my dreamz: August 2011

Saturday 20 August 2011

Telephonic Job Interviews – Five Ways To Ace Them

Many employers are resorting to telephonic interviews for recruitment and selection of their employees. In the fast-paced job market, companies try not to compromise on their workforce productivity (as well as costs). For convenience and cost-effectiveness, several organizations perform their job interviews over the phone.

Telephonic interviews are not restricted to any specific level of job. Fresh graduates to top-managers could be interviewed for a job over a phone call. You might also have experienced a pre-screening conversation from a prospective employer or even a detailed final interview conducted over the phone. Apparently, some people would consider telephonic job interviews as relatively “easier” since you are not required to show up in person or be scrutinized by the interviewer for your dressing and body language.

That is a “wrong” notion!

Job interviews taken over the phone are more challenging because your language, voice tone, telephone etiquette and thinking process are monitored in greater detail. In a physical or on-site interview, you body language and facial cues also reflect your compatibility with the offered position. In case any miscommunication takes place in this scenario, you would be able to cover it up in a more dynamic manner. However, with telephonic interviews, the margin for error is quite less. Employers perceive it as – Either standout from the crowd, or STAND OUT. So, what can be done to make your mark?

Preparation is the Solution

You can easily implement these 5 suggestions to make the telephonic job interviews work for your benefit:

1. Choose Appropriate Surroundings

The ease of communication is achieved through clarity. A good interview spot is usually where you will be least disturbed. You should ensure that the background of the call has minimum distortions or distractions. Lock the room, if possible, or choose a secluded area. In case of scheduled job interviews, move to a comfortable environment at least 30 minutes before the interview and free yourself of pre-interview jitters. This will also help you to adapt yourself according to the room/area temperature. Try that the temperature is adjusted to comfortable because your voice quality changes significantly when you are feeling cold or sweating profusely. Also, you should disable “call waiting” option to avoid being interrupted in the middle of the call. It actually leaves a very unprofessional message with the interviewer if you say “Hold on a second!”

If the job interview is unscheduled and you are in a meeting or gathering that you cannot get away from, it is best to request a callback politely. This is a crucial step, so you must make sure that you sound pleasant and respectful. In this way, a considerate employer would contact you at an agreeable time. You can also offer to call them back at a feasible time. An important point to mention here is that you must never take a job interview over the phone while driving any vehicle. Regardless of your speed, this constitutes a traffic violation as well as the noise factor might tick an interviewer off. Requesting a few minutes’ time with a valid reason would not harm your prospects.

2. Keep Resources Within Reach

Frequent shuffling of papers and lag in the conversation while you are finding something – a certificate, project document, CV, etc. – can make an interviewer impatient. This also sends a wrong message that you are not organized. If your interview is taking place after a prior appointment, you should take care that any relevant resources e.g. documents, water, tissues, computer, internet, etc. are working smoothly. It is understandable that you cannot always control these factors, but you should prepare ahead of time to keep any pointers ready or have backup for light, internet and files, if possible. For instance, a smart move for you would be keeping printouts of your resume, as well as a soft copy open in the computer. Any projects that are most suitable could also be opened or printed beforehand.

While striving as a job seeker or professional, it is the best if you are organized and disciplined. Accessing the needed resources becomes easier even if you are not offered a lot of preparation time before a telephonic job interview.

3. Dress Suitably

This might sound unconventional, but your attire does matter even when you giving an interview over a call. Many of you might be able to relate to this example – If you are wearing a suit, you might “act” in a certain manner that reflects the formality of a tie-suit. Similarly, you could have done the same thing differently if dressed up in a pair of jeans. So, people are sometimes reflective of how they are clothed.

You don’t have to wear anything uncomfortable, but your dress should convey your decency and alertness. This will just be an added effort on your part to sound professional over the phone.

4. Pace Around The Area

Sitting still is not an ideal way to give a telephonic job interview. It is better to move around the area naturally or take this interview as a presentation that you are delivering while standing. A hands-free device would actually help your mobility. You would be able to use your hands for natural gestures and movements.

Again, care should be taken that you do not nervously keep moving, because it would cause shortness of breath. Heavy breathing is easily observed over the phone by the interviewer. It is a depiction of your stress and/or lack of confidence. Keeping in congruence with the previous points, your movements should not be such that you get considerably away from the suitable environment or from needed resources.

5. Interact Dynamically

It is true that your conversation should be confident and polite. You must not be deadpan quiet for a long time. Alternatively, it is also important that you do not cut off the interviewer while he/she is making a point. Your communication skills are tested at this point, where you should process information quickly and speak impactful, positive language. Your credentials are your achievements that you have to highlight – without bragging.

Always ask questions regarding the evaluation of a telephonic job interview by the particular organization. You can address any queries at the end of it – decision making deadlines, who is making the decisions, etc. Maintain your concern without repetition of questions or pestering the interviewer with something.

Most importantly, always end your telephone interview with a positive, hopeful and professional “Thank You Note”. This reinforces good faith and etiquette. Such gracious close could be an opening to your consideration for future job openings!

Friday 19 August 2011

Your First Website Using WebMatrix

This guide introduces you to WebMatrix, Microsoft's new one-stop website authoring tool that lets you create, edit, and publish websites easily.
This getting-started guide will help you:

Install WebMatrix.
Download and install an open-source web application along with its prerequisites.
Perform the initial set up, including setting database and site administrator credentials.
Edit some files in the site using the built-in code editor.
Edit the site's database using the built-in database manager.
Run a site analysis to look for potential optimizations.
Prepare to publish your site to a web hosting provider.

