PowerMonkey

Unfortunately, it often happens, that batteries at mobile phones, palmtops, cameras and other portable devices discharge in the most improper time. Especially presently, when almost everyone has PDA, iPods, mobile phones, any others gadgets, it is a big problem. However the device called PowerMonkey can solve such problem.
PowerMonkey is a small gadget, which can provide hours of additional work for your devices.


it can serve as one more battery in case that their own battery will be discharged.
Simply insert a wire into the necessary device and you will not worry any more that the battery can disharge.
There are two versions of PowerMonkey. The first is called eXplorer and works from solar energy, and the second is usual. To both versions the wires are applied, which will approach for all types of portable devices.

Lenovo Updates Pricing On Consumer Desktop, Laptops

Lenovo on Friday updated pricing for a consumer desktop, a netbook, and laptops introduced at the International Consumer Electronics Show in January.

The IdeaCentre A600 entertainment desktop; the IdeaPad Y650, Y550, and Y450 laptops; and the S10 netbook are scheduled to be on store shelves and available online this month across the United States, the computer maker said. The retail outlets expected to carry the new systems include Lenovo.com, Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN).com, TigerDirect.com, Fry's, and Newegg.com.
The final manufacturer suggested retail prices are $999 for the A600; $800 for the Y650, Y550 and Y450; and $349 for the S10.

The A600 is an all-in-one desktop system with a 21.5-inch high-definition display. The PC is powered by an Intel (NSDQ: INTC) Core 2 Duo processor and ships with Advanced Micro Devices (NYSE: AMD)' ATI Mobility Radeon graphics card. The system also has a wireless keyboard and mouse.

The Y650 laptop is one of Lenovo's thinnest and lightest 16-inch laptops, measuring 1 inch thick at its thinnest point and weighing 5.6 pounds. The Y550 and Y450 are of the same product line and have similar designs. The Y550 has a 15.6-inch screen and the Y450 a 14-inch display. The Y series is powered by an Intel Core 2 Duo processor and is available with up to 500 GB of hard drive storage and 4 GB of DDR3 system memory.

Finally, the S10 is a mini-laptop with a 10-inch display. The system is 0.9 of an inch thick and weighs 2.4 pounds. Lenovo says the low-priced S10 is built for people looking for an ultraportable PC for light computing, such as e-mail and browsing the Web.

source: informationweek.com

AT&T, Labor Talks Continue As Strike Threat Looms

AT&T (NYSE: T) continued to negotiate with union members whose contracts expired over the weekend as the company focused on several issues, including how to protect the job security.

The two sides are also trying to hammer out agreements related to the status of worker positions being lost because of the shift of subscribers from landlines to wireless.

Although AT&T -- the largest telecom company in the United States -- has nearly 300,000 employees, just 15,000 workers in one unit represented by the Communications Workers of America are at the center of attention in the negotiations. The workers have agreed to work on past the expiration of the contract. The union members already have approved a strike vote.
"AT&T stands ready to negotiate at any time in a continuing effort to reach an agreement," AT&T said in a statement.

In a reply, the CWA said: "This company takes care of executives and investors. It needs to set the right priorities and maintain quality jobs and quality benefits for workers."

Many of the issues at stake in the negotiations are similar to bones of contention at other telecommunications companies and even in other industries. For instance, the two sides have been trying to resolve issues over health care payments, which have been rising sharply in recent years.

Another major issue involves the fate of workers who are faced with losing their jobs as consumers increasingly drop landlines in favor of wireless phone service. According to media reports, the two sides have been exploring ways by which workers dropped from landline service rolls will be able to pick up employment in AT&T's wireless operation or in its growing cable programming unit. Earlier, AT&T said it plans to cut 12,000 jobs this year.


