft site and many other sites like download.com etc. This is the only reader available amongst many others which has Clear Type Technology which means the characters will appear on your screen as they appear printed on a book when you read it. You can also download free Text-to-Speech ad-in from the same location if you want the book to be read by computer for you. The benefit is you can just open the book and turn on the speech, close your eyes and keep on listening to it. the voice and accent are clear enough to understand. There are some e-books available at Microsoft site that can be downloaded free of cost which are Encarta English Pocket Dictionary, English-French and French-English Dictionary, English-Italian and Italian-English Dictionary, English-German and German-English Dictionary, English-Spanish and Spanish-English Dictionary. All these files have an extension of .lit and the download by default takes them to My documents/My Library folder and beauty is the moment you download an e-book with .lit extension it automatically starts appearing in Microsoft Reader Library from where you can select the book of your choice and start reading it.

The worst part is it is a proprietary product of Microsoft, you have to register it at Microsoft for which you need to have a Microsoft Passport, while registering it asks for your details and then you can start buying e-books online from Microsoft site. The standard e-book publishers, most of them, publish their books in .lit format too, to cater people using Microsoft Reader as an e-book reading tool.

It works in all variants of Windows starting from Win95 and Pocket PC Handheld devices using Microsoft CE. Navigation feature remembers where you stopped reading book last time and bookmarks it automatically so that when you open it next time, it straight away starts from there and also you can use multicolor bookmarks and full book search feature. You can personalize any e-book in Microsoft reader by using multicolor highlighter, inserting drawing, changing font size, and adding personal notes wherever you want. It works on a low end Windows PC having as low Pentium 75 MHz microprocessor with 16 MB RAM consuming 19MB hard disk space (the Reader takes hardly 3.6MB rest is used for installation purposes), VGA 16bit display color and a mouse or any other pointing device. To install you just need to download it from the site and double click on the file downloaded, follow the instructions on the screen. Just keep on checking the Update from Microsoft site time to time if you are using Microsoft Reader eBook.

The other readers available across the internet are Adobe Reader, Hiebook, Instant ebook, Mobipocket, Gemstar/Rocket ebook, and Palm Reader. Problem is all these readers use different formats and very few support multiple formats. The main ebook formats are .pdf (Adobe Reader), .lit (Microsoft Reader ebook), .prc (Mobipocket ebook), .pdb (Palm Reader), .rb (Gemstar ebook), .kml (hiebook), .htm (HTML), .exe (Instant ebook), .doc (Microsoft Word Book) and .txt (Plain text).
Happy e-book reading.

