Digit February 2010

The RSS Feed









A different beat

W

hen Team Digit sat down this didn’t like their identity questioned, because

month to create the issue they found it insulting or embarrassing.

you’re holding in your hands, Why would I be embarrassed or insulted if

we actually had a very regular, someone took the trouble to secure a transac-

run-of-the-mill security issue planned. We were tion on my credit card? However, a quick poll

thinking PC security all along, and the more we of friends later, I’ve found that this is, sadly,

talked about the stories we’d cover, the less we true. If we can accept frisking in airports as a

liked our own ideas. necessary means to safeguard our lives, why

Finally, we decided to go out and get some can’t we apply the same logic everywhere else?

more real-world stories, and write a report or The first step we can all do is change our-

two. Over the past fortnight or so, the Digit Team selves. I suggest you start by pointing out when

has been out on the town. We searched for and cashiers don’t check your signature. Also, before

found unsecured Wi-Fi connections, then rang you leave, tell them that you will have to recon-

Robert Sovereign-Smith doorbells and told people about them. We’ve sider shopping there in the future, as they don’t

Editor gone out and shopped using credit cards that seem to care about their customers’ security.

aren’t ours, and then signed ridiculous names That ought to get them to consider checking sig-

on the purchase slips, just to see if we’d get away natures, at least for the next few people in line.

with it. We decided to look at everyday life, and If you come across an unsecured Wi-Fi con-

find security flaws in the technology we use. nection in your building, follow signal strength,

I actually had a friend ask me, “Why?”. He ring a door bell and help your neighbours secure

was referring to the effort the team was putting themselves.

in to do all this. Could we really change any- We just have to lead by example, and march

thing? Would malls really start training their to a different beat. Four or five Digit employees

“Four or five Digit cashiers to do even cursory checks on credit may not be able to do much, but four or fi ve

employees may not card signatures just because Digit decided to lakh Digit readers and your friends, will make

buy a few things with fake signatures? Would a difference. Trust me.

be able to do much, all Indians magically start caring about securing On a different note, we also decided to try

but four or five lakh their wireless routers, or even know how to, just and make Digit more interactive this month,

Digit readers and because of an article in Digit? with our Crack the Code contest (details on page

friends will make Sadly, the answer is no. 109), and since a lot of us are pixel art fans, we

However, if dreamers let reality and inertia figured what better way than to start the game

a difference!” get in the way of trying, the world would still from the cover itself, with clues hidden in a pixel

be rubbing flint together to start a fire, taking art cover. Our design team worked overtime

shelter under a rock somewhere in Africa. Per- this month adding in all the little details we

sonally, I’d rather dream and try to make a dif- demanded — we hope you like it.

ference, than sit around and crib about what’s I hope to get feedback from you on this issue

wrong with the world. I’m pretty sure you want — about the cover, the thoughts on this page,

to do the same, but where and how do we start? and all the stories within — so write in to the

One huge difference that I think we can all email address below, or use one of the other

make is to be a little more patient and under- interaction points and share your experiences

standing. I’ve noticed people being restless and ideas with the team and me.

when waiting to pay a bill, or when we’re in line

waiting to be frisked when we enter a mall. One

cashier that I confronted, when he didn’t check

my credit card signature actually felt that people editor@thinkdigit.com









Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 1

February 2010 • Volume 10 • Issue 02

PRODUCTS REVIEWED THIS MONTH



Security suite .................. 38

AVG Internet Security 9.0

Comodo Internet Security 2010

eScan Internet Security Suite 10

F-Secure Internet Security 2010

K7 TotalSecurity 10

Managing Director Production and Logistics Norton Internet Security 2010

Dr Pramath Raj Sinha Sr. GM - Operations Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet Security 2010

Printer and Publisher Shivshankar Hiremath



Kanak Ghosh Production Executive Vilas Mhatre

Logistics M P Singh, Mohd. Ansari, External storage ............. 60

Publishing Director

Shashi Shekhar Singh A-DATA Nobility NH92

Asheesh Gupta

Buffalo Drive Station HD HX 1.0TU3-AP

Sales and Marketing

Editorial Buffalo Mini Station HD-PX 320/BK-AP

VP Naveen Chand Singh

Editor

Product Manager Navneet Miglani

Iomega eGo RPHD-TG

Robert Sovereign-Smith

Manager - Product Marketing Iomega Prestige LPHD-UP

Editor-at-large and Online Architect

Chandan Kumar Singh Seagate FreeAgent ST310005FDA2E1-RK

Ahmed Shaikh

Assistant Brand Manager Seagate FreeAgent Go ST905003 FAA2E1-RK

Head - Copy Desk

Arpita Ganguli

Nash David Transcend StoreJet 25M TS500GSJ25M

Co-ordinator, Scheduling,

Writers Aditya Madanapalle, Deepak Sharma WD MyBook Elite WDBAAH0010HCH-NESN

Siddharth Parwatay WD MyBook Studio WDBAAJ0010HSL-NESN

Circulation and Subscription — Sales WD MyPassport Elite WDBAAC5000ARD-NESN

Test Centre Co-ordinator Vijay Mhatre

Mgr - Test Development and Sourcing WD MyPassport Essential SE

Customer Service Prerana Panchal,

Michael Browne Vrushali Londhe, Poornima Tendulkar WDBABM7500ABK

Mgr - Testing and Processes WD MyPassport Essential

Rossi Fernandes Customer Service (Helpdesk) WDBAAA5000ABK-NESN

Trainee Reviewer Nimish Sawant +91-22-4078 9612/13/14





Multimedia Head Office: Editorial, Marketing Netbooks ........................ 66

Project Head Robert Sovereign-Smith and Customer Service Acer 532H-2Bb

Content Head Aditya Madanapalle Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt. Ltd

ASUS Eee PC 1201HA

C/o KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30,

Vashi (Near Sanpada Railway Station), BenQ Joybook Lite U121 Eco

Design

Navi Mumbai 400 703 Gateway LT2002I

Sr Creative Director Jayan Narayanan

Phone: +91-22-4078 9666

Art Director Binesh Sreedharan HCL Mileap MH06

Fax: +91-22-4078 9540,

Associate Art Director Anil VK MSI U130

+91-22-4078 9640

Lead Designer Vijay Padaya Olive Zipbook x107h

Manager Design Chander Shekhar Cover design

Zenith Z Book Dock

Sr Visualisers PC Anoop, PC Anoop and Anil T

Santosh Kushwaha

Sr Designers TR Prashanth, Anil T, Bazaar .............................. 72

NV Baiju ASUS Radeon EAH5850

Sr. Photographer Jiten Gandhi Belkin n52te

The Digit Community Advisory Council Cowon iAudio E2

Ejaz Ashraf Natraj Kadur Anuvrat Parashar Epson Stylus Office T30

Mayur Gaikwad Rohan Mathew Dipankar Saha EPSON STYLUS TX210

Bhuveneshwar Gupta Amitabh Mishra Dilip Sanghvi Gigabyte MIB T3140

Prashant Joshi Abhineet Mittal Suvra Sarkar HTC Hero

Romin Joshi Dev Mukerjee Arun Sriraman Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P80

Disclaimer Olive Zipbook x107h

For every Digit contest, there will be only one winner, unless specified otherwise.

In the event of a dispute, the Editor’s decision shall be final. Panache Smile PC T1610

Sony Ericsson Yari

Synology Disk Station DS410j

Printed and Published by Kanak Ghosh, for Nine Dot Nine Interactive Pvt. Ltd. C/o KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30, Vashi (Near

Sanpada Railway Station), Navi Mumbai 400 703 XFX HD5970 Black Edition

Editor: Anuradha Das Mathur, C/o KPT House, Plot 41/13, Sector 30, Vashi (Near Sanpada Railway Station), Navi Mumbai 400 703

Printed at Silverpoint Press Pvt. Ltd, Plot No. A, 403, MIDC, TTC Industrial Area,Mahape, Navi Mumbai 400709







2 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

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Q&A

If you’re having trouble with your PC or a gadget,

our experts can help solve your problems. Just write in to

sos@thinkdigit.com

Remember to include full system configurations in your mails





Agent001

Our very own secret agent will give you the low down on what

to buy, from where, and for how much. Send in all your buying

advice questions to the coolest agent ever.

agent001@thinkdigit.com







Interact with Team Digit



Digit India SMS Join DigitIndia Digit Club

twitter.com/digitindia to 567678 alturl.com/rznc









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Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 3

Contents

FEBRUARY 2010 VOLUME 10 \ ISSUE 02









QUICK

NAVIGATOR

006 ENTER

Inbox

Industry Connect

Mood of the Community

Buzz

Enrepreneurship watch



CONNECTIONS

024 Mobile Watch

Web Watch



048 DIGITAL LIFE

Drool Maal

DIY: iPod without iTunes



054 SCI TECH the Skies

Reaching Out to

How stuff works



081 TOOLBOX

Tips and Tricks

Workshop

Q&A



092 STREET SMART

Agent 001

Killer Rigs

Price Watch 032

096 TECH@WORK

Work@Tech









104 ESC

Office 2010 worth it?

Developer corner

STORAGEin the

External storage options

TEST

Reel Vs Real

Valentine Gifts

Community market get benchmarked

Consumer Protection





60

Digit 101









TRIED &

TESTED 072

HTC HERO

Is this the

074 075

XFX HD5970 BLACK EDITION BELKIN N52TE

iPhone killer? The one to rule them all Quivering palm





4 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com



Tools Entertainment

FREEWARE ONLY APPLICATIONS FOR A Movies

BETTER DESKTOP EXPERIENCE • The man who knew too much

• The night of the living dead

Security

• Avast! Professional Edition Trailers

• AVG Internet Security 9.0 • Alice in Wonderland

• Avira Premium Security Suite 9 • Furry Vengeance

• F-Secure Internet Security 2010 • Harry Potter 7

• G Data InternetSecurity 2010 • Ironman 2

• Kaspersky Internet Security • Knight and Day

• Norton Internet Security 2010 • Marmaduke

048 • Trendmicro Internet Security • Robin Hood





Drool Maal PLUS

• K7 TotalSecurity 9.8 • Shrek Forever After



OUD

JOLICLSHOP

Internet Operating Systems

All the must have gizmos to take with you when RK • WeatherBug 7.0.2 Penetration testing

WO

you go travelling • AnyClient 2.0 distros

• Video Snooper 1.0.0.1

• Inspic 2.5.2

012 Mood of the community • BitComet 1.17

• Sparknotes Downloader 1.6.1

What does the technology community have on its mind? • GigaTribe 3.00.020

• Mipony 1.0.3



050 DIY: iPod sans iTunes • TweetDraw 1.2

• Writemonkey 0.9.6 • BackTrack 4

How to live with an iPod, without using iTunes • SkyDrive Explorer 1.4 • Frenzy 1.2

• TVTrigger 1.2.5

• Darq Software Transmute 1.66 Gaming

Games

Internet • Avatar Demo

• SmoothDraw 3.2.4 • GREED Demo

• Altarsoft Photo Editor 1.5 • Kino Demo

• Photo Slideshow-ShowMe 2.0

Patches

014 051 • GIMP 2.6.8

• TwistedBrush Open Studio 16.11 • Battlefield 2 1.41

• FotoSketcher 1.95 • Dragon Age 1.02A



Buzz F1 Cars • WPanorama 9.4.2

• Falco Auto Image 4.2

• Far Cry 2 1.03

• PES 2010 1.02

• Wolfenstein 1.2

We bring you all the trends to hit We bring to you all the tech • Fresh View 7.86

CES 2010 that goes into designing the • PhotoFiltre 6.4.0

aerodynamic F1 cars • Quick Slideshow Creator 1.1 Drivers

• On-screen Ruler 2.1.1.15 LATEST NVIDIA AND ATI GRAPHIC CARD



• Merge 2.1 DRIVERS

OPERATING

SYSTEMS,

FREEWARE, VIDEOS, Operating Systems

MUSIC, GAMES AND

DVD DIGIT TV EPISODE 4

CONTENTS LISTED

D

OPERATING SYSTEMS FOR YOUR

NETBOOK

ALONG THE SIDE









• Easypeasy 1.5

077 • gOS Space 12.2.6

077 EPSON STYLUS • Jolicloud PreBeta

COWON TX210 • Ubuntu Netbook Remix 9.10

iAUDIO E2 An all-round good • XPud 0.9.2 inside

Screenless marvel all-in-one!





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 5

Industry Connect Mood of the community

Enter 08 We feature AVG and Appin technologies - companies

involved in the business of online security 12 We asked and you answered. Here’s what the digit

community thinks of the future







u I am a new fan of Digit magazine.

I picked up my first Digit copy this

December and was amazed to see the

fantastic world of Digit. The issue was

great and the four DVDs were an added

incentive. Tips and Tricks on Windows 7

was really useful, as I am a new Windows

7 user. Now I am searching for the back

issues of Digit.

I want to build my career in animation

and produce some really breathtaking

CGI animated movies. So, I really want to

say a big thank you for packing in “Fast

Track to Maya” with Digit January 2010

issue.

It helped me a lot to learn the basic

concepts of 3D modeling and animation.

The Maya 2010 software on the DVD

was like an icing on the cake. Maya 2010

tutorials videos made it easier for me to

learn the software.

Thanks once again and keep on

teaching more about animation. All of ence, the introduction of Fast Track gave

you are really doing a great job. The GeForce 9600GT is a good GPU to consider. my knowledge a further boost. I always

Banti Debnath The card should just about run on the 250W PSU. keep every copy of Digit and Fast Track in

Just make sure you have a 6-pin PCI-E power case someone else needs them.

You will find the back issues of Digit in the connector on it. The GeForce 9400GT and 8400GS My subscription ends next month. I

January Playware DVD. Fast Track to Maya was a are entry-level graphics solutions for HTPCs and can’t renew as I’ll be joining Infosys on

very popular demand made on our forums at www. for very basic gaming. There have been so many 29th March, 2010 in Mysore. I’ll really

thinkdigit.com/forum. Join in to make your own games. Start with Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, miss my favourite magazine for sometime

requests, and interact with other members of the Batman: Arkham Asylum, Dragon Age, Assassin’s till I’m placed post-training.

Digit community. Creed, Borderlands and Fallout 3. If you are looking Finally, I want to thank the Digit Team

Rossi forward to games in 2010, check out Aditya’s for providing us all with quality content

article on page 114 in this issue. Also, check out and helping us keep up with the fast-

u Six months back I bought an the security suite comparison review this issue. paced tech-world over the years. I’ll be

upgraded ACER PC having following There are several free suites you can find in this looking forward to an unbeatable innings

configurations Processor: Dual core month’s DVD. with you soon.

E5300@2.6GHz, Motherboard: Intel Rossi Dibyendu Mondal

DG41RQI, RAM: Kingston 2 GB DDR2,

SMPS: 250Watt, LG CD Writer & LG u I got my first desktop way back in the u I have been an avid reader of Digit since

DVD Writer, HDD: Seaget 40GB & late nineties. Back then I used to buy I was in Class 5. Now I am in class 11. It has

320GB. Digit from my newspaper vendor and been a great experience to learn and grow

Which graphic card suits my configu- sometimes from magazine stalls since I with Digit over the years and I would like

ration? never felt the need to collect every issue. to wish you all the best for the future.

NVIDIA 8400GS 512MB, 9400GT I was more interested in the contents One main thing that Digit has taught

512MB or 9400GI 1GB, were suggestions of the CDs as there was no broadband me is the curiosity for computer knowl-

by my service guy then. With time I became more and more edge. As a result, I started experimenting

What about the SMPS? Is it sufficient addicted to your esteemed magazine and and in the process learnt many new

for the Graphic Card? Could you please finally realised that it was not possible things. However, most of them have

suggest some good games for the above to miss even a single issue and ended up

configuration. Also I don’t have internet subscribing. CRACK THE CODE

connection so could you please suggest Every test, review, problem solutions,

Subtract 12x this page number from

some free antivirus software for my tips and tricks is brilliant. They have the page number you came from, to get

system? always helped me in some way or the the page number of the next clue...

Ivan Fernandes other. Being a student of Computer Sci-





6 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Buzz - CES special

14 Emerging product trends and a few

informed predictions Inbox





already been discussed by Digit. But this LETTER OF THE MONTH

u Did you know that I may be one of the the best for having taken an old fellow

one, Digit hasn’t mentioned so far and for oldest subscribers of Digit? That’s right, like me on the journey. An old fellow who

a change, I am going it to share it with you I’ve been a reader of the magazine from can compete with any youngsters. I am

guys rather than the other way round. Day One. Now here’s another surprise - I also a childhood photographer and artist.

am aged 76 and a graphic designer! So But for Digit I cannot be what I am now.

Well, this trick is harmless and a Thank you.

I may very well be the oldest subscriber

great practical joke if executed prop- in the literal sense too. I am into graphic Vidhasagar

erly. It works on Windows XP only. designing just for the love of the art,

First, while the computer boots, go and not so much for the money. If and

when some one approaches me I just do Thank you sir, for your kind words. Your

to the BIOS setup. Then, go to power

it for the love of it. I now know about 11 story should be an inspiration to all of us.

management and find the ACPI option. applications thoroughly. All on my own. It’s always good to know of sprightly senior

There, disable the ‘ACPI’ features, save Digit helped me a lot in this technical

citizens who aren’t intimidated by tech.

the changes and restart your system. navigation. I don’t have words to say any

thing to Digit except to say wish you all Robert

Watch the fun. Windows won’t load.

The computer will keep booting itself

but Windows won’t load into the You seem to be paying a lot of attention to the thrill of inspiration. Thanks for sharing

memory. Now, if you again ‘enable’ magazine. You will have a great headstart for what your anecdote with us. In that editorial,

the features which you previously is in store for you this month. Keep the feedback you’ve mentioned about mIRC client.

disabled, your computer will breathe about Digit TV coming in, we are trying to improve Please provide more details on mIRC in

life again and everything will be back the overall audio quality and the presentation as forthcoming issues as internet relay chat

to normal. To a layman, or the local well. Let us know what you think of episode 04 in is the most promising online media for

computer dealer it will appear as a this month’s Playware DVD. social communication now.

system crash and he will be at his wit’s Aditya The January issue contents and

end trying to solve the problem which articles were exhaustive and very useful.

he dosen’t even understand. Great u I’m from West Bengal. I have been Glad to see that you have minimized

trick, isn’t it? reading Digit for the past four months. I product reviews to a limit and given

I would like to thank Digit for my have a few questions. more emphasis on feature articles. An IT

newly discovered trick. Thanks a lot 1) What is an HD Movie? security and hacking related issue is still

guys! It’s a great magazine and keep up 2) What is its extension ? awaited. Recently I read in the news that 1

the good work! 3) What is the ideal resolution for a 15 Mbps broadband web access a legal right

Anish Pal inch LCD monitor while playing games? in Finland and countries like France,

4) What is the extension of a game Estonia, Greece are on the same road

Keep tinkering! But don’t get too naughty. trailer? map. But still India, being a developing

Robert I would love to have some audio country, is in its infancy as far as internet

enhancers in the DVD as I am a huge speeds go which is a matter of worry.

u Well a very Happy New Year to all music enthusiast. People now-a-days use the online

of you first. Digit always surprises me Sushanta media to facilitate most important and

with its innovation and dedication. useful transactions. Internet is the

Every issue is better than the previous The HD in HD movie stands for high-definition. gateway to future. But still our ISPs claim

one. I have no idea how you guys do it. HD video content is usually high-resolution. So that broadband is a scarce resource.

But you know nothing is perfect. while a DVD movie would be 720x480, HD movie Digit, the leading tech magazine,

There was an improvement in audio resolutions go up to 1920x1080 (also known should present this matter of worries to

quality of Digit TV, though it could as 1080p/i). HD file extensions are named by the Indian government and bring about

have been much better. Why don’t you containers they use. AVI, MOV, HDMOV, WMV, an internet revolution in the country.

use those costly handy cams to review? and MP4 are some of the common formats used. Biswa Ranjan Nayak

They might work better. The ideal resolution on a 15-inch is 1024x768 or

Please add a little humor to Digit TV 1152x864 if your monitor supports it with a refresh Thanks for writing. IRC is unfortunately, not

presentations. People on screen seem rate of over 60Hz. Game trailers are just movies so the “most promising online media for social com-

like robots sans expression / emotions / they can be .mp4 or .avi, etc. Not sure what you munication.” Newfangled services such as Twitter

feelings. They should smile more often. mean by audio enhancers but you should look and Facebook have that distinction. You will really

Maybe some good looking with better at DSP effects we provided with the DVD in the like this issue, which specifically addresses the

on screen talent should do it. The DVD December 2009 issue. security issues in modern technology. You could

interface needs some renovations as its Rossi also follow the latest happenings in technology

looking repetitive. I would like to sign off u Another inspirational note from you and stay updated by following Digit on these social

by saying that you guys are the best. -”If Yan Can Cook .....” I’ve read it at least media platforms.

VR Deepak 15-20 times and each time I feel a new Robert





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 7

Spam Volumes Password woes

According to a latest ENISA report, less than Most users keep default passwords or ultra simple ones, says

5 per cent of mail is actually delivered to security vendor Imperva after analysing 32 million passwords

Industry Connect mail boxes. 95 per cent is simply spam that emerged from the recent rockyou.com breach









Backdoor to AVG

We spoke to Gareth Williams (VP-Sales, Emerging Markets, AVG) and Karel

Obluk (CTO, AVG) and got a feel of where we stand in terms of security

preparedness and what to expect in the future. Here are excerpts

What are the potential threats

expected in the near future?



Gareth: It can be safely predicted that

in 2010 the threat environment will

witness higher volumes of web-threats

and be even more transient, agile and

organised! Internet security threats that

we expect to have significant impact this

year would be more diverse automati-

cally generated malware. Cyber criminals

in the cloud, and emerging nations going

online without adequate security

measures will be a matter of concern.



What measures should one take to

avoid being attacked?



Gareth: It’s necessary to use multi-lay-

ered protection beyond traditional Gareth Williams (VP-Sales, Emerging Markets, AVG) and Karel Obluk (CTO, AVG)

anti-virus solutions. An anti-virus engine

combined with real-time web scanning for exploits on web pages, rather than the How does one make a career in this

and a good behaviour layer will ensure that actual payload, we believe that we offer a field (technology)?

businesses are protected from so many very advanced protection even against

attack code variations every day. new, so called 0-day threats. Gareth: Of course there are several

Cyber-security, however, foremost is a different areas in the technology industry,

personal responsibility. Employing basic Cloud computing is one of the latest some highly technical and some more

hygiene measures will keep cyber-crimi- trends online in recent times. Do you commercially oriented. Whatever the

nals at bay. The following tips are useful: view this is a breeding ground for chosen direction, the most important

- Think before you link infections? thing is a solid and relevant education.

- Stay current on security software Then it’s about looking for the first

- Keep your private information private Karel: Cloud computing definitely brings opportunity to gain experience and to

Above all, users should make sure that some significant advantages especially to prove that you can do a great job. If it’s a

they use reasonable judgement when small businesses, but equally to enter- technically oriented career then there are

operating online. prises. Virtualisation techniques that are of course several specific training options

used on these systems are very advanced available to increase skills and knowl-

How do you test your anti-viruses and I am confident that vendors that offer edge, but this still does not substitute for

against attacks yet to be experienced? various cloud computing services invest a experience and the need to build up a

lot in proper security. However, no track record. So, my suggestion for

Karel: AVG has several protection program is perfect and thus I expect that someone looking to develop a technology

layers, some of them are designed these services will also be exploited by career is first to complete a solid educa-

specifically to cope with new threats that attackers and used for distribution of tion, second to choose a direction that’s

have not been seen yet. Emulator and malicious programs and to attack other genuinely interesting (it’s always easier to

generic scanner based on statistical systems. Still, since these systems are do a good job if you enjoy the work), third

methods is one such layer, behavior usually managed very carefully by look out for the first opportunity to prove

monitoring that observes behavior and experienced admins, the likelihood of yourself, and fourth stay open-minded to

actions of running process is another one. infecting these systems is much lower than take new or adjusted directions should

Together with LinkScanner, that scans for a typical home computer. the opportunity arise.





8 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

McAfee, Facebook tie-up

Facebook and anti-virus company McAfee have joined hands to

Industry Connect create awareness about security threats in social networking









Appin Technologies

An interaction with Mr. Rajat Khare, CEO of Appin Technologies, a company

that offers security services as well as training for students



Tell us something about yourself. In the 90s, there were an increasing

How and why was Appin Technologies number of youth getting into hacking as

formed? a fun thing/hobby? Do you think it

I am a guy next door who was inspired should be encouraged, or is hacking be

by people who changed the world a big no-no, or has that phase passed

Entrepreneurs. I entered IIT Delhi already?

Computer Science not to become just an I think a right balance is required.

engineer but to set the right base to However, ethics need to be imbibed for

launch a revolutionizing business. using hacking to secure. It’s like saying,

Personally, entrepreneurship is my should nuclear technology be developed?

passion, writing is my hobby and The answer is Yes. Should it be used for

adventure is my diversion. My vision is energy production the answer is Yes.

to make a name for myself and India in Should it be used for destroying cities like

the world. Mr. Rajat Khare, CEO of Appin Technologies with ex Hiroshima, the answer is No. Similar, is

Appin stands for “approaching president Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam hacking. It’s a great art if used for the

Infinity” and was formed to make Innova- right cause.

tion reach infinity which means never about security after the November 2008

ending and always improving. Our motive attacks. Also with Chinese cyber warfare Are there any other companies training

is to revolutionise the research of security strategies, everyone is on their toes. their employees in ethical hacking?

in India and be a leading provider of However the private corporations are Yes. In fact recently a lot of our alumni

security services / products/ training slow in implementing security due to were hired by IBM, Religare, Verizon etc.

in India and export it in the world. recession but have picked up after market

improvements. What is the demand of ethical hackers

What does Appin focus on? Do you in the country? What kind of renumera-

provide security services as well? Tell us How insecure are e-commerce sites tion can one expect? What are the areas

about some of your clients. and companies in general? Is cyber that are most in demand?

Appin focuses on information and terrorism a threat to them? The demand is increasing but should

communication security product, Our evaluation about this is that be coupled with knowledge of security.

development, services and training. Our e-commerce sites in India face a lot of Most of the ethical hackers are not

clients include almost all defence and threats and have been victims of cyber taught security. What Appin does

paramilitary forces, policing, ministries, terrorism and are still insecure. We need differently is that we teach information

PSU’s and corporations. Some of the to take steps of 24/7 security monitoring security and ethical hacking together. It

pioneer clients include the Indian Army, and implement anti-hacker methods to gives person the right perspective. A

Navy, Air force, CBI, Ministry of External secure them. person who understands both is in

Affairs, Delhi airport, Hyderabad airport, high demand and one can expect

Bangalore airports and the State Bank of What is the syllabus for ethical salaries beginning from

India. These clients range from security hacking courses and what is their future? Rs. 12,000-50,000 depending on the

audit, security implementation, security Ethical hacking course covers all aspects profile, and their background. Most

management services/ of penetration testing and important areas are penetration testing,

products including special “…corporations some aspects of exploitation ISO 27001 implementation and

services only provided to

the government, and not to

are slow in over web, networks, and

servers. The objective is to

auditing, network security and

managed security.

consumers. implementing help access real security

security…” threats, prioritize threats CRACK THE CODE

How serious are and counter them. A ‘Gender’ (Noun)

companies and the government in India student typically takes the job of security 1 The state of being male or female (with

reference to social or cultural differences).

about security today? auditor/ penetration tester or security 2 The members of one or other sex.

The government has become serious administrator





10 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

HYDRA comes alive Crysis : NYC

MSI’s Big Bang Fuzion motherboards appear The upcoming Crysis 2 game won’t be set in

Mood of the community on online shopping sites the jungles, but instead in New York city









M☺ d

Community

of the

The year 2009 was filled with surprises and expectations. We wanted to know what

the Digit community thought of the year to come. 2009 was going to be the year of

broadband but it wasn’t. Would we see cheaper internet connections in the future?

Will IPTV finally take off? You’ve given us your opinions and here are some of the

results of the polls. For more, visit www.thinkdigit.com/d/mood_community





UPBEAT :)









Will we be making more online purchases in

Which of the following will become a Do you think we will see better bandwidth India in 2010?

disruptive technology in 2010? and broadband connectivity in 2010?

Yes, online transactions will increase significantly (52.1%)

WiMax (33.3%) Availability should improve (1Mbps lines will be Slightly more people will purchase online (37.2%)

3D television sets (30.1%) common) (64.4%) Online purchase will remain the same (10.6%)

NVIDIA Fermi GPU (23.6%) It will be the same as last year (25.2%) It will reduce next year (0%)

Intel Larrabee GPU (9.6%) Available bandwidth will increase significantly (5 Mbps

Others (3.2%) lines will be common) (10.2%)









Will we be playing more MMOG games like Where will we be playing games next year?

Farmville and World or Warcraft, or single- Will WiFi usage at home proliferate in 2010? The latest and greatest on the PC (50.5%)

player games like Gears of War or Half-Life? On a console (Xbox 360/PS3) (25.5%)

WiFi penetration at home should marginally (56.1%) On the mobile phone (9.4%)

Only free MMOG games will do better (43.9%) I think most people will use WiFi at home (21.4%) Through a browser (Flash based) (6.3%)

MMOG browser-based games will be more (39.5%) I do not foresee any appreciable change (15.3%) Others (5.2%)

MMOG games are a fad which will fade away (8.7%) Government regulations will almost stop WiFi (5.1%) On a handheld (PSP / DS) (3.1%)

MMOG games are too costly to increase in mind share (7.6%) WiFi at home should decrease given security concerns (2.0%) On a Wii (0%)







12 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Radeon 6000 series PS3 hacked

Next generation of ATI’s Radeon cards expected Hacker who hacked the iPhone at the age of 18

in second half of 2010 claims he has hacked the Sony Playstation 3 Mood of the community







MEH :| VERSUS

Google vs. Bing









Will HDTV penetration at homes change Will there be a high-profile, high-quality

significantly? game from an Indian game studio next

year?

HDTV sets will remain too costly to change things much

(36%)

No, Indian studios will still focus on backend work Google (88.7%)

HDTV penetration should increase marginally (27.8%)

With increasing content and falling prices, penetration (50%) Bing (11.2%)

Yes, Indian developers will shine in 2010 (32.9%)

will increase significantly (21.6%)

HDTV will almost become the default for everyone

purchasing a set (14.4%)

No, I dont think Indian studios have the necessary

skills or talent (17%)

CPU vs. GPU







SUCKS :(

GPU (56.1%)

CPU (43.8%)



Android vs. iPhone



How likely are you to access the internet How safe will our online life be in 2010?

from your television set in 2010?

Online threats will increase exponentially next year

Not very likely (58.8%) (35.6%)

I don’t think this is even a good idea (17.7%) Threats should be the same in 2010, no significant change

Somewhat likely (15.8%) (32.1%)

Very likely (7.4%) Viruses and spam will be less of a problem next year (16%)

We should be safer in 2010 due to the online and live

protection services from big vendors (16%)

Android (70.7%)

iPhone (29.2%)



Facebook vs. Orkut

What are you most

likely to buy in 2010?

Smartphone (22.7%) Blu-Ray Player (3.4%)

Laptop (22.7%) MP3 Player (3.4%)

High Capacity Storage (11.3%) Gaming Console (2.2%)

Gaming Rig (Desktop) (6.8%) Netbook (2.2%)

Others (6.8%) Camcorder (1.1%)

Digital Camera (still) (6.8%) Photoprinter (1.1%) Facebook (77.5%)

Orkut (22.4%)

High-end graphic card (5.6%) Home theater (0%)

HDTV (3.4%) Tweet vs. blog

Tweet (69.6%)

Blog (30.3%)









Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 13

Vacuum tubes still around! Ford puts cars online

Japan’s Air Tight showcased these vacuum tubes at

Plug in a phone to a USB port on the new

CES this year, for use in high-end amplifiers

Buzz Ford cars, and they become mobile hot spots









Trendspotting

at CES 2010

We bring you the winning technologies

and top trends of CES 2010

A farewell to tive display. It works on the

keyboards Android UI. And the user gets

The Consumer Electronics all this for around US $300

Show (CES) 2010 was an even (Rs 15,000) Although most

that finally saw many tech com- of the products were on the

panies launching the Tablet higher end of the price

PCs. It was finally good to see spectrum, Adam

many manufacturers out with can be had under

their version of the newest Rs. 15,000. So will

form factor. The icing on the this be a game changer in

cake being the presence of an the tablet PC market. Lenovo’s

Indian tech start up among the Ideapad UI touchscreen is a raised. With integrated

best names of tech world in that concept that turned around graphics and memory

list. With laptops, netbooks and many heads at CES 2010 due controller on the processor,

smartphones already offering to its unique form factor, which Lenovo Ideapad UI, a netbook-tablet netbook users can expect a

most of the functionality works even when detached. It hybrid richer multimedia experience.

expected in a tablet, it seems is a hybrid in the sense that it For the Tablet form factor Keeping this in mind we take a

there is still a gap in the market works as a laptop and also as to be accepted, there are two look at the interesting Netbooks

somewhere. Many people want a standalone tablet when the schools of thought. We have launched at CES 2010.

the portability of a cellphone, 11.6 inch screen is separated. convergence evangelists, Extremely low power con-

but with increased computing As a laptop it runs on a Core for whom smartphone with sumption seemed to be the USP

power. For many others tablet 2 Duo CULV processor with internet capability is the ulti- of many netbooks thanks to the

PC may just mean glorified Windows 7 and has a 128 GB mate device. But others feel Pine Trail platform. Toshiba

e-reader or glorified touch- SSD drive. But when the dis- that the limited screen size of Mini NB305 is loaded with

screen smartphone. So is 2010 play is detached, it becomes a phone seriously hampers the an Intel Atom N450 1.66 GHz,

going to be the year of the tablet a stand-alone Linux tablet whole user experience when 1GB of RAM, 250GB of HDD.

PC? We will look at three of the PC with a 1 GHz Snapdragon dealing with media playback. It has a 10.1-inch TruBrite LED

tablet PCs that were launched ARM processor having 16 GB So a Tablet is a device that tends backlit display with 1024×600

at CES 2010 which created a flash memory. These features to bridge that gap of portability pixel resolution. It promises an

lot of buzz. come at a hefty price of around and user experience. With 11-hour battery life and has a 6

The Adam has been devel- US $1,000. Apple slated to announce its cell battery.

oped by an India based startup ICD showcased the 15.6- iSlate, it looks like 2010 is set Samsung’s N series of net-

called Notion Ink comprising inch Vega and a 7-inch Ultra. to be the year of the tablets. books namely N210 and N220

six IITians and an MBA. The Vega has a 1366 x 768 offer battery lives of 12 hours

On first glance it looks like a resistive touchscreen working Netbooks get a whereas N150 and NB30 reach

widescreen version of the iPod on a 1 GHz nVidia Tegra T20 performance boost 8.5 hours and 11 hours respec-

touch. It’s based on the nVidia chipset like the Adam. It comes Netbooks are meant for basic tively. They also offer support

Tegra T20 chipset and supports with a 32GB SSD and the con- computing tasks but with for 720p graphics. Each of

1080p Full HD video playback, nectivity options range from Intel announcing the Atom them have a 10.1 inch screen

has integrated Wi-Fi, Bluetooth Wi-Fi, Bluetooth with optional N450 Pine Trail platform and it features Easy Resolu-

and UMTS/HSDPA and an 3G and HDMI, a device that is for netbooks and nettops the tion Manager, which adjusts

innovative Pixel Qi transflec- market ready. performance bar has been the screen resolution based



Samsung debuts IceTouch, a PMP with a transparent screen The screen of the Lenovo Ideapad U1 works as a separate tablet Microsoft says Linux won’t offer quality



14 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

LCD screens on headphones Netbooks go a little retro

Vizio made its foray into the headphone market with a

pair of Bluetooth headphones with an LCD screen on each Acer and Gateway announced netbooks with optical drives

bridging the gap between netbooks and notebooks

Buzz earpiece that displays album art and other images







GX640 and GX740 Television sets to means that whatever device

are powered by get a dimensional you are using as a source has

i5 processor and lift soon to output twice the amount of

features the ATI Over the past year, 3D has image information in the same

radeon HD directx been slowly gaining ground amount of time, as there is a dif-

11 supporting video as a home theatre experience. ferent image for each eye. None-

card. The Gx740 Concert videos of U2 and Miley theless, a few of the 3D HDTVs

has five speakers for Cyrus were released in 3D, and showcased at CES are market

what MSI calls “The the year ended with the release ready. Samsung’s wafer

ultimate 3D sound of Avatar. At CES, 3D HDTV thin (1/3rd

experience in note- was dominating trend, with of an inch)

books.” They both the biggest television manu- LED9000 was

will start retailing facturers in the industry also quite a spec-

in UK in 2010 and including Panasonic, tacle. The remote

will have a price tag LG, Sony, Philips, that controls this

of £999. Dell also Vizio, Samsung and device may just be the

showed its 11 inch Toshiba, all show- long awaited iPhone

alienware notebook casing 3D HDTV killer. You can stream

that will cost less products. videos, use Wi-Fi, and even

than $1000. It has The watch a secondary channel on

nVidia’s GT335M definite the remote itself.

graphics and is showstealers Sharp came out with a

capable of running amongst these The LED9000 stunner in the form of three

Crysis at 50 FPS. It was Panasonic’s remote Aquos LED LCD TVs, sets that

MSI’s Gx740 offers surround sound in Netbooks has a battery life of 158 Inch plasma uses four basic pixels instead

2 hours in gaming behemoth, a device that can of the standard three. A yellow

on the application running on mode, although it goes up churn out video at 4K resolu- pixel has been thrown into the

your system. when the game runs at lower tion. 1080p resolution is 1K, array, to give a better colour

HP Mini 5102 went a step levels. Sony also revealed its and 4K is the standard at which representation. Sony had show-

further in the netbook seg- Vaio F series notebook which the best cameras in the media cased 3D models in CES 2009

ment by coming out with a will cater to both home cinema industry record, which is basi- itself, and some of the sets in

touch-enabled netbook. With and powerful office users. It has cally what you see in theatres. the Bravia range is already 3D

features like face recognition a slick black chassis and a Full The only heavier format around ready. The models showcased

for logging onto windows and HD 16.4 inch display. It runs is IMAX. This of course, put’s a in the 2010 exhibit used an

multi touch sensor, HP Mini on Windows 7 home premium. lot of pressure on the consumer OLED screen. Sony announced

has raised the bar for netbooks. Dell also wowed the crowd in terms of getting together the that they would tie in with

It comes with a four-cell or a with the demonstration of its resources necessary to content providers

six-cell battery, the latter can OLED notebook. The Studio feed this monster. If you such as Discovery

last up to 10 hours. XPS has an OLED display with channel for

ATI also revealed the much a depth of just 2mm. It has a

awaited range of its Directx 11 pretty impressive contrast of

supporting notebook graphic 10,000:1. HP also displayed

cards. The entire announced a concept notebook running

range of laptop graphic cards Android with a Qualcomm

include ATI Mobility Radeon processor and full 3G support.

