Subject: Do not open any message
URGENT!!!
PLEASE CIRCULATE to your friends, family and contacts.
In the coming days, Do not open any message With an attachment called: Black in the White House, Regardless of who sent you ... It is a virus that opens an Olympic torch that burns the whole hard disk C of your computer. This virus comes from a known person who you had in your list Directions. . That's why you should send this message to all your Contacts.
It is better to receive this email 25 times to receive the virus and Open .. If you receive a message called: black in the white house, even Sent by a friend, do not open and shut down your machine immediately. It is the worst virus announced by CNN. A new virus has been discovered Recently it has been classified by Microsoft as the virus most destructive ever. This virus was discovered yesterday afternoon By McAfee. And there is no repair yet for this kind of virus. This virus Simply destroys the Zero Sector of the hard disk, where information Vital function is stored.
Showing posts with label Computer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Computer. Show all posts
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Sunday, February 21, 2010
Optimize Broadband & Dsl Connections
These settings allow you to boost the speed of your broadband Internet connection when using a Cable Modem or DSL Router with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.
Open your registry and find the key below.
Create the following DWORD values, as most of these values will not already exist you will need to create them by clicking on 'Edit -> New -> DWORD Value' and then set the value as shown below.
DefaultTTL = "80" hex (or 128 decimal)
Specifies the default time to live (TTL) for TCP/IP packets. The default is 32.
EnablePMTUBHDetect = "0"
Specifies whether the stack will attempt to detect Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) routers that do not send back ICMP fragmentation-needed messages. The default is 0.
EnablePMTUDiscovery = "1"
Specifies whether the TCP/IP stack will attempt to perform path MTU discovery as specified in RFC 1191. The default is 1.
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)
Specifies the system maximum receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack.
TcpMaxDupAcks = "2"
Determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast retransmit" is triggered.
SackOpts = "1"
Enables support for selective acknowledgements as documented by Request for Comment (RFC) 2018. Default is 0.
Tcp1323Opts = "1"
Controls RFC 1323 time stamps and window scaling options. Possible values are: "0" = disable RFC 1323 options, "1" = window scale enabled only, "2" = time stamps enabled only and "3" = both options enabled.
TcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)
Specifies the receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack. If you have a latent network you can try increasing the value to 93440, 186880, or 372300.
Exit your registry and restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
If you don’t want to edit the registry, here's a little TCP utility that is ideal...
http://www.broadbandreports.com/front/doctorping.zip
Open your registry and find the key below.
Create the following DWORD values, as most of these values will not already exist you will need to create them by clicking on 'Edit -> New -> DWORD Value' and then set the value as shown below.
DefaultTTL = "80" hex (or 128 decimal)
Specifies the default time to live (TTL) for TCP/IP packets. The default is 32.
EnablePMTUBHDetect = "0"
Specifies whether the stack will attempt to detect Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) routers that do not send back ICMP fragmentation-needed messages. The default is 0.
EnablePMTUDiscovery = "1"
Specifies whether the TCP/IP stack will attempt to perform path MTU discovery as specified in RFC 1191. The default is 1.
GlobalMaxTcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)
Specifies the system maximum receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack.
TcpMaxDupAcks = "2"
Determines the number of duplicate ACKs that must be received for the same sequence number of sent data before "fast retransmit" is triggered.
SackOpts = "1"
Enables support for selective acknowledgements as documented by Request for Comment (RFC) 2018. Default is 0.
Tcp1323Opts = "1"
Controls RFC 1323 time stamps and window scaling options. Possible values are: "0" = disable RFC 1323 options, "1" = window scale enabled only, "2" = time stamps enabled only and "3" = both options enabled.
TcpWindowSize = "7FFF" hex (or 32767 decimal)
Specifies the receive window size advertised by the TCP/IP stack. If you have a latent network you can try increasing the value to 93440, 186880, or 372300.
Exit your registry and restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
If you don’t want to edit the registry, here's a little TCP utility that is ideal...
http://www.broadbandreports.com/front/doctorping.zip
THE TROJAN “HORSE”
I found it necessary to devote a chapter to Trojans. Trojan’s are
probably the most compromising of all types of attacks. Trojans
are being released by the hundreds every week, each more
cleverly designed that the other. We all know the story of the
Trojan horse probably the greatest strategic move ever made.
In my studies I have found that Trojans are primarily responsible
for almost all Windows Based machines being compromised.
For those of you who do not know what Trojans are I’ll briefly
explain. Trojans are small programs that effectively give
“hackers” remote control over your entire Computer.
Some common features with Trojans are as follows:
• Open your CD-Rom drive
• Capture a screenshot of your computer
• Record your key strokes and send them to the “Hacker”
• Full Access to all your drives and files
• Ability to use your computer as a bridge to do other
hacking related activities.
• Disable your keyboard
• Disable your mouse…and more!
