RSS is a Win-win Technology

Posted on 03. Sep, 2010 by admin in RSS

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) refers to a group of formats used for automatic content distribution via the Internet. An RSS web feed is a summary of web content from a source that is updated regularly. When you see news or sports tickers on a web site, most likely what you are seeing is some form of an RSS web feed.

Web site owners publish a feed, also known as syndicating content, to make content available from a updated source such as the articles, blog, audio or video on their website. Other web site owners who wish to display this content on their web site can simply perform a search for a targeted RSS feeds, get the web address of the feed and then format it for display on their site.

Normally, the web feed is condensed for display on another web site. At a minimum, each item in the feed displays as a headline, a description and a link to the web page where the entire article, blog post or other content resides. It can also be formatted to include the source, date and time the content was originally published. This way, a web site owner displaying RSS web feeds from external sources on their site can make several items from one source, or a collection from many different sources, available for their web site visitors.

Advantages of Publishing a Feed

Web site owners who publish a web feed of their articles, blog or other content can draw visitors to their web site through the link displayed in the feed. These links are helpful in search engine marketing due to the importance of incoming links. As their web feeds are picked up and used as content on other web sites they become a trusted source of information.

Advantages of Using an RSS Web Feed on Your Web Site

Web site owners are able to add valuable content to their site that their visitors find fast and easy to access while being fresh and relevant. They find your web page content new on every visit and will be likely to return more often. Once formatted for use, web feeds are automatically updated, requiring no further effort on behalf of the site owner.

RSS web feeds are often highly targeted to a particular niche or theme and allow you to optimize your own site for keyphrases you wish to rank highly for.

For search engine marketing efforts, web feeds show spiders continually updated content and links to trusted sources of information on your web site. This results in the search engine spidering your site more often looking for new content. Any new web pages you add to your site will be indexed more quickly by the search engines.

RSS is a win-win for both web sites and the people who visit them. Publishers gain incoming links and wide-reaching exposure for their web site. Web sites that use feeds enhance their web site’s relevance and popularity with original content that keeps visitors returning, with no effort on their part. Web site visitors find information targeted to their interests more easily and quickly than searching through several web sites to find it themselves.

Wilson Tennis Racquets: History and the Technology Today

Posted on 17. Jul, 2010 by admin in Tennis

Wilson Sporting Goods Company truly began when Jack Kramer, also known as the Father of Modern Tennis, joined the advisory staff. Kramer was truly the first world class professional tennis player. He was the number one tennis player for a number of years in the 1940 and also a promoter of the professional tennis tour. One of the first alliances between a professional tennis player and a tennis manufacturer yielded the Kramer Autograph Racquet in 1949 and this racquet ultimately brought Wilson to the forefront of the industry.

The tennis racquet itself was beautifully and carefully designed using the most modern technology and the highest quality materials. Nowadays, high quality tennis racquets associated with the professional tour players are somewhat commonplace, but this relationship and this leap forward in tennis racquet technology were truly revolutionary in their time.

In today’s market, Wilson tennis rackets are associated with incredible professional tennis players including Roger Federer, Venus and Serena Williams and Jarkko Nieminen. While Nieminen and Federer’s choice is among the well reviewed, high powered nSix-One series, the William’s sisters both have signature racquets from the Wilson W racquet series for women.

Roger Federer uses the Wilson nSix-One 90, well known for its strength and stability against for stroke power and for defensive maneuvers against hard hitting opponents across the court. Additionally, the nSix One series makes use of nano-technology yielding a 20 % stronger and more powerful frame. In traditional carbon fiber tennis racquets, spaces between the fibers may lead to weakness or warping with constant hard use, while racquets that use nano technology fill in the spaces between the fibers making the tennis racquet signifigantly more resilient.

Jarkko Nieminen and Novak Djokovic use the nSix-One 95, from the same family is the nSix-One 90, but with different strengths. This racquet is designed to be well suited to more of an all-court style of play offering a strong frame, combined with stability and power. The nSix-One 95 has a traditional head light balance and a silicone construction with the added strength and resiliency offered by nano technology. This racquet also has specific play strengths, suited to a player who likes to execute a heavy slice on serve or off the ground. The tighter stringbed makes all the difference giving more control and a firmer feel.

