SP00LSV.EXE and Its Gang - How to Restore Your Print Spooler's Function?

There are several known malicious programs that camouflage like a legal print spooler subsystem. Nothing can be printed without it if you work under Windows operating system. Printing stops working when you have print spooler service failure. Unfortunately, as a rule spooler subsystem app failure happens in most unsuitable moments.

This subsystem is basically used to manage printing tasks from different applications and users. It's critical for printer spooler subsystem app files to be intact. If you experience problems with printer spooler, first of all check if spoolsv.exe is running. If spooler service not runs, printing is not possible. Trying to run print service may result in failure, if spooler files are corrupted.The main sign of the printer subsystem crash is an error window, displaying every time you try to print something. Some users even can't add or remove printer drivers when spooler subsystem app service is corrupted. Spoolsu.exe is one of the most famous trojans that cause spooler susbsystem error. Watch if the spoolsv is working, if you have problems with printing. If spoolsv.exe service does not run, it may be the result of spoolsv0.exe malware's activity.

Spoolso.exe is one the issues which is responsible for spooler subsystem errors. Installing printer driver which contains errors or is incompatible with already installed drivers will also cause spool sv service to stop. If you have SP00LSV.EXE virus, check your computer with the most recent anti-virus or anti-spyware or even both. Clear printer's job queue before you try to fix up spooler subsystem problem. Please remember, that not every anti-virus can help you to solve printer spooler malfunction.

Be careful when trying to redeem printer spooler subsystem app failure via printer drivers reinstallation. It is not recommended to trying to relieve printer spooler error manually. If you try to save from spooler subsystem malfunction manually, things may get even worse. Asking a specialist to relieve you printer spooler error would be a more wise idea rather than fixing it by yourself. Reinstalling printer drivers sometimes can also lead to total inoperability of printer spooler subsystem.

Using Spooler Fix Wizard is the fastest and most reliable way to solve printer spooler subsystem app failure. It is guaranteed by moneyback seal that we'll return your money if Spooler Fix Wizard doesn't eliminate your printer spooler error. Relieving spooler subsystem malfunction with Spooler Fix Wizard is as easy as 1...2...3. Just download this Fix Wizard and let it relieve your problem automatically.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Konstantin_Artemev

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How to Speed Up Internet Explorer 7

Internet Explorer has been in a features arms race with Firefox for a while. More and more people are switching to Firefox because of its speed and stability. A big reason people still use Internet Explorer is it is the first browser that a new user will see so they become familiar with it.. If Internet Explorer did not ship with Windows it would not have the amount of users it does.

If that new user wants to use Internet Explorer but wants to give their browsing a speed boost. Here are a few tips.

If you Don't Need a Proxy Don't Use One.

A proxy server is used if you have a slow connection. If you have a high speed connection you usually don't need it. Here is how you remove it. Go to tools and select Internet Options. In the Internet Options click on the Connections tab and press the LAN settings. Just remove all of the check marks, click on OK.

Get Rid of 3rd Party Toolbars

Some software companies have learned that there is money to be made by installing their software branded toolbar. The problem with these toolbars is when installed they take up bandwidth and computer resources while you browse the internet. To remove the toolbars you don't need, just identify the toolbar and remove it for add/remove programs. If it is not listed in add/remove programs it may be spyware. You will then need to scan your computer with your favorite spyware/malware software.

Increase the Amount of Connections Internet Explorer uses.

By default Internet Explorer only uses 10 simultaneous connections to download content from a webpage. Here is how you can increase the amount of connections. Open notepad and paste the code below in it.

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionInternet Settings]

"MaxConnectionsPerServer"=dword:00000020

"MaxConnectionsPer1_0Server"=dword:0000020

Save the file by clicking save as, change Save as type to All Files, name the file speedup.reg.

So there you have it. With these few changes you can really change the performance of Internet Explorer. If you want a completely better experience give Firefox a try. You won't be disappointed.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Mike_Man

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Make vista like XP

Some say 'Why even upgrade if your don't like the look of Vista?'. Well, with Vista being installed in most new computers, we don't have the option of switching back to XP.

My dad got a new laptop and the first thing he wanted to do was to install XP. So I gave it a try, but Vista was much to smart to let XP's setup program run.

I told my dad that the best way to install XP, would be to reformat the hard drive and do a clean install of XP.

He decided that it would be best to leave it alone and to just deal with it, since Vista was included in the price of the laptop.

So I tinkered with the settings in my dad's computer, to try to get it more user friendly for him.If you're having a hard time getting use to Vista's new look or just want to speed up your computer, try these simple fixes to make Vista look more like XP.

To make Windows Vista look more like Windows XP:

1. Right-click on the desktop.

2. Choose 'Personalize'.

3. Choose 'Themes'

4. Select 'Windows Standard' or 'Windows Classic'

5. Click the OK button.

Wait for the changes to take effect.

As you can see, this also changes the taskbar and Start Menu icons.

These steps not only bring back the look of XP, but they also speed up an older PC that's struggling to keep up with Vista's heavy use of graphics.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Janean_Wilson

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Vista tips and trick, increase your gaming performance in 10 way

Although Windows Vista is a great operating system with tons of great features and application, when it comes to gaming, its performance is still lagging behind Windows XP. One of the reasons is that most of the current games are not designed for Windows Vista which utilizes the new DirectX 10 technology. Another reason is that Windows Vista has a lot of activities running in the background that interferes with the gaming resources.

In this article, I have compiled 10 useful Windows Vista tips and tricks to help you improve your gaming performance.1) Upgrade your hardware

This includes the RAM, CPU and graphics card. For gaming in Vista, make sure that you own a dual core CPU, 2 GB RAM and a DirectX 10 compliant graphics card.

2) Disable System Restore

Vista's System Restore helps you to backup your files and provide a restoration in the event that the OS crash. Although a useful feature, it can slow down your system to a great extent. To disable it, click on Start -> Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System and remove the tick next to any drives that you have protected.

3) Turn off hibernation

If you don't use the hibernation feature, you can disable it and recover around a gigabyte of hard disk space. To do this, open up Run and type "powercfg - H off"

4) Disable the Sidebar

While this is a great eye-candy, it takes up a lot of resources. To disable the sidebar, open Control Panel -> Windows Sidebar Properties. Uncheck the "Start Sidebar When Windows Start".

5) Move swap file to another drive/partition

Swap file is a temporary file used to store data for future use. If you have another drive, you can speed up Vista a bit by moving the swap file to that drive. Or if you are using only one drive, you can set up a partition to store your swap file.

* Click on Start -> Control Panel -> System and Maintenance -> System

* Choose Advanced system settings from the top left hands side

* Make sure that the Advanced tab is selected

* In the Performance section click Settings

* Click on the Advanced tab

* In the Virtual Memory section click Change

* Uncheck "Automatically manage paging file sizes for all drives".

* Click on the partition you want to use as a swap partition, select Custom Size, and set the new sizes of your swap file. The recommended size is 2.5 times your RAM size, and my choice is to set the Initial Size and Maximum Size values equal, to get a fixed size swap file.

* Click on the primary partition, check "No paging file" and click Set. This is to prevent Vista from placing a swap file on your primary partition.

* Restart the computer

6) Add 3D sound

The DirectX 10 architecture changed the ways sound is processed in gaming. If you are playing Windows XP games that use hardware 3D audio effects, most likely you will not hear any sound at all. To overcome this, you can use Creative's ALchemy tool. Download and install the ALchemy tool from Creative website. This tool will pipe any DirectSound calls in Windows XP games to OpenAL to give it a full 3D audio hardware support.

