This is a very good book for almost anyone who is using Windows 7 operating system. There are some very good step-by-step guides, diagrams, illustrations, just as you would expect from any good book.

Here is the article describing the availability. You can download it from there or click here for the direct download link.

If you have an iPad, you read the book from the PDF section. It will be a great thing to have if you are trying to learn more features of Windows 7.

- Cloud IT

It is worth noting that a few Microsoft Products reached their end of support dates.

• Office XP reached the end of extended support phase which means there will not be any hot fixes or updates published by Microsoft. If you are still on Office XP, for whatever reason, now it is time to move on to the latest version.
• Windows Vista with SP1 also reached the end of support phase. This means you will need to upgrade to SP2 or Windows 7 with SP1. Computers with Vista SP1 will no longer receive any updates through Windows Update. Our advice is upgrade to Windows 7 with SP1 as it is much faster compared to Windows Vista with SP2.

If you are still using either of these products and not sure what is the best option, please get in touch as soon as you can.

- Cloud IT

• Adam’s Apple: CNN Money reports that Apple is now the most desired brand in the world. If nothing else, it has to be considered as the best complement Steve Jobs may ever get.

• CES 2011: Guardian has a good roundup on the CES 2011 which took place in Las Vegas between 6-9 January. Most vendors have gone “tablet computer” crazy, Android is benefiting from all vendors as it keeps growing at staggering pace and the 3D TVs also re-appear on the big stage.

• Internet beats TV for news: Mashable reports that more and more young people turn to Internet rather than the TV for news. Quite an interesting but not totally surprising.

• See who is sending the SPAM: Ever wondered as to which country the SPAM emails originates from? Sophos ranks the top 12 countries.

• Activity on the Internet in 2010: These numbers, reported by the Internet monitoring blog Royal Pingdom, shows the scale of the activity that goes on, on the Internet. The most significant number of all is the number of Internet users worldwide which is now over a quarter of the total population of the world.

• Wikileaks Saga goes on: BBC reported that, in keeping with its reputation, now Wikileaks was given data about the famous Swiss bank accounts.

• Steve Jobs is on medical leave: If a CEO’s health has direct impact on the company’s share prices, it can only be Steve Jobs. He has taken medical leave since 17th January with no return date. We all wish him well. Get well soon Steve!

• Twitter keeps growing: The micro blogging site continues its steady but remarkable growth.

• Learn how to shutdown Internet: Wall street journal has interesting article about how Egypt’s Government may have triggered and carry out shutdown of the Internet access in the country.

And finally, an interesting way to watch 3D content without any glasses…!

1. CNET news is reporting that Apple is losing market share and is now 5th in laptop sales. The reasons for which Apple has fallen back are mainly the price of their laptops and also the rise of low cost netbooks. Both these factors are there mainly due to Apple’s policy of not bending and going with the flow. They have repeatedly decided against lowering the prices of their laptops and also, again, repeatedly decided against introducing an Apple netbook. The netbook story with Apple is very interesting because they have said that they are watching that particular market. It is not clear how long Apple would like to watch this market as the biggest reason for the growth of Toshiba and Acer, which has resulted in the fall of market share for Apple, is the netbooks.

3. Have a look at this story on WindowsITPro. A lot has already been discussed about the laptop hunter ads by Microsoft and general consensus is that, these ads are working great. Well, if Apple has no other way but to call Microsoft directly to stop these ads from working, then Apple has clearly admitted that these ads are working. The point behind this news is also Apple’s desperateness to sell more of their expensive products and also reverse the impression of “Apple Tax”, which Microsoft has succeeded in highlighting. Again, it is all down to the price. Now, what’s so difference this time around compared to the last few years that Microsoft has been talking Apple Tax? Why is the Apple Tax phenomenon so effective this time around? It is very simple, the recession. As much as people appreciate the quality and innovation of Apple, right now they need prices which are currently only offered by PCs and Windows.

So, there we have it. Despite posting record numbers in sales and revenue, Apple is not recession proof. As they say numbers don’t lie and now Apple’s call to Microsoft for the ads actually means they admit to it as well.

-Cloud IT

Google is now launching an Operating System for the computers. Sure it’s only for the “low cost” computers initially but will also be available for the normal computers as well. Now, many people have different views about this but let’s look at a few crucial points about this piece of news that has potential to change the computing industry as well as the Internet connectivity.

1. Welcome the competition: In any industry, competition is always welcome. However what we all must remember is it shouldn’t be at the expense of user exeprience which is the no 1 requirement for any Operating System. Security is a vital part of user experience  and Google surely understands that. So for the first time, after Apple (a different discussion alltogether) has actually presented genuine alternative to Windows, or atleast has pledged to do so. Although Google will not explicitly admit this for the time being, but going after Windows, is exactly what Google is doing. It will be interesting to see what happens.