The W line was developed specifically for women, but makes use of all of the nCode technology. Venus Williams, for instance, uses the W5 Divine Iris, which is relatively new to the market, debuting in July of 2006. The racquet truly combines the artistry that is signature Venus, with the power and technology of Wilson and nCode technology. The W5 Divine Iris is specifically known for top level stability, strength and power and is suitable for all levels of play and on most court surfaces.

Serena Williams also plays with a Wilson W racquet, the new W3 Gypsy Rose. The racquet is designed again, to be appropriate for varied players and surfaces, made with a silicone-and-carbon construction and chic, colorful design, this is the kind of racquet that can help you play to a higher level and look good doing it.

One of the best features of the W Line is the implementation of Wilson Triad technology which is focused on vibration reduction in racquets known for hard hitting power. They make for a more comfortable, tough hitting game. Specifically, the Triad technology related to the three separate pieces of the racquet affected by the implementation of the technology – the head, the handle and finally a thin layer of “Iso-Zorb”, which is similar to a shoe insole substantially reducing vibration from the head and neck of the racquet, by upwards of 60 percent.

As you can see, Wilson racquets have come a long way since Jack Kramer advised them on their ground breaking Kramer Autograph tennis racquet. Wilson remains a cutting edge manufacturer of high quality tennis equipment and racquets.

Basic Types and Requirements for Web Designing: Given by Pseudo Technology

Posted on 01. Jul, 2010 by admin in Web Design

Web site design crosses multiple disciplines of information systems, information technology and communication design. The web site is an information system whose components are sometimes classified as front-end and back-end. The observable content (e.g. page layout, user interface, graphics, text and audio) is known as the front-end. The back-end comprises the organization and efficiency of the source code, invisible scripted functions, and the server-side components that process the output from the front-end. Depending on the size of a Web development project, it may be carried out by a multi-skilled individual (sometimes called a web master), or a project manager may oversee collaborative design between group members with specialized skills.

Multidisciplinary requirements:

Issues: As in collaborative designs, there are conflicts between differing goals and methods of web site designs. These are a few of the ongoing ones.

1. Lack of collaboration in designIn the early stages of the web, there wasn’t as much collaboration between web designing and larger advertising campaigns, customer transactions, social networking, intranets and extranets as there is now. Web pages were mainly static online brochures disconnected from the larger projects. Many web pages are still disconnected from larger projects. Special design considerations are necessary for use within these larger projects. These design considerations are often overlooked, especially in cases where there is a lack of leadership, lack of understanding of why and technical knowledge of how to integrate, or lack of concern for the larger project in order to facilitate collaboration. This often results in unhealthy competition or compromise between departments, and less than optimal use of web pages.

2. Liquid versus fixed layoutsOn the web the designer has no control over several factors, including the size of the browser window, the web browser used, the input devices used (mouse, touch screen, voice command, text, cell phone number pad, etc.) and the size and characteristics of available fonts. Some designers choose to control the appearance of the elements on the screen by using specific width designations. This control may be achieved through the use of a HTML table-based design or a more semantic div-based design through the use of CSS. Whenever the text, images, and layout of a design do not change as the browser changes, this is referred to as a fixed width design. Proponents of fixed width design prefer precise control over the layout of a site and the precision placement of objects on the page. Other designers choose a liquid design. A liquid design is one where the web designing moves to flow content into the whole screen, or a portion of the screen, no matter what the size of the browser window. Proponents of liquid design prefe greater compatibility and using the screen space available. Liquid design can be achieved through the use of CSS, by avoiding styling the page altogether, or by using HTML tables (or more semantic divs) set to a percentage of the page. Both liquid and fixed design developers must make decisions about how the design should degrade on higher and lower screen resolutions. Sometimes the pragmatic choice is made to flow the web designing between a minimum and a maximum width. This allows the designer to avoid coding for the browser choices making up The Long Tail, while still using all available screen space. Depending on the purpose of the content, a web designer may decide to use either fixed or liquid layouts on a case-by-case basis. Similar to liquid layout is the optional fit to window feature with Adobe Flash content. This is a fixed layout that optimally scales the content of the page without changing the arrangement or text wrapping when the browser is resized.