7) Turn off Vista's Indexing Engine

The Vista's Indexing Engine is a useful tool that allows you to search for files easily. However during gaming, it is running in the background and takes up resources that affect the gaming performance. To turn it off, go to Control Panel -> Indexing Option. Click Modify -> Show All Locations to remove any drives or folders that you don't want to be indexed.

8) Change your Startup program

To prevent any unused programs from loading during the boot up process and take up your system resources, you can change your startup program by typing "msconfig" into the Run box. Click the startup tab and uncheck the box next to any software that you don't want to run during startup.

9) Use Ready Boost

This is a new feature in Vista that uses an external USB flash drive as a cache to store frequently access data. It is said to be able to increase the performance up to 10 times. Insert in a USB 2.0 flash drive into your USB port. In the window that pops up, click on the ReadyBoost tab. Select "use this device".

10) Disable SuperFetch

Another new feature of Vista that utilizes all your free memory to store frequency accessed data. While it is a good feature, it is actually causing more harm to your game performance. Your game needs a lot of free memory to load maps, process AI and so on, while the SuperFetch is constantly taking up free memory to store data. To disable the SuperFetch, open Run and type "services.msc". Select "Stop/Disable SuperFetch", and then reboot the computer.

Damien Oh is a computer consultant with great experience in computer technology. He shares his passion, expertise and knowledge in his blog Make Tech Easier. You can find tons of information and resources on computer related stuffs. To find out more secrets and free information on computer technology, check out Make Tech Easier.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Damien_Oh

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10 Things You Should Know About Alexa

1. How to show up in another website's related links
By suggesting other links for your website, that causes them also to be considered
related links to other websites. To suggest related links for your own website, go
to...
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/editor?type=rl&url=
... and append your domain name on the end of the link.

2. How to update the thumbnail image Alexa has for your site.
To update the thumbnail that Alexa has for your site, just add
your domain to the end of this URL:
http://thumbnails.alexa.com/update_thumbnail?url=

3. How to see website traffic across non-standard date-ranges
Alexa typically allows you to view 4 different default date spans:

3 Months
6 Months
1 Year
2 Years
... but by manipulating the URL directly, you can modify that to whatever
you want, down to 2 days or all the way up to 4 years.

To do this, simply go to the graph you want to see using one of Alexa's
default time spans, and then modify the part of the URL that looks like this...

traffic_details?&range=3m

In this range parameter, "d" = day, "m" = month and "y" = year.

Replacing "&range=3m" with "&range=8d" will cause the graph to span for 8 days.

4. How to get included in Alexa's hierarchical directory
Alexa's directory is powered by the Open Directory Project.

To be included in the directory, go to http://www.dmoz.org/
and submit your site. A human editor will review your site and place
it in the proper category.

Once that's done, it will automatically be picked up by Alexa.

4. How to remove the Alexa toolbar from your browser.
Alexa offers two help pages to assist you in removing the toolbar:

http://pages.alexa.com/exec/faqsidos/help/index.html?index=7
http://pages.alexa.com/exec/faqsidos/help/index.html?index=38

... but many people find it necessary to have a spyware removal tool
Click here to download Alexa toolbar

6. How to make your own Alexa toolbar
To have your own toolbar, click here...
http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/associatetoolbar.html

7. How to get Alexa data in XML format free
get Alexa data in XML format free Click here...
http://docs.amazonwebservices.com/AlexaWebInfoService/1-0/index.html

8. How to get Alexa data as an RSS feed
You can get several things from Alexa as an RSS feed, such as:
Movers and Shakers

* Top 500 Sites
* Top 100 English Sites
* ... and more.

To sign up for an RSS feed, go here...
http://pages.alexa.com/prod_serv/rss_feeds.html

9. Get Certified Alexa stats on your site
Alexa allows you to modify the data on your listing.

To modify basic contact information, etc., contact them via this link...
http://www.alexa.com/data/details/contact_info

For more involved changes, contact them directly at...
http://pages.alexa.com/company/contact.html

10. Modify the details about an Alexa listing

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Amazon Launches New Cloud Storage Option for EC2

Amazon's new enterprise online service called the Amazon Elastic Block Store is a persistent storage feature designed to augment Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) with disaster-recovery capabilities. EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

Amazon is extending its Web service offerings for enterprises that want to move more of their IT into that ever-expanding Internet "cloud" and protect it from a disaster of some sort.


Amazon on Aug. 21 launched a new enterprise-oriented online service called the Amazon Elastic Block Store, a persistent storage feature designed to augment Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) with disaster-recovery capabilities. EC2 is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud.

Using the new Elastic Block Store, business applications running in Amazon EC2 instances will have the added advantage of multiple storage volumes in the Amazon data center, using block-level snapshots and redundancies that the EC2 does not currently feature. Thus, both the applications and data stores are backed up in the EBS structure.

"At the highest level, you can say that EBS has done for the disk drive what EC2 has done for the computer," Amazon EC2 General Manager Peter De Santis told me. "This greatly increases the flexibility enterprises have to use their block storage. You can put applications, file systems, databases ... everything up on it."

EBS is primarily aimed at applications that require running a file system or access to raw block-level storage. As EC2 instances are started and stopped, the information saved in the enterprise database or application is preserved as it is with traditional physical servers -- only it's in the Amazon data center.

Previous instances of EC2 came with a designated, pre-allocated amount of block storage; the basic configuration comes with 150GB of block storage. If that isn't quite enough, an enterprise can buy a larger instance or figure out a way to configure multiple instances, De Santis said.

Before the availability of EBS, storage within an EC2 instance was tied to the instance itself. When the instance is terminated, the data within the instance is lost, De Santis said.

"With EBS, independent of all your EC2 instance, you can provision storage volumes from 1GB to 1TB, and attach one or more storage volumes to a single instance," De Santis said. "For example, if you need 4TB of local storage, which is a small instance, you can provision that as four 1TB volumes, and attach it to that instance."

EBS also has the ability for a storage admin to create point-in-time snapshots of volumes that can be saved on Amazon S3, the company's online backup storage service.

For more information on EBS, go here.

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Intel to Build Yahoo Widgets into New TV Chips

Yahoo and Intel are working on what they call the "Widget Channel," which will enable TV viewers to interact with and watch a dynamic set of TV widgets -- small Web-based applications that complement TV shows. Widgets will appear in the corner of a TV screen and work something like a picture-in-picture window of advanced TV sets. These small windows let viewers chat with or e-mail friends, watch videos, track stocks or sports teams or keep up with news headlines or weather by using a TV remote control. Widget TV services are being designed to run on a new class of Intel chips for consumer electronics that enables high-definition viewing, home-theater-quality audio, 3-D graphics, and the fusion of Internet and TV features.



SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - After years of false starts aimed at bringing the Web to TV sets, Yahoo Inc said on Wednesday it is working with Intel Corp to create Web computer channels that run alongside TV shows.

The Web company and world's largest chipmaker are working on what they call the "Widget Channel," which will enable TV viewers to interact with and watch a dynamic set of TV widgets -- small Web-based applications that complement TV shows.

Widgets will appear in the corner of a TV screen and work something like a picture-in-picture window of advanced TV sets. These small windows let viewers chat with or e-mail friends, watch videos, track stocks or sports teams or keep up with news headlines or weather by using a TV remote control.