Overview

WebMatrix, Microsoft's new one-stop web development tool, lets you create, edit, and publish websites with unprecedented ease. There are three main ways to create websites using WebMatrix:

You can create a website starting with one of the site templates built into WebMatrix.
You can create a site from scratch by using the WebMatrix editing tools for ASP.NET Web Pages with "Razor" syntax
You can start with a popular open-source web application from the Microsoft Web Application Gallery.

The Web Application Gallery contains an extensive collection of free open-source applications that you can install directly from within WebMatrix. In this tutorial, you'll install WebMatrix and create a blogging website based on the popular open-source application WordPress.

1. Install WebMatrix

To install WebMatrix, go to the WebMatrix download page and click Install Now. At the security warnings, click Run, and then click Install on the Web Platform Installer page.

On the Web Platform Installation screen, WebMatrix displays a list of additional required components. Click I Accept. The install begins.

2. Launch WebMatrix

After installation, click Start > All Programs> Microsoft WebMatrix > Microsoft WebMatrix.

3. Open the Web Gallery

The WebMatrix Quick Start page offers you a number of ways to create a website. In this tutorial, you'll use the option to create a website based on an existing open-source application.
On the Quick Start page, click Site From Web Gallery.

4. Choose a Web Application

Select WordPress. In the Site Name box, enter "MyNewBlog" and then click Next.

5. Choose the Database Type

Most web applications from the Web Gallery require a database engine (namely, MySQL Server or SQL Server Express). WordPress is only compatible with MySQL. If you don't have MySQL installed already, WebMatrix will help you install it. If you need to do that, click Yes, install it on my machine, and then click Next.

As you install WordPress, you may need to set up three sets of credentials:

Database administrator credentials for the MySQL database engine that WordPress sets up (also known as "root", or "sa" credentials in the case of SQL Server).
Database user credentials for the actual MySQL database that WordPress will create for your website.
A set of administrator credentials for the WordPress website itself.

These will be covered in the steps that follow.
If MySQL is already installed, you can go directly to the Connect a Database to the Application step.

6. Choose a Database Engine Administrator Password

When you install a database engine for the first time, you'll need to enter a password for the database administrator account. The default administrator user name is "root" for MySQL databases and "sa" for SQL Server. Be sure that you remember both the user name and the password you create, because you'll need them for later.

Click Next.

7. Start the Installation

The next screen shows you the application (or applications) to be installed, which includes any other software required by the application (for example, PHP, which is the scripting engine that WordPress requires). The following illustration shows you that both WordPress and PHP will be installed. (The screen shows you the link that it's going to get the software from. You don't need to go to the sites and install the software yourself; WebMatrix will do this for you.)

After you accept the End User License Agreement (EULA), the installation begins.
The time required for the installation will depend on the speed of your Internet connection and the servers that you're downloading from.

8. Connect a Database to the Application

Next, you may have to enter some additional database information for the application. Web Gallery applications typically expect you to point them to your local database engine (which you might have just installed). For SQL Express, this is typically .\SQLExpress. For MySQL, it's localhost.
Because WordPress uses MySQL, "localhost" is already filled in for you, as you can see in the following illustration.
Next, in the Database Name box, type MyNewBlogDB. This is the database that will hold your blog contents.
In the Database User Name box, enter MyNewBlogDBUser. In the Database Password box, enter a password.

Next, WordPress requires the MySQL administrator credentials so that it can make database changes. If necessary, scroll down so that the Database Administrator Password box is visible. In the box, enter the password that you remembered from earlier — the password you created for the "root" user.

Note Don't change the administrator user name of "root" in the Database Administrator box.

When you're done, click Next.
When the process finishes, you'll see the following screen. The details listed might differ, depending on what was installed.

By default, your website files, including the files that WordPress installs for you, are located in the folder C:\Users\<YourUserName>\Documents\My Web Sites\MyNewBlog. At this point, you haven't published your site to the web, and you're still working locally on your own computer.
Click OK.

9. Run the Site for the First Time

When the installation is finished, your new website appears in the WebMatrix Site workspace. In the WebMatrix ribbon, click the Run button to launch the site in your browser. This is necessary because most applications in the Web Application Gallery do their final setup steps in the browser.

10. Enter Site Administrator Information

Running applications from the Application Gallery for the first time usually triggers the last phase of the installation. In this case, WordPress asks for the site title and the site administrator credentials.
The site title does not have to match the name of the Site in WebMatrix. Type "My New Blog" (with spaces) for the site title and "MyNewBlogAdmin" for the site administrator user name.
Next, provide a password and email address for the site administrator. If you do not provide a password, WordPress will generate one for you.

Finally, to make sure that your blog can be viewed by search engines like Bing and Google, select the Allow my site to appear in search engines check box, and then click Install WordPress (despite the wording, this is not really an installation, as you will see).

11. View the Home Page

If you did not provide credentials in the previous step, a page displays your administrator user name and credentials. After you have made a note of them, click Log In. The following login page appears.
This login page takes you to your site's administrator dashboard. Many Web Gallery applications have similar dashboards. Since you are learning about WebMatrix, you can skip this step for now.
In the upper left corner, click Back to My New Blog.

The default page for the My New Blog website is displayed.