3. Flash.Adobe Flash (formerly Macromedia Flash) is a proprietary, robust graphics animation or application development program used to create and deliver dynamic content, media (such as sound and video), and interactive applications over the web via the browser. Adobe Flash is today widely used in Web Designing. Flash is not a standard produced by a vendor-neutral standards organization like most of the core protocols and formats on the Internet. Flash is much more restrictive than the open HTML format, though, requiring a proprietary plug-in to be seen, and it does not integrate with most web browser UI features like the “Back” button.According to a study, [1] 98% of US Web users have the Flash Player installed. [2] Numbers vary depending on the detection scheme and research demographics. [3] Many graphic artists use Flash because it gives them exact control over every part of the design, and anything can be animated and generally “jazzed up”. Some application designers enjoy Flash because it lets them create applications that do not have to be refreshed or go to a new web page every time an action occurs.

Basic Layout and Requirements for Web Designing: by Pseudo Technology

Posted on 29. Jun, 2010 by admin in Web Design

CSS versus tables for layout:

When Netscape Navigator 4 dominated the browser market, the popular solution available for designers to lay out a Web page was by using tables. Often even simple web designing for a page would require dozens of tables nested in each other. Many web templates in Dreamweaver and other WYSIWYG editors still use this technique today. Navigator 4 didn’t support CSS to a useful degree, so it simply wasn’t used. After the browser wars subsided, and the dominant browsers such as Internet Explorer became more W3C compliant, designers started turning toward CSS as an alternate means of laying out their pages. CSS proponents say that tables should be used only for tabular data, not for layout. Using CSS instead of tables also returns HTML to a semantic markup, which helps bots and search engines understand what’s going on in a web page. All modern Web browsers support CSS with different degrees of limitations. However, one of the main points against CSS is that by relying on it exclusively, control is essentially relinquished as each browser has its own quirks which result in a slightly different page display. This is especially a problem as not every browser supports the same subset of CSS rules. For designers who are used to table-based layouts, developing Web sites in CSS often becomes a matter of trying to replicate what can be done with tables, leading some to find CSS design rather cumbersome due to lack of familiarity. For example, at one time it was rather difficult to produce certain design elements, such as vertical positioning, and full-length footers in a web designing using absolute positions. With the abundance of CSS resources available online today, though, web designing with reasonable adherence to ,;;’ standards involves little more than applying CSS 2.1 or CSS 3 to properly structured markup. These days most modern browsers have solved most of these quirks in CSS rendering and this has made many different CSS layouts possible. However, some people continue to use old browsers, and designers need to keep this in mind, and allow for graceful degrading of pages in older browsers. Most notable among these old browsers are Internet Explorer 5 and 5.5, which, according to some web designers, are becoming the new Netscape Navigator 4 – a block that holds the World Wide Web back from converting to CSS design. However, the W3 Consortium has made CSS in combination with XHTML the standard for web designing.

Form versus Function:

Some web developers have a graphic arts background and may pay more attention to how a page looks than considering other issues such as how visitors are going to find the page via a search engine. Some might rely more on advertising than search engines to attract visitors to the site. On the other side of the issue, search engine optimization consultants (SEOs) are concerned with how well a web site works technically and textually: how much traffic it generates via search engines, and how many sales it makes, assuming looks don’t contribute to the sales. As a result, the designers and SEOs often end up in disputes where the designer wants more ‘pretty’ graphics, and the SEO wants lots of ‘ugly’ keyword-rich text, bullet lists, and text links. One could argue that this is a false dichotomy due to the possibility that a web designing may integrate the two disciplines for a collaborative and synergistic solution. Because some graphics serve communication purposes in addition to aesthetics, how well a site works may depend on the graphic designer’s visual communication ideas as well as the SEO considerations. Another problem when using a lot of graphics on a page is that download times can be greatly lengthened, often irritating the user. This has become less of a problem as the internet has evolved with high-speed internet and the use of vector graphics. This is an engineering challenge to increase bandwidth in addition to an artistic challenge to minimize graphics and graphic file sizes. This is an on-going challenge as increased bandwidth invites increased amounts of content.

Accessible Web design:

Main article:

Web accessibilityTo be accessible, web pages and sites must conform to certain accessibility principles. These can be grouped into the following main areas:use semantic markup that provides a meaningful structure to the document (i.e. web page)Semantic markup also refers to semantically organizing the web page structure and publishing web services description accordingly so that they can be recognized by other web services on different web pages. Standards for semantic web are set by IEEE-use a valid markup language that conforms to a published DTD or Schema-provide text equivalents for any non-text components (e.g. images, multimedia)-use hyperlinks that make sense when read out of context. (e.g. avoid “Click Here.”)-don’t use frames-use CSS rather than HTML Tables for layout.-author the page so that when the source code is read line-by-line by user agents (such as a screen readers) it remains intelligible. (Using tables for web designing will often result in information that is not.)However, W3C permits an exception where tables for layout either make sense when linearized or an alternate version (perhaps linearized) is made available.Website accessibility is also changing as it is impacted by Content Management Systems that allow changes to be made to webpages without the need of obtaining programming language knowledge.