HD 5800, ATI Mobility Radeon Netbook purchases have

HD 5700, ATI Mobility Radeon seen a steady rise in 2009 and got yourself a Blu-

HD 5600 and ATI Mobility this growth is bound to con- Ray player already, there’s bad

Radeon HD 5400 series tinue with more performance news for being an early adapter,

graphics. MSI unveiled note- being packed in. With tablet as you will need ports on it Panasonic’s 3D

books based on the Intel Cal- PCs about to make an entry in which are in the new HDMI HD camcorder

pella platform. The C-series the consumer market, the battle 1.4 standard, something that

and G-series range of laptops for portable computing is just supports the 3D HDTV Blu-

use Core i5 processors. MSI’s going to heat up. Ray format. 3D Blu-Ray also



for mobile devices PrintShop sees a new version after more than 20 years Asus announced the flamboyant Bang & Olufsen-designed ICEpower notebook The AR. DRONE



16 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

High Bandwidth Routers

D-link announced two new Wi-Fi routers, the Touch DIR-865 is a true dual band

router with throughput of upto 450 Mbps while the Wireless N Pocket Router

Buzz minimobile router is for people on the go







delivering 3D content to these Digital Interface), which is a

screens. DirectTV and Foxtel, network of communication

are just two providers report- through which devices such

edly getting ready to start as PMPs, Camcorders, and

broadcasting 3D in the United Laptops can interface with the

States as early as next year. televisions and home theatre

For all the movies that you set ups in a home. LG, West-

love and were never made in inghouse and Celeno, all tel-

3D, the converting boxes that evision manufacturers, show-

sprouted at CES can come to cased a range of products that

your rescue. JVC and Toshiba could catch video content in

both showcased mechanisms a wireless manner. Celeno’s

through which a normal video demo installation involved a

stream could be converted to common box through which

3D. This practically solves the Samsung’s ebook reader media content was streamed to

problem of 3D content creation, a number of television screens

but how well this works across use. There are two lenses, and was for “Mobile Professionals”, in and around the house.

a range of movies remains to two memory storage devices to known as the Que. This is still a Almost everyone already

be seen. We wonder what these capture and record the streams. category which has been domi- owns an HDTV, which is why

boxes would do with something Panasonic will start taking nated by the Amazon Kindle the real numbers were seen

like “The Lion King”. Some orders for these from April. for long, and the entry of giants in devices that acted as mid-

media companies can probably in this market benefits the con- dlemen between a source of

do a better conversion at their Kindle gets some sumer by competitive prices video content, as in the internet

labs, then release the content competition and greater variety. or a HTPC, and the television.

on DVDs, which is something Though not a very popular Belkin had a range of switches

that Sony announced it would category, it also had its share Home wireless that could stream wireless

get into. Sony also said that they of limelight in this CES. It was explores new content from say a laptop, to

could put a patch in the PS3 started by Samsung which territories a small attachment to the tel-

firmware that would make the One element common to all the evision itself. These switches

console ready for 3D gaming, at Why it might not happen major trends at CES this year, had USB ports as well, if that

1080p resolution at that. That is You cannot really relax in from 3D TVs, to tablets to the was necessary. Belkin was

front of a television with

double the output of the device those glasses on superphones, were the wireless one of the few manufacturers

in the same time, which is a The frame of the Television capabilities of these devices. A that could support 1080p

pretty tall claim. LG rolled out restricts the effect of the 3D range of wireless technologies video streaming, the best that

The novelty is not worth the

their Optoma range of projec- have matured, with open fre- most of the rest could do was

investment

tors, which is something for the Might work for gaming, but quency radio and Wi-Fi being stream at either a 1080i reso-

home cinema enthusiasts who not for television the most used. Blu-tooth and lution, or at 720p. Intel used a

do not prefer screens. Unlike The 3D experience can be infra red took a back seat, as technology called WiDi (Wire-

nauseating to some

previous 3D projectors, these they do not offer the bandwidth less Display), to stream across

ones source the image infor- for some of the applications. HD content through laptops

mation from the same lens. All unveiled two new E-book Around our homes, and in which used their core i5 and i7

of these technologies use the readers with a 6 inch and a our pockets, we interface with processors. Roku, Boxee and

shutter model for the glasses, 10 inch display. Both of them a number of devices, PMPs, Kula were all services that con-

which means that the screen ship with a stylus to scribble cameras, netbooks, television, nected directly to the internet

and the glasses have to be syn- on the device while you read it. and even the GPS devices in our for video content, delivered in

chronised. A few glassless 3D Sony’s had an entire line-up of vehicles. Manufacturers have a range of ways. Mediaroom 2.0

screens were around, but these e-book readers, some of them began to exploit the applica- by Microsoft let’s you save mul-

were nowhere near as effective with touchscreens and a down- tions of wireless technologies timedia, stream to televisions,

or market ready as the ones that loadable applications. Spring only now, and we can expect to transfer the content wirelessly

did use the glasses. Panasonic also showed some innovation see a lot of these devices com- to PMPs, and even access the

seems to be really intent on by adding a second, coloured municating to each other using content over the cloud if nec-

bringing 3D to every home, screen for web access, to its invisible channels. essary. Cydle’s Mobile TV i30

as it even rolled out a range of E-book reader. Plastic Logic One buzzword that emerged works the other way around

HD 3D camcorders for home also showed an E-book which was WHDI (Wireless Home by streaming television



is a helicopter that has four blades (a quadricopter) and can be controlled by Wi-Fi from your iPod touch or the iPhone RCA showed off their concept Airnergy capable of



18 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Baby don’t cry USB fanatics see this

A new iPhone application named ‘Cry Silex Technology has come out with an adapter that

Trasnslator’ developed by paediatricians claims allows users to connect upto 15 USB devices using

Buzz to translate infants cry with 96 per cent accuracy Gigabit ethernet







internet access. The Palm Pre conducted by Samsung, which

Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus, says that 45 per cent consumers

are two market ready phones are more likely to buy products

that can be used as Wi-Fi from energy efficient compa-

hotspots over Verizon’s 3G net- nies (Though 60 per cent of

work. The logic of receivers for them said that it was due to

televisions applies to portable lesser strain on their wallets

devices as well, and the inno- and had nothing to do with

vation has come through the environment concern). Direct

memory sticks used in devices Energy launched a touch screen

such as mobile phones, PMPs product called Home Energy

and cameras. Eye-Fi, released Master, which has a dashboard

some time before the CES, that tells which appliances are

received the international CES using electricity, when and how

innovations design and engi- much is it costing them. It is

neering award. The cards are also programmable to allow

regular memory sticks, which user to switch off appliances

Toshiba showcases wireless HD streaming also allow you to transfer data during peak times, and has

to computers, or upload them support for internet access for

content to a mobile phone over technology into its top end directly to the internet. Sony’s social networking, movies and

Wi-Fi. Most of the technology EOS range of dSLR cameras. TransferJet technology works music. The device will be tested

discussed so far, were ideas The capabilities of these wire- on similar lines that transfers late this year, and promises

thrown around in the previous less enabled cameras are pretty data wirelessly, as soon as the consumers to bring down their

CES events, but never really useful for both the enthusiast host computer is detected on monthly bill by 25 per cent.

implemented. Toshiba has and the professional. Photos a network.

already started shipping some at events can be remotely CES 2011 Forecast

of Intels WiDi laptops, but the saved to a computer, instead of Green Tech at CES Glassless 3D: The next

best bit is wireless spreading to locally, which allows for faster Although the Copenhagen cli- step in the evolution of

3D television, is glassless

some unconventional devices, printing and distribution. In a mate meet didn’t do anything 3DHDTV. While this might

for some pretty spectacular studio environment, up to 10 to control environment deg- seem a pipe dream right now,

applications. cameras can be synced and radation, our favourite com- adoption will be slow without

this important factor.

Right on top has to be Can- fired together, allowing for panies look all set to embrace

Motion Control: Gaming

on’s incorporation of wireless precise multiple-angle shots. environment-friendly and controllers will become more

When paired with energy-efficient devices. This natural, with Microsoft’s Natal

Wireless Keywords GPS devices, the year has a showed us quite coming in, and expect some

Amimon: Developer of HD wireless innovation in this area.

location can be some “Green products” like

streaming technology. Large companies Twitter and Facebook:

written into the the Sony Ericsson Hazel phone, Hardware integration

such as LG use Amimon modules for their

devices. EXIF data of the Dell OLED laptops, the next for Web 2.0 services will

WHDI: A wireless high definition standard image while it is generation of Tegra processor, increase exponentially, with

developed by a consortium including the content and interaction

being saved. that has 8 independent proces- available on multiple screens.

Amimon, Hitachi, Motorola, Samsung,

Verizon was sors and delivers a 10% faster Augumented Reality:

Sharp, Sony and LG Electronics.

WiDi: Intel’s wireless solution for viewing at the forefront performance than a smart We have talked about the

HD content from a PC or a laptop of utilising wire- phone and consumes 20% less Sixth Sense between these

on television, involves a receiver box pages, expect more of such

less technologies energy than a PC, among many technology to show up at

connected to the HDTV.

1080p: Pure 1080 lines of image

on a larger scale. others. In fact, this CES has a CES 2011. This could entirely

information, also known as True HD, Applications dedicated Sustainable Planet be through innovations only

is similar to the industry standard 2K included sur- Area which houses more than at the software level.

resolution for recording, the entire frame Flash memory: We can

veillance from a 30 exhibitors. This area pro- expect a drastic increase in

is sent as once, which requires a higher

bandwidth when it comes to wireless

number of cam- vides a chance for exhibitors flash storage technology, and

transmission. eras, gaming, to display world-changing it’s reliability.

1080i: Interlaced 1080 lines of image Wireless power: Some

and converting technologies which benefit the

information, the image is sent in parts over prototype wireless chargers

individual mobile environment in any way. This were showcased this year.

wireless, requiring a lesser bandwidth.

720p phones into Wi-Fi environment-centric approach Devices can probably charge

hotspots for may be partially due to a survey up while they surf.





converting energy in transmitted Wi-Fi signals to DC power Twitter launches location based trending topics, which is available as a beta feature for some select locations



20 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Facebook goes GupShup Networking overdrive

Facebook users in India can now connect and share Get to know all the options you have with

Entrepreneur using SMS GupShup’s text messaging platform social networking in this issue









Let’s GupShup

Since 2004, the founders of SMS GupShup had

been struggling to find the right product for the

mobile platform



people’s fancy. When it was launched the country and they didn’t just follow

in April 2007, GupShup had 100 users the format. “We got replies of all sorts,

– mostly the family and friends of its instead of getting the format we had

founders, Beerud Sheth and Rakesh asked for,” recalls Sheth. The team

Mathur. “By December 2007, GupShup was stumped but learnt an important

had a million users and was, at times, lesson: keep things simple and don’t ask

Beerud Sheth, Founder. growing at 1 per cent a day,” says Sheth. too many questions. Now using their

Today, the service has more than mobile phones – and thumbs – alone,

Pooja Kothari 15 million users, of which nearly two- users can do everything: from creating a

readersletters@thinkdigit.com thirds are active on a monthly basis. group to inviting others to join, joining

It generates nearly 12-15 million mes- an existing group, and even leaving a









P

ost launch, there was no money sages a day. “That’s 6-7 per cent of the group. Once created, the group is a social

for big marketing gimmicks. entire SMS traffic in the country,” says networking platform for its members

The team did not even have Chirag Jain, VP (India operations). where they can share all sorts of content.

a winning business model. “Initially, we focused on the smart- The only problem was that GupShup

However, this unique product did its phone market. But as we spent a couple didn’t have much money to spend on

own talking. It got mobile users hooked. of years developing that product, we real- advertising. The company had to upgrade

The result – in less than two years, ised that the market was not as developed its infrastructure to carry more traffic and

GupShup has a user base of 15 million also pay telecom carriers for every SMS

and some cool funding in its kitty. What you can do on GupShup sent by them. Revenue was scarce, so

Rajasthan Royals, one of the eight Start/join a group word-of-mouth was the only way to grow.

teams in the IPL cricket league, wanted Invite your friends to join a group Luckily, their business model made

Build a community

to build a community around its fans sense to two venture capital firms. Last

Play teenpatti and another card game

for the upcoming season. So, in January, Develop and launch a card application September, GupShup received $11 mil-

it signed up with SMS GupShup to Solicit feedback lion in funding – the ultimate dose of

create RR, a group for its fans. Those Hold an opinion poll or survey confidence in their business plan. And

who join this group get to stay in touch Start a loyalty programme they intend to invest more in sales and

Send an update

with the team, interact with the players, marketing, as well as in the product.

Ask a program

and even vote for its cheerleaders; They also hope to develop a revenue

all this through a mobile phone. stream. “The opportunities for growth

Similarly, when not-for-profit and the device capabilities were limited,” are enormous. We have six lakh com-

organisation PRS India wanted to use the says Sheth. But basic phones were the munities across categories. We realise

mobile platform to launch its “No crimi- preferred by the masses. “We turned our that every brand can have its own com-

nals in politics” campaign, it logged on to focus to figuring out an interesting appli- munity on our platform”, asserts Sheth.

GupShup. Subscribers to its group could cation for lower-end devices,” adds Sheth. In message ads, paid inteactive

send their pin codes and get information That’s how GupShup came about. services, and leasing their infrastruc-

about local MPs with a criminal past. In late 2006, the prototype of SMS ture to firms – are their main revenue

Not to be left behind, corporate GupShup was tested at an IIT alumni streams today. “We hope to break even

India too is waking up to the potential event. The participants were sent a mes- this year,” adds Sheth, confidently.

of this new networking tool. Unique in sage, which required them to share the “Monetisation takes time on a new

its ability to deliver content “anytime, name of the campus they attended and medium. Even Google, despite its rapid

anywhere and to anyone”, GupShup the year of graduation. The response growth, took a few years to figure out

has also managed to attract firms such was to be sent in a specific format. what its business model should be.”

as Nokia, PVR Cinemas and Pepsi. GupShup would then tell them who else For him, getting a loyal user base

Its growing user base is testimony from their batch was in the gathering. is the harder part. And he’s cracking

to the fact that the product has caught These were the brightest minds in that everyday: one SMS at a time.





22 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Laptop manufacturers all over release new Intel’s Moblin operating system has support

Connections netbooks following Pinetrail launch for netbooks with WiMax connectivity









Made to fit

The search for a tailored netbook OS ends here...

Rossi Fernandes ating system at all. There have They’ve also been designed to wouldn’t want to buy a cheap

rossi.fernandes@thinkdigit.com to be a few tweaks and modifi- keep computing really simple. little netbook and then spend

cations before that OS can be Google’s Chrome OS is one a bomb on an operating system









S

o you’ve bought a deemed usable. Netbooks were of the first to approach com- that isn’t properly designed to

brand new netbook designed for people using the puting this way. be used. Google’s Chrome OS

and you’ve got Win- internet for browsing, chat- These pages should intro- isn’t fully ready as an OS for

dows XP Home on ting, downloading, etc. Quite duce you to some of the best download. Some of the distri-

it. If you chose a really cheap a few distributions have come netbook operating systems butions have been put on this

netbook, you would have one up in the last few months with available for free on the month’s DVDs and some in

with Linux or maybe no oper- cloud computing kept in mind. internet. Obviously, you the past.



Jolicloud Ubuntu Netbook Remix

www.jolicloud.com about Jolicloud is that it’s not

Jolicloud is one of the more just a cloud-based OS. Appli-

flamboyant Linux-powered cations are available locally

netbook operating systems and many more can be down-

around. It’s definitely not light- loaded with its built-in installer

weight or compact at around that downloads programs for

600MB. Something about the you. Web-based addons are

interface makes it look very available as well – the number

much like a very sleek phone of applications keeps on

or PDA interface - fine lines, increasing. With these apps, www.canonical.com/ tion that allows saving and

colourful icons on a black back- you can now open up your projects/ubuntu/unr accessing files stored on a local

ground on a compact netbook Twitter and Facebook accounts When you first start up Ubuntu drive than using the cloud.

screen. like you would say, Google Talk. Netbook Remix, it’s almost like There is however, Cloud One

The OS can be run as a Live The end result is a very Ubuntu’s desktop but with that you can register for. Cloud

OS on a USB drive and also interactive, yet very usable the same layout as some of the One is Ubuntu’s online web

can be installed easily on a computing experience. The other netbook distros around. space that can be used to sync

flash drive. Performance once interface and way of doing The panels contain most of all of your important docu-

installed is decent – bootup and things is simple for anyone to what makes up the desktop ments. This has been integrated

loading of the user interface is get used to. Data is still stored Ubuntu distribution. The well with UNR. Being Ubuntu,

slow though. The great thing locally. default Ubuntu theme is also you have loads of applications

maintained. It feels as light or from the repository that can be

heavy as the default desktop installed. Oneof the hiccups we

distribution as well. Installa- noticed was the short period

tion steps are also very similar. of time where the application

When you get it running, starting runs in a window

you’ll notice many more set- mode and then maximizes.

tings you can fool around with. Easy Peasy (www.

Unlike Jolicloud or some of the geteasypeasy.com) is another

other netbook operating sys- Linux distribution based on

tems, Ubuntu Netbook Remix Ubuntu. It’s almost identical

doesn’t hide away all the set- to Ubuntu Netbook Remix but

tings dialog boxes – it simply with a different theme. There

puts them in a format that net- are a few additional packages in

book distributions have come comparison to other operating

to use. systems. It comes with Skype

This is another distribu- and Picasa for example.





24 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

ZOTAC shows off Mini-ITX H55 and Ion Acer’s Aspire One netbook runs both

solution for new Pinetrail processors Windows and Google’s mobile Android OS Feature





Moblin gOS









www.thinkgos.com tion called Netbook Launcher

www.moblin.com ensure you have all the width gOS by itself looks like any allows users to transform the

Unlike most of the other dis- of the screen to use. The panel other Linux distribution. The gOS interface into the similar

tributions, Intel is the one that gives you access to the applica- one difference is the dock below layout found on Ubuntu Net-

backed the Moblin project. tions, settings and connectivity – similar to the one found on OS book Remix. gOS is more of a

After all, it was Intel’s Atom options. It autohides, letting X. All of the applications are put cloud-computing OS than the

that drove the netbook phe- you use the entire screen as into shelves within this panel. rest. For those with speedy con-

nomenon. While a lot of people much as possible. Netbook There are fewer desktop appli- nections, it’s not a hurdle. For

were excited about Moblin at users know all too well that cations and a lot of emphasis is those with limited bandwidth,

first because it was one of the there isn’t a lot of it. on web based content. A com- surely, the rest of the distribu-

first of its kind, it’s no longer It’s also good to see sup- munity developed applica- tions are worth looking at.

the case anymore. Many more port for most netbooks – for

alternatives are available. example, all the shortcuts the

Still, Moblin puts up a EeePC 1000H worked and also Conclusion

very good fi ght. For those the multitouch functionality! When you keep everything in mind, there is no doubt that Jolicloud

who haven’t seen it yet, it’s Once online, installation of and Moblin are some of the best netbook operating systems around.

clearly one of the most unique applications also is simple – Ubuntu Netbook Remix feels like Ubuntu in Jolicloud clothes

looking operating systems and simply press the Install button and it’s the same story with Easy Peasy as well. If performance

it has no resemblance to Linux next to the application you and simplicity is what you want, Xpud is the netbook OS to

whatsoever. Installation to a want. With your Twitter and use. Honestly though, they’re all good fun to use

flash drive is simple and once last.fm accounts setup right, and I recommend everyone with a netbook to give

you boot into the OS, it’s all your dashboard shows updates them all a try. All you need is a flash drive and the

very quick. from all your friends - it’s a disc ISOs. Look up this month and some of our

A simple panel at the top very nice experience. previous DVDs to find them.







Xpud

and space used up is few programs that come pre-

unnecessary. installed owing to its low

The settings menu download size. Multitasking

contains the very between applications is a little

basic configuration difficult as well.

programs. Data can The number of download-

also be backed up able applications isn’t very

and recovered from impressive either. This is then

it. It’s kept very min- a very minimalist OS for those

imal and you could who are looking to browse,

www.xpud.org for that matter. The distro possibly have problem with chat and maybe watch a few

Xpud, a 64MB distro is the loads quickly into a simple drivers on unusual hard- videos on YouTube every now

featherweight champion for four menu interface. The ware. The main menu is for and then. It isn’t as slick as

netbooks or even desktops menus are basic but the size programs and it too has very say Jodicloud.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 25

Two-in-one Google squared

Fly Circle, a dual-SIM handset with querty keyboard, 2.2 inch A new service which will help in answering your search

Mobile watch QVGA display wieghing 104 grams. now avaible in India queries by highlighting the search results









A Superphone

without multitouch

There is a lot of hype around the Nexus One. Does it live

up to expectations?

of now Superphone just seems One really shocking thing Nexus One by more than 12

like another addition to the tel- amidst all these features is the times whereas Apple iPhone

ecom jargon. absence of multi-touch. If the 3GS had 80 times the sales

Nexus One looks like any Nexus has to compete with of Nexus One. Did it fail to

other HTC touch phone but the iPhone, this factor can deliver on the insane buzz that

more like a flattened and curvy really make all the difference. preceded its launch or is the

hero. A zippy 1GHz Snap- For the tall claims of being Nexus One going to be a dark

dragon CPU from Qualcomm a Superphone, the absence horse and capture the market

powers the phone – a first in of multi-touch will sorely be in the coming months? And by

the Android world and being a felt. Imagine how annoying how much will you be poorer to

Google Nexus One Google product Android Eclair it will be if you have zoom in have this phone in your pocket?

is the operating system. It has a and out of Google Maps, and The dollar converted price is









T

he much awaited large 3.7 inch AMOLED display no pinch gestures will work. a sweet Rs 24,000 but by the

and speculated which has a capacitive touch And of course you can forget time the poor guy reaches our

Google Phone finally sensor. The Nexus One come about multi-touch games. The shores it’ll probably be in the

launched on January with a lot of bells and whistles. phone features a 5 MP camera vicinity of Rs. 32,000. Only

4th, 2010. No phone in recent One such feature is the Live with autofocus, and LED flash, time will tell.

public memory had generated wallpapers – basically, wall- and can capture video at up

so much hype as the Nexus papers that move. Some of the to 720x480 resolution (DVD HD video capturing

One managed to create. Nexus pre loaded ones are quite cool quality), which is quite a decent on your cellphone

One was the trending topic on actually. There’s one that has addition to the feature set. The Sony Ericsson phone that

the micro-blogging site twitter lines and squiggles running all But for the hype sur- was formerly called Kuraraz has

since early December. With over the screen, which respond been officially named Vivaz and

Google entering the phone to touch. Another shows a slow will launch by the end of the first

market, be prepared to see swirling image of a galaxy, and

some cutting edge technology others that show wave form

in the cellphone. In fact Google visualisation of the current

seems to be trying to create a track being played. Not quite

new product category. The the functional feature, but still

Nexus One is being touted as a fun while the novelty remains.

Superphone. But what exactly If it functions the way it should,

does a superphone mean, and then one of the better features

is it really different from the is voice recognition, so the user

Smartphone? can call out his text message,

A Google search on Super- giving rest to the thumbs.

phone revealed results with As far as connectivity goes,

Nexus One in the same line, Nexus packs in a punch. It Sony Ericsson Vivaz

and the definition goes some- supports UMTS Band 1/4/8,

thing like: a phone which has HSDPA 7.2 MBps, HSUPA rounding its launch, the Nexus

increased computing power 2 MBps, GSM/EDGE, WiFi, One has not really cracked the quarter of 2010. It features an 8.1

and a more evolved platform. AGPS and Bluetooth. It has sales numbers. According MP camera, works on a Symbian

According to Google’s claim, 512MB of both RAM and ROM. to Flurry, an analytics com- S60 operating system with a user

the Nexus One is as powerful A 4GB Micro SD card is bun- pany, Nexus One sold just interface which is quite similar

as the laptop of an older era. dled along with it and expand- 20,000 units in its first week. to Satio. Vivaz is optimized for

Quite a claim we must say. As able memory upto 32 GB. The Motorola Droid outsold HD video capturing. Though it





26 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

LePhone YouTube goes commercial

Lenovo’s Andorid powered smartphone YouTube to start charging for online content starting with $5

Mobile watch will be available in a few months time for indie movies from Sundance Film Festival.









We bring you the world’s most popular apps for the world’s four

most popular platforms

BeeJive 3.0 LoseIt Shazam

Its a multi client mes- A popular fitness app A music recognition

saging service that that allows you to keep app that is quite

iPhone









makes use of the push track of your calorie handy while listening

notification feature of intake, set weight loss to radio or any music

iPhone, allowing you to goals and a means to source

keep in touch with your track them

IM friends







Fring Handy TaskMan ShoZu

One of the most A mobile version of It lets you tag, catego-

Symbian









popular VOIP and the Windows Task rize, and upload your

data chat app Manager, this app media to these popular

which also supports lets you to check out services like Flickr

Twitter. Besides, apps running in the and YouTubes in the

you can log into background and close background

most chat clients them







Ringdroid Google Listen WaveSecure

An app that allows Allows you to create Its an innovative secu-

Android









you to make your own your personalised rity app that provides

ringtones by editing podcast magazine and complete data protec-

music clips while on also lets you save your tion and also has a

the go favourite episodes to remote lock down and

the phone’s memory data backup feature in

card case of lost phones.

Windows Mobile









Bejeweled Journal Bar Viigo

The popular online An app that puts up Free, fast and easy

game on your cell- details like weather, to use RSS reader

phone coming in the stocks, news based on for your mobile

Relax mode for easy your location onto your which provides

games and Frantic screen instant access to

mode for timed blog, news and

games other feeds







may not necessarily be the first, Moon Silver, Cosmic Black, Mobile Digital TV Mobile DTV standard provides

since reportedly some phones are Galaxy Blue and Venus Ruby on the horizon for an IP stream tunneled into

capable of 720p capture. with a 3.2 inch WVGA display. The dream of being able to a broadcast channel. That IP

The phone belongs to the It has a built-in microSD card watch digital TV on a mobile stream will primarily carry

communication and entertain- slot with expandable 75MB of phone or a portable device has MPEG-4 AVC video at 240x416

ment category of smartphones internal memory. been pretty much a dream for resolution with HE-AAC audio.

from Sony Ericsson that aims The screen resolution of a long time. But going by one of A few tests done in an initial

to bring together CyberShot the phone is 360 x 640 which the more interesting announce- test, were able to broadcast upto

and Walkman lines in one is not quite HD yet and is still ments at CES this time, it seems 30 miles from a tower. Now the

phone. Vivaz comes in a curvy less than the Nexus one. All DTV is going to be a reality technology is mature enough

form factor in four colours in all this is a phone to watch. sooner than you think. The for implementation.





28 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Microsoft plays advocate Firefox personified

Worried about the future of cloud computing, Microsoft Firefox 3.6 released, a good six months after 3.5, introduces

Web watch appeals US government to step in, enact laws light weight skinning with Personas, developers rejoice too







happens wherein Google is



Google’s red shift not able to protect sensitive

information, they will face the

same public ire. Maybe Google

In a blog post with many implications, Google doesn’t want this kind of blood

announced plans to review their situation in China on its hands. As of now Google

continues to censor results in









O

n the 12th of Jan- enough of China’s interference tion with government authori- China, and has expressed “we

uary this year, with the beautiful anarchy that ties. Whether China calls this remain quite committed to

Google put up a is the internet. Enough sacri- a bluff, is yet to be seen. What being there”.

rather long and fices have been made to the will happen if China doesn’t

startling blog post about how freedom of information. blink? Is this decision truly Sign out forever

and why they plan to review In an effort to speculate driven by ethical compul- Suicide is not so bad when it

their business operations in on the motives and sions? Or does busi- comes to a virtual suicide. In

China. The post announced implications of ness have some- fact this web service – sui-

that Google has been the victim this announce- thing to do with cidemachine.org - couldn’t have

Love Digit?

of a highly sophisticated and ment, blog- Like Facebook? it. Lets look made such a morbid subject

targeted attack on its corpo- gers all over Become a Digit fan at some of funnier. Their logic is pretty

on Facebook and win

rate infrastructure originating the world the hottest movies of the implica- simple – people have started

from China that resulted in are going 2009. Head to www. tions. China substituting their online lives

the theft of intellectual prop- on about all thinkdigit.com/d/fan to is one of the with their real ones, and the

find out how

erty from Google. But further sorts of things. few markets creators of this website don’t

investigations revealed that From how this is where Google like the way things are going.

the attack was not so much a blow to commu- is not numero uno. The Web 2.0 suicide machine

to steal intellectual property nism to how Google is the The reigning king of allows you to completely and

assets but to gain access to only humanitarian corpora- search in the land of dragons irreversibly delete your online

the Gmail accounts of Chinese tion in the world. Is the China and emperors is Baidu, which presence. Yes it’s real and it’s

human rights activists. Google pull out a retaliation to the commands a 60 per cent share forever. Once you sign up and

also announced that at least attack or is there something as compared to Google’s 30 per activate it, the web site will run

twenty other large companies deeper? Google.cn has been cent. (Baidu also was inciden- scripts that will first change

from a wide range of busi- operational since 2006, albeit tally attacked – by the Iranian the password to your social

nesses including the internet, adhering to censorship laws cyber army). Although 30 per networks and will physically

finance, technology, media and that the country enforced on cent is not bird feed, it still unfriend all contacts and physi-

chemical sectors have been the company. Even back then, seems a revenue worth loosing, cally delete all the tweets you’ve

similarly targeted. The attack Google had announced “We when faced with intrusion ever made. The web site has a

on Google resulted in only two will carefully monitor condi- attacks, especially when more funny video promo about how

email accounts being compro- tions in China, including new than half of Google’s revenues a middle aged man opted to

mised. While the figure seems laws and other restrictions on come from outside the US. delete his online persona and

hard to believe, this whole busi- our services. If we determine There is another angle now spends more time with real

ness of human rights activists that we are unable to achieve though that is hardly being friends and family. Seems like

being targeted, puts a whole the objectives outlined we will explored. Some time ago Yahoo! a rather good alternative than

new spin on the matter. Google not hesitate to reconsider our had come under a lot of inter- poking and prodding people

goes on to say that its decision approach to China.” Looks like national humanitarian flack for you don’t really care about

to review its position in China that time has finally come after handing over an email sent by right? Well maybe it is. So far

is because of a larger issue at four long years of pandering to a Chinese journalist to a pro- about 1,300 people have opted

hand – China’s censorship and Chinese censorship. democracy web site. The mail for this service – a drop in the

restrictive stance on free speech One of the first things to contained only guidelines on pond considering more than

on the internet. In line with understand is that Google has how the Chinese govt wanted 200 million people are still on

this, Google announced that it nowhere mentioned for a cer- journalists to cover the 15th Facebook obsessing over that

will no longer censor results on tainty that they will pull out of anniversary of the Tiananmen special someone’s profile or

Google.cn – the Chinese version China. This is may merely be Square crackdown. He was commenting on inane status

of the popular search engine. a threat. The official blog post charged with disclosing state messages. Still Facebook cant

As we noted on thinkdigit. only suggests that they will secrets and is serving a 10 year be too happy with this right?

com, perhaps Google has had review the situation in coopera- sentence. If a similar situation You bet. They blocked the sites



Brain and brawn – Lenovo extends it’s Thinkpad range with the Thinkpad Edge which has chic looks while retaining the ruggedness and utility Virgin mobile made its



30 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Google’s safety recommendations

As President Obama recently stated, cyber security is a shared

responsibility. Go to this link to read Google’s cyber security awareness

post: http://www.thinkdigit.com/d/ggr/ Web watch





IP address for a while and even sent sui- the rescue. In a first of its kind initiative,

cidemachine.org a legal notice. “Cease and Google and IPL recently announced that

Desist violating Facebook’s statement of YouTube will broadcast 60 matches over

rights and responsibilities” it says. 45 days live in the 2010 IPL season through

So what do you do after you’ve done a dedicated channel – www.youtube.com/

killing yourself online? The website has ipl. According to the contract, Google-

an FAQ with the answer: owned YouTube shall have the exclusive

“Try calling some friends, take a walk rights to the online content for two years,

in a park or buy a bottle of wine and start with the two companies splitting the rev-

enjoying your real life again. Some Social enues from advertising and sponsorship. A

Suiciders reported that their lives have fact worth noting is that the deal involves

improved by an approximate average of all the countries except the US. So, if you

are a cricket fan in US, tough luck! This

news comes in at a great time with the 3G

auctions around the corner and increased

proliferation of high speed wireless broad-

band connections. So now you can watch

the IPL on the go on your mobile phones or

netbooks without having to miss a single

moment’s cricket mania. Hope your boss

is a cricket fan too.



Make your own identity

There are many websites, free as well paid

that offer logo creation tools. One which we

found particularly feature rich yet simple to

use was www.logoease.com (pictured along-

side). After a free sign up, you get access to

their flash based utility. Browse through a

25%. Don’t worry, if you feel empty right categorised list of clip art images and work

after you committed suicide. This is a your way from there with drag and drop

normal reaction which will slowly fade ease. It took us no more than 10 minutes

away within the first 24-72 hours.”

Of course we don’t recommend

taking this step, only because like

real life, this too is irreversible. Yet

it might perhaps be put to good use

in certain situations. Say you want

to get away from a cyberstalker or

maybe you want a fresh start. It

might actually be able to help you

come back with a bang, in a new

and improved version of yourself,

especially on sites like twitter that

don’t really care about people reg-

istering with fake names.



IPL Live ! On a YouTube to come up with a simple yet professional

near you looking logo. If you’re short of ideas, you

Stuck at work or in a traffic jam or maybe can always take a peek at their catalogue.

in a different continent altogether and that Once you are done designing, you can save

fanatic cricket fan in you is kicking and and download a zip file which has the logo

screaming at the notion of missing out in different formats like jpeg, tif, png and

on a cricket match? Fret not, Google’s to eps with different resolutions.



foray in the South Indian GSM market by entering in a partership with TTSL (Tata Teleservices)



Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 31

Is your e-money safe? Invaders from outside

Cover story 34 In this age of cyber crime and fraud, are you sure of

your safety? Are you safer online or in a shopping mall? 38 How do you stay safe despite your exposure to

harmful viruses out there?









Insecure Airwaves

After the series of terror threats and attacks

emerging out of unsecured wireless networks, it's

high time we learnt our lessons. We take a look at

the state of our society when it comes to secure

technology



Nimish Sawant that message has somehow not really

nimish.sawant@thinkdigit.com penetrated. The next victim is just around

the corner. Unsecure Wi-Fi networks

ireless fidelity (Wi-Fi) pen- can make you lose much more than just







W etration is growing by leaps

and bounds with, not only

business houses, but also

a lot of residential users opting for this

facility. As most households nowadays,

have a laptop along with a desktop, it

your internet bandwidth and money.



Digit Wi-Fi security test

We went to societies in and around

our office to check for open unsecure

networks. We used a Gateway netbook

many people are still ignorant of secu-

rity regarding their wireless networks.

makes sense to have a Wi-Fi router within for the test which has an internal Wi-Fi A study conducted by the Data Security

homes for flexible internet access. As with network adapter. We did not hack into Council of India and Deloitte states that

the internet, proliferation breeds vices. If any account by second guessing the over 80 per cent of the wireless networks

the number of cyber crimes occuring in user name / passwords or used any across the country (out of the 35,000 net-

the country is any indication to go by, the tools to gain entry into a Wi-Fi hotspot. works tested) are vulnerable to attacks.

possibility of unsecure Wi-Fi networks The test was very basic where we just

being compromised is also high. used our netbook to check for any open Encryption woes

Just a year ago, an American citizen, unsecure network. Once an unlocked Data transfer over wireless networks is in

Kenneth Haywood, residing in Navi network was recognised, we opened the air and not confined to any wire. Due

Mumbai didn't secure his Wi-Fi con- it. After surfing the web for some time to this it is easy for a hacker to snoop into

nection. The result — hackers accessed to check if the security of the network the information that is being transferred

Mr Haywood’s account to send a terror could be breached, we disconnected. over the wireless network. To prevent

email. What followed made front page As expected we came across two open this there is a need to encrypt the data in

news in the city's dailies. Police per- wireless networks having speeds upto a way that it can only be deciphered by

sonnel carried out mock Wi-Fi security 54Mbps. These networks had abso- someone who has the decryption key.

checks. Awareness campaigns were lutely no security. They showed up as Now the wireless routers have two

launched to inform people to secure unsecured networks when the wireless kinds of encryption: Wired Equivalent

their Wi-Fi networks. But till today connections page was refreshed. So Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected

Access (WPA). WEP is considered to

be a weak encryption mechanism as it

has many loopholes. It uses 64-bit or

128-bit security keys to encrypt data

of which 24-bits are called Initialisa-

tion Vector (IV hereon). Since 24-bits

give only 16.7 million variations, it is

comparitively easier to decode the keys.

Also the possibility of using the same

IV key more than once is high making

the system vulnerable to hack attacks.

WPA on the other hand is considered

much safer than WEP because it has a

48-bit IV which gives over 500 tril-

lion variations, which is very difficult

A hotspot close to our office where we found an open, unprotected Wi-Fi network to crack. Also the IV keys are better





32 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Look before you click Time to watch out

45 There’s more to using software than “I Accept...” Reading the

average EULA once would take you a long way 46 You don’t need expensive equipment to monitor your

own premises, especially when freeware is available Feature



Common Wi-Fi Hacking software Plugging the loopholes What the law says?

The hackers take advantage of the many We spoke to Karnika

NetStumbler loopholes that users tend to overlook Seth, Attorney at

A Windows-based tool used to locate open while securing their Wi-Fi networks. Law and Chairperson

wireless networks Configuring the security settings on - Cyber Laws

your Wi-Fi router is time consuming. Consulting Center on

Kismet the subject. Here’s

Displays SSIDs that are not broadcasted Administrator password what she had to

All the routers are shipped with default say: "Under the IT

Airsnort factory settings which many users do Act 2000 there is no

Cracks WEP encryption keys not change, while connecting to the provision as such, to fine individuals who

internet. These default settings are leave their Wi-Fi connections unsecure.

Cowpatty commonly known, as they are specific But if a terrorist uses the open network

Cracks WPA- pre-shared key to manufacturers. The first thing you to conduct his nefarious activities, then

should do while setting the router the owner may be called in for ques-

Wireshark is change the default username and tioning. The user has to ensure that his

Sniffs data transferred over a wireless administrator password, so that it is connection is secure and should invest

network only known to you. some time in securing the network.

Leaving your Wi-Fi network open is anal-

protected and never re used. WPA2 is the Enabling WEP or WPA En- ogous to leaving a signed chequebook

advanced version of WPA. Since WPA cryption unattended. Its vulnerable to misuse."

is a newer technology it is possible that As discussed above, the need to

many routers may not support it, so the scramble data while using a wire-

user needs to do a firmware update. less network is paramount. You

unt. network where there are

a home netw

WPA Key can be enabled by going should activate the neces- es- limited number of users it is

in the Wireless Setup tab and selecting sary encryption key. It is better to find out the MAC

bett

WPA Security option. Using a Pass- advisable to choose WPA PA addresses of all the

ad

phrase which is an alphanumeric key- or WPA2 encryption Rs. 10 off on Digit machines connecting

m

word, we can generate one or more WPA rather than WEP if Pre - order today! to the network (enter

keys. The passphrase should be greater your router supports Order the March 2010 ipconfig/all in the

edition of Digit. Book

than 16 alphanumeric characters and it. To configure the before 20 th Jan and command prompt to

should only be known to the administrator. WPA encryption you get Rs. 10 off. Go to get the whole list) The

have to enter a unique www.thinkdigit.com/store administrator should

a

Wi-Fi Jargon passphrase. then feed these numbers

th

under the “permit only”

unde

Encryption Broadcasting SSID ID tab in the Wireless Network

th

Its the process of scrambling legitimate SSIDs are public names of wireless Access tab. This will ensure that any

information using algorithms called networks. All the client machines system whose MAC address does not

ciphers, such that the information communicate within a network using pass the filter, will not be able to access

can be decrypted only by someone or similiar SSIDs. Router manufacturers the network.

something that has the encryption key. generally give default SSIDs eg. Linksys

router will have a default SSID 'Link- Positioning the router

Service Set Identifier (SSID) sys'. A user should change this default The range of wireless routers may

It is a name that identifies a particular SSID. Broadcasting SSID is a feature exceed the boundaries of your house, but

802.11 wireless LAN network. For the that is ideal for businesses and mobile its stength reduces with distance. It is

client machine to connect to the net- hotspots where users move in and out deemed best to have the wireless router

work its SSID should match with that of of networks. For home broadcasting inside the house rather than on the win-

the router. SSID may make the system vulnerable dow so that there is very little leakage.

to attack if the router is not protected by

WarDriving a username and password. Switching off the router

Its the act of locating and logging onto This may seem a very trivial thing to

wireless access points from a moving MAC address filtering be included in this section. But many

vehicle using a laptop or a PDA or a Media Access Control (MAC) address users just do not bother to switch off

cell phone. is an identification for all the hard- the router when its not being used for a

ware connected to your network. In long period of time.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 33

Virtually a breeze Kernel at risk

Square, founded by Twitter co–founder Jack Dorsey is a new Microsoft warns of an unplugged security flaw in the

mobile payment company which in essence allows making 32-bit version of Windows allowing a hacker to install

Report payments from any mobile device, securely programs, tamper data, or create new accounts









Is your

e-money safe?

With plastic money fast replacing cash transac-

tions, we look at what could happen if your card

falls into the wrong hands, both online and offline

run in the background and record infor-

mation in real-time as it is being typed

into a web site by a user. The software can

store the information locally on the com-

puter or forward it to a remote malicious

computer.

2. Key logger applications: These are

slightly more sophisticated spyware

applications that can record a user’s key

strokes as they are being typed on the

keyboard. They can capture sensitive

information such as passwords or credit

card numbers even when a web site and

browser have set up a secure, encrypted

channel of communications.

3. Proxy servers: Proxy servers are like

filters through which all the internet con-

nections in a cyber café are sent. Based

on the various settings within the proxy

server, data from unencrypted browsing

sessions can be captured. This could lead

Nash David and Siddharth Parwatay

nash.david@thinkdigit.com buying in India is still in a nascent stage, to personal user information tracking

siddharth.parwatay@thinkdigit.com it is growing at a promising rate of 38 per that can be extracted from web sites and

cent according to figures by JuxtConsult. stored for later use.

ndoubtedly, there is sufficient Today 8 million people transact online, 4. Phishing: With this rapid growth in the







U information out there to scare

you from using your debit/

credit card. We’re not here

to add to that. We’re here to give you the

much needed advice and information from

the experts. India is considered one of the

with 38 million still ‘window shopping’.

15 per cent of Indians are now transacting

online. According to the Internet and

Mobile Association of India, the e-com-

merce market in India is worth Rs. 9,800

crores.” Window shopping online is an

online space, you have two ways of being

duped. You’ll either be scared to revealing

critical personal information or enticed

into greed. Phishing is a rising menace.