Widget TV services are being designed to run on a new class of Intel chips for consumer electronics that enables high-definition viewing, home-theater-quality audio, 3-D graphics, and the fusion of Internet and TV features.

Devices based on Intel's CE3100 chip are due in the first half of 2009, Intel said. Comcast Corp, the largest U.S. cable TV operator, said in a separate statement with Intel that it planned to offer TV Widgets next year that work on televisions, set-top boxes and other TV-connected devices.

"TV will fundamentally change how we talk about, imagine and experience the Internet," Eric Kim, Intel senior vice president and general manager of its Digital Home Group, said in a joint statement with Yahoo.

Intel previewed the new software framework designed for TVs and TV-enabled devices using its chips at its annual developer conference in San Francisco this week.

TV Widgets can be personalized and display information from popular Web services to which viewers belong, including Yahoo Finance or Sports or eBay auctions. Viewers can choose from a what promises to be hundreds or thousands of such widgets.

Among the featured services will be Twitter, a service that lets users keep friends or public spectators updated on daily activities via messages sent from a range of devices.

Major brands set to offer TV Widgets range from electronics makers Samsung Electronics Co Ltd and Toshiba Corp MTV and Showtime.

"This is the beginning of a number of distribution announcements that will go beyond content producers to OEMs," Yahoo spokeswoman May Petry said of deals Yahoo will reveal in coming months with TV makers, known by the industry shorthand of OEMs, or original equipment manufacturers.

The Widget Channel runs on top of the fifth generation of Yahoo Widget Engine, a software platform that allows developers to deliver snippets of the Web such as video, news, or e-mail. Programmers can build widgets using popular software including Javascript,

Yahoo announced ambitious plans to expand beyond computers onto mobile phones and TVs more than two-and-a-half years ago.

Yahoo's Connected Life division has since struck dozens of deals with carriers and phone makers to put Yahoo services on cell phones that could eventually reach hundreds of millions of phone users globally.

However, Yahoo's push into the TV arena has gone significantly slower. Earlier this year, Yahoo announced plans to feature Yahoo widgets on Sony Bravia Web-linked TVs and Yahoo's Flickr photo-sharing service on Apple TV software.

(By Eric Auchard, Additional reporting by Duncan Martell; Editing by Braden Reddall)

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Canon’s Iris Registration Mode - Biological Copyright Metadata

Canon is using Iris watermarking to take photographer’s copyright protection to the next level.
. . to provide an imaging apparatus that makes it possible to protect the copyright of photographic images by reliably acquiring biological information of a photographer . . . -US Patent Application No. 2008/0025574

Recent Stories like the recent discovery of Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir’s stolen Flickr images that surfaced on iStockphoto make all photographers cringe. Many photographers go to great lengths to protect their images. Past attempted solutions include watermarks on the front of images. I can recall this practice from my childhood years with the Olan Mills studio gold embossing in the bottom corner.

More recently, in the digital age of photography, watermarking in Photoshop or other image editing software. While visible watermarks are common among a variety of photographers, invisible watermarks (”electronic or digital watermarks“), which are embedded in the image file, are somewhat less prevalent - but gaining ground and acceptance among photographers. Companies like Digimarc are pressing the digital watermark cause to protect photographer’s and other author’s data.

Camera companies are pushing forward as well. Stories like that of Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir help increase the desirability and demand for practical copyright solutions in modern digital photography.

Canon’s Iris Registration Patent
A recent Canon patent application (Pub. No.: US 2008/0025574 A1) reveals the next step in digital watermarking - Iris Registration.

The short and sweet of it?

1. Turn the Mode dial to “REG”
2. Choose between “REG 1″ through “REG 5″ (for up to 5 registered users)
3. Put eye to viewfinder
4. Look at display of center distance measurement point
5. Press the shutter button
6. Iris image captured
7. Go shoot

Additional embedded info can be added later. All metadata will be added to images after you’re finished shooting in a collective manner and not for each image. The purpose of the collective tagging, if you will, is to refrain from hampering the camera’s speed (frames per second) while shooting.

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MagicJack Fails to Cast a VOIP Spell

Cheap and easy phone calls sent over the Internet. That has long been the promise of VOIP services, especially on the consumer side.For some this has meant ditching their traditional telephone company and replacing it with VOIP services such as Vonage or the Ooma system that I recently reviewed. These services can provide solid phone service and considerable cost savings in the home but haven't been that portable for users who want to use VOIP anywhere.

Software-based services like Skype and the Gizmo Project provide great portability, letting users make cheap or free calls wherever a computer and a fast Internet connection exists, but they rely on software and headphones and microphones instead of using traditional phone handsets.

Hoping to fill the void between these two types of VOIP offerings is the MagicJack, a small USB dongle device that makes it possible to plug any phone into a computer and make calls over the Internet. The MagicJack device costs $39.95, which includes a phone number and a year of service (which includes unlimited calls in North America). Additional years of service can be purchased for $19.95.

When I first received the MagicJack I was intrigued by it. Even at $39.95 for a year it is still cheaper than most competing options. And if one is traveling internationally, calls made back to the United States are still free. Combined with the small USB form factor, the MagicJack seemed like a perfect solution for road warriors who may not want to rely solely on their cell phone for long trips.

However, after testing out the MagicJack I found that it comes up short in a few key areas. And while it sits somewhere between portable software services and home-based systems, this fact alone leaves it behind both, with the MagicJack proving to be less travel-friendly than systems like Skype and Gizmo (for example, sitting at a Starbucks, it's easier to put a headset on and make a call than connect a handset to your laptop) and less grounded than home systems like Vonage (which only need a router to stay always on as opposed to MagicJack, which needs a running computer). UPDATE: Based on feedback from MagicJack, I was able to test and use MagicJack with a standard headset and without a physical phone, using the software in the same way that one uses software based phones such as Skype. However, in order to do this the MagicJack USB device does need to be plugged into the computer. Without the device the software will not launch.

From a quality standpoint the MagicJack performed well in my tests. Calls made with the device sounded at least as good as most cell phone calls.
Currently the MagicJack only works on Windows systems (though according to the company a Mac version is in the works). To set it up users simply plug it into a USB port on a Windows system. If the system has autorun enabled the MagicJack will automatically install its software. If autorun is disabled, users need to open the USB drive of the MagicJack and start the install application.


The software for the MagicJack does not run directly from the device. It fully installs on the Windows system, which also makes the MagicJack less attractive for situations where one might want to use it on someone else's computer (say when visiting family). Making this even worse, there was no easy way to uninstall the software from the system, with the program not even showing up in the Windows Remove Program window. UPDATE: MagicJack confirmed that there is currently no easy way to uninstall the software. The process required to uninstall the software requires multiple Windows Registry edits and the removal of several folders on the Windows system. Based on this, I wouldn't recommend using the MagicJack on the systems of friends, family or business associates.


The Windows program itself provided a direct dial option, settings for viewing past calls and managing contacts, and an option for setting up a 911 address.


So while the MagicJack is definitely interesting, its shortcomings, at least for now, outweigh its strengths.

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10 Useful RapidShare Search Engines

Rapishare is the popular and largest file sharing site with millions of files on its servers. But it lacks the basic search for finding the desired files. Unless you know the destination of the file you can’t download it. There are a ton of search engines on the internet which offer rapidshare search. Most of these rapidshare search engine services are based on custom google search engines. Some of the search engines are good for searching rapidshare files, i have listed the sites below.

