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Friday, 8 March 2013

US Should Keep Nuke Option for Cyberattack

March 05--The United States should be prepared to use every military option, including nuclear retaliation, in response to a huge computer attack, an independent Department of Defense task force said.

But the nation must determine whether its nuclear arsenal can withstand computer hackers, the Defense Science Board warns in a newly declassified report obtained by the Tribune-Review. In a full-scale cyber war, the board's experts say, the United States' weapons could be disabled or turned against its troops.

"It would have to be extreme," Paul Kaminski, chair of the Science Board and a member of the President's Intelligence Advisory Board, said about the kind of attack that might trigger a nuclear response. "It would have to be the kind of attack that we would judge would be threatening our survival."

The United States must assume that computer attacks will be part of conflicts, said the report from the task force made up of civilian experts with government advisers. Yet, the report said the country cannot be confident that its military's computer systems would still work under attack from a sophisticated adversary nation with a full range of military and intelligence options.

The report Resilient Military Systems and the Advanced Cyber Threat presents a bleak assessment of the Defense Department's ability to withstand basic attacks from simulation "red teams" used to test the system.

The report points out that "much work remains" despite efforts to secure networks and protect the nation from computer attacks, said Lt. Col. Damien Pickart, a Defense Department spokesman. Military leaders have reviewed the report and believe it will serve as a "positive catalyst," he added.

"We recognize the serious nature of these threats and are urgently working to improve our capabilities to defend the nation, deter adversaries -- and if called upon -- take decisive action in all domains, to include cyberspace," Pickart told the Trib.

All options should be on the table, but threatening a nuclear response might go too far, said Dmitri Alperovitch, co-founding chief technology officer of CrowdStrike, a security technology company in Irvine, Calif.

"I cannot, for the life of me," he said, "imagine a scenario in which a realistic cyber attack could do that."

Briefed about "widespread intrusions" and the theft of technical information, task force members said they believe adversaries are planning high-end attacks. "The benefits to an attacker using cyber exploits are potentially spectacular," the task force warns.

Most attackers have limited capabilities, but a sophisticated nation state could "impose gradual wide-scale loss of life and control of the country" by attacking critical infrastructure such as power, water and financial systems.

In a full-scale fight with a "peer adversary" such as China or Russia, attackers could begin hacks to prevent weapons from firing or to cause confusion in supply lines.

Impacts on civilian targets could be "even greater," making police and medical responders "barely functional" at first and dysfunctional over the long term. Physical destruction to manufacturing plants or utilities could take months, if not years, to repair, the report said.

Some steps to increase computer defenses could be done "relatively inexpensively," said Brian Hughes, the Science Board's executive director.

The report suggests the military segregate some weapons -- such as 20 bombers out of a fleet of hundreds -- from integrated computer networks. The planes would lose some capability but remain operational if a computer attack grounded the rest of the fleet.

Other proposals include adding to the number of "cyber warriors," which Defense plans to do, and spending more time playing war games with launching and defending computer attacks. The military must be ready to launch potentially hundreds of simultaneous, synchronized computer attacks even as it defends against them.

"People are starting to understand that if the bad guys break into their software, they can have more access to things than they wanted them to," said Albert Whale, a Pittsburgh-based consultant for Cigital Federal, which works with the Air Force and others to identify and fix software vulnerabilities.

Thanks & Regards,

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

My Blog Spot
http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/

Samsung loses patent fight against Apple in the UK

South Korean phone-maker Samsung has lost another patent fight against rival Apple, in the UK High Court.

Samsung had said technology used in Apple products to allow phones to send and receive data over 3G networks infringed three of its patents.

The case comes a week after Galaxy smartphone manufacturer failed to secure an iPhone ban in Japan.

Samsung has pursued a number of claims against Apple in courts worldwide, but has won only a minority of the cases.

It said in a statement it was disappointed by the court's decision and would consider whether to file an appeal.

"For decades, we have heavily invested in pioneering the development of technological innovations in the mobile industry, which have been constantly reflected in our products," a spokeswoman said.

Apple declined to comment.

Legal battles between the two companies began in 2011, when Apple first sued Samsung in the US for alleged intellectual property infringements.