Thomas adds, “Don’t fall for those mil-

lions you’ve won in lottery from far off

fastest growing markets in the world. interesting subject. You don’t even have Sierra Leone. In fact, these days, in what

Average businesses prefer money on to bother stepping out of your house. is known as social engineering, scammers

paper in the form of cheque or better still 380 lakh people visit shopping sites. track your movements and are now using

cash. However latest statistics show the This means they’re interested in buying cellphones, emails as well as phone calls

trend is now changing. Both online credit online, but either don’t have the instru- to connect with you and get you trapped.”

card usage and real word plastic money is ments to trade, or don’t trust the web site Remember to check for the genuine

on the rise. enough. Why is that? signs of a true and verified web site. We

Last year, we carried a Digit Web came across one such spam email of a site

awards special and in the category on Tricks of the black trade that tricks you into revealing your details

tech shopping, eBay won our award. We 1. Spyware: Spyware is malicious soft- of Punjab National Bank. After the unin-

spoke to Deepa Thomas, Senior Manager, ware that gets downloaded to a computer formed bait enters his/her vital informa-

Corporate Communication, eBay India to without your knowledge when you visit tion, the page directs all the information

find out the trends they see in their visi- a web site that is either malicious, or has to an IP address based somewhere in

tors. According to her, “Although online been compromised. Spyware programs Australia, before returning the home





34 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Mac OS X plugged Gmail leaks

Apple released a securtiy update which secures close Misdirected emails reveal priveledged information,

to twelve security loop holes the recipient is liable if the information is disclosed Report





page of Punjab National Bank. We got Besides, you can also track the status of

in touch with the Head Office of Punjab your order through SMS.

National Bank in Delhi, but the response We spoke to Rajiv Chadha, VP, Veri-

we got was these emails were common Sign who shared some startling figures

and people should be educated about it. with us — “38 per cent of Internet users

in India do not use different passwords

Online has its own for multiple log-ins. A minuscule five

advantages per cent adopt virtual keyboards to log

It would be unfair to blame the online shop- in their details. Merely 11 per cent of

ping space for scams and frauds. There internet users in India look out for the

are stringent measures in place to prevent authenticity of the web site by looking at

users from logging in fraudulently. This has the security provider. Only as many as 32

been a blessing in disguise for online shop- per cent internet users in India create a

ping. It’s easier shopping with a stolen card secret question that only they can answer.

than it is to commit fraud online. Recently, As many as 83 per cent Indian internet

the Reserve Bank of India has made it users do not look for secure web sites Deepa Thomas, Senior Manager, Corporate

mandatory for all transactions online to be (https:). Only 9 per cent of internet users Communication, eBay India

registered by either credit service providers in India are aware of green URL bars as custody of the card and log-in details is

— Visa (Verified by Visa) and MasterCard the sign of a secure web site.” your responsibility.

(MasterCard Secure). It doesn’t end there. By being so casual

Essentially, all credit card users in about financial matters, Indians are just But what about the real

India would have to register with their staying vulnerable to scams online. Mr. world?

banks and be assigned an additional Chadha added, “There are many ways in With plastic money fast replacing cash

password to serve as one more level of which compromised credentials can be transactions, what if your card falls into

added security. used fraudulently — and without the end- the wrong hands? Of course the bank will

At any point in time, eBay India has user’s knowledge. It is very important to disable the card as soon as you intimate.

around 3,50,000 items available that you also note that these activities might not But it’s this interim time period that we’re

can sort by price, make, style and several occur immediately after the information concerned about.

other factors – all in the comfort of your is captured. The information could be There are certain safety measures that

home. Ebay is protected by PaisaPay, sold to different parties and can be used have been built into the system. Possibly

which differs slightly from PayPal. While over a long period of time”. This makes it the most fool proof of them all is having

PayPal is a wallet of sorts that behaves as all the more important to be aware of the a photo debit/credit card. If the mug shot

an interface between your bank accounts/ various ways in which personal informa- on the card does not match the person

credit/debit cards and the merchant, tion can be captured and take precautions handing over the card, counter staff can

PaisaPay is a secure payment gateway to lower the risk. easily figure out if something is amiss.

exclusive to eBay India. With PaisaPay, You can email spoofs@ebay.com and The second important safeguard is in

all your information to and from Ebay mention any seller you feel cannot be the form of a PIN number that has to be

India’s servers is encrypted, and secure. trusted. All intimations at this id are shared entered each time to validate a transac-

with the Indian Computer Emergency tion. Again there are a few banks such

Response Team (CERT) which is a watchdog as SBI that offer this facility. But the

that alerts users of frauds and infections and most basic protection is the signature at

attacks we need to be aware of. the back. You would’ve probably noticed

If you have an online account, an a block print underneath the box on the

internet banking account, or a credit/ rear of the card that says AUTHORISED

debit card then ensuring privacy and safe SIGNATURE — NOT VALID UNLESS





CRACK THE CODE

Note down every Nth letter of the following sentence (ignore punctuation marks), starting

with the first letter of the sentence. The letters you have are an anagram. Unscramble

them to get the answer (three words). Go back to the place that directed you here, and

enter the answer there. If you played by the rules, you know what the value of N is.

Eg. if n=5, you get CDAROUD







Rajiv Chadha, Vice President, Verisign India

Can code be hacked? Race to a cloud can do it.



Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 35

Tightning the net McAfee and Facebook

Not taking any more chance, Google announced Not to be left behind, Facebook has

HTTPS will be will be activated by default for partnered with McAfee to instill confidence

Report Gmail soon in its 300 million userbase





TIPS TO STAY SAFE ONLINE

case there was none). The name that was

If you missed out on the list of security features to identify a trustworthy web site, have a signed was drastically different from the

look at this quick checklist.

one that appeared on the card.

1. Avoid following links when it comes to shopping online. Always key in your own URL. It

is better not to follow search engines when it comes to transacting online. Alertness — Nil

2. Never share any personal or financial information on a non-secure web site.

3. Always personally verify email pleas to donate or plans of earning a quick fortune (even Target 2:

if it be from a known person).

4. Always ensure your transactions occur with an encrypted connection.

Tata Croma, Vashi, Navi Mumbai

5. Look out for a golden lock on the bottom of the screen, and https: in the address bar. Here we used a signed debit card. The

6. When online users equipped with current versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, counter person had the card with him

Google Chrome, Opera and other browsers visit a site protected by EV SSL Certificates, for quite a while but there was no effort

the top address bar turns green and displays the name of the company operating the

web site. This green bar offers immediate reassurance that they’ve reached a site whose to verify the signatures. As soon as the

authenticity has been verified by a certificate authority such as VeriSign, the world’s printed slip was signed the slip was

leading EV SSL certificate provider. returned without any kind of verification.

7. Never respond to emails of urgency. They’re usually phishing. Alertness — Nil

8. Block all spam emails you receive.

9. Regularly login to your online banking accounts to check for any suspicious activity.

10. Do not sync your financial passwords with your regular email passwords. Target 3:

11. When using a public computer, restrict browsing to information-only web sites such eZone, Bombay Central

as news sites. Avoid accessing any e-banking, e-brokerage, e-commerce web sites that

Here we used a photo debit card.

require you to divulge personal information such as usernames or passwords.

12. Never store usernames and passwords in Internet Explorer Strangely, the card was in the possession

13. Use an up-to-date anti-virus program, and ask the cyber cafe attendant on a public of the counter staff for close to five min-

computer to check the toolbar to ensure it is safe. utes. In the whole time, no one bothered

14. Always logout from transactional web sites to be sure your safety will not be compro-

to look up and verify the photograph.

mised after you have left the system.

15. Finally, clear browsing history and cookies after your session. The counter person noticed however that

Source: Deepa Thomas and Rajiv Chadha there was no sign on the rear of the card

and asked the customer to sign it, but the

SIGNED. This needs to be taken seri- Target 1: matter wasn’t enforced. Although in this

ously, as the signature is a low tech Reliance Digital Store, Vashi case the staff was slightly more alert than

first line of defense against credit card The store had very few customers and the other times, it was only pointed out

misuse. However it needs to be imple- there was no queue near the payment after the transaction was completely over.

mented to be effective. Do merchant counter. We used the unsigned card Alertness — Somewhat

establishments that have card swiping at this location. The clerk behind the

machines, ever match signatures? We counter went about completing the Target 4:

decided to put this to test at some of the transaction without bothering to even flip Tata Croma, Lower Parel

biggest technology stores in the hope over the card to verify signatures (in this Here again we used the unsigned card

that we’d be proved wrong. We chose with the photo id. Neither the signature

large technology retail chains based on BE THE WISE CONSUMER nor the photo was verified at any point

a simple logic — outfits dealing in high As Arun Saxena President, International Consumer of time. There was no sort of verification

value products that are on the cutting Rights Protection Council advises “always read the whatsoever. The transaction was quick.

edge of technology, need to up hold tech- fine print. Rather than being driven by your instinct Alertness — Nil

to own a credit card, remember the interest rates

nological safeguards right? We created associated with credit.” A smart tip he gives us is to

several scenarios to test real world secu- strike out points that could be used against us on Implications

rity measures in the area of electronic the printed agreement. As he puts it, credit card This raises a lot of questions. Are

companies live on consumers defaults, without

transactions. Two digit team members merchant outlets so eager to effect a sale

which they wouldn’t be able to survive in this

went to four different electronics retail competitive market.” that they don’t really care where the

stores throughout Mumbai. At their Avoid shopping for high value products from money comes from? Besides, what are

disposal, were two debit cards, both of online shopping web sites that you don’t trust, as the protections in place for the consumer

you can never be sure of the final product being

which were unsigned. In fact one was a if his card is stolen and purchases are

delivered. Saxena feels “for low value items, ebay

photo id card. This is worth mentioning seems to be a good web site because your pay- made from the card. Abroad, if the card is

because two operatives couldn’t look ments are safe through PaisaPay. But it is prefer- stolen and used, the credit card company

have looked so unlike each other even able to buy from a mall as you can touch, feel, and reverses the charge (once the user com-

see the colour and working of the unit you are

if they tried. When the undercover buying.”

plains) and the merchant has to prove

operatives used the cards they made no He adds, “Keep your credit card account, that the owner of the card actually used

attempt at forging the signature of the Savings account and Loan account in different it. If the merchant cannot prove it then he

card holder. Instead they simply signed banks so that they cannot take out money from has to pay a heavy fine. The credit card

another account.”

their own names. user is protected as long as he reports the





36 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

#FAIL #WHALE

Popular web site Twitter crashed and was down Cell-phone banking

for about an hour and a half displaying a funny Soon all you would need to send money to someone

cartoon nicknamed fail whale would be their mobile number Report





loss and contests the charge on the bill. CREDIT CARD INSURANCE and the picture says a lot doesn’t it?

On MasterCard’s India Learning Center Some credit card companies provide insurance at We signed “Mc Donalds Rocks” at a

web site it is stated that “As a Master- very low premium rates. We spoke to customer Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) outlet.

Card cardholder in India, most card support executives of a few banks. The HDFC Bank The person behind the counter looked

executive said they have recently stopped all such

issuers will not hold you responsible for theft insurance services and that we could get any at the signature and still continued with

unauthorised purchases charged to your relevant information we need from the bank’s web the transaction.

account, after the card issuer is notified site. According to the web site, by informing the We began to wonder if this problem

24-hour customer care, any fraudulent transaction is unique to India. Turns out the situ-

of any loss, theft or disclosure relating

is borne by the bank. When we spoke to Citibank,

to your card. If you discover any loss or we were informed that they do have a theft ation is no better in the US either. We

theft, or suspect unauthorised activity on insurance program, but that it is a relatively new came across a hilarious blog (zug.com)

your account, stop using your card and service. They haven’t received any reports of theft in which a frustrated customer by the

or loss arising after starting this service. Also, they

contact the issuer immediately.” name of John Hargrave, went to great

advise the consumer to inform them of the loss

There are legal issues here too. and get the card blocked. Simultaneously, they lengths to answer the question “How

Apart from the extent of punishment conduct an internal investigation on their own and crazy would I have to make my signature

a fraudster receives it is important to stay in touch with the relevant authorities. before someone would actually notice?”

know whether the merchant establish- He then goes on to narrate a rib tickling

ments are required to verify or cross credit card company will not be liable in a tale complete with pictures, of how he put

cheque the signature. We asked Karnika such a scenario unless it acts negligently down signatures ranging from mindless

Seth, Attorney at law, and Chairperson of by not blocking the card when once an doodles to elaborate grids, musical notes

the Cyber Laws Consulting Center what immediate notification of card being lost and in one case hieroglyphics depicting a

the situation is from a legal standpoint. is made to the Bank. The banks gener- snake, birds and mountains, in an effort to

“As far as the imposter or person who ally bear the ‘zero liability’ on lost card elicit some sort of reaction. Not once was

impersonates the rightful holder of the clause” she said. he questioned. Not once did he hear from

card is concerned, he could be charged On Master Card’s Indian web site it his card issuers.

under Section 416 of the IPC and liable is clearly mentioned that “retailers must

to punishment under Section 417 with follow specific data security require-

imprisonment for a term of 1 year or fine ments in order to accept MasterCard

or both. The actual holder of the card may cards. MasterCard Worldwide rules and

also be guilty of contributory negligence recommendations apply to all transac-

if he had negligently kept the credit card tions – whether they occur in a store,

which was then misused by the accused. online, or over the phone.” Under the card

As regards the merchant, he may not fraud checklist there is specific mention

have an explicit obligation to check and of comparing signatures. “The back of

verify the identity of the card holder the card must be signed, and the signa-

unless specified in the contract with the ture should reasonably compare to the

For the signature it says “Mc Donalds Rocks” on a

card issuer. But under Torte law there is cardholder signature on the sales receipt.

KFC charge slip

a duty of care. An hence it is in their own Check to make sure that it has not been

interest to check as if there is a credit card taped over, mutilated, erased or altered in From our own experience too we are

fraud, the merchant loses the goods or any suspicious manner. The word “Void” beginning to wonder if the entire signature

services sold, the payment, the fees for on the signature panel indicates that the process is a useless mechanism designed to

processing the payment, any currency signature panel has been tampered with.” make you just feel safe, like security checks

conversion commissions, and the amount There is also the possibility of asking at malls. Perhaps the safety measures in

of the chargeback penalty. Usually, a for photo identity for transactions. It is the online world are actually better. We’ve

worth noting that at one of the establish- written to each of the retail chains we made

SECURITY TIPS

ments we noticed a board stating that a purchases from to understand this issue

Security tips from the American Federal

Trade Commission to avoid card frauds photo identification will be required for further. We’re yet to get a reply.

Sign your cards as soon as they arrive purchases above Rs. 7,500. We wonder if

Keep an eye on your card during the

transaction, and get it back as quickly

this will work since here customers might CRACK THE CODE

get anywhere from offended, annoyed

as possible On the cover, find the name of the

Save receipts to compare with billing and even embarrassed if they’re asked for building that has the hacker on the

statements identification. roof. Enter that name and the Digit

Notify card companies in advance of a What about those little slips that page number you came from (to get to

change in address this clue) in the following manner:

you sign? How do they fit into the whole

Report any questionable charges thinkdigit.com/d/

promptly and in writing to the card issuer process? Are they ever checked? In fact to get your next clue.

we decided to go ahead and try this out





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 37

Avast Antivirus 5.0 More patching

Avast Antivirus’ latest version has improvements Microsoft to release a patch to plug security

Test in virus detection techniques holes in its flag ship browser – Internet Explorer









Invaders from

outside

Rossi Fernandes

rossi.fernandes@thinkdigit.com





et’s face it. Viruses, worms,







L roots and its other many

forms will always be a

problem for PCs and all

computing devices. While most of this

so called malicious code exploits holes in

the operating system, we as humans are

partly to blame. All antivirus and secu-

rity suites do is offer that additional layer

of prevention. If we were wise enough

to avoid all the obvious threats by not

clicking on that very oddly named .exe

file or executing that mail attachment, we

wouldn’t need a security suite, would we?

As it turns out, very few of us avoid

all of these mails and files, and some-

times because of the security bugs in the

software and operating systems we use,

they do get infected. And when they do,

we have no one to save us! Security suites The threats may have reduced but

simply ensure that these viruses and for how long? We review some of

worms don’t intrude into your system. the suites out there and see if their

With the kind of viruses and worms claims hold any truth...

being designed to hit every security

suite out there, once a worm or virus

is in, hope is lost. There starts the long When you start the installation, K7 network traffic, but you can manage an

and painful journey to fix. Most worms TotalSecurity does a preliminary scan allow list for critical applications such

will disable access to sites to ensure you to ensure there are no threats pre- as your browser and different com-

can’t find a fix or update to disable the existing on the system. After the instal- ponents of the security suite as well.

paralysed suite. Therefore, one of the lation, and with the suite registered, There is also support to protect popular

key things companies have had to do is updates are downloaded and installed. instant messengers such as AOL, MSN

to update the virus definition and use There is little to go wrong here. and Yahoo messengers. It also inte-

more intensive techniques to detect such K7 TotalSecurity is a thorough grates with Outlook to take care of any

threats and disable them first. security suite, but the interface isn’t spam.

In this feature, we look at some of the enticing. K7 has gone with a very Separate logs are maintained for

most popular security suites, many of traditional and simplistic approach but events related to each of the compo-

which are available in India. We are also the quality and design of the icons and nents that make up the security suite.

aware that people have their favourites layout could definitely be improved. Memory consumption crossed over

like with any other product category — The interface looks as if there are 120MB while scanning the system for

only in this case, there are no clear ones. only a limited number of features and viruses. With our system running on

also a limited amount of settings avail- 1 GB of memory, it showed noticeable

K7 TotalSecurity 10 able for each of those features. When slowdown. All in all, a decent solution

K7 Computing is one of the lesser known you get into each of the settings and try but one that people might ignore just

players in the security solution market. to modify the parameters, you notice because of the appearance.

Their product called K7 TotalSecurity is a the complex menus and terminology. Price: Rs. 600 , (single user – 1 year)

complete security suite for desktop users. The firewall allows blocking of Rs. 1,500 (3 users – 1 year)





38 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Attacks from next door Fearful of Facebook

Chinese tried to hack into India’s computers, says Careful what you click on. Facebook is susceptible to certain attacks

National Security Advisor M. K. Narayanan which allows someone to take over your account or your life! test





This is a good option if you want some-

6 thing that is thorough and that lets you

10 make fine changes to the behaviour of

Features:.........................6 the suite.

Performance: .............5.5 Price: Rs. 1,599, (single user – 1 year)

Ease of use: .................6.5 Rs. 7,099, (5 users – 1 year)

Value for money...........7

Comodo Internet

Security 2010

virus definitions. Comodo has one of the nicer looking

Like in many of the interfaces among security suites. Comodo

other suites, protection is generally known for its firewalls than

for instant messengers antivirus and security suites. A nice touch

is also present for is also the Proactive Defense mode which

Yahoo!, ICQ and MSN, sets a security level to be maintained on

AVG Internet Security 9.0 but only for the official clients. your system. The suite is stricter and if

Business Edition The advanced menus have many you set the level to Paranoid, the suite

AVG became well known and popular more features like the very simple to shows up alerts for every possible threat

among most users because of its free use dashboard, which just shows you it detects. There are also presets to set the

edition. This Business Edition of their all of the components of the suite and suite’s functions. The suite can behave as

Internet Security suite is designed for their current status. Double clicking on only an antivirus, a firewall or a complete

larger offices and has protection for it shows you some of the settings and suite on demand.

things like a local anti-spam server and exceptions you can allow. Click on the The suite allows users to use some

the e-mail server itself. Advanced settings menu and you find of their DNS servers to avoid any kind

The interface itself hasn’t changed an indepth range of settings. Each of the of domain spoofing that might happen

from previous versions. Updating of the menus and options are very simple to on other public DNS services. This

suite can be done from within the soft- understand, so you don’t have to be some is something new to security suites.

ware. For those on dialup connections or kind of a security expert to figure your Comodo’s Internet Security suite focuses

connections with bandwidth limits, you way around it. on the network aspect a lot probably

can also update through a folder — this As for performance, the memory because of its networking security focus

way your friend could download the consumption while scanning didn’t cross in the past. The main dashboard displays

updates for you. For some reason, there’s 10 to 20 MB, but the CPU utilisation network statistics and programs that

even an option to rollback to previous kept spiking between 30 and 80 per cent are accessing the internet. Constant

which can be annoying updates from Comodo’s network are also

displayed on one side.

7 Even starting a system scan is

simple – you can choose between

10 just the critical areas of the PC or the

Features..........................7 entire system. Advanced scans can

Performance ..............6.5 be run using the Antivirus tab on the

Ease of use.....................7 interface. Schedules can also be setup

Value for money...........7 and presets for the same can be cre-

ated. The same ease is available with

as it slows down older the antivirus feature.

PCs by a fair bit. There are no performance issues

The standard whatsoever with this suite. Memory con-

desktop edition of the sumption stays under limits at around

same suite is almost 10 MB at idle. Features such as data

identical except for protection, identity protection or even

some of the mail server parental control don’t seem to be on the

and spam server pro- list of priorities. Although, those aren’t

tection. The memory features absolutely essential, it’s still

consumption and something most customers would look at

CPU utilisation hasn’t while purchasing a suite.

changed a lot either. Price: Rs. 2,250





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 39

Google China troubled

The cyber attacks on Google originating from Phishing on the rise

China were a ‘water shed moment in cyber Recent victims include Punjab National

Test security’ according to McAfee insider Bank, Bank Of India and HDFC Bank









7 Price: Rs. 1,450 (single user – 1 year)



10 Rs. 2,495 (three user – 1 year)



Features..........................7 Trend Micro PC-cillin

Performance ..............7.5 Internet Security 2010

Ease of use.....................7

Trend Micro’s PC-cillin Internet Security

Value for money...........6

2010 is considered to be one of those top

antivirus and security solution devel-

opers for more than a decade. Many of us

and their system resource might know Trend Micro from Hotmail’s

consumption over the last few official email scanner for a long time.

months is displayed in a very Their desktop security suite uses

fashionable manner. around 25 MB of RAM over three serv-

Norton Internet Like all the other suites, instant mes- ices. With the scans running, this goes up

Security 2010 senger protection support is available to 50 MB.

Symantec has been at the forefront of only for the official clients The Trend Micro



6.5

security solutions for a long time and for of the popular messen- interface doesn’t simply

many people, Norton Antivirus or Norton gers. In this case, Trillian, show all of the advanced

Internet Security is the first thing that a third party, all-in-one 10 settings in one big window

comes to mind when you talk viruses. messenger, is also sup- Features.......................6.5 leaving the user lost. It

The new Internet Security 2010 ported. A lot of emphasis Performance .................7 has separate menus and

has an evolved version of their new is laid on the protection of Ease of use.....................7 windows for each of the

interface that they’ve been using for privacy online, so the suite Value for money...........6 components.

the last few releases. It’s one of the contains a lot of features The Parental control

fanciest looking interfaces around. A designed to protect your

bright tick mark confirms that the suite identity through cards and

is up-to-date and the system perfectly logins. Phishing is also

fine. SONAR2 is the updated system one of those things.

designed to prevent virus attacks well This security suite is

in advance by using the cloud. designed for streamlined

NIS 2010 comes with many unique workflow — it shows up

features. One of them is the application all the scan schedules in a

ratings window which shows ratings for table. Memory consump-

applications running and installed on tion at idle is around 15MB.

the system. This is information gath- With the scans running, it

ered from Symantec’s online database. shoots to about 90MB.

Similarly, application performance is also Norton Internet

displayed in one of the menus and also Security seems to evolve

on the main dashboard interface. There’s every single year and the

even an Optimize button to tweak the changes are visible. The

system. A proper history of applications focus has now moved towards protecting feature is built into the suite. It’s easy

people’s identi- to use because it allows you to simply

ties and infor- allot a set of rules for a particular user

mation on the account in Windows. The data theft

internet. It sure protection feature stops you from

does the job well. giving away sensitive and important

information. Like Comodo,

Trend Micro PC-cillin Internet

7 Security 2010 also allows cre-

10 ating of customized scans and

Features..........................7 scheduled scan tasks.

Performance .................7 The Pro version of the same

Ease of use.....................7 suite is also available. Some

Value for money...........7 of the features of that ver-

sion come with the option of





40 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Don’t even TWEET about it!

Securing DNS A disgruntled traveller was arrested at an airpoirt in UK

DNSSEC extensions or DNS security to make the after he tweeted to his friends that he was going to blow

Test ether waves more safe to surf for everyone up the plane







VIRUS REMOVAL APPS AND TIPS

USB Flash drive has a worm in the process name is a little sus- ([Windows] +

it. How do I check and remove picious, it could be a worm or [R]). Browse to the

it? virus. Google up the process to Software\Microsoft\

Press [Windows] + [R], type be sure – whether it’s a legiti- Windows\

CMD and click on OK. At the mate application or something CurrentVersion\

prompt, type E: (if E is the flash that doesn’t exist at all. Next, do Run path under

drive letter) and press Enter. a system wide search for that HKEY_LOCAL_

Then, type DIR/AH to list all application or by using the com- MACHINE and

hidden files. If you find the files mand – DIR . HKEY_CURRENT_ TCPview — a free connection monitoring tool

AUTORUN.INF and VirusRemoval. /AH /s from the root of the USER. Delete any entries of that when you’ve identifi ed any

vbs, type ATTRIB –r –s –h Windows partition. Try forcing process. worms or viruses and you need

. to unhide and the application to close and to delete it. Unlocker can help

remove the read-only permis- quickly delete using Windows Applications to use delete them on next bootup

sion from it. Then, delete the Explorer. If that doesn’t work, Unlocker before the process loads.

file using the DEL command (eg. use Unlocker to do it. Unlocker (http://ccollomb.free.fr/

DEL AUTORUN.INF) or using Next, open up the Windows unlocker/) is a free application TCPView

Windows Explorer. RECYCLER is Registry Editor using the regedit that allows users to unlock stub- TCPView (http://tinyurl.com/2pc3vq)

another folder that is home to command in the Run dialog box born executables. This is useful lists all the applications making

some other worms. connections to the internet.

Assuming that you have no

Curing the common virus browsers, P2P clients or down-

infection load managers running, this

The easiest way to find a worm program can help identify and

or virus is to look at the trusty suspicious behaviour. Look out

Windows Task Manager. Look for processes sending tons of

for processes taking up the most requests to PCs on the network

memory or CPU utilisation. If Unlocker helps unlock and then delete unremovable files and the internet.







backing up of up to 2 GB of data online, eScan Internet Security eScan Internet Security Suite uses

instant messenger protection and also Suite 10 Team Viewer as a remote support pro-

wireless network security. We feel eScan Internet Security Suite 10 from gram. By enabling it, registered users can

instant messenger protection should Microworld is another suite that is get remote help from eScan. You obvi-

have at least been part of the package popular in India. They have most of the ously need to be connected to the internet

since almost every computer user today features bundled with other competing for those to work.

on the internet uses some kind of instant anti-virus suites. The USB Control feature blocks

messenger or the other. There’s also the The interface looks uninspired — access to USB flash drives and even

included network management tool to there’s use of a simple plain blue colour allows disabling of the Autorun

remotely control other PC-cillin suites. with very boring buttons that are pretty function. USB drives are one of the

This is a growing trend with many secu- much the same as previous versions. easiest ways to get your PC infected.

rity suites. There are two buttons Update

Like many other companies moving and Product Key that could

towards the cloud and using their have been hidden away instead

software users to contribute informa- of being positioned right with

tion about suspicious files and services, the system scanning button.

Trend Micro too has a similar system up



6.5

called Smart Protection Network.

This is another suite that uses the

cloud to its advantage. A few missing 10

features but other than that, it’s a solid Features.......................6.5

suite to consider especially for easy Performance .................7

operation. Ease of use..................6.5

Price: Rs. 2,500 Value for money...........7

(three user – 1 year ($55))





42 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Memory loss New Opera CEO

Kingston Technology recalls some DataTraveler Lars Boilesen succeeds Jon Von Tetzchner

Test models after a security flaw is discovered as CEO of Opera







In the same manner, suspi-

cious applications can also be

7

blocked. 10

There’s even remotely Features.......................5.5

checking on other installations Performance .................7

on the network. With its non- Ease of use.....................8

flashy user interface and pretty Value for money...........7

low system resource needs, it’s

a solution for SoHos running

slightly older hardware. The pricing is Other than

pretty impressive as well. that, F-Secure

Price: Rs. 1,250 (single user – 1 year) doesn’t look like

Rs. 1,600 (three user – 1 year) it does a lot more.

Data identity

F-Secure Internet and protection

Security 2010 are out of the

F-Secure’s Internet Security 2010’s question and

installation starts with a bang. Once the there is none a new virus or a new virus definition is

automated installer reboots the PC, the of the online storage services

rvices released.

suite starts updating while you’re shown allowed. The other usual al The suites from F-Secure,

a display to set up all the parental con- components are present. t. Trend

Tren Micro and Symantec

trols. Speaking of which, there is a very With the fancy interface e Rs. 10 off on Digit were

we some of the best as

good level of settings made available. comes more memory Pre - order today! far as ease of use were

f

For example, you can choose how many consumption. F-Secure Order the March 2010 concerned. A security

c

hours in a day and the period during uses close to 35MB of edition of Digit. Book suite which uses compli-

s

which browsing is allowed. You can memory on idle and before 20th Jan and cated terms and menus

c

get Rs.10 off. Go to

choose to restrict or allow browsing on around 60 MB during /store isn’t

is a great idea with the

www.thinkdigit.com

weekends and also set a period for that. scans. slightly non-geeky crowd.

slig

Finally, a list of categories of sites is dis- Price: Rs. 1,400 (single e These suites are suitable for

played to choose from. Simply tick mark user – 1 year) home ususers.

the category of sites to be allowed. Rs. 2,700 (three user – 1 year) It was also good to see suites using

Just when you thought the user less than 100MB of RAM. CPU utilisa-

interfaces of these suites couldn’t get Conclusion tion was a little higher in the case of

any classier, F-Secure does one better. It’s difficult to conclude a comparison AVG Internet Security. Trend Micro was

Just like its streamlined installation review of security suites. Updates and very efficient as well. When compared

procedure, the user interface has a really their range of detection really govern the with the others, F-Secure lacked in

classy look with just three buttons – performance of a suite. It’s something features. eScan did too but it had some

Status, Tasks and Statistics. that changes every couple of days when nice unique features such as the remote

support.

HOW WE TESTED

No matter what anti-virus suite you

The security suites were no matter how large a virus to confuse a user. The com- use, you’re never absolutely free from

installed on a Windows 7 set you use. With the number parison review is specifically vulnerabilities. It’s only a matter of time

system running a Pentium of viruses that come out every meant for home users and before one of these are exploited. An

4 3 GHz processor and 1 GB day, performance ratings for a also some small offices. unpatched operating system, an instant

of memory. We did this to try security suite could be invalid Every security suite messenger or email client are just some

and simulate what the majority the very next day. needed the prerequisite of these loopholes. Moving viruses

of users would be running in We were looking for a feature set – it had to have detection techniques and databases to

terms of hardware, as well as light security suite. A secu- an antivirus, a firewall and the cloud allows for real time detection

check compatibility with the rity suite that slows down the preferably spam filtering of threats. It’s a step in the right direction

latest platform. system to a standstill is of and other similar features but getting quick fixes is a different story

The test was prima- no use at all. We looked for were an added bonus. We altogether. That’s left to the developers

rily focussed on features. suites that would be simple tried out all these features to ensure there isn’t another one of those

Performance is something to use without throwing up to determine how useful chaotic scenes where PCs all across the

that’s very difficult to gauge all kinds of technical terms they were. globe are infected by a computer virus

epidemic.





44 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Analyse this Alternate names

An online service that lets you paste EULAs and helps

you identify phrases that should interest you. Head The EULA may often be referred to as the software license,

over to www.spywareguide.com/analyze/analyzer.php user license, terms of service or terms of use (as in the case

of online services) feature







Look before you click

We help you understand the really fine print

clicking through. This whether you know (through multiple tiers), any User

it or not is the dreaded EULA or End Content you (i) Post on”. Or in plain

User License Agreement. Ideally, you’re English, “Anything you upload can for-

supposed to read this lengthy piece of ever be used by Facebook for whatever

legalese to know your rights as a user. reason, no matter what”. Following the

And also to know if by clicking “Agree”, strong reactions from users TOS was of

you are inadvertently signing over your course altered later.

life savings to a con artist from Nigeria or Through the EULA you get to know of

giving rights to the software company to all such possible pitfalls. You need to know

break into your sock drawer should they if the software you’re about to install or

choose to. If you’ve never bothered to read the service you’re signing up for, displays

an EULA before you should know that pop-up ads, transmits personally identifi-

safety begins by being informed, of every- able information, uses unique identifiers to

thing — especially the fine print. track you, whether there is a time sensitive

Many EULAs now have clauses that expiry, does the software automatically

prohibit you from benchmarking the soft- update itself via the internet or whether

nless you were born ware or engaging in any sort of compar- certain features disable suddenly.







U yesterday you’ve probably

signed up for an online

service or installed software

on your computer. While flying through

endless “Next” clicks, there is usually

a point where you need to switch an

innocuous radio button to “Agree” before

ison. Other stipulations state that users

cannot publicly post criticism or deroga-

tory remarks about the software. Back

when the Windows 7 beta build came out,

its EULA restricted users from revealing

results of speed tests or benchmarking.

Popular blogs then had to find alternate

Coming to the flip side of this coin,

do the software makers accept damage

liability? When you have got yourself

software that is badly coded and results in

data loss, you should be able to pin dam-

ages on the software providers. However,

in defining the manufacturer’s liability,

ways of comparing it with Vista and XP many EULAs absolve them from taking

EULALYZER — some did not give exact timings (with any responsibility for damage. All EULAs

units of measure) but gave information have one thing in common, you have to

Even after giving you all this gyan, we’re pretty

sure hardly anyone reading this is ever going to through visually represented bar graphs. accept the terms or relinquish the right to

go through a cumbersome and confusing tome EULAs also contain important use the software. Still, many EULAs get

details about the impact on the user’s challenged, and at times violations on the

privacy. These include things such as part of the vendor can also be brought out.

the kind of data that will be sent back Take the case in point of Amazon’s Kindle

to the developers and whether the ebook reader device. The device lets you

data is personally identifiable. Face- buy electronic copies of books that you

book too came under the scanner for can keep on your device. But a while back

the draconian terms of its EULA (or due to some copyright issues Amazon

Terms of Service in this case) several retracted copies of George Orwell’s 1984

times. A long time ago, Facebook’s from users’ devices. Users had no idea that

like a EULA. While it’s true most of it is standard

boilerplate nonsense, there are some bits you

TOS said it owned user generated such kind of functionality was even built

must go through. Fear not. Here’s a little software content even after the user disables into the software and device. Apparently,

that will help you weed out the legalese and zero their account. Later it read something under the Use of Digital Content section,

in on the parts that are most relevant (and juicy). like this “You hereby grant Facebook an its EULA had clearly mentioned that

Find EULAlyser in the DVD and throw any tough

nut EULA at it. irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, Amazon had the final say on the right to

The app will break it down and give you a list transferable, fully paid, worldwide keep a permanent copy of any digital con-

of attention phrases with convenient “go to” links. license (with the right to sublicense) tent on the device. Prima facie this seems

There is even a submission facility to harness to (a) use, copy, publish, stream, store, like a breach of contract, doesn’t it? Bottom

community knowledge on a particular EULA. We

ran the EULA of a harmless open source software retain, publicly perform or display, line is — be an alert user and know what

called DVD Flick though it, and it was still able transmit, scan, reformat, modify, you’re getting into, and for the last time

to point out phrases like “Third Party” with an edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, — read the fine print — please — you may

interest level rating of one to five for each phrase.

create derivative works and distribute thank us later!





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 45

Dorgem Advanced Eyespyfx

Another streaming application to try out is If your webcam has a mount and rotor, you

Dorgem, it has some pretty advanced features can use Eyespyfx to remotely pan and tilt the

DIY and is Open Source. camera as well.









Time to watch out

If you need a simple, straightforward way to mon-

itor a location using basic equipment, locally or

over the internet, read on...



of features. The software also has motion Click on Browse to change a path to a

detection, a feature that can be used to suitable location on your hard disk. The

trigger recording as and when there is Image quality option allows you to reduce

any activity in the area under surveil- the file size of the stored images if you are

lance. conservative about disk space. The Type

option has a few file formats, JPG is an



Step 1: On first start after

the application is

installed, you will have to select a source

ideal format. The interval option speci-

fies a number of seconds after which an

image will be saved.

Aditya Madanapalle for the video. An inbuilt camera on

aditya.madanapalle@thinkdigit.com





ou do not need expensive

the system, a video camera attached

through USB, or a web cam can all be

detected by Yawcam. Go to Settings

Step 3: Enabling motion

detection saves a

photo every time there is some change in







Y equipment or software to set

up a simple video surveil-

lance system at your home

or office. Any standard web cam and a

computer will suffice for the basic sur-

veillance setups outlined below. There

are two scenarios under consideration,

> Device(None) > Change to and

select the source of the video. If there is

no option here, make sure that a camera

is connected, and all the relevant drivers

the image on the webcam. Unfortunately,

there is a “click” sound when the image is

saved. There is no easy way to turn this

off, and reducing the system volume is

the only alternative. Be sure to select this

option at the very last moment, before



one that stores data locally, for set-ups

without internet access, and another to

stream the video over the internet onto

various platforms. If you don’t already

have a web cam, look for one with a

long cord, and something small and

discreet, as well as a mount, if you need

to locate the web cam against the walls.

Many web cams come with clip-mounts, Motion detection in Yawcam

which can be used to place the web cam

at strategic locations. If you’re using the surveillance begins, as there will be a

devices such as netbooks with inbuilt few images saved as and when you move

cameras, be sure to change the battery around after enabling it.

settings in a way that the machine does

not go into sleep mode on inactivity. If

you are using a laptop or a netbook for

long periods of surveillance, which is

Selecting a video source



installed. Once selected, the video

Step 4: Yawcam also allows

you to save the

images on a remote location, such as

not advisable, remove the battery from window will immediately start showing a an FTP server. For online surveillance,

the casing and use the power cable only, live stream. a better option would be to stream live

to lengthen the life of your battery. video, but if you do want to save to a



Using Yawcam for offline

surveillance

Step 2: In the main Control

Panel tab of Yawcam,

are five basic toggles. File, FTP, HTTP,

remote location, enable the FTP toggle,

go to Settings > Edit Settings >

Output > FTP and enter in the details

Yawcam stands for Yet Another Webcam Stream and Motion. Click on File. This of your FTP account. You will need an IP

application, and is a small software that will start saving the stream onto the local address, a password, and the authentica-

can be downloaded from www.yawcam.com. hard disk, in a temporary directory. Go tion details. While Yawcam also allows

It is a small program that packs in plenty to Settings > Edit Settings > Output > File. you to stream content online, there is a





46 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Yoics

If you are looking for something a little more fun, try Yoics, a

software that let’s you Tweet images from the surveillance, and

upload videos regularly to a configured YouTube channel as well. diy



have to copy paste into the software, along someone is watching over your shoulder.

with the email ID you provided. Along Click on save and Sync. Now your stream

with the registration key, you will get a cannot be accessed without a password,

secure pin number, which can be used to but a stream with the name of your

access and identify the camera. camera that you specified in Step 2 will

still be listed on the site. This is presum-



Step 2: You will be asked to

choose a name for the

ably for easy access to you as a user.







Uploading to FTP

better software for doing that, known as

camera. This is to identify the camera, in

case you are using multiple cameras on the

same account, which is also possible. Once

Step 4: You can try out the

live stream right

away. Go to easyspyfx.com and search for a

Eyespyfx. you enter in a chosen name, the camera camera using the pin number that you

goes live, and starts streaming the video

Using Eyespyfx for online online. At this stage, the video stream

surveillance can be viewed by anyone lurking on the

While Eyespyfx does not have motion Eyespyfx site, so proceed to the next step

detection, it has a very simple approach

for streaming video from a camera online.

The client for broadcasting the video is

free to download and use. Once a stream

is set-up, a browser window from any Choosing a name for the camera

location can be used to keep an eye on the

streaming video, including WAP enabled quickly. There are various streams of video

mobile phones. There is a dedicated to browse through on the site, so your

mobile app available also, which comes at stream is likely to be buried somewhere in

a price. the list, however, it is a good idea to make

the video stream private.



Step 1: Download and

install the Eyespyfx

broadcaster client. The client automati- Step 3: Click on Camera

Settings and go to Password protecting your video stream

cally picks up a video stream from any the Password tab. Check the Password

connected camera, and displays it on the protection On / Off checkbox and enter received in Step 1. A page will open which

desktop. On first run, you will be asked in a password. This screenshot shows a will give you code for embedding the

for an e-mail id and a registration key. line of asterisks, but the software does not stream from the video cam on any web

This is free, and is a method to tie in your hide the password, so be careful of this if site or blog and a tinyurl link to directly

video stream to you, and allow for secure access the video stream online, or your

access. You will be directed to the web site mobile phone if it supports viewing video

for sign up, which just requires a name on a web site over GPRS. If you entered a

and email id. A registration key will be password in Step 3, you will be asked to

supplied to you immediately, which you key in this password before you can start

viewing the video.







