by ·Comments Off on Internet Explorer 8: An Introduction of Key Features
About Internet Explorer 8

About Internet Explorer 8

It didn’t seem like long ago since Internet Explorer (IE) 7 was released (19 Oct 2006) , and right behind it was the release of FireFox 2 (24 Oct 2006).  Then in March 2008 Microsoft released Internet Explorer (IE) 8,  which was followed by FireFox 3 on 17 Jun 2008; then Google followed suit with their own Google Chrome on 03 Sep 2008.

As you can see the battle for your Internet browsing interface is fierce, and even though Microsoft has the market dominance with respect to Internet browsers, its share is slowly being eaten away by FireFox and now Chrome.

The release of IE 8 was a major milestone in that it was apparent Microsoft was responding to user needs and competition pressure.  Microsoft claims that IE 8 is web compliant and allows you to view web sites with ease.  It is also supposed to be faster and more secure.

This article will not attempt to prove Microsoft’s claims, but will provide users with a good overview of the key features available in IE 8 that most people don’t realize exist or don’t bother to use to their advantage.

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by ·Comments Off on Zamzar.com: The mother of online file conversion utilities

Zamzar.com is relatively new to the scene; they’ve been in the public eye since around the second half of 2007.

What is Zamzar.com?  Their company mission says it all:

“To provide high quality file conversion for as many file formats as possible.“

The interesting thing is that they are able to provide file conversion services without having to install any application on your computer.  All you basically need to do is specify the source file, select the destination format, and provide an email address so that they can email you a download link for the converted file.

Their main strength is the wide range of files they can convert.  It is pretty comprehensive!  That is why I mention that their service is the “mother of all online file conversion” services. You can convert video, image, audio, and CAD files just to name a few of the major ones.

On top of that, you can even take a Youtube or some other online video content provided you have the video URL, and download a copy of it to your computer!

There is a limit of 100MB for the free account.  You don’t even have to register to get the conversion services.   However, if 100MB is too small for you, you can purchase their service for a price.  Go to their pricing page for the latest pricing information.

For the free service, you get no online storage and you only get 5 concurrent file conversions at a time.  As for support, response time is only best effort.

Bottom line though, even the free version is a great deal since most people will only want to convert some files once in a while.

by ·Comments Off on How to encrypt your Internet traffic

Encryption: key to secured data transmission

Encryption: key to secured data transmission

Not many people realize that the traffic they generate on the Internet as they check e-mail, upload files, chat, and so on are out in the clear. This means that if someone tapped into the network (wired or wireless) where your traffic is flowing, that someone would be able to capture the information flowing through that network, and possibly interpret or maybe even change the account or various confidential information that may be in that flow. One way to keep those Internet peeping toms from seeing your confidential information is by using some form of encryption technology. There are three general scenarios where encryption technology is crucial. The first is the encryption technology you must ensure is used when accessing confidential information online. The second scenario is when you are sending confidential information to someone or some organization. The third is when you are using wireless technology to access your network or someone else’s in the process of connecting to the Internet.

When accessing confidential information online, you must make sure that the site you are connecting to uses TLS/SSL (Transport Layer Security, the successor to SSL–Secure Socket Layer). You can tell this in three ways:

1) The URL for the sites starts with https://

2) There is an indication in your browser that your connection is secure—typically symbolized by a padlock icon (in Internet Explorer 8, it can be found to the right side of the address field)

3) Your browser indicates that it trusts the site you are visiting (in Internet Explorer 8, the address field background turns green)

For example, when you access your bank online, you will see that their URL begins with “https://”, and that there is a padlock symbol somewhere on the bottom or top of your Internet browser. When you’re browser is using TLS/SSL to communicate with a web server on the Internet, you are doing two things by convention—ensuring that the site you are visiting is who they say they are through the use of an SSL certificate which is certified by a trusted authority (for example Verisign) , and the data you are transmitting are encrypted and thus protected from eavesdropping exposure.

What if you need to send something to someone—like a file or an email containing very confidential information (e.g. a set of social security numbers tied to their corresponding owners’ identity)? If trust and confidentiality are important attributes needed in your communication, then there is a product called PGP Desktop that you and your receiver can use. PGP stands for Pretty Good Privacy. The way it works is as follows:

1) Each user creates two kinds of crypto keys—one key is the secret key, the other the public key

2) The public key can be used to encrypt data. The data can then be decrypted using its corresponding secret key.

3) Say that user A and B have each created their PGP key pairs. User A wants to transmit data to B, and he wants only B to be able to read A’s message. They would first need to exchange public keys. User A would then use B’s public key to encrypt his data before transmitting it. When B receives the message, he can use his secret key to decrypt the message. No one else can decrypt A’s message because B is the only one that has the corresponding secret key to decrypt the message.