Let’s take a closer look at a couple of more popular
Trojans:
• Netbus
• SubSeven
The Netbus Trojan has two parts to it as almost all Trojans do.
There is a Client and a Server. The server is the file that
would have to get installed on your system in order to have
your system compromised. Here’s how the hack would go.
The Hack
Objective: Getting the potential victim to install the server
onto his/her system.
Method 1
Send the server file (for explanation purposes we’ll call the file
netbusserver.exe) to you via E-Mail. This was how it was
originally done.
The hacker would claim the file to be a game of some sort.
When you then double click on the file, the result is nothing.
You don’t see anything. (Very Suspicious)
Note: (How many times have you double clicked on a
file someone has sent you and it apparently did
nothing)
At this point what has happened is the server has now been
installed on your system. All the “hacker” has to do is use the
Netbus Client to connect to your system and everything you
have on your system is now accessible to this “hacker.”
With increasing awareness of the use of Trojans, “hackers”
became smarter, hence method 2.
Method 2
Objective: Getting you to install the server on your system.
Let’s see, how many of you receive games from friends?
Games like hit gates in the face with a pie. Perhaps the game
shoot Saddam? There are lots of funny little files like that.
Now I’ll show you how someone intent on getting access to
your computer can use that against you.
There are utility programs available that can combine the
(“server” (a.k.a. Trojan)) file with a legitimate “executable
file.” (An executable file is any file ending in .exe). It will
then output another (.exe) file of some kind. Think of this
process as mixing poison in a drink.
For Example:
Tomato Juice + Poison = something
Now the result is not really Tomato Juice anymore but you can
call it whatever you want. Same procedure goes for
combining the Trojan with another file.
For Example:
The “Hacker” in question would do this: (for demonstration
purposes we’ll use a chess game)
Name: chess.exe (name of file that starts the chess
game)
Trojan: netbusserver.exe (The Trojan)
(Again for explanation purposes we’ll call it that)
The joiner utility will combine the two files together and output
1 executable file called:
.exe
This file can then be renamed back to chess.exe. It’s not
exactly the same Chess Game. It’s like the Tomato Juice, it’s
just slightly different.
The difference in these files will be noticed in their size.
The original file: chess.exe size: 50,000 bytes
The new file (with Trojan): chess.exe size: 65,000 bytes
(Note: These numbers and figures are just for explanation
purposes only)
The process of joining the two files, takes about 10 seconds to
get done. Now the “hacker” has a new chess file to send out
with the Trojan in it.
Q. What happens when you click on the new chess.exe file?
Answer: The chess program starts like normal. No more
suspicion because the file did something. The only difference
is while the chess program starts the Trojan also gets installed
on your system.
Now you receive an email with the attachment except in the
format of chess.exe.
The unsuspecting will execute the file and see a chess game.
Meanwhile in the background the “Trojan” gets silently
installed on your computer.
If that’s not scary enough, after the Trojan installs itself on
your computer, it will then send a message from your
computer to the hacker telling him the following information.
Username: (A name they call you)
IP Address: (Your IP address)
Online: (Your victim is online)
So it doesn’t matter if you are on dial up. The potential
hacker will automatically be notified when you log on to your
computer.
You’re probably asking yourself “how likely is it that this has
happened to me?” Well think about this. Take into
consideration the second chapter of this manual. Used in
conjunction with the above mentioned methods can make for
a deadly combination.
These methods are just but a few ways that “hackers” can
gain access to your machine.
Listed below are some other ways they can get the infected
file to you.
News Groups:
By posting articles in newsgroups with file attachments like
(mypic.exe) in adult newsgroups are almost guaranteed to
have someone fall victim.
Don’t be fooled though, as these folks will post these files to
any newsgroups.
Grapevine:
Unfortunately there is no way to control this effect. You
receive the file from a friend who received it from a friend etc.
Email:
The most widely used delivery method. It can be sent as an
attachment in an email addressed to you.
Unsafe Web sites:
Web sites that are not “above the table” so to speak. Files
downloaded from such places should always be accepted with
high suspicion.
IRC:
On IRC servers sometimes when you join a channel you will
automatically get sent a file like “mypic.exe” or “sexy.exe” or
sexy.jpg.vbs something to that effect. Usually you’ll find
wannabe’s are at fault for this.
Chat Sites:
Chat sites are probably one of the primary places that this sort
of activity takes place. The sad part to that is 80% are not
aware of it.
As you can see there are many different ways to deliver that
file to you as a user. By informing you of these methods I
hope I have made you more aware of the potential dangers
around you. In Chapter 3 we’ll discuss what files should be
considered acceptable.
probably the most compromising of all types of attacks. Trojans
are being released by the hundreds every week, each more
cleverly designed that the other. We all know the story of the
Trojan horse probably the greatest strategic move ever made.
In my studies I have found that Trojans are primarily responsible
for almost all Windows Based machines being compromised.