Rapid Search Engine: You can search all the web or only their database to get the results. Database search is fast. Offers email updates. Link checker available.

RapidShare1: Basic search engine with Search box. No additional features.

TVPHP: Search is fast and the results are good. Shows the file size where available. Shows related tags and top tags, quite useful to narrow down the results.

RapidShareIndex: It works like a database, files are organized in categories. Categories shows top 10 lists, recently viewed files and recently added files.

Rapidshare Searcher: Basic search engine with a search box. Search is fast, results are good. Shows most popular tags.

OneClickFiles: Search can be categorized with pre defined categories. Results open in a separate page where the file links are arranged, shows related links. Front page shows 5 results for each category.

RapidSearch.in: Basic search engine, it also searches other sites, you can restrict search to only rapidshare or others. Shows a tag cloud.

FilesBot: Basic search engine, shows results from other sites also.

Filez: Basic search engine. Full of NSFW links, take care while clicking the links.

MegaDownload: Searches both rapidshare and megaupload. Results are good, shows the file size, offers related search links.

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The 10 Most Innovative Web Search Engines

Today Google dominates Web search to such a degree that new challengers such as Wikia Search and Cuil are shrugged aside before they even have a chance to show what they can do. But it wasn't that long ago that Google was the small-fry upstart given little chance to unseat the dominant search engines of the day.
From early on in the growth of the Web, most users' first action was to try to find new and relevant content, and search engines quickly grew to fill that need. And unlike most other core elements of the Web, which tend to be open and standards-based, for the most part Web search has been done by commercial companies using patented and closed methodologies. This has led to a good deal of competition and growth but has set search apart from the rest of the Web.

Still, Web search has seen its fair share of innovation, and from the early days of the Web to today, search engines have greatly influenced the direction of the Web and the Internet.

In this list of The 10 Most Innovative Web Search Engines, I look back at some of the search engines that had a big impact on how people used the Web and how the Web itself grew. Take a look and let me know what search engines and sites you thought were the most influential and innovative.

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Intel USB 3.0, SuperSpeed USB, Specifications Take Shape

Intel has a draft specification of its Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) of USB 3.0 and will likely demonstrate the concept at its IDF. USB 3.0, also known as "SuperSpeed USB," is designed to dramatically increase the bandwidth of USB, lower power consumption and maintain backwards compatibility with the current USB 2.0 specification.
ntel has a draft specification of its Extensible Host Controller Interface (xHCI) of USB 3.0 and will likely demonstrate the concept at its IDF (Intel Developer Forum) Aug. 18-21 in San Francisco.

Intel’s 0.9 draft was expected, but the 0.95 version of the specification won't be seen until the fourth quarter, meaning USB 3.0 products won’t be ready until 2009.

USB 3.0, also known as "SuperSpeed USB," is designed to dramatically increase the bandwidth of USB, lower power consumption and maintain backwards compatibility with the current USB 2.0 specification. SuperSpeed USB will provide a 10X boost in transfer rate from 480-Mbits/s in USB 2.0 to 4.8 Gbits/s in USB 3.0. One example of the speed goal is to transfer a 27-Gbyte HD movie to a portable device in 70 seconds. The same task would take 15 minutes or more with USB 2.0.

The xHCI interface specification won support from AMD, Dell and Microsoft, as well as NEC, all key endorsements for a peripheral I/O solution such as USB 3.0. If customers agree to join the USB 3.0 Promoter Group as either a promoter or a contributor, Intel will offer the USB 3.0 technology to that company under the royalty-free RAND-Z licensing terms.

"The future of computing and consumer devices is increasingly visual and bandwidth intensive," said Phil Eisler, AMD's corporate vice president and general manager of its Chipset Business Unit, in a statement. "Lifestyles filled with HD media and digital audio demand quick and universal data transfer. USB 3.0 is an answer to the future bandwidth need of the PC platform. AMD believes strongly in open industry standards and therefore is supporting a common xHCI specification."

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Free Samsung Mobile Tricks And Tipsw

Samsung Reset Codes
You can try these in case you downloaded corrupted or incompatible Java midlets or other media, which are causing problems with the phone.
*2767*JAVA# Java Reset and (Deletes all Java Midlets)
*2767*MEDIA# Reset Media (Deletes All Sounds and Pics)

*2767*WAP# Wap Reset
*2767*CUST# Reset Custom EEPR0M
*2767*FULL# Reset Full EEPR0M (Caution)
For example : *2767*JAVA# would be keyed in as *2767*5282#
Note : Not all codes will work with SGH-C100.

Other Samsung Codes
*#06# IMEI code
*#9998*4357# Help Menu
*#9998*5282# Java menu (GRPS/CSD settings for JAVA server)
*#9999#0# Monitor Mode
*#9999# or *#9998*9999# Software Version
*#8888# or *#9998*8888# Hardware Version
*#9998*746# or *#9998*0746# or *#0746# Sim Infos
*#9998*523# or *#9998*0523# or *#0523# Display Contrast
*#9998*842# or *#9998*0842# or *#0842# Vibration On (until you push OK)
*#9998*289# or *#9998*0289# or *#0289# Buzzer On (until you push OK)
*#9998*288# or *#9998*0288# or *#0288# Battery & Field Infos
*#9998*377# or *#9998*0377# Error log
*#9998*778# or *#9998*0778# or *#0778# Sim Service table
*#9998*782# show date and alarm clock
*#8999*638# show network information
*#9998*5646# change operator logo at startup
*#9998*76# production number
*#9998*968# view melody for alarm
*#9998*585# Non-Volatile Memory (NVM)
*#3243948# Digital Audio Interference Off
*#32436837# Digital Audio Interference On

SAMSUNG T100 SECRET CODES
*#06# -> Show IMEI
*#9999# -> Show Software Version
*#0001# -> Show Serial Parameters

*2767*3855# -> Full EEPROM Reset ( THIS CODE REMOVES SP-LOCK!!!! but also change IMEI to 447967-89-400044-0, you must use CHGIMEI to restore it)

*2767*2878# -> Custom EEEPROM Reset
*#8999*228# -> Battery status (capacity, voltage, temperature)
*#8999*246# -> Program status
*#8999*289# -> Change Alarm Buzzer Frequency
*#8999*324# -> Debug screens
*#8999*364# -> Watchdog
*#8999*377# -> EEPROM Error Stack
*#8999*427# -> Trace Watchdog
*#8999*523# -> Change LCD contrast
*#8999*544# -> Jig detect
*#8999*636# -> Memory status
*#8999*746# -> SIM File Size
*#8999*778# -> SIM Service Table
*#8999*785# -> RTK (Run Time Kernel) errors
*#8999*786# -> Run, Last UP, Last DOWN
*#8999*837# -> Software Version
*#8999*842# -> Test Vibrator
*#8999*862# -> Vocoder Reg
*#8999*872# -> Diag
*#8999*947# -> Reset On Fatal Error
*#8999*999# -> Last/Chk
*#8999*9266# -> Yann debug screen (=Debug Screens?)
*#8999*9999# -> Software version


SAMSUNG V200 SECRET CODES

v200 Unlock Code-> *2767*7822573738#

*#9324# Netmon (press the hangup key to exit)
*#9998*JAVA# Edit GPRS/ CSD settings (S100 Only)
*#9998*Help# Help screen/ List of codes
*#9998*LOGO# Change operator Logo
*#9998*RTC# RTC Display
*#9998*Bat# Battery Status
*#9998*Buz# Turns Buzzer ON
*#9998*Vib# Turns Vibrator ON
*#9998*LCD# LCD Contrast
*#9998*9999# Softwre Version
*#9998*8888# Hardware Version
*#9998*377# NVM Error Log (?????)
*#9998*NET# SIM Network ID
*#9998*778# SIM Serv. Table
*#9998*SIM# SIM Info
*#9998*PN# Production No.
*#9998*968# Reminder Tune
*#9998*NVM# Displays Non-Volitile Memory Status
*#9999*C# ???????????????????
*#06# Displays phones I**I No.

