The Most Controversial iPhone Apps

Steve Jobs's micromanagement has been something of a mixed blessing for Apple. It's assured a high standard across Apple's family of products, but it has also given the majority of the company's devices a walled garden approach to content, helping to assure that you only see what Apple wants you to see. Jobs once famously interrupted an Apple earnings call to tell the world, "Folks who want porn can buy an Android phone."

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The point there, of course, is that Apple vets app submissions for the App Store—Android, not so much. That means that adult content often makes its way into the Android Market. It also means, as we've seen in recent weeks, that malicious malware can make its way onto Android devices as well.

Still, even with Apple's infamously rigorous application process, we've seen a fair number of controversial apps hit the iTunes App Store. For some, like the recent so-called "Gay Cure" app from Exodus International, controversy is relative. A number of groups were shocked that Apple let such a thing into the store, in spite of its record of supporting gay causes. There were others, no doubt, who believed in the validity of the application's mission. (The app has since been pulled.)

Then there's something like the Baby Shaker app, which simulates the act of shaking a baby to death. How that managed to make it through Apple's team of reviewers is anyone's guess. Perhaps given the sheer number of submissions Apple receives at any one time, these things just sort of slip through the cracks sometimes.

In this roundup, we've gathered a pretty broad spectrum of apps, with different levels of controversy that were mostly controversial for different reasons. Each one had people in an uproar for one reason or another.

Driver Update Tips - Is it Time to Update Your Drivers

Before discussing when and how you can update your drivers, you must first know what a driver is. A driver is a software that bridges the communication between the computer and the hardware installed. Printers, keyboards, mice, and other hardware come in different forms and configurations and from different manufacturers.

You can't expect every computer to be programmed to recognize the language of all the different hardware in the world. That's why you have to install a driver into your computer because basically, its job is to translate computer commands (ex. Print document) to a language that the hardware (ex. Printer) can understand.

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When you purchase a desktop computer, the distributor may have installed some drivers already and just give you the installation CD just in case you need it in the future. However, laptop computers already have built-in hardware with their drivers readily installed. The problem is that if the computer needs to be reformatted, you have to look for the drivers of each hardware installed for you to be able to use your laptop again.

Now that you already have a clear grasp of what a driver is, the next thing you have to know is when you should update your drivers. As time pass, computers and their parts are constantly evolving and upgrading. With this, more problems arise as the driver goes out-dated and to some point, obsolete. However, this is not a strong reason to have a driver update. This matter needs a lot of thinking and researching in order for you to make a sound decision that you will not regret in the future.

Here are a few reasons you may want to consider when you update your drivers:
1. You can choose to update your driver when your computer notifies you that there are available updates (ex. Windows Updates). However, you have to think about it carefully because sometimes, updates being released are still in the testing phase. Make sure you educate yourself first on the reviews of each update so that you'll know if you need it or not.

2. If you need a new feature in your computer, your old driver may not be able to support that; that's why you may need an update. For example, your media player doesn't support a certain file type, you may have to update your media player or your sound/video card until it recognizes and plays more file types.

3. As your driver slowly becomes out-of-date, some problems may eventually arise like slower responses or poor graphics. In these cases, updating your driver may be your first step in troubleshooting the problem.

These are just a few thoughts on when you may need to update your driver. Just always remember to weigh the advantages and disadvantages of this decision so that (again) you will not have any regrets in the future.

Dating in Color

Let's start this tale of failure with a truth-filled declaration: I have no problem meeting the ladies. Whether combing the pristine floors of the Chelsea Apple Store, sipping Earl Gray at a local coffee shop, or cruising the aisles at Barnes & Noble, striking up engaging conversation with the fairer sex comes pretty naturally to me. That said, I'm not averse to using the marvels of the modern age to help form a love connection. Plenty of venues are available, ranging from online dating to tweetups. This weekend, however, I chose to experiment by using Color (3.5 stars, free), the new Android and iOS application. Given all the hype about the app (not least in PCMag.com), I assumed there would plenty of users nearby, wherever I went.

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Here's a little background for the uninitiated. Color is a free location-aware app that lets people within 150 feet of one another access photos, video, and messages, simultaneously, from multiple smartphones in real time, using patent-pending Multi-lens technology. If you've read my Color review, you know that I was impressed with the ability to quickly exchange photo and video—and, most importantly for my weekend mission, to interact with other Color users by leaving messages. Color is a photosharing app, but it's also a social networking app, in a way.

My goal was this: To find a female Color user, chat her up, and, hopefully, prove worthy enough to get a date. I planned to use Color by entering an area with a high density of people (a bar, park, or busy Manhattan street) and pick up a fellow user's photostream. Then, I'd quickly scan for a female profile picture, compliment her on a well-snapped photo, and let the magic happen. Unfortunately, there were very slim pickings. Very slim.

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Friday Night: Barhopping in Gramercy and the Lower East Side
After I finished clocking the day's hours at PCMag.com, I made a straight shot for a local watering hole just a few blocks from the office. I waltzed into the bar, whipped out my iPhone, and launched Color. There were many women in my immediate vicinity, so I had high hopes (especially for the brunette in the purple sweater a few seats away). Five minutes passed…nothing. Then a half-hour. Then a full hour. None of the potential candidates made a blip on the Color radar. All that came out of this bar trip were photos of college-aged, collar-popping brahs who had no issue sharing their drunken photos. And a bit of disappointment.

I met some friends in a LES bar later that evening, and briefed them regarding the task at hand. One was fascinated by the app's voyeuristic nature; the other not so much. After my demo, I began to get a bit antsy as I couldn't find a female Color user in the area. I began to grow concerned—not so much for my dating life, but how I was going to pull these failed attempts into some semblance of a story.

Saturday Evening: Union Square Park, Nintendo 3DS NYC Launch Event
I decided to head downtown to Union Square Park, a central hub where you can find people from many walks of life relaxing, chatting, dancing, and thoroughly enjoying the small oasis amidst the speeding taxis and packed sidewalks. Surely, there would be at least one straight woman using Color that would find my mug acceptable to look at from across a dinner table, right? Wrong. Once again, Color—no, society!—failed me. There were a few ladies sitting alone in the park—women that I would normally approach in a non-Color situation—but, apparently, they weren't hip to the app. I sat for a while accessing the situation.

The Union Square excursion wasn't totally without merit. Nintendo was out in full force to celebrate the launch of its new 3D handheld gaming console, so Color users in the area—the male Color users, that is—amassed some interesting shots of people playing games, eating the Nintendo-sponsored tacos, and grooving to a DJ spinning the wheels of steel. As I left Union Square, I began to realize that finding a date using Color was going to be far more difficult than I initially imagined.

Sunday Afternoon: The Staten Island Mall
My final attempt to get a date using Color took place in the Staten Island Mall. I fired up the app and it populated with images from not one, but two, women. I perked up in the belief that this would be the moment that would make this experiment worth while. The shots of the life-size Lady Ga Ga cut-out and Twilight book covers should've given me a clue that the pair were high schoolers (which I confirmed by swiping through their photo streams). This would've been awesome 25 years ago, but as someone pushing 40, I figured it was in my (and PCMag.com's) best interest that I keep moving.

Analyzing The Misadventures
I gave Color a fair chance; scenarios presented here are just the more interesting of the many tries I gave the app over the weekend. I made several other attempts to find a date using Color, but they amounted to nothing more than me sitting somewhere playing with my iPhone. My adventures in Color dating crashed and burned, not because I was overly stalker-ish in my pursuit, but rather because there simply weren't any women of age using the app.

Considering the amount of ink that Color received last week, I expected greater gender diversity. There were plenty of men using Color—but where were the women? There is no shortage of tech savvy women living in New York City (I personally know more than a few), so I was a bit perplexed by the entire situation.

Color has been available for less than a week, so the adoption rate may not be there yet—which is the most likely scenario. But when you factor in the heavy coverage that the app has received, it makes the entire affair even more disappointing.