WordWeb: ~~~Totally e-ddictive Dictionary~~~

WordWeb is quite fast, powerful, user friendly, feature-rich international English dictionary for Windows. All the versions are ad-free or any other annoying factors.
OS: It works perfectly with Win 98, XP, 2K or 2K3.
Versatility: It comes in three flavors as below–
Internet (http://www.wordwebonline.com) – no need to download and install software. If you are connected to internet, just go to this site, write the word in Search and get the meaning instantly. This is your online Dictionary. This is updated regularly. At the time of writing this review, the database was updated on 6th February that means 9 days back only. With online feature you have another benefit of finding even the latest words. If it does not get he word in its database it automatically searches in online available other Dictionary databases and shows you the results.
Free Downloadable Version: 10.9MB to be precise when it is installed on your system, and to install you need to download around 9MB of stuff from http://www.wordweb.info. You don’t need to be online to use it. The Free Version is called “free cut-down version of Wordweb Pro software”.
Wordweb Pro Doctionary for which the cost of base product is $19 if you want to download from the site http://www.wordweb.info else $34 if you want a CD delivered at your place. The download file size is 20MB. With Wordweb Pro you have certain add-on features for an add-on cost. The current version available is Wordweb Pro 5. you don’t need to be online to use it.
I use the free version downloaded and installed on my laptop. It is really very handy and useful to me. The salient features of Free Version are:Language Options: you can select from American, International, British, Australian, Canadian and Asian English. The spellings and words will reflect according the option you select.
Ease and Compatibility: it supports Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat as well. Suppose you are in a Word Doc and encounter a difficult word for which you need to find the meaning, just select this word, click on Wordweb Dictionary Icon in you System Tray and Wordweb pops up with the details of that word. When you are in any other product of Microsoft e.g. Excel or Powerpoint etc. you can use the hot key “Ctrl+Alt+W” after selecting the word you want to search. In internet explorer you just highlight the word, right click and select Wordweb, it pops up. And the best thing is you can change the hot key as per your ease by going into options. After you get the results, say 10 meanings for a word, you can select one and click on Replace to replace it in your Doc with the selected one.
Words & Synonyms: There are 150000 words and 120000 synonyms in the free version. For the same word you can see its usage in different parts of speech as Noun, Verb, Adjective and Adverb by selecting the desired choice. There is a button on main window for X-ref which means that if you have other dictionaries installed on your system, it will attempt to find them out and get the meanings out of their database. It shows you pronunciations, related words, usage examples, nearest words, synonyms, type of, type, part, parts of, see also. Let me illustrate it with an example – when I searched for a word “lexicon” it gave me 2 meanings (1. A language user's knowledge of words, and 2. A reference book containing an alphabetical list of words with information about them) , more than 100 nearest words (right from Lenten rose to lile), 3 synonyms (as dictionary, mental lexicon and vocabulary), Parts (showed 6 as citation form, dictionary entry, entry word, headword, lexical entry and main entry word), Type of (9 choices as book of facts, cognition, knowledge, noesis, psychological feature, reference, reference book, reference work and wordbook), Types (17 choices as bilingual dictionary, collegiate dictionary, desk dictionary, etymological dictionary, gazetteer, learner’s dictionary, little dictionary, O.E.D., OED, Oxford English dictionary, pocket dictionary, school dictionary, spellcheck, spell-checker, spelling checker, unabridged, unabridged dictionary), Parts of (2 – language, speech), See Also (lexical). It has an option of Option to hide (default) or flag vulgar and offensive related words
Connect to Wordweb Online: If you are not satisfied with the result produced by the offline free dictionary, you can go to online Wordweb with a click of a button (in help click on Wordweb online) and get more, but it never happened in my case, whatever words I searched I found the desirable result in my offline database.
Add-on features of Webword Pro: Wordweb Pro contains all the features mentioned above plus the following ones:
Tab pages to quickly check web references
Bookmark words
Highlights commonly used widely-understood words
Find words matching a pattern
Edit and add to the database
Solve and find anagrams
Search for words in a large number of optional extra word lists
Add your own custom glossaries
Reverse definition (full text) search
Cross-links words that sound the same (homonyms)
Word pattern finding using a wild card like CR?SH will get you CRUSH and CRASH, *GRY will get you angry and hungry
Anagrams: enter a word and you can get all straight and multiple word anagrams, e.g. protest finds potters, spotter, to strep, pert sot, etc. you can give a word and check how many words can be made using the letters in that word.

And you have an option of reporting an error online by clicking on the option in help.
Wordweb is really trendy, sleek, elegant, easy to use and friendly. My comfort level is 5/5

