By popular demand its DROPBOX!!!!!!!!

It is freaking amazing...seriously just click the link below and see for yourself

So lets me be honest, Dropbox is amazing, and it has changed my life. What is Dropbox? Well it is perhaps one of the best, FREE, computer back up solutions out there.

DropBox is a free program that can be used on the Windows, Mac & Linux OS, and essentially creates a folder that automatically syncs with a server each time you log on to the internet. So you can drag and drop files into this folder (its just like any other folder on a computer) and if you are connected to the internet your files will be synced up. Once the files are synced, you can access them from the internet (using your DropBox account) and download any of your files.

You can even upload files via the internet, and the next time you log onto your machine, DropBox will download the new files to your local folder.  Heck there is even an iPhone app, Android app & a BlackBerry app in the works!

I think this is something every college student needs to invest in, and with 2 gigs of FREE, thats right FREE storage available there is no reason you shouldn't.

Tired of waiting, get DropBox now by following the link below:

CLICK HERE TO GET DROP BOX

Got a tech question, need an answer or just want to know more about something?? Email me at devangj031@gmail.com.

Cheers

--Devang

Are your passwords safe?

Passwords are nice things, because they allow nice people (like you and me) to keep our nice things away from bad people. However, like a lot of computer driven things, the password is only as good as you, the end user, make it.

It’s no surprise that most passwords people use to secure there email, Facebook and even there online banking tend to be simple facts about the person / or horribly lame attempts at making a password in the first place. So let’s talk a little bit about how secure your passwords are and how you can make them even more secure.

A password is based in a finite world, meaning that if someone had the time, they could quite possibly go through every possible combination and find your password (understanding that passwords in general tend to have rule. Example: your password needs to be between 8-16 characters long and needs at least one number). So it’s not difficult to see how it’s possible for the computers out there to mill through the billions of possibilities (and yes a billion is a lot but it’s still finite so no you are still not safe) and find the key to your personal information.

Also as computers become faster and faster, the power that the everyday “home hacker” also increases. Recently, researchers used pairs of graphics cards to break 8 digit passwords in about two hours. Not impressed well let’s think about it. In the English language we have 26 letters and 10 numbers (0-9). So with an 8 digit long password using 26 letters x 2 (accounts for upper and lower case) + 10 numbers is 62 possible characters. Obviously I am not counting all the crazy symbols you can put into your password like (!@#$%^&* etc……). Okay back to the math (the exciting part the reason why you read right?), with 62 possible characters and wanting passwords 8 characters long we can use a combination to find the number of possibilities:

The formula I used

8,361,453,672 possibilities

Let that soak in for all those who think that you are safe in the world of “billions of possibilities”, that’s 8 billion plus possibilities that researchers cracked with graphics cards. 8 BILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It just goes to show that you’re not as safe as you think you are. Add to that the fact that your everyday password is not something you grabbed from a random password generator (and if it is I apologize, you are a real trooper) and we are all kind of screwed. Luckily there are simple ways to keep your password safe.

-          Use a longer password with both numbers and letters. Security experts now say that a password about 10-12 digits long is a good length. You can maximize the security by using upper and lower case characters.

-          Make your password something unique, something only you would know. (and don’t worry if you are madly in love and your soul mate knows everything about you, your wrong they don’t know EVERYTHING so don’t be lazy).

-          Make your password hints unique. A lot of websites allow you to recover your password by answering security questions etc… Making these questions difficult makes it difficult for people to crack them. Think about it, if you’re favorite movie is the Lion King and your password hint is “My favorite movie is…” and you constantly profess your love for Lion King on Facebook….get it?

-          NEVER EVER GIVE YOUR PASSWORD TO ANYONE. A lot of people fall into this trap. If someone from Facebook emails you asking for your password to perform site maintenance etc…don’t buy into it. Facebook, Winthrop IT, Bank of America do not need your password to access your account or perform maintenance.

-          Don’t save passwords on your computer, on a piece of paper or on your wallet. Your mind is the best place to keep your password, because its hard to loose your brain right. If your worried about the government kidnapping you to get access to your Flicker account…well you have bigger problems.

So be careful, learn more about the way your secure your online accounts and remember to be proactive.

For questions or comments feel free to email me at devangj031@gmail.com!

