Update your drivers with DriverAccess

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Trouble for Win7 trial users!

Microsoft Windows 7 Release Candidate users will lose control over their computers. Their PCs will start shutting down every two hours, even if they haven’t saved their work. And, on June 1, the screens will go black.

World’s largest software maker Microsoft’s business strategy for pushing hard to sell its new Windows 7 by exerting control over users’ PCs has opened a pandora’s box.

Release candidate were the trial versions that Microsoft released last year. Most proprietary software vendors do supply beta or trial versions for a limited period, which shut down after limited use. Microsoft Office software versions also lock a user’s files after a few trials, which means all data created during the trial period becomes unusable. But, in case of an operating system, which is the brain of a PC, the risks of losing control over a PC are much higher.

“The RC is a pre-final build that is distributed with a clearly stated intent and expiration date. Thus, testers already know at the time of downloading/installing that the RC is valid for a limited period. Even now, users have over 130 days to buy the final available for sale version of the product,” says Rajiv Popli, director–Windows Client, Consumer & Online Business, Microsoft India. “It’s a normal practice in software industry,” he adds.

Open source and non-profit IT bodies have started lobbying for open source software even harder for government systems. They fear that during times of a crisis, large corporations can control private networks. Legally, users cede the right to control over their PCs when they check into terms and conditions before installation. Many IT leaders cite this loss of control, as an unhealthy trade practice, especially for government systems. “The government is unfortunately burying the cyber threats as a non-real threat by procuring critical systems from foreign parties. Some US internet search engines are also reported to use US’ National Security Agency (NSA) algorithms. The issue of loss of control by users has to be taken suo moto by competition commission. It’s a highly coercive practice,” says Prabir Purkayastha, of Knowledge Commons.

Microsoft had however denied any reports of an NSA backdoor in Windows 7, last year. IT for Change, a non-profit body working towards open software in public systems, says that public systems should use public software. “Resting the control over public systems to private parties is against the principles of universal access,” says IT for Change director Gurumurthy Kafinathan.

Public systems aside, for users, geeks have designed ingenious ways to get past the practice. Dr Zaki Qureshey, chairman E2-Labs and an ethical hacker, says that reverse engineering of software is the key to it. “Many hackers get into reverse engineering after the Beta software are made available. All they do is create a small program that stops software from expiring, by lets says stopping the date to change.”

Numerous patches are available on the internet that promises to do away with the desktop watermarks and even stop the send feedback functionality. However, for users these may come with a risk. Security updates and patches would be unavailable making them vulnerable to malware attacks. “Further some of the software developing companies can even remotely lock the PCs which are using the pirated versions,” he adds.

A software called TimerNuke counts the remaining beta test period of Windows 7. If one missed the deadline for downloading the Beta software, when it was made available, one still has the option of downloading the entire cracked version from the internet through torrents. Torrents are small files with addressees of several internet connected PCs, which act as a resource base.

IBM's new server to counter Oracle

International Business Machines (IBM), the largest computer-services provider, is introducing new server systems today, aiming to bolster its leading position as software rival Oracle Corp enters the market.

The Power7 systems will be tailored for specific projects, such as running electrical grids or financial analytics, Rodney Adkins, senior vice president for systems and technology, said last week in an interview. The systems, made of integrated servers, software and storage, will start selling this month.

The release marks the first new systems since Adkins took over IBM’s hardware division in October, after predecessor Bob Moffat left the company amid the Galleon Group insider-trading scandal. IBM’s focus on project-specific systems, along with investments in research and development, will help it gain market share even as Oracle starts selling similar servers with its acquisition of Sun Microsystems Inc., he said.

“It’s easy in this industry to say, ‘I have this piece, I have this piece, I have this piece, now I have it all,’” said Adkins. “It really requires innovation.”

With the purchase of server maker Sun, Oracle Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison has said he plans to challenge IBM by selling computers packaged with software customized for industries, such as retailing.

Global sales of high-end servers will be about $14 billion this year, according to Framingham, Massachusetts-based researcher IDC. IBM held 40 percent of that market in the third quarter, IDC’s most recent report. Hewlett-Packard Co. had 27 percent, followed by Sun with 26 percent.


Hardware Sales
Hardware sales make up 17 percent of Armonk, New York-based IBM’s total revenue, which topped $95 billion last year. The company is the world’s third-largest software maker, trailing Microsoft Corp. and Redwood City, California-based Oracle.

IBM offered to buy Sun for about $7 billion last year, according to people familiar with the matter. Oracle ultimately acquired Sun for $7.4 billion, and the deal closed last month.

IBM rose 52 cents to $123.52 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading on Feb. 5. The shares had fallen 5.6 percent this year before today.