2009 marks the 12th year that InformationWeek will be monitoring changes in security practices through our annual research survey. All who complete the survey and provide their contact information will be entered into our prize drawing for a 46-inchSony (NYSE: SNE) Bravia V Series LCD flat-panel HDTV, valued at $1,800. Find out more, and take part by April 26.

source: informationweek.com

Facebook Quick Tip: Managing The Redesign

With the advent of Facebook's design changes a couple of weeks ago, the News Feed suddenly got to be much more crowded and busier, filled with random comments and observations, links, conversations, photos, and other minutiae.
Some of us are noisier than others. Indeed, this article might also be headlined "how to get Mitch Wagner to shut up," because I am most definitely part of the problem. I just love to share on Facebook. How do you get blabbermouths like me to shut up and stop bothering you?
Well, you can un-friend them of course. I've done that with a few people who are active on Facebook, and whom I barely know. But un-friending people has consequences. As obnoxious as your cousin's political links might be, un-friending him could be awkward at the next family Bar Mitzvah.

Fortunately, there's a way to get rid of obnoxious people's updates without un-friending them -- and it's actually pretty simple.

3 Easy Steps To Silence

1. Just look for one of their updates in your news feed, and hover your mouse over it. You'll see the word "Hide" appear in the top-right corner of the update.

2. Click on the word "Hide." You'll see a couple of dropdown selections; one of them the word "Hide" followed by the name of the user -- if you're hiding me, it would say "Hide Mitch." If the noisy user posted using a third-party application, you also get a choice to hide that application.

3. Click on your choice, and you're done.

Remember, the word "Hide" won't show up unless you hover your mouse over an update posted by the person you want to hide.

So, go ahead, hide news items on Facebook from over-sharing motormouths, and enjoy the blessed silence.

Facebook spokeswoman Meredith Chin (who has wisely chosen to ignore my recent friend request) shares some additional tips.
"You can add [people you hide] back to your stream at any time by going to the bottom of the page and clicking on 'Edit Options' and then 'Add to News Feed' beside their names.

"In addition, you can create a special Friend List of the people you care about the most. That Friend List will appear on the left hand navigation menu giving you the ability to filter your stream by those friends and see only their updates. If you want that list to be the default every time you go to your home page, you can drag that list above the 'News Feed' filter. Whatever filter is at the top will be your default view."

She noted that Facebook is constantly tweaking its user interface, so what you see on your screen might be slightly different from what's described in these instructions and shown in the accompanying image gallery. But it should be close enough -- until Facebook does another radical redesign, that is.

Keep Your Friends Separate

And now, here's how to create a Friend List:

1. Click "Friends" on the blue horizontal bar at the very top of your Facebook page. Select "All Friends" from the dropdown.

2. Select an existing Friend List from the vertical sidebar on the left side of the page, or click the blue "Make a New List" button and create a new list.

3. Look for the text box near the top of the center column, labeled "Add to list." Start typing a friend's name in that box and then when the correct friend's name comes up on the list below the box, select that name by clicking it or hitting "Enter" on your keyboard. Alternately, you can click the "Select Multiple Friends" button, and see a list of all your friends, and click on the ones you want to include in your list.

I've created one list so far, called "Fav" for people who are actually my friends and family in real life.

New communications technology requires new forms of etiquette. When answering machines became popular, people argued about whether it was polite to screen calls. People argued over Caller ID. Now, we're starting to see arguments about appropriate of social media like Facebook.

I think in the future we'll see a consensus that you're not required to subscribe to your friends' Twitter feeds, or Facebook news, or blogs. That's what I already tell people who complain about my social media garrulousness, I say, "I realize my style isn't for everyone -- if you want to un-friend me, I won't be offended."

How do you handle people who talk too much on social media? Or are you the one who talks too much -- how do you handle complaints? Let us know.

PC Failures, PC Fixes: Troubleshooting Mysterious Problems (Last)

Problems with video cards can show up for reasons that have nothing to do with gaming. On a system that shipped with a 375 watt power supply (low end, to be sure), I added a second display and within barely a week was experiencing all of the above symptoms in various combinations.

I shied away from upgrading the power supply -- which would have been a major hassle -- and sought other solutions. As it turned out, the software control suite for the video card (an ATI Radeon HD 4650) allowed the user to manually override the GPU and memory clock speeds, as well as the fan speed. I set all of these to the lowest possible settings (see the illustration), reattached the second display, and haven't had a problem since.
I should point out that other devices, such as hard drives and optical drives, typically don't draw all that much power. Removing them as a power-saving measure (as opposed to debugging, as described above) gives you back very little.