Windows Vista: ~~~Ready~~Steady~~Go~~~

Literal Meaning of Vista: 1 A view, a prospect, esp. one seen through an avenue of trees or other long narrow opening. 2 A long narrow opening, esp. one created deliberately in a wood etc., through which a view may be obtained, or in itself affording a pleasant prospect; an avenue, a glade. 3 An open corridor or long passage in or through a large building; an interior portion of a building affording a continuous view. 4 A broad prospect or vision presented to the imagination; a mental view, in prospect or retrospect, of an extensive period of time or series of events, experiences, etc. 5 vista-dome US a high glass-sided railway carriage enabling passengers to look at the view from above the normal level of the train.
I wonder what literal meaning Bill Gates assumed while naming it Vista
Vista System Requirements: For an expected life time of 3 year the minimum requirements of hardware are quite high. Almost 95% of us will be required to scrap off our current desktop and replace with a newer model or upgrade the existing computer. Minimum hardware requirements would be 2GHz or above CPU, 1GB or above RAM, 80GB or above hard disk (MS recommends Serial ATA drives which are further costlier than the regular ones) out of which around 10-15GB will be eaten up by Vista depending upon which version of Vista is taken. There are 4 flavors available. DVD is a must. 2GB of shared VRAM or 1GB separate Graphics Card is required, and even all graphic cards will not work, you have to ensure that it has to be supporting fast dual-channel memory. DirectX9 will do but preferred is Directx10.
Ready to use features: there is a dashboard to support all your main mobile issues be it Mobile PC, battery level (if it is on a Lappy), wireless network connectivity, handheld syncs, external displays (TV, LCD, Plasma etc.). Power Control is marvelous, when you close the notebook cover, it goes to Sleep mode or full Hibernate mode depending on your settings. There is a new concept of ReadyBoost which means that you can hook a pen drive (or thumb drive) and use it as additional RAM instead of using it as a routine storage device. When you plug-in your thumb drive in the system, in options instead of choosing ‘Open folder to view files’ you click on ‘Speed up my system’ and wow! You instantly get an additional RAM for your system. The simple ratio is 1:1, that means if you are having 1GB RAM, you must plug-in 1GB thumb drive. This will definitely boost up your applications seeking more space (especially multimedia). There is a Network Projector wizard which can access a projector on Local Area Network (wired or wireless). Sync Centre is there to sync in with your any handheld devices.
A rework for Spammers and Phishers: These guys are having a tough time. Vista not only controls all existing spamware, malicious worms but also phising stuff to force through it! So now these buggers have to rewrite and recompose their codes to beat up Vista. And this is actually not difficult for them to intrude and threaten Vista too as a whole lot of community is dedicated to this task to write “Vista complaint Malware” and they are already on the job.
Bill Gates, Vista and Security: Like last year this year too (rather 3rd year in the row) Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft Corporation is the keynote speaker at this week's RSA security conference in San Francisco (this year another keynote speaker is Oracle Chief), and will definitely announce what Microsoft is going to pull out of the bag in 2007 and years ahead. Last year in his opening speech, Gates told the RSA conference that “Microsoft would continue to offer leadership to the IT industry on security and promised that Vista would be strongly secure, stating: “security is the area that jumps out as the thing we have spent the most time on”. Microsoft’s new Vista operating system uses encryption technology extensively, mainly for managing digital rights, with BitLocker and Trusted Computing Module chip that is now being built into most PC motherboards. BitLocker mobile security technology control user access, removes malicious codes and locks down the devices when they are lost or stolen.
Vista and 3rd Party Security Software Vendors: Infact the security features in Vista have started threatening third party security vendors are shaken with its strong features and are clear that their monopoly is in danger (Mcaffee, Norton et al). Ofcourse MS knows that till now security was its biggest weakness and hence started focusing on it since last 5 years almost (with a separate huge security department and spending plenty of bucks on R&D) and above all what is the harm in capturing the market that was so far under the control of 3rd parties. Actually it was in January 2002, when Bill Gates issued an internal memo in the organization for a thrust to this initiative after a strong criticism from almost all corners of the world about the lack of security in MS products. That is the reason that Longhorn (Vista’s earlier name) project was halted in between and its release was postponed time and again. It is assumed that within next 3 years Microsoft, Symantec an McAfee will have an equal market share in security which means either the small companies will either merge or will shut off.
OneCare: This is the service from Microsoft started recently by MS that provides Vista customers with all of the usual anti-malware, antivirus, anti-spyware, antispam and firewall functionality and that too with no additional charges. It is bundled with Vista. This move will definitely force major security players to cut-off the prices of their products if they really want to stay in the international market.

Choosing a Computer Coaching Class: Run-Run@where-everyone-Runs

Is it difficult today to survive without knowing computers or is it just hype? If you can survive without knowing computers then look at your peers knowledge in computers. And if you know you can’t survive without knowing about computers then do you have clarity in mind what extent of knowledge is necessary for you to excel in your professional / personal life by acquiring this knowledge. what ever I mentioned above is totally vague, any one can argue – what do I mean by saying “knowledge of computer”? Am I talking about hardware or software and in case of any of these – up to what level? So let us understand some basic fundamentals of the game.

Do I understand what computer is Have a deep introspection what exactly the technology is and where all it fits in my aims of life. Now, at this point of time when the technology has rooted so deep in all aspects of life be it any ticket reservation, ticket status check, exams status, universities prospectus and course details, seats availability in universities, bills alerts and payments, online banking, online purchasing etc. etc. etc., then you can’t afford to keep yourself away from computers.

It has become part and parcel of daily life of almost every individual in one way or the other. But the point is at what stage of life I am in to understand how much I need to know. If you are a school student and also a computer geek (like our modernmukul) probably knowing all above will just be 1% of his total knowledge in computers. In that case the aim should be PhD or Masters in IT from Oxford, Ohio, any prestigious college/university of repute (including our IITs). And the best combination will be an add on of a MBA degree from an equally prestigious college of repute. If you are a Bank Manager, you still cannot do away without touching a computer.