How to build battery-powered USB charger

You might have noticed by now that whenever you really need your iPod, it is always out of juice. A computer or a wall charger may not be around either, especially if you are travelling. Why not build your own portable battery powered USB charger? It’s easy.

Components required: An Altoids tin or any other metal container of the same size. A 9-volt battery. A voltage regulator (available at any electrical/hardware shop). A female USB port (available at any local computer shop).

Make a hole on one end of the tin using a cutter and fit the USB port into it. Use tape to hold them together. Place the battery in the tin. Solder its wires to the regulator and the USB port using the following diagram. Be careful. Use double-sided tape and make sure the battery and the regulator are secured in the tin. Connect one end of your USB cord to the female USB port and the other end to your iPod and you are done. This charger can be used with any USB enabled device.

IT cos offer hardware-as-service

Had enough of software-as-a-service? How about some hardware or entire infrastructure-as-a-service, too? If you are an SME or if you do not want to make heavy capital investments in IT infrastructure, then hardware-as-a-service offers a cost-saving alternative. With IT and IT-related companies targeting SMEs, or small and medium enterprises, this is the newest offering.

While IT-hardware makers like Dell and HP launched specific products for the SME segment early this year, companies like Airtel, Cisco, Microsoft, Wipro, Global Outlook, etc, have now started offering their products on the infrastructure-as-a-service model for SMEs. Airtel along with Cisco has launched ‘VPN in A Box’, a ready- to- deploy bundle of a managed private leased line port, bandwidth, last mile connectivity and customer premise equipment. Meanwhile, Microsoft, along with Airtel, Wipro and Global Outlook is running a pilot of a pay-per-use model for knitwear companies, usually SMEs, in Tirupur in Tamil Nadu. The over $2 billion knitwear industry in Tirupur has invited and received bids from top tech firms including IBM, Wipro, to develop an ERP software on a pay-per-use model.

Sam Elangalloor, CEO, Airtel Telemedia Services, said, “All large companies have a lot of IT infrastructure and their vendors, who are all SMEs, also need to have a compatible IT infrastructure. However, shortage of funds to make capital investment and the unscalability of the infrastructure restricts IT and connectivity adoption by SMEs. IT infrastructure needs heavy configuration and integration to be done at the customer’s end, which is difficult unless the SME has an internal knowledgeable resource. We are strong in connectivity for large enterprises, but we could not have sold the same products and services to SMEs. So came up with the hardware(plus connectivity)-as-a-service model along with Cisco.”

Adding to his point, Ravi Venkatesan, chairman, Microsoft India, maintains that IT should be around when companies want to use it and should be priced according to usage. “Indian SMEs have potential for immense growthbut the challenges before them are equally a fact of life. Relevant technology, at an affordable price, can reduce the threat these challenges pose,” he maintained. In Airtel’s ‘VPN in A Box’ , the customer need not even understand technology, Mr Elangalloor said.

“The customer has to tell us his needs, we will figure out how and what equipment he will need, configure everything at our end and give him the complete bundle for plug-and-play use, configured for use with whatever equipment he already has. In return, the customer pays only for the operating expenditure, and not for the capital expenditure,” Mr Elangalloor said. Along with its VPN in a box, Airtel is also providing tools like a website builder, which allows anyone to build and manage a website using pick-and-choose options, along with all Microsoft software on a hosted model. For SMEs in Tirupur, Microsoft is offering MS Office and Windows operating system on an online desktop from Airtel with anti-virus software and 10 GB storage space.

Wipro has offered unified communications, while Global Outlook has hosted Microsoft’s tools, Exchange and SharePoint on its servers, to offer email solutions, all of which comes at a significantly reduced cost. For instance Microsoft Exchange for 100 users, comes for about Rs 20 lakh and a monthly expenses of about Rs 60,000. However, on the pay-per-use model, the cost is only Rs 25000 a month.

Intel unveils futuristic chip

The world’s leading chipmaker, Intel Technologies, unveiled its futuristic chip which was developed with significant contributions from its research and development centre in Bangalore.

The concept chip, which has 48-cores called ‘single-chip cloud computer,’ has processing power 20 times higher than the ones currently being used. The chip developed over a period of two years saw a team of 40 people across three labs of Intel globally -- Hillsboro, US, Braunschweig, Germany and Bangalore contributing equally to the project.

The Bangalore lab contributed in the areas of circuit and physical design, memory controller logic and the mesh interconnect network. According to Vasantha Erranguntla, senior engineering manager, Intel Labs India, “The single-chip cloud computer was designed as a concept vehicle for parallel software research.”
For now, this concept chip would be largely used for academic and research purposes. Intel’s 48 core chip is also an extension of its earlier research called the teraflop processor which had 80 cores, in which the Bangalore centre had a major part to play.

Intel started its R&D operations in Bangalore in 1998 and it has grown to become one of the largest centre outside US with an estimated headcount in excess of 2,500.