Stress-test

One common reason for random failure is issues with memory -- a bad memory module can appear even on the most high-end machines. The best way to determine if there's a memory issue with a given machine is to test it, rigorously and repeatedly. Vista has its own memory test application, but you can also download and run a program like Memtest86+ (http://www.memtest.org/), which sports a slightly broader set of test parameters.

The best way to run a memory test is to set it up and let it run overnight: not just one pass, but continuously, for hours on end. If the test program detects an error -- or, worse, if the machine locks up solid -- there's a good chance one of the DIMMs is defective. Sometimes mismatched DIMMs can cause problems; try pulling one and then the other, and see if things go south on you then.
Get Everything Up-To-Date

This means more than running Windows Update. Your PC manufacturer may have updates not offered through Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) -- BIOS patches, for instance, or device drivers not provided in the default Windows installation. Fortunately it's become that much easier to find these things and keep them current --Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Dell (Dell), for instance, both have applications that bring you directly to the relevant web page for your system. BIOS updates often go by undetected, both because they're generally not delivered automatically and because many people are still twitchy about applying BIOS updates. They shouldn't be: in the past, updating BIOS typically required booting a DOS disk or something similar, but today the vast majority of such updates can be done from within Windows, quite safely.

Have Patience

The single most important thing -- and the one hardest to remember for many people -- is to be patient and diligent. It's easy to succumb to the temptation to pitch the whole thing out the window and start anew, but that's also an expensive solution -- and brings with it the risk that you'll end up no better off than you were before. Solve a problem like this on your own (or with a little guru oversight), and you'll be that much better equipped to tackle something like this the next time it shows up.

PC Failures, PC Fixes: Troubleshooting Mysterious Problems (3)

When you run AutoRuns (remember to run it in admin mode!), use the Options | Hide Signed Microsoft (NSDQ: MSFT) Entries menu option to show only files have been provided by other companies, which are more likely to be the problem. Pay specific attention to the entries in the Drivers and Services tabs, but a once-over in the Everything tab wouldn't be a bad idea if you're patient.

Another good way to get a complete summary of kernel-level objects is through Gabriel Topala's outstanding SIW utility, easily one of the best general-purpose system-information tools out there. The program can generate in stupefying detail, reports about a system's makeup, including kernel device drivers.
Run the program (again, in admin mode), look in Software | Drivers and sort by the "Type" column, then scroll down to "Kernel Drivers" (with "Running" in the Status column) to see a full rundown of what's currently running as a kernel driver. Right-click on any of those entries to change their running status -- but be very careful what you turn off here, as you could bring your system to a screeching halt if you're careless.

So how do you know what's needed and what's not? This part may require some research on your part, since it isn't always obvious. If you have a guru handy, dump the list out to a file (SIW lets you do this), send it his (or her) way, and have him (or her) peek at it. If your guru can't figure out what a given kernel driver is for, or feels it's creating more trouble than anything else, nix it.
Be Mindful Of Power Issues When Debugging

Electrical problems can be some of the toughest to diagnose because they don't seem to be related to anything happening on the PC itself. They just strike like, well, lightning.

I mentioned before, in passing, that electrical problems can take two forms. One is the power supplied to the PC itself, and if you live in an area with glitchy power you already know about this first-hand. I live on an island in the Atlantic Ocean, where even on less windy days the power to my house is fairly dirty. Consequently, UPSes for each computer and its associated peripherals are mandatory. I should also note that a UPS's power load should be distributed intelligently: don't plug laser printers, for instance, into the battery-backup sockets of a UPS, since there's little reason to give them power protection.

The second form is the power supplied within the PC itself -- the power that the PC's power supply distributes internally. Few people reading this need to be convinced of the wildly varying quality of computer power supplies. Anyone stuck with a low-wattage, no-name or third-tier power supply in their PC automatically has a good reason to drop a few dollars and upgrade to something a little more robust. 500 watts or more is a good margin of safety for most desktop PCs.

Also, be mindful of a common PC component with potentially high electrical consumption that can be a hidden source of problems: the video card. A gaming-quality video card can use up enough juice by itself to count as a compelling argument to upgrade the power supply. Problems with video card power draw can manifest in three ways: BSODs, hard freezes, and (most commonly) that frustratingly inconclusive "Video driver stopped responding and has been restarted" message. That error has caused no end of people to tear their hair out because it doesn't tell you why that happened.