Desktop Video Conferencing Consumer Version Technology Such As VOIP

Posted on 22. Apr, 2010 by admin in Video Conferencing

Desktop video conferencing is the consumer version of the “picturephone” services used by large corporations. If the analysts are correct, desktop videoconferencing is set to take off. Technology such as VOIP can be used in conjunction with desktop videoconferencing to enable face-to-face business meetings without leaving the desktop. Desktop PC videoconferencing promises to make this a reality, although it remains to be seen whether there is widespread enthusiasm for video calling. We have everything you need for audio, video and desktop conferencing. We expect that the roll-out of desktop conferencing kit shouldn’t take anywhere near as long as that.

The vastly improved technologies, in particular high-quality desktop options, and the productivity and cost benefits make an overwhelmingly powerful case for flexible conferencing. As broadband connections increase, expect to see desktop videoconferencing blossom. As a result, desktop conferencing is not yet widely implemented for business and educational use. You can meet face-to-face with colleagues and clients using desktop video conferencing and real-time audio conferencing. Room-based vs desktop conferencing Video conferencing uses telecommunications of audio and video to bring people at different sites together for a meeting. Desktop video conferencing is a form of communication and as such it utilizes one of the communication field’s favorite words: bandwidth. The quality of the service provided by desktop video conferencing is limited by the amount of bandwidth available in the chosen communications channel.

Audio Conferencing is generally used to hold group meetings or live presentations through audio channels. It’s a kind of video as well as audio conferencing, in which both the people can view as well as hear each other. Audio ConferencingAudio Conferencing can help improve efficiencies across all departments, whether that means planning budgets, making company-wide announcements, or holding training sessions. VITA’s data conferencing can be combined with a wide range of audioconferencing options including toll-free calling and conference recording.

Welcome to the future of audio, video and web conferencing. provides premium audio conferencing, web conferencing and webinar solutions to small and mid-sized businesses and the world’s leading enterprises. TotalView combines audio conferencing, videoconferencing, and data collaboration in one compact and affordable center-of-the-table device. The DM64x family is capable of simultaneously handling both audio and video encode/decode for IP based video conferencing applications. Buy video conferencing equipment that can include text and audio conferencing options for your home or office today. The high-quality, life-like video and crisp, clear audio guarantee that meeting participants are experiencing the best videoconferencing quality available. TEN Audio Visual is an independent and impartial e-communications supplier of audio visual, video conferencing and audio conferencing facilities.

The main video conferencing system is located on the second floor in room 2-52. recently announced QuickTime Conferencing, a system extension to the Macintosh operating system, and a new component building upon the original QuickTime architectural framework. Imagine a video conferencing system that is battery-powered, wireless and network-enabled. If all access to your conferencing system will be made via the Web, then compatibility with other environments is not an issue. A conferencing system is Web-based if it uses Web browsers and servers to provide most of its functionality. Operating system platform might also be a key determining factor, especially if circumstances require you to run conferencing from an existing Web server. Select a webconferencing system that support application broadcasting, and you can show the application directly from your computer.

Spend no more than two minutes to introduce your event and cover the features of your webconferencing system. “A hacker could very easily take administrative control over the entire conferencing system. Caucus is a web conferencing system that can be used for both public and private discussions. But there is more to a conferencing system than any particular structure. MOREnet e-Conferencing users should seek system setup technical assistance from their local technical personnel or Event Manager. PicoSpan, a Confer-like conferencing system, which was originally meant to be light-weight version of MicroSpan.

http://www.conference-teleconferencing.info/conferencing/

Samsung Mobile Phones: Style With Newborn Technology

Posted on 22. Mar, 2010 by admin in Mobile Phones

Mobile phones, the well-known name in the age of information technology. Every one wants to have a mobile phone. Imagination of the telecommunication is not possible without mobile phone. Mobile phones have changed the method of telecommunication. Landline phones are used for communication but mobile phones are used for various purposes. You have various options such as internet, downloading, message, entertainment, media player, and many other options. But users want a mobile phone that should be attractive and full of newborn technologies. Samsung is the right name for all the newborn technologies and style. Samsung mobile phones are becoming more and more famous among the users. Samsung, the South Korean Electronic giant has manufactured various mobile phones series. All the mobile series of Samsung are slim, attractive, and full of newborn technologies.