Step 5: You can archive

snapshots of the video

stream as image files. The images will be

stored on the Easyspyfx server. This feature

is there to keep a track of what is going on

in the area under surveillance if you are not

constantly monitoring the video stream. Go

to Camera Settings > Archive, and

check the Archive On / Off checkbox.

There are a number of interval options

available, but you cannot specify your own.

Unfortunately, there is no motion detection

Keying in registration details View your video stream online mechanism for this feature.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 47

DIY Social Networking Overdrive

Digital life

Section opener 50 Update your iPod without

iTunes across platforms 52 From extensions to mobile apps. A look at different ways

to connect different









Gorillapod

A Gorillapod is a must-have travel accessory. The Gorillapod is a range of tripods manufac-

tured by Joby, which has a tripod head attached to three flexible legs. These can be placed

on uneven surfaces, wrapped around poles, hung from branches and even attached to

windows in moving vehicles. Apart from cameras, there are Gorillapods available for PMPs

that let you use the tripod as a stand for watching or recording. There are also many sizes

available. You can order one for anywhere between Rs. 2,000 to Rs. 7,000 depending on

the kind and size of Gorillapod you want









Garmin Zumo 665

Fresh from CES 2010, the Garmin Zumo

665 Motorcycle GPS is a bike-enthusiast’s

wet dream. Even if you totally ignore the

GPS capabilities of the device, which has

an impressive line up of traffic watch,

turn by turn guidence and NavWeather

for North America, the fact that this is

a waterproof device that also streams

radio, plays back mp3s and audiobooks

is enough to get any biker salivating. The

Zumo 665 is priced at a Jaw-dropping

$999 (Rs. 45,280), but then there have

been i-Phone apps that cost as much





48 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Speed of light Shuttle for sale

Siemens breaks old LED light powered NASA selling off old space shuttles at

data transfer speeds at 500Mbps $28.8 million dollars a piece Droolmaal





Jetboil Flash

No more waiting till you’re grey for water

to boil on your outdoor adventures. The

Jetboil Flash Gold is the compact, ready to

go cooking solution for you. It gets water to

boil in under two minutes, and has a tripod

base stand for stability. The canister can be

used as the utensil for consumption itself,

and there is a colour indication for when

the food is ready. The fuel comes in pro-

prietary containers that you’ll have to get

from Jetboil. Showcased here is the Gold

version. The Flash comes in Violet, Sap-

phire and Carbon as well. You can pick up

one of these for Rs. 4,500









Kodak Playsport

Ever worried that your camcorder is not as extreme as you? Scared of sand particles in the

ports or water ruining the screen? Fret no more, the Kodak Playsport is just the thing for

you. Waterproof for upto three metres (10 feet), this recorder stores your most extreme

memories at full 1080p resolution. There are a bunch of nifty features just for adventurers

too, a Glare Shield for better clarity and a grabber for obraining images from video. There

is also built in Facebook and Twitter functionality, so you are always connected no matter

where your adventures take you. The device costs a measly Rs. 6600, but picking one up

can be a problem because Kodak is always out of stock









Panasonic DMP-B15

Pick up the Panasonic DMP-B15, and you will be in the small club

of people who can watch Blu-Ray discs on the go. The world’s first

portable Blu-Ray player doubles up as a regular Blu-Ray player as

well, with ports for interfacing with HDTVs. There are also straps

for attaching the device to the back seat of a car. The screen of the

player is pretty small, a shade under 9 inches, but the player can

still throw out videos in 1080p HD resolution through the HDMI

port. You can pick one of these up at the launch price of Rs. 33,000





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 49

Misa Guitar Surface Cantata

Misa Digital Guitar surface is an electric The Cantata is a digital preamp/DAC that includes a

guitar with buttons instead of strings and is built-in CD player and networking for external NAS

DIY based on Linux drives or computers









iPod Survival Guide

The iPod is one of the most sought after PMPs

around. We look at alternatives suites, especially if

you use a non-proprietary OS and don’t have iTunes

of iPod including the very latest iPod one is auto-fetching of missing ID3 tag

Touch (1st, 2nd and 3rd Generation) and information from internet databases

the iPhone (2G, 3G and 3GS including the including CD covers. The second way is

3.x firmware). One interesting feature manual update, MediaMonkey has a full

of note is that it can level volume of the featured tag editor with a very intuitive

tracks while syncing and will hence play interface. Complete ID3 tag informa-

Nishith Rastogi at one normalised volume even on your tion is very important from the Point of

readersletters@thinkdigit.com iPod. MediaMonkey also has a dedicated view of playing your music on your iPod

feature for downloading and managing because it stores and searches them based









I

f you plug your iPod into a USB port your podcast subscription. It can even on the meta data only as your directory

and use its Disk Mode functionality, sync it with your devices. One limitation structure is eliminated.

it gets recognised as a mass storage regarding iPod support is, as with many In terms of playback support Media-

device where you can still copy your other media players, that it needs iTunes Monkey doesn’t disappoint one bit. It

files onto it, but it won’t play them. This installed on your system to detect your belongs to the class of players which play

happens because iPod uses a song Data- iPod (especially iPhone/iPod Touch) anything you throw at them from MP3

base called the iTunesDB to recognise the

files stored in it. If you explore your iPod

contents under the disk mode you will

notice many folders named in a sequence

such as F00, F01 and F02 with randomly

named MP3 files.

If you manually transfer a song from

your computer to your iPod, this direc-

tory structure is destroyed and the files

are stored in a rather random pattern.

This is precisely why you need an iPod

manager (iTunes) to share music between

your iPod and PC. The reason for such A rock solid Windows based alternative for iTunes with a clean and intuitive interface

a distribution is not officially disclosed

and the guesstimates run from avoiding as it uses the same device drivers. You to FLAC and everything in between.

casual piracy to speed and efficiency don’t need to use iTunes, but it should be So if you are looking at a Windows-

gains. merely present on your system. based alternative to replace iTunes as

Many users find iTunes too bloated One fun feature it boasts of is “Party your iPod manager and media player,

for their needs and hence we now explore Mode” where basically your player MediaMonkey offers itself as a rock

a couple of alternative iPod managers for runs in kiosk mode. So your guests can solid alternative with loads of options of

both Windows and Linux Platform. play/request songs themselves without customisation via plug-in support. It’s

modifying your playlist, supporting this feature rich and has a snappy interface

MediaMonkey feature is the Auto-DJ, which automagi- even with dealing with huge collections.

MediaMonkey is available in the

le cally selects tracks to play once

selec If you can live with limited disc burning

Free and Gold version. The

he the playlist runs out.

play and ripping support, look no further for

Free version is amply ablee If you own a collection an alternative to iTunes.

and the Gold version onlyy Rs. 10 off on Digit of more than 5,000 songs

includes minor enhance- Pre - order today! collected from various

c SongBird

ments in the area of Disk Order the March 2010 sources you have obvi-

s This is a cross platform solution and

Burning, MP3 encoding edition of Digit. Book ously faced the problem

o works well on both Linux, Windows and

and Folder Monitoring. before 20th Jan and get of incomplete ID3 tags.

o even Mac. It has been made on the same

Rs.10 off. Go to www.

It supports syncing thinkdigit.com/store MediaMonkey handles

M core as Mozilla Firefox, and that itself is

content with all generations

ons this in two awesome ways, reason enough to be excited about this





50 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Hearing loss, what’s that? Hindsight

The law suit against Apple holding it responsible for This here is the first ever CD player

hearing loss allegedly casused by iPods may finally manufactured by Sony back in the 80s.

be dismissed At the time it cost $1000! DIY





product. It is an audio player with the

functionality of a web browser too, which

has been utilised properly to provide you

with augmented information about your

current playing file and a music store.

It’s a complete feature by feature

match for iTunes and more. Like most

modern day players, it support skins

and plug-ins, a function which seems

obvious, given its roots in the Mozilla’s

XULRunner framework. Nearly four

years into development it has become

a player of choice today for users on all

platforms. Foobar - strong competitor to MediaMonkey and extremely customisable

iPod support comes in form of an add-

on, which is also currently one of the most iPhone/iTouch, it must be jail broken for Floola

download add-ons for songbird. Func- Amarok2 to support it properly. The simplest of all iPod managers men-

tionality includes syncing and transfer for tioned here, it runs as a single executable

your music as well as videos. It can also Foobar2000 file. It’s so light on system resources that it

sync your playlist between your iPod and It prides itself at being the most customis- can even work on old Celeron 400 MHz

hard disk based collection. Support for able audio player on the planet. You can systems. If you have a netbook and all you

firmware 2.x and above on turn Foobar2000 into a want to do is share music with your iPod,

iPhone/iPod Touch is a little full-fledged music manager floola should serve as a good alternative.

sketchy and will require a or ultra-light bare bone Support for newer iPods is an issue.

jail broken version. music player via add-ons

To sum it up, we’d say and plug-ins. Its feature GtkPod

it’s a stable feature-full

Read our detailed rich, but just that setting This one’s a Floola for Linux. One point of



L C D monitor test

player with active develop- up Foobar2000 with note is that after editing your /etc/fuse.

ment and immense com- correct and complete cus- conf by removing # from #user_allow_

munity support, but nearly next month tomisation can be a bit of a other and installing a few libraries (gvfs

as heavy as iTunes in terms pain for a new user. gvfs-backends gvfs-bin gvfs-fuse

of resource usage. libgvfscommon0 ifuse libgpod-dev

Winamp libgpod-common libiphone-utils

Amarok2 Considered as the de facto alternate media libiphone0 python-iphone lib-

Available for the Linux platform, Amarok2 player for a Windows-based system, it plist++1 libplist-utils python-

is a KDE-based music player with an supports music transfer, Via its iPod plist libusb-1.0-0 libusb-1.0-

interface to die for. It is widely regarded as plugin (ml_ipod). Winamp though like 0-dev libusbmuxd1 usbmuxd) this

the best Audio Player around in terms of iTunes, is extremely bloated and very is one of the few Linux software that can

interface and features across the gazillion heavy on system resources for a media support iPhone and iTouch transfer and

choices in the Linux and Windows world. player. The interface can also be slightly sync music.

If you want to sync the latest iteration of overwhelming for a new user.









As Firefox add-ons add functionality to the core Songbird player, this one adds iPod support





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 51

Facebook, twitter, MySpace, LinkedIn! Update StayFocusd, a Google Chrome extension

all your social networks in one go. Use this lets you block social networking sites if

Feature useful little web service called ping.fm you prefer to









Social networking overdrive

From teenagers scrapping and poking, to a useful

enterprise tool, social networking has come a long way

Siddharth Raman like Seesmic Desktop. The client runs feature where you can mute those

readersletters@thinkdigit.com on Adobe Air, and you can download it whose updates you temporarily don’t

from www.seesmic.com. Though it also has care about (for example, someone live









T

oday, social networking isn’t a web counterpart called Seesmic Web, tweeting a conference you have no

just about reconnecting with the Desktop client seamlessly integrates interest in). You can also update Face-

old friends – it’s a powerful Facebook and Twitter allowing you book from the same interface.

medium of communication for to update and keep track of others. It On the desktop front, Scrapboy is

personal use, business communication allows for multiple accounts, profile quite useful. It links Orkut and Face-

and entertainment. views, and other time-saving features book (among others) and allows you to

There’re many who simply go online like auto-complete. access your groups, see updates, and

to access their social network. However, While on the topic of Twitter, the browse walls/scrapbooks. Apart from

with the API out, several users prefer other extremely popular Twitter client instant notifications, a useful stealth

is TweetDeck. Again built mode, it also has a P2P option allowing

using Adobe AIR, it also you to exchange files with friends. It’s

allows multiple account a 7.6 MB download available from www.

management, and features scrapboy.com.

quite similar to Seesmic. Facebook has also launched an

TweetDeck also allows you official application called the Facebook

to update your LinkedIn Desktop for Adobe AIR. The good part

status, besides displaying is that it merely serves as a browser for

local trends. Facebook. So you can use all of Face-

Interesting functions book’s features without opening your

with tools such as Power browser. Another cool desktop applica-

include search and auto- tion is the Facebook – Photo Uploader

matic URL shortening. launched by Adobe, and allows you to

They also have their own chat and upload photos.

respective photo integra- Among Desktop Clients, however,

You’ll never be done counting the number of networking sites online! tion that allows you to Digsby steals the cake. For those who

instantly upload photos and use social networking primarily to stay

desktop clients. A web browser can be provide links. The drawback about in touch, the multiple IM client also

extremely distracting. For those who’re having Twitter clients with Facebook has social networking options. Apart

on the go, sites such as Twitter and Face- integration is that most users link their from integrating MSN, Yahoo!, GTalk

book have mobile versions that can be Facebook and Twitter updates, so you and Facebook Chat (among others) and

easily accessed on your mobile internet usually end up seeing

browser. redundant updates.

The iPhone, of course, offers a wide Mac users have

range of applications for the same. The the option of Tweetie

other ways you could connect is through for Mac or the Mac

your web browser, your IM client, and Lounge among other

your homepage (read iGoogle or similar). desktop clients for

If you insist on using the web but Twitter. Tweeple

find it too cumbersome to access, www. should also try out

power.com gives you a one-stop destina- Brizzly (www.brizzly.

tion through which you can access com). It has nice

Orkut, Twitter and LinkedIn. It also features such as

allows you to access hi5 and MySpace. grouping and an

Desktop users would prefer something interesting mute Seesmic Desktop vs. TweetDeck





52 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Networking altruism

Whatever happened to ICQ? An entirely social networking based viral campaign

Well it’s back in the game with a shiny new avatar ICQ7, promoted through sites like Facebook and Twitter earned

that integrates social networking. Ah nostalgia... more than $3 million for Red Cross relief work in Haiti Feature





managing multiple email accounts, it For Browser add-ons, we recommend

also allows you to receive updates and trying out either Chrome or Firefox.

send status messages on your Face- Though Chrome extensions are a rela-

book, Twitter, MySpace and LinkedIn tively newer addition, and may not have

accounts. It has a real-time Newsfeed the varied options that Firefox does,

box with notifications. Digsby (www.digsby. they’re worth a try. For Firefox add-ons,

com) is more than just an application for go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/.

social networking. Its lack of features Echofon (http://echofon.com/twitter/firefox/)

such as Lists and Search is compensated is by far our favourite when it comes

by its email and chat features. to browser based Twitter clients. With

Facebook Notifier, fbQuick, Scrap three windows (one for timeline, one for

Notifier are some unofficial apps that mentions and direct messages), it also

notify you. An application such as Growl has multiple account support. It rests

for Windows or Snarl could integrate at the bottom of the browser with an

most of your networks. unread message count and has a pop-up

Of course, the above Desktop Clients feature for new messages.

for various networks are merely some Yoono is another multiple social-net-

among several. Depending on your level working one-stop destination that allows

of functionality, there are many clients a sidebar extension to Firefox. It allows

(especially for Twitter) out there that you to update and monitor Facebook,

you could tweak and customise to suit Twitter, MySpace among others and has Connect on your handset with Facebook’s mobile site

IM features allowing you to add Yahoo!,

Gtalk and MSN. net, http://m.tweete.net among several others.

Check http://chrome.google.com/extensions These offer some functionalities that the

for social networking extensions that mobile Twitter site does not, such as the

you can plug into Google Chrome. ability to disable images from loading

For those who use iGoogle or the and present links as plain text. They have

Google Desktop application, there are also standard features such as bookmark as

widgets and gadgets that you can use to favourite, retweet and reply.

view Twitter, Facebook and other applica- With Mobile apps, it’s a harder list to

tions. Several IM clients such as Meebo gather. There’s the standard one offered

and Imo.im also allow you to integrate Face- by companies themselves. An official

Digsby, one stop for all your networking online book chat and Twitter updates. Gmail has Facebook app, for example, comes built-in

TwitterGadget (www.twittergadget.com) where with certain Nokia phones. Orkut also has

your purpose. For several users, the you can access Twitter right from Gmail. a mobile application. For Twitter, there’s

amount of RAM an application con- There’s a Facebook gadget that works on a huge market with loads of competition

sumes is a major factor while weighing iGoogle and Gmail (http://www.brianngo.net/ each vying for the top space. You’d have

its merits. ig/facebook.xml) (though not an official one). the best of choices if you owned an iPhone

Moving over from the desktop, Orkut, being a Google product integrates since most networks have an app custom

there’re several users who spend hours quite well with Gmail with options such built for it. There’re also several third-

online browsing web sites. Hence, a as Orkut birthdays and more. party applications. Most apps, however,

browser add-on should fit the bill nicely. After browsers and desktop apps, are platform dependent. Fring seems to be

For one, there’s the Facebook Toolbar for there’s the mobile. Facebook has two a popular one across platforms.

Firefox. Developed by Facebook (http:// mobile sites – one for normal mobile On the whole, the options out there

developers.facebook.com/toolbar/), it allows you browsers (m.facebook.com) and the other are several. The number of ways you can

to search Facebook from anywhere and for touch-enabled phones (x.facebook.com). access your favourite social networking

get notified of new pokes, friend requests, Similarly Orkut, Twitter and LinkedIn site are numerous. We’d recommend

messages, invitation, wall posts, profile have mobile versions. The typical URL trying one of every kind. If at home, use

updates, photos and everything else. for most web sites with a mobile friendly a Desktop client, if at work, use an inline

You can also open the Facebook Sidebar version is m..com. So you have browser application or a web-based

with a click of an icon to chat with those m.twitter.com, m.orkut.com and so on. With offshoot, and while travelling, try both the

online. Possibly the most useful tool for Twitter, there are also other sites which mobile application and try accessing it via

compulsive content sharers is the option have a better functionality when it comes mobile browser. See which suites you the

to share on Facebook the webpage you to accessing them via mobile. Few exam- best. It’s not just about convenience and

are viewing currently. ples include http://dabr.co.uk, http://m.slandr. customisation, it’s also a lot of fun.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 53

F1 for speed Green Heights

There’s more to F1 than laps, speed, burning Taipei 101, the second tallest building in the



Scitech 58 rubber and champagne. Read to know the

technology behind designing an F1 car

world, expected to be the tallest Green Building

in the world in 18 months









Reaching out

to the skies

Nishith Rastogi instability, and hence they are built around

readersletters@thinkdigit.com a central frame generally made of steel.

Think of the steel frame as a three dimen-









D

id you know the world’s tallest sional lattice of interconnected steel bars

building, the Burj Khalifa, on which the weight of the whole building

and mobile phone company rests. This eliminates the need of the load

Samsung have a connection? bearing shear walls, and instead can be

Skyscrapers such as the Burj have come replaced by curtain wall generally made

a long way from The Home Insurance of glass giving massive weight advantages.

Building, constructed in 1885 and com- This is the main reason to why skyscrapers

monly referred as the first skyscraper, have glass walls.

which was merely 138 feet in height and Most modern (post 1970) skyscrapers

had ten stories. Today, Burj Khalifa is use the “Tube Frame” which was intro-

the tallest freestanding structure made duced by Fazlur Rahman Khan. This

by man with a staggering height of 828 was done to resist lateral forces of wind

metres. If the name Burj Khalifa sounds and storm. Here, the whole building acts

unfamiliar, that’s because Burj Dubai like one hollow beam positioned per-

at the last moment was renamed to pendicular to the ground surface. The

Burj Khalifa in the honour of the ruling exterior of the building is reinforced with

president of Abu Dhabi, Sheikh Khalifa intersecting spandrel beams.

bin Zayed al Nahyan who provided a $10 A major challenge in building a

billion bailout for the financially troubled super-heavy skyscraper is creating a

Dubai government. stable foundation for the building. For

There’s no exact definition to what example, consider the Burj Al Arab,

qualifies as a skyscraper and is more famously known as the yacht shaped

like a variable with time, and geographic hotel in Dubai. It took close to three years

region as it’s dependent parameter. Cur- to reclaim the land from the sea and form

rently, in the US as a matter of conven- the foundation. The rest of the building

tion, buildings greater than 150 metres was completed in approximately the

(approximately 45 stories) are classified same time frame. To maintain stability,

as skyscrapers. As you’d know, a building 230 concrete pipes (each 40-metre long)

in India with a height of over 100 metres were drilled in to the ground.

would be clearly distinguishable from its Similarly, the Taipei 101 tower built in

surroundings and would earn the title of earthquake prone Taiwan has 382 of such

being a skyscraper. concrete pipes (each of which is 30 metres

The ability of living and working 100 in height and 1.5 metres in diameter) drilled

stories above the ground present its own into the ground to secure the building from

set of unique challenges ranging in domain earthquake. Approximately 15 months

from construction to plumbing. Here’s were devoted to the construction of this

a look at some of the problems faced by foundation. It was the tallest building at the

designers and civil engineers while con- time of its construction.

structing a skyscraper and their solutions. In the case of Burj Khalifa, there

were 192 pipes with lengths exceeding

Construction 50 metres each. Reinforced concrete

Given their height, skyscrapers either forms the main structural system for the

sink in to the ground, or collapse due to building, a total of 3,33,000 cubic metres





54 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Termite construction Vertical Limit

The Eastgate Centre in Harare, Zimbabwe which A single building 3,281 ft tall, 1,312 ft and a total floor area

is inspired from termite mounds, has no air of 8 square kilometers. The concept building is to have a

conditioning yet has regulated temperatures capacity of about one lac workers! Can it get any bigger? Feature





of concrete is used for the building, by aerodynamically efficient. According to sounding device is actually a 730 ton ball

comparison a typical water tank in a Wayne Boulton, GM (Wind Energy) at suspended by eight solid steel cables. This

household is of 1 cubic metre capacity. RWDI, “We constructed a scale model and device acts like a giant pendulum and

Constructing this massive building took put it in a wind tunnel. In the wind tunnel, counters the motion of the building due

a total of 22 million man-hours. we are able to test a number of different to seismic and atmospheric forces. It was

The climate of the construction site wind speeds and directions. We can test designed and constructed by firm called

provided added challenges due to the the pressure you would get on the surface Motioneering. It can move to a maximum

heat in the daytime with temperatures of the building under normal conditions of five feet in any direction and is sur-

exceeding 50 degree Celsius. Therefore, and also under more extreme events.” rounded by a protective bumper ring to

the concrete was poured during the night prevent it from swaying too far.

(the air is much cooler and the humidity Safety Another example of the installation

is higher, which is essential for curing With more than 10,000 people living of a Tuned Mass Damper is an oil based

the mixture evenly) mixed with ice and in a confined space of a modern day hydraulic system in the Citicorp Center in

was pumped to a staggering height of 601 skyscraper safety becomes an important New York. The hydraulic system adjusts

metres creating a world record of its own.

Previous record for concrete pumping

was held of the Riva del Garda Hydroelectric

Power Plant in Italy in 1994, when concrete

was pumped to a height of 532 metres.

At the peak of its construction, the Burj

Khalifa was adding a story to the structure

every three days and hence it was abso-

lutely essential for the concrete mix to not

form any cracks and cause any delays.

Constructing structures so far above

the ground faces serious wind problem.

To give an example, the wind velocity at

the top of the Burj Khalifa can be thrice the

velocity at the base. Given the climate of

Dubai, wind speeds at the base itself can A graphic representation of Skyscraper heights along the ages

exceed 50 kilometres per hour. The Chi-

cago-based architectural firm Skidmore, issue. There are two aspects for it – one is the position of the a 400-ton concrete

Owings & Merrill, who were responsible protecting from man-made mishaps such weight block located on one of the top

for the design of Burj Khalifa were aware as fire and electricity, which is relatively floors and in effect adjusting the entire

of this challenge and to counter it they easier to tackle. The other is protecting weight of the building from one side to

had contracted a Canadian-based wind a structure more than 500 metre above another. A powerful array of computers

engineering firm RWDI, who was respon- the ground from forces of nature such and sensors monitor the wind forces

sible for checking if the various designs of as typhoons and earthquakes. We shall around the building and generate the

the building made by the architects were look at two counter systems to get a feel of stimulus for the movement of the block.

structural safety measures in skyscrapers. Burj Khalifa also has the provision of

The Taipei 101 Tower sits merely 660 pressurised, fire-proof, structurally rein-

feet from a major fault line in Taiwan, forced and critically air-conditioned refuge

or in simple terms is very prone to chambers located after every 25 floors, so

earthquake damage. To counter this, the in case of any disaster, natural or man-

construction engineer first wrapped the made disaster occupants needn’t climb

entire building in a massive steel cage down more than 160 floors to find safety.

of immensely welded steel columns that Another unique challenge is the

is designed to flex and bend to absorb skyscraper causing earthquakes in the

seismic energy. The engineers proclaim surrounding region. Many had believed

that this can withstand the impact of the that the Taipei 101 tower had reactivated

most powerful earthquake in 2,500 years. a dormant fault line. In order to counter

A second counter measure is the inclu- this argument the designers and con-

Extreme engineering solutions like Wind Tunnel sion of a Tuned Mass Damper (TMD), struction contractor of the tower had

simulations, generally reserved for race cars, are which also prevents damage from lateral ensured that they remove equivalent

used in the construction of Modern Day Skyscrapers forces such as strong wind. This innocent amount of soil from the foundation as the





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 55

Urban Cactus

The Urban Cactus, Rotterdam is Riding High

a residential green project in the Big Shot is the highest amusement ride

Netherlands offering 98 residential located on the Stratosphere Tower in Las

Feature units on 19 floors Vegas at 329m







weight of the whole tower, a figure close fireman’s elevator will have a capacity national pride is aesthetically appealing is

to a staggering 7,00,000 tons in this case. of 5,500 kg, compare this to the elevator taken very seriously by the designers and

in your building which generally has a can cost a major fraction of the total time

Mobile connectivity capacity of 800 kg or less. and money spent on the project.

It’s not rare to see lots of people standing For example, there are over 1,000

next to windows or in the open lobby in Maintenance pieces of art that will be on display inside

multi-storied building hooked to their Simple and trivial as it may look, main- the Burj Khalifa. The lobby alone boasts

mobile phones because of poor signal tenance work post-construction in itself of 196 cymbals constructed out of bronze

strength in their offices. Imagine this is a major challenge. Take the example of and brass alloy, each representing one

problem at the scale of Burj Khalifa. The cleaning the windows in Burj Khalifa. To nation of the world. They are plated by

engineers at task have handled this accomplish this seemingly simple task, 18-carat gold and individually produce a

problem in style. Two local companies Du a system worth more than $8 million distinctive sound when struck by drip-

and Etisalat have provided complete con- (approximately Rs. 40 crore) is installed ping water, intended to mimic the sound

nectivity inside the building including in Burj Khalifa by an Australian com- of water falling on leaves.

elevators and lobbies at speeds exceeding pany called Cox Gomyl. The machinery On the outside stands an electroni-

anywhere else in the region. The building was manufactured in Airport West and cally controlled fountain designed by

is equipped with state-of-the-art HSPA+ is operated in manned mode for the lower WET Design (the California-based

3.5G mobile connectivity that offers stories and completely unmanned after company whose other installations

speeds up to 21 Mbps for download and 11 that. It takes about 3 months to complete include fountains at the Bellagio Hotel

Mbps for uploads. the whole building, so yes, as you can Lake in Las Vegas) at a cost of $217 mil-

lion (over Rs. 1,000 crore). The fountain

Elevators is fitted with over 6,000 lights, each of

One of the primary things that make a which can be controlled electronically

skyscraper practical is the inclusion of and has 50 coloured projectors. The

elevators. Choosing the number, size 275-metre long fountain can shoot water

and configuration of elevators is a major up to a height of 150 metres (that is over

decision because increasing the number 40 stories, so yes if you are reading this

of floors in a building leads to more article anywhere in India, the fountain

occupants who need more elevators to can drench you on your rooftop) is a

carry them, but elevators occupy a lot of technological marvel in itself.

valuable floor space and hence decreasing So you thought cleaning your windows was tough? The race to build the tallest and

occupancy potential. strongest includes the use of wind tun-

The Burj Khalifa, not surprisingly, imagine, it is dirty by the end of a cycle nels, material research which ironically

has the fastest elevator in the world and and the system is operated continuously. involves use of nano particles to form

can travel at a peak speed of 64 kmph – Horizontal tracks are fixed on the stable mega structures, sophisticated

faster than some of the first aircraft. At exterior via which small transport hubs digital monitoring systems, automated

this speed, you can descend more than move carrying workers and equipment, cranes and so on. As cities get ever more

4 stories in a single second. Even the when not in use they are tucked away out crowded the next natural step is to con-

relatively slow elevators in Taipei 101 can of sight to maintain aesthetics. The tracks struct building over 1 kilometre in height

transfer you from fifth to 89th floor in just are located on the level number 40, 73 and you might not have to hold your

37 seconds. and 1,009. Each track is equipped with a breath far too long for it since the Saudi

Most skyscrapers in order to save 1.5 tonne bucket machine which can slide Prince Al Waleed bin Talal is already on

space and increase capacity use double- over the tracks horizontally and then will the job.

deck elevators where via the same descend vertically using strong cables to

elevator shaft two floors are serviced at cover the whole building. If you don’t know why this is here,

the same time. Obvious disadvantages turn to page 109 to start playing

include increased travel time as passen- Aesthetics Digit’s Crack The Code contest

gers on both floors have to stop even if the A seemingly unimportant considera- 0111010001101000011010010110111

elevator needs to stop at only one floor. tion on the surface, but having the tallest 0011010110110010001101001011001

Burj Khalifa is also one of the few build- building in your country has become 1101101001011101000010111001100

ings in the world in which certain eleva- an issue of national pride. It is similar to 0110110111101101101001011110110

tors can be used for speedy evacuation hosting the Olympics or Commonwealth 0100001011110110001001101001011

in case of fire as opposed to conventional games and exhibits the technological and 0111001100001011100100111100100

scenarios where elevator operation is economic advancements of your nation. 1011010110100101110011001011010

stopped during fire. The building service/ The task of ensuring that such a symbol of 11001100111010101101110





56 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

160 kmph Race tracks

The speed at which it becomes possible for most F1 cars to In the Monaco Grand Prix, manhole covers had to be welded to

How stuff works drive upside down in tunnels, due to high downward forces avoid dislocation due to the downward force of the cars







There’s more to F1 cars

than powerful engines.

Aerodynamics, gravity

and smart design work

wonders on the track









F1 for speed

Mohamed Rameez the car, caused by gravity is the third in this direction was the realisation that

readersletters@thinkdigit.com force and acts in a downward direction, the weights of the cars could be further

to keep the car to the ground. A fourth, dropped (allowing them to become









T

he modern formula one (F1) very important force, is the aerodynami- lighter and hence faster), while the func-

race car has a lot in common cally created downward force, which tion that weight served, of keeping the

with an advanced jet fighter. acts more or less in the same direction as car pressed to the road during curves

A majority of these common the weight of the car, to keep it pressed and slopes, could be passed on to aero-

features come from the aerodynamic downward. In modern F1 cars, the down dynamic forces. The result of this line

considerations that go into its design. force can reach magnitudes as high as of thought was to fit wings onto F1 race

To truly understand aerodynamics in 3.5 times the weight of the car. cars. Though similar in many ways to

F1 cars, we’ll have to look at the various While the driver can vary thrust by aircraft wings (in their cross sectional

forces, aerodynamic and otherwise that changing gears and revving the engine, geometries), the wings in F1 race cars

act on an F1 race car (or for that matter, the weight is constant. The drag and are mounted upside down, (in a manner

any moving body in the atmosphere). downward force are largely a function of speaking) to create down force rather

One of the largest forces that act on an F1 of the speed of the car (and hence not than lift (the upward force that helps an

race car is its thrust - the driving force directly under the driver’s control). aircraft fly).

supplied by the engines, through the Alongside, the overall geometries of

wheels, that causes it to move forward Function of aerodynamics an aircraft were also altered to reduce

(acceleration). In an F1 race car, this In the 1960s, with stagnation in internal drag, so that the total force causing it to

force is often several fold greater combustion engine accelerate could be increased. The result

than regular cars, although the technologies (all path was rapid and explosive development

total weight is much lower than breaking developments in these sectors often leading to cata-

a road car. had already been made, strophic disasters, causing the racing

The second force, known as with further develop- regulatory authorities to follow up

drag, acts in the opposite direc- ments leading to only with strict regulations, in the interest of

tion to its motion (backward) minor refinements), new safety. The 1970 racing season witnessed

and is due to air resistance. A ways had to be explored a new set of regulations, on the size and

core function of aerodynamics Airflow over a Renault formula to improve the perform- location of wings in an F1 race car. Ever

in F1 race cars is to minimise 1 race car, generated using the ance of a race car. since, the aerodynamics have played a

this drag force. The weight of software Fluent 6 One of the first steps large, often pivotal role in F1 race car





58 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Car design F1 computation

A 10 per cent variation in down force leads to a difference of 2 seconds Some F1 teams design their cars using computational

in lap times, making it the most important factor in F1 car design power comparable to those of large aerospace firms How stuff works





design, characterised by regulations for

safety considerations, quickly followed

up by clever innovations by designers.

Today, the more popular F1 race cars

spend upwards of $100 million on aero-

dynamic design, with up to $50 million

spent on construction of wind tunnels, Flip ups on a Williams Formula 1 race car

much in the same way as the design of

modern aircraft.

Today, the core function of aerody-

namic considerations in the design of F1

race cars is to:

• Reduce drag, so that the forward acting

force, and acceleration can be maxim-

ised. Turning Vanes

• Increase down force, so that the car is air smoothly along the sides of the car, so

highly stable and can take tight cor- that turbulence and drag is minimised.

ners by hugging the ground.

Let us take a look at how it is imple- The Bargeboards

mented. The different aerodynamic Although these have been done away

components of an F1 race car are as with since 2009, the function of barge-

follows: boards when they existed earlier used

to guide the air sailing past the front

Wings wheels into the engine radiator intakes

The wings of an F1 race car are located for engine cooling.

near the nose and toward the rear While the above mentioned are the

are the most important aerodynamic most important individual aerodynamic

components of the car. Their function components, many smaller ones such

is to provide a downward force, that as flip ups, turning vanes and nose cone

causes the car to hug the ground. The holes exist over the geometry of the car

front and the rear wing together provide as per individual requirements. While

more than 50 per cent of the down force flip ups are controllable components

between them and hence play a crucial used to increase down force, a turning

role in stabilizing the car. In many cars, vane produces extra turning force by

these wings are movable by the driver, to redirecting airflow. Nose cone holes

a large extent, so that he has control over serve to reduce shock and hence drag.

what component of the down force is Apart from specific aerodynamic

provided by each one individually. components, almost every part of an F1

race car is designed with aerodynamic

The Diffuser considerations. The whole body is

A component found towards the rear designed to act like an air foil, providing

bottom of the car, it is curved slightly further down force. Engine intakes and

upward and functions to reduce the exhausts are designed to avoid tur-

turbulence in the airflow below the car. bulence. Even the wheel surfaces are

The final effect is that the airflow below designed to avoid turbulence.

the car, being less turbulent than the Formula 1 race car aerodynamics has

one above, is now at a higher speed, and been a constant race of one-upmanship

hence lower pressure (Bernoulli’s prin- between the regulators, with safety

ciple by which aircraft wings create lift). concerns in mind and the designers who

This causes the car to hug the track (due immediately come up with clever innova-

to more downward force). tions to avoid reduction in aerodynamic

performance. With neither side likely to

End Plates give up anytime soon, we can expect a lot

The end plates, found perpendicular to in the way of development in F1 race car

the front wings at both sides guide the aerodynamics in the future.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 59

Netbook test Bazaar

Tried & Tested 66 We’ve looked at some of the most popular netbooks

this month. Find out which one suits you 72 Exciting gadgets and gizmos

reviewed this month







Storage is no

longer about

boring boxes.

There’s style as Appetite for

consumption

well as perform-

ance. We’ve

tested a whole

range of external

storage solutions

this month









Nimish Sawant to their previous generation bounds. Not only does it viduals with heavy data storage

nimish.sawant@thinkdigit.com counterparts. Form factors are improve portability, it also requirements. With more and

also reducing with the passing makes a lot of economical sense more people archiving their









G

one are the days of time. The comparatively to have some sort of external files digitally be it music, docu-

when external bulkier desktop hard drives hard drive for purposes like ments, photographs or videos,

memory devices are now available in stylish backing up important data. the market for external hard

were boring to rectangular cases. drives will always be on the

look at. They’ve now become With digital data encom- Portable hard drives rise. None of the portable hard

a lifestyle product of sorts passing all aspects of our life, Unlike internal storage devices, drives required any external

with companies trying to the need for storage other with portable hard drives even power connection.

outdo each other not only in than the static internal hard form factor and design aspects We got around nine compact

increased capacity, but also drive has risen. With memory matter. This segment comprised drives to test in this category.

improved aesthetics. Portable becoming cheaper as time compact, sleek and stylish hard Western Digital’s (WD) Passport

drives are getting more com- passes, the storage capacity drives that provide portability series of external hard drives all

pact and sleek as compared has improved by leaps and which is very important for indi- have a similar design. We tested





60 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Eye-Fi = memory + Wi-fi World’s first

Eye-fi SD cards are Wi-Fi enabled letting you print photos, transfer music, Silicon Power ups the ante, cramming 128GB

upload videos to YouTube, all without connecting a single cable into a 400x Compact flash card Tried & Tested









Photography: Jiten Gandhi

Imaging: Vijay Padaya





the 500 GB WD Passport Essen- the drive more stability. An come with an inbuilt software drive has an interesting form

tial, 500 GB WD Passport Elite interesting aspect of this drive called WD SmartWare which factor in the sense that unlike

and 750 GB WD Pass- is the capacity gauge lets users password protect their other drives, it has cornered

port Essential SE. The which shows the amount drives as well as automatically edges. Due to the white glossy

Essential series is rather of free space inside the backup data. Visual animation, finish, the drive tend to be slip-

squarish as compared to drive. All the WD drives showing the transfer in process pery, so care needs to be taken.