The use of PGP in the above example is just one of the many ways people can use the pair of crypto keys to encrypt their Internet traffic. By the way, the existence of PKI (Public Key Infrastructure) facilitates the exchange and certification of public keys.

The third and final scenario where you can encrypt your Internet traffic is WI-FI technology use. If you are using some form of wireless technology, you need to make sure you encrypt your wireless network lest you invite your neighbors to see everything you do on the Internet. Currently, the best form of encryption one should use for your home wireless access point is WPA2. WPA stands for Wi-Fi Protected Access. It is more secure that the previous WEP (wired equivalent privacy) or the WPA standard. By using WPA2, you are ensuring that your neighbors cannot see your private Internet traffic.

Remember, Internet traffic is generally not secure. To help keep your confidential data secured when it has to traverse it, you will need to put into effect the habit of only using web sites that support TLS/SSL. And if you need to transmit data to someone, you can use PGP. Lastly, make sure to use WPA2 encryption for your wireless access point to keep your neighbors from seeing your wireless traffic.

by ·Comments Off on Join the KGB, Get Paid to Answer Questions




Last night my daughter mentioned that she has joined the KGB, and that she has already made $20 working for them.  She had me worried.   I thought that the KGB (Komityet Gosudarstvjennoj Biezopasnosti) was the intelligence/security branch of the now nonexistent Soviet government (USSR)!

Later that night she showed me some video ads for this company called KGB (Knowledge Generation Bureau).  Here is one of them:

Entertaining huh?

Anyway, my daughter is an avid Yahoo Answers person, and she is a top contributor on one of the categories there. I’ve been telling her to not waste her time with Yahoo Answers since she doesn’t get paid giving out answers. Well, now she is a KGB agent and is actually getting paid answering questions.

What questions may she be answering you ask? Well, the KGB has actually been in business in the US for some time now providing phone directory services. Just this year they started providing text answering service where it costs $0.99 to have a text question answered. From each question she answers, she earns a few cents (e.g. anywhere from 3 to 10 cents per response).  Their agent position page explains the compensation plans.

I thought I would have to contend with Soviet spies.   Whew! what a relief.

by ·Comments Off on Get a desktop on the Internet with eyeOS!

I’ve been stumbling around more often these days.  Last night I stumbled upon eyeOS, my first ever contact with something using cloud computing system.

EyeOS is an Internet cloud computing operating system, where your computer is accessible anywhere so long as you have Internet access.  It’s user interface is much like a computer desktop.  You’ll find items on your desktop as you’ve left them when you logged out.  EyeOS has various applications–single user applications, group applications, and file sharing capabilities.

You can host your own eyeOS server, but if you don’t have one, you can sign up at http://www.eyeos.info.  When you get there, you get a login prompt.

login prompt for eyeOS

login prompt for eyeOS

Since you don’t have an account yet, click the new user link.  The login prompt expands to show more fields.  Fill it in as requested and click Create Account.

Create a new account

Create a new account

Once you’ve created a new account, you will be asked to pick a new theme as shown below.

Pick a theme

Pick a theme

Select a theme and you will be asked to login with your new account.  Login, and you will be taken to your desktop.  Since I chose the new theme, my desktop looks like this:

Your new eyeOS desktop

Your new eyeOS desktop

It looks like your typical computer desktop, and it has the following key areas:

  • Menu or tool bar
  • Desktop items
  • Floating menu

I will cover each an everyone of these areas in a more indepth review of eyeOS.

This Internet application is interesting, and has lots of potential applications.

Subsribe to my site so that you can receive the latest news or review on this topic.

by ·Comments Off on Looking to create a social network site?

If you’re like most people, you don’t know nor do you care how the Internet works.  All you need is that your applications and web applications work.  And if you are looking to create a social networking site for your club or any niche interest, and you aren’t too worried about having to buy or own a domain, then Ning.com is for you!  Although I’ve been surfing the net since its boom in the 1990s, I don’t ever remember seeing ning.com.  I heard about it just a few months ago at a technology conference for education where one of the guest speakers established a learning social network through the web services of ning.com.

This platform for a social networks has many potential uses–one of which is a family web site.  I setup my own family website, and because I didn’t want just anyone to see what we have there, I set it to be private.  Thus you have to be invited to get inside my family web site.

If you have a club and want to establish your web presence and also have a means to share with your members, ning.com is perfect.  It is basically a custom myspace.com for your own group.

One very interesting thing with Ning.com is that you can create one account, and through this one account you can setup multiple social networks.

Give it a try.  You got nothing to lose.

by ·Comments Off on Web-based Office Applications

If you aren’t much of a computer or Internet user, this might come as news to you.  Google, the biggest search engine on the planet, offers online office applications which gives you collaboration capabilities for word processing, spreadsheet, and presentation documents.  It even gives you the ability to create web forms which you can share for the purpose of taking surveys or polls.

All these are wrapped around a product called Google Docs.