Cheers,

--Devang

Read this article from more info on what inspired me to write this post: http://www.cnn.com/2010/TECH/innovation/08/20/super.passwords/index.html

Net Neutrality--Yes this effects you!!!

Net neutrality, ever heard of it? If you haven't, I assure you that it is more important then the latest on Snookies visit to jail. In many ways, it is hard to exaggerate the importance of the debate on net neutrality simply because our lives rely so much on the internet.

Okay so what is net neutrality? The concept is actually not that difficult to understand.

The internet is a "free space" and area that provides equality to all people in the world. (This means that the internet does not limit peoples powers although countries can and do restrict peoples access to the internet). It is in this technological utopia where the information age really came out of its infancy and created offspring such as Google and Facebook. The internet is free because everything is treated equally, referred to as 'packets'. This translates to how the flow of data moves between your computer and the websites you browse. Although your speed is limited by your ISP (internet service provider), everyone with your style of internet connection is able to view websites equally quickly.

Let use an example to help illustrate what is happening. Devang and Anthony have the same laptop computer (we do actually thats kind of freaky). Devang and Anthony also have the same 100Mbps internet connection from the same ISP. We want to view two websites, Blog a and Blog b. Blog a is a small personal blog with no followers and very limited content. Blog b is a huge megalith, with dynamic content, advertisement and much much more. Blog b also hosts free ads for the ISP. If Devang and Anthony were going to view blog a and blog b, the data (packets) would flow at the same speed regardless of the fact that Blog b is providing a benefit to the ISP. That is net neutrality, and it is what allows content to be equally accessible by all.

No I am not exaggerating 

In the business sense, helping blog b would be better for the ISP because they could barter for more money from those who pay. To do this, blog b would be given a "clear connection" while blog a would not. So the ISP would physically hold the packets coming from blog a to let blog b go on, which would speed up b and slow down a.

This issue has come up frequently in the past few years as the ISP's battle the content providers over the issue. Major telecommunications companies such as At&t as well as ISP's are against net neutrality, because it is a potential cash cow! Think about it, lets say the net neutrality rules were abolished, that means a company like At&t (which basically owns all of the freaking fiber optic cables in the bloody country) could basically control what search engines would be able to be the fastest on there networks based off of who could pay the most. The search engine that would win would be Google and just like that your options would be limited. In addition, a company could limit a websites speed (like Facebook or this blog) simply because they do not agree with the content or again because the site could not afford "premium" speeds.

Net neutrality is one of those topics that never really makes it into the main stream media even though its effects are so wide spread. Senator John McCain has also been actively pursing legislation against net neutrality, so this is not simply an issue debated by your local Geek Squad crew.

So what do you take away from this? Simple KEEP YOURSELF INFORMED ABOUT THIS ISSUE. ITS THE THINGS THAT WE TAKE FOR GRATED THAT EFFECT US ALL THE MOST!!!!

Cheers
--Devang

How Google Works

Google is kind of a big deal in the internet world, hell lets just go ahead and call google the kind of the internet world! But how does google "know" so much? Well Google my friends is a search engine, and the concept is pretty neat.

A search engine (e.g. Google, Bing etc) is, in basic terms, a computer program that searches the internet for new websites, images etc... and sends that data to be compiled on another machine (a server in the case of Google). Search engines work based off of an algorithim (generally) and can also involve human input.

Dramatic reenactment 

What does all that mean? Well lets break it down.

A computer program is nothing more then a set of instructions that tells the machine to perform a task. These tasks (like adding or subtracting in a calculator) are powered by an algorithim. An algorithim can be simply defined as a "well defined set of instructions to complete a said process". So a search engine runs off of
an algorithim that tells it to go across the internet and collect as much data as possible, which is called crawling hence the term 'web crawler' Then it takes the data and sends it to a computer to be compiled and hence useful to you and me.

So Google, and other search engines, send out thousands of these crawlers across the internet to search for all sorts of data.

But then why is Google so vast? Well simply put it is one of the oldest search engines out there, and they have had alot of time to crawl (and they have ALOT of cash which allows them to create more crawlers and build more servers to store all of that data).