The Bangalore R&D centre has also been part of the various commercial launches of Intel with most notable being the six-core x86 microprocessor called the Xeon 7400 series.

The Xeon 7400 series saw the Bangalore centre executing the end-to-end design activity and also for the first time working on the 45 nm technology.

On the 48 core chip, Intel is expecting the processor to get into commercial production only in the next three to four years. This could be largely used in the area of data centres or conducting very large computing applications.

Though for now, Intel is looking to engage industry and academia next year by sharing 100 or more of these experimental chips for hands-on research in developing new software applications and programming models.

Ms Erranguntla said they were also holding discussions with several research labs and universities in India also to be part of this concept chip.

How to shift from XP to Windows 7

Microsoft's much-awaited operating system Windows 7 is finally here. After the disappointing performance of Vista, Microsoft is banking high on Windows 7 to give it the much required fillip in the PC market.

Two-year old Vista failed to make a dent in the market. The OS' biggest rival turned has been not an OS from a rival company or from the Open Source community, but Microsoft's own operating system XP. According to Forrester Research (done few months ago), 86 per cent of corporate PCs continue to rely on the eight-year-old Vista predecessor Windows XP.

However, most analysts believe that it is time that XP users too start planning their migration path to Windows 7. Here's a guide for XP users to help them smoothly migrate to the new operating system, Windows 7.

Which version to install?

Windows 7 packs both 32-bit and 64-bit installation discs. 64-bit operating systems can handle large amounts of memory roughly 4GB RAM. However, not all computers are 64-bit capable.

To check, right click on My Computer and click Properties. If you don’t see "x64 Edition" listed, then you are running the 32-bit version of Windows XP. If "x64 Edition" is listed under System, you are running the 64-bit version of Windows XP and can run the 64-bit version of Windows 7.

How to check compatibility with your hardware

To check for the Windows 7's compatibility with your computer's hardware, devices, or programmes that might affect the its installation, download and run the free Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor.

It will list any issues that it finds and gives recommendations on what to do before you upgrade to improve your PC's compatibility with Windows 7.

Moving files and settings

Microsoft recommends using Windows Easy Transfer, a free download, which will help users move their files and settings to another location before they install Windows 7. Later they can use Windows Easy Transfer again to move files and settings back to PC after Windows installation is completed. However, Windows Easy Transfer doesn't move programmes. Users will have to reinstall their programmes manually after Windows 7 installation is complete. Windows Easy Transfer will provide you with a list of programmes that you are currently using with Windows XP.

In case you don't go for Windows Easy Transfer, you will need to copy files manually to an external location, such as CDs, DVDs, an external hard disk, or a USB flash drive before installing Windows 7, and then move them back after Windows installation is completed.

Installing Windows 7

To get started, connect your PC to the Internet so that you can get installation updates during the process. Select either the 32-bit or 64-bit Windows 7 installation disc, depending on your system requirements.

Enter the Windows 7 installation disc and Setup should start automatically. If it doesn't, click Start, click My Computer, open the Windows 7 installation disc on your DVD drive, and then double-click setup.exe.

On the Install Windows page, click Install now. On the 'Which type of installation do you want?' page, click Custom. Choose the partition containing Windows XP (this is often the computer's C: drive), and then click Next. (Do not select your external USB hard drive.) In the Windows.old dialog box, click OK.

Moving your files and settings back

After the installation is over, users can run Windows Easy Transfer again and move files and settings back to the computer.

Be sure you run Windows Easy Transfer before you reinstall your programmes. This is because Windows Easy Transfer moves your files back to where your old programmes will expect them to be when you reinstall them.

Ensure that your external hard disk or other storage device that contains Windows Easy Transfer migration file is connected to the computer. Click the Start button, click Computer, and under Hard Disk Drives, double-click your storage device. Browse to the location where you saved the Easy Transfer file, called Windows Easy Transfer - Items from old computer, and double click the file.

On the `Choose what to transfer to this computer' page, a user can decide how the user accounts from Windows XP are transferred to Windows 7.

Reinstall programmes and update drivers

Once your files and settings are back on your computer, you can reinstall your programmes and check for new or updated drivers.

Windows Easy Transfer provides a report detailing the programmes you used in Windows XP that you might want to reinstall. To reinstall your programmes, you need to use the installation discs or setup files.

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Moreover the site has a Test Center that gives expert ratings and reviews for each laptop. These reviews and ratings are provided by the Digit Test Center, India's No.1 research lab. There is the Customer Support and Forum section where you can clarify all your doubts about laptops. If you are unsure even after all these, you can straight away ask any questions on laptops in the Ask Us section. The Expert panel will contact you and guide you further in buying a laptop. Choose wisely from a wide range of collections and find your laptop in no time. Good Luck!