***/// ***/// NOTE /// *** RED COLOR , they appear serious !!! Use at
own risk !!!

*#9998*2576# Forces SIM Error
*#9998*DEAD# Forces Phone Crash
*2767*MEDIA# Resets the medis on the phone (deletes all downloaded
pics/tones)
*2767*FULL# Resets the EEPRON *DANGEROUS*
*2767*CUST# Resets the Custom EEPRON
*2767*JAVA# Resets JAV downloads (deletes all downloaded midlits)
*2767*STACKRESET# Resets Stack
*2767*225RESET# ????????????????? * Dangerous *
*2767*WAP# Resets WAP Setting & Deletes Favorites
SAMSUNG A800 SECRET CODES

The universal unlock code is *2767*637# do this with out your sim in

By default, the firmware (software) for x600 only receives java
apps and other applications like stuff by serial port.
but even for it, you have to enable the serial port, which also
causes
the closing of all other ports, even the IrDA too :-( ..

well, guess what, i have very good news for you,
do you know, you can increase the sound level,
the sound level for tones, speaker fone, etc,
can be increase even then if it is at max (level 4)

you still can do it,
just follows the instructions!

============ HERE WE GO =============
Enter the following code:

*#8999*8378#
(You'll be shown menu, then ...)

then go to:

"H/W test"

then go to:

"Audio Settings"

then go to:

"Melody Gain"

There will you see a number.
there are five (5) Melody Levels" of it.
(and currently, you are at level 1 and after
pressing the "save" button, you will move to
level 2 and so on .........................)

you have to change the values of all the levels.
and as the resultant, it will give increase the
melody sound!, your tones will more louder,
even more louder then the max. ringing volume.

the level wise numbers are: (as its my setting :-) )
Melody Level 1: 13
Melody Level 2: 17
Melody Level 3: 18
Melody Level 4: 25
Melody Level 5: 31

you even can make your own combinations of level wise
sounding numbers that can change the sound level!.

if your combination cause more louder sound level,
then mine,
then do share it with the group! ... :-)
meanwhile, try my figured-out combination!

============ CAUTION ==============

if anything goes wrong,
then you can apply the master reset code,
that will NOT delete anything, ANYTHING from your
cell fone, but set each and eveything to its
default/standard setting ...
(likes, factory settings :-) )

the master reset code is:

#*7728#

#########################################
I take no responsibility of these codes are working or not,
or its effects on your cell fone
but i have tried these codes on my cell fone.
and i bet, nothing goes wrong,
but even then of my words, be carefull!,
#########################################

The code: *#8999*8378#
as i regarded it a informative code,
will tell you each and everything about your cell fone.
and in the "H/W test",
there are lot of other Audio settings,
each of them having five (5) levels,
you can change the combination, but before doing anything,
do write the defult number sequence to some place so that
you'll be then able to invert it again! .. :-) ...

#*2558# - Time ON
#*2527# - GPRS Switching Set to class {4/8/9/10}
#*4263# - Handsfree Mode: ACTIVATED
#*53696# - [Java dnload] WAPSAR mode
#*536961# - WAPSAR enable HTTP disable
#*536962# - HTTP enable WAPSAR disable
#*536963# - SERIAL enable Others disable
#*5663351# - [Phone Model] SAMSUNG SGH-X100
#*6420# - Mic off
#*6421# - Mic on
#*7632# - Sleep mode
*#8999*523# - Main LCD Brightness
*#8999*3825523# - (?) External display
*2767*3855# - Full EEPROM reset(Reset all type of locks)also you'll
lose pictures and java not melody

Remove camera sound:

On main screen type:

*#8999*8378# --> Test mode

H/W test
Audio Settings
Melody Gain

Then replace 6 by 0, it'll show 12 but it's OK
Press back until main screen
Then press key volume to minimum and let's try !!! no more sound
tip by C-Quest

*2767*688# resets the phone

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One World One Dream: Get The Latest Beijing Olympic Information Via Google Services

In conjunction with the world’s largest sport event of the year, Beijing Olympics 2008, another world giant, Google, has brought various internet services and products to its supporters to give them firsthand news and results in this world event. Being the leader in internet services provider, Google has recently launched its Beijing Olympics site. The official site is in Chinese but users can also get information via the English version.

Google has also, through its wholly owned video sharing platform, YouTube, partner with the IOC to present live coverage and excerpts to approximately 78 countries. Google also provides free SMS alerts to users on the latest Beijing Olympics medalists and the latest news. This free text messaging services is only given to mobile phone users in China. Users can subscribe to these free SMS alerts via the link here. If you are concerned with how many medals your favorite countries have obtained, you can also use the customized Google map to track medal counts. The overall medal winners will be indicated in the map for easy reference.
Google Search Onebox is a quick search service to allow users to look for a specific event. For instance, you can use this search service to track the Brazil football team in Olympics. It will thence show the upcoming events. Bloggers or website designers can also add the iGoogle Gadget to their blogs or website to display the latest Olympics results, medal counts, upcoming events, latest news, articles, etc. Check out the customized product from Google particularly for mobile users via the link here if you want to get updated Olympics news via your mobile with Web access.

One World One Dream, let’s enjoy this great and meaningful sporting event via Google tools.

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Easy Way to Activate Windows Home Server (Crack and Bypass Activation)

Windows Home Server is a home-based server operating system from Microsoft, where interested user can request for a free evaluation kit with installation DVD with 120 days activation free grace period to be delivered to user’s doorstep. To continue using Windows Home Server beyond 120 days free evaluation trial period, user will require to purchase a legitimate license, or try the following hack to crack and bypass the Windows Home Server activation requirement.


1. Click on Start button.
2. Click on Run.
3. Type regedit into the Run text box and press Enter.
4. Navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\WPAEvents
5. Note: From this step onward, the cracking process must be performed as quickly as possible, as it hacks activation stuff and Windows may change back the setting if there is a delay of more than few seconds.

Locate a string value named OOBETimer.
6. Right-click on OOBETimer, and click on Modify.
7. Change the value to FF D5 71 D6 8B 6A 8D 6F D5 33 93 FD.

8. Click on OK.
9. Right-click on WPAEvents and select Permissions….
10. Click on Advanced button.
11. Uncheck the check box for Inherit from parent the permission entries that apply to child objects. Include these with entries explicitly defined here.
12. Click on Apply.
13. When prompted, click COPY.
14. From there, highlight the SYSTEM line, and click Edit.
15. Choose the Deny option to ban all users from accessing and editing the key.
16. Click on OK.
17. Reboot the computer.

After the hack, Windows Home Server should run completely as a free copy, with users able to access Windows Update to get latest hotfixes and patches. The crack does not require BIOS mod.