To illustrate just how many little crawlers there are running around the big ole internet, lets take a look at the website for The Johnsonian (thats http://www.mytjnow.com your source for Winthrop University news). :)

As webadmin I can see the number of visits the site has had over its life time (in this case the site has been up for roughly a month):

• --Google's crawlers have stubbled upon this site 515 time (43.24%)
• --Bing's 84 (7.05%)
• --Baidu 60 (5.05%)
• --Yahoo 21 (1.76%)
• --Ask 2 (0.17%)
• --All others 509 (42.74%)

The numbers show why Google is google, because they alone account for almost 50% of the crawler traffic on our site (and probably many many more). This is because Google has used its search engine to sell ads and therefore make alot of money and get involved in many lucrative deals.....but thats another blog huh?

So in a nut shell thats how Google works (and other search engines too).

If you have any questions or comments email me!

Also send in your suggestions for my next blog (I blog about what you want to learn about!!!!)

--Cheers

Devang

Portable, Affordable Hard Drives

This post is dedicated to my friend SarahMac who gave me the inspiration to blog about it.

The jump drive is one of my generations best tools and yet it is obsolete. For many of us a boost in storage is what we need for our massive amounts of media. So the solution is to run out a get a portable hard drive. However do you really want to go fork over 50 bucks for one?

For me, I find making my own is a simpler solution.

Step one:

Analyse how much storage you need. For alot of us, 250 gigs is probably enough, more than enough to move over pictures, music and videos. (Taking into account that these tend to be our largest files and if you wanted to move the contents of your ipod over to your hard drive you could only fill up at max what 160 gigs of the 250 we talked about). So knowing what you need is important, because the more storage you want, the more you will be paying.

Step two:

Assemble the parts. This is pretty simple, you need a case and a hard drive. Lets deal with the drive first. The standard portable hard drive (the kind that is just usb plug and play from the store) is usually a 2.5" drive. This is because of a smaller form factor (compared to a 3.5" drive) and also because of the power requirements on the drive. In the old days we used to be able to purchase IDE drives, but now the standard has moved to SATA. What does that mean? Well to spare you the techno jumble, its how the drive fits into the computer, and the ammount of data the drive can send up or down. IDE drives are old and SATA drives are new so newer is better.

Anyway we have a drive type now, a 2.5" SATA hard drive. Now we need a case. This is also really simple, because you can find a hard drive case that fits a 2.5" SATA hard drive.

Here are two links (on ebay) to a drive and a case:

--250 gig hard drive
 http://cgi.ebay.com/Seagate-250GB-SATA-5400RPM-2-5-Laptop-Hard-Drive-Tested-/280534359887?cmd=ViewItem&pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item4151269f4f#ht_2547wt_1137

--Case
http://cgi.ebay.com/2-5-USB-2-0-SATA-HARD-DISK-DRIVE-HDD-CASE-ENCLOSURE-/220540926663?cmd=ViewItem&pt=PCC_Drives_Storage_Internal&hash=item3359437ac7#ht_3373wt_1027

All together thats about 32 bucks (you can find deals).

Now all you have to do is put the parts together and boom there you go. Here are some pictures of mine to show you how easy it is:

The Case:

here is the case with included usb cables

the inside of the case with the drive connections
















the drive top and bottom

putting it together, green side down and be careful and take your time. Its easy to break the pins if your too rough.

and there you have it, the finished product. just plug and play and your ready to go!











Its just that simple! I like this because I can make use of drive I get from computers past. Also It sure beats buying one eh?

Got questions comments or concerns? Want more help with something or got a suggestion for my next blog, email me at devangj031@gmail.com

Cheers

--Devang
  

Keeping your computer cool

Computers like many other machines are prone to perform in a way that reflects upon there operating environment. Specifically this has to do with temperature. Take for example your car. A car has an optimum operating temperature, at which fuel efficacy, horsepower and touqe are at there peaks. This is why we "warm up" the engine in the winter time and obsess over our engine temps in the summer. Well computers, and electronics in general,  also have optimal operating environments. Again these environments have to do with the temperature and to a lesser degree the humidity in the air. However unless you are reading this blog in a rainforest or swamp, lets just focus on the temperature.

A computer like all other electronics begin to build heat as soon as they are powered on. This is because as electricity flows, you get heat (due to the resistance in the circuitry). Electronics tend to use materials that minimize resistance but there are some things you cant get around. For example the CPU of a computer is a "semi conductor" and is not exactly known for its low resistance, but that starts to lead us into understanding the physics and thats not what this blog is about. (If your a nerd like me take Physics with calc 1&2 at Winthrop, great classes and you get into this).