U-Series is the most demanding mobile series among the users. The experts of the Samsung have churned out all the latest and newborn technologies in this series. From High megapixel camera to video clipping options up to 3 hours, high network connectivity to Data process (GPRS, 3G, and Bluetooth), internet (Browsing, WAP 2.0/xHTML/HTML) to downloading(Memory Up to 2GB) and entertainment( Games) to media player( MP3/MP4/AAC/AAC+/MPEG4/FM Radio) are the key features of the Samsung mobile phones. You can mail your friends and employees easily with fast processing. If you want to write long messages or instant message, Samsung mobile phones are the best option for you. Samsung mobile phones are in different display or screen format like Touch screen, TFT screen. The screen of Samsung mobile phones is useful for view the captured video clipping and photographs. The entire screens have 62k to 256k colours. The camera option (upto 5-megapixel camera) is loaded with digital zoom and flash. You can capture the photographs in the dark too.

Many Samsung mobile phones have secondary video camera, when a person will call you the photo of the person will appear on the screen. Samsung mobile phones are the best source of entertainment and music. All the music features are available in the Samsung mobile phones. Samsung Mobile Phones have a powerful capacity, with the help of the memory you can store your important files and data. The advantage of the memory is that you can download the music files and favorite songs from the CD, PC or net. The memory of Samsung mobile phones can be increased because microSD (TransFlash) card Slot. All the mobile phones of Samsung are in slim and attractive look. The weights of all the Samsung mobile phones are not high. It has manufactured the slimmest and lightest mobile phones.

Is Cloud Gaming Technology Taking Over the Online Gaming World

Posted on 18. Mar, 2010 by admin in Games

Cloud is a form of computing technology that is used for video games. Onlive is a games on demand service that specializes in those games that use Cloud technology.

This technology allows you to play any of the games associated with it on television or on your computer. Players no longer have to spend money every time they need a new gaming card for their games console as this technology means that people can play these games without having to use an expensive games console.

Cloud gaming has a large following and there are forums and news sites that are dedicated to this technology and provide players with the latest information on new games. Players can now play games like the popular Crysis on both low definition and high end televisions and computers. With Cloud technology the games are located on a large external server.

The server then sends out sounds and clips of the latest games over the internet so that those people who want to play the games can pick them up. Because the games are processed at lightening speed over the internet you can be playing a game that may only just have been advertised a couple of minutes previously.

Lovers of Cloud technology use the gaming forums to talk about the latest games and the best techniques for playing them. Players can access the latest games once they have activated the browser plug-in and downloaded the free software which is a lot less than you would pay for any of the games consoles on sale..

Players can access the service over the internet using only their Broadband connection, which means that this technology has actually revolutionized the way computer games are played. You don’t have to purchase the game immediately because you can access a demo of most of the games, which means that players only actually buy the games that they are really interested in. When you play games this way it means that you can interact with other players in real time.

Cloud technology harnesses the power of the internet for gaming; because this technology is so powerful games are far less likely to crash than they are when you use an expensive games console.

Games consoles can be restrictive when it comes to the kind of games that you can access, Cloud technology has brought an end to that because the technology supports all kinds of computer and video games. As more people play games over the internet instead of on a games console there is now a rapidly growing online games community.

The interface of this technology is easy to navigate, from the welcome screen to the games arena and chat rooms, people find the technology extremely easy to use. Once you turn on the interface you will see where you last played, which makes it easier to continue the game. You can run Cloud technology on a Mac or on a PC with Windows XP or Vista technology.

You will also need a Broadband connection in order to play the games, which work with virtually any speed of processor. The annual fee is not only less than what you would pay for a games console, you get a free demo of any game and if you still don’t want to purchase the game, you might find it easier on your budget to rent the games that you are interested in.

Nature Photography: Art or Technology?

Posted on 18. Mar, 2010 by admin in Photography

Nature photography as an art form has been around for a long time, but recently it has found respect on the walls of up-market galleries. This is a big change from 20 years ago, when nature photography was only considered worthy of second-rate postcards and calendars.