Other court cases have taken place in France, Germany, the UK, the Netherlands, Italy, South Korea and Japan.

Wednesday, 6 March 2013

The Day a Student Steps into College

What to do with a bad GPA? The day a student steps into the college, he is told by everyone to maintain a good GPA. That is it. For the next four years, the poor soul toils away his /her life to achieve good grades. He attends almost every class, spends free hours in the library and burns the midnight oil. These four years of a student’s life are a constant drill to grab the best possible grades. But in real life, is the GPA as important as we deem it to be? Do employers really care about our grade or are there other aspects that matter? A good Grade Point Average could definitely boost your academic success. If you are aiming towards Harvard Medical School, Yale Law School or Stanford Business School, an illustrious GPA is all that you need. Pulling all-nighters and make tireless effort is worth it. But thankfully, employers are not that strict! They care about other things as well. For most employers, GPA is NOT the primary factor to decide whether to hire a candidate or not, however it could be one of the many deciding factors. As a person progresses further, grades become less and less important. Their significance fades away with time and experience. The real story The college GPA is a combination of many factors during the long four year tenure. But it is not an indicator for how you would perform in the real world. Being book smart and being street smart are two different stories with considerably different endings. However it does not mean that you take your academics for granted! Pay attention to the studies but do not moan about grades and GPA all the time. The Grade Point Average with which you leave your college won’t matter much in the real life. There are more important things to learn than conventional Calculus and Physics during the college.

How you learn: Every person has a distinct style of learning new things. Some learn better through visual aids, others are good with sound and audios and still others need to practice a lot before they could retain information in their minds. Through the course of your studies, identify how you learn with better results. As you step into your professional life, you would need to learn new ideas and new systems every now and then. Managing real life situations: The studies at college are only a trailer of the real life movie that lies ahead. The problems and scenarios in real life are much complicated and intricate as compared to the lab assignments and home works that drive us crazy at college. The most important ability is to be able to manage such situations and solve them applying the techniques and theories that we have learnt at college. University life prepares you for almost nothing that lies ahead.

Effective Time Management: Analyze your time management habits. See how much time you need to research a topic, to write a paper, finish an assignment, code a program etc. In the office, you would need to work promptly. There would be deadlines to meet and unfathomable to-do lists to tackle. If you have bad habits of slackness, try to fix them before you step in to the office. Maintain proper schedule for your daily life and don’t forget to have a time slot for socializing because employers do not like book worms and geeks. They want standard and healthy people!

Relevant Prior Experience: There is more to student life than studies and exams. A resume embellished with work experience and internships would tell the employer that you are good enough to work with a team. Work parallel to studies is a sought after quality; only a multitasker and an efficient professional can manage that. A future employer would deem your experience as a solid sign for your potential. A graduate with relatively low GPA but a resume embellished with extracurricular activities would be in competition with a graduate who has nothing more to offer than a perfect 3.8 GPA.

A Portfolio of your Work Samples: Don’t forget to chronicle the activities that you have been doing during your undergraduate studies. Keep a track record for all the term projects, press releases, design publications, research summaries and other activities that could increase your worth and prove you to be a gem at work. As fresh graduates have little experience of the professional environment, employers generally observe the portfolio in place of professional experience.

Writing Skills: Polish your writing skills. You would need to be a good writer in most of the fields today as this quality is deployed in making reports, pitches and emails. This does not mean that you should be a prolific blogger, just take care of your writing expression and strengthen your weak areas. Good cover letters and job application could get you a good job and effective reports and summaries can help you climb the ladder in your professional career.

Build Connections: It is rightly said that “who you know is more important than what you know”. Get in the habit of meeting new people and forming connections with them. Build a network of acquaintances before you need them because you never know who turns out to be an angel in the hour of need. Meet people warmly and never refrain from helping people out when they ask for assistance. You might get the reward someday when you really need it. Managing a not-so-cool GPA The felicitous life at campus is over. You have left with a bundle of happy memories, a considerable amount of experience on personal and professional level and a not-so-cool GPA. Whether the GPA matters or not, fresh graduates fret about it. A bad GPA does not break anyone. You might need some extra care and effort while you are searching for a job.