To verify that the activation crack works after restarting the system, go to Start -> All Programs -> Activate Windows. The dialog should say Windows is already activated. Alternatively, go to Start -> Run and type oobe/msoobe /a.

Note: Some users reported that the method does not actually remove the activation grace period, even though it makes the system activated.

Read also similiar page : How to make Windows XP Genuine

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Don’t Miss the Free Security Tools Offered by Panda Security and ZoneAlarm

If you are looking for security applications or antivirus software, now is probably a good time to strike some good deals as some security companies and software retailers are seemingly clearing their 2008 stocks to make way for their 2009 products. By giving away these products either for free or with a nominal amount, security companies can attract more users to try their products and get wider publicity.

Watch out for the offer by Newegg expiring on 16 August. This famous online computer hardware and software retailer is offering a deal for users who intend to buy Panda Internet Security 2008 (3-user edition). Users need to pay $40 in order to get the security utility to be delivered to their door. Well, the deal doesn’t stop there. Users can thence get back their $40 from Panda Security USA in rebate form. Read the terms and conditions applied via the link here.

Panda Internet Security 2008 offers quite a comprehensive and complete security solution, covering antivirus, antispam, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, firewall, identity protection, backup solution, TruPrevent, parental control and TotalScan Pro. Users can read more on the product features via the link here.

If the $40 rebate offer is not enticing enough, users can look at another offer made by Panda Internet Security 2008. Users who buy the security application from Panda Security at $69.95 can enjoy a free upgrade to the 2009 version.

Besides Panda Internet Security, another great offer you probably shouldn’t miss is the offer given by ZoneAlarm. ZoneAlarm is a software firewall originally developed by Zone Labs, which was acquired in 2003 by Check Point. ZoneAlarm offers a free download to the full version of its ZoneAlarm ForceField. ZoneAlarm ForceField is a virtualization engine that shields the computer and personal data from the Internet and computer-based threats. It includes several layers of protection to combat phishing, spyware and dangerous file downloads.

ZoneAlarm ForceField normally costs users $29.99 to purchase (including a year’s subscription of updates) and $19.99 thereafter for another year’s subscription. If $29.99 is too expensive and you want to get it for free, don’t forget to go to ZoneAlarm site via the link here at 6 AM PDT on Tuesday, Aug. 12. You will get a complimentary version of ZoneAlarm ForceField. Don’t forget, the offer is only available within twenty-four hours of the launch.

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Voice over Broadband Services to Boost IP Telephony Carrier Market Over the Next Five Years, According to Dell'Oro Group

REDWOOD CITY, Calif., Aug 06, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- Dell'Oro Group, the trusted source for information about the telecommunications and networking industries, recently reported that worldwide IP Telephony Carrier equipment revenues are projected to grow by an average of 9 percent per year through 2012, driven mostly by the expansion of voice over broadband (VoBB) services. We forecast that VoBB subscribers will grow almost 40 percent per year over the next five years.
"As service providers deploy broadband connections in order to grow their revenues via data and video services, they are offering voice services that leverage that broadband connection," said Greg Collins, Vice President at Dell'Oro Group. "These triple play (data, voice, and video) services are helping to drive voice over broadband services, which, in turn, are fueling the IP Telephony-Carrier market," he added.

The massive installed base of circuit switched telephone lines represents a tremendous market opportunity for IP Telephony equipment, but many service providers struggle to find a Business case for replacing their legacy, class-5 switches.
About the Report
The Dell'Oro Group 5-Year Forecast Report offers a complete overview of the IP Telephony Carrier industry with tables covering manufacturers' revenue, average selling prices, license/channel shipments for softswitches, media gateways, and session border controllers. The report also includes breakouts of high density, medium density, and low density media gateways. To purchase this report, contact Emily Kendall at +1.650.622.9400 x223 or via email at Emily@DellOro.com.
About Dell'Oro Group
As the trusted source for Market information about the networking and telecommunications industries, Dell'Oro Group provides in-depth, objective research and analysis that enable component manufacturers, equipment vendors, and investment firms to make fact-based, strategic decisions. For more information, contact Dell'Oro Group at +1.650.622.9400 or visit www.DellOro.com.

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Polycom Desktop IP Phone

SoundPoint IP 670 Delivers a Rich Voice and Visual Experience to Increase the Speed of Business
Polycom, Inc. (NASDAQ: PLCM), the leader in unified collaborative communications solutions, today announced the newest addition to its SoundPoint® IP desktop phone line, the SoundPoint IP 670. The SoundPoint IP 670 is an application-enabled desktop SIP phone with a high-performance color display, Polycom’s revolutionary HD Voice technology, and Gigabit Ethernet (GigE) connectivity. It provides professionals with an intuitive color interface for easier viewing and navigation of phone functions and productivity-enhancing applications.

The SoundPoint IP 670 also features the industry’s first color expansion module. When equipped with up to three color expansion modules, the SoundPoint IP 670 delivers the industry’s first color attendant console solution for call attendants and administrative assistants. This solution significantly increases the call handling capability of the phone and enables attendants to better manage incoming calls by being able to view presence status without having to be in front of a PC.

“Polycom’s new SoundPoint IP 670 phone is a good choice for organizations that are pursuing a standards-based communication strategy and are planning to embed applications on the phone,” said Matthias Machowinski, directing analyst with Infonetics Research. “And what’s noteworthy for power users is that it operates at 1 Gbps, so it doesn’t introduce a new congestion point on the network.”

“The SoundPoint IP 670 provides a full-color user interface to deliver a significantly augmented and visually pleasing user experience when running productivity-enhancing applications, such as the Polycom Productivity Suite,” said Victor Yue, Director, Fujitsu Asia Pte Ltd, “We applaud Polycom for enabling us to continue to offer our customers the most comprehensive, best-sounding, most interoperable, high-quality IP telephony solutions for small and medium–sized businesses and enterprises.”

The SoundPoint IP 670 supports six-lines and includes advanced SIP features and capabilities, such as support for shared lines, text messaging, and buddy presence monitoring. It features 14 default color background displays for phone personalization. Additional customized backgrounds, such as a company logo, can be added to deliver a rich desktop branding experience. The phone also includes an integrated XHTML micro-browser that enables users to take advantage of productivity-enhancing Web-based applications and also provides the ideal platform for Polycom’s recently announced Polycom Productivity Suite for SoundPoint IP phones.

As the industry’s first color expansion module, the SoundPoint IP Color Expansion Module augments the color user interface of the SoundPoint IP 670 phone. It features 14 multifunctional line keys that can be set up as line registration, call appearance, speed-dial, or a direct station select (DSS)/busy lamp field (BLF) keys. Up to three Color Expansion Modules can be snapped onto the SoundPoint IP 670 to form a full-featured color call attendant console solution. The solution supports up to 34 line registrations, 47 BLF monitored lines, and 24 concurrent calls. This enables the telephone attendant to promptly accept, screen, dispatch and effortlessly monitor incoming calls.

“We’re always seeking ways to improve the customer experience and offer productivity-enhancing features that drive the speed of business,” said Sunil Bhalla, senior vice president and general manager of Polycom’s Voice Communications Solutions division. “The SoundPoint IP 670 combines a rich color display with Polycom HD Voice to offer our customers a visually pleasing user interface, an incredible sounding voice experience and a future-proof platform with Gigabit Ethernet.”