Over the years, postcards and calendars began to improve in quality as nature photographers with real talent entered the industry. High quality posters of whales, wolves, elephants and spectacular landscapes from around the world were suddenly worthy of framing. Finally nature photography galleries began to appear and, more importantly, turn a profit.

When I opened my gallery in 1993, many people still felt that you could not make a living selling photography; that people would only buy paintings to hang on their walls. These days, new galleries are opening everywhere; some good, some not so good, and a few that have really hit the big time.

All this activity in the world of nature photography has inspired new generations of photographers to look at nature photography as a hobby or possible profession. These new nature photographers grew up in a very different world than the one I come from. Technology that was unimagined back then is now commonplace, and new photographers have more power in their hands than ever before. But what implications does all this technology have for nature photography?

Nature photographers must now decide how much they will allow their photography to be influenced by technology. In earlier days, good nature photography required a very simple approach; find a great subject, in the best possible light, and use your skill with a camera to capture what you saw. Today it is quite a different story. A nature photographer can (if they choose) find a decent subject, photograph it in whatever lighting conditions they happen to find, then go home and completely alter the colours, the contrast, and even the detail of the picture. The result can be an image that owes more to the marvels of technology than to the wonders of nature.

Each to his own. It is not for me to judge the creative decisions of another photographer. But the question that is in the back of your mind right now deserves to be asked; is this nature photography?

Every photographer is entitled to pursue their craft any way they choose. Of course skills with computer software are just as creative as traditional nature photography skills. However, the person who views a photograph deserves to know what they are looking at, especially if that person is a customer prepared to part with their hard-earned money.

I know many photographers get quite defensive on this subject. Camera clubs around the world continue to wrestle with the issue of judging natural photos alongside manipulated photos. Some clubs have tried to divide competition into separate categories, only to find people sneaking their digitally altered photos into the unaltered category for equal recognition. Understandably, ’software photographers’ want their talents to be recognised on the same level as the ‘in-camera photographers’. And so they should, but not in a way that ignores the difference between the two disciplines.

This is not an attempt to denigrate the skills of the software photographers. It just seems to me that the viewer, and in particular the paying customer, deserves to know.

Increasingly the public is becoming suspicious of good photography. Anything that is outstanding or unusual is now assumed to have been altered or manipulated using computer software. In many cases, it probably has. Unfortunately, this suspicion gives little credit to the traditional photographer (and there are still plenty of us out there) who prefer to do the creative work in the field, before they press the shutter, and reproduce what was captured on the day.

You can’t imagine, unless it has happened to you, how frustrating it is to proudly display your best nature photography, only to hear people say ‘These days it’s all done with computers.’

For the record, my photography is as traditional as it can be in the digital age. Software is becoming essential to my work, as I go throught the process of scanning thousands of slides from my years of travel. Not to alter a photo, but to balance the colour and contrast to make sure the printed photograph matches the original slide. It is also an enormous benefit to finally be able to restore images that have been scratched or otherwise damaged by age.

I recognise that the trend towards using software to enhance and alter photos is not only inevitable, but just as legitimate as old fashioned nature photography. However, I continue to encourage people to learn true camera skills as well, so that the use of software to manipulate images is a creative choice, not a remedy for lack of ability. Thankfully, the demand for my ebooks suggests that there are plenty of people out there who feel the same way.

It’s All About People, Process, and Technology. Technology is Dead Last in the Order of Importance When it Comes to Security

Posted on 18. Mar, 2010 by admin in Security

The recent and explosive growth of the Internet and technology has brought many good things such as e-commerce, collaborative computing, online markets and new avenues of sharing and distributing information. But each side has its counterpart, and with the technological advances came hackers. With this dark side and the many security breaches that are associated with it, companies, governments and individuals are afraid of hackers breaking into their servers or networks, stealing valuable data, collecting passwords and intercepting financial and credit card information.

And many times this can become reality. Recently, there has been a flurry of security breaches among large organizations such as Western Union, that reported a security breach on their Web site that let loose the credit-and debit-card information for 15,700 customers. Another recent hacker case is a 16-year-old youth, who admitted hacking into military and NASA computer networks. His activities caused a three-week shutdown of NASA’s systems and a security breach of a military computer network which protects against conventional, biological, chemical and nuclear-weapon attacks. That’s just a small sampling of actual hacks. Most industry watchers agree that only a handful of security breaches are ever reported.