So to continue a computer generates heat as it runs, and the longer it runs the warmer it gets. To help move some of the hot air out computers come with fans and heat sinks (pieces of metal that are highly thermally  conductive) which draw away heat from the cpu. This is good in general and for your every day desktop computers this works well. For laptops its all about what you have. Some models have great ventilation built in, and others do not. For example i have an hp g60 with the outlet always open and an intake on the bottom. However my dad has a dell from work with the outlet fan pointing straight down. This can be a real problem because you set your laptop on a) your freaking lap or b) a desk, and solid barriers equal poor airflow. Many people therefore turn to laptop chill pads. A standard chill pad can cost between 15-30 bucks and the idea is simple, elevate the computer and draw heat away. I have a Belkin one which is shaped like a u. this create a void in the middle to allow for air flow. There is also a fan on the bottom which throws up cold air to keep it nice and cool. And the fan runs off usb which is always nice (I really like mine).

If you have a desktop your cooling options are even better. There are plenty of aftermarket fans, heat sinks and even water cooling options out there. Just know the more powerful your computer the more heat so always be weary.

Finally cheap insurance can be found in those compressed air cans you can get (for dusting). Just blow out the dust from your desktop or laptop vents (works wonders for a laptop) and your good to go.

Want to learn more, my favorite cooling options or wanta talk about physics? Email me and devangj031@gmail.com

--Cheers

Browsers

Computing today is very much a web based affair, and if you disagree go ahead and smack yourself because you are reading this on the bloody internet.

With that unpleasantness behind us, lets again recall that people use there computers for the internet more than anything else (on average). Now this leads us to the primary tool we use to access the glory that is the internet...the web browser. Now the majority of people are familiar with what a web browser is, and instead of talking about how the browser works many of us want to know which is the best browser for us. So to gauge the effectiveness of the browser, I looked at the following; speed, ease of use, viewable content space, and content support. Here is a list, from best to worst, of a few browsers.

1) Google Chrome

2) Mozilla Firefox

3) Opera

4) Safari

5) Internet Explorer

Now looking at the list, it shouldn't be a surprise that Internet Explorer is dead last. I mean the thing sucks, if you don't believe me get one of the others and load a page and then do the same on IE. If you still like IE better, you should be commended....

Now on to the real browsers, I have to hand it to Google for coming out with Chrome. I was a long time Firefox guy, and I still have it on my machine, but I only use Chrome now. It is fast! I mean really fast, and with its minimal design, I like the added viewing area. And with the newer releases of Chrome, I now get themes and extensions (like mail checker, weather etc) built in, which is what Firefox had keeping it ahead.

Firefox is still a great browser choice, with a ton of customizable features that is still hard to beat. Also, you can tweak with the settings to improve speed which the nerd in me likes.

Opera is a descant browser with a chromeesk feel (or is it chrome that has an operaesk feel) which gives good support. Opera also features a Turbo Mode, which can boost page loading speed on a slower internet connection. I never really got the chance to test how well Turbo Mode works because I have a pretty good cable connection but it is defiantly worth trying. To me the faster load times of Chrome and Firefox just seem more appealing.

Poor Safari has really let me down over the past few months. I remember the first time I tried the browser, and was impressed with its unique start up screen and speed. However subsequent releases have led to slower speeds (for me anyway) and the start up page seems lost in a world of Chrome and Opera (I think even Firefox and IE have these features now). Oh well what do you expect from Apple right?

I would also like to go on the record and say that if I could find a working version of Netscape Navigator, that would be first on the list, because Netscape Navigator just that cool. Seriously you judge but in 20 years kids in middle school will be talking about how "throw back" Netscape was (it will be the cool thing), kinda like how I listen to NWA and Run DMC in hopes of making myself hip.

Send me any questions or comments!

--Devang

LEARN TO READ URLS!!!!!

This post is a shout-out to my dear friend Anna, and the other staff members of TJ.

The URL is one of those things that we definitely take for granted. I mean just think about how many times you type a URL in a week, a day an hour? Heck I will even count clicking on bookmarks for this post, because the URL in my opinion is one of the most useful things we have come up with in regards to the internet.

Now a URL stands for Uniform Resource Locator, and I am going to spare you the technical details and let you know that if you REALLY want to know, Wikipedia has a pretty good article on it.

So back to why I am talking about URLs....