Mention Your GPA: Going in for your maiden interview, do not make the mistake of NOT mentioning your GPA. Most people would assume that your GPA must be below 3.0 if your resume remains silent about it. Mention it anyway. It is understandable that students learn how to perform better as they navigate through the 4 years course. Employers would also keep in consideration the fact that you paid your way to the college and your involvement in extracurricular activities. These facts affect the GPA. Be prepared to tell your story during the interview.

Be Honest: Always be honest to a teacher, a doctor and an employer because they will eventually find out the truth. Never round up the GPA, 2.98 is not 3.0. Be a conversationalist and explain your performance.

Mentioning a real poor GPA: If you feel that your GPA is so bad that it would fright away all the employers, then you are left with this strategy. Do not mention your Cumulative Grade Point Average. Mention the GPA of your last academic year (which must be decent!). This will justify that you have worked your way up. Be prepared to tell your story convincingly during interviews. Mention the grades of the courses that matter the most and are relevant to the job you are applying to. For example, do not mention a D grade in chemistry if you are pursuing a major in Journalism. Put your strengths in limelight so that the weaknesses are overshadowed. Mention your Education after other credentials on the CV. The memory fades away After your first job, rip off the GPA from your CV because no one really cares about it anymore.

Your experience will advocate your worth. Employers pay no heed about how good you did at your degree, but they certainly keep in mind that how good you did at your last job. After all, they do not want you to solve quadratic equations! As you go further in the professional life, GPA becomes less and less important until its importance is completely null. Then you will realize that there is more to life that a bunch of grades!

Evernote says security has been breached by hackers

The California-based company, that allows people to store and organise personal data on an external server, is thought to have about 50 million users.

It said user names, email addresses and encrypted passwords were accessed.

But it insisted there was "no evidence" that payment details or stored content was accessed, changed or lost.

Evernote acts like an online personal organiser, with users able to save data such as video clips, images, web pages, notes and itineraries in an external storage system commonly known as the cloud.

In a statement on the company's website, the firm said its security team discovered and blocked "suspicious activity on [their] network that appears to have been a coordinated attempt to access secure areas of the Evernote service".

It added: "While our password encryption measures are robust, we are taking additional steps to ensure that your personal data remains secure.

"This means that, in an abundance of caution, we are requiring all users to reset their Evernote account passwords."

The firm apologised "for the annoyance" caused by the breach, which it said is becoming "far more common" at other "large services".

In February, Apple revealed a "small number" of its computers had been hacked, but added there was no sign of data theft.

The hack came a week after social-networking firm Facebook said it had traced a cyber-attack back to China after some of its employee laptops were hacked.

A month ago, micro-blogging website Twitter announced it had been the victim of a security breach which compromised the accounts of 250,000 users.

The company's information security director, Bob Lord, said the attack "was not the work of amateurs".

Tuesday, 5 March 2013

Romo Robot - Converting your smartphone to a useful Robot

Robotics - an unprecedented technology anticipated to change the entire human life, very near in future. Sometime earlier, talking about artificial humans was illusive but now latest innovations and Artificial Intelligence making such dreams real. The most innovative technologies are bringing us to a new era of Robotics where one will find himself surrounded by varied sized robotic equipment and devices helping us out in our daily activities.

They will be playing and taking care of your kid, polishing your shoe, serving your bed tea and even helping you in reminding your work schedule like your personal secretary. In context to above, upcoming Romo Robot seems to be the perfect example:

Romo Robot from Romotive

In January 2013, at Consumer Electronics Show (CES), out of thousand of innovations – Romo Robot was the one of the most visitors driving gadgets with its new look and innovative features. Connecting to smartphone this device does all the works that are expected from a true robot like moving around you and watching objects. Even its makers are taking this device as a living human. They are using pronoun ‘he’ for Romo (male version) and planning to make it female companion with code name ‘Julia’ very near in future.

How it converts your smartphone to robot?

This is a small sized affordable device having docking capability with any of your iPhone 4, iPhone 4S or iPod Touch 4th Generation for using it as his brain and coveting himself to a smart robot. With just fixing your smartphone in a device socket you can connect both and convert your handset to a friendly robot. You can also control it with your smartphones or any Mac computer running OS 10.6 or later.