FEBRUARY 2010

others. The 750 GB hard is an interesting feature. The presence of FireWire 400

drive is thicker than its The interface for all the and FireWire 800 port give the

500GB counterpart. The WD hard drives including WD’s drive two additional interfaces

Passport Elite comes in metallic drives is the same ie. mini- to transfer data.

red colour with a USB dock, USB. Only the Iomega eGo The other Iomega drive is

unlike all the other drives. We hard drive has two FireWire the 250 GB Iomega Prestige.

feel that a USB stand is just a interfaces in addition to the It has a brushed metal finish

gimmick and doesn’t really mini-USB port. with the Iomega logo embossed

help much apart from giving The 300GB Iomega eGo onto it. A tiny slit in the centre



Transcend StoreJet 25M

Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 61

Realising the CES dream Lightning fast

Sony releases TransferJet, a wireless Memory Stick Light Peak is Intel’s codename for a optical technology

Storage test showcased at CES 2010 that can trasnfer data at speeds upto 10 Gbps



FEBRUARY 2010



PORTABLE HARD DRIVES



BRAND WD WD WD BUFFALO TRANSCEND IOMEGA IOMEGA SEAGATE A-DATA

My Passport My Passport My Passport Prestige

Model Name MiniStation StoreJet 25M eGo FreeAgent Go Nobility

Essential SE Elite Essential Portable



WDBAB- WDBAAC- WDBAAA5 HD-PX 320/ ST905003

Model Number TS500GSJ25M LPHD-UP RPHD-TG NH92

M7500ABK 5000ARD-NESN 000ABK-NESN BK-AP FAA2E1-RK



Price (Rs.) Rs. 10,999 Rs. 6,999 Rs. 7,249 Rs. 9,000 Rs. 4,350 Rs. 3,199 Rs. 3,899 Rs. 5,500 Rs. 2,900



Features

HDD capacity (GB) 697.98 465.11 465.11 297.48 465.76 232.88 298.09 465.76 298.09



Interface USB 2.0 USB 2.0 USB 2.0 USB 2.0 USB 2.0 USB 2.0 USB 2.0 / FireWire USB 2.0 USB 2.0



Rotational Speed (RPM) 5400 5400 5400 5400 5400 5400 5400 5400 5400

Buffer Size (MB) 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8 8

Performance 76.39 75.81 72.36 72.41 78.74 74.92 77.45 67.61 78.68

Synthetic Tests

HD Tach 3.0.1.0 (8 MB file)

Average Read (MBps) 34.4 29.6 30.9 35 33.2 34.9 34.9 / 39.7 28 32.8

Average Write (MBps) 24.3 24.3 23 25.3 30.2 30.6 25.9 / 5.4 23.9 30.6

CPU Utilisation (%) 6 4 2 3 4 6 4/1 4 5

Random Access Time (ms) 17.3 16.4 16.9 26.5 18 15.9 18.4 / 18.8 21.8 17.1

Read Burst Speed (MBps) 35.1 35.2 37.7 36.2 36.2 35.3 35.2 / 42.1 30.6 37.7

HD Tach 3.0.1.0 (32 MB file)

Average Read (MBps) 34.9 34.9 34.9 34.9 33.1 34.9 34.8 / 39.7 28 32.8

Average Write (MBps) 27.6 27.5 27.7 29.2 30.5 30.8 29 / 5.4 25.2 30.6

CPU Utilisation (%) 5 4 4 4 4 5 4/2 4 6

Random Access Time (ms) 17.3 16.4 17 23.1 18.1 15.8 18.4 / 18.7 22.1 17.1

Read Burst Speed (MBps) 35.2 35.1 37.4 35.1 35.2 35.3 35.2 / 42.2 31 35.3

SiSoft Sandra 2010

Drive Index, Read (MBps) 33 31.4 31.7 33 31.59 32.6 33 / 41.27 26.83 31.2

Access Time, read (ms) 15.36 16.1 13 20 14 15.4 18.52 / 18.66 16.42 13.33

Drive Index, Write (MBps) 27.28 26.11 24 29.26 28.52 29.15 29 / 27 25.8 28.24

Access time, write (ms) 3.81 7.28 5.63 4.6 4.18 7 5.42 / 7.7 8.58 23.27

Real World Tests (MBps)

File Write 8 GB Single File 30.80 30.34 26.95 28.25 31.27 31.51 31.03 / 29.47 26.09 31.51



File Write Test Assorted 8 GB File 27.31 27.13 24.09 22.02 29.47 29.47 28.24 / 27.31 25.92 28.44



Read Test Single 8 GB File 32.51 32.51 32.51 32.51 30.80 32.51 32 / 40.96 26.77 32.51

Read Test Assorted 8 GB File 30.80 30.57 30.57 31.27 29.68 31.51 31.26 / 38.64 25.76 31.51

Photoshop CS2 (1 GB File, in

83 81 86 82 72 116 79 / 150 83 74

seconds)





indicates the power and data This means that the drive is very haven’t tested this aspect so we A mini USB interface connects

transfer modes. The Prestige is rugged and can still protect the would recommend that you it to the computer.

very similar in its form factor to data even after being dropped don’t try this out). It comes with The Buffalo Mini Station

Transcend’s StoreJet. or driven over (How- ever we a bright orange rubber strip 320GB drive scores high in

Transcend’s StoreJet 25M running around the drive. It the looks department. We got

hard drive that we tested comes has a one touch backup button a white colored drive which

with a capacity of 500GB. This on one corner. It comes with has a plastic body with glossy

drive has a rubberized body and bundled software which is not finish on one side and a matte

is US Military Standard tested. Iomega Prestige really required for installation. finish on the other side. A blue

Portable



62 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

VAIO Z HP’s Envy

Sony to upgrade its VAIO Z with Core HP announces shipment of Envy15 series laptop

i7 and four solid state devices which have inbuilt Superspeed USB 3.0 ports



FEBRUARY 2010 FEBRUARY 2010



light keeps glowing when the DESKTOP HARD DRIVES

drive is connected to the system. BRAND WD WD Buffalo Seagate

It has a flat wraparound USB Model Name My Book Studio My Book Elite Drive Station FreeAgent Desk

cable which is quite useful in the

Model Number WDBAAJ0010HSL-NESN WDBAAH0010HCH-NESN HD HX 1.0TU3-AP ST310005FDA2E1-RK

sense that the user does not have

Price (Rs.) Rs.9,999 Rs.9,249 Rs.18,000 Rs. 5,750

to always remember to carry the

connecting USB cable. A USB Features

extension wire is also bundled HDD capacity (GB) 930.86 930.86 931.51 931.51

in to provide additional flex- Interface USB 2.0 / FireWire USB 2.0 USB 3.0 / USB 2.0 USB 2.0

ibility to using the hard drive. Rotational Speed (RPM) 7200 7200 7200 7200

The 320 GB A-DATA Nobility

Buffer Size (MB) 32 32 32 32

NH42, is the slimmest drive we

Performance 32.02 35.46 87.57 30.07

tested (12 mm). It comes with a

leather pouch, and since its mini Synthetic Tests

USB port is on its top edge, it can HD Tach 3.0.1.0 (8 MB file)

be used while placed within the Average Read (MBps) 29.2 / 33.1 32.9 115.5 / 35 30.8

pouch as well.

Average Write (MBps) 24.5 / 25.1 25.5 77.1 / 28.1 25.3

Seagate's FreeAgent Go

CPU Utilisation (%) 5/1 4 1/7 5

series of 500 GB portable hard

drives comes in as many as six Random Access Time (ms) 15.4 / 15 14.7 13.7 / 13.8 12.8



colours. We tested the black Read Burst Speed (MBps) 36.3 / 41.6 35.2 126.3 / 35.2 32

coloured portable hard drive HD Tach 3.0.1.0 (32 MB file)

having a brushed metal finish. Average Read (MBps) 34.5 / 40.3 34.3 115.5 / 34.9 30.6

It is perforated on one end and a

Average Write (MBps) 23.8 / 29.3 28.2 90.1 / 29.6 27.8

series of white lights underneath

CPU Utilisation (%) 5/1 5 4/6 6

illuminate and pulsate under-

neath while the drive is working. Random Access Time (ms) 15.5 / 15 14.9 13.6 / 13.8 12.8

Read Burst Speed (MBps) 35.2 / 41.7 40.4 126.2 / 35.2 32.8

Performance SiSoft Sandra 2010

Performance was divided into

Drive Index, Read (MBps) 32 / 40.15 36.2 111.43 / 33 29.4

two parts namely synthetic

Access Time, read (ms) 9.35 / 10.22 9.24 13.12 / 13.5 12.63

testing and real life testing. In

synthetic testing we tested the Drive Index, Write (MBps) 27 / 30.36 29.7 95.86 / 29 28



hard drives on HD Tach and Access time, write (ms) 2.6 / 6.37 0.24 0.02 / 0.01 4.36

SiSoft Sandra 2010 to check Real World Tests (MBps)

the average read/write speeds File Write 8 GB Single File 30.11 / 33.85 32.51 91.02 / 31.75 29.90

and access time.

File Write Test Assorted 8 GB File 25.6 / 30.57 29.90 77.28 / 29.68 27.68

The HD Tach reading for

Read Test Single 8 GB File 32.25 / 40.55 35.93 99.90 / 32.25 27.68

most of the drives were close,

with read speeds between 31 Read Test Assorted 8 GB File 30.79 / 39.01 34.13 93.09 / 30.8 26.95

MBps and 35 MBps whereas Photoshop CS2 (1 GB File, in seconds) 75 / 67 68 37 / 71.8 88

writing speeds averaged 26

MBps to 28 MBps. However, the FireWire interface gave 139 seconds as compared to 186 Desktop WD My Book Studio

having said that Iomega the maximum read- seconds taken by the Buffalo hard drives

ings in all other benchmarks. Mini Station. We got four

The real mettle of the port- The Adobe Photoshop CS2 hard disk

able hard drives is tested in a real image opened the quickest in the drives in this

FEBRUARY 2010

world data transfer scenario. We Transcend StoreJet 25M at 72 category,

found that Transcend StoreJet seconds leaving behind even the each having a

25M and Iomega Prestige gave FireWire interface of the Iomega capacity of 1

the lowest time for a 4GB sequen- drive at 150 seconds. TeraByte. This

tial write operation at 130 sec- Iomega eGo’s FireWire port category gener-

onds. The 4 GB assorted file was doesn’t add value to the perform- ally comprises

also written at fast speeds by the ance as was expected in the real bulky hard

A-DATA Nobility NH92 same two drives, both clocking world data transfer cases. drives in which





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 63

Faster data And some more

SDXC cards have a data transfer rate of Transcend’s JetFlash 600 pen drive has read speeds

Storage test 300 MBps and can go up to 2 TB of 32 MBps and write speeds of 18 MBps





HOW WE TESTED

an external power connection

is mandatory for the drive to We divided the external hard Buffalo drive had a USB 3.0 inter- run on the minimum Windows

work. In addition to this all the drives into two main parts based face unlike all the other drives which Vista settings. - All benchmarks

three drives were very impres- on the portability and size, namely had USB 2.0 interfaces. were run on Windows Vita with

sive on the aesthetic aspect. Portable Hard Drives and Desktop External drives are meant to system restore and paging file

Silver bodied WD My Book Hard Drives. Portable Drives com- give impressive read / write speeds fixed to 4 GB.

Studio has an almost circular prised compact drives most of when connected to the system, so In data transfer tests we fol-

front panel with a pin hole which did not have an external the theoretical benchmarks used lowed three test processes. File

which shows the power light. power connector whereas Desktop in the comparison tests were HD Writing for a 4 GB sequential and

An impressive aspect about drives comprised drives which were Tach and SiSoft Sandra 2010. HD assorted file; File reading for a 4

this product is the e-ink display comparitively bigger in size and Tach measures the performance GB sequential and assorted file

on the front panel which gauges had an external power connector. of external drives by bypassing as and a Photoshop image loading.

the capacity of the hard drive. It The hardware setup was made many software as possible. This To simulate a write test we copied

also displays other information up of an ASUS P5Q3 motherboard helps in giving read/write speeds, files from the HDD to the external

like the name of the HDD, type with an Intel Core 2 QX9650 proc- CPU utilization and random access drive and vice versa. To prevent

of data and number of files. On essor, 4 GB Corsair Dominator times as well as interface burst giving drives an undue advantage

the rear it has two firewire ports, DDR3 RAM, 300GB WD Velociraptor speed. Both the HD Tach and SiSoft while reading due to the caching

a USB port and power button. hard disk drive and GeForce 7300LE Sandra tests require an unfor- process, we rebooted the system

This drive has vents on the top, graphics card. The power was sup- matted drive to perform the Write after completing the Write and

rear and the bottom to allow heat plied by Corsair HX620. This setup testing. After finishing with these then the Read operations. Adobe

dissipation. The metal body is was maintained throughout the two benchmarks we formatted and Photoshop CS2 was used to test the

quite sturdy. tests except for Buffalo 1 TB drive. divided the external hard drives amount of time taken to load a 1GB

WD's My Book Elite is very While testing this drive only an into two partitions of equal size. image. The scratch disk was placed

similiar to My Book Studio in interface card was added as this All the benchmark processes were on the external drive.

appearance and has vents on the

top, rear and bottom side of

the hard drive. This drive CONTACT DETAILS

however does not have a Brand Contact Phone E-mail Web site

Firewire port. Seagate Fortune Marketing +91-11-2641 4468 sales@fortune-it.com www.fortune-it.com

On connecting both Western Digital Western Digital Corp - amarjeet.singh@wdc.com www.wdc.com

the WD My Book Studio Transcend Transcend Information Inc +91-33-2213 1221-23 coordinator@supertronindia.com www.transcend.co.in

and WD My Book Elite,

Iomega EMC Company 1-800-180 2237 - www.iomega.com

the WD SmartWare soft-

Buffalo Buffalo Technology Inc +91-11-4153 8059 b-milinda@melcoinc.co.jp www.buffalotech.com

ware starts automatically.

This software allows the A-DATA A-DATA Technology Co. Ltd +886-2-8228 0886 jerry_lu@adata.com.tw www.adata-group.com



user to name the external

drive and password Backup and Retrieve options. gate comes in a silver brush sipation. The glossy finish looks

protect it. It also has smart A very interesting feature is metal finish with a stand. It has smashing, though it tends to col-

the backup option. On clicking a power input and a mini USB lect a lot of dust and definitely

on the Backup tab, we get a connection on the rear end. not suited to Indian conditions.

graphical representation of the The Buffalo DriveStation

available data on our system 1 TB hard drive, was the only Performance

drives (default C:) divided into one with a USB 3.0 interface The external hard drives have a

FEBRUARY 2010

6 options like system, pictures, (with almost triple data transfer buffer size that is much greater

documents, music, movies and speeds as compared to USB 2.0). than the portable hard drives

others. For quick backups, It comes in a black glossy body. (32 MB as opposed to 8 MB

the user just has to select the A silver line runs through the of portable hard drives), as a

desired option and click Run front panel with a blue light on result of which one gets a much

Backup. The transfer starts top indicating power in the USB better performance. But this

which can be seen visually. 3.0 mode and a green glow in performance comes at the cost

However, there is no option to USB 2.0 mode. of portability.

select individual folders for We used the Buffalo USB 3.0 WD’s My Book Elite gave a

this purpose. interface card for PCI Express to marginally better performance

FreeAgent Desk, the 1 TB conduct the test. It has a vent on with average read and write

Buffalo DriveStation external hard drive from Sea- the rear side to allow heat dis- speeds. But when the WD My





64 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

IPv6?

With less than 10 per cent IPv4 addresses

left, we need to move to IPv6







Book Studio was connected via the

FireWire interface, it gave a better

performance than the WD Elite. FEBRUARY 2010

This can be attributed to the fact that

FireWire has comparatively larger

data transfer speeds as compared to

USB 2.0 interface.

The Buffalo Drive Station on the

other hand was in an altogether dif-

ferent league with the USB 3.0 inter-

face. As boasted on the cover of the

hard drive, the USB 3.0 interface

indeed gave us three times faster per-

formance as compared to the USB

2.0 interface. Where the read burst

speed for the FireWire interface of WD

Studio tallied to 41.6 MBps, that of Buf-

falo zoomed to 126.2 MBps, a three-fold

jump in the readings. Same was true Seagate FreeAgent Desk 1TB

for write speeds as well.

True performance is however USB 3.0 interface which can be

tested in real life tests like data brought separately. The one that we

transfer speeds. Between the WD used costs around Rs. 4,500 which

Studio and WD Elite, for a USB 2.0 is quite an investment.

interface, Elite gave a better perform-

ance. It took less time to read / write Conclusion

and open the 1 GB Photoshop file. But In the desktop hard drives, we found

using the firewire port on WD Studio that the Buffalo DriveStation zoomed

dwarfs the WD Elite scores. There with its high data transfer speeds.

is a 15-20 per cent improvement in But as it was the only USB 3.0 com-

performance when a FireWire port is patible drive, we haven’t used it as

used on the WD Studio as compared a reference point for portable hard

to the USB 2.0 ports. drive testing. We felt that for users

The Buffalo drive was a winner in who are willing to spend and who

the synthetic tests, so it was expected expect quick data transfer, Buffalo

to be a winner in the real life tests as DriveStation is the ideal drive to go

well. If the numbers are anything to for. Although for Rs 18,000, we feel

go by, then USB 3.0 is going to be the its steeply priced but its performance

next thing to watch out for. As the is unmatched. Regular home users

capacity of the drives increases it wanting a better cost per GB, should

only makes sense to increase the data go for our Best Buy – Seagate Desk

transfer speeds. USB 3.0 interface is Agent priced at Rs. 7,500.

a start in that direction. Among the portable hard drives,

A sequential 4GB file took 41 Transcend StoreJet 25M was the

secs and 45 secs for a read and write fastest drive. A-DATA Nobility gave

operation respectively. This is nearly 90 per cent of the performance of

a 60 per cent improvement from the Transcend at a very minimal price

fastest firewire port of WD Studio. of Rs 2,900, so we felt it deserved the

As far as transfer speeds go, there Best Buy.

was simply no competition to Buf- If you’re looking at buying

falo Drive Station. But when we external hard drive, low cost per GB

interfaced the Drive station with a is one necessity, but that should not

USB 2.0 port we got results similiar be the only aspect as data transfer

to the rest of the drives. So to get a speeds also need to be considered.

performance, users need to use the Happy shopping!





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 65

Hexa-core soon GW990 smartphone

Intel’s new six-core processor, the Core i7 980X LG shows off the GW990 smartphone which is

Netbook test looks all set to break records powered by the Atom processor and runs Moblin







Choosing the right

netbook isn’t as

easy as it seems. We

feature the hottest

netbooks you can

buy in this two-part

test. You can read

part two online at

www.thinkdigit.

com/d/netbook_test



hardware. Therefore a netbook

is a tradeoff of sorts, fortunately

it’s good at what it’s supposed

to do. Brands like Intel, AMD

Photography: Jiten Gandhi









and NVIDIA are working on

making netbook hardware

more powerful and this should

happen over the next year or

so, but the notion of playing a

game like Crysis on a netbook is

so ridiculous, don’t even think

of it for at least another three

years!

We’ve split up our netbook







Small Surfers

test into two cohesive writeups

– the first part consisting of

seven netbooks, is what follows

here on.



Michael Browne CPU. NVIDIA has a solution screen means a small footprint MSI U130

michael.browne@thinkdigit.com that hasn’t seen many takers in and lower weight. This, in turn, Of sails and wind

the Ion – a combination of Intels is the darling of many a traveller Short of height and of wide









T

hey were always Atom processor and NVIDIAs who wishes to be connected at girth, is how we’d like to

cheap, but netbooks own 9400M northbridge. all times. A netbook is lighter describe the U130. Its foot-

have become mun- NVIDIA is also threatening to than nearly all notebooks and print is small, thanks to the

dane enough to enter the netbook space with much cheaper; very conven- 10-inch display, however,

be compared to cellphones. their Tegra range and in lieu ient for most cadres of people it could have been smaller.

Why? – Nearly everybody has of all the above, netbooks have including businessmen, col- Although any smaller and the

one, and those that need one gotten much needed variety in lege goers, travelling executives keypad would have become

have no dearth of choice. Of terms of hardware. Intel’s own and almost anyone wanting the unnecessarily cramped, as it

course the hardware found in Pinetrail debuted recently. For internet with a bit of documents is it’s barely usable. The U130

netbooks isn’t as diverse as in those not in the loop, Pinetrail and spreadsheets thrown in. is squat though, unnecessarily

their faster, bulkier cousins, is nothing more than a new However the small screen is a so, thanks to the absence of any

notebooks, and some might version of the Atom CPU, inte- turnoff for many. After all, eve- sort of streamlining of the body

feel that keypad and screen grating a memory controller, rything is moving to a visual on MSIs part and an extruding

size aside, there are very few DMI link and GMA 3150 interface and everyone likes battery pack. It feels pretty

differences. Well, this was true graphics core. a large screen. Multimedia is solid and the plastics used

until a few months back. AMD Initially netbooks typically also a big no on a netbook, the are pretty thick and without

entered the netbook space early featured 10-inch displays and weak hardware being the cul- flex, unlike some flimsier

last year; followed by VIA (now this underlies both, one of the prit here. So games, HD movies stuff we’ve seen in the past. A

that’s a name we haven’t heard major plus points and pitfalls and multitasking is simply too glossy black lid embossed with

in some time!) with their Nano that plague them. The small much of a strain for such paltry fine dark grey lines is nothing





66 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

TSMC going 28nm Ion2 coming finally?

TSMC claims that their 40nm fabrication is over its NVIDIA’s Ion2 based netbooks rumoured

teething troubles and are preparing a 28nm fab to launch in Q2 2010 Netbook test





special, but there’s something The control key on the left sumption, even though MSI a netbook much slimmer than

about the overall effect that is is not the corner key – an ergo- cheated a bit by sending us a 6 the U130 and the design sees

nice. MSI follows the glossy nomic goof up many netbook cell battery. The U130 is gener- the battery pack protruding

lid with a smooth black finish vendors are guilty of, and one ally available with a 3 cell; the from the rear, which is better

inside which as a whole, other that there is just no getting 6 cell being optional. We were when using the device, but may

than its thickness the U130 isn’t used to. The speakers exhibit a able to get over five and half not be better when carting it

too bad looking. As mentioned, complete lack of bass; in fact LF hours – not bad at all. Shock- around. The lid is glossy and

the bezel will not appeal to our sounds are missed for the most ingly, this tiny netbook chalked has a thin grey-silver bezel

slim-everything loving genera- part. The webcamera despite its up the highest 3D Mark scores, running around it that when

tion. Under the lid, the left/right impressive rating of 1.3 meg- including the CPU score, a tes- viewed from the top disappears

click is a single strip and while apixels is pretty ordinary, but tament to its new innards. Inci- into the front of the lid. This

dentally, the model we received insert provides a welcome relief

did not have support for a SIM, from the body that is otherwise

although this is optional. entirely plain. Build quality is

Rs. 23,000 may seem like good and the materials used

a lot to pay for a netbook, but seem good. The lid clips have

such is always the case with a garish chrome trim that is a

new hardware. Expect a price glaring contrast to the suave-

drop within the next five ness of the overall design, but

MSI U130 months as competing models it only looks garish from the

also incorporate Pinetrail. inside. The bezel is a little too

However, MSI can do a lot more wide, especially on the top – the

in the looks department; for only spoiler for the otherwise

when blowing close to 23,000 good design. As mentioned, the

rupees on a netbook, we expect battery pack protrudes out the

a bit of glitz. rear but doesn’t add much to

the height of the device.

small, it is easy to use, though better than the other 0.3-meg- Gateway LT2002I Open her up and the Blue-

the button feels unnecessarily apixel units out there. Just Entry to mediocrity tooth button sitting amid the

clicky. The choice of material make sure you use it in well- Gateway has tried to impart status indicator LEDs is wel-

on the trackpad is good for illuminated surroundings. the LT2002I with a slightly come, though a Wi-Fi button

accurate tracking and there is Finding Windows 7 Starter different look. The outcome is may have been more useful.

a great balance between grip Edition was a nice surprise,

and slip; the mouse buttons as was the performance in

are a bit hard to press. The the Wi-Fi test. DisplayMate

keys are slightly smaller than trashes the screen. At 1024 x

what is considered comfort- 600 pixels, a product highlight

able. Key spacing is a little on it is not. Brightness levels are

the skimpy side. To be honest okay, but the colour and con-

notebook, users will struggle to trast is very minimal. The

adjust.Unfortunately it seems a resolution might be a problem

larger surface area on the top of for hardcore internet-junkies.

each key would have helped, Note that the U130 is based on

instead MSI chose to have keys the new Pinetrail platform and

with sloping sides – meaning this makes it a frugal performer

a lot of potential contact area when it comes to power con- Gateway LT2002I

between your fingerpads and

the keypad is missing. Towards CONTACT DETAILS

the right side on the bottom Brands Contact E-mail Phone Web site

edge of the palmrest is a group Acer / Gateway Acer India (Pvt) Ltd dinesh_nair@acer.co.in +91-80-4070 8700 www.acer.co.in

of LED indicators. There are no ASUS Mr. Stanley Wu media_india@asus.com +91-22-6766 8800 www.asus.in

shortcut keys and the power BenQ Neoteric Infomatique Ltd. sales@neoteric.co.in +91-22-4085 9600 www.neoteric.co.in

button feels clicky, thankfully MSI Micro-Star Int’l Co.,Ltd. marketing@msi-in.com +91-11-4175 8808 http://in.msi.com

it’s black – no garish chrome HCL HCL Technologies Ltd. NA +91-120-4203122 www.hclinfosystems.in

here. Zenith Zenith Computers Ltd info@zenith-india.com +91-22-2837 7300 www.zenithpc.com







Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 67

Free OVI maps Apple + Microsoft?

Nokia has started to offer free versions of their OVI GPS This has got to be a something special – rumours abound that

Netbook test navigation tool with their smartphones that two rivals may finally team up to take on Google’s Android







The tiny trackpad has a neat this one a segregated keypad

chrome trim, more impor- that will catch your attention.

tantly, it is pretty usable with It’s a good looker but doesn’t

good tracking and the mouse function as well – the keys are

buttons are decent, better than slightly smaller than we’d like,

MSI’s U130, with slightly better and although key spacing is

feedback; they’re bigger as well. fine, the whole setup feels a

The Function keys are smallish, little unintuitive while typing.

and people with big fingers will Larger keys next time ASUS

need to get used to them. The ASUS Eee PC is all we can say. Then there’s

rest of the keypad elicits mixed 1201HA the mushy feedback, and this

reactions, for while the left con- completes the suspicion that

trol button is well positioned ASUS was trying to achieve a

and the keys appear large, they Sony-like feel to their keypad,

are actually smaller than the since Sony uses the same segre-

U130 and the spacing is also gated design and soft keys. The

a bit less. We feel the U130 is in a pure glossy black. While sleek look, with designeresque trackpad is reasonably accu-

the smallest keys can get and glossy black finishes are a curves and edges. The display rate; but a royal pain. It has tiny

still retain some usability for all dime-a-dozen these days the is also pretty good, and at 12.1- dimples that immediately earn

but the lady-fingered, pardon 1201HA looks hot, but not as inches it’s larger than typical our distaste. They are abrasive

the expression. The problem hot as the pure white version, netbooks and gloriously view- to the fingerpads and very

here is the fact that as a keypad at the expense of sounding able. The screen resolution is uncomfortable, and will bother

becomes smaller, the size of the colour prejudiced, which we 1366 x 768 pixels – not bad. the heck out of you, unless

keys suddenly becomes dispro- are! And she’s slim as well; The thick bezel will bother you’re a manual labourer. The

portionately important. Take ASUS has managed a very some, but ASUS has given dedicated trackpad disable

a much larger keypad, say one

on Apple’s Macbook Pro and HOW WE TESTED

even if the keys were 10 per

cent closer or further from each Netbooks need no segrega- For performance we used was used to test the speed of

other, the usability wouldn’t get tion because fundamentally PC Mark 05 and 3D Mark 05 the wireless component. Our

affected much. Gateway needs the hardware stays the same. as our primary benchmarks. PC battery test involves using VLC

to improve their keypad design. The price points do differ, but Mark, with its suite of 48 tests, player to loop a .VOB file using

The screen resolution is the difference is typically never gives a good idea of overall and full inbuilt speaker volume and

1024 x 600 pixels, pretty more than Rs. 5,000. We logged individual performance of each maximum screen brightness.

much the norm for a 10.1-inch all the specifications of each component. 3D Mark 05 gives Every power saving feature is

display, but we cannot help but netbook and awarded points us an idea of the performance disabled making this somewhat

complain each time we see this. for the hard drive size, choice of the CPU and graphic sub- of a torture test for the battery.

Performance was nothing out- of bundled OS, number of USB systems. SiSoft Sandra 2010 For our music test, we used a

standing or complain-worthy, ports and other ports and con- Engineer was also used to test couple of MP3s encoded at 320

the LT2002I is pretty much at nectivity provided. each individual component. KBps. For the webcamera test

par with other netbooks. Sur- We also rated the build Our real world tests included a we took a couple of shots, one

prisingly, it fared badly in the quality of the netbook, the couple of CPU tests – WinRAR in dim conditions, one under

Wi-Fi transfer test, although it usability and intutiveness of 3.9b and a .vob to .divx file fluorescent lighting and took an

uses an Atheros 802.11 chipset, the keypad, trackpad and any encoding test. We also stress average of both scores.

as do all the other netbooks. shortcut buttons. We took into tested the hard drive by doing an We did not award a Best

The LT2002I does have a 6-cell consideration how comfortable intra drive copy from one parti- Performer Award simply

battery; this allows its battery the whole experience of using tion to the other. We tested both because there isn’t much to

to go over four hours in our bat- the netbook was, how suitable sequential and random read/ choose from in terms of this

tery test. the keypad was to people with writes and the scores are dis- parameter and people will not

both small and large hands – an played in megabytes per second simply buy a netbook because it

ASUS Eee PC important parameter especially (MBps). The quality of the inbuilt is 10 seconds faster at encoding

1201HA considering ergonomics is of speakers and webcamera were videos. Please look for our

Shiny lover utmost important with smaller tested with a subjective test. detailed tables online at www.

The 1201HA is neat looking to sized keypads. Finally Performance Mark 7.0 thinkdigit.com/d/feb_tables.

say the least and it’s finished





68 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Call of Duty : IBM blossoming

Modern Warfare 2 makes over $1 IBM has just released Lotus Notes for Apple’s

billion in sales iPhone, Google’s Android is next Netbook test





button is a nice addition and of equipment to behold, but matte black insert just above

is useful, since the trackpad once you begin using it some the keypad spoils the visual

isn’t recessed. chinks in its armour become effect, once you flip the lid. The

It’s size belies the hardware noticeable. If you are looking keypad while small has decent

and a 1.33 GHz Atom Z520 is for a larger screen however, it key spacing. Overall, people

puny indeed, especially since is worth a look. used to a slightly larger keypad

given the larger screen, ASUS will have problems adjusting. In

had more space to shoehorn Zenith Z Book Dock comparison, the Acer 532h has a

some higher performing Docked for success similar footprint but the keypad

goodies in. In testament to Zenith isn’t the first brand that is a lot better – not only are the

the weak processor, the video comes to mind when it comes to keys larger, they feel better

encoding scores were the netbooks but we have a surprise spaced out. Once measured,

lowest, taking just 12 seconds package on our hands. The Z we found the distance between

short of three minutes. It was Book is a pretty neat looking keys to be the same, but due to

also the second last in the netbook with a glossy finished the design our fingers perceived

Wi-Fi test. Not an impressive lid. The inside is a smooth tex- a greater distance between

show at all. But hey! – people ture that imparts a quality feel. keys on the Acer. The mouse

don’t buy netbooks for their The lid is designed similar to buttons are vertically stacked,

performance, do they? The the Gateway LT2002I, but is of on either side of the trackpad. Zenith Z Book Dock

2 GB of DDR2 RAM makes much better quality. The net- To be honest this design isn’t

booting up and surfing quite book is pretty slim and feels too bad, but it takes a fair bit of miles ahead in terms of com-

snappy, and this is the only quite compact and the build getting used to before it can be fort if compared to the ASUS

other netbook aside from the quality seems good. The lid termed as intuitive. The keypad 1201HA.

MSI U130 to feature Windows closes with a nice positive snap. tracking is erratic though, def- The Z Book has a nice dock

7 Starter. Priced at Rs. 23,990, The bezel isn’t too narrow and initely not as accurate as the that stands the notebook ver-

the 1201HA is a lovely piece this along with the textured other netbooks, although it’s tically where it occupies a









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Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 69

Fish armour? New is hot

MIT scientists have created designs for better Valve reveals that 23 per cent of their

armour, inspiration from which is derived from customers are running Windows 7

Netbook test the shells of molluscs and DX 11







minimal footprint and while portion. The display bezel is and there has to be one – its documents is actually some-

docked the notebook manages a narrow. The trackpad, while price. At Rs. 33,000 the Joy- thing we got pretty accus-

look of chic sophistication. The small, is reasonably accurate book Lite U121 Eco, will not be tomed to – something that

dock features all the connects though the mouse buttons feel a joyful proposition to spend didn’t happen with any of the

of the notebook, including a a little clicky. The keypad is on, particularly since the likes other netbooks. Initally the

VGA connect which will need slightly bigger than the U130, of Acer’s Timeline series are lack of beveling feels alien to

to be used since the lid needs obviously, owing to the larger priced similarly and they have the fingers, but after about an

to be closed in order to use the screen (11.6-inches), and this better hardware and will obvi- hour ones typing speed picks

dock. On the box Ubuntu 8.04 makes it much easier to use, ously perform better as well. up. The display resolution is a

is mentioned, but we got ours even more than the ASUS’ Not recommended for the price paltry 1024 x 600, the de facto

with a clean copy of Windows keypad, despite the fact that tag, which is astronomical by resolution for this size, but the

XP. Do remember that the cost it had a larger screen. Key netbook standards. display has marginally better

of an additional OS has to be feedback is reasonably posi- colour rendition than some

considered. The 10.1-inch tive and feedback is firm, the Acer 532H-2Bb of the other displays in this

screen is pretty ordinary and keys are also well laid out. The Beauty needn’t be skin test. The trackpad

at 1024 x 600 pixels, it’s very last row of keys on the right deep is larger

basic. At Rs. 20,000 its at a has the Home/ page up / page A beautiful netbook, one look at

sweet price point. down keys, typically placed as the two-tone cover will have

function-activated keys on the you going “Oh my”! The

BenQ Joybook Lite directional arrow keys – two glossy textured lid starts

U121 Eco currency symbols – repre- with a sinful black colour

Not-so-small bundle senting the US dollar and Euro that subtly gives way to a

of joy are also present, though we see smoky two-tone and while

A really nice looking netbook, little use for them. neither the colours nor

this one has a smoky blue col- The Z520 Atom CPU and the transition between

oured lid that immediately 1 GB of DDR2 RAM mean its them is in-your-face, it

attracts attention, especially performance is no scorcher, on will draw appreciative

since it’s finished in glossy par with the ASUS 1201HA. glances. The body is

material. The display bezel From the design it’s evident skillfully con-

is black, while the palm rest that the U121 Eco has been toured with

and the region surrounding designed for a 6-cell battery the lid

the keypad is dark grey – very as there’s no protrusion of any

good colour combinations used sort. This battery is good for 4

– kudos to BenQ for getting the hours and 17 minutes of video

looks spot-on. The lid design is playback, which is very good. than other

also funky with a circular rear The speakers give out pleasant Acer 532H-2Bb netbooks, but the

sound, bass shy (as usual), texturing is a tad uncom-

but they pick up some of blending into the cut out of fortable, although nowhere

the nuances. The warranty the body when closed. Build near as abrasive as the ASUS’

provided by BenQ is quality is very good – every- trackpad. Tracking accuracy

pretty sterling – 3 years, thing feels pretty solid. Even is good. The mouse button is

when all other vendors the activity and status LEDs a single long strip that works

just cover you for a exude quality. Opening it up, well, but feels clicky.

year. Which brings you’re greeted by some of the The Pinetrail N450 makes

us to the con, largest keys we’ve seen on a a second appearance here,

netbook, and they’re devoid after the U130. The battery is

of any beveling, which actu- slightly lower rated as well, and

ally works pretty fine. Thanks the hard drive is smaller at 160

to the greater surface area per GB. Performance is good per

key under your fingerpad, the se, and the 532H took the least

keypad is a joy to use, despite time in the file-encoding test.

the fact that it is cramped – a Priced at Rs. 19,200 the 532H

factor that cannot be helped is definitely a worthy purchase

given the tiny screen. Typing for someone looking at some-

BenQ Joybook Lite U121 Eco away even longer mails and thing really compact and more





70 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Tegra netbook DVDs finally!

Mobinnova to launch a NVIDIA Gateway sticks a DVD drive in

Tegra2 powered netbook their new EC14D netbook Netbook test





importantly for many people, black. The silver coloured power

looks really presentable. The button is a nice depart from the

excellent keypad makes it a red-black combination. Build

useful productive tool. If you’re quality is good and the device

shopping for a netbook, put in feels very solid. The keys are

on your “must consider” list, small and feel quite clustered,

though it would be nice to see even for a 10.1-inch screen. We

Acer bundling Windows 7 on figure the Acer 532H really leads

it. It wins our Best Buy Award the way in this regard. The func-

award for its overall mix of fea- tion keys are even smaller, any

tures, performance and good smaller and you’d need to use a

pricing. The 532H-2Bb was also stylus to use them. The display

the best performer overall. is mediocre, typical of a 10.1-

inch screen and the colours

HCL Mileap MH06 and contrast are below what

Lookit me! I’m red is acceptable for any kind of

The MH06 is a very appealing multimedia work. The display HCL Mileap MH06

shade of red, it actually manages although low on contrast was

to look neat, especially with the brighter than the other 10.1-inch from Intel. The power hungry is respectable. At Rs. 19,990

bold “ME” apparently splashed displays for some reason. 945GSE platform ensures that plus taxes, the MH06 is a little

carelessly on the lid. The lid and The MH06 features the now battery life is kept at a min- overpriced, especially consid-

palmrest have been imparted ageing N270 Atom processor, imum, although slightly larger ering the ageing hardware. The

a glossy finish in the same red which is part of the first gen- battery rating keeps battery Acer 532H-2Bb is a much better

tones and the inner lid is glossy eration family of Atom CPUs life two and a half hours, which deal.









Olive Zipbook x107h

The netbook with the always-on internet





T

he Olive zipbook any other service you’re back offer quite a

claims to be the first to using a USB stick. This is convenient

netbook in India a factor worth consideration package for

which comes with before you opt to purchase the internet connec-

3G to boot. As a netbook any device. tivity on the go, and

computer is expected to have The netbook is quite com- the performance is quite

atleast some claim to Internet pact with a 10.2-inch screen good, the build quality of

connectivity, and in this and is very light at 1.1kg. The the device is unimpressive.

department the Olive comes screen offers a native resolu- The plastic body feels a little Overall, the Olive Zipbook

well equipped. tion of 1024x600 which is flimsy although it is tougher is a pleasant experience when

The netbook comes with comfortable for its size. With than it looks. Furthermore, its it comes to internet connec-

an internal modem which the Intel Atom N270 processor portability is quite hampered tivity, however its poorly chis-

allows it to connect to the and 1GB of RAM, the system by the short two hour battery eled looks and poor touchpad

TATA Photon+ Internet runs the Windows XP Home life provided by its 3-cell bat- take a lot from its appeal. For

service, which provides wire- edition it comes with quite tery, although an option for a someone looking for a device

less Internet access in many well. Although Windows 7 6-cell battery is available. with an integrated internet

cities across the country. Since performed admirably well on Since this is a 10.2-inch net- connection which will work

the modem is integrated in the it even with Aero turned on. book, the keyboard is expect- anywhere, the Olive Zipbook

device, you do not need to pur- The netbook also has a 160GB edly small, however it is com- might be the answer but most

chase or install an additional HDD, a 1.3MP webcam and fortable. The same cannot be others will be better off with a

USB modem. While this does mic, a 3-in-1 card reader and said about its touchpad, which device which is better crafted

save on space, it does lock you three USB ports. has some rather stiff and noisy and with the addition of an

into the TATA service, as for While the device does mouse buttons. external USB internet stick.







Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 71

Bootcamp 3.1 Bioshock 2 coming

Bioshock 2 available for pre-purchase

Apple releases bootcamp v3.1, finally adds on Steam

Bazaar native support for all versions of Windows 7







Check the complete review at



Sony Ericsson Yari www.thinkdigit.com/d/1002_yari



Specifications

Gesture gaming on your cellphone! Network: Quad band GSM/

UMTS Screen: 2.4-inches,









W

ith the Yari phone featuring a 5 megapixel 240 x 320 pixels, 256K

U100i, Sony camera with many features and colours Video: QVGA @

Ericsson has has an accelerometer sensor. 30fps Talktime: 10 hrs

brought ges- The music output of the Standby Time: 450 hours

ture gaming on the mobile plat- phone is quite decent, but do Connectivity: Blue-

form. A tiny camera located in not expect a Walkman series tooth, aGPS

the top of the screen on Sony like performance. The Styles

Ericsson Yari acts as an inter- option is very impressive Contact

face to enhance the gesture giving the user the option to Sony Ericsson

gaming facility on the phone. select skins like the grammo- Phone: 1-800-111 800

However, the overall gaming phone or LP cassette player. Web site: www.sony-

experience leaves a lot to be Conversations is another ericsson.com

desired. interesting feature of the Price: Rs. 16,950

The phone has an all black U100i which allows threaded

body with the slider of the same texting. Yari integrates social

colour with a 2.4 inch screen. networking in the phone with 7

Yari has the standard Sony

Ericsson Java UI.The keypad

dedicated applications for Face-

book, Youtube and Blogger.

10

is not that great as it is very For Rs 16,950 we feel its Features..........................8

Performance .................7

annoying while texting. decently priced as there is no

Build quality.............. 6.5

The Sony Ericsson Yari other phone in the market with

Value for money....... 7.5

U100i is a high end camera as many wonderful features.







Specifications

Processor: Qualcomm

MSM7200A 528 MHz

HTC Hero Check the complete review at

RAM: 288 MB Is this the iPhone killer? www.thinkdigit.com/d/1002_htchero

Network: GSM/UMTS









T

Connectivity: Blue- he first thing that tain scenes according to his/her

tooth, Wi-Fi strikes you about preference, thus taking person-

HTC Hero is the alisation one step further.

Contact unconventional The idea to integrate various

Sanjay Sharma design. The base of Hero comes environments of the contact

Phone: +91- 9810832373 with a 15 degree angle tilt in its like phone details, messaging,

E-mail: sanjay. form factor. Bevelled edges give Facebook, Flickr, Twitter onto

sharma@htc.com a good grip and the tilt helps one screen, prevent the user

Web site: www.htc.com in grasping the phone easily. from toggling between different

Price: Rs. 34,600 It comes with the HTC Sense applications thus saving a lot

(Maharashtra & MP) technology which takes user of time.

Rs. 31,990 (Rest of India) experience to the next level. The phone comes with a

The 3.2 inch screen has a 5 MP autofocus camera. The

8 capacitive touch sensor which shutter button is the trackball

10 is very smooth. Hero has as which is not very impressive.

many as seven home screens Music output is OK but FM

Features..........................9 which can be customised radio is absent.

Performance .................8 according to the user’s choice. For a smartphone with great

Build quality..................8 The scenes mode of the phone features we felt that Hero is

Value for money....... 6.5

allows the user to program cer- priced quite steep at Rs. 31,990.