Maybe New York women are just particularly privacy-conscious, but right now Color seems like a boys' club.

New York Times Subscription Service Goes Live Today

The New York Times subscription service, or "paywall," goes live at 2 p.m. Eastern today.

Readers can access up to 20 stories for free every month, as well as a limited amount of gratis content via the Times smartphone app. After that, it's a metered service; $15 a month buys unlimited access to the Times Web site and the premium smartphone app, $20 per month covers online access and the Times iPad app, and $35 a month buys access to the full range of Times' digital products. All of this is available to print subscribers are no additional cost. Perhaps to hook more readers into subscribing, the Times is offering the first four weeks at a discounted rate of $0.99.

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The paywall has been hotly debated since it was announced earlier this month. One of the most pervasive criticisms of the platform is that there are too many ways around it, legitimate and otherwise.

Articles posted on Twitter and Facebook can be viewed for free, and a handful of feeds have already popped up with the specific purpose of posting all Times content. There's also NYTClean, a bookmark tool created by a Canadian coder that demolishes the paywall with four lines of code. Other than that, a reader could simply clear his or her browsing data reset the 20 story limit.

Although the Times has recognized that there are many holes in the system, the company is betting that readers will still cough up the cash to access the publication. (Will you? Vote in our poll below.)

"We believe that enough people will pay, but we will not cut ourselves off from the rest," chairman of the Times Company Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said at a conference in Munich earlier this year.

But the paper's head of digital operations, Martin Nisenholtz, has noted that the pricing options could change.

"We're as confident as we can possibly be in a research setting," he said. "Obviously, whenever research hits the real world, there are changes."

Newspapers have struggled to maintain profitability and find their place in an age where news is increasingly consumed both online and for free. Circulation for the weekday edition of the Times has dwindled to 877,000 and 1.35 million for the Sunday paper. Meanwhile, traffic is on the rise at NYTimes.com; comScore says the site had 48.5 million unique views in January.

That said, Mediabistro pointed out that a print subscription is still cheaper. That the Times has opted to shift to a paid model is big news. After all, the New York Times is one of the most respected news organizations around. But whether or not people will actually pay for something they're used to getting for free, and something that they can still get for free by various means, will be apparent in the coming months.

10 reasons for quitting IT

There are a lot of upsides to working in IT — but depending on your situation, you might find yourself considering other career options. Jack Wallen describes a few factors that could be the last straw for some IT pros.

Raise your hand if you’ve nearly quit your job on at least a few occasions. Go on. You don’t have to be shy. We all know that IT is one of the more stressful careers you can choose. And unfortunately, universities don’t teach you coping mechanisms for getting through the days/weeks/months that can turn into long years. Let’s take a look at a few reasons you might decide to leave that beloved career in IT.

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1: Stress
Don’t let anyone ever tell you that a career in IT is easy going. It’s a rare occasion that someone will have a job in the IT field where there isn’t stress. Remember, IT is disaster management. When a client or user calls you, it’s almost always an emergency that must be taken care of immediately. And when you are working on those jobs, you had better get everything right, as failure could cost you a contract or a job. What makes this worse is that the stress rarely lets up. Every minute of the day, you are working and working harder than you might expect.
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2: Hours
If you want a Monday through Friday, 9-to-5 job, look elsewhere — IT seems to be a job you carry around with you 24/7. Not only do you put in more hours in the office (or the field) than your average professional, you also have to work outside the office to keep your skills up and make sure you’re better than the guy standing next to you. And the people who aren’t your clients or users (friends and family, for example) will want to take advantage of your knowledge and keep their computers running smoothly for free.

3: Getting paid
If you are an independent contractor, one of the most stressful issues you face is getting paid. I can’t tell you how many consultants I know who have had to make threats or use an attorney to get paid. And when you’re freelancing, if they don’t pay you, you don’t eat. That is some serious stress there. You don’t have the advantage of having that regular check coming in weekly or biweekly. Honing your interpersonal skills is key to keeping those relationships as good as possible. Good relationships (even with not-so-good people) will go a long way to make sure you do eventually get paid.

4: People (in general)
This one I hate to mention. A long time ago, I was a positive, upbeat, people-loving kind of person. But after being in the consulting business, I’ve found myself getting taken advantage of, used, abused, unpaid, underpaid, unappreciated, and more. It’s a constant fight to resist wanting to retreat to the woods and off the grid. That is not to say that people, in general, are bad. It’s just that when you have your IT hat on, people seem to look at you in a different light. You are both savior and sinner in one stressed-out package.

5: The chain of command
Let’s face it. Not many higher-ups understand your job. They think you should be able to get everything done on a shoestring budget, with no help, and you should treat end users as if they were better humans than yourself. And to make matters worse, the higher-ups want you to magically make those PCs last for more than a decade. This misunderstanding of both duty and technology does one thing: It makes your job impossible. When the powers-that-be begin to micromanage your department for you, every single bad element is exacerbated. You know your job and you know you know your job. Management does not know your job, but they don’t know they don’t know your job. It’s all a vicious Mobius strip of stress.

6: Technology
Have you ever had one of those days when it seems like the whole of technology has rebelled against you and it looks like the singularity might very well be on the horizon? Those days will have you wishing you were walking out of the building with your belongings in a cardboard box. This has been one of the issues I have had to deal with since working with a consultancy that deals primarily with Windows clients. It seems that entropy has a strong hold on the Windows operating system, and every day is a battle to keep PCs and systems working. Some days you win that battle, some days you lose it. The days you win are always lost in the pile of days you lose.

7: Competition
One thing you can count on — there will always be someone better than you. But in the IT industry, it isn’t a 1:1 ratio. Instead, it seems that for every one of you there are one hundred IT pros who are smarter, faster, and better equipped. That ratio is quickly realized in dollar signs. Remember, the IT landscape is constantly changing, and if you can’t keep up, you may not be hired or remain employed. The longer I am in this business, the more I realize it’s a young person’s game. Being as agile as necessary, being able to work the necessary hours… it all adds up. I’m not saying us older folks can’t run with the pack. We can. But every day we work is another day even more competition is added to the field, and the competition is fierce.

8: The cloud
Every time I hear an actor on TV speak the phrase “to the cloud” I want to pull out my hair and kick in the television. The cloud has been one of those aspects of IT whose definition has been, and probably always will be, in flux. What exactly is the cloud? Should I be using it? Is the cloud safe? How much does the cloud cost? I get hit with these questions all the time. Generally, I just answer by asking the clients if they’ve used Google Docs before. If they say “yes,” I tell them they are already using the cloud. But that is never satisfying. Clients and end users want the cloud to be some magical experience that will make all their work easier, better, and faster. If only they knew the truth.

9: Lack of standards
Our lives would be infinitely better if some sort of standards could be applied, across the board, in IT. Many open source projects have done everything they can to achieve a set of standards, only to be knocked down by proprietary software. Those proprietary software vendors want to keep their code closed and not compliant with standards so they can keep their bottom line as padded as possible. I get that, I really do. But while they are refusing to conform to any sort of standard, they are causing end users and IT pros any number of horrendous headaches on a daily basis. There is no reason why standards can’t be followed without preventing proprietary software vendors from making a killing.

10: Respect
The general public has a bad taste in its mouth for IT professionals. Why? There are many reasons. They’ve been burned before. They’ve been ripped off before. They’ve had consultants who only seemed to want to sell them bigger and better things. So long has this gone on, and so jaded has the public become, that IT pros have a hard time earning respect. Oh sure, when they see you walk in the door you are their best friend… for the moment. But the minute you get that one “impending doom” issue resolved, it’s time to go off on you or insist you do more than they hired you to do (or more than you have time to do).

Thinking about quitting?
Are the downsides of working in IT starting to outweigh the positive aspects of your job? What career would you pursue if you left IT? Share your thoughts with other TechRepublic members.