PC Failures, PC Fixes: Troubleshooting Mysterious Problems (2)

We've become used to the idea that the modern PC can give us reasonably detailed information about what might be wrong when things go afoul. That hasn't made end-user detective work obsolete -- if anything, it's made it all the more valuable, since the user now has to diagnose what on the face of it might seem like something wholly undiagnosable. It's not -- it just requires a bit more tenacity and patience than normal.
Remove Or Disable Everything That's Physically Unnecessary

This is a textbook troubleshooting technique, but many people are loath to go to the lengths they need to make it thoroughly effective. A mouse, keyboard, display, and maybe a network connection are all you need to get things going -- and sometimes you can do without the network connection as well. If you have an extra display, unplug it, too -- a second display can be problematic for reasons I'll go into later.

It might able to be useful to go into the system BIOS and disable devices that are not in use if you have the option to do so. Examples: onboard audio or networking, unused bus controllers (e.g., FireWire), or devices that are enabled but never actually used.

Clean Up And Look Around

Now would be as good a time as any to break out the Q-tips and vacuum cleaner. Open up the PC and look around -- sometimes the problem may be something grossly physical that wouldn't come to your attention when the lid is on. Loose or severely bent cabling (especially for hard drives), dust clogs on fans or heat-exchange apparatus, and bulging capacitors should all be considered signs of trouble. This is another reason to run with as little hardware as possible: the less you have inside the system as well, the easier it is to spot problems like this.

Turn Off Unneeded Kernel-level Objects

Aside from hardware, disable any non-Microsoft drivers or components that aren't absolutely essential. One powerful tool that can be used to this end is Sysinternals's AutoRuns, a program that's something of a big brother to Microsoft's own MSCONFIG. AutoRuns covers a great deal more territory than MSCONFIG, and like that program, anything disabled through it can be re-enabled later on without a great deal of hassle; its effects are totally reversible and nondestructive.

PC Failures, PC Fixes: Troubleshooting Mysterious Problems (1)

Has there ever been a truly trouble-free PC? We've gotten a lot closer to it in recent years, thanks to better diagnostics and improved software and hardware engineering -- but sometimes, every now and then, things fall apart and the center cannot hold in a big country way.

The worst problems of all are the ones that come without warning, maybe also striking again and again without warning, and leave little or nothing for you to analyze when they're done. That's when you need to call in a PC version of Gregory House, Fox TV's caustic but brilliant medical mastermind, or play a version of the role yourself, whittling down possible causes until the patient recovers. Or doesn't.
The good news is that you don't have to put up with them. Over time I've built up a repository of insights and strategies for dealing with these kinds of difficult-to-trace failures. They take time and effort to track down, but the effort is well-spent.

Note that most of the discussion here is aimed at a Windows-centric audience, but many of the same concepts apply to Linux or other OS users, too -- especially tips about hardware.

Types Of Failure

Most of the time, when something goes wrong, there's at least an error message or a warning of some kind, like the infamous Blue Screen of Death, to steer us in the right direction. This piece, though, deals with failures that have no warning at all -- no BSOD, no errors, nothing. The system may hang completely, reboot spontaneously, or even shut itself off without warning.

If there's no BSOD, then the system has been -- to use a euphemism employed by another of industry colleagues -- "mugged," meaning whatever happened was outside the realm of the operating system's ability to cope with it. Such things generally fall into a few basic categories: hardware failures, electrical problems, and untrappable OS issues.

Hardware Failures are anything from a component going bad to memory failing to a device being mistakenly disconnected. A fair number of hardware failures are "trappable," meaning the OS can anticipate disasters of that variety and warn the user about what went wrong (via a BSOD). But not everything can be trapped in this fashion, simply because there's no way to anticipate it.

Electrical Problems might normally be filed under hardware failures, but I'm breaking them out as a category of their own for a few reasons. For one, electrical problems can come from outside the PC entirely (a frayed power cable, a bad socket, a dying UPS battery) or from within it (a failing system power supply, a faulty soft switch). Also, they can typically be fixed without affecting the rest of the PC or its hardware.