2. Not (Linux) again: One can’t say how good or bad it is, until atleast the beta is out and has been reviewed, but from the early details, it looks both exciting and boring. Exciting is becuase the OS will run web based applications so the applications can be developed once, for the Google OS for example, and be ported across to other platforms without writting any code all over again. It also looks boring becuase it looks like it will be another GUI implementation over a Linux kernel. So its not really a new OS. One would have expected Google to put some effort and money in building an OS from scratch. It won’t be fair to say Google still can’t do that, but it is an opportunity lost in a way. With the reputation Google has built, one would expect Google to do more stratigically on such an important product.

3. Support: This is an important issue which people forget at times. Microsoft has its fair share of critisism and appriciation for it’s product support teams and also the online knowledgebase. In general, Microsoft handles the support well, given the bredth and the depth of the company and the long list of products. It will be interesting what kind of resources Google dedicates to it’s Operating System offering. Comparing their current record for technical support, Google will have to improve on technical support if they are to stand a chance. But then again there’s always the google search.

4. It will take time: As much as Google wants it’s new OS to succeed, it will still take some time before it’s OS is in direct competition with Windows and it will take some time before people get choice of choosing a new PC with Windows or Google OS. Remember the time when Microsoft created Windows, there was not a lot of competition out there and the fact that not every household could afford a computer, but in the current times, for Google, the competition is very stiff. The only selling point that Google has over Microsoft, at the present moment, is that the Google OS is most likely going to be free. But remember, free is not always the right option. RedHat, for all it’s power and inventive abilities, didn’t succeed with Linux. People buy new OS generally with a new PC which includes businesses for most parts. So the battle will not be directly to win over the end users but the hardware vendors and the hardware vendors are not going to jump to Google OS straight away. They will be cautious and will study the market demands before offering the choice  between Windows and Google OS. So it will take time, unless Google creates an OS that can read people’s minds and follow their instructions without the users having to interact with the computer physically !!!

So let’s see how Google developes an OS, how much will cost (if any) and how people react to it. Since Google has different understanding of even the word “beta”, it should surely be interesting to see how it will all pan out, not to mention Microsoft’s reaction to it.

- Cloud IT

We have just moved to a new office. Please note our new office address which is for any general correspondence.

Cloud IT Limited

Unit 70

Wenta Business Centre

Colne Way

Watford

WD24 7ND

Please note that our registered address is still the same.

- Cloud IT

1. Technology is technology, it is neither good nor bad in itself. It is the user of the technology which makes it good or bad. The Confiker virus uses the same technologies which are used for good purposes for example digital signatures, SSL encryption, webpage parsing, scripting, peer to peer networking etc. All these technologies were originally designed to help people secure themselves and make things better in general. Peer to Peer is known more for piracy than anything else but the technology itself is really good. Some software vendors use it to distribute their genuine software these days. So confiker is using all of these good technologies, but  for wrong purposes.

2. Technology can go bad: Now many people would say, what the heck are we saying here? But if you just put a few pieces of news together, anyone can see how real it can be. Remember the movie Die Hard 4.0? Completely related to computers. Basics of it? The infrastructure that is vulnerable and connected to the Internet. How reminiscent of the movie are the latest news of similar things happening? We recently learned that some of the computers at power grids in USA were hacked, as recent as only yesterday, it was revealed that the data about US fighter jets was hacked including their real time location in the air. Now obviously the real extent of this security leak will never be published but this much information is sometimes enough for anyone to understand that, this is exactly how the bad guys wracked havoc and killed so many innocent people in the movie. So, getting back to confiker, which in many ways, the most sophisticated virus till date. No one knows, as Steve Gibson notes in his podcast on 22.04.09, when and what will this virus do next. It is like a live dangerous creature, which has the best known survival techniques and it is totally unpredictable. It knows your every move. We can just hope that the authors of this virus don’t plan as deadly as in the movie Die Hard 4.0.

3. Now for the good news: Well, the good news is that it is very simple to prevent this virus. Remember, prevent, not cure if you are infected already. Let’s talk prevention first. All you need to do is keep your computers up to date. I know it is a hassle to do the updates all the time, but good thing is Windows allows you to automate it. Now for the cure. Once infected, Confiker does it’s best in preventing you from getting rid of it. So depending on your antivirus provider, you may need to download a tool on a different PC and then transfer it on a USB pen drive to your PC and run it. This blog post is not the best source for instructions on curing your PC if you are infected, but that’s the general idea. Again, it is the prevention that comes to the forefront of everything. Had you got into the habit of updating your PCs regularly, all the planning and hard work of Confiker writers would have been that less effective in grand scheme of things.

So, the moral of the story is…prevention is better than cure, especially when cure is painfully difficult and the prevention merely a click. Happy patching, now and in the future.