Facebook Denies Testing Search Box May Be Malware

Facebook said it is not testing a search box on the top of its pages, and those that actually see it may be infected with malware.

AllFacebook.com reported late Thursday that a user had discovered a search box at the top of the Facebook page, which the site initially implied was part of a Facebook strategy to add search to its pages.

"We are not testing the placement of a separate web search field and have no plans to do so," a Facebook spokeswoman said in a statement. "We believe the second search field or "Search the Web" box appeared on peoples' accounts as the result of unknown actions by a third party targeting the browser (potentially a browser plugin or malware) unrelated to Facebook."

Facebook also said it could help.

"If people think their browser may have been affected by malware, we offer a remediation process which includes a free browser-based virus scanning tool built by McAfee. Users are required to run this Scan and Repair tool and clean their machines of malware before accessing their account."

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While Google and Facebook have not struck a formal partnership, Microsoft and Facebook have, on two occasions: on Docs.com, a sharing site for online documents, whee users sign in with the Facebook ID; and a more recent partnership, whre Facebook likes were factored into Bing search results. The belief in the alleged Facebook search box may have been tied to what some people imagined could be a reciprocal partnership where Microsoft supplied search technology to the Facebook site. To date, Facebook has limited what information is searchable by outside search engines.

Google calling Nokia and Microsoft turkeys

A Google VP has tweeted a not-so-cryptic message relating to the mooted Nokia and Microsoft partnership.

Vic Gundotra, Google's VP of Engineering, sent the short message to his followers with the hashtag #feb11, indicating that it refers to the upcoming Nokia announcement.

Quoth the Google man: ""Two Turkeys do not make an Eagle".", seemingly pointing, laughing and calling Nokia and Microsoft turkeys in one foul swoop.

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Gobble gobble, Google

Such a public pronouncement from a senior Google employee certainly indicates that a Nokia-built Android phone is off the table for now, and hints at the industry insider knowing a thing or two about Nokia's fabled 11 February announcement.

It's the same weird saying that Nokia's then executive vice president Anssi Vanjoki used when commenting on a deal between Siemens and BenQ back in 2005.

The point Nokia was making back then was that the Siemens-BenQ merger would be like water off a duck's back to the Finnish company. Now, six years later, Google seems similarly unbothered by a potential Nokia/Windows Phone 7 deal.

Video Sharing Script For Joomla

The world indeed has been taken by storm by the World Wide Web. The Internet has come a long way that it has become one of the most powerful forces that help a person navigate and manipulate the world around us. If you have the knowledge and skill, it is even possible to create your own world with its own culture in the world of cyberspace.

Now that really sounds tempting, yet for sure that will get you a little bit intimidated, especially if you are not much of a techie person yourself. But you can do what I'm talking about here and be your own genius when it comes to making use of the features of the World Wide Web.

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If you're a fan of Youtube, and you go to their site to view your favorite songs and videos, then you have all of your favorite videos by creating your own site and sharing it with your friends. If for instance, you don't really have the talent for writing, well you are in luck because just by taking a video of yourself talking and expressing yourself, you can share your thoughts and feelings without having to put it in writing but through your video. By uploading it in your own Joomla video share site, then you can choose to share it with everyone else.

These are just some of the features of what I'm about to introduce to you. Sounds good right? And I would have to say, having your own video-sharing site, a Youtube Joomla, it's just fairly easy.

If you have a HD Video Share for Joomla with its video sharing script, you can work on your videos with the help of features like having an HD FLV player that automatically functions as default. Aside from that, you can play any video with any format that Flash is able to support, there are also tool tips to your own language in the player, has 4 stylish skin, has easy to install component modules, can be installed to any Joomla template, simple to manage modules, complete control on number of columns and rows for your videos, super admin controlling user activities, user admin for users to manage or add videos, user rating for videos, Ajax based commenting system, video conversion using FFMPEG, video search modules like Youtube, sorting videos made easy through Ajax, using your own logo in the player, right click copy right URL, Google analytics tracking, SEO friendly URL, and finally, multi language options. Your life will be easier with a Joomla Video Sharing script, definitely!

With Joomla, you'll be able to create a website and install their program for you to create, upload and manage your videos. Of course, you would have to avail of a Joomla Video Sharing package that you can get. With a video sharing script, you and your site members can upload videos, make descriptions and tags, videos embedded on other websites, and many more!

A plea to the Windows team: Don't make Windows 7 too Mac-like

logger Paul Thurrott (Zdnet) has written a couple of interesting posts about the difference between “simpleand easyin the context of Windows 7.

Sure, Windows 7 is still in the pre-beta phase, meaning the user-interface elements still will be tweaked considerably before the product is released to manufacturing. But Thurrott raises a number of points that left me nodding my head in agreement.

I am a Windows user by choice, not simply because I blog about Microsoft. When I saw the recent demos of Windows 7 " with its JumpLists, AeroPeek, AeroSnaps and lots of other eye candy " I was torn. I want some of what's coming in Windows 7, such as fewer UAC prompts, simpler backup and restore, better peripheral handling. But I really do not care if I get more fancy bells and whistles that just clutter my desktop.

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Thurrott blogged:

Windows 7 basically takes Windows one step closer to the design aesthetic of the Mac, where form is valued over function. I'm not sure this is the right strategy. Simplicity, taken in isolation, may seem like a good idea. But I'm afraid that in Windows 7, Microsoft is sacrificing too much in its bid to be more like Apple. And it's the users of Windows who will pay the price.”

If you are a PC user like me, you definitely will pay the price. I value ease of use far more than fancy graphics. The two don't have to be mutually exclusive " and given the direction Microsoft ends up taking once it provides testers with the Superbar " maybe they won't.

(Given Beta 1 of Windows 7, which many are now expecting around January 13, is supposed to be feature-complete, I'm expecting we'll get to see what the Superbar will look like real soon now. Me? I still think we might see Win 7 Beta 1 on or around December 17, but in either case, it's not too long until we see the latest Windows 7 look and feel.)

If I wanted a Mac-like environment, I'd buy a Mac. I want an computing environment that helps me get my work done and doesn't require a how-to manual to figure out which icon does what. Maybe Microsoft could introduce “Windows 7 Luddite Editionfor those of us who value function over form?

What's your take? Do you think Microsoft is too focused on making Windows 7 in Mac OS X's image?

On a related note, for more Windows 7 analysis” in podcast form with yours truly and The Register's Software Editor Gavin Clarke” check out the latest edition of MicroBite.

Microsoft 70-433 braindumps

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Cheap Mobile Phones - Comes in Your Budget

There is no doubt in saying that, the handsets have become one of the most important parts of human race, because of their multi-functioning property. Their popularity across the world is increasing day by day. The brands too are competing hard in the race of hi-end featured mobile phones. Because of introduction of so many handsets every other day, their costs are slopping down day by day. Now these handsets do not remain a device for royal people only as they can be seen in the hands of low budget people as well. To buy a classic handset that suits ones' desires is now simply a cup of tea. These mobiles are coming to give immense pleasure to modern mobile enthusiasts. The most popular trend is that the manufacturers reduce the price of on-going handset, if they launch new one. This helps you to get handset with sophisticated features at lower price.

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In a survey it has been found that UK phone lovers own more than one handset at a time. This allows one to understand the significance of mobile phones. Apart from cheap handsets, the option of discount voucher codes is also available on the Internet, with the help of which you can get the mobile phones at much low cost. There are various websites that issues these voucher codes, online. There are lots of handsets facilitating user in the domain of communication. Now in a single go one can become the owner of more than one handset. Discount vouchers are not the only way to get cheap mobile phones as you can avail these handsets in deals with different offers given by several network providers. These phone deals come with different features, are the biggest advantage, especially for common people. Because of so affordable rates and offers, a common man too own handset of any popular brand.