The SoundPoint IP phone is being certified to deliver comprehensive interoperability and extensive feature support with Polycom’s growing list of more than 24 SIP-based call control platform partners including 3Com, BroadSoft, Digium, Interactive Intelligence, Sylantro, and other Polycom VoIP Interoperability Partners (VIP). For more information on the Polycom VIP Program, visit www.polycom.com/vip.

Pricing and Availability
The Power over Ethernet (PoE) version of the Polycom SoundPoint IP 670 is available in North America, most of Central and Latin America, Europe and most of Asia-Pac today through Polycom certified channel partners for an MSRP of U.S. $599. The SoundPoint IP Color Expansion Modules are available for an MSRP of $319 each. To learn more about the SoundPoint IP 670 and its Color Expansion Modules, please visit the Polycom web site at www.polycom.com/voip.

About Polycom
Polycom, Inc. is the worldwide leader in unified collaborative communications (UCC) that maximize the efficiency and productivity of people and organizations. Polycom delivers the broadest array of high definition telepresence video, wired and wireless voice, and content solutions so people can enjoy the best communications, whether from a real-time collaborative interaction or on-demand streamed video experience. Spanning from the desktop to the industry’s only immersive telepresence suite, Polycom’s high quality collaboration and communications solutions are easy to deploy and manage, as well as intuitive to use. Based on open standards, they integrate seamlessly with leading telephony and presence-based networks. With innovative market-driving technologies, a compelling vision for next generation visual communications, best-in-class products, alliance partnerships, and world-class service, Polycom is the smart choice for organizations to gain a competitive advantage with proven and trusted communication solutions. For additional information, call 800-POLYCOM or visit the Polycom web site at www.polycom.com.

Polycom reserves the right to modify future product plans at any time. Products and/or related specifications referenced in this press release are not guaranteed, and will be delivered on a when and if available basis.

Polycom, the Polycom logo, and SoundPoint are registered trademarks, and Polycom HD Voice technology is a trademark of Polycom in the U.S. and various countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. ©2008, Polycom, Inc. All rights reserved.

Contact: Robin Raulf-Sager
Polycom, Inc.
303.583.5342
robin.raulf-sager@polycom.com

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Yeastar announces Windows-Based PBX System

BizPBX is Windows-based software PBX solution, which is the world first communication system that realizes the free connection among three different networks Skype, PSTN and SIP. BizPBX business class system not only includes complete and rich functions of PBX, but also contains Instant Messaging and E-Mail system for company internal communication. The simplicity and easy-to-use of this BizPBX solution makes it especially suitable for small and medium sized company.

1. Support three kinds of trunks,PSTN,SIP and Skype.
2. Support three kinds of extensions,Analog Phone,SIP Phone, Softphone.
3. BizPBX Client software can act as Softphone.
4. BizPBX Client software accessible for every extension.
5. Contacts Listing.Internal Members Listing and displays status of every member.
6. Contacts Listing is sharable among members.
7. Internal E-Mail & Internal Instant Messenger.
8. Voice Mail:Let caller leaves voice message when you are busy or away.
9. Remote Office: Work BizPBX Client software as an extension when working in remote office.
10.Caller ID Profile:Show caller’s information in real-time.
11.Click to Call:Click on ‘name’ to call and save precious time on dialing.
12.Conference Call: Both sides are able to invite others into conference.
13.Free Interoffice Trunking: Make free calls among multiple branches through the interoffice trunking.
14.Web Call: Receive concurrent calls from website with One Skype ID.
15.Virtual Office: Apply local numbers in different countries to reach BizPBX.

Features:
Authentication
Automated Attendant
Blind Transfer
Call Booking
Call Detail Records
Call Forward
Call Monitoring
Call Parking
Call Queuing
Call Recording
Call Restriction
Call Retrieval
Call Routing
Call Transfer
Call Waiting
Call Remind CallerID
Database Integration
Dial by Name
Direct Inward System Access(DISA)
Direct Line
Do Not Disturb
Extension Group
Interactive Voice Response(IVR)
Local and Remote Call Agents
Music On Hold
Protocol Conversion
Remote Call Pickup
Remote Office Support
Roaming Extensions
Share Contacts

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One Laptop per Child Lands in India

The Indian government wasn't interested, so OLPC partners with Reliance ADA Group to bring computers to India's primary school kids


Nicholas Negroponte has found it tough going in India. For years as the head of MIT's Media Lab, the famed computer scientist promoted radical ways to use technology to transform society. His best-known idea is the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) program (BusinessWeek, 6/5/08), a plan to make a simple, $100 laptop that would create a digitally literate generation in the hardscrabble classrooms of emerging-market nations. The laptop, now dubbed the XO, is finally being mass-produced in China.

In 2001, the computer scientist came to India to promote the Media Lab, but failed to impress New Delhi. Negroponte clearly fell off the India map, when then-Information Technology Minister Arun Shourie dismissed his efforts as "pedagogically suspect" and wanted more accountability. When Negroponte's nonprofit One Laptop per Child foundation approached the Indian government in 2006, his project was again rebuffed by India's then-Education Secretary, Sudeep Banerjee (BusinessWeek.com, 8/16/06).

Two years later, Negroponte is back to open a new office in New Delhi and launch the OLPC program in India on Aug. 4. Despite all the rebuffs, Negroponte's urge to sell in India is stronger than ever. "India is the largest market for us, and I had to be here," he says. More important, Negroponte has a new partner—one of India's politically influential private-sector conglomerates. The Digital Bridge Foundation, part of Reliance ADA Group, owned by Indian billionaire Anil Ambani, is providing the technology backbone and logistics for the installation of OLPC's white and green XO laptops in primary schools.

OLPC has started out by giving its laptops free to Reliance, which has been in charge of distributing them and building awareness in India. Now, though, the time has come for both the U.S. non-profit and Reliance to accelerate the rollout. To do that, Reliance has set up the Digital Bridge Foundation, a charitable arm that will work with OLPC and pursue other proposals.

As they work together, the two sides have had their share of challenges. For instance, while Reliance officials characterize their relationship with OLPC as a partnership, executives from the U.S. non-profit describe it slightly differently. "Reliance created the Digital Bridge Foundation to help, but we have no formal partnership with Reliance," says Negroponte. The rhetorical tweak could be useful in India. State governments and development organizations in the country have tended to be skeptical about being openly associated with the private sector. "We believe that the industry does not have a similar passion like us, and their intentions often tend to have a commercial tinge," says Sai Prakash, head of Erin Foundation, a non-government organization based in Bangalore that does work promoting IT in the Indian countryside.

Whether you call it a partnership, an alliance, or something else, the relationship between OLPC and the Reliance-backed foundation is a complete change.

Seeking Inroads into India
This new partnership is a complete change from OLPC's global moves, which generally involve exclusive deals with governments in various countries as the best way to reach students. Today, Negroponte and his band of evangelists are ready to try anything to sell their laptops quickly: "Scale," says Negroponte, "is key to OLPC." So unlike other countries like Peru and Uruguay, for instance, where the XO laptops are completely funded by the federal state, the Indian blend will include corporations, industry bodies, and state governments. Recruiting Reliance and other allies may overcome New Delhi's lingering reluctance toward technology spending in primary education.
Page "Our primary school children need reading and writing habits, not expensive laptops," says Arun Kumar Rath, India's Education Secretary.