For those of you who do not know what Trojans are I’ll briefly
explain. Trojans are small programs that effectively give
“hackers” remote control over your entire Computer.
Some common features with Trojans are as follows:
• Open your CD-Rom drive
• Capture a screenshot of your computer
• Record your key strokes and send them to the “Hacker”
• Full Access to all your drives and files
• Ability to use your computer as a bridge to do other
hacking related activities.
• Disable your keyboard
• Disable your mouse…and more!
Let’s take a closer look at a couple of more popular
Trojans:
• Netbus
• SubSeven
The Netbus Trojan has two parts to it as almost all Trojans do.
There is a Client and a Server. The server is the file that
would have to get installed on your system in order to have
your system compromised. Here’s how the hack would go.
The Hack
Objective: Getting the potential victim to install the server
onto his/her system.
Method 1
Send the server file (for explanation purposes we’ll call the file
netbusserver.exe) to you via E-Mail. This was how it was
originally done.
The hacker would claim the file to be a game of some sort.
When you then double click on the file, the result is nothing.
You don’t see anything. (Very Suspicious)
Note: (How many times have you double clicked on a
file someone has sent you and it apparently did
nothing)
At this point what has happened is the server has now been
installed on your system. All the “hacker” has to do is use the
Netbus Client to connect to your system and everything you
have on your system is now accessible to this “hacker.”
With increasing awareness of the use of Trojans, “hackers”
became smarter, hence method 2.
Method 2
Objective: Getting you to install the server on your system.
Let’s see, how many of you receive games from friends?
Games like hit gates in the face with a pie. Perhaps the game
shoot Saddam? There are lots of funny little files like that.
Now I’ll show you how someone intent on getting access to
your computer can use that against you.
There are utility programs available that can combine the
(“server” (a.k.a. Trojan)) file with a legitimate “executable
file.” (An executable file is any file ending in .exe). It will
then output another (.exe) file of some kind. Think of this
process as mixing poison in a drink.
For Example:
Tomato Juice + Poison = something
Now the result is not really Tomato Juice anymore but you can
call it whatever you want. Same procedure goes for
combining the Trojan with another file.
For Example:
The “Hacker” in question would do this: (for demonstration
purposes we’ll use a chess game)
Name: chess.exe (name of file that starts the chess
game)
Trojan: netbusserver.exe (The Trojan)
(Again for explanation purposes we’ll call it that)
The joiner utility will combine the two files together and output
1 executable file called:
This file can then be renamed back to chess.exe. It’s not
exactly the same Chess Game. It’s like the Tomato Juice, it’s
just slightly different.
The difference in these files will be noticed in their size.
The original file: chess.exe size: 50,000 bytes
The new file (with Trojan): chess.exe size: 65,000 bytes
(Note: These numbers and figures are just for explanation
purposes only)
The process of joining the two files, takes about 10 seconds to
get done. Now the “hacker” has a new chess file to send out
with the Trojan in it.
Q. What happens when you click on the new chess.exe file?
Answer: The chess program starts like normal. No more
suspicion because the file did something. The only difference
is while the chess program starts the Trojan also gets installed
on your system.
Now you receive an email with the attachment except in the
format of chess.exe.
The unsuspecting will execute the file and see a chess game.
Meanwhile in the background the “Trojan” gets silently
installed on your computer.
If that’s not scary enough, after the Trojan installs itself on
your computer, it will then send a message from your
computer to the hacker telling him the following information.
Username: (A name they call you)
IP Address: (Your IP address)
Online: (Your victim is online)
So it doesn’t matter if you are on dial up. The potential
hacker will automatically be notified when you log on to your
computer.
You’re probably asking yourself “how likely is it that this has
happened to me?” Well think about this. Take into
consideration the second chapter of this manual. Used in
conjunction with the above mentioned methods can make for
a deadly combination.
These methods are just but a few ways that “hackers” can
gain access to your machine.
Listed below are some other ways they can get the infected
file to you.
News Groups:
By posting articles in newsgroups with file attachments like
(mypic.exe) in adult newsgroups are almost guaranteed to
have someone fall victim.
Don’t be fooled though, as these folks will post these files to
any newsgroups.
Grapevine:
Unfortunately there is no way to control this effect. You
receive the file from a friend who received it from a friend etc.
Email:
The most widely used delivery method. It can be sent as an
attachment in an email addressed to you.
Unsafe Web sites:
Web sites that are not “above the table” so to speak. Files
downloaded from such places should always be accepted with
high suspicion.
IRC:
On IRC servers sometimes when you join a channel you will
automatically get sent a file like “mypic.exe” or “sexy.exe” or
sexy.jpg.vbs something to that effect. Usually you’ll find
wannabe’s are at fault for this.
Chat Sites:
Chat sites are probably one of the primary places that this sort
of activity takes place. The sad part to that is 80% are not
aware of it.