Some of the popular mobile phones deals are pay as you go, contract mobile and SIM free mobile phone deals. In case of contract mobile phones you need to sign a deal for 12 to 24 months, in place of which you get a handset of any of the popular brand, network services and several offers. Moreover, these deals are enriched with several free gifts provided to the users time to time. So, contract mobile phone proves to be one of the methods to get cheap mobile phones. Pay as you go mobile phones are good for youngster group of the society as they can recharge their phone account according to their need. One can easily get these vouchers from any of the retail shop. In case of SIM free you can buy any handset at any cost and get the network provider that suits to your desires.

Top Windows 7 Tricks Keyboard shortcuts

90 percent of the people who migrated to Windows 7, loved it. Counting back my days with it, I’m about to complete 1 year. And I still love it. During this time, I compiled a list of useful shortcuts for Windows 7 that makes it even more worthy.

Here we go with Windows 7 specific Tricks and shortcuts:

Window Management

* + Left Arrow or Right Arrow: Dock a window to the left or right half of the screen.
* +Shift+Left Arrow or Right Arrow: Move a window from one monitor to another, keeping them in the same relative location to the monitor’s top-left origin.
* +Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Maximizes and restores/minimizes a window.
* +Shift+Up Arrow or Down Arrow: Maximizes and restores the vertical size of a window.
* +Home: Minimize all the non-active background windows, keeping the window you’re using in its current position. (Press+Home again to restore the windows to their original locations.) You can do this by using Mouse too – This is called Aero Shake. Hold the title bar of a window and shake it, all the clutter of other windows is cleaned, they are minimized.
* +(plus key) or (minus key): Zoom in or out using Windows Magnifer.
* +B: Sets focus to the “Show hidden icons” button on the task bar.
* +M: Minimizes all windows.
* +Ctrl+F: Opens the Active Directory Find Computers dialog.

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Taskbar

* +Space: Use “Aero Peek” to see any gadgets or icons you’ve got on your desktop.
* +T: Move the focus to the first taskbar. (Pressing again will cycle through them.)
* +Shift+T: Move the focus to the last taskbar. (Pressing again will cycle through them.)
* Ctrl+(mouse click on a single application icon in the task bar): Toggle through each of the open windows in order. The best example of this is Internet Explorer. If you have five tabs open in a single IE instance, holding the Ctrl key while repeatedly clicking on the single IE icon in the task bar will toggle through each of the five tabs in order.
* Ctrl+Shift+(mouse click on an application icon in the task bar): Launch that application with full administrative rights. You can also useCtrl+Shift+Enter for commands from the search bar for the same action.
* Shift+(mouse click on an application icon in the task bar): Launch a new instance of the application rather than switching to the existing application. (You can also middle-click with the third mouse button or scroll wheel.)
* +1 …+5: Launch a new instance of the any of the first five icons on the task bar. (By the way, the icons can be reordered to suit your needs by simply dragging them around and can be pinned shortcuts or running applications.)
* Shift+(right mouse click on an application icon in the task bar): Show the Window menu. You get different menus depending on whether the application is running or has multiple instances open.


Miscellaneous

* +P: Display the project options, which you can then use the arrow keys (or keep hitting Win+P) to switch to the different options.
* +X: Open the Windows Mobility Center.
* +G: Bring gadgets to the top of the Z-order. (Sets the focus to a gadget.)

Windows 7 Offers Battery-Life Improvement

Windows 7 RTM Review showed us how well it is when it comes to Performing as compared to Vista, XP.
We were happy there. But there’s one more thing with windows 7 that will delight users switching from Vista — 25% improvement in Battery life.

Ruston Panabaker, Microsoft’s principal program manager of strategic silicon partnering, shows how later builds of Windows 7 were able to let the processor enter low-power states for longer periods of time, saving more power.

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Microsoft themselves showed us Live test to prove Vista is crap — Two identical laptops playing the same DVD, with the Windows 7-equipped notebook getting 20 percent better battery life than one running Windows Vista. In general, users can expect newer systems running Windows 7 to offer 10 percent to 20 percent better battery improvement when watching a DVD.

“We’re achieving a very significant amount of battery savings,” said Microsoft principal program manager Ruston Panabaker.

Microsoft and Intel declined to say just how much overall battery life improvement Windows 7 might offer as compared to Vista, saying there are too many factors that can influence such results. May be this will spoil Vista’s image. Do they need to ?
Ruston Panabaker, Microsoft's principal program manager of strategic silicon partnering, shows how later builds of Windows 7 were able to let the processor enter low-power states for longer periods of time, saving more power.

(Credit: Stephen Shankland/CNET)

“I don’t want to state a number,” Panabaker said at the event, which was organized by Intel and Microsoft.

Microsoft and Intel showed these power consumption improvements results for a system running Windows 7, left, and Vista. The left chart shows consumption while the system was idle; at right when playing a DVD. The event was designed to outline the joint work that the two halves of Wintel have been doing to make Windows 7 perform better in areas such as virtualization, power management, and performance.

On the performance side, Microsoft and Intel showed a reference system that can boot up in 11 seconds, although again real-world performance is likely to vary a lot based on what’s inside the PC and how well tuned it is. For instance, the system shown Tuesday had a solid-state drive and other high-performance componets.

The move comes as Microsoft gears up for the October 22 launch of Windows 7.

Perhaps the most encouraging thing for Microsoft is the fact that Intel itself is willing to use Windows 7 within its own corporate walls. The chipmaker has been an XP-only shop throughout Vista’s life. In an interview here, Intel VP Stephen Smith said that Intel had some internal applications that weren’t Vista-compatible and the benefits of moving to Vista didn’t justify the costs.

By contrast, Smith said several hundred people inside Intel are already running Windows 7 on their corporate machines.

Playing a DVD, a Windows Vista Ultimate system, left showed an estimated battery life of 4.14 hours, but the Windows 7 Ultimate system on the right showed 5.5 hours.

Playing a DVD, a Windows Vista Ultimate system, left showed an estimated battery life of 4.14 hours, but the Windows 7 Ultimate system on the right showed 5.5 hours.

The Secret

While dimming a screen’s brightness is one simple way to save power, Microsoft realizes that there are also other more advanced methods of reducing power consumption, such as increasing the system timer. By increasing the system timer from 1ms to 15.6ms, battery life can be increased by 10-percent. During moments of idle usage however, dynamically altering the system timer to improve battery life could make a lot of sense.

It was unexpectedly found during tests with the new Apple MacBooks that battery life was more than doubled when using the Apple Mac OS X than when compared to using Windows Vista. While wireless Internet browsing for example, a MacBook Air could achieve 4.98-hours of battery life, but when using Windows Vista on the same notebook, only 2.55-hours could be achieved. This result proves, Vista was weird.

MAC OS X Vs. Windows Vista as per AnandTech:
Wireless Internet Browsing DVD Playback Heavy Usage
MacBook Air (OS X) 4.98 hours 3.93 hours 2.7 hours
MacBook Air (Vista) 2.55 hours 2.05 hours 1.75 hours

Note that this is the same hardware and with the same brightness settings under both OSes. Vista’s power management was set to Balanced and the display was set to never turn off under both OSes; the hard drives were free to spin down if possible.

Verdict – Minimum 25% Improvement in battery life over Vista (with dimming).

Why Windows 7 for The Enterprise vs Vista XP The Complete Guide

Well, It’s been almost a year since I first dated Windows 7. From Beta1 to RCs and RTM, I have seen windows 7 evolving. And unlike Vista, I’ve seen it improving day-by-day to the point where I had it declared on my walls, “I’m in love”.

The Love was first expressed by deep down Review of Windows 7 vs. XP, Vista

Being fascinated by the OS, I’ve decided to write a series blogs on Why Windows 7, and this one is Part 1. So in this one, I`ll discuss why Enterprise and business should consider Upgrading XP, Vista to Windows 7.

Before we start, I would anticipate I’ve been using Snow Leopard as well. Though it’s a neatly polished OS, it still isn’t as Enterprise friendly as Windows.