Microsoft to the rescue: commits 1.25 million dollars towards Haiti relief efforts NVIDIA’s attempt to steal ATI’s thunder - NVIDIA Fermi/GF 100 architecture revealed Next iteration of



72 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Google phone delayed

Google “postpones” Android phone launch in Taiwanese artist carves world’s tiniest tiger

China, may pull out completely by Feb. Chinese ad-measuring 1 mm in height and can pass

Red curtain to be blamed? through a needle hole Bazaar









Panache Smile PC T1610

Portable desktop





P

anache Smile PC is

a compact desktop

with all its compo-

nents enclosed in Specifications

a glossy black rectangular Intel Atom N270 1.6 GHz

metal box. It is quite portable processor, 2 GB of RAM,

and easy to carry around. The 250GB HDD, Windows

design is very basic and min- 7 Starter pre loaded.

imal. It has nine outputs on

its rear including USB ports, Contact

power connection port, audio Panache Infotech Pvt Ltd

and microphone jack, monitor same as the ones we have for a 1 GB file transfer. Phone: +91-93200 22012

input among other things. The netbooks, as this kind of config- Panache Smile PC is ideal Email: info@panache.co.in

lower part of the device tends uration is found on netbooks. for users who want to use the Web site: www.panache.co.in

to get hotter than the rest of it Performance wise Panache browse the net, chat or work Price: Rs. 19,990

as there are no vents to allow gives scores which are slightly on documents. With the help

air flow. less than the Best Performer of the LAN port it can be used

Setting up the device is very ASUS Eee PC 1005HA net- as a remote torrent client. 5.5

easy. Once the monitor is con- book. The PC Mark benchmark Extremely low power con- 10

nected the device is ready to be CPU score was 1396 whereas sumption. At a price of Rs 19,

used. It comes pre-loaded with the Cinebench CPU Rendering 990, it’s expensive for such a

Features..........................6

Performance ............. 5.5

the Windows 7 Starter Edition. test gave a score of CB 840. It configuration. ZOTAC’s MAG

Build Quality .................8

The performance test took 279 secs for VOB to DivX is available for a lot less and has Value ........................... 4.5

benchmarks were kept the file conversion and 49 secs for a slightly better configuration.







Specifications

1440 stream processors, core

clock: 725 MHz, 1 GB DDR5

ASUS Radeon EAH5850

@ 1 GHz 256-bit, 2 x DVI, 1 Jack of all trades

x HDM, 1 x Display port



Contact





T

he Radeon 5850

ASUS Technology Pvt. Ltd. is finally here. It

Phone: +91-22-6766 8800 comes with twice

/ 1-800-209 0365 the number of

Email: media_india@ stream processors compared

asus.com to the older Radeon 4850. difficult to gauge

Web site: www.asus.in In spite of this, the 5850 is its DX11 performance.

Price: Rs. 21,250/- humble at power consump- To sweeten the deal, ASUS

tion and runs cool too. Its has included a complimen-

performance in synthetic Warhead, Far Cry 2, etc. ATI has tary copy of Dirt 2 which is

7 benchmarks is nearly double employed aggressive power among the few DX11 titles.

10 the last generation 4850 and saving techniques and claims Once NVIDIA launches their

on par with the high end GTX 27 watts consumption on idle cards and the Rs. 21,250 price

Features..........................8 285. which should make the power- tag drops, the 5850 is destined

Performance .................7 Even in the real world conscious happy. Although it to be the hot favourite among

Build Quality .................7

benchmarks, it gave 80% supports DX11, very few DX11 the system builders who want

Value ...............................6

higher fps in games like Crysis titles are available making it performance but on a budget.



Android will be called “Froyo” - Erick Tseng, Senior Product manager of Android France joins Germany, asks its citizens to dump Internet Explorer in light of recent attacks on Google



Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 73

Playing Nostradamus USB 3.0 is here

Acer founder and former Chairman quoted WD launches its fastest My Book

predicting end of US PC makers within the series external drive equipped with

Bazaar next two decades USB 3.0 interface









XFX HD5970 Black Edition

The one to rule them all



Specifications



T

he XFX Radeon

5970 Black Edi- 3200 stream processors, Core

tion by default has clock: 725 MHz, 2 GB GDDR5

the same core and @ 1 GHz 512-bit interface,

memory clock as the non-BE 2 x DVI, 1 x Display port

edition but that’s where the

similarity ends. The BE tag Contact

gives you exclusive access to Rashi Peripherals Pvt Ltd

the XFX ‘over volt’ tool. How- The 5970 posted a record very clear that overclocking Phone: +91-22-6709 0828

ever, no games come bundled score of 21,547 in 3D Mark the card will need additional Email: response@

which is not expected from Vantage. In real world tests, cooling and a prospective rptechindia.com

a premium product. It is a the 5970 beats the GTX 295 buyer needs to be sure his/ Web: www.xfxforce.com

dual GPU setup mounted on even at stock settings. This her cabinet is large enough Price: Rs. 45,000

a single dual-slot video card. HD5970 is a little faster than with sufficient ventilation for

the AMD Radeon 5970 we this mammoth 13-inch card.

tested last month. All this We faced some instability 6.5

brutal power comes at a heavy issues as well while running 10

cost. It comes with the refer- some benchmarks. The 5970

Win DVDs ies ence cooler which struggles is aimed at the enthusiast

Features..........................8

of the hottest mov Performance .................8

to www. to keep it cool even at stock segment and comes at a high

of 2009. Head /d/ Build Quality .................7

th inkdigit.com settings and the card gets premium price of Rs. 45,000, Value ...............................3

t how

fan to find ou really hot, which makes it which we feel is overpriced.









Specifications

Synology Disk Station

800 MHz processor, 128

MB memory, 4 x 3.5-inch

/ 2.5-inch SATA drives,

DS410j

8 TB overall capacity, 2 x A multi-purporse NAS

USB ports, Gigabit LAN,









S

2 x 80 mm cooling fans ynology’s DS410j is variety of features

one of the coolest prod- — everything

Contact ucts to come around from Windows

Mitesh Shah for those who love file-sharing to

Email: info@ebm.in to download or have loads of web hosting, tor-

Web site: www.synology.com unmanageable data. rent and eDonkey

Price: Rs. 32,500 The DS410j is a NAS client. Firmware

without drive i.e. an enclo- upgrading is possible. Media speeds between the device and

sure with four SATA bays. can be streamed to any device a PC on a 100 Mbps network.

7 Indicators at the front for the that supports flash using a We would’ve loved to rec-

10 drive and network status are browser. Users and usergroups ommend this to anyone having

present. Installation of the can be created and each one a good unlimited broadband

Features..........................8 drives is very simple. Two given privileges and quotas if but the Rs. 32,500 price tag

Performance .................8 USB ports are also available required. is way out of bounds. A more

Build quality..................8

for external storage drives. We recorded a stable 11.7 affordable sub-Rs. 15,000

Value for money...........3

The DS410j boasts of a wide MB/s read and 9.5 MB/s write would have been more suitable.



China Samsung launches a boat load of point & shoot cameras - new SL, TL & HZ series Google India and YouTube pony up, IPL to be streamed live on YouTube 3outube: Want



74 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Out of addresses Display Port 1.2

Did you know? We could soon run out It’s here to challenge HDMI with 21.6

of IP addresses with less than 10 percent GBps throughput and multiple monitor

IPv4 addresses left, lest we move to IPv6 support from a single cable Bazaar









Lian Li Armorsuit PC-P80

Corrigendum

On page 73 of the January 2010

issue, the performance for Corsair

HX850 should be read as 9 instead

Exotic, lightweight-heavyweight chassis of 6.5.









two feet and with space for The motherboard back Specifications

some six hard drives under panel has spaces with rubber Super full tower case, 12

its hood, it’s not exactly heavy. border padding to prevent x 5.25-inch drive bays, 4 x

The aluminium build with its damage to cables while you 14cm LED fans, 1 x 12cm

brushed metal finish give it an route cables through them. LED fan, aluminum build

elegant look. There aren’t any The front panel with the USB, Dimensions: 220 x

fancy paint jobs and gimmicks eSATA, Firewire and audio 633 x 641 mm

to fool you. connectors is hidden under a

The frame inside is sturdy. folding metal Lian Li panel. Contact

There is absolute attention to The power button feels good Xtreme Grafix

detail everywhere — in the but the Reset button is too Phone: +91-99875 39043

buttons, the drive pays, the small. Email: Sudhirs-

expansion slots at the back, This is perfect for flaunting mani@gmail.com

the front connectors, etc. gamers who need a frame to Web site: www.lian-li.com

Almost everything in this case house their high-end dual- Price: Rs. 26,000









L

ian Li’s world is made of metal and is intri- graphics card rigs with water

renowned chassis’ cately designed and machined. cooling in. This is one of the 6.5

are seeping into the The front door itself has three lighter rigs and better designed 10

Indian market. One fans in it and the hinge is both rigs to do that in. Still, you’re

of the first ones is the PC-P80 smooth and sturdy. The drive going to feel the pinch. At a

Features..........................8

Performance .................8

The Lian Li P80 is without bay doors have perforations in price of Rs. 26,000, it’s too

Build quality.............. 7.5

a doubt, a giant when it comes them which allow very good air costly to recommend, unless Value for money...........3

to cabinets. Towering nearly flow from the front to the back. you’re crazy rich.









Specifications

Belkin n52te

8-way thumbpad, 15 cus- Quivering palm

tomizable keys, backlit









R

keypad, scroll wheel, azer is the one in RTS games where

USB connectivity behind the very you need to pan the

f ancy looking scene around.

Contact Belkin n52te gaming The drivers allow

Rengith Nair controller. The design is simple a good level of cus-

Phone: +91-124-6688 813 — a set of keys in front of an tomisation and keys

Email: rengithn@belkin.com anti-bacterial palmrest. It can be mapped as

Web site: www.belkin.com comes with a D-pad like on well as assigned

Price: Rs. 3,878 other game controllers. The macro functions.

console is comfortable but the There’s even the enthusiast. However, Rs. 3,878

spacebar key is positioned at polling rate setting like on is a little too pricey when

7 the extreme right and reaching a high-performance gaming most full-fledged gaming

10 it with ones thumb is a bit of a mouse. If done right, this is keyboards with customisable

problem; which is a pain while something that can be used keys can be bought a similar

Features...................... 7.5 playing intensive FPS games for browsing or controlling a amount. This controller is

Performance ............. 7.5 such as Counter-Strike, Quake media centre software. unique, however, and is defi-

Build quality..................7

3, etc. The D-pad makes for an The Belkin n52te makes nitely going to grab people’s

Value for money...........7

interesting utility especially good sense for a gaming attention at a LAN party.



to download YouTube videos? Change the ‘Y” to “3” in the URL, its that simple! AMD’s Redwood based, sub $100 Radeon HD 5670 released making DX11 reachable to the

Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 75

MS Phone? Striking back

Microsoft to do a Google, might reveal its NVIDIA’s attempt to steal ATI’s thunder –

Bazaar own phone at the Mobile World Congress NVIDIA Fermi/ GF 100 architecture revealed









Epson Stylus Office T30

More for the home than office

Specifications







T

he Epson Stylus The T30 has an input tray Economy modes. Text printing Optimised resolution: 5760

Office T30 colour as well as an output tray. The is blazing with the printer dpi, 3.8 kg, 73HN Ink Series

printer comes in an hinges are not that strong and taking just six seconds to (High Capacity Inks) 73N

all-black body and the build is not sturdy enough. print in normal quality mode. Ink Series (Standard Inks)

is very similar in design to the It has three buttons on the front Economy mode, although

Canon Pixma series. However, panel for power, ink feed and faster by one second looks Contact

the differentiating factor is that removing jammed papers. pretty bad, with the printing Epson India Pvt Ltd

the T30 uses five cartridges The printer does not have Pict- appearing washed out. For Phone: +91-80-3051 5023

in the printer to give a high Bridge or network support. continuous fast printing, the Email: ravishankar@

quality color print. Cartridge installation takes printer took two minutes 50 eid.epson.co.in

some time and is tedious, but seconds to print 15 A4 pages, Web site: www.epson.co.in

not difficult. The user interface but the quality was severely Price: Rs. 5,299

software is simple to navigate compromised as one could see

through. The software prompts the pixels. Photo quality was

the user to change cartridges very good, for its price. 7

if the ink levels are not up to The printer is ideally suited 10

the mark. for people who want excellent

The printer gives great quality photo prints, but not

Features..........................7

Performance .................7

output on Normal and Fine fast printing. So Rs 5,299, is

Build quality.............. 6.5

modes, but the performance a decent investment for this Value for money...........7

reduces drastically in the printer.









Gigabyte MIB T3140

Specifications

Small wonder





T

160W Power Supply, he Gigabyte Monitor on the left hand side

VESA compliant stand, Integrated Box T3140 and space for a Mini-

DVD drive tray, mini – is a small form factor ITX Motherboard on

ITX tray, 2 USB2.0 ports system with a black the right. Heatsink has

and 1 audio port. bodied chassis. It has a facility to to be chosen keeping

attach a monitor on the chassis. the limited height of

Contact This helps in saving space for the chassis in mind. A

Kamal Thakur an external monitor stand. The 6 cm fan is located on

Phone: +91-22-4220 3100 chassis is made of strong metal the right hand side with

Email: sales@priyagroup.com and the build is quite sturdy. The space for a slim ODD

Web site: www. glossy front panel has the power and a 3.5-inch HDD. indicated on it. Once the stand is

priyagroup.com button alongwith the two USB The monitor stand can be set upright, the VESA standard slot

Price: Rs. 3,999 ports and the speaker and micro- up on top of the chassis which can be inserted into the upper-

phone jacks. has two grooves for the stand. most projection of the stand to

7.5 On opening the chassis with It is screwed from behind to which an LCD monitor can be

10 the help of thumb screws on the provide additional stability to attached with the help of four

rear end, we notice that it is the stand. There is a hinge lock screws.

Features..........................7 neatly compartmentalized for system to raise the stand. It is This is an ideal product for

Performance .............NA optimum usage of space. There done by applying pressure on small offices where space is at a

Build Quality .................8 is a 160W Gigabyte power the stand and then moving the premium. At Rs. 3,999 plus taxes,

Value ........................... 7.5

supply for the entire cabinet lock according to the direction it is a decent buy.



masses. Microsoft’s Steve Ballmer unveils HP Tablet. Being pre-emptive are we? Suing frenzy - Kodak sues Apple, Blackberry over imaging technology infringement, US sues Intel



76 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Gigabyte goes Android Deeper black

Gigabyte gets on the Android bandwagon, Panasonic launches G2 series plasma HDTV with

Android based handset pictures leaked very high contrast ratios Bazaar







Cowon iAUDIO E2 Specifications

JetEffect modes, supports

MP3, FLAC, OGG, WMA

Screenless marvel and WAV, Frequency

Range: 20 – 20,000 Khz,









O

n first glance, one Pressing this button longer Capacity: 4GB, Weight : 16.6

may be excused enables the shuffle on/off mode. grams, SNR : 95dB, Internal

for thinking the Sound quality is crisp but it does Lithium Polymer Battery

Cowon iAudio E2 tend to screech at maximum

audio player is a bottle opener. volumes in certain modes. Contact

The Circle + Square design of It supports MP3, FLAC, OGG, Lipap Systems Pvt. Ltd

Cowon E2 Audio player WMA and WAV audio for- Phone: +91-22-2874 3457

is minimalistic but mats. A big plus is the quick Email: iaudio@lipap.com

striking. Screenless audio charging time of under two Web site: www.

players come with the hours. It lasts for a good 8 to cowonindia.in

most basic features, 10 hours on a single charge. Price: Rs. 3,600

but the E2 goes a little A big negative is the

further than that. absence of the ability to skip

It comes with a 3.5 mm folders. So if you have many

audio jack. This jack is songs then be prepared for 7.5

also used for data transfer exercising your fingers. FM 10

via a 3.5 mm to USB cable radio is not available.

which is also bundled. As many At Rs 3,600, it is priced

Features..........................8

Performance .................7

as eight BBE audio modes similarly to the 4 GB iPod

Build Quality .................8

are voiced out by a female Shuffle that has a similar fea-

Value ........................... 7.5

voice to keep you engaged. ture set.







Epson Stylus Tx210

An all-round good all-in-one!

Specifications





E

pson Stylus TX210 paper took 3 mins 30 secs , ware CD. As the resolution

Maximum resolu- makes a great so it takes a lot of time to give increases, the time to scan the

tion: 5760 x 1440, flatbed impression on quality prints. Thus it cannot page increases. It took 40 secs

scanner, 1.5 inch LCD the first look. The be used in places which at 300dpi and 5 mins 58 secs at

Screen, Card slot, 5.7 kg black body with a patterned require fast colour prints, as 720dpi for a full A4 size pho-

glossy finish on the top, the the quality is severly compro- tograph with excellent quality.

Contact colour LCD screen with a mised as was revealed in our The Epson Scan is a very

Epson India Pvt Ltd bright backlight, the strong tests. user friendly software and gives

Phone: +91-80-3051 5023 buttons onboard, facility to Scanning documents is a varying amount of flexibility

Email: ravishankar@ insert memory cards, sturdy cakewalk. The Epson Scan to the user depending on the

eid.epson.co.in trays make this MFD score full application comes in the soft- mode selected. Printing via the

Web site: www.epson.co.in marks in the aesthetics SD card slot also makes

Price: Rs. 5,999 department. It does not life easier. No need to

have a network port. transfer images on the

The printer is quite computer.

7.5 good in the Normal At Rs 5,999, it is a

and Fine modes, but if very decent buy. Its

10 gives very poor quality an ideal home printer

Features..........................8 prints in the Economy solution and the

Performance ............. 6.5 mode. Printing an A4 scanner and copier

Build quality..................7 size photo print in the functions add to its

Value for money....... 7.5

Fine mode on a glossy versatility.



alleging illegal use of its market power to stifle competition Gigabyte gets on the Android bandwagon, Android based handset pictures leaked.

Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 77

Tips & tricks Porn free Q&A

Toolbox 81 Anti-virus suites, Windows 7,

clipboard managers revealed 89 Protect kids from the internet’s

fastest growing Menace 90 Some Khatarnak viruses

desmystified this month









Jolicloud - the most

Cloud ready OS

Aditya Madanapalle when installed. The ISO file is

aditya.madanapalle@thinkdigit.com an install disc, but acts as a Live

CD as well, so that you can have a







J olicloud is one of the

most mature netbook

operating systems we’ve

seen, and it has borrowed

the best elements from existing

look at the OS without it leaving

any footprints on your system.

In the Live mode however, you

cannot install applications.

The Windows install is

ones to create a fresh, innova- called Jolicloud Express,

tive, and very comfortable OS double-click on the .exe file, and

for netbooks. It looks better the installation starts. Jolicloud

than Moblin - is fast (but not will treat the application as an The Jolicloud dashboard

as fast as Chrome), and has OS within the wrapper, so you

recently come out of closed have to specify all the informa- side Windows OS, or another If there is only one USB drive

Alpha testing. The version tion as if you are setting up an OS, you will have to choose to connected to the machine, that

available now, and included on actual OS. This includes a login make space for Jolicloud in the one will be selected automati-

the DVD is a pre-beta release, name, a network name for the same partition as Windows. Be cally. To be safe, be sure to dis-

so the OS is still pretty much machine, and any proxy infor- careful in this step, and backup connect any external memory

in development. Despite the mation that you might have. important data as choosing to that you may have. Your USB

pre-beta tag, if you need an OS The installation takes up use an entire hard disc will drive wont be recognised as a

on your netbook that handles 8 GB of space on your hard wipe the Windows install, and regular memory drive on your

cloud applications as well as drive by default, but this can all your data with it. Windows machine once the

be changed using If your netbook does not USB creator is through with it,

advanced options. have a DVD drive, then you and Windows may prompt for

Once installed, you can choose to install Jolicloud a format, ignore this prompt.

can try out Jolicloud using a USB drive. For this, Insert the USB drive in the net-

as just another you will need an application book, hit [F12] and select USB

window. To install that converts a USB drive into hard disk to boot and install

the OS on a computer, a bootable device, using the Joli- Jolicloud. Before the USB drive

you will have to burn cloud image file. You will find is usable again, you will have to

the ISO image as a this application on the DVD format it.

Using the USB creator to make a USB drive installer bootable disc using as well. You will first need to

a CD burning appli- install Jolicloud USB creator Setup and

desktop ones, Jolicloud is some- cation such as MagicDisc. Once installer on your system, then optimisation

thing you should try out, and burnt, insert the CD into the run the USB creator. You will The dashboard is fresh and

we expect you to love it. tray, and restart the machine. also need a USB drive that has functional. The applications

Hit the [F12] button during load more than a GB of space. Be sure are listed on the right, and

Installing Jolicloud time to get the boot menu, and to backup any files that you have links to important system

The installation process is very select Boot from DVD Drive. If on the USB drive, as the instal- folders are listed along the left.

simple. If you prefer to run it as you have multiple media drives lation process will wipe the Jolicloud offers a great middle

an application on your Windows installed, choose the drive with drive clean before creating the ground between the traditional

desktop, then Jolicloud offers the the CD in it. You can then either installable drive. Start up the desktop based interface, as well

OS wrapped in a virtual machine, choose to install Jolicloud right USB creator, and locate the ISO as a cloud OS running from the

that you can run from a window. away, or start a Live CD session image for the Jolicloud instal- web. By default, Jolicloud uses

This is an EXE file, which is more before using a GUI installer on lation. Then, locate the USB Mozilla Prism for running all

or less what the OS has to offer the desktop. If installing along- drive from the dropdown box. the web applications, where





78 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Tablet OS Dropbox

There seems to be a sudden proliferation of netbook You can store all your documents on the cloud using

OSes, will the next thing be OSes for Tablets? Dropbox, a partner of Jolicloud Workshop





each app is basically a page obscure tabs and brought to the

loaded in a Firefox window. . forefront, keyboard shortcuts is

Prominently at the centre, one example. By default, Joli-

is a “Get Started” icon. Use this cloud should apply most of the

to setup and optimise Jolicloud relevant shortcuts, including

for your device. You can setup the multimedia keys, but you

a Jolicloud account, which will can further customise the setup

be authenticated over email with or choose options that you are

a code. You will have to setup a more comfortable with it.

username and password, which

is different from the username Installing

and password for the computer. applications Internet applications on Jolicloud

This is a Jolicloud profile, which To get on to the Application

you can either fill up, or you can Manager, click on the Yellow Games, Graphics, Internet, start button. The location of the

simply login using your Face- Down Arrow along the top Office, Sound and Video. Addi- “close” button is right next to

book details, which does not need bar. This starts the application tionally, each category can be the address bar on the window,

an authentication message. Dashboard, which contains a listed according to different pri- which is about halfway into the

There is also an option here large database of both tradi- orities, either by popularity or top bar. This minor deviation is

to select the model of the net- tional desktop applications date. You will find many famil- easy to get used to, as there is a

book you are using. If you are and web applications into a iars such as Last.fm, Dropbox, lot of screen real estate saved

installing Jolicloud on a desktop single interface. This means Facebook, Gmail and Spotify over for actually using the

or nettop, just choose “Other that you can install GIMP and among others. There are also a web or the applications. There

Unrecognised Machine”. If you Pixlr, one a desktop image whole bunch of little known web are some grey areas though.

are using a netbook, chances editing application, and the applications that are just waiting Installing the desktop Last.

are that your model number other a cloud image editing to be discovered. fm client is a little painful and

You can also install tradi- roundabout. You can choose to

tional desktop applications install Chrome on the machine,

using the application manager. instead of the default Firefox

If there are a few must have if you prefer Google’s browser

windows applications that you for any reason. Most audio and

simple cannot do without, then video files play out of the box, so

you can install Wine as well, codecs are not really a problem

and try to run the Windows with Jolicloud.

applications on a Wine layer.

This is not advisable if you are Should you use

multi-booting though, as it is a Jolicloud?

waste of resources. Jolicloud is pre-beta, so despite

Once web applications are the apparent lack of bugs, there

installed, they are pinned to are many things left to be pol-

The Jolicloud application manager the top bar in the form of tiny ished. Jolicloud is one of the

icons that can be clicked to open more feature rich and easy

is listed in the long list of sup- application alongside. When the window. Jolicloud does not to use free netbook operating

ported models (98 per cent of you run a cloud based applica- accumulate web applications systems available. While Joli-

all netbooks). tion, the web page is opened as into tabs in a single browser cloud offers a great range of

Once this is done, you can a separate Firefox window in window. One strange thing net content, there is always the

head over to the Preferences full screen mode, so there is no that users will have to learn to offline system to fall back on,

and Administration sections discernible difference between live with is the lack of a restore and the internet is not strictly

of the dashboard for further a web app and a desktop app, or minimise button. Although necessary to work on Jolicloud.

customisation. The view is which is great. you can open multiple win- Connecting to Wi-Fi is report-

similar to the Control Panel in There are featured web appli- dows, they are always maxi- edly easier on Jolicloud than

Windows or Mandriva, so even cations from different providers mized, and you have to click on Moblin or Chrome, so if you

users new to Linux should be with one notable exception, being on the home icon on the top left have significant problems with

at home tweaking the settings. VLC. The applications are sorted corner of the window, which is other Linux based netbook dis-

There are some useful settings into groups based on Accesso- the link to the dashboard, and tros, Jolicloud is the perfect OS

that have been removed from ries, Development, Education, doubles up as a rudimentary to try.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 79

Tips & Tricks



Teamviewer especially when jointly col-

Teamviewer is an excellent col- laborating on projects.

laboration tool with features [Ctrl]+[Alt]+[Delete]

such as remote access to your As expected, this actually sends

PC, and can help you access the three-button combo and

and share files across PCs. allows you to access the taskbar

The setup is a small (2.6 MB) of the other person. This fea-

file and is available for free at ture, is however, only available

www.teamviewer.com. if TeamViewer is made a Win-

The System service is dows System Service. You can

ideal if you want to use your do a Remote Reboot to log off,

system as a server with com- restart or restart in safe mode.

plete remote access. Click Full Disable Remote Input disa-

Access, during the installation bles the mouse and keyboard

process. Frequent permission of the remote PC. Show Black

requests get extremely irri- Screen prevents the person

Teamviewer........................................................................................................... 9

tating to most users. from seeing what’s being done

Spybot Search and Destroy .........................................................................10

Teamviewer generates a on his computer. You need to

Ditto: Copy more..............................................................................................12

specific ID for your computer Disable Remote Input to do so.

(not IP) based on your hard- Anti-virus suites ................................................................................................13 View has several options,

ware configurations. For those Windows 7 ..........................................................................................................15 allowing you to adjust and

worried about security, Team- Process Explorer ...............................................................................................16 optimise Quality and Speed.

Viewer ensures all connections You may also scale and change

are encrypted and protected Click on the Password VPN must be installed, hence the viewing resolution. This

from external access – even field. You may change we shall skip it’s functionality ensures the difference in reso-

from themselves. the password (dynamic = Enter the ID of the person lution doesn’t cause errors. If

you are trying to connect with, the remote PC has multiple

establish a connection with monitors, you also have the

the Remote Support option. choice of displaying all of them

This way you can control the simultaneously. Other options

remote PC using your mouse include selecting windows,

and keyboard. showing the desktop, a manual

In the title bar, ther person’s screen refresh, removing the

name or ID is displayed. The remote computer’s wallpaper,

toolbar below this has some and the ability to show or hide

additional options: your partner’s cursor.

Audio/Video options allow

Switch Sides you to make VoIP calls, Video

This allows you to change the Calls, IM type Chat and con-

direction of control. That is, ference calls. The File Transfer

your partner will now be able dialog allows you to transfer

TeamViewer’s easy-to-understand startup screen to control your computer. This files between the two com-

has many multifaceted uses, puters. Other options (Extras)

The main window, as you can random), copy it to the clip-

see, has two major functions – it board or set a user defined

allows you to initiate a connec- one. To Create a session, enter

tion (outgoing), and at the same the ID of the person you’re

time lets you connect to another trying to connect to. Your

PC running TeamViewer. TeamViewer has three modes:

To wait for a session, you 1. Remote Support: This

need to provide the person with allows for remote control and

your unique ID and four-digit desktop sharing.

passkey. If you wish to make 2. Presentation: Here, you may

TeamViewer a Windows System show either your desktop or a

Service, you’ll need to provide single window

a permanent password. This 3. File Transfer: As is obvious,

should be displayed as User enabled for transferring files

Defined instead of the 4 digits. 4. VPN: For this, TeamViewer Lend a supportive hand, remotely, using TeamViewer





| www.thinkdigit.com | vol 10: 9 Digit | February 2010

Tips & Tricks









Use the Whiteboard to collaborate better



Transfer files to a remote computer easily a live presentation, and a con- program, then it could cause

ference call option. You can also trouble. Once you’re done

include features to record your your ID and password at http:// chatting via the IM interface. with that, click next, check

session as a video. This helps go.teamviewer.com. What’s cool is the literal for updates, immunise your

in case you’re working on a use of the Presentation inter- system (this basically stops the

project (say, a graphic design Presentation toolbar face. TeamViewer allows for a most common spyware from

scheme), so you can later ana- Apart from moderating the drawing palette with presenta- attacking). Read the help file for

lyse your actions. flow of the presentation (pause tion tools like markers, erasers more support.

/ continue) where basically you and an elementary MS-Paint Of course, the same options

File transfer actions control whether your screen like setup to draw and modify that you covered can be done

You have complete control is displayed live or not, you your current presentation, again from the main screen. It

of both computers and can may also remove the wall- similar to blackboard learning. is recommended that you check

transfer files to and fro. paper (this improves perform- So that’s how you use Team- for updates frequently. Ensure

Your file system appears ance), adjust quality settings Viewer. Advanced users can you have all the updated files

on the left and the remote like bandwidth, frames per fiddle around with the connec- before starting.

computer’s system on the second, colour depth, Win- tion options, make groups of Click on Check for Problems

right. The record of all fies dows Aero and other minor people, try out VPN and LAN to begin. In case you have any

accessed and all operations tweaks. Similar to the Remote connection and more. temporary files, Spybot offers

is recorded in a log on your Support Mode, you may have to clean them up for you before

partner’s computer. one monitor or more, with a Spybot Search & scanning. Scanning is usually

In the presentation mode, maximum of four monitors. Destroy a long process depending on

your computer shares its The other options are similar to The intrusion of spyware into how much memory your com-

desktop. If the remote PC the Remote Support Options. modern day computing is puter has.

doesn’t have TeamViewer The widgets allow for video, well known. From cookies to Spybot usually displays

installed, your PC can be where you can control your key loggers to dangerous mal- hints. If you’re a first time

accessed from it by entering webcam, VoIP so you may give ware, almost everyone who’s user, it would do you well

accessed the internet has been to heed them. Else you can

warned about the dangers that always click on Hide and see

lurk out there. Spybot Search the main screen. The main

and Destroy is one of the most screen shows a list of files

popular and most effective cli- and bugs that it recognises as

ents out there, its reputation spyware and displays them.

only bettered by the fact that Hopefully, if your system is

it’s freeware (available at www. clean, it should show you a

safer-networking.org). plain white front.

The moment you install, Once you start seeing a few

you’re asked to backup your entries, click on the dotted bar

registry. This is a good rec- with the two blue arrows on

ommended step. Occasion- them. Then click on an entry.

ally, programs such as Spybot It’ll show you the details of

remove items in the registry. the item.

However, if these ad programs We found a Web Trends

Use the Presentation toolbar to choose what to display or cookies are essential to some cookie in our spyware list. Read



Digit | February 2010 | vol 10: 10 | www.thinkdigit.com

Tips & Tricks



What you need to focus on program affiliation that’s pre-

are the red entries, read up the venting it from getting deleted.

information, or if unavailable, 2. Try a new anti-spyware

search for it on the Internet. program (Unlike anti-virus

Once you’ve assured yourself programs, multiple anti-

it is spyware, check the box spyware programs can be

next to it. Spybot does not installed, however real-time

insist that you delete all spy- protection on many could

ware, it merely urges you to do cause problems).

so. If you believe a certain pro- 3. Find the exact details of that

gram is vital to another’s func- particular file and delete from

tioning, you can decide to keep the registry.

it. Once done, you may click Fix The last resort is recom-

Selected Problems. mended only for advanced

Once done, it should show users who’ve tampered with

Updating spybot during the install process itself you a bright green tick which their registry before. For those

means your problem has been who wish to try more advanced

eliminated. Occasionally, it options like the ability to tell

does get difficult to get rid of Spybot to permanently ignore









Whoops! Apparently, even our computers are not spyware-proof



the description to see what it system stores. You need not

does. For example, the tracking remove them, but if you are Die silly spyware, die!

cookie (from the company Web essentially paranoid or are

Trends Live) had the following finicky about space, you may.

description: Uses information Note that stuff like the list of certain problems. For this do certain programs or file exten-

about your web surfing that most recently opened Word the following: sions or system internals you

could include any information documents, and other short- 1. Search for it on the internet, may do so by configuring

like accounts and passwords, cuts could make it to this list. and see if there’s a certain Spybot in the advanced mode.

which is clearly unwanted. On the main menu bar go to

Spyware and similar Mode > Advanced Mode. In

threats are indicated in red, advanced mode, there’s one

while the green entries are more benefit – you may click

usage tracks. You need to “Select All” as opposed to

know which are essential and selecting or unselecting each

which are not. Sometimes, you and every item found.

may be using programs that You may also do some basic

send back information on tweaks to your system directly

your program usage; Spybot from Spybot like change your

might detect these as spy- start-up options. A lot of spy-

ware, so instead of blindly ware products, especially

selecting all, select only those toolbars that get installed on

you know are definitely spy- your system start along with

ware. Usage tracks are basi- your operating system. Hence,

cally records or logs that the WebTrends sounds so harmless, right? Wrong! you should review them. In



| www.thinkdigit.com | vol 10: 11 Digit | February 2010

Tips & Tricks



download the installer from Ditto also features a useful

http://ditto-cp.sourceforge.net. Unzip search function that searches

the file. Copy it to a folder and and filters as you type. Next

run Ditto. to the filter bar is a Double

Ditto runs as a small tiny Arrow (>>). Clicking on it

icon on your taskbar. Now, collapses Ditto into a thin

when you use an application vertical bar that can stay

such as Office or a web browser, unobtrusively in the back-

copy text using [Ctrl] + [C]. ground while you work

Click on the Ditto program and with your programs. Quick

you’ll see how Ditto copies eve- Paste ([Ctrl] + [V]), as

rything you do. is expected pastes the most

What’s cool about Ditto is recent thing copied.

how it seamlessly runs in the You may even press the

background. Like a lot of pro- Close button on the Ditto screen

grams, it has the stay-on top or Exit the program entirely. On

feature that is useful so you restart, your old copied items

don’t have to keep minimising are still saved.

and maximising. Ditto also Right-clicking on the Ditto

Use Spybot’s advanced settings to stay more secure monitors functions such as interface gives you a few fea-

Print Screen. So press [Print tures. Quick options allows

Scrn] on your keyboard and you to modify basic things

you’ll see a miniature version such as the number of lines

of your desktop in Ditto. Ditto you see, the positioning,

also works with Cut ([Ctrl] the font that is being used,

+ [X]). change what happens when

Once you’ve copied, simply you double-click the caption

go to the program you wish to bar, and more.

paste some of the items in, and You may also edit a copied

double-click. Alternatively, entry. It’s features such as

drag and drop. Simple? To these that set it apart from

paste multiple items, select all the Office clipboard. Right-

them. You may use the mouse, click on Entry, and select Edit

press [Shift] or to select items Clip. It opens a Text Editor

which are not sequential, press that’ll let you change the

[Ctrl] and click on them. entry. While you’d expect a









Spybot gives you more control over applications that start with your PC



the advanced mode, click on effect anti-spyware cleaner and

tools. A comprehensive list of monitor. For those who wish

tools is provided which you to secure their computer, and

should try for yourself once wish to keep it clean, Spybot is

you’re completely acquainted a must-install.

with the software. Some of the

tools are: a secure shredder Ditto: Copy more

(to completely delete files), a Sheer limitations in Win-

resident shield, IE Tweaks, dows and Office’s clipboard

System Startup Tweaks, such as the lack of permanent

a Scan which checks the memory, and other features

integrity of your registry, an may not bug you, but it’s

Uninstall Wizard, and a list irking sometimes to have to

of all the network drivers and do things the long way. Ditto

protocols. is a free and open source

On the whole, Spybot application that serves as a

Search and Destroy is a very clipboard manager. You can Ditto’s simplistic interface is a breeze to use



Digit | February 2010 | vol 10: 12 | www.thinkdigit.com

Tips & Tricks



if they do, after how long, or the type of files allowed (Rich Anti-virus suites

are they stored in memory Text and Unicode). The Quick Almost all security suites

indefinitely. Paste subcategory has more have anti-spyware, a firewall

After you reach the max- options as to how History is and other features, but some

imum limit, like all clip- organised, whether text is minor features take the cake.

boards, the oldest entry is displayed or just the entry It’s these that we shall focus on.

removed. However, if you’ve number and whether thumb- We’ll compare the features of

marked it as Never Delete nails should be displayed for some of the most popular anti-

(Right-click on Entry image items. virus packages, namely, Avast,

> Quick Properties > If on a network, you can AVG, Norton, Kaspersky, and

Never Auto Delete), it’ll add Friends by entering TrendMicro.

stay on in memory. their IP addresses in. By

You may also make nice right-clicking on an entry Boot time scan

small tweaks. What was inter- and using Send To, you can A boot time scan lets you

esting is the Ignore Copies send your clipboard to a scan your full HDD even

Ditto’s right-click quick options functions. For example if you maximum of 15 computers. before Windows starts. The

keep [Ctrl] + [C] pressed,

or if you copied the same

simple Notepad type inter- thing twice, Ditto will ignore

face, it’s goes one step ahead it. It has the functionality to

by adding support for bullets ignore copies that occur X mil-

and fonts. liseconds from the last copy.

Let’s take a quick look at You may also choose to play

the options. Right-click the a sound on copy.

icon on the taskbar. Click on On checking Update Clip

Options to see a huge list of Time on Paste, it will set

tweaks you can make to cus- the Time of the entry to the

tomise Ditto. time it was pasted (Current)

You may choose to Start and take it to the top of the

Ditto at System Startup, list. (Note: This works only

choose whether or not to dis- on double-clicking and not

play the icon in the system on Drag and Drop opera-

tray, modify the maximum tion). The other categories in Most anti-virus suites have a home screen like AVG’s, shown here

number of saved copies (500 Options allow you to modify

default – which is quite keyboard shortcuts, assign Of course, you’ll need to main advantage of this over a

impressive), decide whether quick-paste keys to the last decide a password and use it normal scan is that most dor-

or not the entries vanish, and ten copied items and change for encryption, but advanced mant viruses and malware that

users can figure this out on aren’t detected easily during a

their own. normal scan are easily found

Go to Options > Status out and removed. Another

for a nice Odometer to keep advantage is that boot-time

track of how frequently you scan bypasses the Windows

use Ditto. Other nice fea- file system drivers and uses

tures include Theme sup- direct disk access that results

port and options to check for in lower scan time and detec-

updates. On the whole, even tion of background root-kits.

if you remove all the other In Avast, open the main Avast

fancy features, the essential user Interface, right-click and

utility in Ditto is brilliant. A select Schedule boot-time

very compact clipboard that scan from the context menu

stays on top of all your appli- that appears. Next time you

cations allowing you to store restart your computer, Avast

as much data as you need. We will perform a full system boot-

would recommend it highly time scan.

as a must-use for all those With AVG, you can change

who do a lot of editing or use the settings in the Options

Office or browse the web on menu. The scanner option has

Use the options to tweak Ditto to your tastes a regular basis. the ability to modify the set-



| www.thinkdigit.com | vol 10: 13 Digit | February 2010

Tips & Tricks



Other systems optimise

their scanning to ensure that

normal functioning is not dis-

turbed while scanning. Fea-

tures such as Fast Scan and

optimised background scan

are prevalent.



Silent mode

Most security suites have

realised the importance of

disabling notifications so as Mail Shield settings

to improve the user experi-

ence. Except TrendMicro, Silent Mode Box that appears, to go to Expert Settings or

all the security suites we select the duration from a Advanced Settings.

reviewed for features had drop-down list. The same sort of sensitivity

an option, either as Silent AVG Firewall includes a specification is not restricted

Mode or Gaming mode or a “Game Mode”. This can be set to the Email scanner. All Fire-

Click on Boot time scan in the similar name. under Settings. Alternatively, walls also have the same fea-

left side context menu in the user Avast has it, in its main click on Firewall from the Main ture (some even have a program

interface user interface. In Kaspersky, Control Center and enable specific option).

right-click on the Kaspersky Game Mode.

tings. Kaspersky does not have icon on the taskbar and click Auto USB detect

a boot time feature. on Settings > Gaming Anti-spam Though the manual scan option

Profile. Click on enable If you use webmail services is available to scan specific

Screensaver mode Gaming Profile. You have such as Yahoo!, Gmail or Hot- folder files, some security suites

Many security suites allow you the option to disable scans, mail, chances are email is secure. can automatically detect when

to run a full system scan when- disable updates, or instead of However, if you’re using a client an external drive is plugged in.

ever the computer is idle. For notification, just take action such as Microsoft Outlook or Some can even erase malware

a lot of systems, a full system automatically. Kaspersky Thunderbird, you have to inde- without notifications. If your

scan can slow down your chooses the best course of pendently scan your mail for anti-virus doesn’t have this

system. In Avast, for example, action based on the threat viruses. This feature all secu- function, it’s a good practice to

you can schedule a full system rating and previous choices. rity suites have. The new Avast scan your removable media for

scan whenever your computer Norton has both options – v5, goes one up by having a fully malware. In AVG, you can go

is idle by using the anti-virus Full Screen Detection (Gaming integrated anti-spam feature. to Tools > Advanced Set-

screensaver feature. It can even mode) and a Silent Mode. It In all security suites, you tings > Scans > Remov-

be run over your normal screen activates automatically when have the option of custom- able Device Scan. Tick the

saver. Whenever your com- you watch full screen applica- izing the sensitivity level of checkbox to Automatically

puter is idle for the time that tions. Similarly, Silent Mode is your detector. Go to Real Time Heal / Remove Infections.

the screensaver is set to come a manual operation to do the Shields or Email Protector, or Kaspersky and Trend Micro

in, Avast will start scanning same. You can do so by going Mail Scanner or whatever it is have the same feature enabled.

for viruses and pause imme- to Settings > Administra- called in your antivirus pro-

diately once you come back to tive Settings. In the Silent gram, go to settings. Chances P2P Protection

your computer. To enable this, Mode Settings, set the Silent are, to specify the level of Frequent downloads from

go to your screensaver proper- Mode to On. In the Turn on customisation, you may have unknown sources using a tor-

ties window and select Avast! rent tracker or a P2P file sharing

Antivirus from the list. program often pose a high risk.

