Google unveils a 'more beautiful' Google+
Articles & News
Google has taken the wrapper off of its redesign of Google+, which the search giant reckons makes the social network easier to use.
In a blog post, Google explained its reasoning behind the redesign, which is all part of Google's change throughout its whole portfolio – a change it hopes offers up more of a seamless experience for its users.
"Today we're introducing a more functional and flexible version of Google+. We think you'll find it easier to use and nicer to look at, but most importantly, it accelerates our efforts to create a simpler, more beautiful Google,"said Vic Gundotra, Senior Vice President, Google.
The main changes to the site include a dedicated section to Hangouts, better photo and video integration and a new 'navigation ribbon' on the left-hand side of the screen.
Not Just a Place to Hangout
"Today's Google+ update extends beyond navigation, the stream and hangouts," said Gundotra,
"For instance: there's a new Explore page that shows what's interesting and trending across the network. And a new profile with much bigger photos. And a new chat list that puts your friends front and center. And a whole lot more."
The updates will be rolling out to all Google+'s 75 million members in the next few days. But if you want to see what you will be getting, then check out the video below.
IIT responsible for Aakash (i)'s failure: Datawind
NEW DELHI: Six months after ministry of human resource development launched the Aakash tablet, barely a few hundred units have reached students. The manufacturing of the device has been stopped and now the ministry and Datawind, the company responsible for supplying the tablet, are focusing on Aakash 2, an upgraded version of the device.
Datawind concedes Aakash, which is supposed to digitize the way students study in India, has not been a success in its first version. But the company squarely blames IIT-Rajasthan, the nodal agency overseeing the project, for the fiasco. It says the concerns over the tablet's quality and functionality are overblown by the institute in a bid to "favour other firms".
Datawind's CEO, Suneet Singh Tuli, says that after winning the bid to manufacture Aakash, the company supplied 10,000 tablets to IIT-Rajasthan. They were part of an initial order of 1,00,000 tablets that Datawind was supposed to supply to the government at a price of $49.98 per unit. But after a few hundred tablets reached students as part of the pilot project, IIT-Rajasthan started rejecting Aakash tablet, allegedly after reports that the device was failing during pilot testing and did not meet the quality criteria set by the institute.
Tuli, however, disagrees. "IIT-Rajasthan was simply trying to defame us by saying that we could not meet the quality required by it," he says. "When we were awarded the contract, there was only a specification sheet. But when we started supplying the tablets, IIT-Rajasthan started rejecting the tablet based on biased and unscientific testing methodology. "
"IIT Rajasthan put up roadblocks. It jeopardized the whole project. I can say the dirty tricks by the institute put us around six months behind on the project ... they did it because they were favouring other firms... Even now, the institute is trying to sabotage the project," he adds.
There are reports that IIT-Rajasthan has been issued a showcause notice by MHRD last month over the Aakash failure. The notice asks institute to explain why it did not set up a tablet testing facility and procedure in time and why it failed to resolve its dispute with Datawind. Reportedly, the institute also worked with Wishtel, a company that launched a low-cost tablet called Ira last week. TOI tried contacting Prem K Kalra, director of IIT Rajasthan, over the email and phone but he wasn't available.
Datawind says that after the fiasco, it took back the tablets supplied to IIT-Rajasthan. "We have not been paid for a single one of them. But mission is more important to us... we believe in Aakash project," says Tuli.
The company is now working on Aakash 2, an updated version of the original tablet. It will have a capacitive screen instead of resistive and hence support multitouch. It will also have a better processor - based on Cortex A8.
"We are working with IIT Mumbai for Aakash 2 and will start supplying the tablet to government this month. Our original order for 100000 units has been transferred for Aakash 2 now. After the order of 100000 units is met, MHRD will invite bids for more tablets. We will bid again," says Tuli. Kapil Sibal, minister of human resources and development, on Tuesday said that Aakash 2 will be available in May.