Next iPhone May Feature Better Camera, Video Editing, 802.11n (2)

Over the weekend, AppleInsider reported that the beta iPhone 3.0 SDK includes a resource file that lists support for a new Broadcom chip in Apple's third-generation iPod Touch, making the improved wireless chip likely to be included in the next iPhone, too.

The Broadcom BCM4329 supports 802.11n wireless networking, unlike its predecessor, which was limited to 802.11a/b/g. As observed on 9 To 5 Mac, this chip also includes FM reception and transmission, in contrast to the previous model, which only allowed FM reception.
Austrian Apple blog Benm.at, meanwhile, claims that the beta version of the iPhone 3.0 software includes references to a video editing application.

If Apple is indeed planning to add a video-capable camera to its iPhone -- which it must if it wants to keep up with the capabilities of competing mobile phones -- then it would make sense to include an application to handle basic in-phone video editing.

Last month, Apple made the 3.0 beta version of its iPhone SDK and iPhone software available for registered developers to download.

The software provides several expected and desired functions, such as copy and paste, MMS, and push notifications. And the iPhone 3.0 beta SDK gives developers more than 1,000 new application programming interfaces to create new applications.


Source: informationweek.com

Next iPhone May Feature Better Camera, Video Editing, 802.11n (1)

An upcoming iPhone model may feature a new camera, a faster networking chip that both receives and transmits FM signals, and video editing capabilities, according to information buried in various online documents.

Though Apple has made no specific announcements about future iPhone releases, the company is widely expected to introduce at least one new iPhone model by June.
This would coincide with Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference, with the anticipated release of its iPhone 3.0 software, and with the expiration of the two-yearAT&T (NYSE: T) service contracts signed by iPhone early adopters following the original iPhone's release in June 2007.
Apple news site DigiTimes in Taiwan claims that Apple has contracted with OmniVision for 3.2-megapixel CMOS image sensors that will be included in Apple's next iPhone. Adding credence to that claim is a report from AppleInsider that the next iPhone will feature video capabilities.
What's more, as reported by InformationWeek's Alexander Wolfe, Apple in January filed a patent application describing a technique for videoconferencing on a mobile device.

In its current form factor, the iPhone would make a poor videoconferencing device because the camera is on the back of the iPhone while the screen is on the front, making it impossible to be recorded and view incoming video simultaneously.

Adding further weight to speculation about future iPhone video capabilities, AppleiPhoneApps.com on Monday reported that Apple's iPhone engineering group is seeking to hire "a Camera Engineering Project Manager (EPM) to drive the design, development, and integration of camera modules across iPhone and iPod."

The iPod Touch does not currently include a digital camera.

Kido (aka Conficker, Downadup)

What is Kido?

Kido (aka Conficker or Downadup) was first detected in November 2008 as a worm which spreads across local networks and removable storage media. The latest generation of Kido is unable to spread by itself, but like earlier variants, it can update itself by downloading additional code.

Kido has created a powerful botnet of infected machines. It was programmed to update itself on 1st April 2009, and the latest generation of this program is designed to generate 50,000 domain names according to a random algorithm, and then choose 500 of these domains which it can potentially contact to update itself. Kido uses very sophisticated technology. It downloads updates from constantly changing online resources; uses P2P networks as an additional source of downloads; uses strong encryption to prevent interference with its command and control center; and prevents antivirus products from receiving updates.
It remains unclear why the Kido botnet has been created, and how it may be used in the future.
Why is Kido a threat?

The huge botnet formed by computers infected by Kido potentially provides cybercriminals with the means to conduct mass DDoS attacks on any Internet resource, to steal confidential data from infected computers and to distribute unsolicited content (e.g. mass spam mailings). It is believed that around five to six million computers around the world are infected by Kido.

Kido initially spread via local networks and removable storage devices. Specifically, it exploited the critical MS08-067 vulnerability patched by Microsoft back in October 2008. However, it’s believed that a significant number of PCs had not been patched by January 2009 when the spread of Kido reached a peak.