Congratulations — your initial site setup is complete.
Close the browser and return to WebMatrix.

12. Open the Files Workspace

Now you can focus on customizing your website. Let's say you want to use WebMatrix to change the background color of all the headings in the site to make them stand out more. To get started, click the Files workspace selector to open the Files workspace.

13. Open a File

The Files workspace is the area in WebMatrix where you can open and edit files.

In the navigation pane on the left, go to the wp-content > themes > twentyten folder, find the style.css file, and then double-click it to open it. If you like, you can click Word Wrap in the ribbon to make the file contents easier to read. Line numbers are enabled by default, and their positions adjust accordingly when lines wrap.

14. Edit a File

In the ribbon, click Go To Line, enter "34", and click Go To. This moves you into the CSS declaration for all headers globally in the site.

After this line:

font-weight: normal;

Add the following line:

background-color: yellow;

When you're editing CSS rules and you press Enter at the end of an existing line, the WebMatrix IntelliSense feature displays some commonly used options to save you some typing:

When you're finished, click the Save icon in the Quick Access Toolbar.

15. Run the Web Site

Run the website again to see the effects of your change. In the navigation pane, select the top item in the tree, which represents your entire site, and then click Run in the ribbon. (If you forget to select the MyNewBlog node and instead click Run when site.css is selected in the navigation pane, WebMatrix will try to browse to site.css and you'll see an error in the browser.)

In the browser, you see that the background color of all of the headings has changed.

When you're done viewing the change, close the browser. You can modify more files in the wp-content/themes directory to change themes in any way you wish.

16. Open the Databases Workspace

Now you're ready to try changing some of the data on the page. For now, you'll change the "Hello World" post title to something else.
Click the Databases workspace selector.

17. Make a Change in the Application Database

Open the node for the MyNewBlogDB database.

Double-click Tables. In the list of tables, double-click the item called MyNewBlogDB.wp_posts.
In the first row of the table grid, find the column called post_title. Select the cell in the first row, press F2 to switch to editing mode, and then change "Hello world!" to "Welcome to My New Blog!". A pencil icon appears to the left of the row while you're editing it.
To save the change that you made, just click any other row in the table.

18. Test Your Change

In the ribbon, click the Home tab, and then click Run again. The changed greeting appears in the browser.

Of course, it's possible to edit the same information by using the WordPress site administrator dashboard. However, for the purposes of this tutorial, you've made the change directly in the database so that you can become familiar with the Databases workspace.
Close the browser. For now, you're done with the Databases workspace.

19. Open the Reports Workspace

Next, you'll use the WebMatrix Reports feature to analyze your website. The Reports feature suggests changes that can make your site faster and more visible to search engines like Bing and Google.
The Reports workspace has many features, so this tutorial will just show you the basics of how to run an analysis and view the results.
To start, click the Reports workspace selector in WebMatrix.

20. Create a New Report

In the Reports workspace, click New in the ribbon.

21. Name the Report

In the New Report dialog box, enter "My New Blog Report" in the Name box. After you click OK, the analysis begins.

22. View the Results

The results appear in the Reports workspace.
Violations of good search engine optimization practices are categorized as "Information", "Warning", or "Error". To see more information about an issue, click it to expand it.
You can use the slider to filter the amount of information you see. To see only warnings and errors, move the slider to the middle. To see only the errors, move the slider to the right.
In the ribbon, you can also click the Performance, SEO, All, URL, and Issue Type buttons to filter and group the results.

As noted, this brief introduction to the Reports feature can't cover all of its capabilities. To learn more about viewing violations and for examples of how to fix them, see the tutorial Use WebMatrix to optimize your site for search engines (SEO).

23. Prepare to Publish

When you're ready to publish your website on the Internet, click the Publish button in the WebMatrix ribbon.

The first time you publish, the Publish Settings dialog box is displayed. To publish a website, you must have an account with a web hosting provider. If you don't have one yet, you can click Find web hosting.

This displays a web page where you can choose from a selection of hosting providers that are compatible with WebMatrix.

24. Import Your Publishing Settings

After you've set up an account with a hosting provider, the provider will typically send you an email with your user name, server name, and other information that goes into the Publish Settings dialog box.
To save you the extra step of entering this information manually, the provider may also send you a "Profile XML" file (named with the.publishsettings extension) that contains this information. If you get one of these files, all you have to do is click Import publish settings, select the file, and you'll be ready to publish. Otherwise, you can enter the settings manually.

25. Publish Your Site

At this point, you're ready to publish your website. For details about how to do this, see the tutorial How to publish a web application using WebMatrix.
After you've published your site, you might want to make changes to it and republish it. WebMatrix makes it easy for you to download it from your hosting provider, edit it, and publish it again. For information on how to do this, see Download, edit, and republish your website with WebMatrix.

26. Other Ways to Create a Site with WebMatrix

In addition to creating a website based on one of the many applications in the Web Application Gallery, you can also create a website in other ways with WebMatrix:

Use the built-in site templates. The templates offer either a basic site to get you started (like the Starter Site template) or a purpose-specific site (like the Photo Gallery, Calendar, or Bakery templates). These templates create the basic site for you, and then you modify it as you wish. For more information on creating templates, see Create a website from a WebMatrix site template.
Create a website yourself. This option requires more effort on your part, but may be the best option if you want to directly control every aspect of your site. One way to get started is by using the Empty Site template. For more information, see Create an ASP.NET website from scratch.
Create a site from a folder. If you already have Web-site files (such as .html files) in a folder on your computer, you can click Site From Folder on the WebMatrix Quick Start screen. The folder name will be become the name of a new site whose files you now can edit in WebMatrix. Alternatively, in Windows Explorer, you can right-click an existing folder and select Open as a Web Site with Microsoft WebMatrix.