Datawind also sells a commercial version of Aakash tablet called Ubislate. Tuli claims the firm has received over 3 million pre-bookings for Ubislate. However, this tablet too has not reached customers. "We are aware of the delay and trying to sort it out. We hope to ship Ubislate to consumer in next 10 days. To compensate for the delay, we will now give them Ubislate+, an upgraded version of the tablet at the same price," says Tuli.
Source: The Times of India
The Stupid Things You Do Online (and How to Fix Them)
Articles
The internet can bring you a lot of joy, but it can also turn into a world of pain the moment you make one stupid mistake. Perhaps you've been feeding the trolls, using "password" as your password, or selling your soul for access to a "free" web app. Your dumb mistakes can come back to bite you in the ass if you aren't careful. Here's how you can save yourself from yourself online.
Title image remixed from an original by Konstantin Maslak (Shutterstock).
Stupid Thing #1: You Undervalue Your Personal Data
Fortunately, you can have your cake and eat it too. If you don't like targeted ads based on your search history, you can just utilize your browser's Do Not Track options. Facebook now offers lots of ways to set the level of privacy you want to maintain, which is great, but with all the options it can be tough to learn and get just the way you want. Our always up-to-date guide to managing your Facebook privacy can get you up to speed. One of the first things you should do with Facebook is prevent apps from using your personal data as much as possible. Signing up for an app can provide the developers with much more information than you may realize as the apps will take information they don't necessarily need. To find out what each app is doing and limit its reach, just click the downward-facing triangle in the upper-right hand corner of your Facebook page and choose "Account Settings." From there click the Apps tab and click the "Edit" link next to any app. You'll see a list of what it is allowed to do plus the information it can access. Some stuff will be required for the app to function, but you'll almost always find something that isn't. Click the "Remove" link to revoke the app's permission to access that information.
Stupid Thing #2: You Submit Sensitive Information Over an Insecure Connection
When you submit sensitive information—like, say, your credit card number or login credentials—over an insecure connection, it's not necessarily your fault. Web sites worth their salt need to use HTTPS, rather than HTTP, in order to transfer data securely between your computer and their servers. That said, you have to be diligent and look for https:// in the URL bar in your browser (see the image to the right for an example). If you don't see this, chances are you're just using standard HTTP.This isn't a big deal if you're just reading or watching something, but if you don't see https:// you should avoid sending sensitive information like your credit card number or address. Also, the insecurity of HTTP isn't as big of a deal when you're on your password-protected home network, but when you're on a public Wi-Fi connection, anyone can snoop on what you're doing.
Stupid Thing #3: You Feed the Trolls
When you feed the trolls—that is, the moment when you engage a malicious idiot in their hateful, annoying, and pointless discourse—you do everyone a disservice. You not only involve yourself in an almost endless, useless, and anger-filled debate, but you pollute the internet with hateful threads of garbage along with the trolls who start them. The internet is never going to vomit rainbows (at least not all of the time), but we can attempt to create happier, more pleasant communities by avoiding unwarranted fights and flame wars. Unfortunately, it's tough for a lot of people to get past a statement that incites anger but there are a few things that can help.First, it's important to remember that trolls are not attacking you—they're attacking boredom. They have nothing better to do than say something mean so that's how they've unfortunately chosen to spend their time. If what they're saying isn't going to have much of an impact on anyone, just remember that they're bored, loathsome people and let it go. On the other hand, if they're promoting hate speech and potentially causing harm to others, it's best to avoid engaging them and instead report them to the site's administrator. Many sites offer a means of flagging harmful posts, and commenting systems offer ways for an administrator to ban problematic users. A simple email is often sufficient to take care of a bad person. Engaging with a troll-ish thread is just going to make you angry and potentially get you in trouble, too. If you do fall into the trap of feeding a troll, however, using the principles of cognitive therapy can be a worthy solution. This means responding positively and calmly, while accepting their different opinion. The trolls will likely find it frustrating and even condescending, but it's hard to argue with someone who is accepting your point of view (or even agreeing with you).