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Today, most of the business PCs and Laptops are Multicore (at least Dual core). Windows XP came into being when dual core was not even commercialized, as a result, the OS natively had poor support for multicore CPU. The Result: Poor performance. Though Kernel Patches tried to fix the loss, but it never fixed the problem from the ground. Vista tried to leverage multicore but became “Platform Independent”- No Matter what hardware you give it, it runs like crap.

The power of Multicore processors have been taken in almost all the possible places. Even during Startup, shutdown, Hibernate/resume.

I`ll discuss more about the kind of Optimizations in upcoming posts.

RAM Optimizations:

This is the first improvement one would notice over Vista. On a cold boot, Windows Vista could eat up more than GB of RAM just to satisfy it’s own greedy needs. Windows 7 remarkably reduced the usage and provided actual user to fill up the RAM with their applications. Of course, Win 7 uses almost 40% more RAM than XP, But, I believe that’s acceptable. XP came more than 6 years ago. during this time frame, the RAM has gone-up by 300% on a typical PC.

The RAM optimizations play important role during Multi-tasking. Windows 7 tries it’s best to re-use memory. e.g. when there are multiple windows opened (with Aero enabled) it uses the same memory to store info about multiple windows having identical characteristics. In Windows Vista, this was poorly implemented and in XP the need was never felt.

Improvements for Remote Access:

Most Enterprise and business employees do a frequent remote access to company’s resources. This often needs slow and expensive VPN concentrators. Windows 7 has few new features that can change the trend.

DirectAccess: Windows 7 provides this network technology that enables the user to seamlessly access corporate network resources when on the Internet, without having to create a VPN connection.
BranchCache: Windows 7 offers an alternative to alleviate the problems of slow connectivity, delivering increased network responsiveness of applications and giving users in remote offices an experience more like working in the head office. When BranchCache is enabled, a copy of data accessed from an intranet web site or a file server is cached locally within a branch office.

(Both of the above features need windows 2008 Server)

Security:

Windows 7 is much more secure than Windows XP. The basic proof is: connect it to internet, download software software and use it for a week. Count the no. of viruses vs. XP and Vista. Windows 7 is much lesser prone to vulnerabilities found naked in XP, Vista. Thanks to Better Windows Firewall, defender, the need of 3rd party aniti-virus, firewalls is less-felt.

Other Security features for enterprise include:

* BitLocker: protect data on PCs and removable drives, with manageability to enforce encryption and backup of recovery keys.

* AppLocker: Flexible, easy-to-use mechanism that enables IT professionals to specify exactly what is allowed to run on user desktops. It restricts unauthorized software while allowing applications, installation programs, and scripts that users need.

Virtualization: Virtualization is becoming the core part of almost every Enterprise. Thought he solutions like VirtualIron, VMware, VSphere, VirtualBox,etc are fair enough, still a native Virtualization is needed.

Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI) optimizations delivers desktop functionality in Windows 7 using virtual machines hosted on servers—a solution known as Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI). VDI enables users to access their desktops remotely as well as the ability to reuse virtual machine (VHD) images to boot a physical PC. Windows 7 provides for better user experience in VDI scenarios, with better graphics, audio and local device support.

Compatibility

Unlike its predecessor, Windows 7′s robust compatibility with the majority of corporate applications makes it a sure winner in the enterprise.

Vista’s weakness in this critical area killed its prospects in the enterprise. “Vista was pretty much off the table [because of compatibility issues]. Windows 7 doesn’t have that buzz,”

Convergent conducted a series of tests with the Microsoft Application Compatibility Framework and the five applications passed with a 100 percent hit rate. The systems integrator also did a test with another client, a law firm, which often experience compatibility issues because of the number of plug-ins and add-ons used in legal circles. They were pleasantly surprised with the results.

“It just works better out of the box for application compatibility. We tested 147 applications and the return was 100 percent compatibility. Vista had a 20 to 30 percent incompatibility rate for the line of business stuff.”

Upgrading: with SCCM – System center Configuration Manager

So if you made your mind to upgrade, how to do it seamlessly? SCCM is the solution. It will enable seamless OS Upgrades during night.

The Technology is based on Intel’s vPro which lets software understand the power state of the device. On a remote request, it can wake up a PC (including Laptops) to have OS Upgrades. Wake-up on LAN is an old technology but it was not-routable. The new vPro enables it over TCP/IP, making it possible to do a enterprise wide (with multiple subnets) upgrades with a click of a button during night times. and when it’s done, PC can be shutdown again.

There’s a lot more that SCCM is capable of doing.

We would like to hear from you. Do let us know of your experiences with Windows 7. Follow us on Twitter , or Subscribe to RSS for further articles on Why Windows 7.

Android Cloud Music Sync Mac Windows

If you were waiting for a way to sync your music to an Online Cloud service, you have come to the right place. With mSpot, its possible to sync your music across all the computers and phones you use.

Simply stated, mSpot is a cloud-based music tool that makes managing your music collection effortless and automatic.

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Online/Cloud Music Sync

Music uploaded to mSpot can be synced across various devices: your primary computer, your web-based mSpot account, your Android phone, and any other secondary Macs or PCs.

With signup, you get a a free account with upper limit of 2GB of music and premium accounts go way hihger starting from $2.99 a month for 10GB, upto 100GB for $13.99.

Apart from music sync, mSpot also features a live wallpaper and live lyrics functionality on Android phones. These gadgets, wallpapers show covers and song lyrics while you play them in the background. The songs can also be used as ringtones, just like your local music, infact, better as mSpot features an inbuilt Ringtone maker.

Get a sneak Peek with this video:

Signup: mSpot

How To Create SymLink in Windows

Symlinks let you define soft/hard links to files/directories placed in different locations. Essentially, they are like windows shortcuts (a.k.a. soft symlinks) and the other type is something in-between the two: shortcuts and Original Files/directories. You can use HardLinks as an original file/folder, transparently.

Linux/Unix has inbuilt feature of creating symlinks using “ln” command. On older Windows versions, there is no inbuilt utility that does that. However, on Windows Vista, Windows 7 you can use a command line utility called “mklink”. But not everyone likes the command line that’s why there is a GUI-based tool for this: Symlinker.

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There are several Use cases for employing Hard symlinks. e.g. when you are running out of diskspace on your c:\ drive and certain programs still force you to install new software in c:\ drive (most microsoft, Google products do that) you can create a directory symlink and point it to another drive, save the buck. Another reason would be to move the caches, libraries (media player, iTunes songs lib), indexes (picasa photocache, search indexes, google desktop indexes) which take a large amount of disk space on your C:\drive.

There could be n number of other reasons, and this tool always comes handy.

Download Symlinker

To use this properly, here is some background on types of SymLinks:

Soft Link
A soft link is essentially a shortcut to a file or folder –it won’t pretend its part of the filesystem. You can still directly reference or open a file with the symlinked path, and it mostly works.

Hard Link
A hard link directly points to the file, and acts to the operating system as if it is the file itself. You’ll want to use this option the majority of the time if you are trying to fake an application’s directory just like the case described earlier.

Benchmark Windows 7 RC vs Windows Vista

Gaming Performance
another comparison between Vista and 7, keeping XP out this time, and based on gaming performance. He doesn’t reveal any accurate numbers for his benchmarks as that is against the Windows 7 RC EULA ( I wonder if using a leaked build is against that as well?! ). The benchmarks have been run on a fairly powerful system, with graphics cards ranging from mainstream to enthusiast performance, an Inter Core 2 Due E8500 processor overclocked to 3.6 GHz, 4 GB of RAM and pixel killing games like Crysis Warhead, Far Cry 2 and Left 4 Dead, all at a resolution of 1,680 x 1,050. 32 bit versions of both OS were used.