- Cloud IT

27th April 2009

 - Cloud IT

22nd April 2009

Generally we are critical of Apple for being too pricey and knowingly or unknowingly creating a cult of “blind” people who, as shown in Simpsons Video, open up their wallets for anything Apple makes. But we must admit this one is a stroke of genius. We have, in the past, dealt with many hospitality locations e.g. restaurants, members only clubs and cafes where the company wants to offer their guests and customers free wireless Internet access. While there are many products out there which does this, but they are complicated to setup, maintain and expensive. Beyond all that, the vendors didn’t really understand the requirement properly anyway. This is where Apple steals it. We think Apple has understood the requirement unlike anyone. Well, what requirement? Seamless sharing of Internet access between the “private” and “public” domain using just one access point. How many times have you gone through this? A guest visits your office or you have a lounge for visitors where you wish you could allow visitors wireless Internet access using your wireless network? But you don’t want to share your wireless password as you are concerned about the security and privacy of your network. Yes you can have a dedicated wireless access point setup but that’s where the complexity and management overhead kicks in. Apple has updated their Airport Extreme product with a feature which allows you to do just that. It allows you to create two wireless networks, one for your own use and one for your “guests”. These two wireless networks are completely separate from each other from security standpoint. Anyone on guest network can’t see your private network at all. And guess what? It is all built in just one wireless access point. It is quite curious fact that such a simple requirement was and still is ignored by so many and otherwise so successful vendors for wireless access points for such a long time. The problem with Apple is again the price (When will they learn?). Had other vendors like D-Link or Netgear come out with such a feature sometime ago, surely their products would have sold like hot cakes!! At £139, Airport Extreme is still worth the money for the feature, for only those, who need it badly e.g. for business purpose. Not for casual users like home users who want to implement the same thing for their visiting friends or guests. Also, it is only worth till someone else comes out with the same feature with much lower price, unless Apple patents this idea like they patent pretty much everything they put in their products. Knowing Apple, we shouldn’t be surprised if they have already filed the application . Come on D-Link and Netgear!!

- Cloud IT

9th March 2009

I have been reading a lot of news recently about the new product releases from Microsoft, the Vista/Windows 2008 SP2, Windows 7 and Windows 2008 Server R2. It is incredible to think that Windows 2008 will be technically considered outdated later this year when Windows 2008 Server R2 comes out. If you are a full time techie or technology enthusiast, you would say, what’s the big deal about this? Well, It is a big deal. Most people know the story behind Windows Vista and how different it is for end users to move from XP to Vista but what is more interesting is what is happening in the server world. Windows 2003 gives most people enough features and reliability and stability so that they can stick with it for foreseeable future; unlike Windows XP for which the security issues are well known by just the number of patches Microsoft has rolled out (don’t forget the SP2). Also looking at the immediate next version, Windows 2008 is very successful compared to Windows Vista which is not a complete failure but if you ask most people, it is. Don’t get me wrong, Microsoft has done very good job in fixing Vista with SP1 and so on (but ideally that should have been in the OS). Windows 2008 success is actually a painful one to Microsoft in a way because there is a whole community out there (I am not sure of the number exactly) which use Windows 2008 as a workstation OS. There are websites dedicated to it as well . So going back to the servers, there shouldn’t be any reason why one shouldn’t upgrade to Windows 2008 from Windows 2003. But again, why fix something that isn’t broke as they say? If I am happy with Windows 2003, why should I upgrade to Windows 2008? I know a company for which upgraded their server infrastructure from Windows 2000 to…..? Windows 2003. Yes, well they did go from Exchange 2000 straight to Exchange 2007, but Windows 2003? Yes, as in the given scenario, it felt sufficient. For the Exchange, the calculation was simple. If they upgraded to Exchange 2003 and considering they won’t upgrade again for next 5 years (this one was after 8 years), they wouldn’t want to be running Exchange 2003 in the year 2013. You see how companies are “one full version” behind? I wonder when they will next upgrade and when they do, will there be an upgrade path from Windows 2003 to whatever that Microsoft will have at the time? This is not uncommon. Businesses are lagging behind in upgrading their IT infrastructure and there are hidden costs that they don’t realize. If you lag behind, you could end up in such situation that when you do decide to upgrade, there might not be an upgrade path available. Then doing a “manual switch” from old version to new version could cost you more than the cost of keeping with the time i.e. upgrading in time. There are also issues with the software compatibility. If you are running version of an operating system which is old, the new version of your Line of Business application, which offers you really good features and can earn you more money due to productivity increases, can’t be used as it may not be incompatible. Also, as anyone would, Microsoft will dedicate less and less resources after old operating systems and hence less and less product fixes and the list goes on. So in the IT world, it is not the survival of the fittest but the survival of the fastest!!

Cloud IT