For a long time, most computer network crackers hacked a system for the same reason: “Because it’s there.” But that’s no longer the only reason or even the dominant one. More hackers now do it because “It’s where the money is.” In the past decade, hackers have changed from script kiddies who hacked websites and spread worms to professionals sponsored by foreign governments and organized crime. Modern hackers want more than infamy. They exploit new technologies to crack systems or hack into computer systems and hold data for ransom. Hackers today commit real crimes, sometimes for significant financial gain.

To safeguard themselves from the modern hackers, most companies and government agencies that want to uncover network and system security vulnerabilities have two choices: they can hire a team of penetration experts to scan and probe their systems and uncover their vulnerabilities, or they can wait for a malicious hacker to come by and exploit them. Unfortunately, many times it is the latter. A security analysis or penetration test, performed by a security consultant, would produce a report or security posture assessment, detailing all vulnerabilities found and the actions needed to remedy them and minimize the risk of being the victim of a successful hack attack.

The security consultant or penetration expert can be a “white hacker”, someone who uses ethical hacking to discover vulnerabilities within a network or a reformed “black hacker”, who once was an active part of the dark side and used to exploit the identified security holes. The subject of whether it is ethical to use former hackers to evaluate a network’s security is a topic that is often hotly debated – and for many reasons.

Ethical hackers or security consultants typically have very strong programming and computer networking skills and have been in the computer and networking business for several years. Their base knowledge and expertise is augmented with detailed knowledge of the hardware and software, project management skills and methodology which are necessary for the actual vulnerability testing, as well as when reporting after the test was performed. In addition to that, ethical hacking seminars, courses and certifications are being offered to IT professional to broaden their horizon and skills in these fields. But many times these hacking courses and seminars only provide a very limited insight, outdated hacking or only basic hacking techniques. Their main purpose is to educate professionals but not to create a new generation of hackers. The goal is to fill security holes, not exploit them.

A disadvantage that white hackers or security consultants have over hackers is the real world experience and the insight knowledge. There are many things that cannot be taught in a seminar or learned from a book. The most obvious advantage former hackers have, is the real world hacking experience. As each network system differs based on various network defenses and configurations, the hack approach will be unique and only someone with plenty of real world hacking experience can efficiently go from using one technique to another as required by the present situation.

Another positive aspect of hiring reformed hackers as security consultants is that staying up on the latest security exploits, vulnerabilities and countermeasures is part of their job. A good hacker has a level of security knowledge that goes far beyond that of most other IT professionals. Keeping up with the latest exploits and countermeasures is a full time job and although the IT professional has an acceptable level of security knowledge, they must focus most of their attention on the day to day responsibilities of keeping the network up and running. To make up these “deficiencies” many white hackers and security consultants rely on automated and commercial vulnerability and penetration software, that can provide needed security reports, but their functions are limited. The huge differences can be seen when comparing the results from an automated scan and a hacker assessment or professional penetration test.

But before a company makes the decision to hire a reformed hacker, one needs to evaluate the negative sides. Certainly there are several types of hackers that can be found. One kind oft them are the “gray hats” – the unpaid tinkerers who find flaws to improve security for everyone. They are the best hackers, because their passion for tinkering drives their excellence and they do not break the laws. The black hat hackers – the criminals – break the law and feel justified doing it. They are the kind of hackers who seek to increase their fame in the hacker community, while others want to prove at any cost that their targets’ security is vulnerable. Black hats wreak havoc not only by their own actions but also by drawing attention to weaknesses that they and cybercriminals can exploit. The last and worst kinds of hackers are the cybercriminals, who perpetrate the worst crimes. They are paid to use existing tools and techniques to steal confidential personal, government or industry information, and particularly financial data. Cybercriminals usually work for foreign governments, organized crime or independently.

The probably biggest negative in the decision making process is trust. Which hacker will you hire and how much can you trust them? The main premise of security is deciding who you trust and then locking out everyone else. When hiring a hacker as a security consultant, because of network’s security concerns, paradoxically the trust goes to the criminal. Not only is it the trust factor that plays a major role in the decision making process but also the impact the decision might have on customers and shareholder. How will the customers react, if they knew a former criminal was hired to test the security of a system or database that contains all personal and financial information? Someone with a questionable morale and judgment, is not someone who should have control of a corporate network with sensitive data. In most cases hackers, and that is what makes them hackers, do not appreciate or respect standard business processes and structures. A disgruntled hacker with inside knowledge of a company’s networks could create a nightmare scenario.