For Negroponte, the Reliance partnership is an opportunity to make inroads into the huge Indian market: There are 370 million children studying in 1.2 million schools in India. Of these, primary schools pack in 150 million students, compared to 220 million in high school. For Reliance, India's second-largest telecom player, those big numbers provide a great commercial opportunity to expand its base of customers to the bottom of the pyramid. In the last few years, Reliance has been aggressively laying underground cables to increase bandwidth connectivity. "Reliance is in this whole networked economy. The OLPC initiative will help us bring in more users," says Sumit Chowdhury, chief information officer at Reliance. The company will sell bandwidth as the laptops will be connected to servers powered by Reliance. So far, the Reliance strategy has been to sell the XOs to nongovernment organizations (NGOs), which then donate them to schools.

An OLPC prototype project in India is already up and running at Khairat village, 26 miles south of Mumbai. Operating from a 10-by-12-foot room, the state-run school has 28 boys and girls from first to fourth grade squatting on thin, long mats on the floor. The self-motivated Sandeep Surve, 29, is the lone school teacher, who effortlessly goes from teaching spelling to the first-graders to explaining the solar system to the fourth-graders on their English-language XOs. Since Aug. 1, the laptops have also been operating with an interface for the local language, Marathi. "Now the children will be able to move ahead even faster. The XO will replace their notebooks completely," says Surve. For the students, who had never heard of a laptop until a year ago, the XO is more than a toy. Fourth-grader Geeta Akade proudly displays her work on the XO. In another corner, a group of young students are practicing their English alphabets, while 6-year-old Rahul is busy chatting online with his teacher. "I never let anyone touch my laptop," he chirps.

Skeptics Point to More Pressing Issues
This is only the beginning for OLPC in India, which has given its Indian partners a total of 500 XOs for distribution. Chowdhury says that many Indian state governments and NGOs have shown interest, but they have yet to approve budgets for the XO, which is more expensive than originally advertised. The XO, when conceived, was supposed to cost $100. Partly because the laptop is still made in fairly limited quantities, the cost of the XO in India is around $200. Negroponte expects that with increasing volumes, the XOs will actually sell for $100 in three years. "It becomes viable only if you build an ecosystem around the laptop. You have to train teachers and build a curriculum around the XO," says Nitish Rane, of the Swabhimaan NGO that runs schools in rural Maharashtra state. Rane has already deployed 100 XOs and plans to buy 500 more by yearend.

Not everyone is as gung-ho as Rane. There are many who believe that there are other big issues confronting Indian education that need to be addressed first. India's spends 3% of its gross domestic product on education, compared with 4% in China. There's a paucity of teachers in India, many schools lack basic facilities like toilets, power outages are frequent, and many subjects are not taught because there are no instructors. "Technology has a limited role to play when you are short of funds," says Atanu Dey, chief economist at tech innovation company Netcore Solutions. Negroponte is not deterred. He claims that despite the problems, the XO has an important place in the hierarchy of India's education needs. "The laptops can fast-track traditional methods," he says.

It is still early to say how the OLPC effort will pan out in India. With five state elections around the corner, some politicians may be reluctant to back this unusual project. Satish Jha, the head of OLPC India, says that he will tap corporations with a social conscience and industry bodies like the Confederation of Indian Industry to fund and promote the XOs. There's a tieup with Amazon.com (AMZN) to display the XO on its front page.

The demand for the XOs is also coming from unusual quarters in different sectors. These include insurance agents, census representatives, and even rural outsourcing units eager to deploy the sturdy, easy-to-use laptops. No deal, says Negroponte: He is committed to providing the laptop only for education.

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Are Social Networking Sites Useful for Business?

Social networking online seems to be exploding: Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Digg, and so on. When I ask how these sites can help my business, the answers can be vague. I am trying to relate it to face-to-face networking, which includes sharing ideas, information, and resources with other businesses. Are these sites useful for those goals? There is only so much time in my day and I need to use it effectively. —B.H., Scarborough, Me.

You are correct that social networking is a rapidly growing, headline-grabbing phenomenon. The question for entrepreneurs is how to tap into this trend as a business opportunity, rather than simply a way to connect—or reconnect—with people, says Peter Delgrosso, strategic vice-president for corporate communications with Web.com

"For the most part, these social networking sites should be viewed as complementary to your online presence. Think of it as a nice-to-have, not a must-have," he says. "When used properly, it is something that can gain your business some attention. However, you need to realize it shouldn't be seen as a replacement to your traditional online presence."

Greg Sterling, of Sterling Market Intelligence, considers social network sites primarily for meeting people, asking for advice or referrals and, carefully, doing online marketing. The uses vary by application or site, he notes: "Sites such as LinkedIn can be helpful in connecting with people you want to meet for one reason or another. Twitter and Facebook can be helpful when you're trying to notify a group of people about something you want to promote or about a happening of some kind."

Find Your Networking Niche
Take a few minutes—it doesn't have to be extensive—to look over the top sites and experiment to see what works for you. Even an hour or two a week can help you figure out which sites you like best and are most effective for your particular business. "The viral nature of social networking is quite extraordinary and something that can garner a lot of attention to your efforts in a hurry," Delgrosso says.

He thinks the best site for both networking and human resources purposes is LinkedIn. "The site requires some résumé creation, then offers the opportunity to link in to other like-minded professionals. When used selectively, it can be a very powerful tool for identifying new business partners, new employees, or simply building your personal or business presence," he says.

For gaining exposure to larger audiences, he recommends Facebook: "Consider establishing or joining a network on Facebook based on your business or industry category to tap into people's affinity for the topic. By doing this, you'll cut through the clutter and clearly establish your niche, keeping the interaction focused on the specific subject matter."

Rick Julian, CEO and chief creative officer of Quo Vadis, a startup brand communications agency, says he's getting a positive return on his investment from using social media sites for the past year. "It puts a human face on your business and allows people to get an impression of what a relationship with you would be like. When all things remain equal, people want to work with people they think they'll have an interesting relationship with," Julian says.
His firm is represented on five major social networking sites, including YouTube (GOOG) and his blog, and a couple of smaller ones.

It sounds like a full-time job, but Julian points out that you can cut and paste some of your content from site to site. "If I put up a YouTube video to create awareness, I might have some discussion on YouTube with the responders and then also put it on my blog, on my Facebook company page, and promote a link to it on Twitter. Just by generating that single asset, I've populated all those networks with content without having to come up with an original piece of content for each of them. There's a geometric extension of your reach," he says.

Robert Jenson, CEO of the Las Vegas-based realty firm the Jenson Group, takes a strictly corporate approach to social networking. "Rather than blogging stream-of-consciousness opinions or using the venue as a diary of sorts, I educate visitors on important, universal industry matters. I try my utmost to ensure the content I post is not just applicable and of interest to those in Las Vegas, where I operate, but also to any real estate consumer nationwide," he says.

He puts bylined articles he's written on his own blog and on social networking sites and uses them to establish his credibility as a real estate expert. "This serves as a 'risk reliever' for both prospective consumers and business affiliates, while also increasing my chances for media coverage by establishing myself as a reliable expert source," Jenson says.

Last, but definitely not least, is the value of social networking sites to search engine optimization (BusinessWeek, 6/20/08). The more sites that include your name and link back to your Web site or blog, the higher your profile rises in search engines, where more and more of your customers are likely to find you, Jenson says.

"Geometric Extension" and Search Optimization

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