In other software suites, The security suite monitors all

it may not be called Screen- the recognised P2P programs

saver mode. Instead, like installed for downloads and

Norton, it is referred to as checks the files as they are

Idle Time Scanning. Norton downloaded (real-time). Avast

can perform scheduled scans has a P2P shield under its list

when your PC is idle if the of real-time shields. You can go

“Only run at Idle Time” to Expert Settings and change

option is selected. Select the the list of programs that should

Settings > Task Sched- be monitored. Kaspersky also

uling > Idle Time option. Gaming mode settings has a P2P/File Sharing monitor.



Digit | February 2010 | vol 10: 14 | www.thinkdigit.com

Tips & Tricks



Windows 7 If you highlight a small Favorites to create a link there. VPN. One more click on any of

Whenever you open a program, button on the bottom right In all previous versions of them, and you’re connected.

folder, or file, Windows creates corner of the task bar, all open Windows, managing your files

a corresponding button on the windows will fade from view, meant organising them in dif- Old programs in

task bar showing just an icon for a quick peek at your desktop ferent folders and sub folders. Windows 7

that represents the open pro- or gadgets, Windows 7’s free- Comes Windows 7 with its con- Most programs written for

gram. With the new Progress Bar floating widgets. cept of libraries, which makes it Windows will work automati-

integrated into the task bar, you easier to find, access, work with cally in Windows 7, but there

can monitor on-going tasks and Jumplists and libraries and organize files scattered might be some issues with older

processes performed by their In applications coded to take across your computer or even programs and some might not

applications without having to advantage of the jump list, when over the network regardless of even start. If a program written

keep the programs’ window vis- you right-click an icon, you’ll get where they are stored. A library for Windows Vista, XP or even

ible. The progress of functions a pop-up menu which will give gathers files that are stored other older versions fails to

including file copies, but also CD you quick access to recently in several locations without run, Microsoft doesn’t leave

and DVD burning, downloads opened items, frequently opened actually storing your items or you in the blue. Like Vista,

and installs is displayed dynami- items, tasks, or web sites, in moving your files from the orig- Windows 7 comes with a Pro-

cally via the Taskbar buttons, addition to any favourite items inal folder. Libraries monitor gram Compatibility Mode that

through the Progress Bar. you’ve decided to pin. In Internet folders that contain your items, simulates the behaviour of pre-

When you move your mouse Explorer, it shows your recent and let you access and arrange vious versions of Windows for

pointer to a task bar button, a browsing history; in Windows the items in different ways like that program. You can change

small thumbnail appears of Media Player, it’ll let you play ‘documents by type’, ‘pictures by the compatibility settings for

the corresponding window. recent videos; and Windows date taken’ and ‘music by genre’. a program either manually or

This along with Aero Peek, by using the Program Compat-

which makes every window Connect to the ibility Troubleshooter.

on the desktop transparent internet Right-click on a program

except the one you’re high- Windows 7 makes it very simple and choose Troubleshoot Com-

lighting at the moment, makes to view and connect to networks patibility to launch the Pro-

sure that you find any window on your laptop. Just click on gram Compatibility Assistant.

nearly instantly, no matter how the network icon in the task It detects known compatibility

many windows your desktop bar. View Available Networks issues and notifies you if it finds

is buried under. To switch to displays all your wireless and anything and offers to fix it the

another window, just click on wired networking options next time your program is run.

the miniature version that pops including Wi-Fi, mobile broad- It does not make any changes

out from its task bar button. band, dial-up, LAN or corporate to your program. It merely

You can even close it by middle- resolves conflicts with UAC

clicking, a feature which is giving elevated privileges to

Recent history in Jumplists

common to most applications your program, or simulates

that used tabbed browsing. an earlier version of Windows.

You can use Aero Shake to Explorer will give you quick

quickly minimize every open access to frequently used folders Manage your

window apart from the one and files. You can also pin hardware

you’re shaking. It is a useless- favourites to a Jump List, so you The new Devices and Printers

but-neat feature that clears can quickly get to the items that folder available from the Start

all the clutter for you without you use frequently. Jump Lists Menu shows you all the external

you having to minimize each on the task bar contain several devices connected to your PC.

and every window apart from menu commands that you can It is a handy way to check on

the one you want to focus on. use to close an item or unpin a portable device which you

It is just a mouse gesture that the program from the task bar. carry with you and occasion-

lets you grab the title bar of You can even drag an item off of ally connect to your computer,

View Available Networks and connect

the window you wish to keep a Jump List to copy it to another such as mobile phones, portable

to them

open and give it a shake, and location or folder. music players, photo frames

rejoice in a clear desktop area. Windows Explorer has a

Of course, you can use [Win- great feature called ‘Favorites’,

dows] + [Home] for the same present in the left pane of the

functionality. It just adds that window. You can add your

Zing to the new UI. You can even frequently accessed folders

restore all of those windows by for quick access. Just left click

shaking the open window again. the folder and drag it on the The new taskbar





| www.thinkdigit.com | vol 10: 15 Digit | February 2010

Tips & Tricks



and digital cameras besides You get detailed informa-

all the devices connected via tion about programs – its icon,

USB, or paired via Wi-Fi or command-line path, image

Bluetooth wireless interface path, memory stats, security

including external USB hard attributes, and a lot more. You

drives, flash drives, web cams, can even examine all the DLLs

keyboards, and mice. A multi- it has used, the operating

function printer now shows up system resources it’s using,

as a single device in Devices and and even track down proc-

Printers, not as a collection of esses that are using specific

three or four components like it resources.

is displayed in the more conven-

tional Device Manager. Multiple svchosts?

Besides letting you view Go to the wininit.exe sub-

information about your menu, enlarge the services.

devices, such as make, model, exe group and you will see

and manufacturer, including several svchost.exe files You can see advanced details of all running processes

detailed information about open. You could, of course,

the sync capabilities of a go to the Properties of each when it comes to helping us Suspend a service or process,

mobile phone or other mobile and monitor everything it’s remove viruses. instead of ending it. Just

device, Devices and Printers doing, but hovering your While the Task Manager right-click and choose Sus-

is also an excellent place to mouse over it does the trick gets disabled by certain pend. You can resume sus-

check if a specific device is as well. Going to the proper- viruses, and even if it’s not, pended services from the

working properly and then ties, has the added advantage killing a rogue process usu- right-click menu as well.

troubleshoot problems in case that you’ll be able to read and

they arise. understand what each service

actually does.

Process Explorer

Ever wondered what’s run- View more

ning on your computer? For If you’re not overwhelmed by

most tech enthusiasts, it’s information overload, right-

vital to have it all figured click next to one of the col-

out. Complete understanding, umns headers and click on

if not complete control is a “Select Columns”. This way,

must. Though the Windows you can see a lot more infor-

Task Manager does a decent mation about your processes.

job of listing processes, and

memory usage, it’s not enough Suspend, not end

for us geeks. One scenario that Process

Process Explorer by Sys- Explorer is really handy The Suspend option is a life saver when you’re infected

internals, is a program for for, is when you’re infected

Windows that gives you full with a virus. As most of us ally just doesn’t help, as it Lower the pane

control over what runs on your have experienced, the task starts up again. With Process Go to View > Show Lower

PC. Get it for free from http:// manager is all but useless Explorer, you can choose to Pane (or use [Ctrl] + [L]).

thinkdigit.com/d/procxp. This will show you additional

information about processes.

Getting started You can also choose between

To get started, just unzip the viewing Handles or DLLs –

file, and run the EXE. go to View > Lower Pane

You can see everything View to choose one.

that’s functioning. Broadly,

the processes you see can be ‘til death do us part

divided into idle, Windows If you prefer Process Explorer

and explorer.exe processes. to Task Manager, just go to

Explorer.exe processes are Options > Replace Task

the ones we’re interested in, Manager, and from now on

because that’s how most appli- this app will load instead of

cations are run. Process Explorer vs. Task Manager. Fight! the Task Manager.



Digit | February 2010 | vol 10: 16 | www.thinkdigit.com

How to keep objectionable content on the net at bay



Nimish Sawant system and works very effec- reboot for the software to start Words Blacklist which allows the

nimish.sawant@thinkdigit.com tively. It can be downloaded from working properly. It lodges itself user to block webpages based on

http://tinyurl.com/ykkk6ha in the system tray and will be the appearance of words on it.









F

or parents across the turned on as soon as your com-

world, the internet is Using the Filter puter starts. Options can be Security

as much a bane as it The user interface of the software accessed from the tray icon. Since this software is meant to

is a boon, thanks to a is quite simple. It is divided into prevent the visibility of porno-

massive presence of vices such two URL lists : one for Always Configuring PicBlock 3 graphic images, and it allows

as online predators and pornog- Blocked Websites and the other The main tab in the Settings one to unblock restricted sites or

raphy among other things. With for Great Websites. You can menu of PicBlock is the Con- images, a Security tab is provided

around 260 porn sites being reg- add URLs to the list of Always figuration tab. To get PicBlock to password protect actions. You

istered everyday and 25 per cent Blocked sites or add a keyword working, check the Enable Pic- (as a parent) can set an admin-

of the search queries being porn using wildcard characters like Block option. It has options for istrator password, so that your

related according to an interna- asterisk (*) or question mark setting the sensitivity levels of kids have no control over making

tional study, it is imperative to (?) along with words in case the blocking images, by clicking any changes in the settings. By

keep young children away from one is not sure of the complete on the radio buttons indicating checking on the options, the

this growing menace. With the URL. Adding and Deleting Mild, Normal and Strict.

boom in internet penetration URLs pretty straight forward. Advanced Filtering allows you

and the familiarity of kids with By ticking the Block All option, to add more options to filtering

technology, the need for blocking you can further filter surfing to like face detection, blocking web

pornographic material is high. only those sites that are men- pages with explicit words etc.

tioned in the Great Website URL Many a times the software

NetDog Internet list. may block images which are

Porn Filter 3.9.2 perfectly harmless. To pre-

This is a very easy to use Porn Output vent this the user can Unblock

Blocker which is light on the The software works quite well those web sites either by right

and blocks all the words in the clicking on the PicBlocker icon

URL list. As soon as the URL in the system tray and selecting

word matches the word from Unblock content or use a key-

the Blocked URL list, the web- board shortcut like [Alt] + [F12]

site does not load. or [Ctrl] + [F12] The security settings in PicBlock.

enter password prompt may

PicBlock 3 URL Lists appear while unblocking con-

NetDog only allows you to filter This enables the user to set cer- tent, viewing logs, accessing set-

content based on keywords, but tain URLs as safe or dangerous tings, disabling PicBlock among

pornographic images still pop in the URL Whitelist and URL other things. This tab also has a

up on our screens. To prevent Blacklist tab respectively. Using Silent mode setting which pre-

such images from showing up, these tabs the user can set certain vent the pop ups from PicBlock

use PicBlock. URLs which he wants to allow when a site or image is blocked.

or block according to his needs.

Installation The list of URLs can be saved or Performance

The software can be down- another list can be imported as The blocked images will appear

loaded from http://www.cinchworks. well using the Export and Add as pixelated areas. Sometimes,

com/download.html. Installation is & Import buttons. Apart from you will have to unblock perfectly

Setting a URL banned list in NetDog quick and requires a system URLs there is another tab called normal images though.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 89

Multicore USB 3.0

AMD to release six-core processors WD announces USB 3.0 range of

Q&A in the second quarter of 2010 MyBook external storage drives









Your problem is no

problem to us!

This month, we look at Khatarnakh viruses, master/slave

issues with hard drives, and much more



Khatarnakh virus! The virus problem is a two system restore points, but just Windows. You should try

Two months back, three little too complicated to get rid it is of no use in case “system a Windows repair instead of

viruses – Khatarnakh, Ghost of manually. It would be easier restore disabled by group a reinstall. Viruses could be a

and Xplorer attacked my to install an anti-virus solution policy”. problem. Try a different anti-

PC. The Khatarnakh virus from Kaspersky, ESET or G Harshit H. Desai virus or any of the free online

spawned a process called DATA. You should use an anti- virus scanners to be sure.

khatra.exe and the other virus to remove the infection. If Firstly, Group Policy Editor

two viruses spawned ghost. all fails, you might have to do a is only available in Windows XP RAM not

exe and xplorer.exe. clean install of Windows. Professional. If you’re using a recognised

These viruses have disabled different version, you won’t be I just assembled my new PC

my Control Panel and are not Random crashes able to access it. Also, update to with Biostar TA790GXBE moth-

letting me change any set- I recently upgraded my y t

the latest Windows XP erboard and Athlon X2 245 with

tings. I tried opening it from Acer system seven to eight Watch Windows XP SP2. The problem

C:\Windows\System32\ months ago. It has an Intel the Q&A is that my computer recognises

segment

control.exe, but it just dis- Core 2 Duo processor, 2 on Digit TV only 768 MB RAM instead of

plays a warning window with GB DDR 2 RAM, and the 1 GB installed. My older

the message This opera- 320 GB hard drive. It was s Pentium 4 system recognised

tion has been cancelled working fine for the last seven the same RAM stick as 0.99 GB.

due to restrictions on months, but all of a sudden The PC was assembled into

your computer. Please it starts giving “Generic Host a Zebronics cabinet. Everything

contact your system Controller” errors while surfing. works fine, except the front

administrator. Using the DOS window, Win- Service Pack 3. Try updating all audio-in / out ports. Even the

In fact, there is no Control dows closes in just five to six your drivers for the system, and Realtek audio manager does

Panel icon on my desktop. I seconds. I’m unable to run C++ also run a thorough memory not recognise these ports. My

deleted the viruses from all the compilers and environments. scan of the system. shop keeper told me this is a

locations and even removed To overcome this problem, The random closing of the usual problem with present day

the registry entries. After I formatted my C drive and DOS window is really odd. It cabinets.

deleting the viruses, other installed a licenced version of could be memory problems or Rajdeep Banik

shortcuts such as [Alt]+[F4] Windows XP and also activated

have got enabled. I cannot it. On the second day, the same

even set my Desktop back- problem occurred. So, I tried

ground and also the title bar enabling system restore, but it

of Internet Explorer displays is shown as disabled by group

“Internet Exploiter” instead of policy. I have tried to enable

“Internet Explorer”. system restore using the

The registry editor is also gpedit.msc command, but it

disabled. I access it from doesn’t work. I have formatted

“TuneUp Utilities 2008” soft- the system again. At present,

ware. My system has an Intel the system is running nor-

Celeron M Processor 530, mally and system restore can

512MB DDR2 RAM, and Win- be done also. I have checked

dows Vista Ultimate Edition. for virus also. System doesn’t

Vinay have any viruses. I have created Setting the audio controller to AC97 can allow you to use audio on front ports





90 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Chrome 520

Need battery? VIA confident about their Chrome 520 graphics

Intel’s Pine Trail platform improves battery life, but solution that promises Blu-ray playback using

doesn’t match NVIDIA’s ION in graphics performance hardware acceleration Q&A





Most motherboards with Master and 460 W PSU should be enough Memtest86+ to ensure that

on-board graphics use a part slaves problems for my GPU. I also plan to get there are no problems with it.

of the system memory as I have just assembled my new a 320GB / 500 GB WD HDD Yes, you can install Windows

graphics memory. This has to PC and am facing a problem next month. Do you foresee 7 on your system.

be set from the BIOS itself. If while installing the OS. The any power issues?

you haven’t changed it, then it BIOS detects the hard drive Denis S. D’Souza MSCONFIG

might be using the default 256 as Master, but it does not missing

MB. We suggest upgrading to 2 detect my DVD drive. I’m Make sure that the hard My age old machine (Pentium

GB of memory anyway. unable to boot from the DVD drive is set as the master 4 – 1.7 GHz, Intel 845 moth-

Most cabinets don’t support drive. The HDD and the DVD drive and the DVD drive as erboard, 512 SD RAM with

HD audio on the front ports. drive are both IDE. I am using the Slave. Here, MA stands Windows XP SP3) recently

You’ll have to use the AC97 a single IDE cable to connect for Master, SL for Slave and refusing to open MSCONFIG.

codec option in the BIOS and them. The DVD drive powers CS for Cable Select. There I run Comodo Firewall and

use those connectors from the up properly and I can eject cannot be two master drives Avast 4.8 Home. I have also

or slave drives on a single performed full scan with

IDE interface. Ad Aware 2009, Spybot, Bit

A good 460 W PSU should Defender, Advanced System

be just about sufficient for Care, Doctor Alex, EMCO

your configuration. An addi- malware destroyer and sev-

tional hard drive shouldn’t be eral others with out any help.

a problem. All scan reports indicate

there is no infection. All the

Windows error above mentioned software

My desktop PC configuration have been updated.

is as follows: Sudipta Sarkar

• Processor – Intel Core 2 Duo

E7400 The application msconfig

• Motherboard – GIGABYTE S might be corrupted or

Deep Freeze helps prevent any kind of data damage or loss series missing. There could be

• RAM – Umax 1 GB another reason – the PATH

motherboard to the front panel the tray normally. I suspect a • HDD – Samsung 160 GB variable might have been

for it to work. jumper issue here. • Monitor – AOC 18.5-inch LCD changed. Try clicking on

The DVD drive has three I installed Windows XP Start > Run. Type C:\WIN-

Frozen in place sets of pins labelled as – MA, (SP3) on my system, but after DOWS\SYSTEM32\MSCONFIG.

I had installed Deep Freeze, SL, CS. The jumper is on the MA booting it started hanging, EXE. Check if it runs. If yes,

but it isn’t getting uninstalled. pin. My system configuration is showing errors and I was not then the variables need

It does not show up in the as follows: able to acces any application to be reset.

Control Panel or in the system • Motherboard – Gigabyte on my system. I reinstalled the Press [Windows] +

tray. I have manually ended GA-EP45-UD3L OS but it failed. I would also like [Pause]. Go to the Advanced

the process through the task

manager and deleted the soft-

ware from the Program Files.

After restarting the computer

however, it comes back. What

should I do?

Moshai Dada Missing or corrupted MSCONFIG can throw up such errors



One of the easiest ways is • PSU – Cooler Master Extreme to know whether I can install system properties and look

to try installing the software Power 460W Windows7 on my system. for system variables. Add

once again and then removing • GPU – ZOTAC GeForce Ravi Shankar Chakravorty an entry for C:\WINDOWS\

it from the Control Panel. GTX260 S Y S T E M 3 2 \ for PATH

Also, look for an uninstalla- • CPU – Intel Core 2 Duo E7400 The problem might variable.

tion application in the instal- • RAM – Kingston 1 GB 800 be with the hard drive or If MSCONFIG.EXE isn’t

lation folder or within the MHz memory. You’ll have to run a present, repair it using the

Start menu. Also, please let me know if the thorough disk scan and use Windows installation disc.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 91

Killer Rigs Price Watch

Street smart 94 We list the perfect buy for

every budget 95 The most up-to-date street

prices for hardware









Thrash those messy wires

Wires are almost ancient technology, and choosing wireless

peripherals is a great way to have an organised desk, and inter-

face with your machine in a more comfortable, flexible manner



Agent 001 be well laid out

agent001@thinkdigit.com Generally wireless devices are associated and I liked the

with lag, which makes them forbidden feedback on the









W

hen shopping for a for gamers. While current generation keys, this is very

wireless keyboard wireless mice are pretty accurate and important for

and mouse remember fast, the best wireless mouse will never be someone who

that while combos as accurate as a good wired USB mouse. is going to be

are available and convenient, people Therefore gamers will want wired stuff. doing a lot of

might have specific requirements – for People often ask me if there is any differ- typing – like me.

example, a gamer might want a high-DPI ence between buying wireless periph- He assured me

laser mouse and a regular keyboard. erals from small, less known brands as that a set of two

Or an HTPC user might want a high- opposed to Logitech and Microsoft. The AA batteries

end keyboard with a lot of multimedia answer goes thus – larger companies would last me

functions along with a simple, no frills simply spend more on research and this for more than

mouse. The ultimate combo would be leads to better, more ergonomic, more a year and this

the combination of the best mouse and durable and comfortable products. It one supported

keyboard, but such setups can exceed also makes a difference in perform- the unified receiver as well. Then I asked

10,000 bucks. For example, I came across ance, battery life and range for wireless him to show me a mouse to go with this.

this beautiful Logitech Cordless Desktop peripherals. Bluetooth is emerging as He asked me if I would be interested in

MX5500. Priced at Rs. 10,800, it consists a technology for wireless connectivity the MX Revolution. It’s surely a great

of the Logitech MX keyboard and the MX and the major advantage is one saves a mouse, but for 5000 bucks, I could get

Revolution mouse. This is the ultimate USB port. This makes a huge difference a new hard drive, so I told him I wasn’t

combo as the keyboard is really well laid on a notebook, where USB ports are a interested. Then he showed me the

out. It even has a small LCD and has a lot premium. Bluetooth also allows pairing M305 priced at Rs. 1,100. A plain mouse,

of shortcut keys. The dealer who had this with multiple devices, so one mouse can with a good 1000 dpi sensor, the M305

initially tried to divert me to some of the be used on multiple systems, as long as has a tilt scroll wheel — very impor-

cheaper offerings in his shop evidently the PC in question supports Bluetooth, tant for people like me who use a lot of

hoping to make a sale. Upon seeing my which can be added by adding a simple MS Excel. I tried hassling a good deal,

interest he relented. “Most of the dealers 350 buck dongle. Sadly Bluetooth offer- but to no avail. I asked for something

in Lamington Road will not even stock ings are not as wide in terms of choice cheaper and was shown the MS Optical

such an expensive combo” he said. I had as the dongle-based wireless devices. Desktop 1000 for 1,950 bucks - a good

to agree and the products do look fabu- Logitech has a neat technology they option except that I didn’t like either the

lously well built, but 10 grand for some- call “Unified Receiver” which basically keyboard or mouse as much. Finally,

thing I’d use for typing and an HTPC covers an umbrella of devices that can be sensing my reluctance, he offered to give

remote – you’ve got to be kidding me! used with one wireless receiver, meaning me a discount if I purchased both the

The Logitech Wireless Desktop if you buy a mouse and keyboard sepa- Logitech keyboard and mouse – I had

MK250 is one of the cheapest Logitech rately from Logitech and both support not told him I was interested in a combo,

combos available, at Rs. 1,400 and is a the unified receiver, they can be used but had mentioned interest in wireless

good choice for someone looking at a together, with a single receiver, thereby keyboards and then gone on to browse

quality product. For someone looking freeing up a USB port. I also came across mice. Feigning reluctance I hesitated,

at a quality notebook mouse I recom- one Microsoft product, the Wireless while my mind wildly calculated. I told

mend the Logitech VX 450 Nano, that Optical Desktop 700, priced at Rs. 2,000. him that I would be interested in both if

features a really tiny receiver that you The next shop had a Logitech Wireless he could give them to me for 3,000 bucks.

can leave plugged in to your notebook Keyboard K350, priced at Rs. 2,600 – I We haggled and I finally got him down

or netbook without fear of anything really liked the design and the multi- to 3,300 - a good 400 rupees less than

getting damaged while travelling. media keys. The keypad also seemed to the cost. Finally I found a solution.





92 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Where to write in Need help quick?

Drop in a mail to agent001@thinkdigit.com, Head over to the troubleshooting section of the

and Agent will do his best to solve them Thinkdigit.com forums, an active and helpful community Agent 001





I plan to buy a laptop soon which suggest the LG KS660, although it will be The answer is an emphatic yes. You

will be used for website designing, priced above the Rs. 10,000 mark. haven’t mentioned a budget so I’m going

database management and Java Nokia’s 5230 is priced at Rs. 10,000 and to assume you will be willing to spend at

programming. I am confused between has a touch screen, it also has a good least Rs. 4,000. For that price you can

two brands — Dell and Lenovo. My battery and display, but a very ordinary pick up a GeForce 9600GT from brands

budget is around Rs. 35,000 and I’d like camera. Other than that you have the like ZOTAC and Palit. If you can spend

to get at least a Core 2 duo and at least option of non-touch phones. In such a Rs. 6,500 or so, you can pick up a

2GB RAM. Also, it would be good if it case look at Sony Ericsson’s W595, also PowerColor or Sapphire Radeon

comes with genuine Windows 7. I give priced at the 10K mark. HD 4850.

equal importance to after purchase

service of the product and I’m not I’m all set to purchase a new I want to buy a cell phone with a

aware of any Dell service center here, LCD 32-inch. I have picked Sony as a big screen with a high resolution and

in Kolkata. Please help me on this. brand because I’ve heard their TVs are excellent video quality. Secondly, I

Rupanjan Chatterjee better, but I’m really confused want very good sound quality compa-

between two models. The models in rable to iPods and Sandisk Sansas. My

I think from among the two brands question are the Sony Bravia price range is from Rs 10,000 to

you have mentioned you will find only KLV-32W550A and KLV-32V550A/B. 15,000. The main thing is that it should

Pentium Dual Cores for that price range. Which is better and is there anything be a perfect media companion. The

For a little more, and as little as else I can consider? camera quality should be decent as an

Rs. 37,000 or so, you can pick up a Ravi D over performing camera is not

notebook from Lenovo with 3 GB of RAM required. I was thinking of buying only

and a decent Core 2 Duo in the range of Amongst the two HDTVs former has a Sony Ericsson phones as my first phone

the T6600 (2.2 GHz). 100 Hz display, but this does not justify was Sony Ericsson and I would like to

the price difference of Rs. 16,000 or so. stick to the company. Please give a

I want to buy a 19-22 inch LCD You are better off with the KLV- recommendation even if the price of

monitor; that doubles as a TV. Budget 32V550A/B. May I also recommend the phone exceeds my range. I was

is around Rs. 13,000 32PFL5609/98, available for around Rs. thinking of the SE Aino.

Manish Saini 40,000. This is a full HD display (1080p) Adi Mukherjee

and is pretty good value for the

Look at the LG M197WA, we have performance it offers. If you are looking to grossly

tested the 22-inch version (Rs. 12,990) overshoot your budget the

and it was pretty decent. My current PC Love Digit? Aino is for you, but be

configuration is:- Like Facebook? prepared to shell out

I was planning to buy a cellphone, Motherboard: Become a Digit Facebook around Rs. 26,000. Else

probably a touch screen, with a decent Gigabyte fan and win the hottest spend Rs. 15,000 and get

camera with flash and at least 1 GB of 945GCM-S2L movies of 2009. Head to the Nokia 5800 Xpress

inbuilt or bundled memory space RAM: 2 GB www.thinkdigit.com/d/ Music.

(expandable memory). It should also Processor: Intel Core fan to find out how

have a music player, FM receiver, 2 Duo E7500 2.93Ghz I am planning to buy a

Bluetooth receiver, Wi-Fi support, Graphics card: Nvidia good sound card for around

Internet support and should be able to GeForce 7300/7200 GS Rs.3,000. It should be good for

record videos at a minimum resolution 512Mb Music and OK for games. I am consid-

of 480p. Plus the internal phone This configuration is enough accord- ering Creative X-fi Xtreme Audio. Is

memory space should also be suffi- ing to the recommended configuration this OK? Also please clarify some

cient. The battery life should also be needed for games like Batman Arkham doubts. Is Asus Xonar DX better

sufficient to last at-least a day. My first Asylum, Crysis and applications like than Creative X-Fi Xtreme Audio? I

choice is Nokia phones. A similiar Maya etc. But still these games and have a budget 5.1 speakers Creative

phone from any company would be applications are not running to their SBS A500, Can I experience the power

equally acceptable. My budget is Rs. full capacity on my PC. Is it because my of the sound card with this speaker?

10,000 and I cannot spend any more. graphics card is old? If yes, are there What is the price of these cards?

Saurabh Mittal any better (and less expensive) options C.Karthik

available for my current motherboard? I recommend the ASUS Xonar DX, a

480p video recording is a little tough Or would I have to give my system a good sound card for Rs. 3,600 or so.

to find on your budget, but if you want a complete overhaul? ASUS is considered to use quality

decent phone that has touch capabilities I Shobhit Khinvasara materials on their soundcards.





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 93

KILLER RIGS

Basic rig = Rs. 23,000

Multimedia cum gaming rig = Rs. 32,250



everything you will ever need to build your own PC. whatever your budget. High-end PC / Gaming rig = Rs. 50,950

Ultra high-end PC / Gaming rig = Rs. 1,10,500





PRIMARY SECONDARY COMPONENTS

COMPONENTS

CABINET POWER SUPPLY MOUSE









PROCESSOR

AMD AthlonII X2 240 / Rs. 3,000

AMD Athlon 2 X4 620 / Rs. 5,050

Phenom X4 945 / Rs. 8,100 VIP 350 Watts / Rs. 850 Logitech 3 button scroll / Rs. 300

Intel Core i7 920 / Rs. 14,400 VIP 400W Gold / Rs. 850 Logitech 3 button scroll / Rs. 300

Corsair VX 450 / Rs. 3,800 Logitech MX518 / Rs. 1,300

Corsair HX 620 / Rs. 7,100 Logitech MX518 / Rs. 1,300





Zebronics Antibiotic / Rs. 2,100 SPEAKER OPTICAL DRIVE

Zebronics Antibiotic / Rs. 2,100

CoolerMaster 690 / Rs. 4,400

Antec 900 / Rs. 6,500





SOUND CARD

MOTHERBOARD None

ASUS NVIDIA 7025 M2N68-AM None

Rs. 2,250 None

Gigabyte MA78GM-US2H ASUS Xonar DX / Rs. 3,700

Rs. 4,200 None LG H55N / Rs. 1,100

ASUS M4A78-PRO / Rs. 5,850 Altec Lansing VS2421 / Rs. 2,200 LG H55N / Rs. 1,100

MSI X58 Pro-E / Rs. 11,400 Altec Lansing VS2421 / Rs. 2,200 LG H55N / Rs. 1,100

Altec Lansing MX 5021 / Rs. 6,500 ASUS BC-1205PT / Rs. 11,010









KEYBOARD

RAM Logitech Multimedia / Rs. 400

2 x 1 GB DDR2 800 MHz (Kingston) / Logitech Multimedia / Rs. 400

Rs. 2,000 Logitech G15 / Rs. 4,400

2 x 1 GB DDR2 800 MHz (Kingston) / Logitech G15 / Rs. 4,400

Rs. 2,000

2 x 2GB DDR2 800 MHz (Corsair) /

Rs. 4,000

2 x 3 GB Corsair Dominator 1600 MHz

DDR3 / Rs 8,000





GRAPHICS CARD

MISCELLANEOUS

None

ZOTAC GeForce TABLET HEADPHONES PRINTING SOLUTIONS

9600GT / Rs. 4,750

Sapphire Radeon HD

4850 / Rs. 6,900

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870 / Rs. 25,500





HARD DRIVE









None None

iBall Design Tablet PF1209 / Rs. 8,900 Sennheiser HD 201 / Rs. 1,500

Wacom Intuos4 Medium (PTK-640) Sennheiser HD 280 Pro / Rs. 5,500 Canon PIXMA iP1980 / Rs. 2,695

Rs. 21,280 Canon iP3680 / Rs. 5,595

Seagate 500 GB 7200.11 / Rs. 3,100 Epson B-500DN / Rs. 22,999

Seagate 500 GB 7200.11 / Rs. 3,100 GAMING CONTROLLERS

Seagate 1 TB 7200.12 / Rs. 4,400 MOUSEPAD

WD Black Edition 1 TB / Rs. 6,500 POWER PROTECTION





MONITOR

ViewSonic VA1928wm / Rs. 7,900

AOC 2236Vw / Rs. 8,400

AOC 2236Vw / Rs. 8,400

AOC 2436Vw / Rs. 14,500

None

Razer Goliathus Speed (Oversized) / Xbox 360 controller / Rs. 1,350 None

Rs. 1,400 Logitech Momo / Rs. 5,500 APC 550W / Rs. 2,400

Steel Series Qck Heavy / Rs. 2,000 Logitech G25 / Rs. 17,500 Numeric 1 KVA / Rs. 4,200









94 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Touchsmart netbooks New range from Kingmax

HP launches TouchSmart tm2 notebook - tablet Kingmax launch Class 10 SDHC cards with capacities Price watch

combo and three Mini series netbooks upto 32 GB and write speeds of 20 MB/sec









Spend smart The latest peripheral prices updated every

month. Go ahead, plan your configuration today



Digital Cameras

Model Market Price Tested in Sensor Optical Zoom LCD Screen Size

Canon Powershot SX120 Rs. 14,995 October 2009 10 MP 10x 3.0 inches

Canon IXUS 100IS Rs. 12,999 October 2009 12 MP 3x 2.5 inches

Canon Powershot A480 Rs. 7,499 October 2009 10 MP 3.3x 2.5 inches

Canon A1100IS Rs. 9,499 October 2009 12 MP 4x 2.5 inches

Canon IXUS 95IS Rs. 10,500 October 2009 10 MP 3x 2.5 inches

Canon SX200IS (BEST PERFORMER) Rs. 21,500 October 2009 12 MP 12x 3.0 inches

FujiFilm FinePix F200 Rs. 17,999 October 2009 12 MP 5x 3.0 inches

FujiFilm FinePix S1500 Rs. 12,500 October 2009 10 MP 12x 2.7 inches

Kodak C140 Rs. 4,999 8 MP 3x 2.4 inches

Nikon P90 Rs. 23,995 October 2009 12 MP 24x 3.0 inches

Nikon Coolpix L20 Rs. 7,750 October 2009 10 MP 3.6x 3.0 inches

Nikon S220 Rs. 8,500 October 2009 10 MP 3x 2.5 inches

Olympus FE25 Rs. 5,995 10 MP 3x 2.4 inches

Panasonic FS4 Rs. 6,750 8 MP 4x 2.5 inches

Samsung ES55 (BEST BUY) Rs. 6,990 October 2009 10 MP 3x 2.5 inches

Sony HX1 Rs. 29,800 October 2009 9 MP 20x 3.0 inches

Sony S930 Rs. 7,800 10 MP 3x 2.4 inches

Sony H20 Rs. 17,500 10 MP 10x 3.0 inches









External HDDs

Model Market Price Capacity Interface Warranty (Years)

Seagate Freeagent GO Rs. 5,150 500 GB USB 5 years

Seagate Freeagent GO Rs. 3,250 250 GB USB 5 years

Maxtor One Touch 4 Mini Rs. 3,200 250 GB USB 5 years

Transcend StoreJet Rs. 2,725 160 GB USB 2 years

Western Digital MyPassport Rs. 2,850 160 GB USB 3 years

Western Digital MyPassport Essential Rs. 4,100 640 GB USB 3 years

Western Digital MyPassport Studio Edition Rs. 7,800 1 TB USB, FireWire, eSATA 3 years









Input Devices

Model Market Price Tested In Features / Technology Interface

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 1000 Rs. 1,950 NA Wireless (optical mouse) RF

Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop 700 V2 Rs. 1,400 NA Wireless (optical mouse) RF

Logitech Internet Pro Desktop Rs. 750 NA Optical Mouse USB 2.0

Bluetooth, laser mouse with extra buttons, LCD display on

Logitech Cordless Desktop MX5500 Rs. 10,800 NA RF (Bluetooth)

keyboard

Logitech Cordless Desktop Wave Rs. 4,650 NA Ergonomic keyboard, with soft palm rest, laser mouse RF

Logitech Wireless Desktop MK250 Rs. 1,200 NA Wireless (optical mouse) RF

Zebronics Mmkeyboard + Mouse Rs. 450 NA Optical mouse USB

Microsoft Wired Desktop 600 Rs. 850 NA Optical mouse USB

Belkin n52te Rs. 3,500 February 2010 Gamepad, macro keys USB

Logitech G13 Advanced Gameboard Rs. 4,000 NA Gamepad, macro keys, LCD display USB

Logitech G15 gaming keyboard Rs. 4,400 NA Macro keys, backlit display USB

Microsoft Sindewinder X6 keyboard Rs. 3,600 NA Backlit keys, macro keys USB

Microsoft Sidewinder X5 Rs. 2,400 NA 2000 dpi, laser sensor mouse USB

Logitech MX 518 Rs. 1,300 NA 1800 dpi, IR sensor mouse USB

Logitech G5 Rs. 2,200 NA 2000 dpi, laser sensor mouse USB







Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 95

Office 2010 FB Apps

Work@Tech 98 Is Office 2010 worth the money required

to upgrade? 102 In this month’s developer’s corner, learn how

to code your own FB apps









Devices to ease you

With the recession and cut-throat competition, the office room has suddenly

become one large dangerous playground. So this time, we have decided that

it is time to equip you with the essentials for this competition on a wartime

footing. It’s war time, soldier, and the first fact of war, as always is...



Mohamed Rameez spectrum analyser. After all, the highest

readersletters@thinkdigit.com encryption network security packages

can still be compromised, and the only

Defence true defence is ensuring that no unknown

Think someone is trying to spy on you? device transmits or receives into your

Maybe it was the disturbed furniture in Wi-Fi network. A Wi-Fi spectrum ana-

your cubicle or the change in position lyser is a device that detects all transmit-

of the mouse. Maybe it is the constant ters nearby in the 2.4 GHz spectrum. It

feeling that someone is watching you. usually comes with bundled software

Whatever it is, here are some cool tools that allows you to isolate each source

for you: (transmitter) nearby and locate them

by monitoring signal strengths as you

Audio jammer ($100 to 150) move closer and farther. This is the ideal

An audio jammer works by generating tool for the professional willing to invest

a random masking noise that overloads that extra bit into his/her Wi-Fi network

and jams nearby microphones. Assured The Spy Keylogger available on thinkgeek.com security and is willing to spend loads of

to work against any microphone other time on it.

than one held extremely close to your undetectable by anti-spyware / anti- A good choice in this arena is the

mouth (a bug in your phone, perhaps), malware software, which is quite hard. Wi-Spy 2.4x Spectrum Analyzer.

this is the ultimate tool for anyone The solution is a hardware keylogger. Available on Amazon.com and

who is afraid Connected in-line between a keyboard thinkgeek.com, this tool also

that someone is and the computer (the PS/2 or USB cable works for Bluetooth interference

listening in on his from the keyboard is plugged into the and comes packed with loads of

private / confiden- keylogger, which is then plugged into the small convenient features such

tial conversations computer), this dandy little device can as record and playback of signal

at office. With a be camouflaged to look totally natural. patterns.

range of up to 10 It is the ideal tool for the office executive

metres, this device afraid of his terminal being accessed in

is ideally carried his absence, though it will do for those of

on the person, but you with more evil intentions too. The Wi-Spy 2.4x

one may choose to For a good purchase, check out the Wireless spectrum

place one in every Spy Keylogger, available from thinkgeek. analyzer. Comes with some

useful features such as frequency

The KJB Security J1000 room for organisa- com. Some more expensive models, in the and amplitude markers

Audio Jammer tion wide security. $100 to 200 range also have the option

Audio jammers of live wireless monitoring of keystrokes. A disappearing ink pen ($10 to 20)

are available in many brands. The KJB However, these models are hard to find in This one is straight from the spy movies.

Security J1000 Audio Jammer From KJB India due to regulations. You might already be familiar with

Security, available on Amazon.com, is a the invisible ink pens available on the

good bet. Wi-Fi Spectrum Analyser internet. The disappearing ink pen is

($200 to 400) nothing of the sort. It works perfectly fine

Keylogger ($50 to 150) Think someone is snooping in on your for one day notes, and the ink soon van-

While software keyloggers work just fine, office Wi-Fi network and sniffing out ishes, without a trace. Even indentations

there is the minor issue of making them packets? What you need, is a Wi-Fi on your notepad will be hard to read as





96 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Software encryption Monitor USB usage

You can use software such as TrueCrypt To be absolutely sure that sensitive data



58 to encrypt all the data in external storage

using military standard security

does not go to the wrong hands, restrict

personal memory at work Work@Tech





these pens require really from up to 50 metres away by up to A prime example is the Rovio – Wi-Fi

low pressure to read. 50decibels, these are the ultimate tools roaming bot. Small and unobtrusive, it

This manufacturer for the professionals afraid that their col- can be used for both defence and offence.

claims the technology leagues are planning something against Leave it roaming around in your office

behind the pen was them. These devices also often double as / cubicle for continuous observation, or

developed by the actual regular audio enhancers, allowing you to have it slowly sneak into enemy territory.