As you can see there are many different ways to deliver that
file to you as a user. By informing you of these methods I
hope I have made you more aware of the potential dangers
around you. In Chapter 3 we’ll discuss what files should be
considered acceptable.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
Apple's White 13-inch MacBook; What lies inside?
On 27 may 2009, Apple introduces its latest update of white MacBook called as MC240LL/A. It can be treated as the replacement to both the iBook and the 12-inch PowerBook.
New Features:
• Apple increases the speed of the laptop's Core 2 Duo processors from 2GHz to 2.13GHz and also increased the hard drive capacity from 120GB to 160GB, which can be expandable up to 500GB.
• The new MacBook now uses faster 800MHz DDR2 memory than its last iteration, which used 667MHz DDR2 RAM. The minimum operating system required for the laptop is Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7.
• The white MacBook now meets Energy Star Version 5.0 requirements and is rated EPEAT Gold, compared to Silver rating on the previous model.
• The MacBook uses magnets instead of a physical latch to hold the lid closed.
• Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9400M using 256MB RAM.
• Dimensions: 1.08 x 12.78 x 8.92 in/27.5 x 325 x 227 mm.
• Weight: the laptop weighs around 5.0 lb/2.3 kg.
These updates amount to not only a better performing entry-level MacBook, but also a system that's faster than the 2.0GHz aluminum unibody MacBook that Apple sells for $200 more.
Apart from the changes from the aluminum MacBook, both systems have Core 2 Duo processors with 3MB of shared L2 cache, 8x DVD-burning SuperDrives, 160GB hard drives, and 2GB of RAM (expandable up to 4GB). Also, they sports glossy 13.3-inch LCD displays with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, 1066MHz system buses and use Nvidia GeForce9400M graphics. The new device uses the older polycarbonate shell, has the older mini-DVI port and is the only current MacBook to include FireWire.
In addition there are two USB 2.0 ports, an integrated iSight camera above the screen. Networking options include 802.11g Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
Performance:
After various tests, it is found that the new device is approximately 6.5% faster than the 2GHz white MacBook it replaces. The new model sports about an 8% speed up in Photoshop times and iTunes MP3 encoding scores. Cinema 4D was about 5% faster on the new white MacBook.
Battery life:
The US Apple store now advertises that the white 13-inch MacBook has 5 hrs of battery life up from a promised 4.5 hours. But with full brightness it could run for about three and half hours, which is about half-an-hour more than its predecessor.
New Features:
• Apple increases the speed of the laptop's Core 2 Duo processors from 2GHz to 2.13GHz and also increased the hard drive capacity from 120GB to 160GB, which can be expandable up to 500GB.
• The new MacBook now uses faster 800MHz DDR2 memory than its last iteration, which used 667MHz DDR2 RAM. The minimum operating system required for the laptop is Mac OS X Leopard 10.5.7.
• The white MacBook now meets Energy Star Version 5.0 requirements and is rated EPEAT Gold, compared to Silver rating on the previous model.
• The MacBook uses magnets instead of a physical latch to hold the lid closed.
• Graphics: nVidia GeForce 9400M using 256MB RAM.
• Dimensions: 1.08 x 12.78 x 8.92 in/27.5 x 325 x 227 mm.
• Weight: the laptop weighs around 5.0 lb/2.3 kg.
These updates amount to not only a better performing entry-level MacBook, but also a system that's faster than the 2.0GHz aluminum unibody MacBook that Apple sells for $200 more.
Apart from the changes from the aluminum MacBook, both systems have Core 2 Duo processors with 3MB of shared L2 cache, 8x DVD-burning SuperDrives, 160GB hard drives, and 2GB of RAM (expandable up to 4GB). Also, they sports glossy 13.3-inch LCD displays with 1280 x 800 pixel resolution, 1066MHz system buses and use Nvidia GeForce9400M graphics. The new device uses the older polycarbonate shell, has the older mini-DVI port and is the only current MacBook to include FireWire.
In addition there are two USB 2.0 ports, an integrated iSight camera above the screen. Networking options include 802.11g Wi-Fi, Gigabit Ethernet, and Bluetooth 2.0+EDR.
Performance:
After various tests, it is found that the new device is approximately 6.5% faster than the 2GHz white MacBook it replaces. The new model sports about an 8% speed up in Photoshop times and iTunes MP3 encoding scores. Cinema 4D was about 5% faster on the new white MacBook.
Battery life:
The US Apple store now advertises that the white 13-inch MacBook has 5 hrs of battery life up from a promised 4.5 hours. But with full brightness it could run for about three and half hours, which is about half-an-hour more than its predecessor.
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Best Employers in India
HCL Technologies
HCL Technologies, the Software major is the India’s best employer for creating a positive work experience for employees and its long-term approach amid challenging conditions. HCL Technologies is India’s 4th largest leading global IT Services companies, providing software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management services and BPO. The company follows a Five-Fold Path to individual enlightenment which includes Support, Knowledge, Recognition, Empowerment, and Transformation.