27. Additional Resources

To learn more about WebMatrix, see the following:

The WebMatrix Learn area of Microsoft/web.
WebMatrix How To's, which focus on specific aspects of WebMatrix and on how to add functionality to it.
WebMatrix Walkthroughs, which focus on using WebMatrix with Web Gallery applications.
The http://www.microsoft.com/web/category/all page, which lists all of the articles in the Learn, How To's, and Walkthroughs sections.
The WebMatrix page on the ASP.NET site.
The WebMatrix forums on the ASP.NET site.
The WebMatrix forums on the IIS.net site.

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/
http://raheeldreamz.wordpress.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/My-Dreamz-Rebiuld-our-nation/176215539101271

Thursday 18 August 2011

Windows 8 App Store Will Change Windows Software Forever

Windows 8 is coming, and apparently its bringing a Windows 8 app store with it. Speculation that began with hints of an app store in leaked builds of Windows 8 earlier this year have been all but officially confirmed in a blog post from the President of Microsoft's Windows and Windows Live divisions, Steven Sinofsky.

Wednesday 17 August 2011

Four ways the Google-Motorola deal will change the tech industry

Google’s $12.5 billion purchase of Motorola Mobility will go down as one of the most important events in tech during this era. Other deals, such as AT&T’s $39 billion buyout of T-Mobile USA, are worth more money, but none of them will have as big of an impact on the tech industry (and as much fallout) as the Google-Motorola deal. As I discussed on Twitter with Technologizer editor Harry McCracken on Monday, this is the most important acquisition in the technology space since the HP-Compaq $25 billion deal a decade ago.

Here are the top four ways that Googlerola will change the course of the tech industry.

1. The Android patent wars are over

Before Google bought Motorola, the Android ecosystem was in real danger of having innovation stymied by litigation. Microsoft, Oracle, and Apple were all bearing down on Google as well as Android partners Samsung and HTC over patent infringements. Motorola hadn’t entered the fray yet, but with its long history in the wireless business there was the potential that it could use its treasure chest of patents to pile on to its chief Android rivals, Samsung and HTC. On August 11, my ZDNet colleague James Kendrick posted, “If Motorola turns its patents on other Android phone makers the platform will implode.” And, that was on top of the overall intellectual property issues with Android itself, which affects all of the Android device makers. The problem for Google was that it didn’t have enough mobile patents to fight back. That’s the way these things usually work. One big company typically says to another big company, “Yeah, we might be infringing you there, but you’re infringing us over here” and then it turns into a draw. With Motorola’s 17,000 patents on its side, Google has essentially put an end to the Android patent wars. There will still be some final skirmishes, but don’t expect much carnage.

2. Vertical integration has won

While Google is pledging to keep Android an open ecosystem and claiming that it will run Motorola as a separate business, it’s pretty clear that Google also wants to have the option of producing its own hardware devices so that it can build prototypes, concept hardware, and leading edge devices to demonstrate its vision and point its ecosystem partners in the right direction. Google wanted to do this with the Nexus One smartphone and we also saw Google’s hardware itch in the CR-48 laptop running Chrome OS. Of course, Google didn’t have the expertise or infrastructure in place to handle the hardware business. With the Motorola Mobility acquisition, it will add over 19,000 new employees with supply chain, customer service, and hardware development skills. When Google wants to do its next leading edge Android device like the Nexus One, Nexus S, or Motorola Xoom, we have to assume that it’s going to use its new hardware division to build it so that it can deliver exactly the device it wants and get it to market much more quickly. With Apple’s continued success in mobile, BlackBerry’s large (albeit fading) market share, HP’s new hardware/software unification with WebOS, and now the Google-Motorola deal, it’s becoming clear that vertical integration is winning in mobile. Going forward, look for the latest, greatest, high-end devices to all be vertically integrated, while many of the low-cost, copy-cat devices will come to the market later and be made by mass market manufacturers like Samsung.

3. Mobile consolidation has begun

Over the past couple years, the arrival of new mobile platforms and the expansion of mobile vendors have given buyers lots of new choices in smartphones and now tablets. However, even in a fast-growing market like mobile, the good times can’t last forever. In 2011, we’ve already seen BlackBerry and Nokia drastically losing momentum, Windows Phone 7 and WebOS struggling to gain market share, and Android and Apple increasingly hogging the spotlight. Even within the Android ecosystem itself, there have been lots of new upstarts recently, including LG, Lenovo, Acer, and ASUS. All of them have been grasping for a piece of the expanding Android market, which has been dominated by the big three — HTC, Samsung, and Motorola. However, leading up to the Google deal, Motorola was the only one of the Android vendors that lost market share in the smartphone market in Q2. Obviously, that’s likely to change if and when Motorola morphs into the Google-branded Android devices. Nevertheless, Motorola’s Q2 struggles are a sign that the Android market itself is already beginning to whittle down to fewer big players.

