Cloud Computing Can Provide a Safe and Secure Work Environment for our Business

• Power Your Business

The market for cloud computing in India is expecting to grow nearly ten times to US$ 1,084 million by 2015 from the current US$ 110 million.

The biggest consideration causing the shift towards cloud computing is naturally the cost factor. Cloud computing will dramatically cut down your hardware and software expenditure and you will also require less IT support staff. Plus, you only pay for what you use, so this cuts down unwanted expenditure. Also, as your need increase, you can buy more space as require or you can even temporarily scale down usage when you experience a slump in business. Maintenance or even regular updates is no longer your headache as they will be taken care of by the service provider. It even saves you the cost of setting up infrastructure to host servers at your end.

Cloud computing is valuable from the point of view of employees as it provides them with the freedom to access all their files virtually anywhere. It is especially beneficial for those employees who have to be in the field, as they can easily access the documents they require and even make changes if required. Apart from this, it also gives employees the flexibility to work from home, especially on days when they can’t make it to the office due to a strike or other calamity.

Another advantage is higher security and reduced threat of data loss. All machines are prone to breakdowns and a hard disk crash can also result in permanent data loss. Imagine your are working on an important presentation, your hard disk crashes and your IT technician tell you it will take a few days to restore your system. You could have saved yourself a whole lot of trouble if your data was on the cloud, and then all you would have had to do is simply access it using another system.

There are many service providers in the market, ranging from international companies including Amazon, Microsoft, HCL, and Sales force, to local service providers Zenith Infotech, Orange Space, TCS, Wipro and Infosys, who offered cloud computing services.

• Cloud Computing will dramatically cut down your Hardware and Software Expenditure

While moving your data into the cloud is very straightforward, you have to consider a few points before finalizing the cloud provider. 

• First up, it is important for you to determine your requirements and select a plan best suited to you. 
• Secondly, look at the cloud provider’s security and privacy terms. See what kind of technical assistance will be provided as well as their downtime assistance. 
• Also, look for tutorials to familiarize yourself and your staff with the cloud environment for ease of usage. 
• Most crucially, read about the policy regarding retrieval of data in case you want to switch your service provider in the future. 

Top 30 Softwares for Windows

In this article we are going to list out the top windows Softwares by considering some factors like importance of particular software, performance and usage rating. By taking all these factors into consideration, we prepare the list of top 30 windows software.

#1.    MS Office Suite 2010

Let’s face it, this one thing where Microsoft really knows what it’s doing. Whether it’s the simplicity of world or the complex pivot tablets, look-ups, and macros we can run in excel or even the impressive fluidity of power point, we all seem to love this productivity tool. Also, it’s not really a surprise that the productivity suite is top of this countdown right? After all we use a PC most often for the productivity.

#2.    Google Chrome

Google chrome is one of the best browsers where it is going to be our gateway to personal computing in the future. Now with extension support, the newly launched app store and more stable releases, it seems this would be a favourite browser for overall periods.

#3.    Irfan view

Irfan view is the primary tool for all of us when it comes to batch processing, editing and resizing the images.

#4.    uTorrent

uTorrent is small sized software where we can easily use the resources. It has great looking interface with awesome features. Feature set even includes a Web UI.

#5.    Firefox

Firefox is again one of the most successful open source projects of all time. The browser was at one time the most customizable, secure and fast browser. Hence the loyal fan following even today.

#6.    VLC

Despite media players such as KMPlayer and Media Player Classic, VLC still remains its position with high rating. Many people will not use this player as default player but stood top in the listing because of its extensive features.

#7.    Nero Suite

Nero suite is used to burn CDs and DVDs and most people only use this Nero Burning ROM Component for its rich features.

#8.    CCleaner

CCleaner is the best system maintenance tool by its tweaking registry, optimizing start-up for quicker booting, or simply removing temporary files enmass. There is nothing as user friendly as CCleaner.

#9.    WinRaR

The good old giant of the compression world still rules the roost. Perhaps people are still habituated or many like that .rar format that WinRaR can natively compress and archive in.

#10.   Daemon Tools

A daemon tool is one of the best ISO mounting and creating tools out there. With daemon tools, we can compress, split images while also managing our countless images. It associates with image files for quick access and has a system tray menu to help ease the process.

#11.   Adobe Reader

It seems, maximum there was no another option to read a PDF file without using this software. Mostly, people throw any PDF at it and it will open, was the contention.

#12.   Skype

Skype is the world’s most popular VoIP application and it found many takers across continents. Skype does a good job at reducing international calling costs for people. Even the conference call features have been well accepted.