KGB during the cold war. listen in on birds/wildlife once clipped to Interfacing through any available nearby

a binocular, or hear that lecture better. Wi-Fi network, the Rovio can be operated

The KGB disappearing ink pen, Once again, your options aren’t completely independently from any-

available on thinkgeek.com limited and range from the cheap and where around the world, over the web.

unbranded to the expensive and cus-

A wireless camera / Microphone tomised. An unobtrusive micro scanner

detector ($20 to 200) ($100 onwards)

This is a device for the truly paranoid, or Offence The ideal tool for quickly copying those

the truly phantasmagorical. A wireless The set of gadgets in this session will give incriminating documents, these scan-

camera / microphone detector works you the full power to take the battle to the ners come in many forms, most often

other side at office. that of a pen / wristwatch. Many of them



Personal Hidden cameras

($20 to 400) The Docupen personal pen scanner

Maybe it is high time you started gath-

ering evidence of all your dealings. And come with tons of built in memory and

the ultimate solution, is a hidden camera surprisingly high resolutions, to make

on your own person. This concept, begin- sneaky document scanning a pleasant

A typical Hidden ning with the early spy movies, is even experience.

Camera Detector today one of the most popular forms of An excellent choice is the RC 805

surveillance. May it be belt buckles or car Docupen personal pen scanner. Coming

keys, sunglasses or wristwatches, hidden with a full 400 DPI resolution, this

by scanning for all transmitters within cameras can be built into almost any device lets you scan a legal size docu-

a huge frequency spectrum (20Mhz innocent looking item you carry on you. ment in as little as 4 seconds.

to 10Ghz), so that any nearby wireless Almost all shopping web sites offer you a

microphones / cameras transmitting in plethora of choices in this regard.

these frequencies can be detected. Most of

these devices come with variable channel Spybot

scanners for further narrowing down the ($150 onwards)

spectrum of scanning. For those of you who think hidden

A wide variety of branded and cameras are for pussy cats, put a camera

unbranded products in this category can on a robot, send it into enemy territory

be found on the internet. and gulp in the information. Ideal for

listening in on your co-worker’s cubicle,

A directional Accoustic Amplifier bots such as these are available with var-

($30 to 50) ious features. While some use dedicated The Rovio – Wi Fi

Your grasp of office powermongering wireless channels, some operate through roaming bot

will take a quantum leap with this device. Wi-Fi / Bluetooth frequencies.

Allowing for the amplification of sound









The Sonic superear

is a good device in

this category One of the many hidden camera devices available on the internet





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 97

Save as DOCX

Saving in the .docx format is a good idea, as it offers 2 Million

better compression for the cloud and email over the That’s the number of times the beta

Feature traditional .doc format version of Office 2010 got downloaded









Office 2010 has some great changes at first

glance, but is it really worth the upgrade?





Office 2010

worth it?

SharePoint support, and inte- Backstage View is a new feature that

gration with Windows Live. provides information of your common

This along with Office web apps tasks such as saving, printing and

means users can now access sharing documents. One of the most

their files anywhere provided useful aspects of this view is the revised

there’s an internet connec- print preview, which combines all the

tion, save files directly to their previous printing and layout options and

SharePoint server or Windows puts them next to a sleek print preview of

live and collaborate and edit your file for convenient access. Third-

documents simultaneously with party add-ins can add features to the

other users. Let us delve a little Backstage view, so you can expect the

deeper into what new Office next generation of PDF viewers, OCR

2010 promises to offer and what software, and other applications to install

it has succeeded in doing so. their own automation and integration

Rahil Banthia features inside Office applications.

readersletters@thinkdigit.com Overall improvement One minor change that could prove to

Office will now also be available in a be the biggest productivity enhancers in









S

ometime in 2010, Microsoft will 64-bit version, although average users Office 2010 is an improved copy-and-paste

release the next version of its won’t notice a significant difference. feature. When you paste anything, you

flagship Office suite. It has taken Office 2010 bridges the gap between can now paste-preview how it will look

Microsoft a long time to integrate the Windows Vista and Windows 7 eras depending on your paste choice. This is

its office suite with the web, and now that by streamlining the Ribbon user interface like an improvement we didn’t know we

it is finally arriving, everyone’s asking and extending it to encompass all the wanted, but realised it’s cool to have it.

whether it will provide enough change to Office applications. The overall experi- New photo-editing options are avail-

entice an upgrade, or will it just remain ence has also been tweaked by bringing able in some Office applications, like

a routine update for those still stuck on its layout and structure in line with the sharpening or softening, changing the

Office 2003? Ribbon objects from the Windows 7 SDK. contrast and colour saturation, cropping,

After a few days of testing the beta ver- Users can now customise the ribbon remove background option, and a variety

sion of Office 2010, we’re impressed by the without having to delve into XML to add of Photoshop-wannabe “artistic effects.”

solid effort Microsoft has put in to polish their own tabs and commands. There is an Insert Screenshot icon on the

and expand upon the groundwork it laid The layout of the underlying button ribbon which is kind of like [Windows] +

with Office 2007, while continuing to add menu has been changed considerably. It [S] in OneNote 2007. It lets you bliss-

new features. The ribbon-interface has is now a customised, window-spanning fully illustrate your documents with

been refined and enhanced. Outlook now alternative view that combines informa- anything on your display.

comes with a powerful feature that com- tion about the currently selected object

bines your email with social networking with various actions and configuration Microsoft Word 2010

sites such as Facebook and LinkedIn. options. And the view is also context sen- There’s not much you can add to Word,

Microsoft has clearly focused a lot on sitive, as in it adapts itself to match your but the new interface is simple, and

network collaboration with improved current work status. packed with some new small features









Word now has an improved and smoother ribbon with added features



98 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Ribbon Hero Adware Office Suite?

Discover all the great features hidden in Office Microsoft will now start offering ad-supported versions of

2010, by installing Ribbon hero by Microsoft labs MS Office for machines with a Windows installation Feature









that makes common tasks smoother and Those who like to stylise their The conditional formatting feature has

existing tools more powerful. There is documents will be pleased by a few also been overhauled, and new styles and

even a protected view that warns you new additions .Word still has the text icons have been added.

about documents you’ve downloaded and Effects button on the Home tab like One new feature in Excel is Pow-

offers to open them in read-only mode. Office 2007 that gives you presets plus erPivot which lets you quickly scroll

Backstage menu has been imple- custom effects. But, now you can add through millions of rows of data in sec-

mented well in the new word. For those special effects such as glow, bevel, reflect onds for large data sheets. Complicated

of you, who use some files frequently, you and shadow to text. More sophisticated charts render far faster than Excel 2007

can promote them to the Backstage menu typography, such as using ligatures and (which introduced a powerful but slow

itself. The new Add-Ins menu keeps your small caps is also supported. new charting engine) although still not

third-party programs and add-ons well as fast as they used to do in 2003 (lesser

organized and managed. Microsoft Excel 2010 functionality then, of course). Spread

The new navigation pane for Excel hasn’t been worked upon as much sheets now load and save more quickly

searching is a boon. You can even search as the other applications in Office 2010, (especially if you’re using the binary XLS

charts, tables, footnotes and other but nevertheless it gets the same general format). Statistical functions in Excel

content now. The search interface opens improvements in the interface; the look have previously been notoriously inaccu-

as a left-hand pane, with a good set of is simpler and cleaner, you can add rate. But Excel 2010 has newly accurate

option. It also displays a navigable map Recent files to the backstage menu like statistical functions signed off for accu-

of thumbnails of your document like in Word and the print preview has been racy by professional number-crunchers.

Adobe Reader. thoroughly improved and now lets you If you use pivot tables, a new fea-

The new version of Word also makes see the margins and zoom in-zoom out ture called “slices” makes it easier to

it more convenient to insert pictures. feature has been added to see the whole explore the information; unlike having

You can make significant edits, such as page or zoom in to read individual cells. to turn columns and categories on and

adjusting the brightness and contrast,

changing the image to grey scale,

adding drop shadows, and more even

after the image has been inserted into

your document. You can now access Excel spreadsheets from a browser without having Office installed on your system





Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 99

Banned in the US Go free

Sale of Office with the DOCX extension was banned If you’re looking for a budget alternative

in the US last year, over a patent issue. Microsoft to Excel, try Calc by OpenOffice, the most

Feature has now released a patch to fix it downloaded free office productivity suite







in a browser, and create notes that are Web App also encompasses Multi-user

automatically linked to the document in co-authoring. With all this, something

the other application. It also finally gets very important is missing. There is

the Ribbon interface, plus the advanced no automatic synchronisation of files

typographic features available in Word. between the Web-based version of Office

Navigation through notebooks has also and the client version. This can poten-

been improved. The search feature in tially be very confusing; you can end up

OneNote has been augmented as well, with different versions of the some docu-

Recording a slideshow as a video as previously it was not particularly ment in different locations on your PC

useful. You can now specify some and the web and simply not know which

off in the task pane like in previous advanced options as to whether to the latest version is.

versions. With “Sparklines” that can search on a page or in a section, group, You wouldn’t want to use Office Web

be embedded in any worksheet, you individual notebook or all notebooks. Apps instead of a full desktop version

can add instant visualisations to your Earlier all the clipped information from given the choice but they’ll be great when

data that give you a picture of what the web browsers, snapshots of the screen and you’re away from your home computer.

numbers mean without creating a chart the results of “Send to OneNote” used to go And it is Microsoft’s first direct take at

for every cell. You might take some time under the Unfiled Notes section, but now Google Docs.

learning to exploit them, but these give you can now pick which section to put that

you the kind of visualisations we’re information in. You can even put multiple Final Thoughts

getting used to seeing in Web 2.0 apps clips on the same page. The big question with any new version

inside your spread sheet. OneNote 2010 also makes it extremely of Microsoft Office is not “how good is

easy to share notebooks and collaborate it?”. It is rather “Is it so much better that

Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 with other people in them. They can work you should upgrade?”. It appears that

The most useful addition to PowerPoint in the same page; even at the same time if Microsoft has made extensive usability









Quick Access toolbar



is the ability to broadcast a presentation necessary. Whatever they add is high- improvements across the entire Office

online. Others can view it on their web lighted and marked with their initials suite. This version of Office adds some

browsers without having PowerPoint to remove confusion. There are a host of very useful new features, such as Paste-

installed. There’s a set of basic video other small improvements like editing Preview, a standardised Office-wide

editing tools built directly into PowerPoint equations, and translation tools which reliance on the Ribbon, Backstage View,

2010. You can now embed videos directly work across multiple languages. OneNote Office Web Apps, video-editing tools in

from online video-sharing sites such as 2010 also has excellent ink support. PowerPoint and much improved email

YouTube. Although you can apply video handling in Outlook. Even perform-

styles to an online vide, reflections, crops Office Web Apps ance wise, it seems a big improvement

and rotations don’t work. The final major feature in the Office on Office 2003, and slightly so on Office

You can now merge two presenta- 2010 is the addition of Office Web 2007 and doesn’t have significant prob-

tions. PowerPoint 2010 is also a lot Apps. Office Word App lets you create, lems. Generally, the interface feels more

better at recovering unsaved files now, edit, and save Word documents. Office polished and everything more accessible.

and you can recover previous versions PowerPoint App lets you create and edit This version of Office might not wow you,

of your current document and record presentations from the web. You can but the improvements are solid. While

your presentations as videos, a feature even pick themes and slide layouts. You most of the normal people can likely do

which was missing in both Office 2003 can also insert animations, pictures, without any of these latest additions,

and Office 2007 and was continuously charts, and tables into existing Power- somewhere there’s one of you who has

in demand. Point presentations. Office Excel web been dying for each one of them. If you

application allows you to create, edit are still stuck on Office 2003, we would

OneNote 2010 and, save workbooks. You can even use suggest you definitely want to board the

OneNote is powered up and now boasts the same formulas online like in the train and go the Office 2010 way. For

of a powerful “linked” notes feature that client version of the program. All these those of you using Office 2007, we would

lets you work in any Word or Power- applications have inbuilt Auto-correct suggest to stick to it unless there’s some

Point document, or while viewing pages and background spell checking. Office new feature that you desperately want.





100 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Facebook on PS3 Cluttered Facebook?

The release of firmware 3.10 just broadened the social Soon, Facebook shall introuduce ‘Dashboard’ for third-party

Developer corner networking horizon on the PS3, adding Facebook support applications enabling a cleaner look









Your own

Rahil Banthia

readersletters@thinkdigit.com





Setting up

Before you actually start writing your

application, you need to register your

application with Facebook and get some

application-specific information that will

Facebook app

be essential for your application to com- Facebook is the latest rage in the social networking

municate with the Facebook platform. By arena. With innumerable apps out there, it’s easy to

this, we mean the API key and the secret get lost in Facebook. Find out how you can tap the

key that needs to be specified in your

code.

exciting side of Facebook by creating your own app

Log into your Facebook account and

go to www.facebook.com/developers. Add the

application to your Facebook profile. On using the API and is run like a normal and ASP.net by its collaborated project

the top right corner, you will see the “Set desktop application. with Microsoft – http://www.codeplex.com/

up New Application” button. Click on it. Now go the Authentication Options FacebookToolkit. The unofficial libraries of

Give your application a name that helps tab. Here you can select who all can several other programming languages

others identify it. Agree to Facebook add your application to their Facebook can also be found on the Facebook Devel-

Terms and Conditions and click on save account. Specify a URL in the Post- opers Wiki http://wiki.developers.facebook.com.

changes. Authorize callback URL text box. It is Now you need to uncompress the

Now that the basic stuff is in place, the URL that the Facebook sends a noti- downloaded file and copy the client file

you’ll need a logo to associate with this fication to, once a user authorises your libraries in the folder that you specified as

application. This just makes it easy for application. Select the wide option in your canvas URL while setting up your

people to recognise your application. the Default Profile Box column

Let us also add a description because for a rich experience. Also fill in

then it becomes easy for people to find the URL that you want users to

your application through the Facebook get redirected to after installing

application directory. You can also add your application in the Post-

an email address that people can use for Authorize redirect URL on

technical support. the Canvas page. Make it your

Head over straight to the canvas tab. canvas URL, basically the URL

There you will see render methods. You you typed in the base URL field

have to choose between iFrame and earlier.

FBML. For this example to be simple, we Finally, Click the Submit

will use FBML. Choose it and click on button. You will be taken to the

save changes. You also need to populate My Applications page where The canvas page of settings

the base and callback URL for your appli- you will get access to your API key

cation. Base URL is the just the fancy and the secret key along with other meta application. The PHP client library that

URL name that other people will be using information about your application. we will be using is under the main folder

to access your application page. Facebook named Facebook-platform. Next you need

will provide immediate feedback if that Creating your Facebook to create a new file named appinclude.

URL is unavailable, in which case you application php. You can use Dreamviewer to do this

should pick something else. The callback Now that you have your API and secret or even simple text editing softwares

URL is the actual stuff that points the key, you are ready to create an application such as Notepad. This file will contain the

application to your server. Make sure you using the Facebook client library. We are Facebook initialisation code required by

enter the URL of the folder in which your more or less done on the Facebook site as your application to connect to the Face-

index.php and other pages are located of now. First thing you need to do now is book platform. You will have to include

and not the actual index.php URL. to download the client library files of the this file in all other PHP files in your

Next head over the Advanced settings programming language that you will be application because this will contain your

option. Select website for this example as using (PHP, in our case) by going to the API key, secret key and callback URL.

we will be creating a traditional web app My Applications page or http://www.facebook. Type out the following code in this file:

that integrates with Facebook and not a com/developers/apps.php. Facebook officially do with your application. For starters, we

These are basically the title of your could do the following:

application, the PHP start and end

tags and a require_once statement to Add content to the Profile

Set-up the application type to web include appinclude.php file. box of your application

You can play around this page as you You probably want your application to

desire. Let us make our application dis- have some content when it appears as a

play the user’s name. For this, you need box of the profile page. To set this up, all

to type in the following php code in your you need to do is add some code to the

index.php after the necessary code- index.php file just after the require_

The profiles tab echo “Your user name once ‘appinclude.php’ statement.

platform/client/facebook.php’; is: Hey,

$appapikey = ‘[api_key]’; useyou=\”false\”/>”; ! This Digit

$appcallbackurl = ‘[web_app_ FBML tag to render the name of the cur- test Application is part of a

callbackurl]’; rent user. If you want to add a list of your sample guide to creating your

$facebook = new

Facebook($appapikey, $appsecret);

$user = $facebook->require_

login();

try {

if (!$facebook->api_client-

>users_isAppAdded()) {

$facebook->redirect($facebook-

>get_add_url());

} Download the client libraries from the same application summary page

} catch (Exception $ex) {

$facebook->set_user(null, Facebook friends, you can do this by the own Facebook applications.”;

null); following code in your index.php- $facebook->api_client-

$facebook- echo “Your friends: ”; >profile_setFBML($default_text);

>redirect($appcallbackurl); $friends = $facebook->api_

} client->friends_get(); Add an about page

?> echo “”; You also should add an about page for

Replace the API key, secret key and foreach ($friends as $friend) your application so that Facebook users

the callback URL wherever required. { get to know what your application is all

Next log on to your web server (your echo “”; Before we begin our journey, Go back to www.facebook.

path in the require_once statement of } there are a few things you need com/developers, and click

to know. In order to create

the appinclude.php file we just wrote echo “”; a Facebook application, you on See My Apps button

requires your app files to be located in a To try out this applica- should probably know or need in the My applications

separate parallel folder with the Face- tion, save the file, and the following: box. Next, click on Edit

book client libraries. This step is flexible copy it into your applica- A place to host your Application Profile. Here

application, i.e. a web server,

as you can change the path of facebook. tion folder on your web or an access to some hosting is where you can also

php in appinclude.php if your folder server. Next enter the space, or you can even use a modify your Application

structure differs. canvas page URL of your free web-hosting web site. name and the description

Basic PHP knowledge,

You are now ready to write index.php application after making which you initially gave

although we have tried hard to

of your application. The necessary code sure you are logged into get through with as little coding while setting up your

in that file has to be- Facebook in your web- experience as required and you application. Add up all

Digit Test Application rected to your callback application and click on

knowledge whatsoever.

to 567678

OR



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Fancy Desktop? Here’s how digit

reader Akshat Tandon from

Lucknow did it:

PC is running Windows 7 with desktop customising software Bump Top

is providing all the 3D wall effects. A theme for Bump Top called Under

the Ice is used to provide all the frosting. The two gadgets are standard

Windows 7 gadgets, one is the clock gadget provided by default and

other is the weather bug gadget. The Aero Firefox is created by the use

of following addons – Strata40, Strata Buddy, App Tabs and Fission. The

icons are arranged manually. The photo frame and the sticky note are

simply default features of Bump Top.









Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com 109

You are the weakest point

The weakest link in the security chain is often cited as Phishing and Pharming

you. No amount of spam detection and internet security Always check the complete URL of a web site in the

Consumer protection suites will protect you from a good con address bar before keying in your login details









Consumer Protection

How to get help if your online presence is compromised

Siddharth Parwatay Denial of Service – In this case the extract headers from such email. You will

siddharth.parwatay@thinkdigit.com cyber criminal floods the bandwidth usually find this in “view full message”

of the victim’s network with repeated or “view source” type of options in mail









W

hen we live half our requests. Eventually this consumes the clients or web based mail. The Mumbai

lives in the cyber world, bandwidth of the network which then CCIC web site gives exact details on this

there are bound to be fails to serve legitimate requests and procedure. In case of a hacking attack you

cyber crimes. Today ultimately breaks down. should take along and retain:

our life is increasingly dependent on the Hacking – This involves illegal / Server Logs, Copy of defaced web page

online world be it electronic documents, unauthorised intrusion into a computer in soft copy as well as hard copy format, if

transactions, communication and even system or network. your website is defaced

livelihood. In such a scenario there will Cyber impersonation / Cyber If data is compromised on your server or

certainly be undesirable elements in this defamation – If someone sets up a fake computer or any other network equip-

world who will try to invade your peace. profile of you on a social networking web ment, soft copy of original data and soft

Here we will give you the lowdown on all site and posts from that profile. copy of compromised data.

the cyber crimes you should know about, Online Fraud – This includes any- Access control mechanism details i.e.-

and what steps you should take to report thing from phishing web sites, email who had what kind of the access to the

the crime to the proper authorities. First scams, virus hoax emails. Fraudsters compromised system

lets look at, what cyber crime means. The create seemingly authentic web sites List of suspects – if the victime sus-

Banglore Cyber Crime branch defines it or email the victim to divulge sensitive pects anyone

as “an unlawful act wherein the computer information such as login ids and pass- And relevant descriptive answers

is either a tool or a target or both” words. that will give information leading to the

Here are some of the common cyber In all of the above you need to report answers to what, who, when, why, where.

crimes and what is involved in each these crimes to the nearest Cyber Crimes You should also write a complaint

of them. We asked Mr. Rakesh Goyal Investigation Cell or nearest police letter, with a description of what has or

for advice on prevention methods and station. Certain police stations in the appears to have happened and explaining

reporting advice. Mr. Goyal is a veteran of country have been assigned as Cyber in what way you are a victim or aggrieved

IT Security for 18 years with 6 books and Police Stations. In case of hacking, intru- party. Backup all data, as it is evidence.

50 research papers. He is the Managing sion attempts and online frauds, you Once, the prima-facie case is established,

Director of Sysman Computers Private should also report to CERT in addition to the FIR is registered. “If the proper leads

Limited and Director-General, Centre for the nearest CCIC. are available, the success rate is over 90

Research and Prevention of Computer per cent in case of email, Orkut, Facebook

Crimes. What do you need to related crimes or harassment, if origi-

take along with you while nated in India,” says Mr. Goyal.

Cyber Crimes registering the complaint? Below, you will find a list of relevant

Email abuse – Receiving vulgar In case of email abuse the Mumbai CCIC contact details of important cyber secu-

e-mail from a known or unknown person. advices you not delete the mail and to rity centres around the country.

This may include receipt of threatening /

abusive / obscene content. Organisation Contact

Email hacking / Privacy attack – Chennai

cyberac@rediffmail.com

ACP Cyber Crime Cell

Someone accesses your email or social

networking account Mumbai officer@cybercellmumbai.com

Cyber Stalking – Cyber-stalking Cyber Crime Investigation Cell cybercell.mumbai@mahapolice.gov.in

refers to the use of the Internet, e-mail, or Hyderabad cidap@cidap.gov.in

other electronic communications devices Crime Investigation Department http://www.cidap.gov.in/cybercrimes.aspx

to stalk, follow or keep track of another Bengaluru ccps@kar.nic.in

person. In cyber stalking the criminal Cyber Crime Police Station http://www.cyberpolicebangalore.nic.in/

commits repeated acts of harassment or Indian Computer Emergency

incident@cert-in.org

threatening behaviour towards the victim Response Ream (CERT)

by using Internet services such as email Trivandrum

www.cyberkeralam.in

or social networking web sites. Cyber Crime Reporting Center





110 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

SKOAR! Special





THE SKOAR

9



sequences, you now have hover boots

with booster pads strewn around the

environment for increased speed and

spectacular jumps. As always, there is

interplanetary travel, but rather than a

simple cut scene, you can now manual

travel from planet to planet and complete

side-missions on the way. These small

Sameer Desai that with Nefarious and Qwark around, planets yield collectibles and power ups

readersletters@thinkdigit.com the potential for humour is immense, and and house some of the best classic plat-

this game doesn’t disappoint. The writing forming segments in the game.









A

t a time when games are is brilliant and the loveable characters Weapons also feel just right. All your

increasingly becoming about will definitely get a chuckle out of you at weapons, and even your space ship, can

bigger guns, more blood, least a few times. be upgraded to better accuracy, rate of fire

and bald space marines on But this is, after all, an action plat- and damage and the shooting mechanics

a mission to save the world, games like former and the gameplay is where this feel a lot tighter and responsive than in

Ratchet & Clank are finding themselves game truly shines. The quirky weapons past games. There’s a lot of potential for

out of favour with the newer, younger and gadgets that are a hallmark of the big explosions with the weapons avail-

audience. The popu- able in your arsenal,

larity of what was once and thankfully,

one of the PlayStation’s even when there’s

biggest franchises is a lot happening,

now on the wane. And seldom is there a

that’s a shame, because noticeable drop in

Ratchet & Clank’s brand the framerates.

of action platforming While it’s

and puzzle gameplay always fun to play

is still some of the as Ratchet, it’s the

best in the industry. parts where you

There have been play as Clank that

rumours that the latest really stand out.

game in the series – These are mostly

Ratchet & Clank: A puzzle segments

Crack in Time – may that deal with time

very well be the last, at control, where you

least for a long time. If will use time pads

that’s true, it’s truly the end of an era, but RATCHET & CLANK: to record your actions and replay them,

the unlikely Lombax-robot duo go out on A CRACK IN TIME allowing you to perform multiple tasks

top, because A Crack in Time is possibly Developer: Insomniac Games at the same time. There is no such thing

the best game yet in this illustrious, long- Publisher: Sony as a puzzle game that is too hard. Some of

Genre: Platformer

running franchise. these puzzles will require some serious

Platform: PS3 (Rs 2,499)

A Crack in Time is the culmination head scratching, and these are easily

of the Future trilogy and picks up after series are here, including, what can some of the most unique and intriguing

the events of Tools of Destruction and vaguely be described as, a mini hippopot- parts of the game.

Quest for Booty. Clank, kidnapped by amus that kills enemies by belching. The If Tools of Destruction was the closest

the Zoni alien race, is now imprisoned deadly Mr Zurkon returns, and there’s a game has come to Pixar-level visuals,

by the duo’s arch nemesis, Dr Nefarious. never a dull moment while he’s around, A Crack in Time reduces the gap further.

Helping Ratchet on his quest to rescue killing everything in his path whilst But it isn’t the graphics that will make

Clank and stop Dr Nefarious from car- declaring that he does not come in peace. you love this game; it’s the characters,

rying out his evil plans is Captain Qwark. Platforming is at its best in A Crack the humour, the story and above all, the

Anyone who’s played past games knows in Time. In addition to the fast-paced rail classic Ratchet & Clank gameplay.



112 SKOAR! | February 2010 | www.skoar.com

Halo Reach

This game would have made it to our list, if not for a lack

of local fandom. Unfortunately, the game is coming out

SKOAR! Special only for the XBOX 360









Games to watch out for in 2010

There are some really high profile releases lined up this year. The year marks the maturity of modern gaming consoles in the market, and

games that have been in development for some time now are finally coming in. PC gaming is taking somewhat of a back seat, and some long

anticipated releases are coming out only on portable consoles (Duke Nukem FTW!). There are awed whispers flying around of Starcraft

II, FEAR 3 and Diablo 3 as well, but here we present the confirmed releases. They say that 2010 is going to be the year of 3D television, or

of internet tablets, but we already know that it is going to be a great year for gaming, so get out your calendar and mark the dates.



Aditya Madanapalle

aditya.madanapalle@thinkdigit.com





Bioshock 2:

Sea of Dreams [PC] [PS3] [XBOX360]

Release Date: Feb 9, 2010

Three years after the world first saw Big Daddy, Bioshock is back

with a sequel to the game, and it is almost upon us. The anticipa-

tion has been building up for a long time now, and the distributors

have been feeding the frenzy. In one promotion, Wine from the

game city of Arcadia washed up on a few beaches that fans were

directed to from www.somethinginthesea.com. Gamers will get to

dive into the deep sea with Big Daddy, and there is also a 6 gamer

multi-player mode, which seems to be very similar to Left4Dead.









Red Steel 2 [Wii]

Release Date: March 25, 2010

This is one example of the perfect game for the console.

This is a hack and slash, and uses the Wii motion plus to

simulate accurate arcade-styled, sword fighting on screen.

Ok accurate, arcade style sword fighting. There is quite a

bit of gunplay involved too. The developers have actually

worked a bit on the hardware as well, to make it reflect

sensitive movements better. We don’t really care about the

plot, the environment or the characters, we just want the

virtual sword in our hands, and hoardes of enemies to slash

up. Till the release, you can try out the trailer, which shows

hardly any gameplay, but it is still an adrenaline rush.









God of War 3 [PS3]

Release Date: March 2010

If you can name a God from the Greek pantheon, chances are

that you will get to battle him as a boss in this upcoming title.

Apollo, Poseidon and Zeus himself is on the list. The number

of enemies on screen at any point of time will also increase

in this version. We cannot wait to ruin our DualShocks.

Unfortunately, this is the last planned instalment in the

series, and the developers hope to give the series a nice

wrap-up, a better approach than the NFS line of thought.





114 SKOAR! | February 2010 | www.skoar.com

The Duke Game that never was

In 2009, Duke Nukem: Forever was a game that was supposed to

be released almost every year since the Millennium, but never was.

The team finally disbanded, after providing us with over ten years of

screenshots and videos SKOAR! Special





Assassin’s Creed II [PC]

Release Date: March 18, 2010

Yeah, we know, you have already played the

game many times over, you can now find your

way around Venice, and are on first name

basis with the Pope. There are however, those

unfortunate people who only have a PC for

a console, and they can do little but try to

forget all the forum posts and reviews. It’s

just a month away, and we hope that the time

has been used to make the game PC-ready.









Crysis 2 [PC] [PS3] [XBOX360]

Release Date: December 2010

Warning: don’t read ahead if you have a heart condition. The Crynet Sys-

tems Nanosuit 2.0 will make its debut. In a Nanosuit brochure, there is

a point made about underwater ability, ability to pick up ambient data

streams, and full spectrum acuity (it means super night/thermal/other?

vision). There are some tantalising teasers online, but these are few and far

Star Wars: The Force between. The game is very much in development, and nowhere near ready.

Unleashed II [PS3] The gaming community might get their hands dirty with the CryEngine 3,

which happened for previous releases. There seems to be a hush around the

[XBOX360] [Wii] [DS] title, and we just hope that this one does not get pushed into next year.

[PSP]

Release Date: December 2010

There is one trailer at large for this title,

and it packs in more epic than the prequel

Prince of Persia : The

trilogy put together. The trailer shows Darth forgotten Sands [PC]

Vader tutoring Star Killer (the deathstar [PS3] [XBOX360] [Wii]

could only ever do planets) in the ways of [DS] [PSP]

the Dark Arts. This bit is a little sissy, with

some really dated dialogue, but then out Release Date: May 1, 2010

comes a gigantic gorilla, which looks like it is This instalment in the series that is bewil-

made up of ten King Kongs, and the very last dering everyone but (us) fanboys, will be

frame is Star Killer going at it with just two released alongside the PoP movie due this

lightsabres. Two Blue lightsabres we might Max Payne 3 [PC] year. The trailer looks amazing, and the

add. There was also something like Dark [PS3] [XBOX360] story will continue along the lines of the

Yoda’s voice, we are not sure what it was. Release Date: Sands of Time story arc. This game returns

Post October, 2010 to the old non-cell-shaded approach, and

The official web site has only six our biggest disappointment is that we will

wallpapers, and a link to Rockstar not be seeing Erika in action. But this game

game’s RSS feed to keep a look out is releasing in all the current consoles

on updates. There is no confirmed worth mentioning, so everyone is going to

release date, and the site just says be happy.

“coming soon.” Well, it cannot

come soon enough, and was sup-

posed to be out last year. From

what we can make out, Max Payne

has become older, a character on

the lines of Hartigan from Sin City.







SKOAR! | February 2010 | www.skoar.com 115

Hackers program bacteria PETA like the Na’Vi

Ok, they were scientists actually, who programmed PETA is extending the definition of animals to include

the fluorescence in bacteria to keep time, essentially extraterrestrial furries, by awarding James Cameron a prize

Unwind turning them into tiny clocks for showing Aliens as pretty nice beings for a change







DIARY

Geek culture: Pac-Man We have a couple of new people on the team, Nimish and

Karan who haven’t yet played a game of Quake with the rest

Pacman was one of the first games that a lot of people played,

of the team. This is the longest ever that new recruits haven’t

and the fandom for the game is deep enough for this game to been humiliated by the business end of Rossi’s gauntlet. In

have complex strategies based on movement and AI that rivals the virtual world that is.

those that have been developed by players, for say, Quake 3. We moved to a new office space this month, and looking at

all the Monitors lined up gave us an idea. We were thinking

of a LAN based virtual pet, that can run across screens and

Concepts









basically interact with whoever is free. The client application

should be synced in a manner that it understands the real

world positions of the screens. We were thinking it would

be great to retain or kick this pet from one screen to the next.

If you have already began coding such a thing, be sure to

send a copy of it to us, and just apply the same to software

windows and browsers as well.



SPLIT SCREEN GHOST MODES CORNERING

The final level on Scatter, Chase and Once of the survival Flash Games: Anti Pac-Man

the original game is Fright are the three tactics, cornering For over 30 years, Pac-Man has been doing rounds in a maze,

unplayable, and it possible ghost involves giving an

once had a $100,000 behaviors. You can instruction to turn

gobbling dots and generally giving Inky, Pinky, Blinky and

price on its buggy predict these based before the Pac-Man Clyde a hard time. It is finally time for the ghosts to fight back.

head. on your movement. can perform it. In Anti-Pacman, you will have to throw three years of gaming

inertia to the bin, and play instead as one of the four ghosts.

While you are in control of a ghost, the other ghosts behave in

Analog









classic Pac-Man fashion, and be careful when you turn blue,

as Pac-Man can gobble you up then.









PACMANHATTEN BOARD GAME ROOMBA

A real world game Milton Bradley PAC-MAN

played by people released a board A bunch of students

who dress up as game version two implemented

Pac Man Characters years after the virtual PacMan using five

going around the city release with LEDs and Roomba vacuum

collecting dots. plastic ghosts cleaners

Media









1337sp33k

Stay up to date with internet lingo, so you don’t wt? the next

time you are chatting with someone



froob: A “freaking n00b”, a n00b so n00b that n00bs call

him a n00b. Not to be confused with frood.

PAC-MAN MOVIE PAC-MAN SERIES PAC MAN FEVER

Crystal sky pictures The TV series was Buckner and Garcia’s

announced a movie one of the first to one hit wonder frood: a variant of “cool”, to describe a person. Froody is

in 2004, but the be based on a video involved the band the adjective.

IMDB page has a game character, and crooning to how

strange fan video featured Pac-Man addictive playing Pac-

which is a laugh. and his family. Man was j00: slang for the word “you”

How we unwind









Movies Music Game

A Wednesday: We caught up to We’ve been listening to some AVATAR:

this movie, has an unusual amount John Wesley, a member of The gameplay may suck, but

of tech for a Bollywood film, and Porcupine Tree. Some of his tracks we just like to go sightseeing on

it’s a pretty sensible watch are free to download. Pandora. Demo is on the DVD









116 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Move over robot dogs, Pleo is here

What’s better than a robot dog that jumps around and listens to instructions? A

pretty realistic robot dinosaur, that’s what. Pleo was showcased at CES this year,

and ambles around on his saurapod legs when not playing with your kid. We

Unwind just wish there were life sized fire breathing versions in the market





Cubescape NEWS

Shuttle engines at throwaway prices

After decades of space adventures, the engines that drove the

NASA shuttles are being thrown away. As long as you can pay

for the shipping and handling, you can pick one of the three

remaining shuttle engines for free. This is because the Shuttle

program is being replaced with the Ares V launch craft, which is

a more streamlined vehicle that looks a bit like the Russian Soyuz.

This is a rare case where the streamlined version does not look as

awesome, but are probably safer. The Lockheed craft have wings

that are really retracted, and look a tad better (shown below).

It’s not the engines that are up for sale. If you have around US$30

Million lying around in the pockets of an old discarded jacket, you

can pick up Discovery, Endeavour and Atlantis. Not all three of

them, just one. Don’t dream of space travel though, as the engines

are being removed. At least don’t dream of space travel and expect

to come back. We are pretty sure that the shuttles will not leave

Cubescape is a great AJAX based web site that let’s you drop cubes in the United States though.

a field. This let’s you come up with elaborate isometric art, depending

on how much time you are willing to spend on it. Till recently, users

could save their creations, and people could browse through them.

That functionality has been recently disabled, although there are a

few great creations still searchable through Google images. Depth can

be very misleading in Isometric art, as everything actually looks the

same distance from the viewer, what you see above is not a solid block

for example. Look carefully at the shadows, and you will see a hole in

the block. Once you have created a cubescape, you can play it back.









The amazing 3MB Operating System









The next time you look at all the lines and blips on a circuit board,

don’t think all of it is there for a reason. There are loads of ICs with Kolibri desktop is a small 3MB Operating System, that is written

small, invisible designs on them, ranging from fire breathing Godzil- entirely in machine code (CPU Language) and is not based on

la’s to really tiny Rams. If you want to discover these on ICs that you Linux, Windows or any other variants. What is surprising is

find, you will have to look using a really powerful magnifying glass. the number of applications packed into this tiny file size. There

Just make sure that the sun is not behind you when you are hunting are a whole bunch of games, a basic tables editor, a compiler, a

though. Microchip art does serve a purpose however, they are there to text editor, a bouquet of demos, a text based web browser and

make sure that no one copies the design, as copied designs will have more. There is also DosBox, which let’s you run almost any DOS

a flag in the form of the chip art as well. This makes sure that piracy game on Kolibri. While not meant for serious use, the tiny OS

in the silicon manufacturing industry is sure to be caught. We just shows how bloated Windows and Linux really are.

wonder if manufacturers of all kinds of silicone products mark them

in some way.







118 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com

Digit 101



There are many keyboard shortcuts that make Here is a very short list of handy Windows

Get more done working with computers simpler and faster. key shortcuts. The [Windows] +[E] lets you

in less time using There are some simple keystrokes that are as open Explorer, +[D] displays the desktop, +[M]

your keyboard handy as [Ctrl] + [C] and [Ctrl] + [V] when it minimises all windows, and +[R] opens the run

comes to operating computers. dialogue.





What exactly is attacking my computer? The Jargon File

When it comes to security threats, it’s no longer as simple as a virus. There are many

kinds of malware that attack your machine. Here is a quick look at what they are and Benchmark: A software for testing a

what they do. particular piece of hardware. A graphic

card benchmark would render a lot of poly-

Virus gons and effects. A CPU benchmark would

A program that piggybacks on other files, feed in a lot of calculations, and so on.

and spreads with malicious intent, these

are actually uncommon now Distro: A distro is a distribu-

Common sources: public computers, flash tion, or flavor of the Linux operating

memory, LAN system. Common Linux distros include

Solution: Use a security suite Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Fedora.



Worm Ethical Hacker: An ethical hacker

Unlike a virus, a worm can spread is someone who finds out pos-

without attaching itself to files. It is also sible weaknesses in a network or a

programmed to change itself, making system before the bad guys do.

variants more difficult to detect. Some-

times worms are updated remotely. GUI: A GUI, pronounced Gooey, stands

Common sources: LAN, email for Graphical User Interface, which

Solution: Update the system and anti-vi- is a set of buttons, windows, panels

rus, use a firewall, track security patches Exploit and other devices for users to interact

An exploit is an inherent “hole” in an with a machine using a mouse and a

Trojan operating system or software, that allows keyboard, or other input devices.

A Trojan is a software that pretends malware such as Trojans or viruses to

to work for you, but is actually doing spread MID: Mobile Internet Device, can be

something else, being a part of a botnet or Common sources: The base operating a Mobile Phone with internet access,

allowing for unauthorised access. system, installed software (such as office or a netbook. PMPs that interface with

Common sources: torrents, suspicious suites) wireless networks are not MIDs. Any

downloads, web sites Solution: keep your system and applica- device that allows significant activity

Solution: be careful of what you download tions updated on various web sites is an MID.





It’s not just a laptop anymore: a lowdown on portable computer form factors

Laptop: a device Notebook: It is usu- Tablet: A Tablet is

that serves ally sleek and light, but like a digital slate,

either as a bulkier than a netbook. with a full touch-

desktop replace- Used for documents screen surface,

ment or a portable gaming rig. and presentations. and no keyboard.

Characteristics: Large screen, full QW- Characteristics: Sleek and lightweight, Characteristics:

ERTY keyboard, good system. large screen. Is basically a large touchscreen



Netbook: a Smartbook: Has a UMPC: Stands for

small and light- range of connectivity Ultra Mobile PC, a

weight device options, a hybrid tablet with a sliding

meant for the between a smart- keyboard, speakers

internet and the phone and a notebook. or other peripherals.

cloud, for people on the go. Characteristics: Characteristics:

Characteristics: Small size, lightweight, Connectivity options, lightweight, long Lack of a folding

long battery life battery life screen, low processing power







120 Digit | February 2010 | www.thinkdigit.com