4. Google has to grow up

As a company, Google is only a little over a decade old. Despite its recent kerfuffles with government regulators and its dust-up with China, the company has lived a bit of an idyllic, Peter Pan existence. Its offices are like college campuses with free food, free transportation, and free personal services (cleaners, barbers, etc). Its employees are loosely organized, don’t have to deal with a bunch of overbearing middle managers and bean counters (in most cases), and even get the ability to use work time to dabble with some of their own pet projects. Because Google’s search engine has been such a major cash cow, it has given the company freedom to hire lots of engineers and computer scientists and loosely organize them in this unique environment. However, with search under greater pressure than ever from the social web, it could finally be time for Google to grow up and act like an adult company that has to closely manage expenses and account for the value that each of its employees brings to the organization. The Motorola acquisition could hasten the process, since it will add over 19,000 employees to a Google that currently has 29,000, and Motorola is a much more established company with traditional organizational standards. Of course, Google will talk about wanting to maintain its startup-like culture, but it will be interesting to watch and see if Motorola influences Google to become more of an accountable, grown-up company.

Tuesday 16 August 2011

Windows 8 prerelease launching in coming months

Though the term prerelease version is a bit vague, Sinofsky is likely referring to the beta of Windows 8 since he said that the company wants to "begin an open dialogue with those of you who will be trying out the prerelease version over the coming months."
Aiming the new blog series, "Building Windows 8," at customers, developers, and users in general, Sinofsky used the post to provide tidbits of information but not much detail yet as he acknowledged that "people express frustration over how little we've communicated so far about Windows 8."
Among other comments, Sinofsky said that "Windows 8 reimagines Windows," however he stressed that the company is committed to supporting Windows 8 on all existing Windows 7 PCs and hardware.
Though the initial blog, "Welcome to Building Windows 8," was short on specifics, Sinofsky promised to reveal more over the next few weeks.
"There is so much packed into Windows 8 and there are so many unique and important lenses through which to view Windows 8, and so we want to be sure to take the time to cover as many of these topics as possible, to build up a shared understanding of why we've taken Windows where we have," he wrote. "So in the next weeks we will just start talking specifics of features, since there is no obvious place to start given the varying perspectives. From fundamentals, to user interface, to hardware support, and more, if something is important to you, we promise we'll get to it in some form or another."
The B8 blog, as Sinofsky referred to it, will be updated on a regular basis as different people from Microsoft share the latest information on the development of the new OS.
"As a team we're all going to participate--many of us will author posts, and all of us will read and take note of your comments on this blog," Sinofsky wrote. "We'll participate in a constructive dialogue with you. We'll also make mistakes and admit it when we do. It is almost certain that something will hit a nerve, with the team or with the community, or both, in the blog posts or in the product, or both."
The new blog series comes at a time when rumors have been flying the past several months over when Windows 8 might debut.

In May, CEO Steve Ballmer said that the new OS would reach consumers in 2012, though Microsoft quickly shot down his comments. In June, Vice President Dan'l Lewin dropped hints that Windows 8 would launch during the fall of 2012.
A report in June by ZDNet reporter Mary Jo Foley cited a source claiming that Microsoft would release the Windows 8 beta in the middle of September at its Build developers conference. Though that specific date doesn't quite jibe with Sinofsky's "coming months" time frame, Foley's source also indicated that Microsoft would release only one beta, followed by the traditional Release Candidate and the final RTM (release to manufacturing) version a few months later.
Sinofsky demonstrated Windows 8 at the All Things Digital D9 conference in late June. The next major event, he blogged, will be September's Build conference where Microsoft will offer developers more details about the tools they'll need to design for Windows 8.

Android on the leap, Google acquired Motorola for $12.5 Billion

Today the CEO of Google Inc., Larry Page, announced on this Google+ profile with the news of Google acquiring Motorola Mobility with the title Supercharging Android.

From his post:

Supercharging Android: Google to Acquire Motorola Mobility
Since its launch in November 2007, Android has not only dramatically increased consumer choice but also improved the entire mobile experience for users. Today, more than 150 million Android devices have been activated worldwide–with over 550,000 devices now lit up every day–through a network of about 39 manufacturers and 231 carriers in 123 countries. Given Android’s phenomenal success, we are always looking for new ways to supercharge the Android ecosystem. That is why I am so excited today to announce that we have agreed to acquire Motorola (http://investor.google.com/releases/2011/0815.html).
Motorola has a history of over 80 years of innovation in communications technology and products, and in the development of intellectual property, which have helped drive the remarkable revolution in mobile computing we are all enjoying today. Its many industry milestones include the introduction of the world’s first portable cell phone nearly 30 years ago, and the StarTAC–the smallest and lightest phone on earth at time of launch. In 2007, Motorola was a founding member of the Open Handset Alliance (http://www.openhandsetalliance.com) that worked to make Android the first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices. I have loved my Motorola phones from the StarTAC era up to the current DROIDs.
In 2008, Motorola bet big on Android as the sole operating system across all of its smartphone devices. It was a smart bet and we’re thrilled at the success they’ve achieved so far. We believe that their mobile business is on an upward trajectory and poised for explosive growth.
Motorola is also a market leader in the home devices and video solutions business. With the transition to Internet Protocol, we are excited to work together with Motorola and the industry to support our partners and cooperate with them to accelerate innovation in this space.
Motorola’s total commitment to Android in mobile devices is one of many reasons that there is a natural fit between our two companies. Together, we will create amazing user experiences that supercharge the entire Android ecosystem for the benefit of consumers, partners and developers everywhere.
This acquisition will not change our commitment to run Android as an open platform. Motorola will remain a licensee of Android and Android will remain open. We will run Motorola as a separate business. Many hardware partners have contributed to Android’s success and we look forward to continuing to work with all of them to deliver outstanding user experiences.
We recently explained (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/when-patents-attack-android.html) how companies including Microsoft and Apple are banding together in anti-competitive patent attacks on Android. The U.S. Department of Justice had to intervene in the results of one recent patent auction to “protect competition and innovation in the open source software community” (http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2011/April/11-at-491.html) and it is currently looking into (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903635604576476430510833852.html) the results of the Nortel auction. Our acquisition of Motorola will increase competition by strengthening Google’s patent portfolio, which will enable us to better protect Android from anti-competitive threats from Microsoft, Apple and other companies.
The combination of Google and Motorola will not only supercharge Android, but will also enhance competition and offer consumers accelerating innovation, greater choice, and wonderful user experiences. I am confident that these great experiences will create huge value for shareholders.