#13.   Audacity

Audacity is the most appreciated free audio editor around. The software features a clean interface, multi-track editing, a robust set of effects, wide file support and even plug-in’s all in a 2.13 MB package.

#14.   Windows Movie Maker

For newbie’s, Windows Movie Maker seems to provide the best combination between features and usability. If we want to make nice looking home videos, Movie Maker will suffice.

#15.   AVG Antivirus

This antivirus software is very easy to use and what’s great about it is that the basic version, which supports all updates and latest virus definitions, is free to use.

#16.  Windows Media Player

Windows Media Player may not be a first option of media playback, but after clean install when we want to play any file, this is the best and perhaps only player available.

#17.   Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer is one of the best browser but it was not using by maximum people because of the competition given by other brands i.e. chrome, Firefox. But this software has its own use because some browser refuses to open some prickly websites. So in this way, it occupies the top position in this particular list.

#18.  VirtualBox

Sun Microsystems’s VirtualBox is virtual machine software used to run something from a different platform. It’s installed on almost all our systems.

#19.  Google Talk

Google Talk is an all-in-one messenger trying to acquire a top place in today’s world of website. Gtalk faces its biggest competition from the web UI integrated chat found in Gmail itself.

#20.  Picasa

Picasa is a photo editing cum photo management hybrid that is a favourite amongst most people. This application comes with really nice and unique features which include, web gallery integration, face detection and geo-tagging images.

#21.  Thunderbird

Thunderbird is one of the biggest open source success stories in the world today. A robust, cross platform mail client such as thunderbird has rarely been seen even in the commercial spaces. It’s easy to set-up, customizable, and has a lovely UI.

#22.   Recuva

When we delete a file and suddenly realise it was the wrong one i.e. I am not talking about the temporary delete file where we can find it in recycle bin. Recuva is brilliant software used to recover data from lost files and even also from crashed hard drives.

#23.   Avast Antivirus

Many people are using this antivirus software over many years because Avast developers are always trying to keep ahead of malicious coders and keep the user in a safe manner.

#24.   SpeedFan

SpeedFan is a hardware monitoring software that monitors voltages, fan speeds and temperatures in our PCs. It can access S.M.A.R.T information and show hard disk temperature too and even dynamically change fan speeds accordingly, to reduce noise.

#25.   WordWeb

WordWeb is an instant English Dictionary and thesaurus. If we select any word, it will give us meanings, alternative words and many other options. It is useful to anyone even remotely interested in writing better, increasing their vocabulary and knowing correct pronunciation.

#26.   Teracopy

Teracopy is a file copy utility that goes beyond the regular windows copy-paste dialog box. It works a little faster and has features like pausing and resuming copying tasks.

#27.    Yahoo!

A few years ago Yahoo! Messenger was perhaps the only form of instant communication between users. But right now, its ranking was going down due to heavy competition by the web based chats and multi-protocol messengers like Gmail and Facebook.

#28.   Norton Ghost

Norton ghost was robust software that would take system image backups and an instant restore point, complete with settings and preferences.

#29.   Teamviewer

Teamviewer software is used to log into our or anyone else’s PC from a different location. Effectively controlling remote system as if we are right there in front of it and was a great tool for trouble shooting or keeping track of what’s going on with our PC while on the move.

#30.   Lightroom

Many people prefer Lightroom software over other photo management and editing tools because it helps us in organising our photographs and do post processing works like adjusting exposures, tonal adjustments etc. It also allows us to showcase our work in the form of slide show, web galleries as well as on popular photo sharing sites.

How to Evaluate the Weightage of a Laptop

Laptop is evaluated on the basis of features, build quality, ergonomics and performance as well as warranty and support.

1. Features
2. Built quality
3. Performance
4. Ergonomics and
5. Warranty & Support.

#Features:

                    The performance of any machine completely depends on its hardware, which is why we began with noting the hardware specifications such as type of processor, clock speed, then the RAM, hard drive room and so on. If a laptop has a powerful processor, discrete GPU and large screen, it scores very well. Integrated features such as Bluetooth, webcam, memory card reader, eSATA port and an HDMI output are added bonuses. Finally, we note the weight of each laptop.

#Ergonomics:

                       Ease of use and comfort are key when it comes to using portable devices, and laptops aren’t any different. We paid close attention to the keyboard and touch pad design. Details such as the size, spacing and tactility of keys, the locations of ports and card readers, and the presence of status indicators and hotkeys were logged and points were given accordingly. Having a keyboard with big keys and a good layout is important for comfort and productivity, while ports are more easily accessible if they are on the sides instead of the rear.