Cisco Systems
The second IT company on the list is Cisco Systems India, ranked at no. four on the over all list. With sales and marketing operations spread across key cities in India and a software development centre in Bangalore, Cisco dominates the networking market in core technologies of routing and switching, as well as WLAN and network security.
Globally, the company claims to focus on collaborative efforts that give employees more say in decision-making. Flexibility, trust, and empowerment are touted as the hallmarks of the employee-employer relationship at Cisco. Flexi work time, telecommuting, parenting and work opportunities also go a long way in making the company an employee favorite.
LG Electronics India
At no. 8 on the list of Best Employers in India is another technology company LG Electronics.
In India for a decade now, LG is the market leader in consumer durables and recognized as a leading technology innovator in the information technology and mobile communications business.
The company provides array of employee-friendly programs, like “a family ambassador programme” where a dedicated mentor goes to the employee's house and talks to his family, discuss their problems. Also, employees are given a chance to visit Korea on completion of specific years of service. LG also believes in no demarcation between junior and senior employees and in February, the company reportedly gave a special 150% ‘teamwork’ bonus to employees who completed two years in the organization.
NetApp India
Next IT company on the list is NetApp, ranked at no. 14. NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that help the customers to accelerate business breakthroughs and achieve outstanding cost efficiency.
Also, NetApp (global operations) ranked at no. 1 on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in January 2009. According to the magazine, NetApp's egalitarian culture, salary, unique benefits, and a down-to-earth management style are attributes that helped catapult the company to the number-one spot for 2009. Also, at a time when companies across the board are downsizing in a bid to rein in costs, NetApp is among the handfuls that have not still gone the pink slip route.
vCustomer Corporation
At no. 16 on the Hewitt Best Employers in India list is a leading third-party BPO, vCustomer Services.
vCustomer is an established and leading provider of Customer & Technical Support Services globally. With an employee base of over 3,000, the cornerstones of company's work culture include an Open Door Policy and Fun@work. Your Voice (a forum where in employees can communicate directly with the company's CEO) is a big hit with the employees.
The company offers customized career development programmes fostering growth through promotion programmes based on performance.
HCL Technologies, the Software major is the India’s best employer for creating a positive work experience for employees and its long-term approach amid challenging conditions. HCL Technologies is India’s 4th largest leading global IT Services companies, providing software-led IT solutions, remote infrastructure management services and BPO. The company follows a Five-Fold Path to individual enlightenment which includes Support, Knowledge, Recognition, Empowerment, and Transformation.
Cisco Systems
The second IT company on the list is Cisco Systems India, ranked at no. four on the over all list. With sales and marketing operations spread across key cities in India and a software development centre in Bangalore, Cisco dominates the networking market in core technologies of routing and switching, as well as WLAN and network security.
Globally, the company claims to focus on collaborative efforts that give employees more say in decision-making. Flexibility, trust, and empowerment are touted as the hallmarks of the employee-employer relationship at Cisco. Flexi work time, telecommuting, parenting and work opportunities also go a long way in making the company an employee favorite.
LG Electronics India
At no. 8 on the list of Best Employers in India is another technology company LG Electronics.
In India for a decade now, LG is the market leader in consumer durables and recognized as a leading technology innovator in the information technology and mobile communications business.
The company provides array of employee-friendly programs, like “a family ambassador programme” where a dedicated mentor goes to the employee's house and talks to his family, discuss their problems. Also, employees are given a chance to visit Korea on completion of specific years of service. LG also believes in no demarcation between junior and senior employees and in February, the company reportedly gave a special 150% ‘teamwork’ bonus to employees who completed two years in the organization.
NetApp India
Next IT company on the list is NetApp, ranked at no. 14. NetApp creates innovative storage and data management solutions that help the customers to accelerate business breakthroughs and achieve outstanding cost efficiency.
Also, NetApp (global operations) ranked at no. 1 on Fortune magazine's "100 Best Companies to Work For" list in January 2009. According to the magazine, NetApp's egalitarian culture, salary, unique benefits, and a down-to-earth management style are attributes that helped catapult the company to the number-one spot for 2009. Also, at a time when companies across the board are downsizing in a bid to rein in costs, NetApp is among the handfuls that have not still gone the pink slip route.
vCustomer Corporation
At no. 16 on the Hewitt Best Employers in India list is a leading third-party BPO, vCustomer Services.
vCustomer is an established and leading provider of Customer & Technical Support Services globally. With an employee base of over 3,000, the cornerstones of company's work culture include an Open Door Policy and Fun@work. Your Voice (a forum where in employees can communicate directly with the company's CEO) is a big hit with the employees.
The company offers customized career development programmes fostering growth through promotion programmes based on performance.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Simplified approach for Data Recovery : ASR
The ASR is one of the aspects in Windows Vista that has been evolved with the introduction of Vista Service Pack-1. A Windows application programming interface, ASR is designed to keep track of and record the configuration of disks and volumes on a system. It will also manage disks in accordance with Critical and non-Critical labels, depending on whether they do or do not contain system state or operating system components.
With Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft has introduced supports for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). As such the ASR in both Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 was tweaked in order to be capable of recovering EFI system partitions in a bare metal recovery.
IBM
IBM-Tivoli is ASR in static IP environments using Tivoli Storage Manager was introduced in November last year.
The IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Automated System Recovery Process supports Networks that are DHCP enabled. In networks that do not support DHCP and uses Static IP's, the local backup sets are used to recover these systems in case of a crash or total failure.
ASR is used to recover Microsoft Windows Server system in the event of a catastrophic system or hardware failure. The goal of ASR process is to return the operating system to the point of last backup. It is a two-phase process.
* Microsoft Windows installs a temporary operating system image using the original operating system media.
* Windows invokes TSM to restore the system volume and system state information.
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) interfaces with Microsoft Windows to provide system recovery.
Hewlett Packard
HP Blade PC Automated System Recovery Utility 2.00 Rev. E description was introduced earlier this year.
This package contains the Automated System Recovery (ASR-2) Service for the supported desktop models and operating systems. The ASR-2 service causes an HP Blade PC that has stopped responding (locked up), or that has experienced a "blue-screen" error, to restart (reboot), bringing it back online and making it available for network users.
Development includes the modification of the installation script to add support for 64-bit Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista).
Conclusion
ASR does not backup user's files or other data, it should be used only as a last resort because in preparation for a restore ASR will format the system and boot volumes of the hard-drive, making other, less drastic recovery methods impossible.
With Windows Vista SP1, Microsoft has introduced supports for the Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI). As such the ASR in both Vista SP1 and Windows Server 2008 was tweaked in order to be capable of recovering EFI system partitions in a bare metal recovery.
IBM
IBM-Tivoli is ASR in static IP environments using Tivoli Storage Manager was introduced in November last year.
The IBM Tivoli Storage Manager Automated System Recovery Process supports Networks that are DHCP enabled. In networks that do not support DHCP and uses Static IP's, the local backup sets are used to recover these systems in case of a crash or total failure.
ASR is used to recover Microsoft Windows Server system in the event of a catastrophic system or hardware failure. The goal of ASR process is to return the operating system to the point of last backup. It is a two-phase process.
* Microsoft Windows installs a temporary operating system image using the original operating system media.
* Windows invokes TSM to restore the system volume and system state information.
IBM Tivoli Storage Manager (TSM) interfaces with Microsoft Windows to provide system recovery.
Hewlett Packard
HP Blade PC Automated System Recovery Utility 2.00 Rev. E description was introduced earlier this year.
This package contains the Automated System Recovery (ASR-2) Service for the supported desktop models and operating systems. The ASR-2 service causes an HP Blade PC that has stopped responding (locked up), or that has experienced a "blue-screen" error, to restart (reboot), bringing it back online and making it available for network users.
Development includes the modification of the installation script to add support for 64-bit Microsoft Windows Operating Systems (Microsoft Windows XP and Microsoft Windows Vista).
Conclusion
ASR does not backup user's files or other data, it should be used only as a last resort because in preparation for a restore ASR will format the system and boot volumes of the hard-drive, making other, less drastic recovery methods impossible.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
20 things you didn't know about Windows XP
You've read the reviews and digested the key feature enhancements and operational changes. Now it's time to delve a bit deeper and uncover some of Windows XP's secrets.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.
20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004.
1. It boasts how long it can stay up. Whereas previous versions of Windows were coy about how long they went between boots, XP is positively proud of its stamina. Go to the Command Prompt in the Accessories menu from the All Programs start button option, and then type 'systeminfo'. The computer will produce a lot of useful info, including the uptime. If you want to keep these, type 'systeminfo > info.txt'. This creates a file called info.txt you can look at later with Notepad. (Professional Edition only).
2. You can delete files immediately, without having them move to the Recycle Bin first. Go to the Start menu, select Run... and type 'gpedit.msc'; then select User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Windows Components, Windows Explorer and find the Do not move deleted files to the Recycle Bin setting. Set it. Poking around in gpedit will reveal a great many interface and system options, but take care -- some may stop your computer behaving as you wish. (Professional Edition only).
3. You can lock your XP workstation with two clicks of the mouse. Create a new shortcut on your desktop using a right mouse click, and enter 'rundll32.exe user32.dll,LockWorkStation' in the location field. Give the shortcut a name you like. That's it -- just double click on it and your computer will be locked. And if that's not easy enough, Windows key + L will do the same.
4. XP hides some system software you might want to remove, such as Windows Messenger, but you can tickle it and make it disgorge everything. Using Notepad or Edit, edit the text file /windows/inf/sysoc.inf, search for the word 'hide' and remove it. You can then go to the Add or Remove Programs in the Control Panel, select Add/Remove Windows Components and there will be your prey, exposed and vulnerable.