I look forward to welcoming Motorolans to our family of Googlers.

Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2011 R2 Released

Microsoft on Monday rolled out a second release (R2) of Microsoft Desktop Optimization Pack 2011.
MDOP 2011 R2 is a suite of seven tools for IT professionals running Windows environments. The enterprise-level tools are available as a no-cost perk for certain Microsoft software licensees. For instance, IT shops with volume licensing agreements and Software Assurance can get access to the MDOP tools without additional charge. It's also a benefit for users of Windows Intune, Microsoft's PC management suite that offered on monthly basis to software-as-a-service subscribers.

Organizations with volume licensing and Software Assurance in place can download MDOP 2011 R2 at the newly revamped Volume Licensing Service Center here. It's also available at Microsoft's TechNet and MSDN portals for those subscribers.
The new addition to MDOP 2011 R2 is the Microsoft BitLocker Administration and Monitoring (MBAM) tool, which was briefly introduced in February. MBAM helps IT pros better provision and manage encrypted hard disks protected by BitLocker, which is a Windows 7 security feature available with the Enterprise and Ultimate editions.
A new addition to MBAM is the ability to get users with standard permissions to initiate the BitLocker encryption process, without requiring a visit by IT personnel, according to a Microsoft announcement. Also new to MBAM is an option to store recovery key information in an encrypted SQL Server database rather than having to give help desk personnel access to Active Directory to get that information.
Also updated in the MDOP 2011 R2 suite are the Microsoft Diagnostic and Recovery Toolkit 7.0 (DaRT 7.0) and the Asset Inventory Service 2.0 (AIS 2.0).
DaRT is a recovery tool that can be used when PCs become unbootable. Microsoft expanded how the tool can be used in version 7.0. IT pros can talk to users over the phone to reboot a PC using either a network boot (PXE), CD or DVD disk, a USB device or "via the local recovery partition," according to Microsoft's announcement. Another new addition is the ability of IT pros to control a DaRT session via "remote control." Moreover, user access to some of DaRT's capabilities can be restricted by IT.
Microsoft improved AIS 2.0, a cloud-based inventory tool. The new version supports up to 100,000 clients. It's also available in 11 languages. Inventory tracking of App-V packages got upgraded with version 2.0, and the user interface and hardware reporting were improved, according to Microsoft's announcement. Some of these "new" capabilities were perhaps available when the tool was rolled out separately from MDOP in May.
Other tools in the MDOP suite, but perhaps not updated for the R2 release, include Advanced Group Policy Management, Application Virtualization (App-V), Desktop Error Monitoring and Microsoft Enterprise Desktop Virtualization (MED-V).
App-V 4.6 SP1 and MED-V 2.0 were announced in March as part of the first MDOP 2011 release.

Thanks & regards,

"Remember Me When You Raise Your Hand For Dua"
Raheel Ahmed Khan
System Engineer
send2raheel@engineer.com
sirraheel@gmail.com

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Monday 15 August 2011

The evolution of Microsoft

The BUILD conference is coming soon and there’s a lot of pent up anticipation about Microsoft and all the new tools and features they will unleash upon us in September.

As TheNextWeb pointed out today, the stakes are really high.

It did however get me thinking about Microsoft and how far the company has come. More impressive though is the radical transformation that the company is in the middle of now.

Microsoft is evolving and moving from a company that makes software to a company that makes your life better. Big difference.

In the very beginning, Microsoft had an idea to build an Operating System to allow the average user to productively use a computer. They would now be able to edit documents, to print files, to store information and all this without knowledge of the basic (no pun) command line languages.

The success of Windows led to the success of Microsoft Office and Windows Server.

Microsoft Office

Microsoft Office and Windows Server have been tremendously successful but were pretty narrowly focused. Once again, they made individuals and enterprises more productive but really didn’t touch lives outside of corporate settings.

While Microsoft Office was available outside of a corporate environment, no one I know was excited about using PowerPoint during the weekend or manipulating Excel spreadsheets during a party, once again, the focus was productivity.

Enter the internet

Internet Explorer

The rise of the Internet and Internet Explorer was the beginning of a change for the software giant. They made a browser for people to do…..anything with.

People could check email or just surf for fun or both. The landscape had changed but it took a while for Microsoft (and to be fair, a lot of other companies) to catch on.

We all know what happened next as Google, Apple, Facebook and a lot of other companies quickly caught on and leveraged the power of the web very profitably.