#Warranty and Support:

                                        Complex gadgets such as laptops, that have several subsystems, are very prone to malfunctioning. Should anything go wrong with our valuable investments, an authorized service center should be easily reachable. We consider the warranty period on each laptop, the number of service centers each manufacturer has in India, and the number of cities in which these are present.

#Value for money:

                         The value for money index is calculated by stacking up the features and performance scores against the price.

                                          Finally, by examine all these categories, we can correctly evaluate the high performance of the laptop and we definitely choose the best one..

Free applications to make PC more Powerful

Now-a-days many applications are connected with a price; out of them some are useful. Here, in this article we provided information about useful applications with a free of cost.

               Each application is belongs to different categories such as file system tools, Security Providers, Internet, office applications, social tools, Image manipulation, video & audio tools and other utilities.

#1.    CCleaner:

CCleaner is a powerful cleaning application which is capable of increasing the performance of PC work faster in a more effective way. The functioning of the program is to detect and to eliminate the files of information such as cookies, navigation record, temporary files and others. Also, CCleaner allows some actions such as empty the Recycle Bin; clean the cache memory, among other functions that affects the performance of the PC.

                                       CCleaner is also provided with a tool capable of cleaning and of repairing the Windows Registry to optimize its functioning.

#2.    Microsoft Security Essentials

This application provides real-time protection for your home PC that guards against viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

           It is a free download from Microsoft that is simple to install, easy to use, and always kept up to date so you can be assured your PC is protected by the latest technology. It’s easy to tell if your PC is secure — when you’re green, you’re good. It’s that simple.

\\**It will work only for Genuine Windows Users**//.

#3.    U Torrent

UTorrent is one of the most popular BitTorrent clients out there for several reasons: it's fast, lightweight, easy to use and very efficient.

This application takes up minimal hard drive and PC resources, which enables us to have a good amount of torrents downloading and still be able to use our computer without any lag.

                           

  

                           This application is mainly used to download movies, music, TV shows, eBook’s and more in no time at all.

#4.    Rocket Dock

Create your desktop a Mac-like feel with Rocket Dock, an animated quick-launch bar.

                     This application allows us quick, convenient access to your favorite programs and most commonly used folders. Setting it up is quick and easy and results in a really impressive navigation bar that we can place it anywhere on the screen and customize as we like.

#5.    Adobe Reader

This application lets you read and print from any system any document created as an Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) file, with its original appearance preserved. PDF files are compact and can be shared, viewed, navigated, and printed exactly as the author intended by anyone with Adobe Reader.

Adobe Reader used to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

#6.    Skype

Skype is a software application that allows users to make voice calls over internet.

Presently Skype is a popular and mostly used VOIP communication client, instant message, audio conferencing and video phone.

#7.    Gimp

GIMP is a free software raster graphics editor used to create basic animated images in the GIF format.

GIMP is entirely a free high-end graphics application for the editing and creation of original images, icons, graphical elements of web pages and art for the user interface elements of free software.

#8.    VLC Player

This application is the most popular, portable multimedia player for various video and audio formats as well as DVDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols without additional program and codec.

As per my view, this is the best choice among several players.

Best Camcorder Devices

In this article we are going to create a basic idea about camcorder products where the cost of these devices depends on many factors. Camcorder is an electronic device, which combines both video camera and video recorder as a single unit. This device is different from other portable devices like cell phones, digital camera etc. because video capturing and recording acts as primary function for this camcorder device.

Mainly camcorders are categorized into three segments. They are

1. HD – High Definition,
2. SD – Standard Definition, and
3. Pocket Camcorder.

Some of the best camcorder device with respective to cost variation are shown as below.

#1. FLIP ULTRAHD

This device is capable of having 1.6 MP CMOS Image sensors with display size of 2 – inches. The recording medium of this device has 8 GB built-in flash memory along with H.264 (720p) of recording format. Optical zooming capacity was not available for this FLIP ULTRAHD camcorder device.

Cost: Rs 9,200

#2. KODAK Zi8

This device is capable of having 5.0 MP CMOS Image sensors with display size of 2.5 – inches. The recording medium of this device has SD/SDHC memory along with H.264 (1080p) of recording format. Optical zooming capacity was not available for this KODAK Zi8 camcorder device.

Cost: Rs 9,999

#3. SAMSUNG HMX-H200RP

This device is capable of having 3.32 MP Image sensors with display size of 2.7 – inches. The recording medium of this device has SD/SDHC memory along with H.264 (1080i) of recording format.   

With 20x optical zooming capacity this SAMSUNG HMX-H200RP camcorder device was available.