What Romo can do?

It can play with your kid and can recognize your facial expressions, has a computer vision. It also has autonomous navigation ability and Remote 2-way telepresence also. Romo is also called as BYOD Robot that means ‘Bring your own devices’.

Pricing and availability

Its beta beta version will be available soon at $150. You can purchase it and work as beta-tester for sending its upgrade proposals to Romotive for helping out improvements.

Thanks & Regards,

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

My Blog Spot
http://raheel-mydreamz.blogspot.com/

Monday, 4 March 2013

Samsung Galaxy S4 GT-I9500 Specifications Features & Release Dates

While the March 14th is coming near by, speculations are getting hotter and hotter about the probable specs and features of this device. if we go by the latest round of specs which was revealed by the AnTuTu Benchhmarks, then Galaxy S IV I9500 is expected to come up with the below mentioned specs,

Exynos 5 Octa 5410 chipset,
4.99 inches of Screen Size,
PowerVR SGX 544MP GPU,
Quad Core 1.8GHz Processor,
2GB RAM,
PPI of 441
13MP Rear Camera, 2.1MP Front Facing Camera,
NFC, Bluetooth 4.0, Wi Fi ac/ b / g/ n,
Jellybean 4.2 Firmware out of the Box

We wil keep you updated with all the latest specs of Galaxy S3 as in when we get from credible sources only at AndroidAdvices.com. Stay tuned.

Updated on March, 02, 2013
We at Android Advices have got a few insider tips on the upcoming Galaxy S4 Android Smart Phone which is the next flagship model from Samsung. These are confirmed for the upcoming device and would be counted as the main selling factors for the device.

Smart Scroll
Air View Touch
Two Camera’s work (Front and Rear) simultaneously for 360* capture
Qualcomm Processor
New type of Gallery with awesome Grouping of Photos

This clearly shows that Samsung is working on the 360 degrees features for the camera which would be a unique feature compared to their current portfolio and that could help them in making this device look superior too. Though the 360 degree outputs cannot be generally be viewed on the PC unlike a normal photo capture because it offers you with a option to zoom in and out around the location and also move around, hence it would mostly be limited to smart phone usage or special applications which allow you to render them on the PC.

It would also host the latest Qualcomm Snapdragon processor and would also come with a better grouping of pictures in the photo gallery for the users which could be an additional feature.

Update on Feb 20 2013 : Rumors are flowing in that Samsung is going to unveil the Samsung Galaxy S IV smartphone on March 14th, the Unpacked event, although both the event and the phone’s update is not officially confirmed by the company yet. Samsung might not be sending the invitations already because of the MWC 2013 event, after which the actual invites could be sent for the event. The sources also said that the phone would go on sale from Early April, and Europe would be the first place to receive the device, followed by the Asian countries, and the US, Australia and African markets will have to wait until May/June for the availability there.

Update on Dec 26th 2012
Sam Mobile has confirmed that Samsung is working on a couple new devices, and the next flagship device from them would be the GT-I9500 model, and this probably should be the Galaxy S IV as the Galaxy Note that is being worked on, would be the GT-I5100 and Samsung is due to come up with the next Galaxy phone next year.

Model: GT-I9500
I9500XXALL1/I9500OXAALL1/I9500XXALK3
Model: GT-I9505 (Probably LTE version)
I9505XXALL1/I9505OXAALL1/I9505XXALK7

It would be interesting to see whether the phone would have the Android or TIZEN OS in it, and if its TIZEN, that should be the first handset from Samsung having the new interface.

Update on Dec 12th 2012
Update: The Samsung Galaxy S IV won’t be probably available at the CES 2013, and we are noticing that from the teaser video the company released. CNet is reporting that the teaser video has shown Samsung preparing quite a lot, but hasn’t showcased anything or concentrated much in the Mobile phone category, and so the CES could not be the time when the S4 would be unveiled. We could expect in next in the Mobile World Congress 2013.

A report from the Wall Street Journal stated that Samsung is busy in the development of flexible displays for the handheld devices, and the expectation is that this technology could come in the next upcoming Galaxy device, i.e. the Samsung Galaxy S IV. There is also a speculation that the organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display could be integrated into the technology where the screen could be bent without breaking. A picture on Patent Bolt showed the technology that Samsung is working on. One of the best things about the technology is that the display won’t just be bendable, but can be stretched too.