It seemed that Microsoft was caught napping and was watching these other companies go by without being able to mount a satisfactory response.

Now however, if you look closely, you start to see the outlines of a very strategic response.

Xbox kinect

It all started with an experiment of sorts – The Xbox. The tremendous (and lets be frank) unpredictable success of the gaming platform was the first major validation for Microsoft that they could be a fun vendor as well.

The second piece of validation came from the Kinect. Consumers loved the Xbox camera and the revenue came roaring in. Once again, people were using another Microsoft fun product, outside of the enterprise and not (necessarily) related to productivity.

Microsoft Bing

Then they rolled out a Search Engine – Bing and they absorbed (more or less) Yahoo for search. Now people were searching the web with a Microsoft product and once again, it’s cool, fun and not (necessarily) related to productivity.

The challenge now was to move from being a company with some cool products to a company that literally changes lives every day – like Apple or Google.

This is the next phase for Microsoft – to weave together a seamless tapestry of technology platforms, phones, tablets, browsers, cameras, games and software applications. Basically – Windows Everywhere.

Not just to have a bunch of cool tools but to enable easier and more productive lifestyles.

In many ways, Windows 8 will be at the heart of this effort and I have to say, it’s ambitious, impressive and makes a lot of sense.

These tools all have to easily work together to create a seamless experience. They have to inspire thousands of developers to begin stitching apps together that will work on multiple platforms.

They have to be tools that actually enable people to be more productive in their lives and not just their work.

If you saw the BING demo during WPC 2011, or you saw the XBOX Kinect demos, you know that Microsoft get it.

They know what the task at hand is and in some ways, they are actually (gasp) thinking more strategically than Apple or Google.

The stakes are high and the road to success is long but ultimately I am excited about the attempt.

This is in a sense, the best and purest part of being in technology – literally planning out how to make the lives of millions better.

Time will tell but I am happy that Microsoft seem to be (finally) on the right path.

Saturday 13 August 2011

HEC, Microsoft join hands to provide genuine software for students

ISLAMABAD: The Higher Education Commission (HEC) in collaboration with the Microsoft Pakistan has launched National Student Software Accessibility (NSSA) Portal to provide genuine software availability to the higher education sector.

The service will streamline software distribution to all faculty members and students of public sector universities in the country. All public sector universities recognized by HEC have been provided a customizable Portal for licensed software distribution. The portal consisting of around 150 software applications will enable over one million students and about 40,000 faculty members to download genuine Microsoft software.

The event to mark the launch of the portal was held at HEC Secretariat on Saturday and was attended by the Vice Chancellors, Rectors, Directors, and representatives from different universities of the country. Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Javaid R. Laghari, Chairperson HEC said that this is a great opportunity for institutions of higher learning to gain access to a broad spectrum of technology and enable the country to move towards a knowledge-based economy, ultimately benefiting the country through socioeconomic development. “I appreciate Microsoft’s commitment for development of the education sector in Pakistan. It is always fruitful for public sector and private enterprise to combine expertise, knowledge and resources to ensure successful and sustainable education transformation. Microsoft has facilitated HEC to attain its goals by transforming education, fostering local innovation and creating jobs and opportunities through the Strategic Education Alliance,” the Chairperson said.

Kamal Ahmed, Country General Manager, Microsoft Pakistan said that Microsoft believes that Information and Communications Technology, combined with education, provides the path to individuals, communities and nations to achieve their potential. “NSSA provides support for a comprehensive joint public/private implementation plan that will sustain Pakistan’s objective of achieving education excellence. It is aligned with the key strategic aims of transforming education, fostering local innovation and use of genuine software,” he said. The portal will further strengthen HEC’s objectives of equipping university students and faculty members with the latest technological access across Pakistan. Last year Microsoft and HEC entered into the agreement to provide centralized IT services to the universities and degree awarding institutions across Pakistan while maintaining the highest standards in the use of ICT across higher education sector in the country. The alliance consists of Faculty Connection, Microsoft Student Partner Programme, Imagine Cup, Course Lab Integration, Student to Business Interaction (S2B), .NET clubs and MSDN Academic Alliance.

Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 Blocked By Apple in the European Union

With the exception of the Netherlands, Samsung’s Galaxy Tab 10.1 has been banned from distribution in the European Union after being awarded a preliminary injunction (a separate lawsuit in the Netherlands is already underway). After a district court in Dusseldorf, Germany, granted the injunction, Apple spokesperson Kristin Huguet confirmed the injunction to Bloomberg. ”It’s no coincidence that Samsung’s latest products look a lot like the iPhone and iPad, from the shape of the hardware to the user interface and even the packaging.” This comes shortly after the Galaxy Tab 10.1 launch was delayed in Australia after Apple pressured Samsung as they requested a preliminary injunction in that country.
According to FOSS Patents:

"Apple asked the Landgericht (district court) of Düsseldorf, Germany, to order an injunction under which Samsung is threatened with fines of up to EUR 250,000 (US$ 350,000) for each violation or imprisonment of Samsung’s management for up to two years in the event of continued infringement. Those are standard sanctions under German tort law for contempt of a preliminary injunction."

Huguet continued, “This kind of blatant copying is wrong, and we need to protect Apple’s intellectual property when companies steal our ideas.” Florian Mueller over at FOSS Patents writes, “The Düsseldorf district court has a reputation for being our equivalent of the Eastern District of Texas in terms of a strong tendency to favor the interests of right holders over those of alleged infringers.” Apple and Samsung will have a court hearing in Northern California in mid-october.