A thorough knowledge of your business application and some spreadsheet applications would be a great asset to your job. Escaping away from this and depending upon your subordinates will be a big drawback. If you are a medical practitioner, knowledge of simple database and an application will boost your business if you maintain your patients’ records in your database and design report as per your requirements. Similarly if you are a designer, a thorough knowledge of some good design softwares will help you in scaling new heights in business which you can not get by depending upon your skilled manpower.

Do I have the flair Understanding the depth of urge of acquiring knowledge and its need is very important. If I am good at geography that does not mean I will be equally good in mathematics also. But if I am thrown in a pond and I have no other choice of survival, I have to learn swimming to keep me alive. Same thing happens here. Everyone knows about his/her capacity to understand a particular stream and the zeal with which he/she acquires it will depend on the fire in the belly.

Map your demand vs. supply How much do I need to learn as this area (or for that sake any subject) is an ocean. What and where to hit is very important. One of my friend working in accounts department as finance officer few years back just joined a computer course without knowing what exactly would be useful for his career. This computer was for a developer course meant for software professionals. He learnt development of packages in visual basic, java and pearl but could never use it as it was not matching with his job profile. Then he had two options whether to leave his accounts 7 years career and start from zero as a software professional else use this technology learnt in accounts. He could afford to do neither of the two. For earlier option, his career and growth was at stake and for second there was no opportunity for him as he was already at a responsible position in accounts in his company. He made a blunder by wasting a huge time and money in learning what he could not utilize anywhere and over a period of years he forgot all.

Find out if what you think as best Pathshaala is actually best Don’t go by the ad gimmicks in the media. Go into the depth to find out the correct institute with perfect faculty and with good rate of placements at good companies. Always consult the ex-students of that institute to understand before you decide to join one. Prefer not to pay the full amount in the beginning because later even if the institute turns out to be a bluff, it is next to impossible to get money back.

E-Books Vs. Paper Books

What is happening e-books/magazines or multimedia books/magazines are getting popular and popular can be drawn out of a simple fact that the worldwide magazines/books sites are: 
1. getting their websites in place if they are not present on internet 
2. providing excerpts / complete books / magazines readable over internet or downloadable to read it with the special tools they provide on their sites called e-book reader. 
3. you find newspapers, news channels, books selling sites (eBay), magazine sites over internet and get the contents faster. You open any magazine today published anywhere in the world or if you see the advertisement about a new book / latest edition of a magazine you will find its website address alongwith. And most of these sites offer you to download their own proprietary tools to read those downloaded books or otherwise a provision to read it over the internet.

Why e-book and book
1. printed version (hard copy) is always costlier and takes longer time to reach to you than the multimedia version available over the internet on their respective website. 
2. excerpts of any new book can be found easily over the internet and hence you can decide whether to buy or not. The moment you pay for a e-version over the internet via e-payments, lo! You are ready to download it on the spot. No waiting, no missing copies. 
3. battle is being over won by the e-version faster because of the cost factor, faster availability, more enjoyable experience, and your satisfaction of connecting with the latest technology. 
4. multimedia version is better as it provides far more than texts and pictures by providing animation, video, music, speech and hyperlinks for contacting them there and then only. 
5. most of these sites have to options for their readers – subscription offer or membership offer. In subscription offer you can subscribe for one of the publication of that company whereas with a one time membership you can browse through or download all their publications. 
6. this way these companies carry out an online survey like how many persons logged in, what contents they spent most of their time. It helps them in arriving at faster conclusions of improving the contents by reading the behavior of the readers online. 
7. advertisements have wider chances of hits online and they can be programmed in such a manner that they appear depending on the location/sex/preference/likings of the reader. Each reader reading the same book/magazine will have different set of advertisements. Moreover you have interactive ads which means you can reach to them instantly by clicking on their phone no., website, email. 
8. readership breaks all demographic barriers. A book published over internet can find its readers anywhere in the world. 
9. I badly wanted a last month copy of my newspaper but unfortunately I had sold all my “raddi” last week only. asked few of my friends about it – one was not taking that paper, second had also sold off, third one could locate it but did not find the page I wanted, fourth, fifth… and so on, and then clicked an idea, logged on the website of that newspaper, browsed through old issues, clicked on that date, and found the complete newspaper in front of me, and no pages missing!! 
10. a strike in the city can stop newspaper / magazine coming to you but can’t stop e-paper coming to you via internet. 
11. in my office internet is available on all desks, our librarian has downloaded the e-version of mostly required books (one copy each) and even a single  popular book is available to multiple readers at the same time.

