A Guide to Internet Security Terms

Every Internet user should at least have a basic understanding of the terms used in regard to online security and so I have collected a few of the popular ones and put them in this article with a brief explanation of each.

Adware means “Advertising Supported Software”. It refers to placing adverts in software or distributing them along side a software download.

Bots are software applications that run automated tasks over the internet. Bots perform tasks that are both simple and structurally repetitive, at a much higher rate than would be possible for a human editor alone.

Cross-site scripting This is a method of placing malicious scripts on websites that are then “executed” inside the web browser of the person viewing the website. These scripts can be dangerous at times.

DDos stands for Distributed Denial of Service. A DDoS attack attempts to consume the target resources so that it can not provide the service. In plain English this means a website can be brought down by aiming 1,000’s of page requests a minute until the website can no longer cope and fails!

A drive-by download is a program that is involuntarily downloaded to your computer, without your permission or even your awareness. A drive-by download can be commenced by simply visiting a Web site or viewing an HTML e-mail message.

Control Startup Programs in Windows XP

Windows has an inbuilt tool which allows you to control startup programs.

1. Go to Start
2. Click on Run
3. Type msconfig
4. Press Enter

Once you have the program opened, go to the Startup tab at the top (the last tab). Here you’ll find a list of programs that are set to start with Windows. The ones that are checked are currently the ones that start with Windows. Un-tick any programs in the list you do not wish to have run when Windows boots.

If you are not sure what a program is in the list, you should probably leave it checked.

Shutdown, Restart, and Logoff Icons on Desktop

You can have shortcuts on the Desktop for shutdown, restart, logoff, standby etc.

Right-click on the Desktop and create a new shortcut by selecting New > Shortcut.

Then in the Type the location of the item box, enter shutdown.exe -s -t 00

where 00 is the delay in seconds (you can increase it). You will then be asked to select a name (call it “Shutdown”, for example).

After creating the shortcut, you can change the icon assigned to it by right-clicking on the shortcut and selecting Properties. The window that comes up next has a Change Icon option.

For a Restart shortcut, use shutdown.exe -r -t 00

For logoff shortcut, type shutdown -l -t 00

For Fast User Switching shortcut, use Rundll32.exe User32.dll, LockWorkStation

For Standby/Hibernation shortcut use Rundll32.exe PowrProf.dll, SetSuspendState

Think Different – Apple MacBook Air vs Sony TZseries

“As my colleague Dan Frakes discussed, the MacBook Air is all about tradeoffs, even if Apple doesn’t present it as such. As Dan explained, it’s just that the MacBook Air’s tradeoffs are different than those other manufacturers have chose for their subnotebooks. Basically, Apple opted to focus on thickness (or thinness), weight, performance, and screen and keyboard size in the MacBook Air.In his Macworld Expo keynote presentation, Steve Jobs used the Sony TZ series as a point of comparison in some charts showing how the MacBook Air compared to the TZ in many areas. I thought it might be interesting to take that comparison deeper, examining all of the major features of a Sony TZ-series laptop against those same features in the MacBook Pro….”

Continue reading here

Display album art on desktop with CD Art Display (freeware)

CD Art Display is a skinnable gadget that appears on your desktop and shows the CD cover of the currently playing song. It reads cover from player’s database, local folder or ID3v2 tag and can also search for covers online if they are not found locally. The software offers a slick interface with transparency and alpha shading and playback controls to pause or skip to the next track in the playlist. Other features include lyrics display, lyrics editing, cover display in tray icon and more. CD Art Display currently supports AlbumPlayer, Helium Music Manager, iTunes, Winamp, Windows Media Player, MediaMonkey and partially supports foobar2000 (with Winamp API Emulator plugin), MP3Toys, qmp and musikCube.

CD Art Display is a freeware.

Download CD Art Display here

Download skins for CD Art Display here

Watch The Steve Jobs 90-minutes keynote in 60 seconds

If you can’t find time to watch the 90-minutes Steve Jobs keynote at MacWorld, then all you have to do is to spare just one minute, for the same purpose. You can now watch the keynote in 60 seconds done by Mahalo Daily. Don’t hesitate. I assure you they have got more of it covered in 60 seconds than you can think of.