Stupid Thing #4: You Leave Private Information in Your Web Browser
Nowadays we spend a lot of time in our web browser and that makes it a potential source for embarrassing personal information. If you keep yourself logged into accounts on your computer, anyone casually borrowing your browser for a quick search can stumble onto some pretty personal stuff without even trying. For anyone actually interested in snooping, your web browsing history is a prime target. Even a visit to Amazon can dig up weird products you looked at or even bought.Keeping your browser activity private can be a lot of work, but there are a couple of things you can do to take the pain out of it. First of all, if you're doing anything particularly private on your computer you can just log out or lock people out with a password. Enabling a guest account can be very useful so when anyone wants to use your computer they won't be entrenched in your embarrassing web activity. If you don't want to password-protect anything, the next best thing you can do is just quit your browser whenever you're done using it and set it to clear your history when you do. On top of that, make sure you log yourself out of any accounts or your browser handles that for you. For the super paranoid, clear your cookies as well. One of our favorite tools for the job is CCleaner (the first 'C' stands for Crap), available for Windows and Mac.
CCleaner will give you a good start, but the fact of the matter is that a determined snoop has a ton of ways to spy on your browsing behavior.
Stupid Thing #5: You Don't Keep a Backup of Online Data
You know backing up your computer is important because it's been hammered into your head by us and virtually everyone who knows a thing or two about computers, but somehow we tend to ignore the importance of online backup. Web services go offline all the time. Most recently, MegaUpload was seized by the U.S. government and now many people have lost their uploaded files. They may be filing a lawsuit to regain access, but the reality is they no longer have their data. You never know what's going to happen to your data, especially when it's out of your possession, so always keep at least one backup.Some data, like photos and videos, can simply remain backed up on a local hard drive. If you lose your content online, you can always access a local copy and upload it elsewhere. That's all well and good if you create your content locally on your computer, but there is plenty you create online as well and that data is only saved on the server. In the case of Facebook, you can simply download all of your data in one big chunk. All you have to do is go into your account settings and look for the "Download a copy of your Facebook data" link at the bottom of the page. Not all web apps allow a full data download like Facebook, however, and you'll need to employ other services. InSync will handle your Google Docs. Backupify can back up multiple web services like Google Apps, Twitter, Facebook, and more. If you keep any vital data online, be sure you use something to back it up. If you don't, it could be gone tomorrow with no way to get it back.
Stupid Thing #6: Assuming Your Posts and Comments Are Anonymous
What you say online is going to be around for a long time, and when you do as much as post a comment on a popular site it's likely going to surface when someone does a web search for your name. I've commented on an article maybe three or four times in my life and this Steve Ballmer hate rant has managed to stick to my name since the day I was apparently so offended (which was over seven years ago).
It's not that it's impossible to comment anonymously online—and we've offered some tips for doing just that—but most of us don't follow a strict enough set of rules to remain anonymous. Even if you don't use your real name, comments stick. You'll probably use that pseudonym down the line and it will gain its own reputation. Your name may be tied to that pseudonym on as little as one web site and people will be able to find out who you are with a simple search. Additionally, you may post a comment on a blog or other page without realizing that you're already logged in via your Facebook account. There are a lot of ways your name can be tied to what you say online, so it's important to remember that your reputation is riding on every post to some extent. Remember to think about what you're going to say before you say it or it may follow you around for much longer than you expect.