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benchmarks for Crysis Warhead. The rest can be seen on Hardware 2.0

image

As you can see, it’s really a head on competition between
Vista and 7, with both wining in equal number of benchmark shootouts for Crysis Warhead. Keeping in mind that
Windows 7 has just reached the RC milestone, and the video drivers aren’t really 100% up to the mark, I bet we might see these figures changing and 7 gaining more fps when it hits RTM.
Vista wasn’t a viable option for gamers until it reached SP1 and the video drivers matured for it. Hopefully, it wont take that long this time for ATI and NVIDIA to get their act together.

Get Windows 7 Look and Feel on XP Vista

Why Windows 7 is a success in the market? Is it the speed alone? Or is it the Eye-candy? Windows 7 takes interface improvements seriously, with such innovations as Aero Snap, shake response, and a pinnable taskbar. Here’s how to upgrade your Vista or XP system with those slick new features.

Much of the excitement about Windows 7 relates to an assortment of user-interface improvements: a little eye candy here, a few window-management tweaks there. Here are some of the highlights, along with the tools you’ll need to get them for your current OS.

Aero Snap
When you drag a window to the left or right edge of your computer screen, Windows 7′s Aero Snap feature automatically resizes the window to fill that half of the screen. To “undock” a window, simply click and drag it away from the edge. This feature is especially convenient for PC users who have widescreen monitors, because it enables them to put a pair of windows side by side in just two quick mouse clicks.

The free AeroSnap download makes automatic window anchoring and resizing available to Vista and XP systems. And it emulates Windows 7 in another way: If you drag a window to the top edge of the screen, the window maximizes.

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Invisible Windows
Need to peek at your desktop? Clicking Vista’s Show Desktop button will minimize all of your open windows, but Win 7 can make them temporarily become transparent–great for glancing at, say, one of Windows’ new floating Gadgets. All you have to do is mouse over the Show Desktop button in the bottom-right corner of the screen, and presto: Your windows turn invisible, with only the borders remaining. Slide your mouse away, and immediately the windows become opaque once more.

The freebie AeroPeek (the link goes to a downloadable zip file) for XP and Vista works a bit differently–you have to click to activate it and then click again to deactivate it–but the end result is much the same: Your open windows turn see-through, allowing you to view the desktop behind them. Of course, you can always press Windows-D to minimize all open windows (and afterward press Windows-D again to restore them), but what fun is that?

Window Shake
Want to minimize all but one of a group of windows on your desktop? In Windows 7, you can accomplish that feat by clicking and holding the title bar of any open window, and then shaking your mouse back and forth a few times. All of the other open windows will funnel down to the taskbar. Shake the lone window again, and its counterparts will reappear.

The free Aero Shake utility from Lifehacker brings Windows 7-style shake-and-bake windowing to Vista and XP. Though the feature isn’t quite as smooth as the version built in to Windows 7, it’s still a useful little amenity–and you certainly can’t beat the price.

The Pinnable Taskbar (replacement for quickLaunch)
Arguably the most visually noticeable change in Windows 7 is its overhauled taskbar, which sports oversize program icons and lets you “pin” favorite applications and documents (when you pin a document, it joins the corresponding application’s Jump List, a context-sensitive pop-up menu of shortcuts to commonly used documents and/or tasks.) If you like the idea, you can set up an almost identical taskbar in Vista (but not in XP, sorry), simply by introducing a few minor modifications.

If your system doesn’t already have a batch of program icons located just to the right of Vista’s Start button, right-click the taskbar and click Toolbars, Quick Launch. Next, unlock the taskbar by right-clicking again and clearing the check mark next to Lock the Taskbar. This operation adds a handle (which looks like three columns of tiny dots) to the right side of the Quick Launch toolbar. Drag the handle to the right to make more room for icons. Finally, to make the icons larger and closer in form to the ones in Windows 7, right-click the taskbar a third time and choose View, Large Icons. (Make sure that you click in an open area of the taskbar, and not directly on an icon.) Besides adding new icons for programs, you can attach icons for folders and even for documents to your newly improved taskbar. Just drag an icon down and drop it in. If you need extra space, you can always drag the toolbar handle farther to the right.

The Icons-Only Taskbar
The Windows 7 taskbar consists exclusively of icons, even for programs that are currently running. That’s a significant change from old-style text-enhanced program icons, but it frees up lots of extra space on the ol’ taskbar.

Instructing XP’s or Vista’s taskbar to show only icons entails taking a trip into the Registry. Here are the steps to take once you’re ready to boldly go forward:

1. Click Start, type , and press .

2. Find and click the value listed at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics.
3. In the right pane, right-click in an open space and select New, String Value.
4. Name the new string value , and set its value to .
5. Exit the Registry Editor, and restart your system.
Henceforth, only icons will appear in your taskbar. If you decide later that you don’t like the new look, you can return to the Registry and delete the entry that you created above. If you don’t care to monkey around with your Registry, try the next tip, which accomplishes very nearly the same thing without requiring any Registry intervention.

Thumbnail Previews
When you mouse over a taskbar icon in Windows 7, a thumbnail preview of the corresponding program will pop up (if the feature is activated). If you happen to be running multiple instances of a program (such as Internet Explorer), you’ll see multiple thumbnails.

To achieve the same effect in Vista (but once again, not in XP), install EnhanceMyVista Free; true to its name, the download is free. The procedure could hardly be simpler: Start the program, click Customization, Taskbar, and enable Iconize your Taskbar. You’re all set.

The Windows 7 User Interface
The Windows 7 interface emphasizes efficiency rather than sizzle. The chief improvements consist of a remodeled Windows Taskbar with large icons, one-click access to tasks associated with a specific app, and various other practical enhancements.

Because Windows Vista more or less forms the core of Windows 7, making Vista look like 7 is fairly easy (as evidenced by the aforementioned taskbar and thumbnail-preview tips). Windows XP users, however, have fewer options at their disposal. In response, third-party developer Windows X Live created the Seven Transformation Pack, a collection of interface tweaks–menus, icons, fonts, buttons, and so on–that are designed to make XP look and feel like Windows 7. And the software works as advertised. In fact, the before-and-after difference is pretty amazing, right down to the interface’s search-enhanced Start menu and Windows 7-style floating gadgets.

Before downloading this fabulous freebie, make sure that your system already has XP Service Pack 3 installed. I also recommend that you create a restore point in XP’s System Restore tool before running the installer, as the Seven Transformation Pack makes some fairly high-level changes to your system. When the installation is complete, reboot, and prepare to witness the minor miracle of Windows XP transformed into Windows 7.

The electronic version of Microsoft Office Word

Microsoft Office word has become the essential tool for the modern day electronic world, and it has been used to effectively help to replace many of the traditional methods from pen and paper to typing with Microsoft office Word, and from calculating with calculator to calculating with Microsoft Excel. As a result, it has made our lives a lot effective and hence saved a lot of times from the jobs that require days or weeks to finish being able to complete in couple hours. However, with the improvement of the modern day technology and the effectiveness of the wireless technology and the use of internet, many of the software have turned to electronic version that can be downloaded from the internet. Therefore, you will be able to purchase a Microsoft Office download version without the trouble of using the CD.

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There are many benefits in using Microsoft Office download version. First and foremost, the biggest advantage of getting the Microsoft Office download version is that you won't have to worry about the copy of your Microsoft Office being missing. Matter of fact, by using the Microsoft Office word download version, you will then be able to have access to your copy of Microsoft Office anywhere at any time without the worry of not having the CD with you. Furthermore, not only that the download version has made Microsoft Office more portable and accessible, but it could also help you save you a lot of money. That is because without any package and CD cost from the manufacturer or Microsoft in particular, then they won't ask you to pay the cost together with the Office you purchased. Hence, the electronic version that you will be able to purchase and download online will be much cheaper than the CD version that you bought in the store.