First learning how to read a URL can really save your ass in a time where cyber crime is at a all time high. We use the web so much, for banking, purchases etc...... that a wrong URL here or there can transform from a minor inconvenience to a really problem. For example, someone can easily spoof a banks homepage and steal your log on information if your not careful.

For example you can go to Bank of America's website : www.bankofamerica.com  <----real

or if your not paying attention you could go to www.bankofamerica.net etc...... THERE ARE TONS OF POSSIBLE SCAMS!

So the bottom line is read!

No to address why I gave my friends a shout out. On our college newspapers website, we use our own domain name to redirect people to our webpage. In this case our domain is mytjnow.com and we get directed to www.something.com/mytjnow.

People get upset when they see the www.something.com/mytjnow, and claim that we are not legitiment because of that. So to the people who feel like that, I suggest you take one of Winthrop's fine CSCI 101 classes, because it will really help you understand how wrong you are. You see the reason CNN can have www.cnn.com is because they have thousands of dollars to spend on servers. We do not. So get over  it, we are here to give you the news not to bedazzle you with our custom URL.

See this blog made sense.......

--Devang

Neat and useful software

When we talk about useful software, it is important to remember that what is useful to say me is of absolutely no interest to anyone else in the world (seriously). So I have found two useful programs that are both FREE and USEFUL to the majority of people out there. Also, understanding that some readers may be using Mac’s I have tried to find programs that can work on both Windows and Mac (if your using Linux get WINE so you can run Windows apps, but Linux distros come pretty stacked).

1) SharePod --- http://www.getsharepod.com

            Recently my friend Anthony upgraded to a new laptop because his old one had seen better days. There was a problem however, how to transfer his music from one computer to another. Although this is a simple task in most cases, for poor Anthony it was anything but. You see he had forgotten the information that was used to set up his iTunes account, and like everything that rolls out of the Apple Computer Corporation, it was a pain in the ass to trouble shoot. So after weeks of surfing the net, looking for hacks to allow transferring music outside of iTunes (via Windows Explorer) I came across SharePod. This free program allows you to simply drag and drop media between the iPod and PC. It also allows you to create a backup of your iPod, just in case disaster strikes and you loose everything that keeps you going day to day. So if you have an iPod, I suggest you get SharePod and try it out!

2) Dropbox --- http://www.dropbox.com

            Many of us have faced the evil that is data loss, whether it is your media or important documents, the sudden loss of files can really cause problems. Now we all backup our computers right? We all have servers that read out minds and know that this history paper needs to be backed up onto three separate RAID arrays…………….. Despite all the warning we geeks throw out there, people still don’t understand that the only way to protect your data is by being proactive. So before I go any further, I am going to get on my electronic soap box and tell you one thing… YOU NEED TO BACK UP YOUR FILES, YES YOU, NO THE COMPUTER WILL NOT FIGURE IT OUT. With that unpleasantness out of the way, let me tell you about a piece of software that may just help you out. Dropbox is a really neat solution to creating online backups of your documents. Simply go to there website and download the software. Follow the instructions for installation and select there you would like your Dropbox folder to me (on the Desktop, Documents ….). Once you are done you will see your folder and a little icon in the System Tray (right by the clock). Now all you have to do is drag and drop files that you deem important to the Dropbox folder and bam, it will automatically back them up to there online servers. (I recommend that you make it a habit to save important documents to you Dropbox folder every time, that way you can’t forget the drag and drop). Also, every time the files are updated, Dropbox will automatically make the changes on the server. If your computer every crashes, or you need to remotely access the files, just go online and sign into your Dropbox account (created during installation) and there are all your files ready to go. The free account gives you 2 gigs of storage (more than enough for documents), but you can always upgrade to more space for a monthly fee. GET DROPBOX IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE, or at least help you out…

Thanks all for today, send me requests on what you want to hear more about (I was thinking about cool new laptops etc…)

--Devang

Starting the blog of course

Hey everyone,

In order to feed my overwhelming nerd desires, I decided to create a tech blog. Now in addition to rambling on and on about new things in geekdom, I also want to make this blog helpful to people who want advice on various "tech" questions. Also, if you would like to be a contributer to the blog let me know through email at devangj031@gmail.com

I have created a poll on the left hand side that will run till next Tuesday in regards to the first topic I should blog about so go ahead and vote for something you would like to read about!

--Devang