If Samsung includes this flexible displays into the Galaxy S4 screen, there could be nothing beating it in the near time after the launch. If it doesn’t come in any of the Galaxy devices, we could still be seeing something new and interesting from Samsung.

Update on 20th Nov 2012 -
Several rumors have come in, with a few strong ones claiming that there could be an unveiling done by the Samsung guys during the CES 2013, with the Samsung Galaxy S IV having a 4.99 inch screen, and quad-core 2.0GHz Exynos 5450 chipset. According to the Korean sources, the company is working on a device that would have those specs and at the Galaxy S4 is expected to be made public by that time, so we can connect the dots. Another expectation as seen earlier is the 13 megapixel camera, and the 1080p display.

Source: Asiae

Update on 16th Nov 2012 -
CES is nearing and we are getting to hear more and more true/false news about the products that are going to be displayed there. The Samsung Galaxy S IV is expected, and now with a 1080p HD display, or is it just a false rumor to keep customers interested and keep themselves away from getting the Droid DNA until the S4 is launched? We are not sure about it, but news is that Samsung is working on the displays that boast the screen resolution of 1920 x 1080 pixels. One of the Korean newspapers claimed to have heard from one of the Samsung’s officials that the 1080p displays that the company is working on, would be quite thin and have a better refresh rate and a low power consumption.

Another doubt here is whether Samsung is really working on these displays for the inclusion in the Galaxy S IV or any other high-end product that might make its way into the smartphone world pretty soon. Less than 2 months left for the CES and we are excited.

Update on 13th Nov 2012 -
A camera module leaked in the wild seems to be for one of the upcoming Samsung devices, and that most probably is the camera of the Samsung Galaxy S IV, because there are already a lot of speculations that the camera of the S4 would be a 13-megapixel one. The capture resolution was found to be 4208 x 3120 pixels and the included parameters are – 8.5(L) x 8.5(W) x 5.9(H). It’s something just found recently in one of the documents from the company, and the expected date of release of the phone is Mobile World Congress, during the last week of February 2013.

Update on 06th Nov 2012 -
The Samsung Galaxy S4 is going to be powered by the 1080p HD LCD screen and not the AMOLED one, as what the Sam Mobile confirms. The reason being claimed is that the manufacturer hasn’t been able to prepare an AMOLED display with such a high resolution, thus would see the LCD as a better option. LCDs are said to be quite vibrant in colors, but AMOLEDs have been quite energy efficient at the same time, so both the displays have their own advantages and disadvantages. We would see it as a disappointment from many if there is no AMOLED display.

Update on 31/10/2012 -
We’ve got some news about the processor that the Galaxy S IV would be coming in with. It could have the Exynos “Adonis” 28 nanometer quad-core ARM Cortex A15 CPU, and Samsung is testing out the processors and would be doing the mass production and that would probably be into the Samsung Galaxy S4 in the early months of 2013.
They have set the codename as Adonis, which is to mean something about the high-performance, low-power.

Keep checking out, there should be some exciting news coming soon. It’s already the end of the year!

Update on 04/10/2012 – With just over 20 million Galaxy S III smartphones sold in mere 100 days, it now seems like Samsung is working hard to come up with a much powerful smartphone which will be dubbed as Samsung Galaxy S4 rolled out in the coming months, may be in MWC 2013 or in CES 2013. For all those who had anticipated the 13MP camera in Galaxy S3, the wait for the same could just get over in Galaxy S4 as according to few leaks it shows that Samsung is working on the 13 MP camera sensor which is way powerful than compared to the incumbents. As per the leaks, the 13 MP camera if true will be capable of shooting images with 4208×3120 resolution. One can also refer to the below images for more details about the leaks. We will keep you posted on all the latest on Samsung Galaxy S4 smartphone here on AndroidAdvices.

—————————————————————————————————————–
Update on 17/09/2012 – Samsung and Apple are fierce rivals for the leadership in smart phone. The degree got hotter when the US based company launched iPhone 5 last week in response to Samsung Galaxy S III and Galaxy Note 2. iPhone 5 received a mixed response from its consumers and industry experts as the device lacked innovative features. But still iPhone 5 is a better smart phone launched in competition with Galaxy S III.