Hackers are like adventurers, motivated by intellectual curiosity. “The more secure you make your systems, the more you attract them. The hacker mind-set is like exploring space, except they’re exploring the network. If that essential curiosity on finding out how things work, which is what causes people to be hackers, goes away, then you don’t necessarily want that person as a hacker or security consultant. However, just because a hacker has the desire and capabilities to explore a network, does not necessarily make them prepared to build a secure network and fix identified vulnerabilities. Breaking into things, does not always mean knowing how to fix them. These are two different skill sets. Once security threats have been identified, these need to be communicated including the potential business processes affected by the vulnerability, along with a list of impact assessments and countermeasures. Besides technical knowledge, the hacker will need to have experience in business processes and management, to relay his findings to the company.

Another hey factor to consider before making a decision who to hire as a security consultant, is to know that no computer system is ever completely secure, especially when considering the human factor. Spending astronomical amounts of money pursuing total security, by hiring security consultants and eventually becoming dependent on them, is not going to help. Some corporations in some industries must guard against intrusions from tech-hungry foreign governments – in particular China, France, Israel, Japan, Germany and Russia – that converted their cold-war spy machinery into “economic espionage” units, but that does not apply to all businesses. A realistic set of goals of what to expect from a security consultant need to be set first.

But no matter what the decision is and if the company hires a professional security consultant or a reformed hacker, the real threat will be still there. Any hacker, who wants to exploit a system will always try to use the path of least resistance. This path of least resistance is often through the front door. The front to door can be “identified” as the area over which businesses may have the least control: people. People are the weakest but first link when it comes to security. With good social engineering skills and not very well trained employees, disgruntled workers and ex-employees, a hacker can get enough information to access a system, insert malicious codes that contain keystroke and network sniffers and other means to collect information. The hacker just “exchanged” his keyboard with social engineering. And this is a part of security where a highly educated security consultant or a reformed hacker will not be able to help you.

New VoIP Technology: Available To Customers Anywhere In The World

Posted on 17. Mar, 2010 by admin in VOIP

The world of communications is opening up to consumers around the globe and the reason for that is Voice over Internet Protocol, otherwise known as VoIP.

Using VoIP phone service is simple and in many cases more convenient for customers than using a traditional land line to land line connection. In fact, most consumers are delighted to find out that no land line is needed for making VoIP calls. All that is needed is an Internet connection. In remote locations where phone service is either non-existent or unreliable; Internet connections via satellite have opened up a whole new world of voice communications.

In the past few years, VoIP providers have grown in numbers offering more competitive services and rates to consumers. In some cases VoIP to VoIP calls are free to customers the world over and this is especially true in places that have currently low traffic on their VoIP lines and in other cases, there may be a small charge incurred by the VoIP user for calling a land line or Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN).

There are two main types of land line to VoIP services. The first is by direct dialing where the land line user calls a number the connects directly to the VoIP user. The other type is using an access number where a local number is dialed and an extension number that has been assigned to the VoIP user is dialed, thereby connecting the call.

VoIP has opened up communications and the ability for smaller countries to compete in the global market by having access to both contacting clients and customers all over the world via VoIP services. This levels the playing field and allows companies to offer direct one-on-one customer service to anyone that needs to speak to a representative about a product or service or someone that needs help with a purchase they have made, even if that customer is half a world away. The zero to low VoIP rates on most calls make this a very economical form of business communication as well as for personal use for families that are scattered around the globe to keep in touch.

Mobile phones are also being seamlessly integrated into VoIP communications. Phones with WiFi are VoIP capable and this allows cell phone uses to also take advantage of the affordable VoIP rates for calling around the world, however pay close attention to your own cell phone. company’s charges for Internet access when using WiFi. This is often a very economical way for International travelers to keep in touch with their company or family when on the road.

Fees for VoIP can vary from country to country. Many VoIP services are offering flat rates for in-country dialing and some countries offer free VoIP to VoIP calling no matter where the calls are made. It’s worth it to look around and see what is available so you get the best VoIP service rate.

The demand for VoIP is continuing to grow and as the technology develops, more and more consumers around the world will continue to benefit from this state of the art form of communication that makes it easier than ever for both businesses and individuals to just stay in touch. BEST VoIP SERVICE: http://www.acolemanvoip.i-fortuity.com