More detailed information on how Kido penetrates computers can be found here:

* http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?virusid=21782725
* http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?virusid=21782733
* http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?virusid=21782749
* http://www.viruslist.com/en/viruses/encyclopedia?virusid=21782790

How can I prevent a Kido infection?

Kaspersky Lab products can protect systems from infection by all variants of Kido. Ensure you have enabled automatic product update (enabled by default) and conduct a full system scan. Although Kaspersky Internet Security protects unpatched computers from infection, you should still check that you have installed all the latest Windows security updates (especially MS08-067).
How do I know if my PC is infected?

If there are any infected computers on your LAN, the volume of network traffic will increase due to a network attack conducted by infected computers. Antivirus applications with an enabled firewall will report an Intrusion.Win.NETAPI.buffer-overflow.exploit attack.

If you suspect that your computer is infected, try to open your browser and navigate to your favorite search engine. If the page opens, try to open www.kaspersky.com or www.microsoft.com – if the page does not open, then the site has probably been blocked by a malicious program. The full list of resources blocked by Kido can be found here.
I am a LAN administrator. How can I contain and disinfect a Kido infection?

You can remove Kido with the help of a dedicated utility, KKiller.exe. To prevent workstations and network servers from becoming infected you should:

* Install patches for the MS08-067, MS08-068 and MS09-001 vulnerabilities.
* Make sure you have a strong administrator password – it should have a minimum of six characters, including upper case, lower case, numbers and non alphanumeric characters. Disable autorun for all removable media. Disable Task Scheduler.

If you are using KKiller.exe to remove Kido, you should run this application manually on all infected PCs.
How can I remove Kido if I am a home user?

Download KKiller_v3.4.1.zip and unpack it to a separate folder on the infected PC. Run KKiller.exe. When the scan is finished, a command line window may still be open; simply press any key to close it.

If you are running KKiller.exe on a computer which has Agnitum Outpost Firewall installed, you should reboot the computer once the KKiller utility has finished running.

Recommendations for removing Kido are also available on the Kaspersky Lab technical support site.

C6 Chevrolet Corvette A new LS2 Sport Car

C6 Chevrolet Corvette A new LS2

Dave Hill, chief engineer of the Corvette and vehicle line executive for GM Performance Cars.The C6 represents a comprehensive upgrade to the Corvette.The Corvette C6 was introduced in 2005 to replace the outgoing C5 (1997 - 2004) model.
Blends technical sophistication with expressive style The sixth generation Corvette. Five inches shorter than the C5, the C6 Corvette cuts a tighter, more taut profile – with virtually no loss of usable space. More than just visual, the new dimensions make the car more agile and “tossable,” with upgrades in handling, acceleration and braking. At 0.28 coefficient of drag, the C6 is the most aerodynamically efficient Corvette ever and has improved anti-lift characteristics that enable improved high-speed stability and confidence.

C6 Chevrolet Corvette A new LS2

A new LS2 6.0-liter small-block V-8 is the standard engine in the Corvette C6. It is based on GM’s new Gen IV small-block family of engines.
The LS2 raises the bar for standard performance in the Corvette, delivering estimated peak output levels of 400 horsepower and 400 lb.-ft. of torque. It is the largest, most powerful standard small-block engine ever offered in Corvette.

Nuvifone - a mobile phone and GPS navigator

Today, absolutely unexpectedly, company Garmin has presented the new development - nuvifone - a mobile phone and GPS-navigator in one gadget. In general, today all the new developments combine in themselves some necessary possibilities at once.

Here is how the company describes the product: “[nuvifone] is for what waited both users of mobile phones and users of GPS, now these two functions are combined in one device”.

Certainly, the interesting new development, but it is not on sale at the moment. The device will appear on sale in the third quarter of this year. Actually, GPS – is a very convenient and necessary property, which can be also placed in mobile phones because special chips, necessary for it, become smaller and smaller.

So, the characteristics and possibilities:

* 3.5-inch touch display
* Connection 3.5G
* WiFi
* Columns
* MP3 player and MPEG4/AAC
* Web-browser
* Photo and videocamera
* e-mail, text, IM applications
* browsing through Google
* services from Garmin (weather, exchange rates, the prices for raw materials etc.)
* navigation by motorways and streets