5. For those skilled in the art of DOS batch files, XP has a number of interesting new commands. These include 'eventcreate' and 'eventtriggers' for creating and watching system events, 'typeperf' for monitoring performance of various subsystems, and 'schtasks' for handling scheduled tasks. As usual, typing the command name followed by /? will give a list of options -- they're all far too baroque to go into here.
6. XP has IP version 6 support -- the next generation of IP. Unfortunately this is more than your ISP has, so you can only experiment with this on your LAN. Type 'ipv6 install' into Run... (it's OK, it won't ruin your existing network setup) and then 'ipv6 /?' at the command line to find out more. If you don't know what IPv6 is, don't worry and don't bother.
7. You can at last get rid of tasks on the computer from the command line by using 'taskkill /pid' and the task number, or just 'tskill' and the process number. Find that out by typing 'tasklist', which will also tell you a lot about what's going on in your system.
8. XP will treat Zip files like folders, which is nice if you've got a fast machine. On slower machines, you can make XP leave zip files well alone by typing 'regsvr32 /u zipfldr.dll' at the command line. If you change your mind later, you can put things back as they were by typing 'regsvr32 zipfldr.dll'.
9. XP has ClearType -- Microsoft's anti-aliasing font display technology -- but doesn't have it enabled by default. It's well worth trying, especially if you were there for DOS and all those years of staring at a screen have given you the eyes of an astigmatic bat. To enable ClearType, right click on the desktop, select Properties, Appearance, Effects, select ClearType from the second drop-down menu and enable the selection. Expect best results on laptop displays. If you want to use ClearType on the Welcome login screen as well, set the registry entry HKEY_USERS/.DEFAULT/Control Panel/Desktop/FontSmoothingType to 2.
10. You can use Remote Assistance to help a friend who's using network address translation (NAT) on a home network, but not automatically. Get your pal to email you a Remote Assistance invitation and edit the file. Under the RCTICKET attribute will be a NAT IP address, like 192.168.1.10. Replace this with your chum's real IP address -- they can find this out by going to www.whatismyip.com -- and get them to make sure that they've got port 3389 open on their firewall and forwarded to the errant computer.
11. You can run a program as a different user without logging out and back in again. Right click the icon, select Run As... and enter the user name and password you want to use. This only applies for that run. The trick is particularly useful if you need to have administrative permissions to install a program, which many require. Note that you can have some fun by running programs multiple times on the same system as different users, but this can have unforeseen effects.
12. Windows XP can be very insistent about you checking for auto updates, registering a Passport, using Windows Messenger and so on. After a while, the nagging goes away, but if you feel you might slip the bonds of sanity before that point, run Regedit, go to HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Microsoft/Windows/Current Version/Explorer/Advanced and create a DWORD value called EnableBalloonTips with a value of 0.
13. You can start up without needing to enter a user name or password. Select Run... from the start menu and type 'control userpasswords2', which will open the user accounts application. On the Users tab, clear the box for Users Must Enter A User Name And Password To Use This Computer, and click on OK. An Automatically Log On dialog box will appear; enter the user name and password for the account you want to use.
14. Internet Explorer 6 will automatically delete temporary files, but only if you tell it to. Start the browser, select Tools / Internet Options... and Advanced, go down to the Security area and check the box to Empty Temporary Internet Files folder when browser is closed.
15. XP comes with a free Network Activity Light, just in case you can't see the LEDs twinkle on your network card. Right click on My Network Places on the desktop, then select Properties. Right click on the description for your LAN or dial-up connection, select Properties, then check the Show icon in notification area when connected box. You'll now see a tiny network icon on the right of your task bar that glimmers nicely during network traffic.
16. The Start Menu can be leisurely when it decides to appear, but you can speed things along by changing the registry entry HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Control Panel/Desktop/MenuShowDelay from the default 400 to something a little snappier. Like 0.
17. You can rename loads of files at once in Windows Explorer. Highlight a set of files in a window, then right click on one and rename it. All the other files will be renamed to that name, with individual numbers in brackets to distinguish them. Also, in a folder you can arrange icons in alphabetised groups by View, Arrange Icon By... Show In Groups.
18. Windows Media Player will display the cover art for albums as it plays the tracks -- if it found the picture on the Internet when you copied the tracks from the CD. If it didn't, or if you have lots of pre-WMP music files, you can put your own copy of the cover art in the same directory as the tracks. Just call it folder.jpg and Windows Media Player will pick it up and display it.
19. Windows key + Break brings up the System Properties dialogue box; Windows key + D brings up the desktop; Windows key + Tab moves through the taskbar buttons.