Cost: Rs 21,900 

#4. SONY HANDY-CAM DCR-SR88E

This device is capable of having 0.8 MP Image sensors with display size of 2.7 – inches. The recording medium of this device has 120 GB Hard drive memory along with MPEG2-PS (480i) of recording format.   

With 60x optical zooming capacity this SONY HANDY-CAM DCR-SR88E camcorder device was available.

Cost: Rs 23,990

#5. SONY HANDY-CAM HDR-CX150E

This device is capable of having 3.1 MP Image sensors with display size of 2.7 – inches. The recording medium of this device has 16 GB built-in flash memory along with MPEG4-AVC/H.264 (1080i) of recording format.   

With 25x optical zooming capacity this SONY HANDY-CAM HDR-CX150E camcorder device was available.

Cost: Rs 29,990

Cloud Computing Environment

# Cloud computing on portable devices could prove to be a very good way of going green.

Go green with the cloud computing

According to carbonfootprint.com, a PC running for an hour generates 40-80 grams of co₂, while it consumes about 60-90 % of normal workload power even when idle. It’s also surprising to know that even power – saving modes like ‘sleep’ or ‘standby’ can consume as much as 120 watts of power.

With raising concern over global warming, we all want to do our bit to reduce carbon footprint and save the environment. And one way to do this is by adapting green computing. Now we may wonder what has cloud computing got to do with green computing. After all cloud computing at the end of the day requires servers to store all the data. And we keep hearing about how software giants like Google, Microsoft, Amazon and others are building huge data centers to meet the growing demands of the ever-increasing number if Internet-users. So don’t these huge data centers that require massive amounts of electricity increase the carbon footprint?

While this is true to some extent, in reality however the manufacturers of data centers are actively taking initiatives to minimize the impact on the environment. Also the leading players in the industry are taking efforts to reduce their carbon footprint and are even addressing the issue of e-waste.

Considering all this, cloud computing, especially on portable devices, be it smart phones, net books or ultra-low-powered laptops, could computing prove to be a very good way of going green.

# Portable computing devices consumes much less energy compared to a desktop or laptop

In comparison to a traditional PC or a laptop, portable computing devices consume much less energy because they do not need continuous power supply. They just need to be charged not more than once in a day depending on usage. It’s a fact that today, most people don’t really need a high end PC as their usage is limited to browsing, email, social networking, banking, watching videos, listening to music etc. And this can be easily achieved on a smart phone or on any of the portable devices that can be used for cloud computing.

And the trend of mobile computing is here to say. According to a Gartner report, by 2013, the total number of PCs will reach 1.78 billion in three years, the number of smart phones and number of web-enable phones will shoot past 1.82 billion units and continue to rise. This will force more websites to be optimized for usage on smart phones and other portable, while most of the popular websites have already been optimized.

Looking at this trend, it’s very tempting to assume that, with an increase in the number of ultra-portable computing devices, there could be a drastic decline in the demand for standard desktop PC’s. Of course the high end ones would always stay, for very good reasons. Nevertheless, if each one of us takes up cloud computing to perform most of the basic tasks, then we can definitely help in reducing our carbon footprint.  

Google Alerts

Google alerts inform the user about news from specific geographical areas. We can easily follow the latest news based on customized areas of interest. It compiles information based on search terms that can be defined. These services will be available via emails when there is a new search hit. In this way we can be up to date in our interested subjects.

 

How to set a Google Alert:

To set an alert open ‘http://www.google.com/alerts’ or ‘http://www.google.co.in/alerts’. Fill the input fields, your email address and then click on ‘Create an alert’ button. The image of those fields is as shown below.

The function is activated only after you click the link in the confirmation message. To receive suitable hits, search for different terms with Google search. We receive a message if a new hit for our search term is found under the top 10 messages or 20 search results. It is sensible to restrict the search term through many suitable queries to avoid receiving a vast number of messages or missing important messages.

How to delete Google Alerts:

   If we have a Google account, open ‘http://www.google.com/alerts/manage?hl=en&gl=us’ to manage the notifications. First we want to login to our account to manage these. There we will see active alarms that can be ‘edited’, ‘deleted’ or we can even create new alarms.

Users without Google account can unsubscribe the link in each notification which we will see in our mail.

Uses of Google Alerts:

 
  People uses Google alerts to

1. Find out what is being said about their company or product.
2. Monitor a developing news story.
3. Keep up to date on a competitor or industry.
4. Get the latest news on a celebrity or sports team.
5. Find out what’s being said about them.

How it works:

1. We enter a query that we are interested in.
2. Google Alert checks regularly to see if there are new results for our query.
3. If there are new results, Google Alerts sends them to our mails.