Presently the Samsung is the #1 manufacturer leaving behind Apple and Nokia in the race. For Samsung to be king, it required their devices like Galaxy S, S II and S III released on time to compete in market. The Samsung Galaxy S III broke the record very recently by crossing 20 million unit sales in course of 100 days since the launch beating iPhone record.

Every year we see a new Galaxy S series successor available, and the debut of Galaxy S set the tone for Samsung initially. Furthermore when Galaxy S II was launched in the market, the scenario for Samsung even got better with device topping the charts in terms of sales. And with Samsung Galaxy S III in the market, the launch event got so bigger in comparison with Apple iPhone launch events.

Samsung Electronics is planning to launch iPhone 5 killer in coming months and device should be definitely Galaxy S 4 as expected. But as we say, it could easily take another 6 months for the Korean giant to produce a device which is competitive & better in terms of hardware design and configuration.

Samsung is ready to launch Galaxy S4 during the world’s biggest exhibition for telecom and mobile companies to exhibit their latest development and we receive reports of Galaxy S III successor to be available at Samsung booth. The officials pointed out that their new flagship model will be released in nine months after the May 2012 debut of Samsung Galaxy S III. It will be more enough to curb the latest Apple iPhone development and device should be easily capable with the LTE network.

Samsung is king in the Asian market and it has gained a bigger market share in Europe. The only country where it got hit is the homeland of Apple i.e., United States but for Samsung that doesn’t matter as its main rival didn’t concentrate on many countries expect United States. For Samsung everything is under their control, from Super AMOLED OLED display to Exynos S4 processor, they have everything right infront of them to come out with a device with on time and they are capable deliver the number of output device within the expected time.

Samsung Galaxy S 4 Specifications

The Korean giant is still to decide on what could be the exact Galaxy S 4 device looks like, whether it will include the flexible display technology or use the Super AMOLED Plus display. So far its design is kept the same with rounded corner concept but we might see some changes claimed by one of the Samsung’s local officials.

We see Samsung Galaxy S 4 certainly with better specifications and inclusion of quad core Exynos processor and better hardware configuration but nothing were released at this moment as it’s too early to comment on the device.

Market researchers and experts views Galaxy S4 a clear message to Apple as they are capable to widen its lead over Apple leaving behind the legal disputes. Samsung is expecting that it’s device will cross the 30 million unit sales in 100 days to break their record of Galaxy S III which was achieved very recently.

So what Apple is doing? US leading smart phone manufacturer is seeking a ban on 8 of the Galaxy Series Samsung which includes top sellers like Galaxy S, S II, S III, Galaxy Note, Galaxy Note 2 and few more tablets. While Apple looks to take copyright infringements case to next level, nothing worries Samsung from producing Samsung Galaxy S4.

Sunday, 3 March 2013

Installation Of Dropbox Client Software And Its Purpose

Dropbox is an excellent Online File Storage Service, depends how you use it. Though there are many other similar online services available, but I highly recommend everyone to use Dropbox and Google Drive as your primary file storage services. In fact, I recommend Dropbox to use it for the sharing and backup of your pictures, files and folders, while you should use Google Drive to store and share your documents online because you can also create Documents (word, spreadsheets, presentation) online.

Note: For details, you can read the Important Features Of Google Drive and Features Of Dropbox Which You Can't Resist.

Today we will move ahead and will see how to Install the client application of the Dropbox on your PC and some of it's settings.

Why To Install Client Application Of Dropbox

It's a very small software which does nothing but syncs your local computer files (which you want to) with your online file storage account at Dropbox. After installing the client software, it will create a folder in your computer. Whatever you put in that folder, will automatically be uploaded to the Dropbox online (of course you need to have an active Internet connection for that). This process is vise versa, means if you upload a document online at Dropbox website, it will be saved online and will also get downloaded in your computer (you can select which online folders to be sync).

So, I highly recommend to install Dropbox client application on each and every PC which you use, so that your documents / files are available with you everywhere instantly. After all that's what we want.