20. The next release of Windows XP, codenamed Longhorn, is due out late next year or early 2003 and won't be much to write home about. The next big release is codenamed Blackcomb and will be out in 2003/2004.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Resolving the panorama
This post is about image stitching methods used to make a panoramic image. Panoramic images have become important in the digital age. Initially, panoramic images were developed to increase the field of view on the photograph. In the digital age, because one cannot print out pictures with resolutions less than 200 dots per inch (explained here), the method to take print outs for posters is to take a number of photographs with at least 15% overlap and stitch them together later using some software. In order to take the individual pictures that make a panoramic picture, the best technique involves using a tripod so that the camera lens only moves on a sphere eliminating parallax error. In addition, the aperture and shutter speed should not vary between the various pictures. More tips on the techniques of panoramic pictures can be found all over Google or by sending an email to me. This post is more about the science behind stitching the images of a panoramic picture.
The idea of image stitching is to take multiple images and to make a single image from them with an invisible seam and such that the mosaic pictures remains true to the individual images (in other words, does not change the lighting effects too much). This is different from just placing the images side by side because there will be differences in the lighting between the 2 images and that would lead to a prominent seam in the mosaic picture.
This Figure shows 3 photos and the locations of the seams are shown in black boxes on each picture and the final mosaic formed from all three pictures.
The first step is to find points that are equivalent in 2 overlapping pictures [1]. This can be done by taking into consideration a certain amount of pixels in the neighborhood of a pixel from 2 pictures and finding the regions that overlap in colors between the 2 pictures. Then the images are placed or warped on a surface such as a cylinder (because the panoramic picture is a 2-dimensional representation of the overlapping pictures in a cylinder quite often). After this step the curve is found that gives the most amount of overlap between the equivalent pixels on both images. Then the images are stitched together with color correction. I will deal in this post with the various algorithms for color correction.
2. Pyramid Blending: In addition to the pixel representation of images, images can also be stored as pyramids. This is a data compression method in which a the image is stored as a hierarchy or pyramid of low-pass filtered versions of the original image so that successive levels correspond to lower frequencies (dividing the images into different layers that vary over a smaller or larger region of space so that the sum of it gives you the original image). During the blending method described above, the lower frequencies (which vary over a larger distance) are blended over spatially larger distance and the higher frequencies are blended over a spatially lower distance [1] causing a more realistic blended image to be formed. Here during the pyramid forming process, the 2nd derivatives of the images (Laplacian) are taken into consideration while forming the pyramid and the blended pyramid is formed and reintegrated to form the final blended image.
This figure shows the pyramid representation of the pixels in an image and the pyramid blending approach.
3. Gradient Domain Blending: Instead of making a low resolution mapping of the image as above, the gradient domain blending method requires the calculation of the 1st derivative of the images. Hence, the image resolution is not reduced before the blending process, but the idea is the same as above. This method is also developed to find the optimal window size for alpha blending and is adaptive to regions that vary fast or slower.
This figure shows the gradient blend approach.
The idea of image stitching is to take multiple images and to make a single image from them with an invisible seam and such that the mosaic pictures remains true to the individual images (in other words, does not change the lighting effects too much). This is different from just placing the images side by side because there will be differences in the lighting between the 2 images and that would lead to a prominent seam in the mosaic picture.
This Figure shows 3 photos and the locations of the seams are shown in black boxes on each picture and the final mosaic formed from all three pictures.
The first step is to find points that are equivalent in 2 overlapping pictures [1]. This can be done by taking into consideration a certain amount of pixels in the neighborhood of a pixel from 2 pictures and finding the regions that overlap in colors between the 2 pictures. Then the images are placed or warped on a surface such as a cylinder (because the panoramic picture is a 2-dimensional representation of the overlapping pictures in a cylinder quite often). After this step the curve is found that gives the most amount of overlap between the equivalent pixels on both images. Then the images are stitched together with color correction. I will deal in this post with the various algorithms for color correction.
2. Pyramid Blending: In addition to the pixel representation of images, images can also be stored as pyramids. This is a data compression method in which a the image is stored as a hierarchy or pyramid of low-pass filtered versions of the original image so that successive levels correspond to lower frequencies (dividing the images into different layers that vary over a smaller or larger region of space so that the sum of it gives you the original image). During the blending method described above, the lower frequencies (which vary over a larger distance) are blended over spatially larger distance and the higher frequencies are blended over a spatially lower distance [1] causing a more realistic blended image to be formed. Here during the pyramid forming process, the 2nd derivatives of the images (Laplacian) are taken into consideration while forming the pyramid and the blended pyramid is formed and reintegrated to form the final blended image.
This figure shows the pyramid representation of the pixels in an image and the pyramid blending approach.
3. Gradient Domain Blending: Instead of making a low resolution mapping of the image as above, the gradient domain blending method requires the calculation of the 1st derivative of the images. Hence, the image resolution is not reduced before the blending process, but the idea is the same as above. This method is also developed to find the optimal window size for alpha blending and is adaptive to regions that vary fast or slower.
This figure shows the gradient blend approach.
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