Friday 12 August 2011

How to protect your computer from hackers, spyware and viruses

This post has been inspired by the situation of one of my cousin’s computers in India. I recently made a trip there and since I’m in the IT field, she asked me to take a look at her computer since it was acting “funny”. The “funny” act was that the computer would automatically restart whenever you tried to install ANY software onto it or download any program from the Internet. First thing I noticed was that there was no anti-virus software installed on the computer, so my first goal was to install AVG anti-virus and check for viruses. But of course, the virus that was already on the computer would not let me install or download anything! Smart virus! To make a long story short (and I mean a LONG story), there were 2256 viruses on the computer and 110 instances of spyware. I have never even heard of such a ludicrous number of viruses on a computer before!

Most of the viruses on the computer were hidden in files that had been downloaded off the Internet: songs, videos, and movies. I was amazingly surprised that the computer lasted for 2 years with that many viruses! So I gave my dear cousin a serious lesson in how to protect her computer from the dangers of the Internet and I will go through them here for anyone else who might be interested!

This is by no means a comprehensive list, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to comment and I’ll add them on!

1. Install Anti-Virus Software - This should not even have to be listed, if you don’t have anti-virus software installed, you’re asking for trouble! And if your reason for not installing anti-virus software is because it’s too expensive, then that can reason can be shot down because there are several free anti-virus programs out there that are considered better than commercial software packages. Here are two of the most popular ones:

AVG Anti-Virus – Very good and completely free.

Avast Anti-Virus – Almost on par with AVG.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus – Not free, but one of the best detection rates.

2. Update All Software - Installing an anti-virus program by itself is not enough. There are hundreds of new threats that are found daily and the anti-virus programs release updates regularly to combat the new threats. Make sure you anti-virus program is set to update automatically so that you don’t have to rely on your memory to do it. Also, this goes for all the software on your computer. The most important software to keep up to date is your Windows operating system. It is essential to have Automatic Updates turned on and set to download and install updates automatically.

3. Install only Trusted Software - If you’re not sure what a piece of software does from it’s name, then don’t install it. Also, don’t install anything you didn’t intend to install in the first place. Sometimes programs will ask you to install other programs during the install of the first application. Be careful of that because it’s usually spyware. Install software from big names sites only, such as Microsoft or Adobe.

4. Avoid P2P File Sharing Software – If used with great caution, P2P software is quite useful for movies, songs and software, but if you’re not very technically savvy, you might end up downloading a song that has a keystroke logger attached to it that will send anything you type to some other computer over the Internet. It’s almost impossible to tell that this is occurring unless your anti-virus or anti-spyware programs pick it up in their scans.

5. Delete Unknown Emails – If you receive emails from random people’s names, do not bother to open the email, just delete it. If you have any doubts after reading the name and the subject, it’s probably not someone you know. Never download or open attachments unless you are sure it’s from someone you know. Give the person a call quickly and ask them if you’re not sure. Most large companies that you create online accounts with will not send you attachments unless you specifically ask for them through their web site. Also, be wary of any emails from sites pretending to be banks, auction sites, etc asking for you to verify bank account info or address info. No bank ever does that.

6. Do not click on Ads - Avoid clicking on ads if you can. Especially those ads where something is flying around and if you shoot the duck, you win some prize! Ads have become more sophisticated in that they try to make the ad interactive so that you’ll be tempted to play it like a game.

7. Run Virus Scans Regularly – If you’re not in the mood to scan every day, at least run a scan once a week. Actually, setup a schedule for your computer in your anti-virus software to run a scan late at night or whenever you don’t use your computer and that way you won’t be bothered with a slow computer.

8. Be careful what you attach to your computer – This is a more common way to transfer viruses than you might think. Everyone now has a USB flash stick that they carry around on their key chains, ready to snap into any computer. But who knows what your viruses are on your friends computers and what accidentally got transferred to their USB stick. A lot of virus programs will auto launch right when the USB stick is put into the computer, so you don’t even have to open or download any of the files to be infected.

9. Avoid Shady Web Sites – If you need to look at porn, then make sure you do it in a virtual environment. You are DEFINITELY going to get some virus or spyware if you browse porn sites on your computer. Virtualization basically allows you to run programs like Internet Explorer in a virtual environment that does not effect your current operating system. If you want to find out more, search for “Virtual PC” or “VM Ware” in Google. Otherwise, simply avoid going to shady web sites!

10. Turn On or Install a Firewall - If you’re running Windows XP, make sure Windows Firewall is turned on. A firewall prevents hackers from gaining access to your computer by limiting the number of ports that are open to the public. Also, when buying a wireless router, make sure it has a built in firewall. Having a software and hardware firewall is better than just having one or the other.

11. Secure Your Wireless Network – Most wireless routers are set to no security when you install them. Be sure to log into the router and at least set the basic security that requires a password. There are stronger encryption options, but if you don’t understand those, then simply set a password on the router, otherwise anyone can connect to your home network and access everything.

12. Use a Complex Password for Login – This means that you should already have a password to login to your computer. Not having a password at all is not a good idea. Create a password for all user accounts and make sure it’s complex. Complex means it should have numbers, upper case characters, lower case characters, and symbols. This makes it way more difficult for a hacker to get into your computer.