why book and not e-book
1. I am fed up sitting in front of my laptop and would prefer to sit on my sofa comfortably and read the printed version 
2. I am traveling in a 10 hours flight and have the e-version of the book in my laptop but then I have to take extra batteries to carry on my reading during my travel else I just have to pick the hard version. 
3. my office has the facility mentioned above (no. 11) but then many of the people want to take the book home and read it in a traditional manner. So librarian has to buy hard copies too of the popular books in demand so as to satisfy them.

A message to all those who have not tasted it if you have not read an e-book, go to any search engine, read an e-book, taste the thunder, build up your opinion on it and do share it.

Don't Get Trapped in this Phishing Net....

Some Light on Phishing so that you don't get trapped Phishing is a hot terminology over the net users these days. Infact, it is a point of major concern for internet users. Every now and then you will find a mail in your mailbox from a valid ID of your mail services (Hotmail, Yahoo … etc.) or your bank (Citibank… etc.) telling you about the changes in your account as requested or the request for verification for your account by confirming your password, Internet pin number etc. 


This all will appear very genuine and original to you. It is more like a fake note printed & designed so cleverly (and perfectly ofcourse) that you will never doubt that it is not original. Don’t get trapped in this, as this is all fake, dubious and forged. I get a mail frequently from my bank that to avoid frauds over the internet they are verifying the passwords on their site to confirm user’s identity. 


Similarly time to time I get an email from Yahoo that my request for change of password, and I must verify it within next 24 hours to validate it else it will get suspended. In both the cases I get a genuine a hyperlink mentioning the address of Citibank / Yahoo on which I am supposed to click so as to reach to their site and validate myself. Now the moment you click on the link, you reach to the same looking home page looking as original as my bank / or mail service provider site. I am supposed to enter my I-Pin / password to confirm that I am the actual account holder, and the moment I enter the requested details I have opened the door for a disaster. 


The catch is the address on the top which will be not the same as I would have thought of. But then who cares to look at the address when the home page is totally as good as the original or genuine one. For example the link in my mail will tell me to click on the address http://www.citibank.co.in/verify_user/ and when I click on it, it will open a new browser with the same original contents but the address on the top will be something different (may look as the one on which I clicked in first instance) like http://www.citibnk.co.in/verify_user or http://www.citibank.cc/verify_user. What should I do Well, being an IT guy, I was careful enough, but there are innumerous users who got trapped by providing the requested information and then had fraudulent impact on their accounts. 


Your all important mails will be accessible, your bank account is accessible, and imagine the things will be known to you only after they have happened successfully by the person you never know or will ever come to know. What is it?You are the fish and somebody doing it has put the bait in the pond of internet. The moment you bite the bate, your identity is stolen and you have invited all kind of hassles and problems. What exactly happens? The phisher will create email that looks as an official email from your bank or email service provider (or from any other important site where you have an account and any kind of commercial fraud or defamation can occur). 


This email will ask you to visit their site through the link they provide which again will look official and accurate. And when you click on that you are told to enter all your personal information for verification purposes. You just have handed over you’re the desired information to a Thief. Catch here is that no business will ask or should ask for your private information via email or internet. Another catch is the link they ask you to click on. It will look as if it links you to your bank but will go entirely to some other place. 


Third catch is if you keep your mouse over the link, you will see the exact place where it is directing to you in the popup text (or in the browser’s status line at the bottom when you have clicked on it and that browser has opened). Be careful to check that the actual destination should match (alphabet by alphabet) what you are expecting. Take care that the actual destination should be a proper name and not an IP address like http://66.55.133.9. Moreover this link should always direct you to a secure site (https and not http). Only avoiding way is never to click on the link. Still if you want to give it a try, type the complete address stated in your mail with your hands and you will find no information is being asked there. Or straightaway call your bank to inquire if they are the sender of this mail. thanks Ĵẫїďẻếþ ©