In addition, since you have the access to the electronic version of the Microsoft Office word, you will then be able to have access to all of the software that comes along with the version of Office that you purchased. The most common software and also the most demanded software from Microsoft Office are the Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel. Therefore, by getting any version of the electronic downloadable Microsoft Office version, you will also be able to get access to the Microsoft word download version and also the Microsoft Excel download version. Therefore, since the version of the Microsoft software is most likely to be from the internet, you will then be able to get access you any of the version of Microsoft office Word download and the Microsoft Excel download anywhere and anytime when you require them. Hence you will not be worry about not be able to complete your tasks without the help of Word and Excel as they have become the essential tool to perform many of the modern day electronic tasks with the computer.

Anyhow, not only has the Microsoft Word and Microsoft Excel have revolutionized our ways of working and greatly improved our efficiently, they have also made our life much easier and worry free with the use of internet. In which, by introducing the Microsoft Word download and Microsoft Excel download version through the Microsoft Office download, you will then be able to fully experience what Microsoft Word and Excel have introduced to the world.

10 hot areas of expertise for IT specialists

My recent article 10 Ways to become an IT superstar generated a lot of feedback. Quite a few IT pros out there apparently want to increase their visibility (and paychecks). One thing that drew a lot of attention in the piece was the advice to specialize. Okay, readers replied, but what area should I specialize in? They wanted to know which subsets of skills are the easiest to master and/or which ones will deliver the most bang for the buck. So in this follow-up, I’ll look at some of the IT specialties that are likely to be in demand in the near future.

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Note: This article is also available as a PDF download.

1: To the cloud
You saw this one coming, didn’t you? All the major technology companies seem to be “all in” with cloud computing — Microsoft, Google, Amazon, Dell, CA Technologies, and more. According to recent surveys, at least 50% of organizations are already using some form of cloud computing, and Gartner says the adoption rate is increasing by about 17% per year. According to Dice.com, the number of ads for cloud computing jobs has grown by 344% over the last two years.
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2: Virtually speaking
Virtualization has been hot for a while, as companies jumped in to reap the cost and management benefits of consolidating their servers and delivering virtualized desktops and applications to their users. Virtualization is also the foundation of cloud computing, so those with expertise in deploying virtualized IT environments will be in demand both in the public cloud arena and with those organizations that plan to stick with private clouds for now. Dice.com’s data showed a 78% growth in the number of jobs related to server virtualization.

3: Mobile computing and consumerization integration
Everyone knows mobile computing is hot. Smartphones and tablets, along with laptops and netbooks, are the driving forces behind the increasing consumerization of enterprise IT. There are plenty of advantages for the company: Because employees are willing to buy their own devices, the organization saves money. Because those employees can stay in touch with work, read and respond to email, view attachments, and create documents no matter where they are, they become more productive.

But when employees purchase their own equipment, the downside is that you lose the standardization that comes with company-issued devices. You end up with many types of devices, made by different hardware vendors, running different operating systems and different apps, configured differently. Getting them to seamlessly connect to the company network can be a challenge. Getting them all connected to the company network without putting the network at risk is even more of a challenge. IT pros who have expertise in integrating these new devices into the network and managing them once they’re connected are likely to be in demand by many companies.

Application lifecycle management (ALM) will become increasingly important as the environment becomes more complex with some functions in the cloud and some onsite. Bob Aiello believes configuration management (CM) will evolve into ALM, and the outlook is bright for those with these expanded skills.

4: It’s all about the apps
As Toni Bowers reported in a recent blog post, the hottest job category for 2011 (according to CareerCast.com) is that of software engineer. But it’s a position that’s a bit different from the programmer of yesteryear. On the programming side of the fence, it’s all about apps these days. As smartphones and tablets become ubiquitous, companies will need to develop their own specialized apps for those devices — just as they’ve needed to develop proprietary software for desktop systems.

In addition, cloud-based applications will be big in the coming years, and that means software engineers will need new skills to design, develop, and implement programs that run in the cloud environment. Those who are familiar with Windows Azure, Google App Engine, VMware’s Spring Framework, Force.com, and other cloud development platforms will be a step ahead of the game.

5: Security and compliance
With cybercrime on the rise and increasing concern over the possibility of cyber terrorism and/or cyber warfare, security specialists are likely to continue to be in demand for the foreseeable future. There is a saying in the law enforcement community regarding job security: Thanks to human nature, there will always be criminals — and thus, there will always be a need for the police. That same dark side of human nature ensures that there will always be those who misuse computer technology to attack, intrude, and otherwise attempt to do harm to computer systems. That means there will always be a need for computer and network security specialists.

In addition, more and more government regulation of the Internet and networks, as well as regulatory provisions concerning data privacy, mean security is no longer optional for most organizations. Those who specialize in regulatory compliance are likely to see their job prospects increase as more industries come under the regulatory umbrella.

6: Four to six
When the IPv4 address pool was created in the 1980s, it was thought that the more than 4.2 billion unique addresses possible under the system would be enough. However, the creators didn’t foresee the Internet boom or the possibility that one day, we would be connecting not just multiple computers per person, but printers, phones, and even household appliances to the Internet. This month (February 2011), IANA announced that it has allocated the last batch of remaining IPv4 addresses.

The solution to the problem has been around for a while: IPv6. The new version of the Internet Protocol supports a whopping 340 undecillion (2 to the 128th power) addresses. But IPv6 deployment is not an easy task; working with it requires learning a whole new IP language. IPv6 addresses don’t even look like their IPv4 counterparts; they’re notated in hexadecimal instead of dotted quad. IPv6 is also much more sophisticated than IPv4, with many new features (including built-in security mechanisms). Most important, IPv6 does not interoperate with IPv4, so transition technologies are required to get IPv4 networks to communicate with IPv6 networks.

Obviously, now that we’ve reached the end of the available IPv4 addresses, more and more organizations will be forced to migrate to IPv6. Because of the complexity, there is a shortage of IT personnel who have mastered and really understand IPv6. If you’re one of the few, the proud, who specializes in this area, you’re likely to have plenty of business in the upcoming years.

7: Business intelligence
Business intelligence (BI) refers to technologies that are used for reporting and analyzing data, including recognizing trends and patterns, to make better strategic business decisions. BI uses techniques such as data mining to extract and identify patterns and correlations in large amounts of data.

According to a recent study of midsize organizations that was done by IBM, BI/analytics is the second most popular IT investment (after infrastructure) that companies have planned for 2011. This indicates that specializing in the BI field can be a lucrative strategy and a good investment in your future.

8: The social network
Social networking started as a consumer-driven technology, but the use of social media is now being embraced in a big way by businesses. It can be used to connect with customers, colleagues, and partners to build solid business relationships. That doesn’t mean you’ll automatically be a hot property on the job market just because you tweet and update your Facebook page regularly. But it does mean organizations are looking for people who know how to integrate social media into the business environment in a way that furthers the goals of the organization.

Many companies are looking to develop their own social sites that give them more control and let them target their audiences more precisely. Specialists in social media are sure to find many opportunities as more and more companies stop seeing social sites as just time-wasters that should be blocked and start to recognize the potential for business use. This article offers more information about exactly what a social media specialist does.

9: Public sector computing
On the one hand, many state and local governments are cutting back on their budgets and laying off personnel. On the other hand, governmental agencies are depending more and more on technology to perform their functions more efficiently with fewer personnel. That means specialists in public sector computing can likely find a home in one of the many thousands of town, city, county, state, or federal government agencies that exist in the United States alone.

Although salaries for government jobs are often smaller than those in the private sector, they sometimes offer better benefits, more time off, and a less pressured work environment. There are a number of IT subspecialties in the public sector, as well. These include computer forensics investigators, criminalistics analysts, and personnel who specialize in secure mobile communications technologies for public service agencies.

10: To your health
The healthcare industry is in a state of flux in the United States. Government mandates are predicted to result in cost reduction measures that may result in personnel cuts and/or discourage young people from entering medicine. At the same time, the baby boomer generation is aging and requiring health care. Technology may be one way to fill the gap.