Stupid Thing #7: You Let People Track Your Whereabouts
Checking in to sites like Foursquare, Gowalla, and Facebook is all fun and games until somebody loses an eye—or, well, any personal belongings that a thief can snatch while s/he knows you're out of the house. A web app called Please Rob Me demonstrates (with humor) how your check-ins can provide too much information regarding your whereabouts when you share publicly. All you really have to do to solve this problems is share privately. Most check-in sites have this option. Follow these instructions for Foursquare, simply become a private user on Gowalla, and if you're using Facebook you can just tag yourself at a location after the fact so your location isn't disclosed in real-time. That's really all there is to it. Be careful who you share your location with and you've fixed the potential damage.Stupid Thing #8: You Use an Insecure Password That You Rarely (or Never) Change
If you read Tech. In Total. with any regularity you know we love a good, strong password. That said, most people seem pretty reluctant to let go of their simple passwords in favor of something more complex. But you can have strong yet memorable passwords or just use a multiword phrase to decrease the chances of anyone ever hacking your password. Or better, yet, you can let a password manager like LastPass pick and remember your complex password for you. But anyone who's using a weak password at this point is likely doing it because they don't want to bother changing every password for every online service they've ever used. While that's understandable, you really just have to get off your butt and take care of it. Using a service like LastPass is a good option because it can save your existing passwords and automatically detect updates when your passwords change. This way you can change them at your leisure, whenever you log into a site with an old password, and make sure everything is still up-to-date and remembered by a password manager. (Consult this infographic for a condensed look at nearly every tip and method we've posted.)Want to leave your suggestions? Drop them in the comment section below:
Use This Infographic to Pick a Good, Strong Password
We always enjoy a useful infographic, and there are few things quite as important as choosing a strong password—at least in the area of online security. If you're looking to beef up your passwords, here are plenty of great tips consolidated into one great image.
Over the years we've suggested plenty of strong password tips, such as using a multi-word passphrase, only using passwords you can't remember, utilizing a password manager, and more. We thought it would be great to have all those tips in a single, easy-to-read format, so Killer Infographics put one together for us. If you're looking to strengthen your existing passwords or change a recently compromised password, be sure to check it out in its entirety by either clicking the thumbnail below to see the entire image or clicking the link at the end to post to view the infographic all by itself.
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
CLICK ON THE IMAGE TO ENLARGE:
DKFBootKit - First Android BootKit Malware
NQ Mobile Security Research Center has recently uncovered a new malware DKFBootKit. This malware is identified when monitoring and analyzing the evolution of earlier DroidKungFu variants. What sets DKFBootKit apart from malware like DroidDream, is that DKFBootKit replaces certain boot processes and can begin running even before the system is completely booted up.
DKFBootKit repackages legitimate apps by enclosing its own malicious payloads in them. However, the victim apps it chooses to infect are utility apps which require the root privilege to work properly. NQ says the malicious code has already infected 1,657 Android devices in the past two weeks and has appeared on at least 50 different mobile apps.
These apps seem to have legitimate reasons to request root privilege for their own functionality. It is also reasonable to believe that users will likely grant the root privilege to these apps. DKFBootKit makes use of the granted root privilege for other malicious purposes, namely comprising the system integrity.
In order to avoid being infected by this beast, NQ recommends three commonsense steps:
- First, don't download any apps from sketchy app stores.
- Second, don't accept app permissions from unknown sources and always be sure to read the permissions an app is requesting.
- Third, download a security app that can scan your apps for you to search for malicious code.
EcDB Is an Online Database for Your Electronics Inventory
Tweaks As most hobbyist and electronics hackers know, keeping tabs on all the tiny components, pieces, and parts inside your toolkit is almost impossible. It's especially troublesome when you go to start a new project only to realize that one piece you need is already in use elsewhere or lost inside a box. To help solve this, ecDB is a webapp organization tool that helps track your electronic components.
The webapp is still in beta, but its core feature set, the management and tracking of electronics components, works great. You have to manually enter in each of your different components, but once you do you can set them aside in projects, track a shopping list of what you need, and quickly see what you have on hand. If it's a complicated project you can upload images with schematics so you can keep of everything in a centralized place. If you're into electronics hacking this is a very handy organization tool.
ecDB | via Hack A Day
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