An IDC report published late last year showed that the U.S. healthcare market for IT was valued at $34 billion and was predicted to increase by 24% over the next three years. That translates into a demand for software developers and IT professionals who understand the healthcare industry and its special needs and who know how to integrate technology into the caregiver’s world without dumping a steep learning curve onto people already working in an understaffed and overworked environment.

Access the real Administrator account in Windows 7

Takeaway: In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, Greg Shultz explains how you can activate and use the real Administrator account in Microsoft Windows 7.

As you know, the User Account Control (UAC) system is the heart and soul of the security system in Microsoft Windows 7. It is designed to protect your system from inadvertent or malicious incidents that could compromise stability or security while you are logged on using an account with administrative privileges, where you have full access to the system. Of course, you can perform administrative operations simply by working through the UAC prompt. Or, if you totally dislike the UAC system, you can also easily disable it. For example, you can select the Never Notify setting on the User Account Control Setting window.

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However, there certainly are times when it would just be nice to log on to your Windows 7 system with a good old-fashioned, full-fledged Administrator account. When you do, you’ll never encounter a UAC prompt.

In this edition of the Windows Desktop Report, I’ll explain how you can activate and use the real Administrator account in Windows 7.

This blog post is also available as a TechRepublic Photo Gallery and TechRepublic download.

Caveat
Now keep in mind that Microsoft has gone to great lengths to prevent you from using the real Administrator account and, as you can imagine, strongly discourages the technique I’m about to show you here. As such, I must emphasize that you should use the real Administrator account very sparingly — never make it your default modus operandi! With that being said, I also have to warn you that you use this technique at your own risk.
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Activating the account
While you might think that since Microsoft discourages the use of Windows 7’s Administrator account, it is hidden deep within the bowels of the operating system. However, that’s not the case at all. In fact, to find the Administrator account you have to look no further than the Local Users and Groups tool.

To begin, open the Start menu, right-click the Computer icon, and select Manage from the context menu. When you see the Computer Management console, go to the navigation panel on the left and click the arrow next to Local Users and Groups to expand the branch. Then, click the Users folder. At this point you can see and select the Administrator account, as shown in Figure A.

Figure A
Select the Administrator account.
With the Administrator account selected, click More Actions under Administrator in the Actions panel on the right and select Properties from the menu, as shown in Figure B.

Figure B
Use the More Actions menu to access the Properties command.
When you see the Administrator Properties dialog box, just clear the Account Is Disabled check box, as shown in Figure C, and click OK.

Figure C
The Administrator account is disabled by default.
Keep in mind that now that the Administrator Account is activated you can also work with the account in the User Accounts tool in the Control Panel.

Setting the password
By default, the Administrator account has a blank password, so the first order of business after activating the account is to set a password — preferably a complex password consisting of at least eight characters and using uppercase, lowercase, and numbers or special symbols.

With the Administrator account selected, click More Actions under Administrator in the Actions panel and select the Set Password command. You will be shown a warning that explains that resetting a password from outside the account itself can cause irreversible loss of information, as shown in Figure D.

Figure D
When you select the Set Password command, you will see this warning.
However, since the Administrator Account has never been used, you can click Proceed with impunity. When you do, you’ll see the Set Password for Administrator dialog box, shown in Figure E, and can type the new password in both text boxes. Then, click OK.

Figure E
You will be prompted to type the password for the Administrator account.

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Logging in as the Administrator
Now that you’ve activated the Administrator Account and set the password, using the account is as simple as logging off. When the Log Off operation completes, you’ll see the Welcome screen and a user icon for the Administrator Account, as shown in Figure F. To log on as the Administrator, just click the icon and provide the correct password.

Figure F
You will now see the Administrator account on the Welcome page.
When you do, you’ll never encounter a UAC prompt. Again, I must emphasize that you should use the real Administrator account sparingly and never make it your default mode of operation!

What’s your take?
As you can see, it’s a relatively easy operation to activate the real Administrator account in Windows 7 once you know the technique. Now that you know how it’s done, are you likely to use the Administrator account? Have you disabled UAC? If so, do you think that you’ll re-enable it and use this technique instead? As always, if you have comments or information to share about this topic, please take a moment to drop by the TechRepublic Community Forums and let us hear from you.

Microsoft's Hyper-V R2 is hot on VMwares heels

Microsoft is poised to improve its standing in the world of virtualization with the much-anticipated update to Windows Server 2008 Hyper-V, Redmond's hypervisor-based server virtualization solution for 64-bit Intel- and AMD-based servers. First released last year, Hyper-V proved a less-than-compelling offering compared to virtualization platforms from VMware, Virtual Iron (now Oracle), Citrix, and other rivals. Hyper-V Release 2, part of Windows Server 2008 R2, delivers some exciting new features that change the game.

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Among Hyper-V R2's new features is support for 64 logical processors; Live Migration support, which allows admins to move a VM from one physical server to another without service interruption; VM Chimney, which provides TCP offload support; and a new processor compatibility mode for Live Migration, which enables migrations between different CPUs in the same family.

[ See the InfoWorld Test Center review, "VMware vSphere 4: The once and future virtualization king. "]

On top of these enhancements, Hyper-V will remain free with the purchase of Windows Server 2008, which seems like a great deal. However, to use the new Live Migration capability -- and to centrally manage more than one Hyper-V host -- you also need System Center Virtual Machine Manager (SCVMM), which costs $869 per physical server. Depending on what you're running at your organization, SCVMM may be a welcome addition. Among its features, it can manage both Hyper-V and VMware servers.

Start your virtualization engine
Installing Hyper-V is no different than installing standard Windows Server 2008, although you do need to install the new Hyper-V Manager MMC (or SCVMM). The Hyper-V Manager can be installed on the same server as SCVMM or on a separate machine. It can run on Windows Server 2008 or Windows Vista SP1.

Guest operating system images can be installed from physical media or ISO image files, as well as over the network from a network image server. I had no problems installing any of the supported versions of Windows or Linux that I tried.

Installing SCVMM 2008 R2 is somewhat more complex than installing the usual single application: It depends on SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 (SCVMM will install SQL Server Express, but you'll need the full SQL Server if you'll have more than 150 hosts), plus PowerShell 1.0, the Windows Automated Installation Kit 1.1, IIS 7.0, and an instance of System Center Operations Manager 2007 for reporting. Installing Operations Manager isn't strictly necessary, but only through the combination of SCVMM and Operations Manager can you monitor and manage virtual servers and their physical hosts together.

Windows 7 on multicore: How much faster? III

Energy consumption
As explained in the sidebar, Windows 7 performs several tricks to keep threads running on the same execution pipelines so that the underlying Nehalem processor can turn off transistors on lesser-used or inactive pipelines. The primary benefit of this feature is reduced energy consumption. To quantify this benefit, I ran the four-thread version of Viewperf with SMT enabled. This configuration meant that roughly half the pipelines would see little or no activity. I expected, therefore, to see some power savings for Windows 7. My results appear below.

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Watts consumed at three points in Viewperf benchmark
Viewperf Energy Consumption Windows XP SP3 Vista Ultimate SP2 Windows 7 Ultimate
Watts
(average of three test points) 247 W 248 W

207 W

The Windows 7 advantage is indeed significant. Note that this 17 percent decrease in power consumption is for the exact same software running unchanged on the same machine. Only the versions of Windows are different. That's a substantial savings, and there is every reason to believe that other software will similarly benefit from Windows 7's ability to leverage Intel's processor magic.

Wrapping it all up
Tight integration between Intel processors and Microsoft operating systems has been a constant thread in the history and evolution of the PC. This linkage has been dubbed by some a virtuous circle, although not every iteration of the cycle has produced substantial end-user benefits. This time, though, the cycle indeed delivers key advantages: Nehalems are much more powerful than predecessors, and they provide, as we have seen, considerable energy savings when teamed up with an OS that leverages them effectively. Among Microsoft offerings, Windows 7 is the software that does this best.